Episode 4 - Incidents (1)

Trey lies down on a bed in the private room on Level 7 of the Phaser building. Sitting on a chair next to him is Virge. Virge had slept well and is prepared for what he had to do this morning. Around them Reiken, Kaylan and Cecilia sat watching.
“Are you ready Trey?” Virge asks.
“Yes,” Trey responds softly. Kaylan, Reiken and Cecilia watch in silence.
“I am going to enter your mind and see what I can do about your visions,” Virge explains. “Close your eyes.” Both Trey and Virge shut their eyes as Virge begins. Trey passes out as Virge mentally builds a bridge linking his mind and Trey’s together. Virge dives into Trey’s mind and starts to access his memories and emotions. Virge wants to see what Trey sees. He makes Trey remember back to the incident when the visions began.
It was six months ago. Trey was at home sleeping in bed. It was the last time he had a peaceful dream. It was 3am when his room door was knocked down. He woke up instantly to see five men in army gear wearing balaclavas grabbing him and abducting him. Trey struggled and yelled but it was useless. He house was empty as he lived alone and no of his neighbours could hear him.
His kidnappers tied him up and blindfolded him locking him in the boot of a car. Once the car stopped as they dragged him into an elevator where they finally threw him into a large empty room and left him. Trey struggled; he pushed his face on the ground holding the blindfold against it and pushed his face forward. He repeated that several times until the blindfold started to lower off his eyes and he could see. He looked around; he was in a large hollow room shaped like a metal dome that was brightly lit. Trey did not know where he was, but Virge did. Virge had been in that room before, it was on the 27th floor of the Tempest, Trey had been taken to the psychic’s floor.
“HELLO!” Trey yelled. “Can anybody hear me?” The lights turned off for a moment then small blue lights on the floor illuminated the room. Trey could feel the ground beneath him starting to tremble as some kind of engine began moving. The metal dome began to get extremely hot. Trey started trying to move along the floor, but as he was tied up he could only crawl a little distance. The top of the dome opened as an orb slowly descended. The orb started spinning and lights started to flicker from it like a police siren accept the colours where white lights. Then Trey stopped moving as he felt a shock as if he was being electrocuted. His eyes started to get blood shot, as he began to see visions…
He saw the world as it was today in 2112, then he saw one man… the Mayor giving the order to launch a drill, the E18. He sees the drill burrowing through the layers of the Earth until it reaches the Earth’s core and explodes destroying the world. But that is not the end of the visions. Trey sees army’s of aliens fighting in wars on space shuttles and the Moon. After the Earths end it causes a, humans are an endangered species through the universe as the only ones that survive are those on neighbouring planets or space stations. The Mayor sends out armies of alien soldiers to hunt the humans and kill them. The final image Trey see’s is thousands of murdered humans… and one human child standing among the dead corpses. These were the visions that haunted Trey at night keeping him awake.
Virge had seen it all and realised what he needed to do, he put a mental block in Trey’s containing the memories. This stopped the visions seeping into Trey’s dreams. Virge returned to his own mind and opened his eyes and rejoined reality. Trey slowly regains consciousness. Virge turns to his audience.
“What happened?” Reiken asks.
“I have stopped the dreams,” Virge explains. “But Trey is right… the world is going to end…” he pauses for a moment. “I need to show you something.” He closes his eyes and stands as he leads everyone out of the private room.

Break Out (10)

Meanwhile as Liam is in the lobby, Charlie and Bison are in a lab on the 21st floor of the Tempest. A lab worker takes the cylinder from Charlie and removes the hair and places it on a table. A laser light scans the hair as data begins to process on the computer screens.
“What is the computer doing exactly?” Charlie asks.
“It is scanning the hair’s cells,” the lab worker explains. “It is trying to find a DNA match within the database. We are using this system as it is a human hair. Every person in the world is on our database. It is just a matter of time before the computer finds a match.”
Bison receives a call on his phone. He answers it as a hologram of Liam appears.
“Bison,” Liam says.
“Yes Liam.”
“Trey Waters has escaped from the Arraign Asylum. I want you to stop what you are doing and find him,” Liam commands. He does not wait for Bison to reply as he hangs up the call and his hologram disappears.
Bison puts away his phone and turns to Charlie. “I need to go. You stay here and find out who the hair belongs to.” Charlie nods as Bison leaves the room. It is only a matter of seconds after Bison leaves the room that the computer begins to beep.
Charlie turns to the screen and after reading it feels a sense of accomplishment. Displayed on the screen: MATCH FOUND.

