by Jedi Reach
“To help you.” she said.
PRELUDE
Years later
Deep underground in a research facility out in the middle of nowhere, a group of scientists were hard at work, protected by armed guards. No one got in and no one got out. All eyes were on the target. The Doorway, a technological marvel that resembled a stargate.
“Is it ready?” A hologram of Stone appeared.
“We’re waiting on our Scion.” A scientist replied.
“Lea?” Stone called; his gaze pointed behind the scientists. Lea stepped forward, her face still as expressionless as it always was, only with deeper bags under her pretty eyes.
“Are you ready?” Stone asked.
Lea nodded and walked closer to The Doorway. She stretched her hand at it, her eyes locked in a deep concentration. The lights in the facility dimmed and flickered. The guards near her grew uneasy, and the scientists were all hoping and praying the operation would be a success.
A spiral wave of electricity twisted around The Doorway and erupted with a burst of light that sent powerful gusts throughout the room almost flooring some of the men. The energy condensed around the stargate, creating a portal to another dimension.
“She did it!” one of the scientists’ said, his jaw hanging. “She actually did it!”
“Lea how are you feeling?” Stone called.
“Fine.” Lea’s focus remained fixed on sustaining the energy of the portal.
“Let’s get to work.” Stone ordered. The scientists quickly followed his command, gathering their equipment to go investigate. It was a good night for science, and a good night for mankind. Who knew what discoveries awaited?
“Wait.” Lea stopped them.
The scientists halted and glanced at her.
What’s wrong?
“There’s something in there.” her heartbeat skipped.
“Troops.” Stone called for the armed guards. They readied their assault rifles and awaited further orders. Stone observed the situation unfolding. He wanted to see what would happen. Lea’s struggle with the portal was reaching its breaking point. She couldn’t sustain the energy forever.
‘Let go.’ a dark voice echoed in her head.
A violent electrical surge passed through her body and knocked her to the floor.
“Lea!” Stone yelped.
The portal swelled with unstable energy then erupted, sending shockwaves across the room. The scientists and the soldiers were all knocked down. Stone’s hologram started fading from the electromagnetic disturbance.
That’s when he saw it.
“What the hell are you?” the words slipped out of The Doctor’s mouth. Stone observed a tall shadowy figure walking out of The Doorway as his transmission faded.
Lea and the other men slowly got back to their feet. All eyes moved to the portal. There was a new guest in the room. Lea backed away shaking while the guards pointed their guns at the visitor. Past the shadowy figure of a tall, sculpted man, red, flaming eyes shone.
“Subdue him!” Stone patched in through another hologram. The guards fired a net covered in high voltage fibers at the shadow monster. The visitor almost stumbled, but caught himself, puffed his chest and threw off the net. The glow in his eyes radiated.
The guards opened fire.
The shadow held his hand out and black, shadowy waves of alien matter crashed into the guards and scientists, smacking them into the walls. Except Lea. Lea remained unharmed. That didn’t stop her from taking off though. She bolted for the hallways and the shadow monster followed.
“RED ALERT! RED ALERT! THIS IS A CODE-5!” A computerized voice echoed throughout the base.
“Lea! What is happening?!” Stone’s voice patched through the comm systems.
“Get me out of here!” she panicked, stumbling past new arriving armed forces.
“It’s coming! It’s coming!” Lea screamed at them as she ran by. The new arrivals set a barricade and waited for The Shadow.
3… they unchecked their safeties.
2… silence emanated.
1… they waited to open fire.
The lights dimmed, and the hallway shook, followed by a tremendous seismic force that violently hurled the guards out of the Shadow’s way. Long, black, spiral arms mutated from the monster’s back, and he used it to thrash any remaining soldiers left standing.
Lea was in full blown panic mode. Everyone who tried to protect her ended up dead. She rushed into the elevator and slammed the controls, hoping it would make the elevator reach ground level faster. The Scion was trembling. Whatever came through the portal, Lea could feel it – its every move, its breath, its energy. The more she ran, the more its connection to her grew stronger.
The elevator doors opened, and Lea stormed out of the base’s entrance, stumbling several times as she booked it into the night’s forest. Drones flew overhead and shot missiles. The base exploded behind her and the Scion fell to her knees from the force of the blast. Lea looked at the destruction, hoping that did the trick. Flames danced wildly into the night’s sky while the base systematically collapsed in on itself. Lea clutched her chest and tried to slow her breathing.
What was that thing?!
Something still wasn’t right. Lea felt an invisible grip on her, and it grew tighter by the second. She couldn’t calm her heart rate, no matter how hard she tried. She gazed at the flames in the distance. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest.
Breathe, she kept telling herself.
A dark figure moved in between the flames and emerged from the fire, its sight set on Lea. Lea lost it and started backing away on her elbows, mud staining her clothes. A drone whiffed overhead and shot a missile at the visitor. His arm mutated into a long whip and he swatted the missile back at its attacker. The drone exploded overhead, its shards falling like shooting stars across the night’s sky.
