Chase

AN: No prior knowledge needed. It's really more of a practice for me, since it was for an English class, but it's one of my favorite little pieces.

Chase

The only sounds in the otherwise silent hallway leading from the lab were the thump of his feet as he ran across the stone floor and his even breathing. His dark brown bangs flew into his face, from the breeze and irritated, he blew them away. Aarons deep brown eyes flashed as he took in his surroundings. ‘Leave it to the Defiance to pick a building like this for a lab.’ He thought with a sneer marring his sharp features. The whole building gave off a horrible vibe and almost unconsciously he clenched his jaw as he tried to take in the extent of the damage. Broken beakers and vials were strewn across the rooms he had been in, along with a few blood splatters across the floor and walls. Aaron figured something serious must have happened to cause the Defiance to just abandon what seemed to have been a research lab.

Now the building was in an obvious state of disuse. Maybe at one point in time the equipment had been state of the art, but currently it was mangled beyond recognition and definitely unusable. Having been empty for a few months the rooms smelled like damp mold and a few other unpleasant chemicals from the spilled lab vials. Parts of the roof had caved in from something, probably an explosion of some sort, so now the rain from previous nights had collected in stagnant pools around corners while the few rats that were congregated in the barrels and various holes scurried away from the ruckus Aaron was making. There were no lights in the area, so Aaron had to put on his special night vision enhanced glasses. They along with his suit happened to be the latest technology which meant that not even the military possessed it yet.

Using special LEDs and micro cameras, ordinary sunglasses had been transformed into extraordinary ones. Millions of little camera lenses were facing outward and the images they collected were reflected back onto the other side of the glasses after being filtered. It was almost like looking at a high definition television. Besides night vision, the glasses came with optical zoom, infrared and even ultra violet capabilities. They also had a sunglasses feature which turned them into real sunglasses. His sleek sunglasses may be a piece of technological achievement, but they held nothing on his outfit which was a high tech piece of equipment in itself too.

Black leather padding covered his lean upper body, and his pants were made out of the same material. The fabric was a specially developed armor composed of a new type of thread that had been soaked in a nanocomposite carbon-based gel. Not that Aaron totally understood the mechanics of it; he just knew that it worked similarly to how a law-enforcement officer’s vest might. However, instead of stopping bullets it protected him from the high-energy lasers that were used in the Defiance’s weapons. His weapon, the gauntlet, which was located on his right arm, functioned the same way, using lasers. To finish the ensemble were his X5 Runners. They may look like ordinary basketball shoes, but utilizing pressurized air Aaron was able to jump over 30 feet into the air. There were a few times where he’d been tempted to wear them to one of his basketball games, but his conscience won out. That would definitely be an unfair advantage.

Since he could see much more clearly with the glasses, Aaron took the next corner at a run, and would have skidded, if he hadn't used his X5's to blast himself over the huge pool of water that suddenly appeared in his field of vision. Once he landed smoothly on the other side, Aaron allowed a small smile to cross his face. He loved those shoes; however, a sudden clank came from behind him that wiped the smile from his face. After risking a peek back, Aaron released a small sigh of relief. He knew that the approaching man was no threat to him, so he resumed running down the hallway. He turned slightly and smirked at his companion when the bald man finally drew closer.

"I got them STAN! Those holograms were a good distraction and Hall will get his blueprints back safe and sound," Aaron exclaimed with a grin. The flash drive where the blueprints were located was tucked away in one of his more protected pockets so it wouldn’t be damaged.

"Good job Aaron Stone! We just need to get back to the SSJ before they realize what happened.” STAN told Aaron, who nodded in reply as they ran on. The odd pair continued down the dank hallway until they reached the door at the end. Since it was rusted STAN had to open it because Aaron just wasn't able to get it unstuck. STAN might not look like much muscle wise but he wasn't a normal human, or human at all really.

Wearing a nice suit and bright smile was all for show because STAN, or Sentient Tactical Assisting Neohuman, was in fact an android. One who had been created by a billionaire named T. Abner Hall. Both Aaron and STAN worked for Hall's company, HALL Industries. The company was famous for their creation of the popular video game "Hero Rising" but there was a terrible secret behind the game’s birth. What many didn't know was that Hall had the game based on a real-life mistake he had made.

