Eternal Elements: Chapter 6

May 7 2010 22:23 PM Iceland: Kópavogur

Neo passed one dark gruesome road after another, they all started to look the same after a while. Deserted, bleak and foreign. He couldn’t read any of the road signs and was praying he wasn’t in the middle of nowhere. It was of course a little difficult to concentrate with so many talking women sitting in the backseat of his large van. He and Alice had met up after he had convinced Eve to join him and Cameron, for now at least. Alice had successfully brought in Nami, and their colleagues had picked up Alexis and Sophie. He hadn’t really had that much time to explain, they still weren’t complete. Rather than risking yet another attack on one of the girls he was supposed to recruit he decided it was better for them all to travel as one team. This way he -had foolishly thought- they could calm down a little, get to know each other and ask further questions. That last part was all they did, ask.

He couldn’t really blame them, except Sophie they had all been attacked, Nami had as he was informed by Alice just basically lost her entire family. It was strange that out of all the girls she wasn’t speaking up at all, or perhaps it wasn’t strange at all. She was now in a world completely unfamiliar to her, and she could only speak a little English. He couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind.
He had been there to see what had happened to Cameron, and she seemed okay about it. She was however to one asking most of the questions, along with a very excited Sophie; who seemed somewhat disappointed that she was the only one that wasn’t attacked.

Alexis had been chased by unidentified mercenaries and had survived a car accident, yet she didn’t have a single scratch on her. That didn’t seem what was on her mind though. She much rather would have gone home to her mother, after she was convinced for the umpteenth time she was safe she had come with them, reluctantly it seemed. Again, he couldn’t blame her, after such a day it must have been hard to trust anyone.
Eve who had been in a similar tight spot seemed not to care as much about the why, instead more focused on the how. The how do I control these powers part. She had been staring at the water bottle she was holding ever since they had gotten in the van. He could only guess what she was doing, but nothing seemed to have happened so far.
Alice was sitting next to Neo, turns towards the backseat, trying her best to answer all the endless questions;

“No, you’re all free to go at anytime. We don’t know who attacked you. It’s possible and I stretch possible that it’s because of your powers. We don’t know why they activated now, or how, we just know. Apparently so do other people. Yes, your families are all safe. I apologize if that answer isn’t good enough Alexis, but for now it’s all I am at liberty to say. We are on our way to collect another power. Yes, it could be dangerous, but we feel it’s safer if we all stay together. No, it’s not a government conspiracy Sophie, and I don’t know what your powers are or how they work. We’re spread a little thin now, and I know that’s not your problem Cameron… and don’t give me that look.”

Cameron rolled her eyes. “Fine, then look at this,” she said before flipping Alice the finger.

Alice rubbed her stressed out neck and turned around before she would say something she and her face would later regret. “Are we there yet Neo?”

Neo had just passed another unreadable road sign and turned a hopeful left at an intersection. “I hope… I’m pretty sure we’re almost there.”

Alexis gazed out of the window but could only make out darkness. “Where is there?”

Neo made another left turn. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Now I don’t like this secrecy stuff, it’s freaking me out!” Alexis screamed out, surprising everyone, including herself.

She felt like crying, like jumping out of this moving car. It wouldn’t make that much of a difference she had learned, somehow she would survive. But surviving was not what she cared about, she wanted to see her mother was alright with her own two eyes. No amount of reassurance could convince her. Especially not after everything she had been through recently.

Cameron patted Alexis on her back, nearly knocking her over. “It’s cool, I don’t think they would hurt us after rescuing us.”

Cameron was feeling surprisingly calm after her uncharacteristic freak out from before. She guessed that seeing these other women in the same situation calmed her down.
Someone who wasn’t calm at all was Sophie, she could barely contain her excitement and had tried every conceivable hand gesture to try and activate her powers, which she was sure were going to be super awesome and powerful.

Nami could care less about her powers, they weren’t such a surprise to her. After all, she was raised to believe in the spiritual. She just couldn’t get the vision of everyone she had ever known and cared about being dead out of her head. That uncontrollable anger and feeling for revenge that had suddenly filled her entire being was screaming inside of her to be released. It terrified her, even more so because she wanted to lose control, when in fact she had been the epitome of control her entire life. She suddenly questions her reasons for teaching herself all those fighting techniques. She seemed like a complete stranger to herself. Even more so than all these peculiar people.
Eve was doing what she always did in situations like these, not focus on something she didn’t or couldn’t understand, but instead turn her attentions to something she could do. Apparently that was controlling water. As long as she did that, as long as she could focus on that one simple goal she could keep herself from losing her mind.