Break Out (9)

The next morning as Liam walks through the ground floor Lobby of the Tempest to start his day he receives a phone call through his earpiece. It lights up blue as he answers it.
“Chamber’s here,” Liam states.
“Hello Mr. Chambers, this is Officer Trace from the Century Police Department,” the caller states.
“How can I help you?”
“I am calling to inform you that there was a break in at the Arraign Asylum this evening. All the androids have been destroyed, one patient was murdered and another escaped.”
“And this is relevant to me because?” Liam asks disinterested.
“The escapee was Trey Waters. He attempted to assassinate the Mayor a few months ago. We believe now he is on the loose, the Mayor may be in danger.”
Liam stops walking and focuses on the conversation. “Thank you for the information. Are your men looking for Mr Waters?”
“We have sent a few cars patrolling the area.”
“Good. Keep me updated on your findings.” Liam ends the call. He pulls out his mobile and makes a phone call. The call is answered and a hologram of Bison appears before him.

Break Out (8)

Rushing through the city Reiken drives. Kaylan sits in the passenger seat while Trey is ducked down in the back. They arrive at the Phaser building and head down to park in the underground basement so no one on the street can see Trey get out of the car.
They enter the building and head directly up to the 18th floor to Virge’s office. They walk in to find Virge sitting behind his desk waiting for them. The office lights are all off. The city lights shine in from the large windows lighting up the centre of the room while the corners are filled with shadows.
“Welcome boys,” Virge says. The three enter and stop in front of his desk. “Nice to see you again Trey.”
“Thank you for your help Virgil,” Reiken appreciates.
“No need to thank me… I really did not do anything.” He looks at Kaylan and nods as if you say ‘good job’. “Head to level 7, there I have set up a room where you can hide out as long as you need. There are no surveillance cameras and no one can access the room without my or Cecilia’s authority. Cecilia is down there waiting for you all. She will let you in. Rest up.”
The three nod and thank Virge one last time before leaving the room. Once the doors shut behind them a figure appears out of the shadows in the corner. It is Alia.
“Thank you Virge,” she says.
“As I said to the boys, I didn’t really do anything.” Alia smiles and walks towards the door.
“Please make sure never to let Trey or Reiken know that Kaylan works for me. Let them think he is your soldier,” she requests.
“He has been living here for the past year, though you train him. He may as well be a part of my staff.” Alia waits for Virge to give a serous response. “As you request; you had nothing to do with Trey’s break out.”
Alia smiles and walks out the door. Once she has let Virge closes his eyes and then stands. He heads out of his office and to his apartment next to his office and goes to bed. He has had a long day, though he never left his chair, he was physically and mentally exhausted.

Break Out (7)

Bison and Charlie arrive in room 14 of the 9th Basement. They are greeted by a soldier. He had been scoping the room since the Intruder had escaped.
“Lieutenant, Major,” the soldier acknowledges.
“What have you found?” Bison asks. The soldier holds up a small glass cylinder in front of him. Inside it is a single strand of hair.
“We believe it is the Intruders,” the soldier states. The hair is wavy, blonde and about twenty centimetres long. “Seeing that Major Jordan has brown hair and Mr Chambers has short hair.” Charlie takes the cylinder from his hand.
“We need to get it analysed immediately,” she states.
“Unfortunately it will have to wait til the morning,” Bison advises. “All the lab workers have gone home for the night.” Charlie has been caught up with all the commotion throughout the day that she had lost track of the time. “First thing tomorrow we will get the hair analysed. Meanwhile go home and get some sleep.”
Charlie obeys and makes her way out of the Tempest for the night.