Hall had been trying to put together a think tank of seven geniuses to help the world by choosing specialists from various scientific fields of work to develop everything from cures for diseases, to weapons for soldiers. Dr. Necros specialized in chemistry, Xero was a self-proclaimed computer genius and Dr. Helix worked with genetics. A meteorologist named Zefir studied the weather; General Cross was the weapons expert of the group while Kronis dabbled in time and physics. The only female of the group, who went by the name of Cerebella, worked in neurology.

At first it seemed like Hall’s idea of creating a group focused on the world’s issues was working; however, something went horribly wrong. The scientists had been ambitious, perhaps a bit too ambitious. One day the unofficial leader of the group, Necros, along with General Cross, confronted Hall in his lab. The chemist smugly announced that the group had created something new; an intelligence serum that boosted the subject’s brain power tenfold. Surprised, Hall asked for the lab reports after the test trials were finished. He didn’t know that such a simple request would have such far reaching consequences.

Necros reported that the seven had already taken the serum themselves, even though it was unethical, the benefits supposedly outweighed the consequences. In an almost pleading tone, the man asked Hall to take the drug too. Watching the two’s movements, Hall became unsettled and refused to participate. He realized that the drug had made them smarter but along with that came an aggression that had not been present in the scientists before.

Furious that Hall rejected the offer; Necros told the billionaire something that chilled him to the bone. They believed that the world wasn’t worth bettering and that to fix it they had to start from scratch; creating the world their way and with them in charge. And with Hall eliminated.

Things happened very fast after that confession and soon spiraled out of control. Cross pulled a weapon, but Hall luckily managed to escape. Barely. The only problem was, the Omega Defiance as the group now called themselves, were now after him. He did take his concerns to everyone from the FBI, to the CIA. All of them laughed and refused to believe that such a group existed. Worried about what the Defiance could do, Hall began to think. Somehow, he had to find a way to fight the Defiance without actually fighting them. That was where Aaron Stone came in and is how Charlie Landers came to work for HALL Industries.

Hall wanted to try something new, revolutionary really. Since he owned a prominent scientific research company he decided to create a video game so that he could find someone smart enough to take on the Defiance. His reasoning was that video games required players to think on their feet and think strategically which was just what Hall needed to take down the super smart Defiance.

That was how the idea behind Aaron Stone was born. Aaron Stone was just a secret identity for Charlie Landers whose avatar, which he had named Aaron Stone after a hero in a story his father had made up, was one of the best known and respected in the online game. With unmatched skills, Charlie was the best player in "Hero Rising" so Hall hired him to be a real-life Aaron Stone. Preventing the Defiance from beating him in the video game was very different from the reality of keeping the world safe and unaware of the lurking danger.

He had averted disaster after Cerebella tried to brainwash kids through the Internet, interrupted an attempt on Hall’s life, stopped a deadly toxin from being released, and even escaped capture multiple times after the Defiance had caught him. It was such a dangerous job that few knew Aaron was really Charlie and visa versa. Not even his mom or brother, Jason, knew the truth. And hopefully neither ever would.

Charlie often had a difficult time distinguishing between himself and Aaron. Part of the reason was because they were one in the same, but where the Aaron side of him was confident and assertive; the Charlie side of him was more shy and quiet. The only time he thought of himself as Aaron was when he was in his suit with his gauntlet on his arm. It was also the only time he ever truly felt safe because he knew that no one knew his identity. They couldn’t go after his family, which was a truly frightening concept that Charlie didn’t like to think about.

STAN and Aaron sped around the next corner but jerked to a stop when a sudden explosion of black water rose up in front of them and landed on the teen. STAN had luckily been running behind Aaron so he didn't get as wet. Water and STAN’s electrical nature didn’t mix well.

Aaron on the other hand was soaked. He staggered back in surprise but was already on guard so almost instinctively his right arm was up and his gauntlet poised on the offending party. Through his sunglasses, which were waterproof, he could make out a tall figure surrounded by others who were oddly all the same height.

Even before the water settled Aaron knew who he was dealing with. After all how many members of the Defiance wore military fatigues and had such pencil straight posture. Only one person fit that description and that was General Cross, who with a few of his goons, were blocking the corridor. The men who flanked Cross held blasters and it seemed that, once they had spotted Aaron round the corner, they had fired the guns at the pair. Thankfully, the group had missed but Aaron had still gotten an unwelcome bath.

As water dripped from around Aaron, Cross’s gruff voice boomed through the darkness of the hallway. "Aaron Stone! Fancy meeting you here."

