Eternal Elements: Chapter 2

May 6 12:56 PM China: Guangzhou

Alice was forced to put on her safety belt and hope for the best. She was sitting on a expensive leather chair inside a small private jet that was shaking like it was caught in a massive turbulence wave… if only. Loud blaring warning signals were coming from the cockpit in front of her where two pilots were doing their best to keep this small jet airborne. The rumbling jet engines made even more noise, as she looked outside she saw one of the engines was still turning, even though it was on fire. She didn’t dare to look at the other side, fearing she may see nothing but a gaping hole where the other engine should have been. Just when she was about to ask if they were going to be okay, the cockpit door was slammed shut, somehow she didn’t see that as a good sign.

She stretched out as far as she could to get a hold of her backpack, picking up several things without even knowing what she was grabbing. When she found her phone it suddenly rang.
She didn’t have any time to worry about anyone else, but when she saw who was calling she still answered: “Yes, this is Alice.”

“I need a cleanup team here, ASAP,” Neo’s voice sounded calm.

But so did her own voice, and she definitely wasn’t feeling calm.
“Did you make a mess again Neo?” she asked, but had already known he would have to be in some kind of trouble the second she had seen his name light up on her phone.

“No more than usual,” he said.
“Well Neo, I’m a little busy myself right now, but I’ll see what I can do,” as she said that everything that wasn’t attached to something was launched through the air.

Alice dodged a suitcase that was hurled through the small cabin, opened her laptop and quickly loaded a file. All while the little cabin was shaking uncontrollably.
Alice knew where he should be by now, so it wasn’t difficult to find the right information. “That’s the place were miss Hunter lives?”

“Correct, I owe you one Alice.” Without further notice he hung up.
Alice wanted to scream at him that there may not be another chance for owning anyone anything, instead she got into crash position. The last thing she saw before she put her head between her knees were passing tree tops.

These backwoods were usually peaceful and quiet, but the crashing jet rudely interrupted that silence as the fuselage rammed itself against the muddy ground. Metal hitting anything solid was an unrecognisable sound around these parts, in fact, any sort of noise was out of the ordinary.

“Yeah you do owe me, about a lifetime worth of pay checks.” Alice finally opened her eyes again after what seemed like forever.

She was still alive, and all of her limbs were still attached. She almost smiled at how incredibly lucky she was when she noticed that the entire cockpit was missing. Instead of looking at a gaping hole she saw mud, filling the sinking cabin alarmingly fast. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, quite literally.

The cabin had aligned itself in one nearly perfect straight line. The only thing keeping her from falling in the quicksand like mud was her safety belt. She held onto her chair as she unfastened her belt and with the greatest effort she strapped on her backpack. Swinging from chair to chair Alice finally reached the emergency exit door. Only after throwing in her entire weight the handle swung open and Alice fell forward. She quickly crawled to safety and watched as most of the plane was being swallowed by the muddy surface.

Alice kept watching the sinking plane, in her mind she said goodbye to the brave pilots who had given their lives, and in the process had saved hers. Even though death wasn’t so unusual in her line of work, it was never easy to see, even when it was a nameless person.

She blinked a few times, as if trying to get herself to focus on something else and opened her backpack, she cursed under her breath as she saw that she had lost her laptop and phone in the plane. She rummaged around some more and found an odd looking stick. Around the same length as a police baton, but far smaller and definitely more deadlier.

“This might come in handy,” she said to herself.

Alice stretched her sore muscles and tied her sandy, blond hair together. Her oval face felt tired beyond her years. She touched her slightly rounded nose and chin but they didn’t seem broken, even though they felt that way.

She looked around and saw that big bramble bushes surrounded her left and right. Ancient trees, thick branches, sharp and round rocks, everything was covered by a thick layer of moss and mud. Only a small beam of sunlight made its way down to where she was standing. Most of that light was only now able to reach these parts, thanks to the plane crashing through. The low hanging sun shone its bright light over the green and brown leaves, revealing a small path leading further behind some thistles.
Alice turned the baton she was carrying counter clockwise and a thin fifteen inch long blue laser beam appeared that immediately cleared a path for her.

