Behind large leaved plants that have grown at the base of the hill near the gate posts. Lutzi hides out waiting to see what would become of Errow, only to hear the entire conversation between Natutu and Yote. Angered that Natutu wants to have Jex for his mate, as Lutzi has been trying for years to confess his feelings to her. Every attempt has ended horribly as she does not share the same feelings for him or any of the villagers. With the coast clear Lutzi crawls from the bushes to his feet. Thinking of what he can do before Yote can tell Jex he heads towards his own home to devise a plan. Caught up in his thoughts he was unaware to the presence of Chargus Ixmae, one of Yote’s listeners sitting facing the opposite way. A listener’s job is to listen to all the chatter, and decipher what’s important and what isn’t. This particular listener is loyal to both Errow and Yote. He has the ideology that looker Lutzi isn’t as loyal as he should be. Following Lutzi he intends to find out any useful information that he can bring to Errow’s attention implicating that Lutzi is not part of the Yenga clique. Nearing his home, Lutzi looks back getting the innate feeling of being followed. Changing his route he decides to enter the market instead.
Meanwhile across the ocean, upon the floating island of Atlantis, the excitement had been building for the ascension to take place. Most all the Atlanteans were gathered about on their respective rings. Awaiting the opening of the upward causeway, the primary entrances to the next level of society. Each causeway had been sealed since the last ascension. The doors circular in their construction were inlaid into large channels surrounding them. Impassable without the proper codes becoming active during the ascension program. Just as the crowd seems to lose their anticipation, the noise level decreases dramatically. Suddenly without warning the first worm gear begins to turn. This initiates a series of events to begin, firstly turning a large cog whose teeth meshed with several other gears which all begin to turn simultaneously. The crowd comes alive. Whistling and cheering. Steam blasts out of several intrinsic ports on the door. Lance who’d been standing at the far back of the crowd watches. He begins to smile, feeling the excitement Knowing that he’ll eventually pass through that door one day. Unaware that Standing behind him the mysterious man from earlier was watching the event take place. There is a series of beeps and whistles that occur from the man’s armband. Lance looks back to see the man. “ What are you doing here?” He asks. The man not listening sees on his armband the power of the crystal is being significantly drained by the opening of the causeway. Lance annoyed by the man ignoring him, reaches out to grab the man’s hand. Without thinking the man whips Lance around and tosses him to the ground with ease. Landing hard with a thud lance gasps for air. The man then notices a marking on lance’s wrist. He freezes for a moment reminiscing about where he’d seen that marking before.
A flash of a memory from years ago. In the central tower he and his group had made their way in to protest the usage of the islands energy source for unnecessary projects. They detested that such projects would be the short coming of the island’s power. At the time the king and his wife had a baby which had been very sick. They gathered their top minds to build a device that would contain the baby and help artificially heal the child. The only problem with the device was that it would consumed an excessive power amount to work. There was an argument between those who opposed it, as well as Poseidon and his wife. The secret use of the machine extracted an excess of five hundred years worth of energy from the crystal. When the group opposing the project arrived to detest they were met with force. Fighting their way through the group became separated. The man reached the top of the tower where the device had been contained. Knowing he could not harm the baby in the device the man branded the babies wrist. Immediately afterwards the device healed the wound, but the marking remained. The king and several guards arrived to detain the man. Flashing back, lance kicked the man off yelling, “ what do you want?” The man smiles, “ it was you all along.” Lance confused by the statement squints, “ what was me?” Interrupted by the causeway door, there was a tremendous screeching. Everyone covers their ears, cowering to the ground. Sparks began to emit from the outer edges of the door. People began to panic. There was a creaking as the door