Project R.O.S.E. (NOVEL PREVIEW)

Chapter 1:  Everything She Knew…





“Haha, found you!”

The little girl running through the large department store tapped her friend on the shoulder.  Many people had watched the girls’ playing in amusement.  The beads in the recent seeker’s hair clicked against each other as she came to a stop.

“Darn!”  The disappointment on the little brunette’s face was fleeting.  She was having too much fun to be sad about anything.  “Your turn to hide!” Ruby announced to her friend standing mere inches away.

“Alright!” called the darker skinned girl as she ran off to hide.  “Remember to count to ten!”

“Okay!” Ruby shouted before beginning to count in a low whisper.  “One… two… three… four…”

Rose dashed through the store, trying to find a new and unique place to hide.  She liked that word.  Unique.  She had been described that way by a lot of people, especially the parents of the few friends she was able to make.  For starters, the girl had a long scar running down her back, as well as a small scar over her right eye.  Even more unusual was the fact that while her left eye was its natural dark brown color, the injured eye was a vibrant emerald green instead, despite still being her real, working eye.  She didn’t have any recollection of these injuries; her Papa had simply told her they happened when she was very young.

Also, she was seen as… well, odd, to say the least.  No one had ever witnessed Rose eating or drinking anything, she seemed rather averse to water, and her mannerisms occasionally bordered on stiff, even robotic in nature.  What she did have going for her was talent.  She was incredibly intelligent for her age, and she was already an expert gymnast at only eight years old.  Gymnastics is where she had managed to befriend Ruby, one of the only kids willing to look past Rose’s oddities.

Before Rose could find a hiding place, and well after Ruby had reached ten, she noticed her father looking around for her.  His gaze fell upon her.  “Rose!” he shouted, louder than he meant and louder than Rose would’ve liked.  “Rose, there you are,” he continued, lowering his voice.  “Listen, honey, I have to -”

“Found you!”  Rose’s father, Chris, was interrupted by Ruby popping up out of seemingly nowhere, tapping her friend on the shoulder.  She looked extremely pleased with herself.

“Hey, no fair!” Rose complained, adopting a playful pout.  She’d only been found because her Papa brought attention to her.

“Everything’s fair in hide-and-seek!”  Ruby claimed playfully.  Her attention was diverted from the game by the sight of her mother looking for her.  “Oh, that’s my mom.  Sorry, Rosie, gotta go!  See ya at school tomorrow!” she called out as she dashed away, waving as she ran.

Rose looked down in disappointment.  “... We were playing hide-and-seek…” she said in a near-whisper.  She wanted to keep playing with Ruby.

Chris knelt down to his daughter’s level, putting his hand on her shoulder.  “You’ll see her tomorrow.  Listen, I need to go somewhere to… do something.”  He had received a signal from below the store, almost compelling him to follow it.  “Stay with Aunt Lily, alright?”

“Okay, Papa!”  Rose cheered up almost instantly, as if a switch had been flipped somewhere inside her brain.  “Where are you going?” she asked curiously.

“Can’t tell you.  Top secret.”  Chris knew that Rose wasn’t ready for the truth.  She wasn’t ready to learn what she was.  What he was.  Or that he wasn’t actually her father.

“If you say so, Papa,” Rose quipped, oblivious to the turmoil happening inside her supposed father.  She ran off to find her Aunt, quickly finding her in the gardening section.  “Hey, Auntie Lily!”

Lily wasn’t actually Rose’s aunt - not that Rose knew that - but she had acted much like a mother throughout Rose’s life.  The child was sure she must have had a mother, but she didn’t remember anything about her.  Chris had always evaded the topic anytime Rose tried to bring it up.  It was just another detail of her life that seemed to make Rose a bit of an outcast.

Lily looked up from the flower seeds she was looking at to see her apparent niece barreling toward her.  “Hey, Rosie,” she stated simply as Rose came to an almost unnaturally quick stop.  “Stay close to me, got it?”  Lily had heard what Chris said to the girl.  She had an idea of what was going on, and she knew she had a duty to keep the kid safe.

