E. Revolution

-=2nd Revolution=-

::Gravity::

“Ten years ago, in the year 199X, as per the prophecies written on an old tomb found inside one of the pyramids of Scaraba, the Earth was attacked by a force of pure, concentrated chaos known only as Giygas. In order to counteract the influence of Giygas on Earth, a special organization known as SANCTUARY was created. As such, SANCTUARY’s main goal is to eradicate any traces of the chaotic force and prevent it from destroying our way of life along with the entirety of the human race. Any questions?”

The small, metallic room fell completely silent, signaling that Ness was expected to say something. All he could do, though, was stare blankly at the brawny man in the gray uniform that stood a few feet from him, back straight and arms folded behind him. The man’s eyes were obscured by a pair of sunglasses, although Ness could tell that the officer wasn’t too pleased with Ness’ reaction to his little diatribe. His nostrils flared over the thick, neatly combed mustache that all but covered his upper lip.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence Ness cleared his throat and averted his gaze to the small nameplate on the officer’s chest. On it the name ‘Strong’ was written in black, bold letters.

“I…well, there is one question…” Ness trailed off. Strong’s expression remained unchanged. “It’s just…why are you telling me this?”

Strong’s loud, booming reply nearly made Ness fall out of his chair. “It is my responsibility to inform new trainees of their duties before they are completely assimilated into our forces!” During the whole time Strong didn’t move a single muscle, save for his lips and his mustache.

The small conference was interrupted when the metallic door that served as an entrance to the cramped room slid open with a whoosh. Standing on the other side was Poo. Silently he motioned for Ness to follow, not acknowledging Strong’s stiff figure. Of course, any reason to get away from the officer was good enough, and Ness quickly left the room after shooting Strong one last look.

“How have you been doing so far?” Poo’s brisk pace has was hard to keep up with; Ness had to half-jog just to stay alongside Poo, who had his eyes locked, focusing straight ahead.

“It’s okay, I guess,” Ness answered as they rounded a corner of the silver hallway and crossed an intersection. “I was able to clean up. I’m still not sure where we are, though. Since the windows on the Sky Walker—”

“Runner. Sky Runner.”

“…right. Since the windows on the Sky Runner were so small I couldn’t see where we landed.”

Poo glanced briefly at a group of young women in uniform who passed him by, but showed no sign of answering Ness’ doubts. All Ness could do was sigh in discontent.

Eventually the two came to a large double door. Painted on the center was a large circle with an image of a horned man holding a sword upside-down to his chest. Along the bottom rim the words ‘Prodeo Obviam Ordinatio” were written in a simple, bold font. As soon as Poo reached the doorway he retrieved his identification from his sleeve pocket and slid it through a small, black card reader on the wall. There was a beep of confirmation and the doors slid open compliantly.

The only word that could possibly hope to describe the room Ness had just stepped in was “wow”. It wasn’t a room like the others he had visited in this place—the three marble steps that led down to the large garden; the cobblestone walkway; the small brook snaking away down the middle, with the wooden bridge over it; and the large tree on the far side gave this particular room an aura like no other. Ness stood there in a daze as he contemplated the flowers and the sky, visible through the large glass dome that covered the garden.

“Come on, don’t just stand there.” Poo grabbed Ness’ upper arm and dragged him over the wooden bridge, where a small table was waiting for them, under the shade of the tree. Ness and Poo sat in two chairs that were next to the table. Once they sat Poo turned his gaze over to the outside of the dome, where a valley with a river running through it was clearly visible.

“So, you gonna ask me what this is, or what?”

Ness looked at the shadow cast on the table, which had several gaps where the sun’s rays managed to filter through. “I just don’t know where to start.”

Poo nodded. “That’s okay. I think Chief Strong told you something, right?”

“Right. He said that…whatever attacked me yesterday was chaos…Giygas, he called it.”

“That’s right.” Poo leaned back on the chair and crossed his arms. “Giygas is chaos itself. We’re here to stop it, and bring back complete order.”