began to roll aside. Realizing this was probably due to the door being sealed for so long the people began to stand back to their feet. The mysterious man and lance at the back looked at each other. “ You have been the one I have been searching for?” The man says. Lance’s eyes open widely, “ what are you talking about?” He questions. The man replies, “ you really don’t remember do you?” Lance asks, “ remember what? How you tried to kill that other kid today? Yes I remember that. What you are going to try to kill me now?” The man points to Lance’s arm, “ What do you know of that marking?” He inquires. Lance responds, “ It’s a birthmark, why?” The man reaches out his own hand bearing the same marking. “ It’s more than that!” He says with his eyes gleaming. Lance notices the man’s armband is not like his or any others he’d ever seen. Suddenly the ground begins to rumble once again, this time the tremor even stronger. The man consults his armband, seeing that the powers is now nearing unstable levels. As he looks up he sees lance is no longer there. “ Where are you going?” He asks looking around. In the distance he spots the boy running away. He grumbles, “ they always choose the hard way” he says before chasing after him. As the door to the causeway rolls aside opening up, the crowd anxiously begins pouring in. There is pandemonium as people push and shove to be first to get a glimpse of the upward leading bridge to the next tier of the island. Lance forces his way through all of those excited Atlanteans who had passed. Within seconds he had been overwhelmed and trampled by the mass. A few moments later there were hands reaching down to grab him. Grasping his clothing, he is ripped up onto his feet. Surprised lance looks to see it’s the man he was running from. The whole event goes unnoticed as everyone else is too enthralled in the ascension. Just as the man lifts lance up into the air there is a loud crackling blast. The man freezes,
“ It’s too late.” He says dropping lance to the ground. The massive crowd of Atlanteans all stop too look for the origin of the terrible noise. The man consults his armband once again. “ It’s going to blow. There’s no time.” He says. Lance unable to discern what the man means. Sitting up, Lance pushes himself forward as to stand to his feet. The man looks at him one final time and says, “ I was looking forward to ending you after all these years, but I guess your father’s undoing will take care of that after all.” The man then turns around and runs for the guard rails on the very edge of the island. They stand five feet from the ground, acting as a type of preventative measure, as well as protection. After the ascension program was originally cancelled the rails were installed replacing the early rails which only stood at three feet. Now more than ever they keep the Atlanteans from being able to escape.
Lance watches as the man reaches the rails in the distance. “ What are you going to do?” He asks as panic begins to spread, and many of the crowd run about. Someone shouts, “ the father crystal is changing colours” Lance watches as the man removes something from his side. “ What is that?” He asks. A blade emerges from the handle in the man’s hand. Using the blade the man swipes across the top and bottom of the railings. There are sparks as the rails struck fall out. “ What in Atlantis?” Lance Says, amazed by the shear display of power. Suddenly the man leaps out the hole he’d just created. He realizes the video projection he’d seen earlier from the program coder bot had a man holding a similar blade. There are various screams in behind, Looking back lance sees the crystal changed from blue to purple. Never before has the crystal done this. People standby watching in awe. Those who’d entered the causeway are unaware of the change until they exit. Lance realizes the mysterious man must know that something horrible was about to happen. Looking back at the hole in the rails lance decides to run over. A few seconds later he reaches the hole and looks out. The man was nowhere to be seen below. Thinking fast lance actives his armband, he enters the Opiva application and creates a point in that space. Opiva standing for, ‘ origin point identification visual aide’ an application which a point in space is referenced by interjecting an energy field unique to the creator’s armband at the exact location. When the creator of the field nears the proximity the energy becomes excited by the armband and glows. When the creator is not near the field the energy is invisible, but a visible disturbance in the air is present.