Aaron just smirked while he shook water out of his hair and replied, "General Cross, I can't say that I'm pleased to see you. And what's with the shower? Are you trying to tell me I smell?" Knowing it would make the man mad, Aaron grinned mockingly. General Cross hated being beaten, by a kid no less, and Aaron knew it was the little comments like this that reminded the man Aaron was still just a teenager. 

“Stop wasting my time Stone! All I need are those blueprints back," Cross replied as he gestured towards Aaron’s now drenched suit while stepping closer to the pair where they stood in the middle of the dark hall. "If you want to keep breathing, I suggest that you hand it over." Aaron caught the stress the man had put on the word “breathing” and would have snorted if the situation hadn’t been so tense. Past experiences with the Defiance proved that it really didn’t matter whether or not the blueprints were handed over. They’d try to eliminate him either way.

While Cross was wasting time talking, Aaron had tried to take in his surroundings and look for a possible escape route. His eyes flashed left and right while he rapidly scanned the area but he really couldn't see any way out of this mess. He knew that Cross would order his people to fire at both he and STAN the moment Aaron relinquished gave up the blueprints. That couldn't be allowed to happen so now Aaron had to quickly think of an alternate way to get away. Over the past couple of months, he had taught himself not to panic in difficult situations. Using those skills now Aaron put all that training to good use and he responded to Cross.

“Ah, well you see my boss kinda sorta expects these blueprints to be delivered in how long STAN?” Aaron turned back and asked STAN as if honestly curious. However his real goal was to buy them a few seconds of time, still looking for a getaway route.

A look of concentration passed across the androids face and after a moment of calculation, STAN replied. “Thirty five minutes, fourteen seconds. Or two thousand one hundred thirteen point eight seconds. Or two million one hundred……..” STAN would have continued forever Aaron knew but while Cross and the other men were distracted by STAN a final glance up yielded success. Quickly, a plan began forming in Aaron’s mind as he caught sight of a panel on the ceiling. He made a hand motion for STAN to stop speaking, and the android complied immediately. With a slight smile on his face, Aaron turned back to Cross and waited for the inevitable explosion from the man.

Cross released a grunt and admitted bluntly, "Well, that is not going to happen. This time you are not getting out of our grip. So I expect you to hand over our blueprints, NOW!" He motioned for some of his goons to move closer to Aaron, whose sharp brown eyes tracked the hostile movements. However, they paused when Aaron raised his gauntlet threateningly towards them.
“I don’t think so. However, I do think it’s time for STAN and I to go play hooky.” Aaron said with a laugh. Before anyone could stop him, he raised his gauntlet and fired a single laser blast straight up. The streak of red light smashed into the roof and a whole panel fell off. More cold water poured into the hall and landed right on top of Cross and his friends. With the other group momentarily blinded, Aaron and STAN were able to slip away into the darkness.

Fury swarmed through Cross’s veins as after brushing the water from his eyes he saw that Stone was gone. It was brighter in the hallway now that the panel had exposed the ambient light from the full moon and shadows began to congregate around the group. The old battle scars lining his face stood out in relief when the right side of his face twisted in disgust.

Roughly Cross brushed water off of himself. He regained his composure though once his military training kicked in, but there was a faint tremor to his hands from the anger of defeat. Turning slightly Cross caught the eye of one of his men, "I want you to find Aaron Stone and bring him to me." The smile that formed across Cross's face when he told them the rest of the instructions would have scared the crap out of a normal person, but these people in particular weren't normal. Cross’s face looked terrifying as he stated darkly, "Hurt him if you have to, I don't care what you need to do. Just find him and those blueprints! 

Aaron and STAN doubled back, taking the same dark path they had just been on, as Aaron tried to think of a way out of the situation.

"STAN, you go get the SSJ! Use your locator to find me." Aaron commanded the android. On missions they didn’t often spilt up but sometimes Aaron could work better alone.

STAN looked upset and asked Aaron with concern in his voice,"What about you? What are you planning Aaron?" his face showed mild curiosity. Well Aaron imagined as much as an android could show. Emotion tended to be difficult for someone who had a computer for a brain.

Aaron allowed a brief smile to flit across his face. "You'll know when you see it. Just get to the jet, then follow above me. Got it?" he asked seriously, because he knew that they didn’t have much time left before Cross caught up.

STAN nodded but he still looked upset that the two would be split up in the maze of the run down building. STAN was supposed to help Aaron and now that wouldn't happen. If STAN would have been human, Aaron knew that the android would have argued; however, STAN's computer like brain had apparently calculated that more time would be wasted arguing so, at the next corner he went left and Aaron turned right.