While being careful about where she placed her feet she started moving forwards through the dense forest. She walked around aimlessly for a while and really heated up as she kept cutting away through layers of foliage.
She shouldn’t even have been here in the first place. She was Neo’s assistant, she didn’t have any active powers of her own to help or protect her. But here she was, on her own trying to collect a new power. Who would have thought that thirteen new powers would have activated in the same week?

Still, those weren’t their problems. Not to mention that Neo was still new at this. While she liked him, at this point he was greener than any plant in this forest. Innocent lives where at stake here, her own damn life was at stake. Apparently her organisation didn’t seem to care about that. Neo was already in some sort of trouble it seemed, which was to be expected as far as she was concerned, but a private jet engine suddenly exploding? That was highly unlikely. Someone was trying to sabotage them. That should have been even more reason to get some decent help. As she was informed, the activation of thirteen powers had spread them a little thin.

“But I’m still just an assistant!” Alice shouted out in anger.

A few birds flew away from the sudden commotion. She watched them fly into the sunlight and noticed something towering over the large trees. Her destination wasn’t far now. She mumbled some more as she finally left the forest behind and looked up at her reason for being here.

May 6 2010 1:29 PM China: Guangzhou

Alice hesitated as she walked up to the enormous front doors from the monastery. The sheer size of this archaic building nearly took her breath away. Trucks could easily pass through the huge wooden front doors, that seemed sturdy enough to withstand even a crashing meteor, if necessary. The oversized dark beige bricks used to build these walls shared more resemblance with pyramid blocks than with any ordinary brick stones she had ever seen before. The walls rose up as high as modern day skyscrapers, no wonder she had seen the highest tower from the forest. Every rooftop looked to be glowing in a wonderful red colour, but that could have been the low hanging sun as well. Ivy that was probably several hundred years older than any single person living inside these walls covered most of the outside like a warm and gentle coat.

Anyone would feel at ease looking up at this sanctuary, except Alice, as she remembered why she was here in the first place.
She opened up her backpack and felt her heart rate go up as she searched her bags contents for a dictionary. As if it wasn’t disadvantageous enough that she didn’t have any powers, she also didn’t speak a word of Chinese. She looked up a few simple words and knocked on the doors, hoping for the best.

An old man wearing orange robes with a moon shaped head, with about just as many craters stepped out of a small door next to the massive front doors. It had seemed invisible until just a second ago, or maybe she just hadn’t paid it any attention before, but she was still startled when the humble monk stepped forward. He kindly smiled at her and said something in Chinese, which of course, she didn’t understand at all. Alice was hoping that the few words she had looked up and enough hand gestured would suffice.

She bowed a little and said: “Konnichiwa, watashi ga sagashite imasu Nami Fucano?”

The friendly expression disappeared from the monk’s face, he slammed the door shut without saying another word.

Alice raised an eyebrow. “My pronunciation couldn’t have been that bad?”

She didn’t know what mistake she had just made or what honour code she had just broken, but she didn’t want to risk angering the monks… not yet anyway. She still needed to get inside, one way or another.

She looked around and noticed that same tower that had let her out of the forest before. Because it towered over the rest of the monastery it looked like a blazing red Christmas tree topping. She was hoping that would be her way in, if she would get that far at least.

Her backpack had a build in jetpack, but it was nothing more than a prototype, it wasn’t properly tested yet and she had no idea if it could even fly that high. Under other circumstances she wouldn’t even have considered it. But she was all alone here, without any means of communication, and had somehow angered a Chinese monk with one simple sentence. If she could reach the person she was meant to find she was sure everything would somehow fall into place… or she would be killed for trespassing a holy place.

She laughed out loud. “No, the failing jetpack will break my neck before they have the chance to get me.” She stopped laughing when she realised that was probably a very real scenario.

