-Begin Transmission
My story starts in my teen years in my home, in the Power District. Let me tell you, I was a #$%@ing D-bag. No one looked up to me; no one thought I was something more, something different. And honestly, I didn't care.
They say ignorance is bliss? Well everything was perfect, then. I was enjoying a nice fall day off school when my friend Carl called.
I answered on the 3rd ring. “Hello?”
“Hey dude, Carl.”
“Oh hey man. Why weren’t you at school Friday?”
“Appointments and stuff, you know my mom.”
“Haha, yeah.”
“So you wanna hang out today?”
“Sure, I wanted to go see that new movie.”
“Ok, how about we go to the Burger Shack for a bite first?”
“Nah, Raven Corp. is really cracking down over there.”
“Please? That place is about to close. One last time?”
“Fine, see ya.”
I left a note on the table, grabbed my key, and started walking. Funny, I didn’t even write “goodbye”.
Most of my walk was pretty good actually. Sun was shinning, everyone was in a good mood, but I kept getting the weird feeling that someone was watching me. Every time I turned to look nothing was there, so I shook it off. I reached a normally more brutal area of the city and was surprised that the mood didn’t seem to change, everything was still fine. About 2 blocks from the Burger Shack, I passed a dark alley, couldn’t see a thing, and got yanked in.
Everything just happened in front of me, I wasn’t even signaling myself to move, I was just watching my hands and body move. Like when you’re really tired and suddenly you’re doing better at whatever you’re doing ‘cause you’re doing it by instinct and you’re not thinking. A guy probably in College started beating the crap out of me and I watched as my arms and hands blocked as much as I could. At one point I shoved him back and he pulls out a knife and runs back on me. Suddenly I get this adrenaline rush and everything slows down. I twisted his arm so the knife popped into the air and I grabbed it. With the other hand I karate chopped the backside of his neck and kneed him where no man wants to be kneed. He stumbled back in pain, regained himself, and ran back at me. I gave him an uppercut punch straight to the heart and immediately blood came spurting out. Confused I pushed him to the ground but by now he was a corpse, for now the same knife, that I had forgotten about as soon as I grabbed it, protruded from right where I had punched him.
What would you do if you killed some random guy? Would you turn yourself in? Would you kill yourself too? Would you hide the body and check off your “to do” list? Well I screamed… like a little girl. Way to go Ryan, real subtle. That triggered every cop in about a mile came full speed running at me. So I ran. It took 5 officers to tackle me. Then one tranquilized me.
I woke up in a cop car with handcuffs on. It wasn't my first time in a situation like this. This one time I tried to steal a candy bar and it turned out to have the slightest whiff of marijuana on it and I was hauled in until my dad pushed the bail. That's how dark the Power District can get. Granted it doesn't happen a lot but you'd think with all of Raven Corps rules that they'd pay more attention to crime and less to taxes.
We weren’t far from where they picked me up, though, and I really like the view from the bridge we were on. It was one of those highway overpasses that is completely pointless since it passes over a street that no one uses. We had just merged into the right lane of the interstate, and the car in front of us just slammed the brakes! 60 to 0 in 3 seconds. The idiot of a driver I ended up with saves us from hitting it but sent us off the bridge. We landed on the nose of the car, it scrunched up and killed the driver, and my leg got caught under something. The car fell onto its side and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the fire I smelt had a very exciting meeting with Mr. Gas Tank. Of course I couldn’t move, not without snapping my leg off completely, and the fumes were choking me. I reached for the door on top, with a scarred and bloody hand. I was nowhere near even tapping it. Just as I was at the height of my reach and straining to open the door, it flew off its hinges, hurling threw the air. At this point I passed out. I started tripping through sleep. I saw the backside of a large man carrying me over his shoulder. I heard a woman’s heels. I saw the inside of a limo. I heard muffled voices. I smelt knock-out-gas.
I woke up in a white room with only 2 doors. I tried to get up and fell on my injured leg. I limped over to the nearest door and yelled for help, except my voice was so charred and sore that it ended up sounding like a Wookie crossed with a Gremlin. Giving up I turned around and jumped back, slamming my head against the door hinge.