Ness let out a sigh. Images of the previous day’s events came to him. Although they were faint, the sensations they evoked were so vivid that he swore he could hear a faint, distant call when the monsters roared, and he could feel something brushing up against his arm when he remembered the bus crash.

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I knew you were gonna ask that,” said Poo with a sigh. He leaned forward and placed his arms on the table, then gave Ness a comforting look—not that it made him feel any better, since Poo’s piercing eyes were as discomforting as could be.

“We brought you here because you have psychic powers. SANCTUARY always uses psychics to combat Giygas.”

With his curiosity satisfied, at least for the moment, Ness leaned back and closed his eyes. It was almost refreshing, actually, to be here. However, there was still the fact that he hadn’t received word from either his family or Jeff…

“Ah! You are here!”

A third voice snapped Ness out of his meditation and brought his attention over to the entrance of the dome, where a figure stood. He was an elderly man in a white coat, sporting a white mustache and round glasses. When he approached Ness and Poo he hobbled over with the help of a cane.

“Professor,” Poo stood up straight and bowed at the old gentleman. “I must report the details of this mission. There were several unexpected occurrences…”

“Don’t worry about that…” the old man silenced Poo with a smile and a wave. “There will be plenty of time for that. Is this he?” When he asked the question he lifted a slim, bony finger and pointed it at Ness. Poo nodded in response. After that he turned to Ness, piercing him once more with his dagger-like eyes.

“I will return later,” he said before turning to leave.

Ness watched the oriental man jog briskly up the stairs, and leave through the large double doors. Up to now, Poo had been Ness’ crutch in this place, providing at least a small feeling of safety, however false, that Ness could cling to. This man, on the other hand, gave Ness quite the opposite impression—Ness felt like this man would lead him to the edge and shove him off.

“You must be Ness.” The old scientist smiled jovially while he walked over and put his old, wrinkly hand on Ness’ shoulder. “Poo has told me quite a bit about you. Allow me to introduce myself…my name is Professor Andonuts. I run this place.”

A slightly puzzled expression crept over Ness’ features, and he looked at the Professor askance. “Andonuts? You mean…”

“Oh yes, I am Jeff’s uncle. Poo told me that you mentioned him back in Fourside. Of course, he thinks I’m just an old researcher working in some far off country…” The aging scientist sat down on one of the chairs, using his cane for support as his joints creaked achingly. After he sat he shot Ness another smile. “Forgive me, when you get on in years your body lags behind, no matter how much you want to keep going…”

Ness pulled up another chair. He slipped his red cap off his head and began twirling it in his fingers while he stared out at the valley below. “I still don’t know why I’m here,” he said.

“Understandable. Permit me to explain.” Professor Andonuts leaned forward and rested his arms on his cane. “You see, back in Fourside you exhibited powerful psychic abilities…abilities that not everyone has. We think you can use these abilities to help us fight against Giygas.”

The brief pause told Ness that Professor Andonuts was waiting for him to say something. Of course, both of them knew what Ness was going to say next.

“And what if I refuse?”

He really wasn’t thinking of refusing, but…

The scientist’s smile faltered, but did not fade. He had handled situations like these before. “Either way, it would not be wise to go back to Fourside, would it? Not with Giygas invading it.”

Ness shook his head. No, it wouldn’t make sense to go back now. But if he stayed here, and offered his help, then maybe they would let him go back…he couldn’t spend that much time thinking about it. Cooperation was the only route that led back to Fourside…to his family.

“I’ll do it.”

“Thank you.” Andonuts rose, albeit with difficulty, and started for the door. He indicated for Ness to follow. “Now, I’ll have someone prepare a room for you. I’ll ask them to meet you here in an hour. Tomorrow you can begin training with Poo.”

Ness nodded solemnly and followed the professor out of the Silent Garden. Together they walked quietly to an elevator. Once there Andonuts took his leave and gave Ness permission to explore the base on his own, although he still refused to comment on just where that was. Frankly, Ness wasn’t about to pry, since he didn’t plan on staying here too long anyway. He simply wandered the halls, getting a feel for the place. Occasionally he’d bump into other members of SANCTUARY; some would greet him, some would stare at him, and some would merely ignore him. Eventually Ness decided to head back to the Garden. On his way back he passed by a small, dark room. And that’s when it hit him.