She took a few deep breaths and searched for a small toggle switch underneath her backpack. As she give it a whirl two thin metal leavers suddenly unfolded on either side of her like small control handles. The handles had small buttons, those were her controls to move up and down. It didn’t look difficult, which made her even more uneasy. The bottom from her bag made way for a small engine. Alice looked over her shoulder and hoped whatever came out of there, wouldn’t set her behind on fire.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Alice said nervously.

She pressed a button and turned the left handle, immediately a small blue flame came out of the engine, and lifted her from the ground. Alice had expected it, but she wasn’t ready for the sudden lift off. She made a few shaky turns before she slammed herself against a nearby tree. She was somewhat disappointed when she saw that the jetpack was still undamaged, that meant she could give it another try.

Bruised but not yet beaten Alice tried again and was able to float around for several minutes. After finally feeling confident enough to go upwards she turned the right handle. Just as she expected, she started to ascent right away. She kept her eyes tightly closed as she kept going higher, slowly and steadily. She didn’t open them again until the engine started to stutter and shake, it was probably the first time it had been up this high. If she would survive this it would at least bring back some positive test results.

Alice was relieved when she reached the small round balcony from the highest tower. She gave the toggle another twirl and the jetpack disappeared again. Still, Alice’s bottom felt uncomfortably hot and something smelt burned, like she had been sitting on a heater for an entire day. None of that mattered now, she had safely reached the tower without breaking anything, it was time to get to business.

Nearly the entire balcony was being consumed by a slightly opened ancient Oriel window, that allowed fresh wind to carry the white satin curtains in and out of the room. Alice peered inside and saw that different coloured candles were lit all across the tiny square shaped room. She thought about knocking on the glass, but staying unnoticed would probably be best for now.

As she carefully stepped inside the room she heard the sound of running water. It wasn’t until now that she noticed steam was streaming through cracks of a small closed door. After investigating the barely furnished room for a while she made out the shape of a hatch, that probably let down the tower. Feeling unsure about what to do next she stretched out her hand towards the hatch handle.

Just when she about the grab it she heard loud screams and gunfire coming from downstairs. At first she figured it could have been chanting, but she didn’t think monks would be using guns in their early afternoon rituals. The sound of gunfire echoed through these hardened walls like bombs going off, one after another. Without thinking about why she was even hearing gunfire in a place like this she grabbed her laser baton, ready to defend herself. She wasn’t prepared at all for someone already being in the room with her.

She could barely make out a shape as someone jumped right behind her. Right as she turned her laser baton on she was crudely pushed against the closed door. She fell through it and landed head first in a running shower. Before she could react to anything that had just happened the floor hatch was blown away and three heavily geared men climbed inside.

Alice pulled her wet hair out of her face and saw she was just pushed out of the way by a woman, named Nami Fucano;  she recognised her folded eyelids that looked unearthly fierce as she threw her first attacker across the room; her razor-sharp anger filled eyebrows as she kicked her second assailant in his stomach, sending him flying against the wall; her blood drained petite lips she was biting on as she knocked out the last one with a lightning fast punch combination; and her silky black hair as she jumped down the hatch, leaving Alice behind.

She was still astonished by what had just happened as she crawled out of the running shower. She squeezed out her wet clothes and realised Nami had obviously ambushed her, or maybe she had been waiting for these mercenaries? Alice looked at the ski masked attackers, two were unconscious while the third one was still wincing in pain. They were all armoured to the bone. Which was unusual as they had only been infiltrating a monastery. And why on earth would they do that? It must have been because of Nami.

Someone else must already know about her powers, the why and how didn’t matter for now. She just needed to help her, she wanted to help her. Alice desperately tried to turn her laser baton back on again, but the shower water seemed to have short-circuited it. While she started to wave it around hoping it would turn on the mercenary behind her reached for his machine gun. Just as he was about the fire the light from Alice’s laser turned on again and cut off his hand. Paralyzed by the pain and shock he couldn’t even let out so much as a scream.
Alice jumped on the spot celebrating activating her only means of defence before climbing down after Nami, not even aware that she left a mortally wounded man behind.

