The Rise of Dark Flame

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  Silence.

  Most of the Rangeley staff had returned to Orgonon, leaving a skeleton crew at the Seavey Island facility. This allowed Dark Flame easy access to the entire facility, especially when he became invisible and snuck past the guards.

  A man cleared his throat and startled him.

  Dark Flame turned his head and saw Radoslav looking at him with amusement.

  “I have informations you want,” Radoslav said.

  “Tell me,” he replied, stepping away from Victor’s door. Sheesh, it’s been like, two days. Is the man still here?

  Radoslav answered in broken English. “I make interrogations of Melvin, but he is like big baby. No surprise to me, of course. He write the things you want in this notebook.”

  Radoslav handed over the notebook he carried.

  “Just tell me who’s in charge?” Dark Flame asked, cutting through Radoslav’s explanatory fluff. He took the notebook from Radoslav and thumbed through the front pages that had been written on.

  The interrogator chuckled. “Archimandrion Council.”

  Dark Flame looked up, pushed away from the door, and faced Radoslav. “What?” He asked, staring at him in awe, mouth agape.

  Radoslav nodded. “I know, I was surprised, too.”

  “He lied to you,” Dark Flame said, shaking his head and refusing to believe what Radoslav had just told him.

  “I thought he lied, too. But, informations he wrote for me, details, names…he not lie to Radoslav. That man squeal like pig. To make short story long, the monies move from the drug cartels to fund The Order through fake companies. Is all written down.”

  “What did you do with him? It’s been like two days.” Dark Flame asked.

  I left him in my…birou…my office, for now.”

  “He’s suffered enough. You can let him go, but escort him off the island.”

  “Right away.”

  Radoslav turned and walked away.

  “Radoslav?” Dark Flame called after him.

  “Yes?” the man replied, half-turning to look at Dark Flame.

  “Does Victor know about this…business we conducted?”

  “I no tell him.”

  “Good. Keep it that way.”

  Radoslav nodded, turned, and walked away.

  Dark Flame leaned against the cool wall of the hallway, allowing his thoughts to consume him.

  So, Victor…The Order is not as innocent as you’ve made it out to be. The very people you want me to take out employ you…that doesn’t seem logical, at all.

  ❖

  Victor

  “Are you absolutely certain you wish to proceed, Hegumen?” Dr. Madison asked curtly, glaring at him from behind her workstation in the control room.

  “The men are chipped?” Victor asked. He sensed her unwillingness to move forward with Genesis II.

  Dr. Madison nodded.

  “Then, proceed, Doctor. Commence primary ignition,” Victor responded, his tone conveying his displeasure at her question.

  Dr. Madison tapped a few buttons. Then, the sound of increasing energy oscillations resonated through the small facility.

  “Miguel, display the core interior on the wall monitor,” Victor ordered.

  “Sure,” Miguel responded. A moment later, the large, wall-sized projection shifted from various power readouts to a high-resolution camera feed of the reactor core’s interior.

  On the elevating, circular platform in the center of the reactor core, two strong, muscular men wearing only black boxer briefs stood together, facing one another, their arms tense at their sides a they waited for the experiment to begin.

  “Reactor array at full power,” Arek commented from his workstation.

  “Just as with the Primes, execute a full discharge and use everything we have,” Victor said. They had checked and double checked the conditions of the chamber in an attempt to replicate what happened when Quinn and Blake accidentally triggered the reactor core’s firing solution.

  Dr. Madison’s console beeped and she cleared her throat. “Chamber is ready, firing controls at your command.”

  Victor stepped forward and approached the projected image, dwarfed by the nearly-nude men projected on the wall.

  “Fire.”

  “Auto-sequence initiated,” Dr. Madison replied.

  All the noise and sounds of energy built up in the reactor stopped and silence ensued. Then, a blinding flash of blue and white light descended on the two men in the reactor core and overloaded the camera’s photoreceptors. The screen flashed as the projection attempted to compensate.

  Seconds later, the light faded and the camera feed returned to normal, resuming its transmission of the two men on the metal disc as it slowly descended to the main floor. The men appeared shocked and they struggled to remain standing.

  “What’s wrong with them?” Victor asked.

  “I’m uncertain, as I’ve never seen this before.” Dr. Madison said, watching the large projection.

