He then ended the connection with his grandmother and admitted Donovan and Tatti to his room.
“Do you have news on Sasheen?” Benny immediately queried. “How is he doing?”
“He’s stable, just like before,” Tatti said. “We’ll let you visit him soon. But listen, there’s something else. And we need you to stay calm.”
“When you tell me something like that, it causes me to become anything but calm,” was Benny’s retort. “What’s going on?”
“We mean it, kid,” Donovan responded in a low but firm tone. “We need you to hold it together. You’ve already been through a lot, and you just did so much good today. You need to hold onto the strength you showed earlier.”
Benny stood up from his futon. “What is it, Donovan? Stop keeping me in such negative suspense, okay?”
The soldier sighed and put his hands on the young man’s shoulders in an atypically gentle fashion. “It’s… Craig. He was jumped earlier today and beaten down really badly.”
“What do you mean?” Benny demanded, his eyes starting to well with tears. “I mean, I know what you meant, but how bad is he? Can I see him?”
“Benny, he’s… not in good condition,” Tatti said as softly as she could. “He’s suffering from numerous broken bones and a lot of internal bleeding. And, well… he might have some brain damage, possibly severe, and…”
“No!” Benny screamed while covering his face with his hands and falling back on the mattress of his futon. “Who did this to him? Do you know who did this?”
“Yes, we do, Benny,” Tatti replied. “It was a group of boys from your school and a friend of theirs who retaliated for… well, bottom line, they think you and Craig hired some local gang members to do what you did to Mick Judge and Jeff Wolfe. One turned himself in, and we’re looking for the others.”
“Those freaking bastards!” Benny hollered through a wall of tears. “Craig had nothing to do with that! It was me! It was only me! And now he got hurt for what I did! Damn it, why didn’t they try to come after me first? Now they’ve really gone too far! I’m going to kill them!”
As grief and anger began to overtake the young metahuman’s already unstable psyche, his eyes began flaring with a blue incandescence while arcs of powerful azure energies encapsulated his clenched fists.
“I should have killed Judge and Wolfe! I should have ripped them apart! Why didn’t I finish what I started?”
“Because you’re not like that, Benny, that’s why!” Tatti reassured him forcefully. “Never regret being above a wanton killer, no matter what those people did to you, or to anyone else. Do you hear me?”
Benny’s entire body now became illuminated with a powerful cerulean glow. “No! I should have done it!”
“Kid, you need to calm down,” Donovan insisted. “I know how much this hurts, and how pissed off it’s making you, and you have every right to feel that way. But I trusted you enough to give you this news. Don’t throw away all the progress you made, and don’t prove all my faith in you wrong. We’ll get those guys who hurt Craig, I promise you that, but we’re going to do it the right way.”
Tatti then put her own hand on the rage-stricken boy’s shoulder. “Please, Benny. Please listen to Donovan.”
“Nooooo!” was all Benny could say as he turned and punched a hole two inches clear into the thick cement wall on the left side of the room.
It would take every iota of his will to avoid slipping into the abyss of no return, and Donovan and Tatti were anything but certain that he was up to it. Nor was Benny himself.
The only thing any of them could be certain about at this point was that the next few months would be the most trying of Benny Lonero’s life to date, which was truly saying something. And once this crisis was finally weathered--presuming that it would be--then there would only be the rest of Centurion’s potentially very long life to be concerned about.
END
Centurion’s saga will continue in CENTURION: A CERTAIN FURY. Stay tuned and keep an eye or two out for it! After that, prepare for… MOONSTALKER VS. CENTURION!
For those who enjoyed Centurion’s debut exploit, please do consider leaving a review on Amazon, BookBub, your own blog, the works! Reviews really do help and will enable me to continue bringing more of Centurion and many other heroes from the Warp Event Universe to you on a regular basis! For those readers who may not have considered this initial outing up to par, my apologies; but rest assured I will strive to make each subsequent adventure of Centurion an improvement over the last! Your purchase and reading of this book was much appreciated, as I would be nowhere without all of you!