Break Out (6)

Running through the hallways of the Arraign Asylum, Kaylan leads Trey towards his freedom. Kaylan had short circuit the main power grid and broke into the institution. To get into the building he simply smashed a window. To reach Trey’s room he destroyed every robot in his way until he knocked down Trey’s door. As they ran through to the exit they pass a junk yard of robots. Trey scans each one quickly remembering how one would tazer him when he screamed in his dreams, other robots that sedated him with drugs when he raised his voice. A sense of joy went through him as he saw the deactivated machines that kept him locked up for the past five months.
As they are about to reach the broken window Kaylan had entered from Trey gets knocked to the ground. Kaylan turns around to see Trey lying bruised behind him. Towering over Trey is the Tusk Alien. With the power grid down the Tusk was able to break down his sealed door as Kaylan had broken down Trey’s.
“You’re in my space human!” the Tusk mutters at Trey. It clasps its hands together and raises it above its head ready to strike. Kaylan charges towards the Tusk and in one quick move tackles the huge Alien to the floor. The ground quakes as the Tusk falls. The Tusk is triple Kaylan’s size yet it cannot push Kaylan off it. It throws some punches at Kaylan from the ground but Kaylan blocks the attacks. He grabs the Tusk by the head and in one quick move snaps its neck.
Trey is shocked at what he just witnessed. Kaylan gets up and walks over to Trey.
“Shall we go?” Kaylan asks as he takes his hand and leads him out of the Asylum.

***

Reiken waits for his brother outside the Arraign Asylum walls. He did not assist Kaylan in the break out as he knew his body’s limits. If he had gone into the asylum and was attacked by an android he was defenceless. He would have most likely been killed. So he waits, not knowing whether the stranger Kaylan was going to free his brother.
It had been twenty minutes since Kaylan had jumped the large wall that surrounded the Arraign Asylum. Reiken was starting to get worried. Reiken heard something coming from the other side of the wall: it was Kaylan.

Kaylan and Trey had reached the wall, the last obstacle in Trey’s escape. The wall was three metres high.
“What now? You don’t expect me to climb that do you?” Trey asks panting, he is out of breathe from all the running.
“Just trust me,” Kaylan replies. He picks up Trey in his arms as if a groom was carrying a bride over a threshold. He bends his knees and pounced. In one giant leap, Kaylan jumps over the wall holding Trey in his arms. Once Kaylan lands he looks at Trey as they exchange glances. Kaylan smiles and puts him down. Reiken approaches his brother.
“Are you all right Trey?” He asks concerned. Trey looks at Reiken and hugs him.
“Thank you,” he whispers. He lets go of his brother and turns to Kaylan. “And thank you.” “My pleasure,” Kaylan smirks. “It was fun… Now let’s get out of here.” The three jump into Reiken’s car as they head to safety.

Break Out (5)

Back at the Tempest building Liam, Bison and Charlie along with several soldiers are at the murder scene searching for clues to find out how the psychics were killed. Liam walks past the corpses and into a separate room with Bison and Charlie following. The three walk into a large wide open room shaped like a metal dome. Liam stands in the centre of the hollow dome, bends down and lifts up a small piece of the floor revealing a number pad. He types in a code and the floor beside him begins to open as a pod elevates from the ground. The Pod opens revealing nothing inside it.
“Just as I thought… the Intruder stole the psychic’s Core,” Liam states.
“It killed eight psychics,” Charlie says. “I thought psychics could read mind. Some even have telekinesis… How could anyone manage to kill eight psychics in the same room?”
“Psychic’s are incredibly powerful beings. Some can even take over your mind and inhabit your body,” Liam explains. “But some people have ways of blocking psychics from using their telepathy on them. And though telekinesis is powerful, skilled warriors know how to attack without getting affected by that ability.”
“Yes Charlie,” Bison ads. “Both Liam and myself are immune from psychic telepathy. We both have chips implanted in our brains to stop the psychic waves.”
Charlie stares at her Lieutenant. There is so much she does not know about him. Bison’s earpiece begins to beep. It is an incoming call from a soldier.
“Go ahead,” Bison communicates.
“Lieutenant, come to the 9th basement, we have found something in room 14 where the Intruder escaped,” the Soldier replies.
“On my way,” Bison says as he ends the transmission. He turns to Liam. “My Unit has uncovered something downstairs. Major Jordan and I will check it out.” He and Charlie exit the room as Liam resets the Pod back underground. Liam heads back to the room with the dead psychics. He approaches a soldier.
“Have you found anything?”
“Well from what we can tell each psychic was killed a matter of seconds after the other,” the Soldier explains. “Whatever did this knew what it was doing.”
“Any ideas on who or what did it?” Liam asks.
“Not as yet. The video surveillance for this room cut out this morning shortly after lockdown began. And there is not a single fingerprint or DNA sample in the vicinity.” Liam acknowledges the soldier and exits the scene, he has other matters to deal with.