Neo seemed to have reached his destination as he parked the van in a dark alley. “We’re here.”

Alice looked up at a small sign were only a few light bulbs were still meekly buzzing. “What the hell, a strip club? I thought these were illegal here?”

“That’s why it was so difficult to find,” he said with a proud smile on his face.

Alice followed Neo and the other women out of the van. “You’ve got to be kidding me, the last power is here?”

May 7 2010 22:39 PM Iceland: Kópavogur

Describing the place they had entered as tacky would be kind to say the least. Everything was toned in a dark red colour; the moth eaten ‘comfy’ chairs, the curtains, the wallpaper, the bar, even the stage lights. Neo and the girls couldn’t have been standing out more even if they had tried.
The club was filled with drunk middle aged men and loud music dating back from when humans made cave drawings. It didn’t help their case any that Neo was scanning the room for someone, even though several half naked women were dancing around in cages, walking around the tables and taking nervous giggling men down into private rooms.

Alice could feel the bartender gazing at them suspiciously even though she wasn’t looking back at him. She realised they all looked like a lost scouts group, the way they all stood together, quiet and uncomfortable. There was one exception. Cameron seemed to enjoy the dated music and moved to the beat.

“Lighten up people, it’s just a scrip club.” Cameron danced her way to the bar and started to flirt with the greasy bartender, trying to score a free drink.

Nami on the other hand hadn’t looked away from the red carpet while Eve was still staring at her water bottle. Alexis couldn’t care either way. Not that she felt comfortable in a club like this, but after what she had just been through they might as well have been stripping aliens.
Sophie didn’t know how to behave. She was excited, but not in a single fantasy had she raided a foreign strip club before.

Meanwhile Neo wasn’t looking around anymore, instead he was focused on the stage. A red-head –although, in this light no one could be sure- had just taken the stage. Bright lights spelled out ‘Red Devil’ across the stage. For someone who made a living stripping down, she wore very few clothes that could be stripped away. She was wearing a tight push up bra with golden strings attached at the bottom that moved around with every step she made. Making it even harder for people to not notice her impressive chest. She walked around confidently in her high stiletto heels and tossed her hair around wildly. She wrapped her long legs around a silver dancers pole and made a few gravity defying turns and winked at the crowd, who all whistled and threw cheap money bills at her. As she crawled towards the edge of the stage she collected the bills in her G-string and made suggestive animal noises. She smiled seductively as she tossed her hair around like she was possessed by the loud music.

Alice folded her arms and walked up to Neo, like a strict teacher about to scold a student who wasn’t paying attention. “Really Neo, we have a job to do here.”

Neo seemed annoyed by her judgmental tone but ignored her. “Look at the stage, she’s the last power, that’s Maxine. I have to talk to her right away.”

Without waiting for an answer he worked his way towards the front of the crowd.

Cameron joined Alice with a cocktail drink in her hands. “I had my doubts about him, but it turns out he’s got good taste after all.”

Alice snorted. “Good taste? Oh please.”

Cameron smirked. “Anyway, where is he going?”

Alice cleared her throat. “He’s going to talk to her.”

“Right now? Is he really that naive?”

“You have no idea,” Alice sighed.

Neo had pushed his way to the front of the stage and was trying to get Maxine’s attention. His voice was lost in the crowd of drooling  screaming men that all waved their bills at her.

Maxine worked her way through the ogling men collecting money until she saw Neo waving at her, calling out something which she couldn’t hear. She decided to walk over to him. Not just because he was the best looking guy here, but he seemed loaded, judging from his clothes. She had to admit, the way he waved at her was cute. Like a schoolboy trying to get a cheerleader to notice him. That deserved a little something.

“Hey there big boy,” she said as she reached Neo.

Before he could ever ask her anything she tore her top off and jiggled her breasts right in his face as the music reached its climax.
The spotlights were turned off and she walked away towards the dressing rooms, leaving behind a stunned Neo.
Alice slapped herself in the face while Cameron couldn’t stop laughing.

Still dazed Neo started walking towards the dressing rooms uttering random words: “Maxine…power…must…find.”

“We should probably go after him before he does something even more embarrassing,” Alice said before following Neo.

Cameron shrugged. “I don’t know, he doesn’t look embarrassed to me.”