Bonus Short Story: Any chance you’re wondering how the Warp Events that gave Centurion’s Earth its official designation came about and changed everything in this reality? If so, then read on, compliments of the house!
THE WARP EVENT
Christofer Nigro
Colonel Donovan Jakes sat in the briefing room of the Valis Institute’s hidden San Francisco headquarters during the early morning hours of June 14, 2006, a mug of coffee in hand. He sipped it periodically, while viewing the awe-inspiring digital satellite video of outer space – specifically, the Milky Way’s galactic rim -- where Earth drifted as an all-important mote of cosmic dust.
“It’s really beautiful and all that, Ashlee, but what exactly am I looking for?” Jakes queried.
“Just keep watching for another few seconds, as I’m certain that I put the video clip at the correct time stamp,” Sub-Director Ashlee Concord replied.
As Jakes viewed the tranquil star-encrusted tableau it was suddenly enveloped by a flash of blue incandescence so intense, it blotted out all the visible stars and nebulae in the video. The veteran military man cringed and felt as if a harsh winter wind stroked his spinal column. Within a second, at most, the azure flash vanished.
“My god, what the hell was that?” Jakes sputtered in astonishment. “I swear that I felt like someone just walked over my grave.”
“That’s pretty much how we felt the first time my team saw it,” Ashlee said. “And our psychics reported both their daydreams and nightly excursions into REM sleep filled with strange images.”
“Will I be sorry if f I ask what kind of images?”
“Bizarre realms of existence, nothing like our own. That’s a direct quote, by the way. Along with what they described as otherworldly beings of great power. Several mentioned a ‘menacing but wise older man with a long gray beard and a missing eye.’ Also reported were strange ‘roaring’ vibrations permeating their body and mind simultaneously. Psychics in other parts of the world described visions of the legendary Wild Hunt filling the night skies; whereas others dreamed of close encounters with UFOs, and even abductions by occupants described as tall, luminous blonde humanoids delivering messages like, ‘The times are changing’ and ‘It now begins.’
“I should mention that dozens of these espers needed to be restrained upon awakening. Two committed suicide. Four were diagnosed as catatonic. Lots of others suffered migraines, sudden onset of epileptic seizures, chronic insomnia, and a couple of cases of sudden color-blindness. The less said about the teenage girl who tore out her own eyes during a fit, the better.”
Jakes groaned. Yes, he was sorry for asking. He knew that his next question might make him sorrier still, but it remained his job to ask such things. “So, what does all of this mean?”
“We don’t know yet, not for sure. But based on preliminary analysis, we believe that this flash of light was the overt physical manifestation of what we’re calling a Warp Event, for lack of a better term. Experts in our highly esoteric line of work refer to as a paradigm shift.”
Paradigm shifts had been required reading when Jakes was first recruited. In essence, these consisted of events that literally changed the laws of physics in subtle but dramatic ways. He hadn’t wanted to believe in them. Truth to tell, he still wasn’t sure that he did.
“Aren’t those supposed to result in the rapid appearance
of certain anomalous phenomena? Including the manifestation of paranormal abilities in humans, a surge in spiritual & religious experiences, and a slew of technological & scientific breakthroughs that may previously have been highly unlikely, or even near-impossible?”
“Exactly. There have been small-scale events like this across time, much like other recurring ‘themes’ in nature with huge implications on the world, such as: mass extinctions, ice ages, and collisions with Apollo asteroids or large comets. Paradigm shifts, of which the Warp Events appear to be an unusually dramatic example.
“They may have also occurred periodically, but with potentially even more implications--for humanity and our natural place in the cosmos, to be exact. Some hypothesize that localized paradigm shifts during past eras may have had something to do with the evolution of organisms into more advanced forms, an influence upon the sheer diversity life can take, and with life’s ability to evolve to the level of sentience the human species now demonstrates. Note how many technological advances occurred following a paradigm shift believed to have occurred in local space towards the end of the 18th century.