Lance quickly begins running through the now still crowd, running towards the housing district to reach his mother. People begin to gasp as the crystal begins to change again to red. Lance glances over. Knowing there’s barely any time he runs faster than he’d ever run before. Reaching the door to his home he slams into it with a thud, as the auto unlock didn’t engage. “ What’s wrong?” He asks looking at his armband. The screen shows, ‘ access denied. Key code incorrect’ lance growls, “ let me in this is very important!” The buzzer on the door chimes. Attempting to manually enter the key code doesn’t work either. The code isn’t accepted. Lance then attempts to contact his mother via pause chat. She doesn’t answer the call. Looking back at The crystal lance sees it glowing bright red. “ This can’t be good.” He says, before one final attempt to open the door. He remembers there is an override panel located on the base of the door with a unique code for every door. It’s usually the inhabitants birthday, day then month then year. Lance first tries his mothers. It doesn’t work, he has two more attempts before the override disconnects. He then tries his own birthday. Another failed attempt, angrily lance growls, before he thinks of any other possible dates. Looking at his armband he notices the reminder for the ascension. Looking at the date of the day, he decides to look up the last ascension date. Twenty two years ago on this day. He decides to give it a shot. Entering he numbers into the override he takes a deep breath before pressing the last number. Waiting a moment to see if it worked he is disappointed when he hears the final buzz. The screen on his armband displays an error message. “ Three failed attempts. Override disengaged. Please contact a technician immediately for assistance.” Lance tries one more time to contact his mother on the pause chat. This time the call goes through, she asks angrily, “ what do you want?” Lance replies, “ I need you to come outside. The father crystal is glowing and I think something bad is about to happen.” Milano explains to her son, “ my whole life has been a series of bad things happening. If the crystal is about to do something it would be a blessing.” Lance unable to understand asks, “ wouldn’t you rather live knowing...” before he can finish she interrupts him, “ No I’d rather die not knowing. I’m tired of living this life. Tired of running from the past. Maybe this was his will. This is why he trapped me, us... here.” She says. Lance asks, “ who? What do you mean? Who trapped us here?” Suddenly there is a commotion. “ It’s turning white!” Someone yells from the crowd. Lance looks back as the red glowing changes into a soft white. Milano answers, “ there isn’t much time. Don’t let the ghosts of our family past haunt you like they did me. If you can make it run for the outer rails and leap. Don’t end up like the rest of us.” With that Milano ends the communication. Lance’s armband screen becomes static. Angry he pounds on the door with both fists. Taking a deep breath he checks the distance to his Opiva point. Without any further hesitation he runs towards the hole the mysterious man had made in the rails.
At this point the majority of the crowd stood still watching as the crystal began to glow brilliantly hot. For the first time in a very long time the island was silent, no one spoke a word. Lance pushed himself as hard as he ever had, rushing forward towards the opening in the railing. His Opiva point beginning to glow as he neared. The crystal begins to crackle, and vibrate violently. Lance reaches the hole, grabbing the bar closest to him. Pulling his body as he twists out the hole he projects himself out and off the island. The crystal implodes on itself before erupting instantly into a magnificent explosion from the inner ring outwards. Lance tumbles through the air below the lowest ring seeing something very few have ever witnessed. The bottom of the island. As The explosion rips through the air vaporizing anything biological. The structures are left untouched. Everyone had been instantaneously obliterated from reality. Lance finally slams into the open ocean like a free falling boulder. As he floats under the surface he witnesses the brilliant blast projecting outwards through the sky. Bubbles floating to the surface hinder lance’s view of what is to follow. With no power to keep the island afloat regulating the internal pressure and buoyancy, the island drops from its resting place. As lance floats to the surface he captures a final glimpse of his ill fated home plummeting into the ocean. He panics turning to swim away before the tidal wave that ensues swallows him whole. It is however no use as the island sinks rather quickly, displacing a vast volume of water in every direction. The water begins to rise rapidly creating a suction of the current under the surface, pulling lance down below against his efforts. Under the water lance pulls the water, stroking as hard as he can to fight the pull. His actions are futile as the water pulls him deeper with each passing second. His breath escapes as bubbles of his life force dance through the water effortlessly. The surface becomes darker until only a shimmering glimpse remains. Giving up lance lays still as his limbs float upward. His central mass sinks down into the dark abyss below. Those last moments flashing before his eyes in a sequence of events in reverse order from most recent to years prior. Memories he had either forgotten or buried deep in the back of his mind. Life on the island for the last few months in a summarized version quickly leading to the last many years. Moments both significant and insignificant merged into a short version rapidly unravelling as lance slips out of consciousness. Only the dark remains, making it’s way into his eyes as he succumbs to the loss of reality. The glint of light like that of a pin poking into a blanket of blackness. Finally his eyes close and silence is all that remains. Coldness is all that can be felt, there is nothing more to be had...
No comments:
Post a Comment