“Got it, Auntie,” Rose chirped, following instructions far better than most kids her age.  “Say, what’s Papa doing?” she asked, still determined to find out what her father was up to.

Lily wasn’t going to bite.  Not unless she had to.  “Like he said, top secret.  Don’t worry,” she added, seeing the mixture of disappointment, annoyance and worry on Rose’s face, “he’ll be back before you know it.”

“Promise?”  The simple request from Rose caught Lily off guard.  “Aunt Lily?  Promise he’ll be back?”

The girl sounded legitimately worried, but Lily knew that a promise to Rose was a blood contract.  If you broke that promise, it would be a very long time before she trusted you again.  And judging by the low rumbling she was starting to hear below their feet, Lily knew Chris was probably in danger.  “I’m not sure I can make that promise…” she admitted, her voice kept low to make sure her ‘niece’ understood that she was serious.  Now Rose looked nervous too.



Chris stepped into the elevator that would take him to the massive cavern underneath the store.  This was just one of many entrances to the frankly gargantuan hollow section of the Earth, even larger in area than the metropolitan city he had taken residence in.  He took his place next to a Middle-Eastern man who was in his late forties.  Or at least, that’s what he looked like.  It’s how he chose to appear.  “Hey, Aster,” he greeted the other man.

Aster nodded curtly in greeting.  “Chrysanthemum,” he stated simply, using Chris’ actual name instead of the shortened version he used to blend into human society.  There was a pause of a few seconds as the elevator descended below the surface.

Chrysanthemum had had enough silence for a while.  “So… why were we called down here?” he inquired.

“Bad news,” Aster replied gravely.  He looked Chrysanthemum directly in the eyes.  “It’s waking up.”  The simple statement was as chilling as it was short.  They had been working on containing this thing for eighteen years, and now, their efforts weren’t enough anymore.

Another silent pause as the news sunk in.  “So… what’s the plan then?” Chrysanthemum asked nervously.

“We have to kill it.”  Aster’s constant matter-of-factness was in full force today.  “If we wait any longer, it’s just gonna grow even bigger, and it’ll be too late.  We have to do this now.”  A couple seconds went by before the elevator door opened automatically, and the two operatives stepped out into the cavern.

To call it a simple cavern would be to insult the true enormity of it.  In reality, it was a containment unit.  Lined with heat-resistant treated metal and supported by a powerful magnetic field, you could just about fit the population of New York inside in the event of a nuclear attack, and they’d be perfectly safe.  Not that the space was built for that kind of purpose.

Instead, it contained a monster.

In the middle of the cavern, restrained with heavy chains made of a metal no living human had ever heard of, laid the hulking, barely sleeping form of a creature so monstrous in size that one of its smaller teeth was easily twice the size of the six-foot Chrysanthemum, let alone the long incisors poking down from its upper jaw.  Its scales could withstand the entire artillery of an army.  And its entire body was easily the length of a town.  Each wing could cover an even larger area.

And you no longer had to listen closely to hear the creature’s growling.  Before, it had been akin to a deep, purring snore.  Now it was waking up, and it was angry.  It had been given the simple moniker ‘The Beast’ for a reason.

A loud, monstrous thudding sound signified something terrifying.  Not only was the Beast waking up, it was getting up.  Each neighborhood-sized foot impacted the floor with enough force to shake the ground above.  Chrysanthemum found his hand already curled around the handle to the emergency alarm.  With a loud, blaring call, the alarm would alert everyone in the containment unit, as well as the store above ground, to immediately evacuate.

There was obviously a great risk, however.  “If you activate that alarm,” warned Aster, “the noise is just gonna piss that thing off.”

Chrysanthemum knew the risks perfectly well.  The Beast may have been huge, and still growing, but because of its gargantuan size, it moved pretty slowly.  Especially in this low oxygen environment underground.  “At least the people up in the store will have evacuated.”  He noticed a look from Aster.  He was obviously wondering where Rose was.  Her safety was paramount to everything, and every single R.O.S.E. operative knew it.  “Rose is up there with Lily.  They’ll be fine.”  Chrysanthemum could only hope he was right.

