E. Revolution

-=5^th Revolution=-

::Luminosity::

“I’m telling you, I was the one who told him about the side effects of the augmentation process!”

“Nuh-uh! It was me, I did it first!”

Once again Ness found himself sitting at a small table in the mess hall, next to Apple and Orange. They were, unsurprisingly, bickering over work; more specifically, who had done what work, and why that person should get credit for it. The argument, which was more annoying than it was aggressive, was interrupted by short, marked silences in which both contenders would eat from their respective trays.

Ness would normally keep quiet during these bouts to try and end them as soon as was possible. However, this time he had someone to talk to as well.

“Are they like this all the time?”

Ness smiled and looked at Jeff. “Pretty much,” he said. “But they’re good guys, so I cut ‘em some slack every now and then. Believe me, you’ll get used to it.”

The blonde-haired youth took another bite from the food in his tray and sighed. As much as he had tried to get used to moments like this, it was still incredibly hard to adjust to his new surroundings.

Eventually both Apple and Orange finished their meals, and then bade their good byes as they went back to work. That left the two friends to contemplate their afternoon.

“So what else is there to do around here?” Jeff picked up both his tray and Ness’, and deposited them both in a receptacle near the exit to the cafeteria.

Ness shrugged. “Not much, actually. I’ve been trying to convince Professor Andonuts to let me use a Sky Runner to go to Twoson, but Poo’s completely against it.”

“Oh.” Jeff adjusted his glasses. “Man, this place is pretty boring.”

Ness chuckled. “Yeah. Well, I am meeting Paula in a few minutes. You can come if you want to.”

“About that…” the two teens left the cafeteria and turned down a white hallway that was so clean Ness could see his reflection on the wall.

“So your dream girl turned out to be real after all. Who knew?”

“That’s not the only thing that’s surprising. You’ve only been here since yesterday, so you probably haven’t heard about my powers…”

Jeff did a double take. “You have powers? Since when?”

“It’s a long story,” replied Ness. Suddenly he stopped and looked at a tall, grey door that interrupted the white continuity of the hallway. “This is it,” he proclaimed.

Jeff raised his eyebrows. “Man, you really must have powers if you can tell all these hallways apart.”

Ness slid his keycard down a slot to the left of the door, and it swished open compliantly. After walking in he spotted Paula sitting at her piano, playing softly.

Truth be told, he never really felt comfortable around Paula; her manner of speaking to him, combined with the way she would zone out occasionally intimidated Ness quite a bit. However, the fact that he could view her as an equal within the confines of SANCTUARY overrode any sort of discomfort he could ever feel around her.

Jeff whistled to himself very softly and whispered in Ness’ ear. “Whoah, she is hot,” he said. “You didn’t waste any time…”

Ness silenced his companion with a soft elbow to the ribs. “Knock it off,” he said. After that he cleared his throat loudly to alert Paula of his presence.

The girl finished the piece she was playing and looked up. A weak smile formed over her lips as she rose to greet Ness in her own, particular way:

“You remind me of that piece I just played, you know.”

By confusing him.

Ness pursed his lips and accepted the so-called compliment, then indicated Jeff with his hand. “This is Jeff,” he said. “He’s a friend of mine from Fourside. He got here yesterday.”

Jeff waved a hand. “Hi.”

Paula smiled at him weakly, and then sat down on her bed, making no indication that she wanted the other two in the room to follow suit.

“I haven’t shown you my latest paintings yet. Would you like to see them?”

Ness and Jeff exchanged glances.

“Sure.”

On the other side of SANCTUARY headquarters Apple and Orange were entering a large elevator at the end of a grey hallway. They stood on opposite ends of the tall doors and slid their identification cards on two different readers located across from each other. When the doors slid open the two scientists walked in quietly; Apple removed a key from his pocket and inserted it in a keyhole in the wall, while Orange punched in a password only he knew on a numerical pad on the other side of the lift. Once that was done the elevator lurched and started a slow descent.

When the doors slid open again Apple and Orange stepped out into a vast laboratory. Several consoles were arranged in a crude circle around a platform in the center; this platform had on it a podium with a stone tablet, and a mechanical arm that stood at the ready beside it. Several cables were strewn about the floor haphazardly, running between the consoles, the center of the room, and the floor. Standing before one of the consoles were an old man and a burly-looking fellow with a thick mustache and sunglasses.