Break Out (4)

Trey lies resting on his bed with his eyes wide open. He is warm with his arms wrapped around him, but is anything but comfortable in his strait jacket. He cannot sleep, every time he closes his eyes he is afraid of his dreams. No matter how tired he is, he attempts to remain awake. His room is brightly lit, which benefits him in fighting the slumber.
The lights begin to flicker. Trey sits up on the side of his bed. The lights turn off and his room is lit by the small light of the moon coming from a tiny window above him. He gets up from his bed, moves to his door and places his ear against it. He can hear noises coming from outside his room - yells of his fellow prisoners reacting from the loss of power. Something starts pounding the other side of the door; Trey feels the vibration as a shock and backs away. The thuds keep coming becoming louder.
‘Did the Tusk Alien escape? Is he coming to kill me?’ Trey thinks as he begins to panic. He braces himself for the worst. One last thumb against the door and it crashes into the room. There in the doorway stands Kaylan. He enters the room.
“Trey Waters?” Kaylan says. Trey does not reply. Kaylan looks at him, he knew he had the right person. Trey shared the same eyes as his brother; the bright blue irises almost glisten in the dimly lit room. Kaylan puts his hands on Trey’s shoulders and grasps his attire. He rips off the straight jacket with ease allowing Trey to use his hands. Trey stands there naked from the waist up and looks at Kaylan confused. Kaylan turns around and heads out the door while Trey remains stationary. Kaylan re-enters the room and takes him by the arm and directs him out.

Break Out (3)

Liam, Bison and Charlie scurry through the hallway of the 27th floor of the Tempest.
“The Intruder stole another Core,” Liam says as he rushes. “The first one was taken from Alia’s post. There are only three more in the building. I have two and the other one is kept by the psychics… I still have mine.”
“What is so important about these Cores?” Charlie asks. Liam ignores her question so Bison answers.
“The Cores are batteries. They are like the sun. Each one is powerful enough to give energy to the entire country… And they never fade.”
“That in the wrong hands could power million of deadly machines,” Charlie thought aloud.
“Yes thank you for that Major Jordan, I had not thought that the Intruder would use the Cores to power machines,” Liam said sarcastically, he has little to no patience for her.
The three stop at a sealed entrance. Liam inserts a key followed by a numeric code and the door opens. They take one step in and all freeze in disbelief. The room was trashed: blood was smeared on the walls and floor, tables, chairs and computers were smashed and scattered - there had been a struggle in the room. Lying on the ground before them are the bodies of eight brutally murdered psychics.

Break Out (2)

10:05PM Reiken Waters is waiting at the Century Bridge as instructed by Virge. He has no idea who he is waiting for or what to expect. But he knows Virge is reliable and well connected. Whatever Virge has planned will be of benefit for freeing his brother. The bridge is deserted and dimly lit. Though the city is relatively new the bridge is a structure over 150 years old.
“Reiken Waters I presume,” a voice states from the shadows. Walking into the light on the bridge a young man appears. Short brown spiked hair with tanned olive skin he peers at Reiken. His features are sharp with cheeks that almost cave in.
“Yes, and who might you be?” Reiken asks.
“My name is Kaylan and I am here to help you break your brother out of the Arraign Asylum,” he replies.
Reiken looks at the young man up and down, he cannot be older than 19, and his physique was quite slender. Reiken has his doubts about Kaylan, but remembers that Virge would only send someone he knew who could do the job.
“Let’s go,” Reiken says as the two head towards to Asylum.