May 6 2010 1:45 PM China: Guangzhou

No matter where Nami looked, all she saw was carnage around her. Gaping holes defaced these scared halls, caused by strange tools that had covered every wall in blood. Blood from her family, blood from her life. The rage she felt couldn’t be controlled, not by any teaching. A storm was building inside of her, lightning struck in her stomach and wind blew through her veins like acid.

She ran down a hall and followed a small staircase down to the second floor. As a little girl she had often played hide and seek in these old rooms, she knew them better than anyone else. She felt a lump in her throat as she thought about how the monks had laughed as they had pretended not to find her in the past.

They had taken her in, even though she was a woman, raised her and thought her their teachings. Discipline, being kind, gentle and not using violence. She had followed their rules, she had become that gentle flower That gentle flower still had its thorns however, she had hidden them for all these years. In her tower, high above the other monastery rooms she had trained in secrecy, learned the ways to defend herself, and her now fallen brethren. She would get revenge, even though she had learned not to give into feelings like that. She didn’t care about her teachings anymore when she noticed five armed men discussing something on the first floor.

She took an alternate route and followed a musty secret path and come out behind an ancient wooden statue of a holy man, who looked saddened, like he shared her pain. She took the scene in for a second, they were standing in a circle and didn’t look in the least bit worried. After all, they had nothing to fear from defenceless monks. Nami knew she would have to be careful not to be hit by those things that shot fire, she also knew they would never get a chance to use them. Fast like the wind she ran out of her hiding place, on her toes, without making a sound.

The first one was knocked back by her hand palm, she barely touched him, but it impacted him like he was hit by a battering-ram. It sent him flying over a small railing, down to the main hall. The second quickly followed as she landed a powerful thrust kick, she heard his jaw snap when he fell down, joining his comrade. She performed an elegant cartwheel kick which caused the third one to stumble down the stairs.
The remaining two men hadn’t even had a chance to react until now, it had all happened too fast. They backed down the stairs, shooting and shouting in anger, they were fleeing from an unarmed girl. Nami ran up the wall avoiding the rapid fire storm. She jumped on the fourth one and threw him over her shoulder. With a dull sound he was hurled against the cold stairs, Nami heard something snap, she had probably broken his hand… good. The last one had already reached the main hall, and kept his odd looking weapon pointed at her. She would have to find another way downstairs.

She looked over the railing and saw an old piece of tapestry hanging on a standard-bearer. Without thinking about it she used it like a firemen pole, sliding down to the main hall, kicking one of the armed men down again as he tried to get up.

Alice looked at Nami from the second floor and saw her kick down the mercenary with a bone breaking move. She wanted to cheer her on, but needed to find her own way down as fast as possible. It was obvious Nami could handle herself, but wasn’t sure if she could really comprehend the danger she was in.

The last mercenary cursed as he heard his gun click, he had wasted his ammo on the walls. Nami was already right behind him, he knew he couldn’t take her in a fair fight, but it didn’t have to be fair. He grabbed a grenade from his belt and dropped it on the floor as he ran for safety. Nami not knowing what it was, just looked at it like a curious puppy.

“Watch out!” Alice came running from the opposite direction and shouted at her.

Before Nami could react she had already pushed them both out of a nearby window. Just barely dodging the ear shattering explosion that followed a second later, that lit up the entire main hall.

Before Alice even had the chance to introduce herself Nami was already up and running again. She stretched out her painful back and looked at the thick black smoke coming out of the now broken monastery windows. Before her mind could proves what had just happened she heard Nami scream, she decided explanations could wait for now and ran after her. Although it was more like a hobble, thanks to her painful back.

She quickly reached a shrine like building placed on an open courtyard and immediately saw why Nami had screamed. Piles of bodies were laying on top of each other, the orange robed    monks were all soaked in their own blood. Someone had killed them violently during their early afternoon prayer. That someone was standing in the shrine and was holding a pair of long blood stained blades. He or she was wearing a navy-blue body suit and was wearing a face covering helmet, if Alice didn’t know any better she would think it was a cyborg.