Maxine had just cleaned off the last of her thick layers of makeup and pulled her hair up loosely. She noticed a small group of people walking in from her vanity mirror.

“Oh no, we don’t need bodyguards in a place like this,” she said imitating the voice of the club owner.

She turned around and rested her long legs on a nearby chair and picked up a silver lighter from her dresser and started playing around with it. “Back again for more? I’m sorry, I don’t do groups,” she said with a thick accent.

She inspected them all thoroughly. “Although, for a crazy bunch like you, I might make an exception.”

“No-no, it’s nothing like that.” Neo said, still finding it difficult to form a complete sentence. “I just… we want to talk to you. You see…” He scratched his neck. “… You have some sort of special powers-”

“-Oh no!” Cameron suddenly leaped in front of him. “Not another one of your talks. Trust me, you suck at them.”

She grabbed a chair and sat down next to Maxine. “I’m Cameron.”

Maxine examined her from top to bottom. “Cute, I’m Max.”

She lit up her lighter. “About these special powers, do they happen to look anything like this?” She blew a kiss and a huge fire beam rose to the ceiling.

Cameron nearly fell off her chair and everyone bounced back, although no one seemed afraid, just extremely surprised.

“From your reaction I can tell you know.” She stood up and kicked her chair away. “So cut the crap, what the hell do you want from me?”

The blast of fire seemed to have awoken Neo. “I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb, you’re hardly the first one to approach me for my powers.” Her accent had suddenly disappeared completely. “I could tell from the second you walked in the club.”

Alice whispered in Neo’s ears: “No one informed us that she was already aware of her powers.”

“And that should surprise us how?” Neo whispered back.

“Easy now.” Cameron backed away with her hands in front of her, like she was under gunpoint. “I think you’ve got this all wrong.”

Maxine leaned against the dresser. “So, I’m wrong then, you’re not here to convince me to work for you?”

Cameron looked like a rug had just been pulled out from under her. “Well… you’re turn Neo.”

“Well yes, but not for evil,” Neo said.

Maxine laughed. “Evil? What have you been drinking?”

She pointed her lighter at them. “I’ve been approached for all kinds of jobs, illegal mostly. Evil however? You’ve been reading too many comic books.”

“Call it what you want, we’re the good guys?” Alice decided to chip in.

“And I just my ‘special’ abilities to fight crime?” Maxine could barely contain herself from laughing. “Yes, it is.”

Eve finally tore her eyes away from her water bottle. “Is that so difficult for you to believe?”

“Either way, I’m not interested. I’m perfectly fine here,” Maxine said.

The most unlikely person suddenly spoke up: “Happy, here?”

Everyone turned around and saw Nami looking at Maxine, honestly confused.
This struck a nerve with Maxine. “Watch it! I don’t have to explain the way I lead my life to anyone.”

She grabbed her leather jacket from a nearby coat hanger and opened the exit door while still not losing them out of her eye sight. “I only work for myself, so back off if you know what’s good for you.”

Neo’s and Cameron’s eyes were suddenly wide with fear, and everyone else looked terrified.
Maxine raised an eyebrow. “What?”

There it stood, right outside the exit door. A huge metal ghost with a round blue orb where its head should be. It spoke in a grated metal voice: “Code name Wire has found targets. Beginning elimination process immediately.”

May 7 2010 23:01 PM Iceland: Kópavogur

“What the hell?” Before Max could even raise an eyebrow Neo pushed Max out of the doorway, onto the wet backstreets.

The blue energy wave from Wire’s orb that was directed at Max missed her and instead tore a hole in one of the dressing room’s walls, setting the room on fire.
Everyone jumped out of the way, trying to avoid the impact blast and flying debris.

“Oh shit, it’s not dead?” Cameron said while avoiding getting hit by broken mirror pieces.

Eve grabbed her gun and aimed it at Wire. “You know this thing?”

Cameron placed her hand on Eve’s gun. “Well, good enough to know that your gun won’t even leave a dent.”
Wire was flailing its claw like arms around, trying to tear Neo to shreds. Neo fired one of his purple energy beams that send Wire flying back against a couple of garbage containers.

Sophie saw what happened and immediately left the room. “Screw this, let’s get out of here!”

“I have to agree,” Alice said as everyone followed her out of the room.

“Where can we hide?” Max said as Neo helped her up from the ground.

Before Neo could even answer that Wire jumped right in between them. Even though it was surrounded, it looked to be having the upper hand.
“What do we do now?!” Alexis could barely be heard as her hands were covering her mouth.