Apple strode up to the old man and cleared his throat. “Professor Andonuts, Commander Strong, the translation program is still running. We won’t know what it is for a while now.”

The researcher turned to face his younger, plumper counterpart. “That’s quite all right, Apple,” he said with a smile. “We’ve plenty of time.” With that he faced Orange, who was busy booting up one of the monitors in the room, which was on a mobile table.

“And you, Orange? Any progress on the stone from the previous tablet?”

“None, Professor,” replied Orange, eyes fixed on the monitor. “All I can tell you is that it looks like something’s stored in there. A preliminary analysis shows that it resembles certain translucent minerals like emerald and diamond. There is one thing, though…”

The professor’s bushy eyebrows arched and a quizzical look overcame his wrinkled features. “Oh?”

“Yeah, it’s the damndest thing…” Orange swiveled the table around to show his commander a vibrating, pulsating line that ran across the screen horizontally. “The stone’s giving off brainwaves.”

In the background Strong scoffed to himself quietly. No one else seemed to notice.

“How is that possible?” As soon as Professor Andonuts asked the question Apple jumped to a nearby console and typed on it quickly until the screen displayed a still shot of the line Orange had shown the professor earlier, on the left side of the screen. On the right side several, similar still shots flashed by rapidly, as if the computer was trying to find one that matched the original.

“I found that out,” he proclaimed. “I noticed the waves were electric, so I ran a trace on it and found that it matched the brainwaves of the human being perfectly. What’s even more amazing is that they match some of the readings for one of our guys that we have on record.”

The Professor’s eyebrows looked like they would disappear into the creases in his forehead if they went any higher. “Really? Who?”

Orange smiled. “Ness. The waves from that stone match the data we took from Ness exactly.” He walked over to another console and grabbed a tiny joystick that was there. Instantly the mechanical arm whirred to life and swiveled around the central platform.

“It could just be a coincidence, but we can’t be too sure until we figure out this tablet. We think this one and the other one were initially one tablet, and that you can use the hieroglyphics on this tablet to decipher the stone.”

The old man sighed, content, and stalked off towards the exit, hobbling on his cane. “That’s very good, boys, I’m quite happy,” he mused. “I’ll be back tomorrow to check up on you again.”

The two scientists nodded and interrupted what they were doing to offer their leader a salute. Andonuts was just at the door when he noticed that it didn’t open. He turned towards the two researchers again.

“I think the door’s automatic lock has been set again,” he said. “Would you mind opening the lift doors for me?”

“Sure thing, professor.” Apple toddled over to the door and slid his keycard down a slot to the left of it. The small screen on the face of the reader, which had the word ‘CLOSED’ on it in big, red letters, changed to show the word ‘OPEN’ in equally big, green font.

“Thank you.”

As the lift closed and began its steady climb to the surface, Strong walked up to Orange’s terminal and stared at the monitor over the scientist’s shoulder. The latter could nearly feel the commander’s bushy moustache scraping against his neck, and he felt the man’s hot breath on his shoulder. He shifted uncomfortably.

“What of your psychic augmentation experiments? Are they complete?”

Orange took a step to the side to eliminate the space between him and Strong. “They’re discontinued,” he answered. “They’re too risky. I thought agent Poo had told you about that.”

Strong finally stepped back and Orange secretly heaved a sigh of relief. “I must have forgotten then. What was the exact reason for their discontinuation?”

“Oh, that’s easy!” exclaimed Apple from behind a console on the other end of the room. “See, the psychic resonance sphere can boost a person’s mental capacity, but the human mind can only take so much of it before it collapses. Psychic augmentation involves putting a permanent resonance sphere on a person’s mind and, well…I guess you can figure out the rest.”

Strong grumbled disappointedly. When next he spoke it looked as though his mouth hadn’t opened at all due to his moustache. “Do you have that data here?”

“Sure,” answered Orange. He stooped down to pick two cables off the floor and connect them, then secure them with a twist. “Ever since the Giygas attack that destroyed the lab, we moved all our old data and relevant equipment down here. Why do you ask?”

