by Huth, Jacob
"They must have a safeguard in the system," Pan said.
"How much longer do you need?" I asked frantically.
"Just another couple minutes," he replied.
I heard a group of guards congregating outside of the door. I ran over to Vine's tube and opened the glass hatch by his face. He slowly opened his eyes and came to his senses.
"Vine, I'm going to get you out of here but I need your help," I said. He nodded and I engaged the release sequence on the computer. Steam hissed out of the tube and the hatch opened to the side. Vine's slender figure was revealed as he emerged from the capsule. He cracked his neck and walked over to a locker on the wall. He opened it and pulled out a bag. He pulled out a handful of seeds. He looked over to the door and threw the seeds on the ground in front of the entrance. The sound of the guards yelling and banging on the door was growing louder.
“Open the door,” he said calmly. I ran over to the door release and threw the switch. The large metal doors opened a group of guards ran in. Vine held out his hand and the seeds on the ground sprouted immediately into giant thorns that impaled the guards. He made the thorns retract back into the seeds and the bodies fell to the floor in a heap.
“I have the data. We need to go,” Pan yelled across the room. Vine closed the doors that the guards had tried to come through and latched the bag of seeds to his belt.
“Thank you for releasing me,” he said.
“No problem but we can talk when we get to safety,” I said, almost yelling over the alarm. We all moved towards the ladder that led to the exit. Pan began to climb the ladder. I hovered upwards and Vine threw a seed down and a large shrub-like plant formed under his feet and lifted him to the catwalk. Once Pan was on the bridge with us, we took off to the door and when we were out, we saw an entire squadron of Kraken agents running to the front door. We waited until they entered the building before we moved. We descended on a large branch that Vine produced and took off through the city. We finally stopped running and were able to catch our breath once we reached an alleyway.
“Thanks for freeing me Zero,” Vine said.
“How do you know who I am?” I asked.
“I was only in their custody for a few days. I was free when you attacked Hades in the square and I was imprisoned right after you killed Jekyll. You have quite a following here,” he replied.
“Really?” I asked.
“From what I have observed since I came here, people are quickly realizing that they can stand up to Kraken,” Pan said.
“Many people who were once afraid to make themselves known are now standing up to guards and Kraken officials,” Vine said.
“Good. We need all the help we can get. Especially since we have no idea what Operation Armageddon is,” I said.
“Armageddon?” Vine asked, “I know what that is. They just put us in the tubes two days ago. Before that, we were all chained to the walls in that room while they experimented on us. They are copying the gene spikes of all the spikers and merging them into a man named Armageddon. I only saw him for a brief moment when they passed him through the room in a cryo tube. They kept talking about how his body is accepting the other spikes better than they could’ve imagined.”
“Forty gene spikes in one man. He will be invincible,” Pan said.
“Why were you in the tubes if they had you chained to the walls before?” I asked.
“Some of the captured spikers were rather dangerous. One man named Nova almost destroyed the building when they chained him up. His spike is the ability to store energy and release it in an explosion similar to a nuclear one. They put us all in cryo sleep while they experimented. They couldn’t risk him destroying Armageddon,” he replied.
“Who would alter his body to give him that spike?” I asked.
“Not every gene spike is manufactured. Some people are born with theirs, like me,” Vine replied.
“I was under the impression that they had to be created,” Pan said.
“Kraken tries to keep the public unaware that some people are born with them. I was only discovered because I was trying to organize a group to aid the resistance and I accidentally spoke to a Kraken informant,” said Vine.
“I see,” I said pacing around, “Are you still willing to fight?”
“Of course. I have seen too many innocents die,” he replied.
“Good. Do you have a place you can stay?” I asked.
“My greenhouse,” he replied.
“Won’t they look there?” I asked.
“Follow me. I’ll show you how I plan to be hidden,” he said starting off down the alleyway. We followed him around the corner onto the main street that led away from the industrial district. We passed by all the houses of the middle class citizens. These houses were significantly nicer than the houses that were around mine. They still were small but were updated better. I threw my hood up to hide my face since I was a wanted fugitive. It was a strange feeling to be wanted in my own city. Pan reached into his bag and pulled out a mask. He slid it on his head and hid his face. The mask was gray with white slanted marks near where his mouth would be. His eyes were revealed by two small holes.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“I bought it and made some modifications,” replied Pan. He pulled out a pair of goggles and slid them on his face. The black lenses hid his eyes completely.
“That’s horrifying,” I said.
“It will help conceal me in the darkness. If they are using night vision, they won’t be able to see my eyes,” he said.
“That’s a good plan,” Vine said, “You will all need to keep your faces hidden. Kraken is trying desperately to find you.”
“I’ll let the other three know when we get back to Sanctum that they need to find something to hide their faces,” I said.
