The Ascendants: Genesis

by Christian Green

  “Please Lucas, anything you can tell us would be great.”

  “I don't remember.”

  James shook his head. He did not believe Lucas for one moment. “This was probably one of the worst days of your life Lucas. You don't just forget about something like that.”

  “If I remembered anything I would tell you. Especially if it meant I could finally be rid of you two.”

  “You don't mean that,” Mia said.

  Lucas looked directly at Mia. “Yeah, I kind of do.”

  Mia looked over to James. “He might be suppressing his memory. It was after all a traumatic event.”

  “Well, if that's the case, we need to get him back to the ship and let Tori read his mind. She should be able to recover any suppressed memories he might have. If not, she can easily read his thoughts and uncover whatever it is he's hiding.” James gave Lucas a hard look, a look that made it clear that he didn't believe Lucas.

  “I'm not going back anywhere with you two. Now I'm only going to say this one more time before things turn really ugly.”

  Lucas did not have time to follow through on his threat. The confrontation between the three Post Humans was interrupted by the sounds of screams coming from the hallway. Lucas glared at James and Mia. They looked at one another unsure of what the commotion was about.

  “Stay here,” James said.

  James pulled out his gun, opened the door and calmly walked out into the hallway.

  “Everywhere you guys go, trouble follows. I have no idea what's causing the screaming, but I bet you had something to do with it!”

  Mia had no words to say. Each dig Lucas made cut deeper and deeper into her.

  “What is it with you two anyway?” Lucas asked.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Lucas had an offended look on his face. He didn't consider for one second that Mia didn't know what he was talking about. “You and James.”

  “Lucas, he's my partner, and a really good friend. We're in the field a lot together, which means we spend a lot of our time with each other. Plus, I genuinely enjoy his company.”

  “How could you enjoy the company of a guy who's nothing more than a hothead?”

  Mia stretched her hands forward and knocked Lucas back down to the couch. “James is one of the kindest, smartest men I know. There's so much more to him than you realize. Just like there's so much more to you than he realizes. You two just seem to bring out the worse in one another.”

  Before Lucas could reply, James returned and looked completely terrified. “You two are going to want to come out here.” James paused. “Well, I take that back, you probably don't want to come out here, but come out here anyway!”

  Mia and Lucas looked at one another with worried expressions. Lucas got back off the couch and followed James and Mia out of the room.

  Lucas' jaw dropped, and he nearly threw up his lunch as he stared at Samantha's lifeless body. “What happened?” Mia asked James.

  Several panicked teachers ran passed the three and didn't bother to look back. “That happened,” James said. He pointed down to the end of the hall.

  “I don't see anything. What am I looking for?” Mia asked.

  James kept his finger pointed down the hall. “Wait for it!” Suddenly something massively well-built and tall emerged from around the corner of the other hall. It had skin the color of blood, long black dreadlocks that were tied at the top, and tribal tattoos on its face.

  “What in the world is that?” Lucas asked.

  “I have no idea,” Mia said.

  Lucas looked back over at his now deceased coworker Samantha. She had a large hole that went straight through her body. It looked as if some sort of extremely powerful and hot weapon was used to cause such a deadly result.

  “Guess there's no need to ask if it's friendly or not.”

  James reached to his left leg and pulled out his secondary firearm. “Now you see why I never enter the field without my gun. Doesn't matter what the mission is, I ain't taking any chances.”

  “Agreed.”

  James took a step forward and was about to fire on the hostile, but he froze when he saw the aggressive being snatch up a woman like she was nothing. The hostile seemed to examine her. He looked her up and down and sniffed her as if she was a piece of meat. It must've been dissatisfied, because after a quick examination, it snapped the woman's neck like a twig and tossed her aside.

  “Oh God!” Mia shouted. Her entire body jerked back at the sight.

  “Okay buddy, that's enough,” James said angrily. James squared his feet, pulled the trigger of both guns and fired until the clip was empty. The bullets bounced off the hostile like it was nothing.

  “I think you're just making him angrier,” Lucas said.

  “Yeah, no kidding,” James replied.

  “What kind of Post Human looks like that?” Mia asked.

  James looked the hostile over. “I don't think it’s a Post Human at all.” James, Mia and Lucas shared a look that needed no words. They all were thinking the same thing and in that moment the thought of what the hostile represented made the situation as dire as it was with the Syndicate seem trivial.

  The hostile dusted itself off and found the bullets to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. It studied the three Post Humans carefully and decided to counter James attack. The hostile reached behind his back and pulled out a long weapon that looked similar to a wizard's staff seen in movies. It fired a single blast that emitted a massive ball of fire. The fire hurled itself at the group, but Lucas stretched his hands forward and created a wall of ice to block the attack.

  “Interesting,” the hostile said to Lucas. It seemed a bit surprised, yet pleased at the same time.

  “Yeah, well guess what, he isn't the only one!” Mia stretched her hands forward and concentrated heavily. Suddenly the door of the classroom next to the hostile ripped off the hinges and hit the hostile square in the head. The hostile dropped the staff weapon and hit the ground with a loud thud.