Episode 3 - Break Out (1)

Unaware of the chaos that occurred in the Tempest, Trey Waters lays on a couch as a psychologist assesses him.
“Do you regret what you did Trey?” asks the psychologist as he sits with a pad in his hand waiting for Trey to answer. He is a novice psychic, unable to clearly read minds but can sense a persons aura.
Trey faces the ceiling with his hands on his chest. “Yes.”
“What specifically do you regret?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Trey replies with a monotone voice.
“Why not?” asks the psychologists.
“You’re not going to let me out of here no matter what I say…” he states.
“I am here to help you recover Trey. For you to get released you need more than just regret, you need to be rehabilitated.”
“It won’t matter, we’ll all be dead soon.”
The psychologist writes on his pad. “I assume you are referring to your theory that the world is going to end with a drill blowing up the earth’s core?”
Trey turns to his side and faces the psychologist. “It’s a vision… I don’t expect you to believe me.” The psychologist senses Trey’s emotions. He knows Trey honestly believes in his vision.
“You’re not going to get any better by holding onto this dream,” the psychologist states, “and you’re not going to recover until you can acknowledge what you did was wrong.”
“I tried to kill the Mayor… yes I understand trying to kill someone is wrong… but maybe if I succeeded the future I see might not occur. So if you ask me what I regret, it’s that I did not succeed in killing him.” Trey lies back onto his back and does not say a single word for the rest of the session. The psychologist writes notes: Trey Waters is not going to be released anytime soon… Little does he know that tonight will be the last night Trey will spend in the institution.

Lock Down (10)

When the steel doors closed and locked Liam, Charlie and the Intruder in the room, the events that followed were not exactly what Liam had advised Alia. The three were locked in the room both Charlie and Liam holding their firearms. The Intruder was trapped in the corner. Charlie began firing at the black figure as it dodged the shots.
Liam’s began to receive Alia’s messages through his earpiece. “Liam what’s going on?”
“We have the intruder cornered,” he replies. Charlie kept firing. Then electric currents surged through her body as she fell to the ground unconscious. The Intruder was a good three meters away from her. Liam had tazered Charlie from behind. The Intruder freezes. Liam continues to communicate to Alia. “It has taken down Major Jordan…” He points his gun and shoots it directly into the roof making holes in the ceiling. “Ahh!” Liam screams as he turns off his communicator. Liam glares at the Intruder.
“You stupid bitch,” he said. “You supposed to enter undetected!” He looks up at the hole he had shot. He pulls out of his pocket a small explosive shaped as a round ball. “This will distract them.” He throws the ball into the hole and it rolls through the air vent making a loud noise. He walks over to the corner of the room and the Intruder follows.
“The only way out during lock down is through the sewers,” he states. He pulls up a part of the wall where there is a large sewer pipe. He blasts a hole in the pipe about large enough to fit a human’s head. “GO!”
The Intruder squeezes its legs into the pipe, then torso and head until it is out of sight leaving with the core. Liam puts the wall piece back covering the Intruders exit. He pulls out a control from his pocket activating the bomb he had thrown into the vent causing it to explode. He quickly heads to the centre of the room next to Charlie and points his tazer gun at his chest. He pulls the trigger just in time for Alia to find him passed out. As he laid there unconscious, a single strand of long blonde hair floated on the floor of the room.