“…find me…”

The voice was calling out to him from that dark room. It was different this time; for some reason Ness could all but hear it clearly, telling him that this wasn’t a dream like the other times. As Ness crept in silently he could feel that there was something different about this place…

The shadows of the dimly lit room engulfed him and disoriented him. It was like a separate, inner space…Ness could feel a different type of vibe from this place that set it apart from the rest of the SANCTUARY base. Once he finished stepping into the room he detected a presence not too far from him, to the right. He was unable to tell just how he could sense this person, but a faint tingling in the back of his head indicated to him that someone was there.

“Why are you standing there in the dark? Here, let me turn on the light.”

The room was suddenly flooded with light, and Ness was nearly thrown back as the sudden luminosity overcame his eyes. He was forced to squint and shield his eyes with his arm. Once his eyes adjusted he took a look around the strange room he had just entered. His eyes drifted from the small stool next to him to the piano next to the far wall, then to the bed immediately to the left of that. On the other side of the room he spotted a table with all sorts of musical instruments on it, with loose pages of sheet music scattered among them. Then his eyes shifted to the right and he saw a large canvas. Approaching it from a light switch on the wall, holding a painter’s palette and brush, was a girl with blonde hair in a pink dress.

“Are you the boy Poo told me about? The one who was rescued from Fourside?”

Ness was speechless. This girl…

“Paula…”

“Yes. What’s your name?”

A soft ruffling accompanied Ness cap as it was pulled from his head and taken to his hands, where it began twirling. “I’m…Ness.”

Paula sighed and sat next to her painting. She examined it with the look of someone who tries to see the transcendental in the merely material. “Did I leave the door open again?”

“…yes.”

“I always do that…I get carried away sometimes, especially when I paint. Would you like to see?” The girl beckoned for Ness to approach, then shifted the canvas so that he could see it. Ness could clearly distinguish the newer, wetter swipes of the paintbrush playing with those that were already dry. It was possible to make out certain abstract forms that were present there, but Ness’ perception was unable to see anything further than that.

“Do you like it?”

“Yes, it’s great…” Ness shifted his weight uncomfortable onto his left foot. “But…why paint in the dark if you can’t see anything?”

Paula closed her eyes and smiled. “When I paint in the dark I can feel the painting…I am unhindered by the subjectivities of my sight.”

As if to illustrate this fact, she closed her eyes and dabbed the paintbrush on a splotch of azure that lay near the center of her palette, and then made two broad strokes. Surprisingly, the strokes accentuated a gray area to the lower right, and complemented the overall rhythm of the work; it was as if Paula knew she had to paint there, somehow. After finishing her demonstration she opened her eyes and stared dreamily at her spectator. All Ness could do in return was stare at the beautiful girl…the girl that had been haunting his dreams for so long…

Ness was cut from his reverie by two short beeps that came from his wristwatch. That tone could usually be heard every hour, on the hour. That meant that…

“Oh no! I forgot! I have to go!” Ness bolted towards the door, but not before turning to Paula and waving. “I’ll see you later!”

Paula waved back. “I’ll be waiting.”

Fortunately, Ness’ sense of direction was accurate enough that it led him back to the door of the Silent Garden. He had to weave between crowds of people, and he almost tripped as he rounded a corner, but after a scant minute of running he was able to make it to the door. Standing there, tapping his foot impatiently was a man with fiery-orange hair. His grey uniform was accentuated by two red stripes ran down the left side of his shirt. Once he caught sight of Ness he adjusted his round, dark spectacles and gave Ness a condescending look.

“You know, you’re not going to get very far in this place if you’re late all the time,” he scoffed. His voice had a musical, nasal quality to it. “You really should pay more attention to your surroundings.”