“@*$#”
“What the *%^@ kid! Watch the language!”
“Where did you come from?” This time there was a guy in a chair with a white table in front of him.
“Henry, time for junior to have the talk!” He switched his voice from high pitched to down low, “Well son, one night your mom and I were in bed and…..”
I tried to walk but forgot about my leg and stepped right on it.
“%&@*^$#%*”
“Hey I’m supposed to be the role model here, not sure why, but don’t cuss that ^#%*&$% @*$#. You got it you little #&@*$%? Okay, take a seat class the bell has rung.”
“I still don’t know what the hell is going on!”
“Class we go through this EVERY DAY! Okay!? Settle down or we’ll just start giving out demerits.” Changing his voice again he went on, “Now who needs a seat?”
“Uh, me?”
Now in a British accent he answered, “Oh Mr. Garan I know you must be such a hoot amongst the ‘popular kids’ but disobedience to take the freaking seat will cost you eventually.” He gestured behind me. I turned and saw a new chair there. When I looked back up there was a chalk board behind him and he was holding a long pointing stick. I had a feeling this was going to be the longest day of my life, if it still was the same day.
“Now class, who can tell me where we are? Yes, Mr. Mossly?”
I knew if I turned that there’d be a new person sitting there, so I did, and I was wrong, the room was empty behind me. Turning back I saw a name on the board: John Racter.
“Oh bother. I forgot to let him in…… I’m out of honey too.” Winnie the Pooh exclaimed. He wobbled over to the table holding his belly in his best imitation. He jumped up on the table and pushed aside a part of the ceiling. Now there was a wire showing and John reached up and cut it so the bare wire showed. John wobbled back over to the chalk board rather quickly. I saw that the chalkboard now read: White Ops. John (Mirage) Racter – Can hide objects from view.
Things were starting to make sense with this guy. He was obviously the funny guy of this “team” or whatever it was. I could even tell by how he dressed: light jeans, white t-shirt with a design, and a brown leather jacket. Normally I'd say that's the cool guy sort of look I would want to rock, but with his tall, skinny, composure I think he pulled it off in a “funny guy” way.
As for these “White Ops”, I could tell somebody had an infatuation with one certain color (explaining the reappearance of said color EVERYWHERE). It made me think of those Special Forces guys in some form of the army, the Black Ops? Right? What does that make the White Ops?
“I’ll ask one more time Mr. Mossly, where are we?” The wire John cut started emitting a strong electric blue light. I don’t know how to describe it but another guy came out of the wire, right in front of me and just stood there with his hand in the air.
“I know I know I know I know! We’re in The Fort, Mr. Racter.”
“Very good Rick, you may sit.” And he did. Now there was a new line on the board: Rick Mossly – Can move through electrical wiring
This Rick character was just that, a character. He was most likely John's partner in crime, or maybe he was young enough to be his apprentice. Who knew? Rick was built semi averagely; good weight, fair amount of muscle, but not a bulky guy who could chuck a car, let alone a desk. I knew he was probably really skilled in his field, but was kind of a jerk-off who never played it serious. I'm telling you, clothes can tell a lot.
Suddenly another guy swung down from the new gap in the ceiling. He looked just like Rick but a little less scruffy.
“God Rick, right in the middle of a freaking training routine. You know that actually helps you in the field, right? That way we won’t have you ending up in the wrong city on accident... again.”
“Yeah but you’d find me, bro.” I looked back at the board and sure enough, “Steve (GPS) Mossly –Can pinpoint the location of anyone he’s seen the face of.” was written up there.
From his appearance, I figured there was finally a responsible person in the room. Steve was dressed practical, in cargo pants, a cloth jacket, some under shirt, and tennis shoes. He was clean cut with practical hair, short but not buzzed. I keep using the word “practical” because that pretty much summed Steve up, practical.
Suddenly the door opened and a severe looking man walked in, followed by a girl and a real big guy. I assumed that those other 2 were the ones that carried me out of the car crash. Everyone stood when they entered and immediately shut up. Since even John shut his yap I figured I should play along. The middle guy was the tallest; he stepped forward and I took a peek at the board. It now read “General Roysons – Commander and Chief of the White Ops.”