It was a morbid picture; the stairs, prayer mats, flowers, the dead monks. They all seemed to have turned crimson by the low hanging sun, and the rivers of flowing blood.

Nami had seemingly overcome her senses and grabbed a samurai sword from one of the shrine walls and swung it around a few times, showing that she was no amateur at wielding one of these. The cyborg like creature didn’t seem impressed and gestured her to make the first move.
Like a movie scene was about to unfold dark clouds started to form; a rumbling thunderstorm could be heard in the distance and a bone shilling breeze seemed to gather all around them. Alice couldn’t help but wonder if this wasn’t Nami’s doing, were her emotions affecting the weather?

For a moment nothing happened, then, as the first raindrop fell Nami and the cyborg leaped at each other, trying to land that deadly strike. The cyborg landed and so did Nami. The cyborg didn’t fall like Alice had hoped and expected, but Nami’s samurai sword did. It fell to pieces. It was old and had never been used before, it was nothing more but a  rusty toy. Apparently the cyborg was done playing around, he raised his blades and was about to charge again. At that exact moment lighting struck down, blinding the cyborg.
Alice used this opportunity and ran up the stairs and grabbed Nami by her wrist.

“We need to get out of here.” She flipped her toggle switch and her jetpack opened up again.

“No, not leaving, I have to protect,” Nami said with tears in her eyes.

“We can’t, they’re all dead.” Alice didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but sugar-coating wasn’t going to help her now.

Alice pressed the right button again and they started to ascent. The jetpack couldn’t carry both of them, and just hovered a few inches above the ground. Flames shot out in every direction as it kept them airborne, Alice cried out when the scorching hot flames started to burn her. 
The cyborg charged at them and was about to swing his blades when a sudden wind hose hoisted them from the ground. The cyborg landed in the engine flame from Alice’s jetpack and screeched as it was being burned alive.

They landed on the shrine rooftop and Alice turned off her jetpack and threw her smouldering backpack in the falling rain. Nami looked at the cyborg with disgust as it burned down to a crisp.

Alice walked up to Nami while she was still rubbing her burnt bottom. “You saved us.”

“I don’t know… don’t know how.” Nami closed her eyes and lifted her head to the sky, letting the rain poor down her face.

“You have powers, that’s why-“ Alice stopped herself.

She knew this wasn’t the time, she looked at Nami and saw that it wasn’t just rain rolling down her face, but tears as well.
Instead she put her hand on her shoulder, Nami grabbed her hand tightly and fell to her knees. They didn’t say a word, but words weren’t necessary. No language barrier could stop them from understanding each other, like they had known each other for years.
They simply sat there, holding each other in the rain, ignoring the crackling sounds from the cyborg, as he burned away.

May 5 2010 9:32 PM USA: California

After driving in silence for nearly thirty minutes Neo finally decided it was safe to stop and pulled over at an abandoned gas station.
He got out of his van and looked around the station, the concrete forecourt had been taken back by the desert, windows were smashed in everywhere and sand whirled around the empty fuel tanks. This seemed to be a good place to talk uninterrupted.

Neo had spent the last thirty minutes trying to think of a good line to break the ice, but no luck so far. Instead he thought it might be a good idea if he would get Cameron to say something.

“You… have been really quiet since we left.” Neo briefly looked at Cameron before he started staring in the distance, afraid of her answer.
“What is there to say?” Cameron was still looking out of the window, she hadn’t moved since they had escaped the metal ghost.

“I’ve landed in a freaking movie, chosen and all that shit you were talking about? Great, I always wanted to be a monster, a… mutant.”

Neo was now staring at his fingers, apparently unable to look Cameron in her face. “You’re not really chosen, or a mutant. It’s just that you have powers. In my book that makes you special.”

Cameron groaned when she heard the word ‘special’ and stepped out of the van and kicked the front bumper with all her strength. “I don’t want to be special. I was doing just fine without having powers.”