We continued on through the maze of a city. We came upon Vine’s greenhouse which sat nestled behind the market. It was a large glass building with an abundance of large trees and shrubs growing inside and pressing against the glass. Vine pushed the door open and revealed the large indoor room. Rows of planters on tables lined the room. Vine entered and once we were inside, closed the door behind us. He walked around the room pounding his heel in various places until the low thudding sound became a higher toned clinking. He slammed his foot as hard as he could and a panel slid open revealing a staircase. He waved for us to follow and we descended into the depths of the greenhouse. We reached the basement and Vine flicked a switch on the wall. The lights flickered to life and revealed some sort of fallout shelter. The room had stockpiles of ammunition and cases of weapons. There were boxes of armor and cases of food rations.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“An old resistance stronghold. They installed it as a secret storage room in case they needed a place to fall back to. After the resistance fell, I stumbled across it and erected the greenhouse as a cover. It was easy to get the plants so quickly with my power and I had some help putting up the walls,” Vine replied.
“This will work fine,” Pan said looking around.
“You should stay here Pan,” Vine said, “I have plenty of room and it is the safest place inside the city aside from the tower.”
“I think I will. No offense to Jet, but her house doesn’t feel too safe,” Pan said to me.
“I agree. Especially since Flint, her dad, works for Kraken. I can’t imagine it will be too long before they start keeping tabs on her house,” I said.
“You should probably get back to Sanctum soon. It may be easier for you to get out with the pandemonium we caused at the lab,” Pan said, “Here is the data from the terminal in the warehouse.”
“You’re right. I’ll be in contact soon,” I said taking the disk from him. I exited the greenhouse and scanned my surroundings to make sure that no one was around. I slipped my earpiece back in and took flight. I tried my best to avoid any light that could reveal me. I sailed safely through the air and out of the city. The cool air felt good against my
skin. I crossed the land between the city and Sanctum until I reached the entrance. I slowly hovered down and landed in front of the doorway. With a flick of my hand, I removed my hood and entered Sanctum. Frost was sitting at the table alone. He was reading through a stack of papers. I took my cloak off and slung it over a chair and exhaled sharply. Frost looked up slowly and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“It’s so late,” said Frost.
“I know. I hadn’t planned on being back this late,” I said filling a cup up with water at the sink.
“What kept you?” Frost said setting the papers down.
“It’s probably best if I tell all of you at the same time,” I said.
“Flare just went to bed and Jet has been asleep for hours,” he replied.
“I guess it could wait until morning,” I said.
“What is it?” he asked somewhat more impatiently.
“Okay. I’ll fill them in tomorrow,” I said, “So you know that Pan wanted to see me right?”
“Yeah of course,” he replied.
“Well I went to see him and he told me he found something big,” I said.
“What did he find?” he asked.
“Spikers,” I said.
“Spikers? Where?” he asked.
“In a warehouse. They were in cryo tubes,” I replied.
“How did they get there?” he asked.
“That’s the crazy part. We thought Kraken had been killing them when they rounded them up. They have been collecting them,” I replied.
“For what?” he asked.
“Operation Armageddon,” I replied.
“What do they have to do with Armageddon?” he asked sitting up straight in his chair.
“They have been duplicating their powers somehow and are implanting them all into one man, Armageddon, to unleash on the city I’m guessing,” I said taking a drink from the cup.
“I could never have imagined. How did you find all this out?” he asked.
“We took a list and some other data for Jet to analyze from a terminal in the warehouse and it set off an alarm. I woke up one of the spikers to help us. His name is Vine and he took out the guards in no time flat. He was organizing resistance when he was taken so he is helping us. He has a base of operations and Pan has moved there. It is much safer than Jet’s house,” I said.
Frost said with a bewildered look on his face. “That’s incredible. We are in serious trouble if they finish Armageddon,” he said.
“I know. That’s why we are going to take the rest of the spikers and use them to fight Kraken. We have an army and their names, powers and threat levels are all on this,” I said holding the disk up.
“We will all have to look at it tomorrow and formulate a plan,” he said.
“Agreed. Oh before I forget,” I said as he started to stand up, “Vine and Pan think we should all wear some sort of mask or disguise to cover our face when we are in the city. If we are spotted, it could mean trouble for us.”
“We all have to have a ridiculous getup like yours?” he asked.
“If you think mine is crazy,” I said, “You should see the mask Pan is wearing now.”
“Oh my lord,” he said walking towards his bedroom.
“Don’t forget. Find a disguise,” I called after him. He raised his hand to wave goodnight to me. I finished my water and stood up from the table. I stretched and my back popped multiple times along with my shoulders. The relief swept over my back. I entered the armory converted to a bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. I unlaced my boots and slowly slipped them off. I crawled under the blanket and drifted to sleep.
It seemed like only a minute since I had fallen asleep before being awakened by Jet getting out of the bed. I barely cracked my eye open to look at her but still appear asleep. She was wearing a white tank top and tight black pants. Every time I saw her, her beauty struck me. Her blonde hair somehow appeared perfect even after just waking up. I stretched my arms out and yawned. Jet turned around and smiled.
“What time did you finally get back?” she asked.
“I don’t know. It was late though,” I said.
“What did Pan want?” she asked.