Lock Down (9)

“The Intruder entered room the 14th room on the 9th basement and activated the lock system to shut the door,” Liam explains to his audience Alia and Bison. Standing in the board room next to him is Charlie with her arms crossed. “Major Jordan and I managed to enter the room before the doors were sealed. Major Jordan began shooting at it, unsuccessfully hitting it. It swooped down and tazered her, knocking her unconscious. I began blasting at it, but it managed to avoid my shots and then tazered me… That’s all I remember.”
Alia looks at Charlie. “Do you have anything to ad?”
Charlie shakes her head.
“You both were unconscious for two hours, in that time we searched the entire vicinity. The Intruder managed to escape out of the building with the Core.” Alia states. She then glares directly at Liam. “You’re getting rusty Liam. Someone infiltrated the operation and you let them get away.”
Liam snarls at Alia and changes the subject. “Let the Mayor out of the Panic room. He has engagements to attend.” He does not make eye contact to Alia as he exits the room. Alia leaves after him.
Left in the room, Charlie approaches her Lieutenant.
“Bison, I want to apologise,” she says sincerely.
“For what?” Bison asks.
“The Intruder escaped from me twice, I won’t let it happen again.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bison reacts apathetically. Charlie looks confused at her unconcerned Leader. Bison walks out of the room as Charlie watches him leave.

Lock Down (8)

Liam, Alia and Bison are in the elevator heading down to the second lowest floor in the Tempest. As the elevator door opens Charlie is there with fifty soldiers.
“So it’s trapped on this floor?” Liam asks hurrying out of the elevator.
“It took down five of my soldiers without blinking,” Charlie replied.
“How can you see it blink? Apparently it’s wearing a mask.” Liam states bluntly. All fifty soldiers crowd around him. “I want everyone in groups of five. The Intruder is dangerous. We also want it alive, so we are using tazer bullets. One shot and it will be knocked out for an hour.”
Bison separates his troops into groups of five as ordered. Each group begins to scan the floor searching for the Intruder. Listening to the conversations the Intruder hides silently in the above air vent.

***

Alia along with four soldiers all creep slowly through the hallways. All of them on high alert hunting the Intruder. With her heighten senses Alia is the one that locates it. She stands still and peers around the hall, the Intruder not in sight. She closes her eyes and listens. “Nobody move.”
All her troops halt. Alia hears the air running in and out of her soldier’s nostrils. A fly buzzes around down the hallway, about 10 meters away from them. Then Alia hears creek in the ceiling directly above one of her troops. She quickly spins around and shoots the ceiling making a whole in the roof revealing the Intruder. It swoops out of the vent down to the floor taking out two soldiers as it lands then leaps through the hallway away from those that found it.
Alia’s eyes turn yellow and beings chasing the black figure. She contacts all the other soldiers with her ear piece. “The Intruder is heading down the west corridor.”
Liam’s and Charlies troops are the closest to the Intruder’s destination in the West Corridor. The see it jumping down towards them and both begin blasting at it with their guns. It dodges every shot as it manoeuvres into a room on the side of the hallway. Liam and Charlie rush into the room following it. A large steel door shuts the entrance that the three entered into. Alia reaches the doorway as it shuts. She is furious punching the door making dents in the steel.
Alia turns to her soldiers that have crowded around her. “Get this door open!” she demands. She contacts Liam directly through her earpiece. “Liam what’s going on?” Static is heard then Liam replies.
“We have the intruder cornered.” Static interrupts. “It has taken down Major Jordan…” shots are heard. “Ahh!” Liam screams before the transmission ends.
Above the troops that congregate in front of the sealed door they hear something shuffling through the air vent. Several troops chase the noise above them, shooting at the ceiling. Then the shuffling stops and then there is an explosion in the vent. The ceiling crashes down as pieces of the roof lands on the floor. It is only pieces of roof that fall, the Intruder is no where to be seen.
Alia deactivate the lock on the steel door as it opens. In the enclosed room Liam and Charlie lay unconscious on the floor.

Lock Down (7)

Virgil Dylan sits in his large chair in the middle of his office with his eyes shut. He slowly opens them as the door to his office opens. Reiken Waters enters while Virge stays seated.
“Afternoon Virge,” Reiken says. He walks up to the desk Virge remains silent. “I’m just going to cut to it… I need your help. I need to get Trey out of the Asylum.”
Virge peers at him. “What did you exactly have in mind?”
“Can you use your government connections and get him out?”
“That could take several weeks…” Virge pauses. “But I know someone that can help you and do it a lot faster. He’ll be just around the corner from the Arraign Asylum on the Century Bridge at 10 o’clock. Don’t be late.”
Reiken nods not questioning a word Virge says. He turns and exits the room. Virge shuts his eyes and concentrates.