Another loud, ground-shaking stomp, followed eventually by another.  You could literally hear the Beast’s muscles contracting and relaxing, its scales rubbing against each other.  Aster and Chrysanthemum froze in place, the latter’s hand still firmly grasping the handle to the alarm, watching the hulking brute slowly come to a standing position on all four legs.

“Chris, pull the alarm.”  Aster dropped his comrade’s full name in the interest of urgency.  High above the four operatives in the room, two bright yellow eyes had opened.  Each was easily three or four times their size, but still miniscule compared to the rest of the Beast.  “I mean it.”  The vertical slits that passed for pupils narrowed in anger.  Chrysanthemum tightened his grip on the handle, tensing his arm in preparation.  He saw two others, Jasmine and Violet, standing across the cavern, watching the two men intently for a clue on what to do next.  “Now!” Aster shouted.  Even in the dim lighting of the underground containment unit, the four operatives could see the Beast’s mouth begin to open.  The smell of superheated gas began filling the space, a sign that the massive creature was preparing to attack.

It was time.  “EVERYBODY RUN!!!” Chrysanthemum shouted with ferocity, finally pulling down on the handle.  The sound of the alarm would be deafening to people more… biological than the four in the cavern.  To the Beast, it was a mere irritant.  The foghorn-like alarm was bested in volume by the creature’s simultaneously shrieking and bellowing roar of pure rage.  The cavern lit up with a ferocious blast of fire from the Beast’s mouth, illuminating the R.O.S.E. operatives running for the elevator.  They knew there wasn’t enough time to actually use it; they just needed to get inside the elevator shaft.  The four could simply go up from there in their own way.

The Beast was distracted enough by the alarm to give the four the time they needed.  A blast from Chrysanthemum’s arm blew a hole through the elevator’s ceiling.  The illusions around their legs shimmered, giving way to jets of fire shooting out of what were once ankles, and the operatives shot up the elevator shaft.



The floor beneath Rose’s feet shook mightily as the ear-splitting alarm sounded off.  “Auntie Lily, what’s going on?” she asked, now realizing that her earlier nervousness might have been pretty well-founded.

Lily looked around, at the panicked shoppers.  She knew exactly what that rumbling meant.  “Come on, kid,” she said, grabbing Rose’s hand.  “We gotta get out of here.  Your world’s about to turn upside down.  Also, might want to cover your ears.”  Lily closed her eyes, mentally reaching deep into herself.  She had an ability that would help in this situation, and hiding her true nature was no longer in peoples’ best interests.  Her eyes opened, their usual brown color replaced with a vibrant emerald green, identical to Rose’s injured eye.

Rose was oblivious to the sudden change in her supposed aunt.  “What do you mean by-” she started, before being suddenly interrupted by Lily, using a ridiculously loud version of her voice that could be heard over the alarm throughout the store.  Her hands flew to her ears to muffle the noise.

“Attention, customers and employees,” Lily called out as if her larynx had been replaced with a high-quality megaphone.  “You need to leave.  Now.  This is NOT a drill.  There are five exits to the store:  two to the north, and one each to the west, south and east.  Please make your way to the nearest exit as fast as you can.  I repeat, you need to leave.”

“Ow…” Rose whined lightly while rubbing her ears.  She looked up at Lily in awe, noticing the change in her apparent aunt’s eye color.  “How did you just do that?” she inquired of the woman who clearly had a lot more to her than the girl realized.

“No time to explain,” Lily said quickly, already starting to speed walk toward an exit.”  We gotta go!  Grab my hand!” she added, holding a hand out behind her.

Rose dashed forward, grabbing the suddenly mysterious woman’s hand.  “But Papa - !” she called, looking behind her.

“Rose, your Papa’s probably the one who pulled the alarm.  Now come on!”  Lily’s words came quickly, as if she was running out of time to say them.  And she knew she probably was.