“As you can see we have a new recruit among us, troops. I expect you all to treat him as you treat each other, because as of now he’s one of us.”
If you've never been on a military base, like me, then the sight of General Roysons could almost make someone laugh. He was decked head to toe in camo, with fanny packs covering his waist, a holstered gun under his left arm, and a red hat that looked like one of those hats mimes wear, I forgot the name. I was kind of amused but found I was actually shaking in my boots, that man has a presence.
The General whispered something to the girl and left the room. The girl stepped forward and the board said “Sarah Roysons – Can rewind time by several seconds (and is a real pain in the @$$).”
“John you have already been chosen to be Ryan’s mentor during his training with us.”
“What? You said all I had to do was introduce him to the White Ops.!”
“And to complete that job he has to learn how to operate a gun, use stealth, and master his ability. Since we don’t know how destructive Ryan can be with his power…”
“Hey!” She gritted her teeth; apparently she didn’t like me enough to tolerate interruptions.
“Since we don’t know how destructive Ryan can be with his power, we’ll send him to our base in the G-District to find out.”
I'd only known her for half a minute now, but I could tell Sarah was not going to be a joy to be around. I've always hated people that are just so full of themselves that they can't take a crap without announcing it to the world. There've been guys like that in my class, whose brothers or parents are somebody and they think that automatically makes them somebody too. False.
“Well that leaves me with shooting and sneaking still.”
“Get to work.”
“Hey now you can’t give me orders just ‘cause you’re Chief’s daughter you little…”
Finally the big guy stepped up and parted John from Sarah. “Charlie (Big Brother) Tyler – Pushes objects to or away from him”
“Watch it, guys. Let’s just calm down and take a deep breath.”
Now Charlie, he was a guy I could get used to. He was the sort of guy who was responsible but knew how to have a good time without being a jack@$$. He reminded me of the bouncers I always saw outside the clubs, big and burly. But instead he was a nice guy, not one of those strict jerks.
“She started it.”
“I will crush you, John.”
“Whoa there, Sarah. Calm down honey. Let’s just drop it, leave him be.”
“Bring it on, Sarah! You know what? I’m calling a war! Same teams.”
“You’re on!”
“Sarah, please reconsider, I’m begging you.”
“No, I’ve had enough of this jack@$$.”
Sarah stormed out and Charlie went after her, blowing the door off the wall to get past. I turned to John and the Mosslys.
“What the &$%# was that about?”
“It just means we’re gonna have to train you before 9.” -Steve
“We can’t get that all done before 9. He can just watch. So if you and I get Rick on our team then…” -John
“No, I want to play, or fight, or whatever we’re doing at 9.”
“Kid, we don’t have enough time.” –Rick
“Then we better get started.” –Me
“We better tell the girls about this.” –Steve
“Right, Ryan, come with me we’ve got 2 people left for you to meet.” –John
We exited the room and walked down a hall to a lounge, no one was there so John led me back down the hall and several others, pointing out the purposes of each room.
“Lounge, library, computer room, access terminal…”
“Access to what?”
“Well it’s mainly a lot of wires for Rick to go through to get around Culda but we have uploads for Steve and Samantha too.”
“Who’s Samantha?”
“We’re trying to find her… and Katie. Sam’s about your age, she can learn everything about a person by first touch with them. Katie’s Steve’s girlfriend, she takes the atoms from one thing and can change it to something else.”
“So why are Charlie and Sarah so ‘high up’?”
“Well Sarah’s Chief’s daughter and she’s dating Chuck. Chuck was the first White Op. ever; he found out his power and searched for someone like him. He found Sarah and her dad found out and made the White Ops.”
We turned a corner and John kept calling out the rooms.
“Fire testing, armory, juicer; that’s where we get our powers boosted up to speed, toxic resistance, smaller gun range, and our first stop: the music room.”
John opened the door and the girl at the piano stopped playing. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever see.
“Can I help you, guys?”
“I thought we’d drop by to introduce you to our newbie here.” I stumbled over to shake her hand, caught in a daze from her eyes.
My god, there are angels on Culda.