Lock Down (6)

Nine levels underground Charlie Jordan gets a call from her Lieutenant. Her brown hair is tied up in a ponytail to stay out of her face and ears. Her earpiece lights up blue.
“Yes Bison, our unit will be on the look out,” she says to her caller. “The Intruder won’t get out of the building.” She hangs up the call. With her are five troops from her unit. She stands before them her with a riffle in her had. Dressed in grey and standing at five foot five, she is shorter than all the soldiers in front of her, yet they patiently wait for her to speak.
“We have gone into lock down… no one can get in or out of the building, we-” Charlie suddenly stops mid sentence and quickly raises her riffle and fires it. The shot narrowly misses one of her soldiers head. The soldiers duck and turn to see where Charlie had shot.
In the corner of the roof a figure dressed in black body suit from her to toe crouches holding a glowing blue tube. It leaps off the ceiling and dodges the bullet. The five soldiers grab their fire arms and begin to aim at the Intruder. The Intruder lands on the ground and slides sweeping two soldiers onto the ground. The guns begin to fire all missing the Intruder. The black figure rolls onto its side and with its arms pushes it body upright and stands facing another soldier. Before another shot is taken the Intruder head butts knocking the soldier unconscious. Still holding the Blue tube with one hand, the figure uses its free hand and grabs its opponent by the shirt before it can collapse to the floor. The Intruder swings the soldier around. Its legs are in the air and hit the other two soldiers in the face. The figure the releases the soldier and throws it to the ground. The only two left standing are Charlie and the Intruder.
Charlie charges towards the Intruder shooting with her riffle. The Intruder leaps up over her. The Intruder kicks Charlie in the face as it pounces past her. Charlie’s face is wounded but turns as the Intruder passes her. She keeps shooting but the figure is agile and misses the bullets and escapes out of the room.
Charlie looks around at her fallen troops, within ten seconds the Intruder had taken down five of her soldiers. She calls Bison with her earpiece.
“The Intruder is on the 9th basement level,” she states. “It’s fast, strong… and it has stolen another core.”

Lock Down (5)

The elevator doors open as the Mayor arrives on the 26th floor of the Tempest. He is accompanied by Liam and his bodyguard the Champion. They walk through the corridor into a meeting room where they are greeted by Bison.
“It is good to see you again Mr Mayor,” Bison says as the Mayor takes a seat.

***

Down on the 3rd level of the building Alia enters a control room where she can watch video surveillance of the building on a large computer. She looks through files to find the footage of two nights ago, when the black figure broke in and stole the Core. She stops what she’s doing as she smells something oddly familiar. She sniffs and turns around. She walks to the door and opens it to the hallway. She peers left then to the right then sniffs once again. She quickly rushes back to her computer and enters a code.
Suddenly metal curtains come down cover every window in the 72 levels of the building. An alarm begins to beep.
“LOCK DOWN! Intruder in the building,” says an announcement on the PA system, the announcement can be heard in every room.

***

Back on the 26th floor the meeting is interrupted by the alarm. Bison makes a phone call and a hologram of Alia appears.
“What is going on Alia?” Bison asks.
“We have an intruder in the building, it’s the black figure that stole the Core the other night,” she explains.
“Did you see him?” Bison asks.
“I smelt him,” Alia replies as she hangs up the call.
The deafening alarm continues as everyone in the room stands.
“Take the Mayor into the panic room down the hall,” Liam commands the Champion. “After the assassination attempt yesterday we cannot take any risks with this intruder.”
The Champion nods and leads the Mayor out of the room to a secure room where once in, can only open from the inside.
“Call your troops, we have an Intruder to catch,” Liam says to Bison.