Ness let out an exhausted huff. “I’m sorry, I guess I got carried away…”

“Yeah, whatever, I’ll let it slide this time.” The young man thrust his hand forward. “I’m Orange.”

“Pleased to meet you.” Ness took Orange’s hand and shook it firmly. “I’m Ness.”

Orange cracked a sly grin. “Yeah, I bet. Come on, I’ll show you your room.”

One hour later Ness found himself doing the one thing he never thought he’d do at a time like this.

He slept.

Oh sure, there was plenty on his mind…there was no doubt about that. An awful lot had happened that day, and Ness couldn’t even hope to comprehend half of what was happening. But at the same time he couldn’t help but feel like he needed to escape for a while. So, as soon as Orange showed him to his room, a small little cubicle equipped with a bathroom, a bed, and an intercom, he flopped down and dozed off.

For some reason Ness’ room was located in the same block as that of the higher-ranking officers. Orange didn’t know why this was, but the boy could see the SANCTUARY officer’s envious looks as he handed him his key card. Unlike the other cards, which were carried around by the other officers, Ness’ didn’t have a picture, and the word ‘GUEST’ was written on the front in big, bold letters.

That was another thing that bothered Ness: why was he receiving all this special treatment? What was so special about him? Was it because of those powers?

Whatever questions he had would have to be put on hold, at least for the moment. Right now, Ness just wanted to sleep.

That didn’t mean that the rest of the world was asleep as well—far from it, actually. While the technicians, officers, and commanders of SANCTUARY toiled through the evening, the valley outside began to stir. At first it was only a weak breeze that ruffled the leaves of the trees and made a few waves in the tranquil stream. As time went on, however, the wind began to pick up. Soon the branches were bent back and contorted, and patches of dirt were swept away by the swirling wind. The clouds overhead drew closer to each other; when they fused into one enormous mass of cumulus they met with the wind and began to spin. The grass rustled, the trees groaned, the water splashed, and even the very earth seemed to cower in fear. Then, just as the clouds formed into a funnel and headed for the human base, uprooting trees and hurling them towards a glass dome…

Ness’ eyes fluttered open, and he looked at his surroundings. He could hear a faint, blaring alarm in the distance, and the white light that shone in his room was interrupted by intermittent flashes of deep red. He could hear the sound of rushing footsteps outside his apartment, as well as shouts and the brouhaha of rushed, panicked conversation.

The sound of a ringing phone called out to Ness from a small intercom placed on the wall, near the bed. Ness turned to examine the thing and found a small, green, flashing button, which he pressed. Suddenly the tiny screen on the intercom flashed on to display a symbol with the words “Sound Only” superimposed on it.

“Hey, kid, you hear me?” Poo’s voice was grainy and filled with static.

“Yeah.” Ness cleared his throat. “What’s going on? What’s with the alarm?”

There was a slight pause before Poo answered. “It’s Giygas. There’s a huge tornado attacking the base. Stay in your room until we figure this out, okay?”

“Sure…” With those last words the intercom shut off, leaving Ness to stare at the wall while the base thrived around him. There was nothing he could do, after all. He had been here less than a day…he didn’t even know where he was.

Unfortunately, Fate was not content with leaving Ness in that room, sitting quietly until the whole thing literally blew over. He still had something he had to do…

Ness’ pupils dilated to indicate the presence of something abnormal near his location. Curious as to what it was this time, Ness rose and opened the door to his room, then poked his head out and looked around. When he did, he saw a piece of pink cloth disappear around the corner to his right.

Paula. Ness immediately ran out of his room and chased after Paula. Inexplicably, she managed to stay ahead of Ness, even though he was running. Every time he rounded a corner he could see Paula already going around the next, or walking through a door. Eventually the chase led to a dead end.

Ness skidded to a stop in front of the large double doors that led to the Silent Garden. He hadn’t seen Paula go through this door, but there was no way she could have gone anywhere else. Ness quickly fumbled for his ID card, which he slashed through the terminal next to the wall. The terminal beeped compliantly and the doors slid open, ushering Ness inside.