Eve pointed her gun at Wire again. “We stand, and fight!”

She fired several rounds at Wire, but every single bullet bounced off its tough exterior.

“Stop it, you’re going to get us all killed,” Alice screamed at her.

Eve wasn’t listening and refused to stop firing, even though Wire let out a terrifying metal screech before storming at her.
“Blimey!” Sophie ducked, barely avoiding a stray bullet from Eve. “I don’t think she’s listening.

Eve heard her gun click and threw it at Wire before jumping out of its way. It grabbed her by her ankle in mid-air and was about to smash her against the floor before it was hit by yet another purple energy blast.
This time however, Wire recovered in the air by using a nearby wall to launch himself at Neo. He wasn’t fast enough to build up another energy wave in time. Wire’s heavy machine like legs landed on Neo with so much force that he was hurled against the opposite wall. The impact crushed the wall, and by the sound of it, most of Neo’s bones.

“Oh god No!” Alice looked in horror as she saw Neo fall to the ground, looking lifeless and limp.

She ran over to him, and by doing so became Wire’s next target. It fired another energy blast, but missed because something had made it loose its footing.
It was Nami, who was hitting it with a coat hanger from the strip club.
Max saw Nami’s impressive skills with the coat hanger, but to Wire she was nothing more than an annoying fly about to be swatted. Even though she could take this opportunity to run away, she felt to urge to help them.

“That’s no use sweetie.” Max opened up her lighter and an enormous fire wave shot out towards Wire.

It turned around and its metal head device immediately covered its orb, protecting it from the flames.
Max grunted as she realised her lighter was out of fuel. As quickly as the flames had risen, they died down.
Wire’s body let off steam, but otherwise was completely undamaged. Its blue orb appeared again, fully charged for another energy beam.
Nami used the coat hanger as a hook and grabbed Max by her ankle, pulling her away from yet another missed energy blast.
Wire turned its head three hundred and sixty degrees, analysing its opponents positions carefully. Everyone held their breath, waiting for its next move.

Out of nowhere, dozens of wires shot out of its body, wrapping everyone in mere seconds.
They all screamed as the wires cut into their skin as they were hauled in, like captured fish.
Cameron felt as helpless as before, she looked around and saw there was no one left to help them. Neo was lying against the wall, hunched over, unconscious or worse.

She suddenly realised she had never needed help from anyone in her life before. Especially not now, not when she knew she had powers. Without knowing what they were she knew that they had to activate now, or they would all be dead.
She tried to concentrate, but couldn’t as Alexis and Sophie was apparently having a competition of who could scream and panic louder and better. Eve was trying to beat Wire by throwing swearwords at him and Nami looked like she was cursing the robot, judging from her angry facial expressions. Alice tried to call for backup, but the radio that was lying next to Neo appeared to be broken. Max’s waistline looked abnormally thin as a result of the wires, sucking the air and life out of her.

She had to block all of that out of her mind; the desperate screams, the horrible images, the heat from the nearby flames, the grading sounds from Wire that sounded an awful lot like gasps of pleasure, all of it.
She imagined the wires letting go, releasing their suffocating hold. At first nothing happened, but then, just as she had envisioned it, they let go. Everyone crawled out of the inoperative wires to safety, coughing and teary eyed.
It almost appeared as though Wire looked surprised, but it was impossible to tell anything from its blue orb.
Wire turned its attention to Cameron, she was now its next most challenging foe.

“Code name Wire will-“ Suddenly its metallic voice started to stutter. Electric sparks were coming from its body and it started to shake uncontrollably.

Nami had her hands placed on the loose wires and was sending a high voltage beam through them, right into Wire’s main systems.
The light from its blue orb faded and Nami passed out.
They all helped each other up and walked up to Wire, keeping a safe distance.

Sophie poked Wire with the coat hanger. “Is it dead? I mean, she fried it, right?”

Cameron shook her head. “We only have a few seconds before-“

Before she could finish that sentence Wire was already active again. It moved slowly and lopsided as its systems were starting up again.
The only one it could see in front of it right now was Sophie. It walked up to her step by step, like a metal zombie. It stretched out its claws and moaned as it tried to speak.
Sophie backed away against the nearest wall trying to get away.

Her eyes filled up with tears. “I hate zombies!”
Without realising how, she released a red gust of wind out of her hands, throwing Wire back, nearly out of the alley.