The two scientists were too busy with their own work to notice that Strong’s eyes glowed a bright red through his dark sunglasses. “I need a favor from you…”

As Paula lost herself (figuratively) in one of her paintings, Ness drew Jeff to the side. “Listen, man, there’s something I’ve been wanting to ask you…”

Jeff adjusted his glasses. “Sure. What’s up?”

Ness glanced at Paula again. She didn’t look like she could hear what he was saying. “It’s about my family…”

Jeff cast his gaze downwards. He had known this would come up eventually. “I don’t know. After the attack I went to your apartment to see if anyone was there, but it was empty.”

“O-oh.” Ness’ eyes lost some of their brightness. “Well, that’s okay…if they weren’t there then they could still be alive, right?”

“I guess.” Jeff tried to hide how difficult it was for him to talk about that incident. “In any case, my parents weren’t home either…we’ll find them eventually.”

“Right.”

Then the alarm on Ness’ watch went off, startling him slightly. The young man reached to turn it off when he remembered what it was for.

“Aw man!” Ness smacked his hand against his forehead. “I totally forgot! I was supposed to meet with Poo!” He turned to his best friend. “You’re going to kill me for this…”

Jeff shook his head, and his blond hair glimmered. “I’ll be fine. Instead, I’d be worried about me moving in on your girl…”

Ness punched Jeff playfully in the arm. “She’s not my girl.” He then jogged to the door. “I’ll see you later. Bye Paula!”

Paula glanced at him briefly before abandoning her painting and sitting at her piano again. “Good-bye. Tell Poo I said hello.”

Once Ness was gone Jeff walked over to the piano and sat down on the bench. He shot Paula a smile. “Mind if I try?”

Paula’s eyes went wide. “You can play?”

Jeff noted the tinge of anxiety in her voice and chuckled. “A little bit, yeah. Do you want to play together?”

Paula nodded excitedly, and put her hands to the keyboard. Jeff played a few introductory notes and, when he saw that Paula knew the song and played the following notes, broke into the composition full on. The two played without speaking for a few minutes, with Jeff occasionally stealing glances at the girl in the pink dress.

When the song was done Paula leaned back and clapped. “That was very good!” she exclaimed. Then her features went back to normal and she shifted her eyes to the right while she cocked her head to the left. “I wonder why Ness doesn’t learn to play…”

Jeff giggled. “He has other talents, you know.”

Paula smiled. “Yes, I do.” She got up and walked over to the picture of her, propped up on the table. “Although I notice that you are far more accepting of me than he was. I make him uncomfortable.”

Jeff raised an eyebrow. “How can you tell?”

“Very easily. I delved into his mind telepathically.”

Jeff sighed. Am I the only person in this stupid base without any superpowers?

“No, you are not,” replied Paula, obviously referring to the fact that she had just read Jeff’s mind. “In any case, it is not a talent I use often; just when I meet new people.”

“And why’s that?”

Paula let out a sad sigh and ran her hand over the picture. “My powers…are destructive.”

Jeff was about to question that last statement when he saw Paula veer off towards the door suddenly. “Hey, where are you going?”

Paula did not answer, and walked out the door. Jeff quickly followed.

“Hello? Hey, anyone in there? Paula!” He caught up to her and waved his hand in front of her face. Surprisingly, at least to him, Paula didn’t even flinch.

Jeff ran ahead of her and spread his arms, intent on stopping her. When he saw her eyes, tinged a dark crimson, he gasped in surprise and dropped his hands to his sides. Paula circumvented him without so much as a whisper and walked off, apparently much quicker now, towards something or someone, somewhere within the base.

The blonde youth, aghast, jogged to catch up with her. He didn’t scream, for he knew that it was useless now; instead he tried to spot a soldier or other such official person to try and lend a helping hand. This went on for several minutes, until Paula led Jeff to a large elevator and stopped.

As Paula stared at the elevator doors wantonly, Jeff rushed to the nearest control console and slid his keycard down the slot in its side. Frantically he searched through the directory until he found the entry for Professor Andonuts’ office. Much to his dismay, the console displayed a red screen, with a message that read, “Your clearance level is insufficient for this call.”