He had to plant a hand on his red baseball cap to prevent if from flying off while he shielded his face with his other arm. The tornado had uprooted three large trees from the nearby valley and had used them to hammer on the thick glass of the dome that covered the garden, shattering it. The phenomenon almost looked like it had a mind of its own, for it had soon demolished the glass dome. Ness had to step over the thousands of glass shards and metal girders that remained after Giygas tore a hole in the dome, and the wind slowed his progress almost to a stop. The bridge had been torn down, so he had to wade across the stream to make it to where Paula was.

“Paula!! What are you doing?!” Ness leaned forward in an effort to make headway against the wind. His cries were all but lost on the girl, who did nothing but stare at the white tornado snaking across the black night sky. Her dress and hair flailed about wildly, but she seemed not to notice.

The wind was growing stronger with each passing second. Suddenly Ness and Paula were thrown to the floor by a strong gust of wind. Ness’ cap was blown and hurled to the far end of the garden, near the entrance, while the red ribbon in Paula’s hair came undone, letting her hair flow freely.

The doors of the garden opened once more to reveal Poo, who tried to run over to where the children were. The tornado was now dangerously close to touching the base, and it looked like the agent would be unable to make it over to them and out of there in time.

Ness looked over at Paula, who lay on the ground, unconscious. He too was struggling against the storm, but it looked like he would lose that battle any second now. The wind was making it hard to keep his eyes open, and the violent gusts threatened to knock him down, or worse, suck him up to the tornado, where he’d surely meet his end.

No…he couldn’t let that happen yet. He wasn’t about to capitulate before he got back to Fourside, at least one last time…

Ness rose to his feet and stood in front of Paula, blocking her from the storm. He seemed surprisingly calm now…he felt detached, distant from the whole situation. It felt just like the last time…and then it clicked.

Ness’ hands shot up and extended in front of him. As the white tornado got within a few paces of where he was, an invisible force pushed against it. The tornado began to struggle against the force, which was now repelling it, expelling it from the garden. Ness’ mouth dropped open with the effort, and soon he began to scream. Giygas was slowly winning the struggle against Ness’ psychokinetic powers, and the effort was draining Ness of all the energy he had.

“Don’t fight it…don’t let it consume you…”

Paula’s slender hand poised itself on Ness’ shoulder. She was fully awake now, but her eyes were glossed over, as if she was in a trance.

“Do not struggle…only by balancing its force with your own can you make it go away…”

Ness’ breath came out in short, ragged bursts now. His whole body felt sore. Paula’s words rang in his ears, and soon he stopped pushing. The storm, its vigor renewed, tried to squeeze in through the opening in the dome, but its progress was suddenly halted. Ness’s eyes were closed, and his energy managed to calm the air around him. The calm eventually reached the storm, and the violent clouds began to disperse. Soon enough the entire tornado disappeared, and the sky cleared to reveal the stars. Ness dropped to his knees, and then fell to the floor, unconscious.

“Hey! Are you okay?!” Poo rushed over to Ness’ prone figure and checked for a pulse. When he found it he hoisted the boy up in his arms, giving Paula a concerned look all the while. “What were you doing out here? You could have gotten killed!”

Paula smiled and shook her head. “I knew everything would be alright if he was here,” she said, obviously referring to Ness. “But now you’re here too. Would you like for me to accompany you to the infirmary?”

Poo looked at Ness dirtied face and sighed. This was the second time he had seen the boy perform nearly-miraculous feats of power; that couldn’t be a coincidence, not by a long shot.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.” Paula and Poo walked side by side towards the double doors. On the way there, Paula spotted Ness’ cap, sitting under a piece of rubble. She picked it up, dusted it off, and then clutched it in her hands.

“Hey Paula, are you coming? This kid’s heavy!”

The girl turned to Poo, who was standing outside the room.

“Yes! I am coming…”

Before she exited the room she took one last look at the starry night sky and smiled placidly. Then she skipped up to Poo and grabbed his arm as he escorted her to the infirmary.