As the two ran through the crowd, somehow constantly picking up speed, Rose couldn’t help but notice that the ground underneath them felt way hotter than it had before.  “Lily, why is the floor getting warmer?” the child asked nervously.

“Don’t worry about it, Rosie,” Lily replied quickly, not slowing down for a moment.  “Just keep running!”  Rose was barely aware of the path they were taking, although she did think it was weird that their path stayed so clear amid the panicked crowd, all trying to leave the store at the same time.

After a few seconds, Rose realized they had successfully left the store.  There was still a large crowd outside as people rushed to their vehicles to leave as quickly as they could.  Lily noticed a few smoldering car wrecks, some people obviously rushing at the expense of their safety.  Those people would be left behind to meet their now inevitable fate.

A thought in Rose’s head prompted her to try to resist being pulled along by her aunt.  “Wait!” she shouted.  “Ruby might still be in there!  We have to go back!”  With a mighty tug, unnaturally strong for someone her age, she pulled Lily to a sudden stop.

Lily was rather annoyed by the sudden halt to their progress.  She understood Rose’s concern, but frankly, if Ruby was still in the store, her fate was sealed at this point.  “We don’t have -” she started in irritation, looking back at her supposed niece.  However, she was rudely interrupted by a massive explosion.  Lily and Rose looked back in horror at the massive ball of fire that was once a large store, knowing that anyone caught inside just experienced a quick, fiery death.  “Uh… I’m sure she got out in time…” Lily said nervously, not even slightly believing her own words.  There was absolutely no way the human child could have survived that blast.

As the initial fireball dissipated, Lily looked on horrified as the top of an absolutely gargantuan scaled head began rising out of the massive crater where there had once been a store.  The proportionally small, beady, bright yellow eyes gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting the spreading fire still raging in the area.  And those eyes were aimed directly at Rose and Lily.

“Lily?!” Rose shouted, now thoroughly freaked out.  “What is that thing?!”  The creature had risen further, the dark gray scales now fully in view, along with the obsidian streak stretching from its eyes to the tips of its mangled horns.

Lily looked up at the Beast’s head.  She had heard stories from Chrysanthemum about this thing’s size, but it was a whole other thing to actually experience it.  Especially with its gaze aimed directly at her.  “A thing that wants us dead,” she explained loudly to the girl in her care.  “I’ll explain later!  Come on, hold on tight!” she said, bending down and wrapping her arm around Rose’s waist.

Rose instinctively wrapped her own arms around Lily, still confused by what was happening.  “What do you mean by - WHOA!!!”  Lily’s feet had somehow disappeared, replaced with jets spewing perfectly cylindrical beams of blue-hot fire.  With a roar, she took off flying straight up into the sky.  Rose looked down at the swiftly receding ground, as well as the huge monster slowly crawling out of the cavern under the former store.  She looked up at her aunt, wondering how she was able to do all these things she had done today.  “How are you flying?!” she asked incredulously, knowing full well that no human was supposed to be able to sprout rockets from their feet.

Lily rolled her eyes in amusement, finding some level of levity even now.  “Long story!  Keep an eye on the Beast, okay?”

Rose looked back toward the ground where the creature was.  She heard it give off a blood-curdling roar, then watched as it unfurled its wings, each one larger than the rest of its body.  With a giant downward flap of its wings, the gargantuan creature lifted off from the ground.  “That thing’s following us!” Rose shouted in a blind panic.

“Alright, hang on!” Lily shouted, hugging Rose even tighter to her body.  With an odd whirring noise, the bottoms of her legs opened even further, and the jets of fire increased in intensity.  Rose was surprised she couldn’t feel the heat from the flames so close to her legs.  Lily’s flight picked up speed, but the creature was gaining on them.  The flying woman began arcing her trajectory so that she wasn’t just flying straight up anymore.