Lock Down (4)

Rieken Waters walks through the hallway of the Arraign Asylum, he has visited his brother many times, but this is the first time that he has walked down this corridor. He follows a robot that leads him to a door. The robot opens it and Reiken walks into a padded cell. In the cell are a toilet and a tap in one corner and single bed in the centre of the room. Trey sits on the bed staring at the ground.
“Why did I have to see you in your room?” Reiken asks his brother. “Why aren’t you in the visitors lounge?” Trey slowly turns his head to look at his brother. His skin is pale and has bags under his eyes. His whole body quivers as if the room is freezing cold, but his cell is warm. Reiken examines his brother. Trey’s wrist is wrapped up in a bandage. “What happened to your wrist?”
“I was attacked last night at dinner,” Trey replies slowly. “I don’t want to go near the other patients… so they are letting me stay in my room.”
Reiken is speechless.
“Did you talk to Alia?” Trey asks staring into his brother’s eyes with hope.
“I did… she…” Reiken pauses, seeing his brother hurts in the state he is in is agonising. “Don’t worry Trey… I’ll get you out of here. I promise you.” He walks up to his brother and hugs him. “I promise…”

Lock Down (3)

On the 27th floor of the Tempest is a level devoted to the eight government psychics. Half the floor is taken up by a large machine that only the psychics can use, the other half is a lab. It is an hour before midday as Maddy Chambers wanders through the lab. One of the eight psychics is researching at a table and sees him, he approaches Maddy.
“What are you doing in here little one?” the man asks. Although he can read the boys mind he does not. All government psychics are not allowed to probe other people’s minds without consent. “Are you lost?”
The entrance to the lab opens as Eve walks in. Maddy and the Psychic turn to her.
“There you are Maddy,” she says walking up to the boy and takes his hand. “I do apologise, he just wandered off.”
“Not a problem,” the Psychic says smiling at her. Eve returns the smile and skips out of the room with her son. As the door slides shut, Maddy pears back into the lab staring at the psychic. His eyes are focused on him. Eve leans down and whispers in his ear as the door shuts and the two are no longer in the psychic’s sight.

Lock Down (2)

The Vincent building is hosts many events and meetings. After the Phaser building and the Tempest, the Vincent building is the third largest sky scraper in the city. On the 34th floors a press conference is being held for the Mayor. He stands behind a podium with eight microphones in front of his face. Standing before him are dozens of reporters, humans and aliens of all kinds asking him questions.
“Humans as a species have a lot to learn,” the Mayor states. “In this day and age we are fortunate enough to have such close contact with so many other non human life forms that we can learn from them and improve ourselves as a species.”
“What exactly do you mean by that Mr. Mayor?” a reporter asks.
“Well take for example the Martians. Seventy years ago we came into contact with them and they taught a select few humans how to tap into a part of their brains to read other peoples minds. They also taught them telekinesis, without this we wouldn’t have psychics we know them today,” the Mayor answers.
“Mr. Mayor,” a human report from the crowd draws the Mayors attention. “What do you say to the allegations that you favour other alien species more than humans?”
“I say I do not discriminate any species,” he rebuts. “As you can see I am married to Valliant, not a human. It’s not that I prefer other species more than humans, I simply believe that everyone deserves equal respect, whether they are from this planet or another.” Standing on the side of the stage is the Mayors wife. Her skin is bright blue, her entire body including her head is completley hairless. The colour of her eyes is like crystal, they change at each angle the light shone on them. Beside her is her daughter, half human and half Valliant, she is also blue skin but had long brown hair flowing from her head.
Liam is standing behind the Mayor while he addresses the press. He walks towards him and whispers in his ear. The Mayor turns to his audience.
“Thank you for all your time today but I am afraid that is all the questions I will be able to answer for now. I appreciate you all coming out. Good day,” he says as he walks off the stage.
“You handled the questions very well Sir,” Liam compliments.
“Thank you Liam, what is on the schedule now?”
“We are heading back to the Tempest, you have a meeting with Lieutenant Bison Thames,” Liam advises. Liam and the Mayor head to the roof to a helicopter to take them to their next appointment.