Water kept dripping down the back of Aaron's suit which made him slightly cold and uncomfortable. His hair was plastered to his forehead and while he shook it out, Aaron focused his thoughts inward while he ran on down the empty hallway.

He knew that he was lucky that both his gauntlet and shoes were waterproof enough to have survived the shower of water. The suit might have to be dry cleaned, though. Aaron laughed out loud at the thought of showing up in Hall's beautiful and clean meeting room dripping wet. That laugh turned to a frown a second later when he glanced at his watch.

It read one o'clock, in the morning. After months of working for Hall Aaron had finally gotten use to being up late on school nights. That didn't mean he was happy about it. School took a lot out of him and by the time Hall usually called for a mission, he was exhausted. The adrenaline the tended to course through his body during the missions helped but the crash afterwards basically knocked him out until his alarm woke him at seven. That is, if he remembered to set it.

Hall always called him around midnight. It had to be late for a reason because Charlie had to be able to sneak out of the house without alerting Jason or his mom. He couldn’t let them see him as Aaron as it would raise some question that Charlie couldn’t answer.

Thankfully most missions never lasted past three in the morning, unless of course something went bad. While so far they had been fortunate that not a single mission had truly gone bad; nevertheless, Aaron knew it was just a matter of time before their luck ran out.

Aaron's breathing started to get heavy as his tired body started to show its displeasure of the steady pace he had set. The working muscles burned although the now evaporating water felt pleasant against his hot skin. At the next corner, he suddenly lost his balance and skidded in the water. In a tangle of limbs, Aaron fell to the ground again. The breath was painfully knocked out of him but he wasn't deterred. Quickly, he sprang back up to his feet and continued on down the corridor.

When STAN and Aaron had first snuck into the building, he had made sure to look closely at his surroundings. One pipe in particular had caught his attention. Labelled FLAMMABLE! and painted orange, he figured it was a natural gas supply line. Aaron knew that if he could set explosive charges somewhere near any of the exposed pipes, he'd be able to destroy most of the Defiance's building.

Since it was only an abandoned lab, and not a complex with real people inside, Aaron wasn't hesitant to blow it up. After all, he was still a teenager who would obviously be bothered by the thought of killing someone. He'd fight the Defiance but for him lethal force just wasn't yet in his vocabulary. It seemed to be for the Defiance though, because after every new encounter with the group they became more and more violent. Stumbling around the next corner, his last thought was brutally confirmed.

Multiple blue streaks of light bolted towards teen, who was now out in the open and horribly exposed. Even with his fast reflexes, the assault had come without warning. Most of the shots missed, but one laser slammed into his right thigh causing Aaron to fall to the ground. He clutched his leg in a pain, a pitiful moan escaping past his lips. However, if anyone bothered to look closely, they'd be able to see Aaron's clear eyes.

The men down the hall advanced with a swagger in their step. All of them seemed pleased that their opponent was so quickly incapacitated. The group produced heavy footsteps and Aaron risked a fleeting look up. Once the leader drew up to Aaron, who still lay on the ground, he sneered and went to kick Aaron in the chest.

In a flash, Aaron grabbed a hold of the oncoming foot and twisted. The other man flailed his arms as he overbalanced and fell over onto his back, now stunned from the hard fall. Aaron snapped out of his huddled position on the floor and flipped up to his feet. Smoothly raising his right arm, he fired his gauntlet then watched impassively as the red light that was released struck the man in the chest. White electricity arched across the fallen guards body which Aaron filed away into the back of his mind as he only had a few seconds left to act.

The element of surprise worked well for Aaron and he already had two of the three guards down before the third one realized that Aaron had faked the injury. Now that he knew the blaster was useless against the teen, the remaining guard threw his carelessly aside. With a grin he stalked over to where Aaron was and settled into a fighting position. Aaron smoothly moved into his own while and tried to quickly size up his opponent.

Almost immediately, Aaron was put on the defensive as he barely blocked a swing aimed for his throat. He released a grunt when the guards large hand impacted his forearm hard. For some reason, the guard seemed to be much stronger than a normal human. A quick uppercut had him leaning back to avoid it, and he responded by trying to overbalance his opponent. The guard was fast though, and Aaron got a side kick to his shoulder for his troubles.