“Another significant factor of that era to note was the increased drive to understand and contemplate various changes in human potential, from the philosophical to the biological. This doubtless led not only to the unprecedented technical advances that took place during the 19th century, but also the emergence of various new religious and occult movements like Theosophy and the brief but noteworthy rise of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Along with this came the rise of Spiritualism, the beginning of official scientific studies into psychical phenomena, and the serious interest in lost continents and their attendant advanced civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria.
“Perhaps most significantly, we then have the appearance of unusually skilled personages whom we may term ‘exceptional humans.’ This august roster includes Charles Darwin, Aleister Crowley, Harry Houdini, and Madame Helena Blavatsky. Along with them a few bona fide metahuman beings began appearing here and there across the globe. The former slave Albert Miller and archeologist/explorer Emily Atkinson are perhaps the most poignant examples of their number, but there were others of note.”
“Wait,” Jakes interrupted. “Is there any proof of this phenomenon, Ashlee? By this I mean complete documented scientific evidence.”
Ashlee twirled her finger through her long, braided black hair as she answered. “The phenomenon of paradigm shifting is a new course of study, much like quantum entanglement, string theory, the existence of dark matter and dark energy, and the effects of consciousness on the quantum level of reality. But we do believe the evidence is there, even if it’s more or less completely unacknowledged by mainstream science. This flash of light and subsequent events of the past four days almost immediately following the latest Warp Event appears to indicate…”
Jakes’s eyes went wider, and he again interjected. “What subsequent events?”
Sub-Director Concord pulled a series of thick files from her briefcase and began reading the notes aloud to Jakes.
“Sunday, in Moscow, a young female psychic listed in our database reported that during a rather nasty argument with her alcoholic father, all the windows in her home, as well as the great majority of glass and crystal knickknacks in their house, simultaneously shattered when her temper reached what she called its ‘boiling point.’ Prior to this incident, she never experienced a capacity to even remotely affect physical matter.
“On Monday, in Sydney, a 13-year-old boy arrested on arson charges and placed under psychological evaluation reported that he didn’t deliberately set his home on fire; rather, the furniture and draperies burst into flame the moment he experienced his first kiss. He had no previous record of psychological instability or any type of aberrant or criminal behavior, including pyromania.
“On Tuesday, in Big Sur, a technician who had invented a pistol with a carbon battery power source designed to fire quick bursts of plasma -- a gadget that obviously didn’t work at all when he constructed it three years ago -- reported to Astounding magazine that the device actually fired a few plasmic discharges before the batteries overheated. He claimed to have discovered this following a ‘compulsion’ to re-test the device immediately following an encounter with a huge triangular craft that was enveloped in a bright pink incandescence.
“Also on Tuesday, in a suburb outside of London, a man who had illegally purchased a relict example of one of those radioactive gold watches that made headlines in the 1970s and wore for over a year, reported that the cancer he developed in his forearm had suddenly gone into total remission. Soon afterwards a ‘sky blue’ glow surrounded the same forearm and hand. While this odd form of bio-luminescence manifested, he reputedly melted any physical object he touched with the glowing hand without actually producing any discernible heat. The effect lasted for approximately 24 minutes.
“On Wednesday, a graduate student in physics who designed a small anti-gravity device a few years ago that didn’t work at all suddenly discovered the apparatus performing much as she hoped it would by suspending several small objects in a projected energy field. She said she was inspired to test the device again following a conversation with an individual at the university whom she described as a rather eccentric gentleman with long blonde hair, a shiny plaid shirt, and dark shades who described himself as ‘a visiting professor from Norway.’ A copy of her YouTube video displaying the device’s ‘new’ capabilities has been downloaded to our database.