  Mia quickly stretched her hands forward and used her telekinesis to bring the staff weapon to her. The hostile reached for it, but the weapon moved towards Mia with great velocity.

  James quickly grabbed a ladder in the hallway and ran forward. He swung it with ease like a baseball bat and connected with great force. The hostile flew backwards and went through a classroom.

  Lucas and Mia moved with urgency and caught up with James. The three of them cautiously approached the room the hostile fell into.

  “Careful,” Mia said as Lucas took the lead.

  “Move,” James suddenly shouted. James pushed Lucas out of the way just in the nick of time. He quickly shifted his feet forward and with his right arm, shattered a desk the hostile heaved in their direction.

  The hostile studied the three Post Humans and smiled. “Cyrokinesis, Telekinesis and Superhuman strength. So the stories are true. You are indeed the next generation.”

  Lucas, James and Mia did not understand what the hostile was talking about and at that moment, none of them cared. The only thing on their mind was stopping the intruder from causing any more harm. It was a task that proved to be quite daunting.

  “Who are you, what do you want?” Mia shouted.

  “Those questions will be answered in due time.”

  “What's the play?” Mia whispered to James.

  James stared the hostile down. The hostile seemed completely unfazed by their presence.

  “Hit him with everything we've got.”

  “Him?” Lucas echoed.

  James thought for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. “Okay, let's be real, what we're looking at isn't human. What we're looking at isn't even a Post Human, that right there is an alien. A male alien, so yeah, hit him with everything we got!”

  “All right, let’s do this!” Mia said.

  James charged forward while Mia and Lucas stretched their hands and unleashed their respective powers on the red skinned alien.

  The
alien easily caught James by the throat, lifted him off the ground, and threw him into the nearest wall. The alien showed a complete disregard for James' presence. As Lucas' ice attack and the force of Mia's telekinesis approached, the alien calmly reached to his left wrist and activated a personal force field.

  “Your abilities have no effects on me,” the alien said. Mia and Lucas stopped their attack and rethought their plan. Satisfied by their reaction, the alien snickered and deactivated his force field.

  “You sure we have no effect on you?” James asked. The alien turned just in time to see James' fist connect with a devastating uppercut that sent the alien flying backwards. James rushed over to the alien and delivered several closed fists punches to various parts of the alien's body. With punches as hard as a rock, James disabled the personal force field.

  The alien embraced James' attack and waited for the slightest opening. When he found one, the alien pushed James off of him and reached for his staff weapon. “Lucas, freeze him!” James said.

  Lucas stretched his hands forward and directed a massive ice attack large enough to completely encase the alien.

  “Should we finish him off?” Mia asked.

  “Yeah,” James replied.

  The encased alien concentrated and slowly the ice began to crack. Before the trio could reach him, the alien broke free. He looked around the room and saw the three Post Humans ready to make another move on him, but with his force field disabled, he did not want to take any chances.

  “This isn't over!” The alien drove his hands downward and hit the ground with such force that the entire area around him collapsed to the first floor. The alien emerged from the debris and fled the school, leaving behind his staff weapon.

  Mia, James and Lucas watched the alien leave the school through one of the back doors.

  “Should we go after him?” Mia asked.

  James listened to the sounds of several police cars approaching. “No time, with our luck, they could be after us.”

  “Lucas, where are you going?” Mia shouted.

  Lucas used his cyrokinesis ability and created an ice slide which he used to easily descend to the first floor. “Away from you two. You guys do nothing but bring trouble. I know it's not intentional, but everywhere you go, trouble follows!”

  Lucas did not look back. He ran out of the school as fast as he could. He had no intentions on going after the alien, but he had no intentions on sticking around for questions either.

  “Lucas wait!” Mia was about to chase after Lucas on the ice slide, but before she could slide down, James lifted her by the waist and stopped her. “What are you doing James? We have to go after him!”

  “There's no time Mia, Lucas made his decision.”

  “He's just scared!”

  “That may be true, but we have to leave. We can track him down later, but we have to get out of here.” James and Mia could hear the footsteps of officers coming up the stairs. Begrudgingly, Mia had no choice but to let Lucas go his separate way.

  “Tommy, get the ship ready!” James said into his earpiece.

  “Already on it, you guys going to make it?”

  “Yeah we got it, be there in a minute.” James looked around the room for a way out. He could hear the police closing in on their position and feared there was no way to avoid a confrontation.

  James sighed. He could hear police officers down on the first floor inspecting the ice slide while several more cautiously made their way up the stairs. “Come on Mia, grab the staff weapon and let's go.”

  Mia angrily grabbed the staff weapon and walked over to James. She jumped into his arms and rolled her eyes. “I feel like such a cliché every time we do this.”

  “You're more than welcome to do this on your own. Although I don't think your particular skill set will work as effectively.”

  “Just shut up and get us out of here, will ya?”

  “Stop right there and place your hands in the air!” the first officer to reach the room shouted. James and Mia turned towards the door where the officer stood with his weapon pointed.