Jeff cursed silently to himself and tried again while keeping an eye on Paula, who had pressed her hands against the door and begun pushing. He tried looking up the Security office, but the line was busy; the Infirmary wasn’t responding, and no one seemed to be in the Laboratory. A bead of cold sweat formed on his forehead.

Suddenly the door to the elevator opened slowly, and Paula stepped inside. Jeff barely noticed her out of the corner of his eye, and decided to follow her instead of pursuing the call. He dashed between the closing doors and followed the elevator downwards, just as the fifth call he made finally patched through.

“It’s the console at the Laboratory entrance. No one’s responding,” said Poo as he tapped a few buttons on the console in his room. Ness was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor, and looking curiously at the agent.

“I couldn’t see who was calling, but I did see the elevator closing. Who could be calling from there like that?”

Ness rose from his position on the floor and slipped his shoes on. “I could go check it out, if you want.”

Poo stroked his chin. “I guess. We’ll just leave our meditation session for tomorrow.”

Ness nodded, tied his shoes and went out the door towards the laboratory entrance, leaving the agent in his room.

Orange gagged and struggled against the iron grip of Commander Strong, who was holding him aloft while staring at Apple, who in turn was typing away furiously at a console near the elevator door.

“Why isn’t it working yet?” Strong’s voice was icy and monotone, just like always. This time, though, it sent chills down Apple’s spine, who was trying as hard as he could to obey Strong’s orders.

“I—I can’t get it working any faster just by myself! You need to let go of Orange!”

Strong tightened the grip on Orange’s throat in response, eliciting a pained cough. “I will not let him go until you activate the psychic augmentation process. Then and only then will I let them go.”

Apple gulped hard and resumed typing. Since Strong had a hostage it was too difficult to try and call for help or make a run for it.

The scientist pointed to the central podium. “You have to get on that for the process to work.”

Strong effortlessly hurled Orange to the side and stepped up to the podium, knocking away the tablet as he did so. Apple gasped in shock as the tablet hit the floor and broke in two.

No turning back now. Apple typed in a few more commands and the room was bathed in a lavender light. Strong’s sunglasses dropped off his face, revealing red, bloodshot eyes that quickly rolled into the back of his head as the Giygas-possessed human clutched his face. His mouth began to foam and his teeth ground against each other. Apple had to turn away just to avoid being sick all over the lab console.

As the process reached its conclusion the elevator doors slipped open and Paula stepped out, followed by Jeff. The latter barely had any time to decipher what was going on when Strong spotted him and Paula. He charged off the platform and lunged at the two teens; Jeff grabbed Paula and tackled her to the floor.

Paula’s eyes went back to their original blue color. She looked to Jeff, who was hovering over her protectively. “Where am I? What’s going on?”

Strong lunged again, and Jeff nearly tripped over himself while dragging Paula away. “I don’t know! You spaced out all of a sudden and…”

Jeff’s explanation was interrupted by Strong, who was preparing to lunge again. This time the teens lying on the floor were too close to try and run away, and cowered in fear.

Strong was about to lunge when Orange snuck up behind him and hit his head with a chair. He was still panting from his near-strangulation and was having trouble keeping his balance.

“You kids all right?” Jeff and Paula nodded simultaneously while Orange helped them up. He still clutched the chair protectively with one hand.

As soon as Jeff got on his feet again he noticed Strong rising from his prostate position on the floor. Before he could even utter a word the Possession-Giygas struck them both with an augmented wave of psychokinesis, which sent them crashing into the far wall. Strong rose again, although his head was hanging limply to the side—Orange had broken its neck, yet it still moved.

Paula’s knees locked up and her legs began to tremble while Strong stalked towards her slowly. She whipped her head every which way, looking for something to help her defend herself. She found nothing. As Strong neared and raised his hands towards her neck, Paula squeezed her eyes shut and did the only thing she was able to do at that time.

Ness!

Ness’ pupils dilated as he reached the elevator door. Instantly he began pounding on the console in an attempt to call the elevator, but the automatic lock had closed it from the inside. There was no way to get the elevator up to him.