“Also on Wednesday, we have a report from a research institute in Venezuela where a quantum physicist claims to have viewed and briefly ‘captured’ a tachyon, thus proving the particle to be more than hypothetical. This allegation has yet to be fully verified, but if it turns out to be true, the implications for future technological development -- including time travel -- stagger the imagination. The report went ‘live’ on Omniverse’s online journal just a few days later.
“Two of the editors of that issue predicted that if advances like this continue at the present rate, we may actually see a manned mission to Mars by the year 2015, a permanent lunar base shortly afterwards, a space station with sustained artificial gravity, blah blah blah… you get the idea.
“As of this morning, we have reports of strange meteorite crashes across the globe, with initial investigators describing the rocks emitting ‘strange radiations.’ What the ultimate results of this phenomenon will be cannot be determined at present.
“And if that wasn’t enough, psychics and astrologers on our staff have reported bizarre synchronistic events across the globe. Particular concentrations, however, have begun appearing in known ‘window areas’ like a rural hamlet outside Oshkosh, Wisconsin and Arkham, Massachusetts…”
“Okay, Ashlee, I get the gist. I’ll read the rest in the files. Right now, my mind is boggling; I’m having trouble just getting used to the idea that something like a paradigm shift is actually possible. And I’m saying this despite all I witnessed during my glorious days performing secret ops for the government.”
“Well, Donovan, many phenomena that were nigh-impossible prior to the Warp Event have now officially become quite possible.”
“Wonderful. So, what does this mean for us?”
The sub-director removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes before answering. “What it means, my good friend, is that all bets are off. Today may be the end of the human race, with the jackrabbits taking over. Or our species might become gods. Maybe the Age of Aquarius is here, with swords beaten into ploughshares and drugs eclipsed by the Golden Apples of Iduna.”
“That’d be great.”
“That’s nice to hear from a soldier type.”
“Ex-soldier type, lady.”
She nodded, acknowledging his point before continuing.
“But this also means that the donors and contributors to the Valis Institute need to pull together the entirety of our resources to investigate all these phenomena. We need to understand what the modified
rules of reality are, so it’s imperative we get our hands on any of the new exotic technology, as well as establish contact with as many of the emerging metahumans as possible. As soon as most of the world governments discover what is going on, they will scramble to take full advantage of the new additions to the world outside our window. And this includes the emerging metahuman and exotic technological resources that were previously scarce to non-existent.
“Thanks to the Warp Event, our planet and its close spatial environs just became a much more interesting -- not to mention more dangerous -- place. So, we need to get as much of a handle on all of this as we possibly can before the world governments begin doing it themselves. Granted we cannot fully stop them, but we need to acquire and maintain a permanent edge. The continued freedom and advancement opportunities now available for humanity must be directed by us, not the world governments and their corporate financiers.”
Jakes rubbed his close-cropped beard in contemplation. “Ashlee, you do know who the donors and contributors of this organization are, correct? What you’re saying we have to do, I wouldn’t exactly call likely, or even possible. But one word I would use is ‘very dangerous.’”
“That’s two words, Donovan.”
“Touché. But you know what the hell I mean, Ashlee.”
The sub-director almost smiled, a rare occurrence for her. “But as of now, my dear Donovan, the impossible just got a lot more possible. That means the stakes for the world and humanity’s future just got a lot higher. Either we go for the gold, or the military-industrial superstructure now ruling the world does. Take your pick and choose your side, ex-soldier.”
Donovan frowned.
END
About the Author
Christofer Nigro is a writer, freelance editor, and publisher who makes his home in the United States. He is a lifelong fan of the comic book medium in general and the super-hero genre in particular. His short stories have been published by Black Coat Press, Sirens Call Publications, Pro Se Press, Grinning Skull Press, Horrified Press, and Local Hero Press. He has previously had novels published by Severed Press. Wild Hunt Press is his first foray into publishing on his own.
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