Cameron looked at her hands, as if she expected them to turn into claws. “What are those powers anyway?”

It was as if his child had just asked him where babies came from as he looked even more uncomfortable. “Well, I’m not really sure, we just discovered you have powers. What they are we still need to, well… find out.”

Cameron let out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t believe this. Who the hell is we anyway. Don’t tell me you’re from some sort of secret organisation that recruits people like me with powers?”

“Well…” Neo scratched the back of his head and started pacing around.”

“Oh-my-fucking!” Cameron started to pace around as well. “That’s just so damn crazy. I’m not even, not even mentioning. Oh, and there’s.” Cameron rambled on without completing a single sentence.

This actually stopped Neo from walking in circles. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in right now.” He walked up to her, trying to calm her down, but she quickly walked away from him.

Cameron looked him in his eyes. “A lot to take in? I’ve seen the movies. I know what happens and why. This just can’t be real, it just can’t, alright?!” Cameron took a deep breath. “It can’t, right?”

They stood there for a while, without saying a word to each other, the only sound was coming from the sand whirling through the abandoned gas station.

Neo looked up at the night sky and saw a shooting star pass them by. “You know, I always wanted to be a super hero when I was a kid, fly, teleport, read people’s minds. I was so excited when I found out, like I was that little kid again.” He smiled, as if he had just recalled a happy childhood memory.
“I assumed everyone would react in the same way, that they would love having powers. Turns out being different is not something most people want. Isn’t that funny? It seems everyone just wants to be the same, the same as everyone else.”

Cameron walked up to him, for the first time since they had met that evening she didn’t look scared. “I don’t need any powers to feel different though.”

Neo finally looked her in her eyes. “But you are, and it’s going to be difficult. Your powers can be used to help people, you can use them for your own personal gain, to hurt others. Not to mention a lot of people that are different think that they are better than others.”

Cameron leaned on the hood of the van. “Again, I don’t need powers to think I’m better than others.”

Neo looked amused. “You sure don’t.”

Cameron placed her hands behind her head. “So I’m guessing you’re here to convince me to work for the good guys.”

“Good, evil, who can really say. If you would so to speak join us we could protect you from people that want to harm you for having them, as you just experienced. Over time you could protect others with your powers. We could help you discover and control them." Neo opened his hand and a purple butterfly fluttered around before it dissipated.

“Just out of curiosity.” Cameron pointed a finger at him. “So don’t be getting any ideas. What does being a good guy pay these days?”

Neo’s smile widened. “Just out of curiosity. He pointed a finger at her. “Are you open to the idea?”

Cameron seemed to think about her answer for a second. “Well, I just don’t understand why it has to be such a big secret.”

“There are nearly seven billion people living on this planet, and only a handful of those have powers, abilities. You said you saw the movies right? Did the average Joe live happily side by side with the not so average Joe in any of those?” Neo asked, but it didn’t sound like a question.

Cameron inspected Neo closely, almost as if she was gauging him. “So what if I take a look under the hood and decide that I don’t like working for your organisation?”

“Then you leave, no strings attached,” Neo said resolutely.

Cameron raised an eyebrow. “I don’t have to take a red or blue pill?”

Neo laughed. “No, there is no need for that. We have some safety measurements, but if you would go and spill the beans on us, people would think you’re crazy anyway. We won’t show you the ‘good stuff’ unless you sign a contract of course.”

“Show me? You could show me?” Cameron couldn’t help feeling intrigued.

After all, she was always looking for action, something to keep her busy. That lifestyle hadn’t exactly paid the bills before. She felt the excitement built up inside of her.

Neo noticed the sudden change in her tone. “Yes, that’s why I’m here.”

Cameron saw his expression and realised he knew she was interested. She raided her fists. “Like I said, don’t be getting any ideas.”

Neo raised his arms. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“So where to professor Xavier?” Cameron asked sarcastically.

“To the secret lab of course,” Neo said with a smile on his face.