  “Get them out of there,”

  “Not yet, orgone radiation levels are still too high,” Miguel responded.

  A moment later, the man on the right violently threw up. The other collapsed, falling forward to his hands and knees. Then, his arms gave out and he fell on his face, his thighs still holdings his buttocks in the air.

  Then, the vomiting man’s face and his upper torso exploded. The man—or what was left of him—collapsed and fell to the metal disk. Workers in control room reacted with cursing and other horrified expressions of shock.

  Victor turned away from the larger-than-life projection of blood and gore and winced in disgust.

  “What the hell?” he exclaimed, whipping around to look Dr. Madison.

  Immediately, the loss-of-vitals alert started ringing at one of the consoles.

  Dr. Madison sighed. “We lost asset beta.”

  “You need a computer to tell you that?” Victor yelled, pointing at the bloody projection behind him. “He just exploded and I want to know why.”

  “So do I,” Dr. Madison replied, her gazed fixed and unflinching as she scowled at Victor.

  “Vitals on asset alpha are…”

  A second loss-of-vitals alert rang out, cutting Arek off. Victor turned back to the projection.

  “We just lost asset alpha,” Dr. Madison confirmed. “I’m sorry Victor, but we needed more time to do this right.”

  He rounded on Dr. Madison and angrily marched to her workstation. He yelled at her with frustration. “Two teenagers stumbled into the Orgonon reactor core on Labor Day weekend during a fucking family camping trip and managed to do the very thing we’re trying to do right now. The only difference, Doctor, is that they survived! We don’t have more time. Figure out what went wrong. I want a full report on my desk by the end of the day.”

  Dr. Madison frowned as Victor turned to Arek and Miguel. “Clean up the reactor and reset it for the next round. Aim the Cloudbuster arrays to the northwest and recharge…scratch that. Initiate a mega-fusion sequence and pull energy from whichever reactor core is ready.”

  They nervously looked at one another, but nodded to Victor, who stormed to the control room door. The door slid open, but before he left the room, he turned back to the team. “I’m going to need two more volunteers. Find and prep them immediately.” Then, he exited the control room and made his way to his office.

  When his office door shut behind him, he threw himself into one of his recliners, picked up a green stress ball, and viciously squeezed it in his fingers. It stretched and popped in his hand as Victor took his frustrations out on the ball. A moment later, the comm system rang.

  “Answer,” he announced.

  An electronically-disguised voice spoke. “Your progress, Victor?”

  Victor threw his head back and sighed. “Greetings, Madame Presider. First attempt, failure. Both subjects dead within seconds of orgone infusion. Second attempt preparations underway.”

  A few seconds of silence passed before the ominous voice spoke a
gain. “We await your next report.”

  The call disconnected, and Victor smirked. You await your doom.

  ❖

  The End of this Book

  Guardians will continue in…

  Book 4:

  Ultimate Sacrifice

  More determined than ever, superhero Quinn McAlester navigates the dramas of high school and family life while balancing the growing responsibilities of being the world’s first superhero. Having won over the respect and trust of the authorities who sought to capture him, Quinn unites a team of unique individuals and devises a plan to infiltrate The Order and rescue his best friend, Blake Hargreaves, from the clutches of mastermind Victor Kraze. When the people he loves discover his secret superhero identity, Quinn struggles to keep his friends—and his boyfriend—safe.

  Unable to stop the violent, confusing thoughts plaguing his mind, Blake spirals out of control and enacts a violent plan of murder and destruction in a desperate attempt to find his place in the confusing world of The Order, even it if means wiping the sinister organization out. With his hands drenched in blood, an increasingly tormented Blake lashes out against Quinn and Victor, but the duplicitous and charismatic leader is ready for him.

  While constantly manipulating the game pieces on the board, Victor becomes desperate to usurp The Order for himself and stop the monster they unwittingly unleashed. He pushes his team to carry out a series of experiments that recreate the accident that created Quinn and Blake. Frustrated with their efforts, Victor takes matters into his own hands and sets his sights on destroying both Blake and Quinn forever.

  ❖

  Coming Autumn 2018

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  Damien's mind is a magical and nerdy place where fantastic heroes defend amazing worlds from dangerous villains who run amuck in an epic struggle to take over the universe. Recently, the brightest and best from this colorful cast of characters have made their way into notes, plots, stories, and novels for you to read and enjoy.

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