“That was amazing!” Eve said as she patted Sophie on her back.

Sophie sniffed proudly. “Well, you shouldn’t make me angry.”

The other women ran over to Neo. “How is he?” Cameron asked.

Alice checked his pulse. “I’m not sure, it doesn’t look good.”

“Maybe… maybe I can help?” Alexis sat down next to Neo and rested his head on her knees. “I’ve only ever done this once, but maybe I can heal him as I did myself.”

She placed his hands on his forehead, his chest, his stomach. Even though nothing was happening she knew she could heal him; she felt it. She just didn’t know how to activate her powers yet.

“Babes, I don’t want to interrupt, but that metal thing is back up and running again,” Max said.

Alice cleared her throat. “Right, here is what we’re going to do: Alexis will try and heal Neo. I will bring Nami over here so she can hopefully heal her too The rest of you, please try and keep Wire busy. Just avoid him for as long as you can.”

Cameron turned around to face Wire. “Don’t worry, we got this.” She didn’t just say it, but fully believed it as well.

They circled Wire who quickly assessed the current battle situation.

Alice ran over to Nami who just opened her eyes. She saw Wire and wanted to stand up, but Alice pulled her back. “It’s okay, they’ll be fine.”

“Bring it, bitch,” Eve said in a surprisingly calm and confident tone.

“Oh yeah!” Sophie jumped around with her fists raised.

Wire clenched its claws into a fist and jumped up high into the air. Wire landed, slamming its fists into the ground, causing an enormous circular shockwave that knocked everyone over.

“Yeah, we sure got this,” Max said as she scrambled up again.

Eve coughed as she landed in the dirt, right in front of the gaping hole from the dressing room that was burning down.
She covered her face from the flames, and noticed her water bottle, standing on the table, where she had left it. It was completely untouched by the flames; the water inside looked to be boiling.

Eve picked herself up from the ground. “I have an idea, but I need your help Maxine.”

“To do what?” she said as she avoided one of Wire’s claws.

“Bend the flames, I’m going in!” Without waiting for an answer Eve jumped inside the burning building.

“You crazy-“ Max yelled before pushing the flames aside with a hand motion like they were curtains.

Wire noticed their strange behaviour and turned around. Sophie used this moment and fearlessly stormed forward. She tried to emulate her previous attack, but instead only a pathetic breeze brushed up against Wire.
It was however enough to get its attention. Wire turned around again while Eve picked up the water bottle.

Eve jumped back out of the burning room. “Got it!”

Max released the flames. “Oh damn, that felt like I was lifting a hundred pounds.”

Eve looked over at Sophie and Cameron who were trying their hardest not to get blown up, or cut in pieces. “I need it in one place.”

“Easy for you to say!” Cameron shouted as she avoided another slash.

Sophie jumped up and down on the spot. “Over here terminator!”

Wire faced Sophie who immediately panicked. “Do something, I think I just insulted it.”

Cameron noticed the garbage containers behind Wire and concentrated like never before. With the speed of a bullet they flung forward, dragging Wire with them, pinning it against the wall.

“Highly dangerous robot in place, check!” Cameron said satisfied.

Wire sounded more frustrated than ever and began charging up its orb beam again.
Eve had been waiting for this and turned the bottle cap off and aimed it at Wire’s orb.
The water shot out like a torpedo and instantly froze its orb.
The energy beam inside the frozen shell of water kept charging, until it exploded. Completely destroying Wire’s metal skeleton.

“Absolutely incredible!” Neo had just opened his eyes and saw how bits of robot were flying left and right.

They all stood there for what seemed like forever, without saying a word. They looked at pieces of dead robot, and each other’s faces. They looked scared, exhilarated, tired, confused. Most of all, they all looked alive, more so than ever before.

Alice and Alexis helped Neo stand up. “I suppose trying to convince any of you to join us now after what has just happened-“

“Who the hell is us?” Max raised an eyebrow.

Eve stretched her back. “You still haven’t explained anything.”

“What has happened with the people I care about?” Alexis jumped in.

“I would like to be informed of this as well,” Nami said.

“This is so exciting!” Sophie said, jumping up and down.

“I’ll just get on getting a clean-up and medic team here,” Alice said before rushing out of the alley.

“I don’t even know where to begin to answer any of this. I just nearly died. Could you please give me a minute,” Neo said sounding tired, but also amused.

Cameron smiled playfully. “Better catch your breath quickly, you don’t want to mess with any of us.”