“I’ll tell all of you in a few minutes. It’s incredibly important,” I said sitting up. She slipped on a baggy gray shirt and left the room. I swung my legs out of the bed and my feet touched the cold floor. I stood up and walked out of the room. Flare was already up and working with the amplifiers. She burst into flames and started to float.
“Check it out!” she yelled, “I can alter the heat to make myself rise!”
“That’s amazing,” Jet said, “Do the amplifiers make you feel drained?”
“Not yet. I have been using them in small spurts,” she said.
“Good. I don’t know if there are any prolonged effects of these things. We will have to keep an eye on your energy level,” said Jet.
Flare lowered herself and made the flames dissipate. Frost emerged from their bedroom and said groggily, “Oh good. Everyone is up.”
“Yeah I need to talk to all of you,” I said, “Let’s all sit.”
We all congregated around the table and I started recounting what had happened. After I finished, they sat in silence. “So Armageddon is a man?” Jet asked.
“Yes. A potentially deadly man,” I answered.
“You said you have a disk with data from the Kraken system, right?” Flare asked.
I pulled the disk out of the bag I had taken with me. I made my way to the main computer and inserted the disk into the terminal. The large screen lit up and showed a long list of forty names, each with a full profile. I scrolled down the list passing name after name. Quartz, Seer, Edge, Watt, Nova. These and many more adorned the list of our potential army. I turned to the others and saw the intrigue on their faces.
“Oh and one other thing,” I said, “Vine and Pan think we all need some sort of disguise or mask to protect ourselves when we are in the city. If we are identified, we could get in serious trouble.”
Flare and Jet looked at me like I was telling a joke and I hadn’t gotten to the punchline yet, while Frost just had a look of disgust on his face. “What kind of mask?” Flare asked.
“It doesn’t have to be a mask. Just something that will obscure your face or eyes somehow like my hood,” I replied.
“I can’t wait,” Frost said sarcastically.
“Just shoot some ice over your mouth like the first time we broke back into the city. You don’t have to wear a mask if you are going to be a baby about it,” I said. He smirked and shot ice across his mouth in the form of a small mask.
“I can just use my work goggles I suppose,” Jet said.
“That’ll work. It doesn’t have to be complicated,” I said.
“I’ll look around for something,” Flare said.
“For now, we need a plan. First we need to figure out where they are holding the other spikers. They are sure to move them after last night,” I said.
“Does Vine have any idea where they might be taken?” Jet asked.
“He didn’t seem to know. I figured we should just listen to the Kraken radio and see if they mention it. Until then, we should take some time to practice with the amplifiers,” I said.
“I’ll take the first shift on the radio,” Flare said.
“Let’s go out to the forest and practice with the amplifiers then,” I said. Frost, Jet and I exited Sanctum and walked to a remote part of the forest. Jet carried her rifle with her. She had customized it in the previous days. She had added some different odds and ends to the body and scope. No doubt she had used salvaged parts from the old rebellion’s weapon stocks.
“These things are amazing,” Frost said holding his hands up.
“They really are. They are a feat of engineering,” Jet said, “I have never seen any technology like it in my life.”
“It’s just too bad that they never got them to work properly. Things could have turned out differently,” I said.
&nb
sp; “Our families could be alive still,” said Frost.
“Unfortunately,” I said, “We can’t change the past. We have to focus on making the future better.”
“We will. We have made serious progress in such a short time,” said Jet.
“We have. I can tell from listening to the radio transmissions that we have shifted some balance. People are starting to rebel in isolated incidents all over the city. It’s nothing that will completely dethrone Hades but we are making cracks appear in their foundation,” Frost said.
“We know that as we do more damage, Kraken will crack down on the people of Marsh City. We need to get the spikers as soon as we can and figure out where they are keeping Armageddon,” I said.
“I’m thinking that they will move him somewhere more secret now. The warehouse was brilliant because it was in plain sight but now that they know we know all about Armageddon and the spikers, they will hide him underground until he is ready,” said Jet.
“Then we will have to search harder. We cannot let them unleash Armageddon,” I said. We entered a clearing and set our gear down. Frost turned in a circle and raised a wall of ice around our clearing. Jet knelt down and started cleaning her rifle. I used my power to rip a tree out of the ground and pulled it into the clearing.
“Let’s make some targets out of this tree,” I said. Frost held out his hand and a large axe made of ice formed in it. He began hacking away at the tree. Forty minutes passed and he had twenty wooden slats piled up where the tree was. I stood one of the slats up on one end of the clearing. I took a knife and carved a target on the wood.
“You can go first Jet,” I said. Jet lay on the ground in the shooting position. She unloaded four rounds into the plank. They landed in various spots on the target. She mumbled angrily top herself and reloaded the gun. She spent the next few minutes shooting and reloading the gun. At the end of her session, the target was riddled with bullet holes. She grumbled and picked up her rifle.
“I really hope if I end up having to shoot at something, it is very large and doesn’t move. My accuracy is terrible,” she said tossing her rifle down on the pile of gear.
“Just keep at it. It only gets easier with practice,” Frost said.