Thinking quickly, Ness took a step back and began concentrating. He held out his hands and clenched them into fists, as if grabbing the elevator doors from afar. His mouth dropped open as his concentration went towards the doors. Finally, after a moment, he whipped his arms to the side and the doors were literally ripped off their hinges, revealing the black, empty elevator shaft behind them. Without even thinking, Ness jumped into the diagonal shaft and slid towards the bottom.

Apple jumped on Strong’s back and tried to hold him off while Paula tried to get away. The efforts proved fruitless, though, as Strong easily threw him off. Paula’s eyes were in tears now, and she tripped over a cable on the floor while trying to scramble away. She closed her eyes again and began panicking as Strong neared her and prepared to grab her neck.

Then, suddenly, the doors to the elevator were blown open and Ness ran through. As soon as he saw Strong he reached out to him and used psychokinesis to lift him up and slam him into the ceiling.

Immediately Ness ran past Strong and took Paula in his arms protectively. She was still crying, and he hugged her to his chest while he stood back up. Strong rose again and fixed its red eyes on Ness. The latter prepared to attack when he felt an equally powerful psychokinetic wave being hurled at him. Ness had to shield himself with his arm while fighting back with his own powers.

More foam flowed from Strong’s mouth, and it advanced towards Ness and Paula menacingly while forcing them towards the wall with an ever-growing wave of psychic power. Ness was beginning to lose his ground, and he struggled to avoid from succumbing to the Possession-Giygas’ powers.

When Ness felt like he couldn’t resist any more, he felt Paula’s head rustling against his chest. Her tear-ridden eyes had turned red again, and she held out her hand, fingers spread.

Strong’s psychic wave weakened; Paula’s own power was ripping into its insides, and soon the Possession-Giygas had dropped its attack entirely. Paula released herself from Ness’ grip and stood on her own while channeling psychic energies into Strong. Within a few seconds Strong burst into flame and began flailing about madly. Soon after it fell to the floor, lifeless.

Paula fainted where she stood, and Ness barely had any time to catch her. He picked her up and strode over to the other wall, where Jeff, Apple, and Orange lay.

Ness bent down and stirred Jeff. “Hey, you okay?”

Jeff’s eyes fluttered open painfully. “Ness…what happened?”

“Giygas. It’s okay now, he’s gone.”

Jeff painfully rubbed the back of his head. “Heh, I guess I didn’t get to see you use those powers of yours, huh.”

Ness chuckled. “Maybe next time.”

Jeff smiled. “Good thing, too. If you hadn’t—look out!”

Jeff grabbed Ness and pushed him to the side as Strong’s charred cadaver lunged again. The blonde youth, however, had no time to scramble away, and found himself with Strong’s burnt hands locked around his neck. His eyes bugged out and he began gasping for air.

Ness clattered to the floor, Paula still in his arms, and looked to Jeff. Instinctively he reached out with his hand and blasted Strong with a psycholuminescent flash. The Possession-Giygas convulsed, and then dropped to the side, this time dead for sure.

Jeff clutched at his neck and wiped away a few drops of blood. “Thanks.”

Ness let his head fall to the floor, and his grip around Paula tightened. “You’re welcome.”

The room then fell silent for the first time in several hours.

“So the mole was Strong all along…”

Ness stared at the symbol on the glowing screen of the intercom beside his bed. The words “Sound Only” were superimposed on the symbol. “I guess. You must be glad to find that out.”

“We would have found out eventually,” replied Poo. “Better sooner than later though. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” The screen shut off, and Ness was left to lie back in his bed. He stared at the bottom of the bunk which had been placed directly above his.

“How’re you feeling, Jeff?”

“All right, I guess,” replied the person sleeping on the top bunk. “These bandages that they put around my neck are kind of itchy, but I’ll live.”

Ness chuckled. “Glad to hear it.” He reached to the intercom and pressed a red button on it. The lights switched off compliantly, leaving the two youths bathed in darkness.

Ness pulled his sheets over the lower half of his body. “Good night, Jeff.”

On the top bunk, Jeff removed his glasses and placed them beside his pillow. Ness couldn’t see it in the dark, but his eyes were tinged a dark crimson.

“Good night…Ness.”