“Name’s Ryan. Uh Ryan Garan.” She giggled
She had this beautiful, elegant hair, dirty blond, that wasn't short like a bob cut but wasn't freakishly long. It ended halfway between her shoulder blades and her shoulders, beautifully natural, as though it had never been combed, or at least not excessively. Her eyes were a gorgeous blue, like the water in the Oasis District. Her eyebrows weren't thick but at the sane time weren't those narrow ones most models have. Her lips were thin and gentle, without a touch of lipstick. In fact, her whole face showed no sign of makeup or any cosmetics for that matter. Natural beauty, the only kind of beauty. As for the rest of her, there was absolutely nothing to complain about. She wasn't one of those "sexy" girls with enough curves to make a water slide and the weight of a guppy. Instead she built kind of straight, like a Lego. I mean I guess you could say she had curves I just didn't really notice them so much. Instead for the first time since I'd hit puberty I wasn't looking at her body, just dazing off into her eyes.
“Nice to meet you Uh Ryan Garan (another giggle), really nice.” She gave me a wink and reached for my hand. I was SO in. I wanted to let her have it and learn everything about me but John saw what was happening and yanked me away. I wasn't going to rest there, though. There was NO way I was going to live without her knowing who I was. Seems like John wouldn't usually care if she knew, like he'd tell me to wrap it and leave us two alone. Why was he holding us apart? What did he know about me?
“Some other time, you 2 love puppies. Seems like there was something else I was gonna tell you…….. Oh yeah, I called a war.”
“You did WHAT? To who?!”
“Called war……. on Sarah…….”
“You idiot! Oh my god John you just don’t learn do you?” She started to get up and come at us in anger, I think, but John shoved me out the door and followed. He swung the door back and she ran right into it, as thought she didn’t see it, ‘cause she didn’t.
We jogged down the hall and rested at the stairway.
“Man that was close.”
"I wish it was closer." I was dreamily staring off, thinking about her.
"Sam? No WAY, man! She might loom sweet now but you should see her on the field! She's fearsome!"
"I don't care! I want to be with her! Why did you hold me back?!"
"Because you don't want to know her past." there was a beat or two of silence, "Trust me. She's not worth it."
"Whatever, you're wrong. We off to find Katie now?”
“Yeah, she’s usually in the storage room. We’ll head down there.”
Once we made it we found Steve trying to explain something to what must have been an upset Katie. John walked up to Steve.
“What’s going on down here?”
“I told her about your little fiasco in the ‘classroom’.”
“Honey I love you but do you always have to let these things happen right in front of you? You didn’t even do anything to prevent it.” –Katie
“Yeah honey, you should have done something” –John. Katie hit him in the arm. Steve followed her lead.
“Well we have a new recruit so teams are a little more flexible. Katie this is Ryan.” –Steve
“Yeah, hi, but what are we going to do about this? I don’t want to fight you, sweetie” –Katie
Wow, way to get totally ignored, "Yeah don't mind me, I just killed a random guy, was tazzed by Raven Corp officers, and fell from a bridge in a car."-Me
"Oh go cry it to Sam." - Katie
"Does everyone know I like her?!" -Me
"No, she likes you... LOVES you actually, that's what she told me."
"She's never seen me before!" -Me
"False. She treated you when you were out cold." Katie turned to Steve, "So what were you saying about teams?"
“Well how about I join your team and Sam can switch to John’s?” –Steve
“Awww come on guys! Sam has a lame power! I don’t want her!” –John
"I do!" I said, and I thought it was pretty funny but everyone just stared at me. I could tell John was snickering a little. "Sorry."
“But Sam has the best shot… and you’re the one who got us into this, remember? Let’s do it.” –Katie
John murmured something that I can’t repeat here and Steve checked his watch, rubbing his head in stress. “God we only have 5 hours till the war. I’m gonna go get the training room ready, be up there in 10 minutes. Katie, can I get a boost?” –Steve
“Fine, here.” I watched as a bike split into little tiny pieces and a ladder was formed, leading up through an air duct. Steve kissed Katie and climbed up.
“Ryan, nice to meet you and welcome to the team and all but you need to go get ready for war. John, you @$$, fix this, make Ryan a White Op. Now you guys better get going.”