“No, no, no, no!” Lea felt her heart ripping through her chest. There was nothing left to stop him. Everything burned around her. She was alone. Every step closer he took; she could feel it. Lea readied herself like a cornered animal on its last defense. She manifested a portal, hoping it would pull the visitor away through its gravity. The monster leapt over the ambush and crashed into the ground next to her, causing the Scion to instinctively scream her lungs out.
That was it.
All that was left for her was to accept her fate.
Accept staring into those flaming red eyes.
CHAPTER 1
“Jesus Christ.” Bakker blurted while he, Stone and other men in black, replayed the footage of the incident inside a small office room. The monster wasn’t quite visible from the camera feeds. Anytime it came near a camera, the feed gave out to radiation disturbance.
“What do we do?” Bakker turned to Stone.
Stone lit up a cigarette and puffed on it.
“There’s only one thing we can do.” he announced.
“Which is?” Bakker asked.
“Nova.” Stone said.
“You can’t be serious.”
“It’s the only way, and it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Stone said as he blew smoke out of his nose.
**************
Deep in the hilly side of a cold forest, Jace stood still for a moment and looked over the horizon, his hands in his hoodie’s pockets. He took in all of nature’s beauty around him. It was almost completely quiet, only the bustles of the leaves and the chirping birds could be heard as the sun shined through the tall trees.
Creation, he thought to himself as he looked over the hilly landscape with calm breathing. After some time taking in the sights, Jace went deeper into the forest to continue his objective. He was on the hunt for something out there. Something he once held dear.
He intuitively followed a trail that led him to the outskirts of the forest, a place he’d been before. The last time he was there, it was night, and there was a huge vehicle pileup. Jace walked into the middle of the road and looked both directions. On
his left, he remembered first meeting Aiden, their trip, and how much the Viking didn’t shut up that night. On his right, he recalled transmitting a psychic hallucination on the driver and the crash it caused shortly after.
Things got hairy after that, he thought.
Jace took a few slow steps forward, and he remembered the best part of it all. Her. He remembered this was the exact place they first met, and he also remembered how much he missed her.
I’ve been dreaming about you for too long, the thought crossed his mind.
Jace felt an abrupt tingle shoot up his spine, followed by the sound of a low, rumbling growl. He slowly turned around.
“Hello.” he quietly said to the beast in front of him. It was a mountain lion, and from the looks of it, the cougar was stalking him for some time. Jace calmly observed the animal as it drew closer. The cougar seemed confused. It wasn’t sure if it should attack. Something about the human it was preying on wasn’t normal.
This human, to the mountain lion, felt good, his energy, welcoming. The cougar moved to Jace’s side, and Jace, seeing the effects of his presence soothing the beautiful animal, leaned down and caressed the cougar’s head.
“How long were you following me?” he asked
The mountain lion purred.
Jace smiled. Something about being out there with a creature who wasn’t plagued by human worries was subtly relaxing. The puma’s eyes darted to the western sky, focused.
“What is it?” Jace looked on with the cougar.
The sound of an approaching helicopter echoed. The puma snarled and ran away while Jace looked overhead to see a black helicopter descending. He held his hand out to block the wind as the aircraft landed.
The doors opened, and three men walked out, all dressed in coated black suits. The lead man was none other than Doctor Stone. A bitter taste entered Jace’s mouth once he recognized Stone. The Doctor gave a hand signal to his men to stay put and shut off the helicopter while he went to Jace alone.
“You know this is a restricted area?” Stone teased as he approached Jace.
“What do you plan to do? Arrest me?” Jace retorted.
Stone smiled. The two had history.
“That’s not why I’m here Jace,” Stone opened his box of cigarettes, lit one, then offered Jace from the box. “Cigarette?”
“I quit.” Jace replied.
“Good for you,” Stone placed the box back in his coat and took a drag on his burning stick. “What were you doing out here?”
“I could ask you the same thing.” Jace peered at the black helicopter.
“Looking for you.” Stone gazed at him.
Jace furrowed his eyebrows.
“We should talk.” Stone said and sighed.
**************
Stone and Jace moved away from the onlookers, a little distance into the forest where they continued their conversation. Stone seemed nervous; irregular behavior from Jace’s point of view. He was used to seeing Stone as somewhat of a mirror of him, cool and calm. Despite their differences, their similar natures forged a respect over the years.
“Stone,” Jace narrowed his gaze, “What exactly is going on? Why are you here?”
Stone puffed on his nicotine stick.
“Three days ago, there was an incident…” a flashback of the monster walking through the portal rushed through Stone’s mind. “…we were conducting classified experiments on warp technology. Wormholes.”
Jace paid close attention to Stone’s body language.
The Doctor seemed genuine.
“We needed the aid of a Scion to bring our project into fruition, one you’re quite familiar with.” Stone continued.
“Lea.” Jace discerned.
“That’s right.” Stone puffed on his cigarette.
“I knew the Scion program would still be active, there’s no way it’d ever be shut down so easily.”
“Multi-billion-dollar spending determined it stayed active in secret.”