Rose lost control of her body, her normal eye turning the same emerald green as the injured one.  She still saw through her own eyes, heard from her own ears.  The air around her right arm shimmered, giving a glimpse at what looked like a robotic arm underneath an illusion of flesh.  Her newly-metallic hand separated into individual pieces, leaving a hole in her palm.  Rose could feel the energy gathering, a bright light shining from the end of her arm.  Finally, with a loud banging noise, a shot of pure plasma rocketed out of her arm, landing a direct blow on the massive creature’s head.  It reeled in pain, roared in anger, and turned away from Rose and Lily.  “Good shot, Rose!” Lily shouted above the roaring and rushing air.

Rose regained control over her body as her arm and hand settled back into their natural position, her skin reappearing over the metal as if by magic.  “Whoa!” she said in awe, raising her right hand to her face.  “How did I just do that?!”  Even if what she just did was really cool, it also scared her.  She lost control, and her hand and arm had split apart somehow, and then she shot something out of her hand, and then her arm went back to normal…  And whatever was under her skin, it looked metallic.  What was going on?

Lily could see the fear in Rose’s brilliant emerald green eyes.  She was freaked out by what she had just done.  The flying woman took a deep breath in preparation.  It was time.  Rose deserved to know the truth.  “You’re a robot, Rose,” she began, letting the ridiculous-sounding words sink in.  “So am I, and so is your Papa.  There’s a bunch of us dotted around Earth.  You have other abilities, too, but you’ve forgotten how to use them.  We made sure of that,” Lily added darkly.

Rose was confused.  She was a robot?  That couldn’t be; she had memories of growing up as the human girl she was.  There was no way she could be a…  The visual of her suddenly metallic arm splitting apart entered her mind again.  “I’m a…”  Then the last part of what Lily had told her sunk in.  “Wait, what do you mean by that?!”

Lily never got a chance to answer that question, because the sound of multiple shots of plasma filled the air, followed by more shrieking roars of pain and rage.  Aunt and niece looked back down toward the ground, finally slowing down to observe the action below.  There were five people darting around the sky, all taking shots at the Beast.  Many of their shots were landing, although they didn’t seem to actually be injuring the titanic creature.  Among the five was the unmistakable form of Chrysanthemum, his plain street clothes already burning at the edges from a near-miss blast of fire from the Beast.  All in all, he seemed to be doing well in the fight, clearly being the strongest of the group.

Rose couldn’t contain herself anymore.  “Yeah!” the supposedly robotic girl shouted, using her free arm to pump her fist in the air.  “Get him, Papa!” she cheered.  Her world was crumbling around her, but at least her Papa was still there to protect her.

Then Chrysanthemum found himself directly in front of the Beast’s face as it prepared to open its mouth, the flames inside already leaking from between its teeth.  He turned his own emerald green eyes to the sky, seeing the girl he had cared for as his own daughter.  The girl who had counted on him for protection, for comfort, for teaching.  The single member of the R.O.S.E. operatives who stood a chance at taking down Apophis once and for all.  He had distracted the Beast, giving Rose the chance to escape.  He did his duty.  Now, it was time for the girl to learn hers.  Chrysanthemum only wished he could’ve been the one to guide her in her next chapter.

Then, in front of Rose’s eyes, her father figure was consumed by the creature’s flames.

“NOOOOO!!!”  Rose’s scream could probably be heard for miles.  Her Papa was gone in an instant.

A woman flew near Lily, her green-and-orange attire clearly not meant for blending in.  “The Beast’s distracted!” she shouted in a thick Irish accent.  “Come on, we gotta go!”

“Got it, Dahlia!” Lily shouted to her red-haired comrade.  Looking down, she saw the look in Rose’s eyes.  The look of devastation.  Loss.  Heartbreak.  In a fraction of a second, she had lost everything.  “Come on, honey,” she said in a comforting tone to the girl in her care.  “Cling tight.  I’m right here.  You’re safe.  He did what he needed to do to make sure you’re safe.  You’re more important than you could possibly know.”

Rose subconsciously hugged Lily a little tighter.  Lily was all she had left now.  Her best friend was gone.  Her Papa was gone.  It looked like the entirety of her hometown was gone.

And everything she knew was a lie.