  “Mia,” James said.

  “On it.” Mia flicked her wrist and with the force of her telekinesis, knocked the officer's weapon out of his hand.

  With Mia still in his arms, James jumped through the window and shattered it into several pieces. The first two officers to make it to the room ran towards the window to see the results of James' jump.

  “No way, that's impossible!” one officer said.

  He looked down and saw that James and Mia landed safely without so much of a scratch on them. “The impact of that jump alone should've broken his legs!” The officers watched in complete shock as the Ascendants' cloaked ship slowly shimmered into visibility.

  “Let's go Christine, get us out of here!” James shouted.

  Christine needed no prompt from James or anyone else for that matter. As soon as James and Mia boarded the ship, Christine placed her hands back on the throttle and navigated through the skies.

  “Lou, did you see that? What the heck did I just see?” one officer asked.

  Lou swallowed spit and watched the plane vanish out of sight. “Our worst fears... Post Humans with enough power to destroy us all.”

  Chapter 7

  Presidential Address

  “Yes sir, I understand,” Christine said. Christine ended the phone call and slid her phone back into her pocket.

  “What is it?” James asked.

  Christine did her best to hide her concern, but James could see right through her.

  “Christine?” James said.

  “Dr. Connors said there was trouble. He didn't elaborate but from his tone, I can tell it's bad, it's really bad.”

  James and Mia looked at one another with troubled expressions.

  “I shouldn't have left them alone. A mission as risky as that, I should have gone with them.”

  “Well, at the risk of sounding selfish, I'm glad you didn't. I don't think Lucas and I would have made it out of the school if you weren't there with us.”

  “I'm sure you two would've gotten out all right.”

  “You could just be thinking the worst James, after what we encountered today, it's not so hard to imagine that you might be on edge. We don't even know what happened yet.”

  “Christine and James are right, something terrible did happen,” Tori said suddenly.

  Christine, Tommy, James and Mia whipped their heads around to face Tori, who emerged from her private quarters.

  “Tori, what's wrong?” Tommy asked.

  Tori's face was pale and she could barely stand up straight.

  “Tori?” James said.

  James rushed over towards Tori and grabbed her before she collapsed to the ground. Tommy ran over on the other side and helped James get her back to her feet. Even though James was more than capable of lifting Tori himself, Tommy still felt it was the right thing to do.

  “She's dead,” Tori moaned.

  James and Tommy walked Tori over a seat in the control room while Mia fetched her a bottle of water.

  “Who's dead?” James asked.

  “Susan.”

  The room fell deadly silent. Everyone looked around at one another but no one knew what to say.

  “Tori, what are you talking about? What happened to Susan?” Mia asked.

  Drained from the strenuous telepathy she had used, Tori moaned and grabbed her head.

  “Tori, what happened?” James asked. He snapped his fingers to get her attention.

  “I don't know; I just know I can no longer read Susan's mind. I've searched and searched but I can't read it.”

  “What about Dr. Connors, what about Cayde?” James asked.

  “Both of them are overcome with grief. Both of them are trying to process what happened. They're in shock.”

  James and Mia looked towards one another. They both read each other's mind without the use of telepathy.

  “Don't do it,” Tori said.

  “We have to T
ori. Christine, pick up the pace!” James and Mia left the control room and retreated to the armory. Unsure what they would deal with, the two Post Humans equipped themselves with enough armor and ammunition to fight a small war.

  Christine was landing the ship when James and Mia reappeared from the armory.

  “Don't you think you two should wait for backup?” Tommy asked.

  “Tommy, we are backup,” James replied.

  The ship landed safely and smoothly. James took the lead and without hesitation left the ship with his gun drawn. Mia followed closely behind him and watched his six.

  “See anything?” Mia asked.

  “Nothing.”

  Mia pulled out her phone and checked the GPS tracker. “Dr. Connors signal tracks him here to this location.”

  “Doesn't mean he's in there and it doesn't mean we aren't walking into a trap. Stay on your toes Mia.”

  James raised his gun and cautiously moved towards a house in the final stages of construction. “Dr. Connors?” James called out.

  “We're up here!” Dr. Connors replied.

  James and Mia looked at one another and for a moment were filled with relief. Ever the cautious one, James kept his gun in hand and slowly walked up the stairs. Mia followed closely behind and kept her eyes in the other direction just in case they were still walking into an ambush.

  “Up here, hurry!” Dr. Connors said. James whipped inside the room where Dr. Connors voice came from and quickly checked it out. “We're alone son, you can put the gun away.”

  James did one more survey of his surroundings before cautiously sliding his gun back in its holder. He looked over towards Cayde and his face suddenly went flush. “No, no, no!” James cried.

  Cayde sat somberly in the left corner of the room with Susan's lifeless body cradled across his lap.

  James ran over to him and dropped to his knees. He stroked Susan's medium length black hair, and a tear fell from his eye. James turned and looked directly down on Dr. Connors. “What happened?”

  “I'll explain back on the ship, but we need to get out of here right now.”