“And Lea? Of course, you use her. She was always your go-to.” Jace shook his head.
Stone flicked away the end of his cigarette.
“She was the only one capable of harnessing the type of abilities we needed for the experiment. Also, the only one available that wasn’t detained or crazy. The rest of you signed an agreement for departure from the work.” Stone glared at Jace.
“Rightly earned. We did save your asses from a Scion uprising.”
“That’s right, but I’m afraid we’ll need your services again.”
Jace chuckled. “And why would I want to help you guys again?”
Stone shook his head.
“Something came through that portal, Jace. Whatever it was, it took Lea.” the Doctor dropped his guard. Stone seemed vulnerable. This was once again, abnormal behavior from Jace’s point of view.
“Something? What do you mean something?” Jace questioned.
“We’re not sure, see for yourself.” Stone reached for a small device from his pocket that displayed a holographic image of the camera feed from the incident. Jace felt his short hair stand on end as he saw glimpses of a tall, dark silhouette. The footage paused, allowing a moment between Jace and the visitor, eye to eye.
“You said it took Lea?” Jace calmed himself as he spoke, his eyes locked into the monster’s flaming red eyes.
“We scanned the base and the surrounding area for any traces of her. She’s gone,” Stone shut off the hologram. “Whatever that thing was, it took her.”
Jace stood still to meditate over the information.
“Jace,” Stone called to the Scion. “I need your help.”
I need your help. Jace replayed the words in his head. It was sweet irony hearing it from a man who once sat in the opposite chair of him.
“What exactly do you want me to do about this? Nova is inactive. That was part of the deal.”
“Not anymore,” Stone lit another cigarette. “I’ll be giving you full authorization to resume Nova, and all the resources necessary to make it operational. I need you to gather your team, find Lea, return her to us, and stop that creature.”
Jace scoffed and shook his head.
“You created an amazing thing by making Nova, Jace,” Stone rested his hand on the scion’s shoulder. “It needs to be reactivated.”
“How ironic,” Jace faced Stone. “You come back after all this time and expect me to just say yes.”
Stone sighed.
He had one card left if Jace wouldn’t budge.
“I remember how things went after we detained those rogues and I remember the prices we all had to pay. Especially Xenia. I might’ve created Nova, but I won’t help you without her. Xenia deserves her freedom like the rest of us.”
Checkmate.
“I figured you’d bring her up. You’ll be happy to hear I arranged for her sentence to be reviewed. If you somehow convince her to rejoin Nova, then she’s free to go after your services have been completed.”
“Is that right?” Jace challenged. “Take me to her then.”
Stone pointed the way with an open palm to the helicopter. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 2
Jace, Stone, and the rest of Stone’s colleagues took a flight for a black site in the middle of Arizona’s mountain ranges. The helicopter flew over desert terrain for a couple hours, leaving Jace to wonder where they were going. He noticed hangar doors opening at a hillside in the valley. The helicopter flew in, docked, and the men exited the aircraft. Inside was a highly sophisticated base with technology that looked like it came from the future.
There were scientists operating on various duties, some looking through observatory screens while others operated various technologies and computerized systems. Armed guards patrolled the area with their usual blank faces.
This is where they kept you?
Jace observed the surroundings, taking note of the sleek walls and floors while Stone swiped his hand over a computerized access terminal.
“Not surprising
.” Jace commented.
“What is?” Stone looked back at him.
“When we arrested Scions, we deported them to black sites. Fitting a Nova agent ends up with a similar fate.”
“Xenia’s case was peculiar,” Stone said as the hallway doors opened. “After all, she is extraterrestrial. Not to mention, a good deterrent if any of the rogues here break free.”
**************
Stone led Jace and the other men down corridors and observatory rooms, each of them filled with various experiments; some even prison rooms for arrested rogue Scions. Jace couldn’t help but notice them. After all, he was responsible for most of them being there. There were two that mainly caught his attention. Victoria, an imprisoned Scion with tanned, tattooed skin and punkish red hair, also known as Unit 14 and Sven, a pale, bald stocky brute with yellow eyes also known as Unit 6.
The further Jace went into the fortress, the more he noticed the similarities to the original base he was first brought into. But this wasn’t the Scion program Jace was blackmailed into working for, it was a salvage of its remains, forged into something new for the CIA or whatever clandestine agency found interest in using psionic weapons.
Jace had mixed feelings being there. Some of the workers remembered him and held him with high regard while others were cautious, thinking him to be no different from the arrested Scions. As for the detained Scions? Only hatred for the once Nova Leader. In their eyes, he was a traitor to his own kind.
After some time going deeper into the fortress, the men neared a secluded hallway and came face to face with a large metallic door, protected by two Men in Black agents on opposite sides.
“33, 36.” Stone acknowledged them.
“Can we help you, good doctor?” Agent 33, the shorter, slender one on the left, spoke with a sarcastic undertone.
“Maybe he’s in the wrong place, I just don’t know 33, what do you think?” Agent 36, the taller, buffer one on the right, replied. Both agents looked at each other and laughed.