Now back on the defensive, Aaron blocked an unrelenting hail of rough punches and even a couple roundhouse kicks. A few got passed his guard but otherwise Aaron was doing okay. Until a vicious hit to the side of his chest had him gasping, unable to draw in a breath. Cross's guard took advantage of Aaron's weakness by viciously grabbing the teen around the neck.

Stars crossed in front of his eyes when the guard crashed the teen into the metal wall that was behind him. His head had hit the metal hard and the constant pressure from the heavy hand around his throat made him thrash in the guards grip. Blackness started to creep into the corners of his vision which caused him to panic even more. Momentarily, he looked into the guards face and was surprised by the blank look the guard possessed. Aaron had seen that same look before in Xero's combat bots.

Xero had figured out a way to reprogram androids so that they could bypass Asimov’s Laws of Robotics. One of Asimov’s Laws stated that a robot could not harm a human being, but now Xero could create ones that could. Many of the seven used the combat bots, as they were called, for protection or just general security. They were favored because they obeyed their creators and didn’t talk back. Aaron had run into them before, and learned the hard way that the bots were superhumanly strong. After a painful trial and error, he found that only a blast from his gauntlet could stop them as it fired their circuits. Now, he had to figure out a way to get out of the tight grip.

In the haze of his struggle, an brilliant idea came to Aaron. It was a desperate move but surprisingly it worked. With a mere thought, his X5 runners fired up. The guard was thrown back from Aaron who had kicked him in the chest. Thankfully, the pressurized air had been powerful enough to push the heavy bot away from him and into the wall opposite. Aaron bent over as he tried to catch his breath whilst rubbing his aching throat. A glance over to the bot showed that it had already recovered but a quick blast from his gauntlet sizzled across it's body and the Aaron watched in grim satisfaction as the dark eyes went blank.

He knew that he had to keep moving. All the noise that the group had made was bound to draw attention to the area. Aaron stumbled down the hall and, once he turned another corner, a sigh of relief escaped his battered throat. There was an exposed pipe ahead. Quickly, he gingerly stepped around the deactivated bots then ran over to the pipes. Somehow, he'd have to cause the pipe to leak and then set the gas on fire.

When he dug in the pockets of his leather suit, though, Aaron realized that he didn't have any of the small charges he'd need to get the job done. Frustrated, all he pulled out was one solar burst which he held it up to his eye level whilst studying the small marble. Glancing at the pipe, and back to the little flash grenade, another idea came to him. Maybe if he activated the grenade after he used his gauntlet to bust open a valve, it would ignite the flammable gas and cause a big enough explosion. However, Aaron knew that it was going to be up to chance whether it worked or not. His acute hearing could pick up the sound of the SSJ almost directly above him and he knew that STAN waiting for his signal to be ported up into the jet. Then, he became aware of another sound; one of heavy footsteps pounding against the ground nearby. 

With that idea in mind, and the footsteps picking up their pace, Aaron brought up his right arm. Supported by his left arm, he fired a single laser at the valve. A loud hiss indicated the gas started to escape and it soon filled the small area with its pungent odor. Sudden movement to his left caught Aaron's attention and he whipped his head around towards the movement. The remaining guards were headed straight for him as they came down an adjacent hallway. Now that he knew they were all bots, Aaron activated the time-delayed solar burst. The bots weren't human, just androids similar to STAN, so Aaron had no qualms about taking them down. He bent down and rolled the solar burst towards the piping then he pressed the button on his earpiece.

"I've got about ten seconds STAN. Get me outta here!" he exclaimed into the device. A rush of air blurred Aaron and the warehouse dissolved around him leaving the bots dumbly staring at the spot where Aaron was a second before. Now safely in the confines of the SSJ, Aaron nodded to STAN, who was in control of the jet. The android placed a hand on the controls, and soon they were leaving the lab behind them.

"What did you do Aaron?" The android asked Aaron curiously. The teen had strapped himself down and was now looking at his watch; muttering something under his breath.

"You'll see in 4...3...2...1..." Aaron replied. Suddenly, a huge blip showed up on the radar screen where the warehouse had been. Visually, behind the jet a large red and orange fireball could be seen rising up, accompanied by a large boom. STAN choked slightly once he realized what Aaron had done but the teen wasn't paying any attention. Instead, he was almost plastered to the window watching the fireball with a smug smile on his face.

"That never gets old!" Aaron declared, leaning back into the comfy seat of the SSJ. Basking in the success of the mission, and as exhaustion suddenly crept in, he closed his eyes.