A Pearl Before Swine Pt. 05 Ch. 15-18

Welcome to the final installment of A Pearl Before Swine: Act One. Get ready for a big climax. This one is a bit longer than the previous parts. I cant believe Act One is over 36k words. No promises, but I am aiming for at least three acts of this story not counting stand alone works in the universe.

Table of Contents:

ACT ONE: Rising Tides

Parts 1-4:

Prologue: Moonlit Jellies on a Restful Night

Chapter 1: A Ray of Sunshine

Chapter 2: It Stirs

Chapter 3: A Day of Confusion

Chapter 4: Tracks Revealed on a Peaceful Evening

Chapter 5: It Beckons

Chapter 6: A Search for Meaning

Chapter 7: Hypnotic Dances on a Hidden Stage

Chapter 8: A Descent to Despair

Chapter 9: It Searches

Chapter 10: Hazy Dreams on a Lucid Tide

Chapter 11: It Speaks

Chapter 12: A Rite of Passage

Chapter 13: It Plots

Chapter 14: Dark Secrets on a Twisted Path

Part 5: (You are here)

Chapter 15: A Day of Revelation

Chapter 16: It Stirs

Chapter 17: It Rises

Chapter 18: A City Before Swine

ACT TWO: Swells Upon the Shore (coming up)

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Chapter 15: A Day of Revelation

The warmth of the morning sun slowly woke him up. Evan smiled. The past week of sleepless nights had taxed his body to the limits, but he didn't even feel it. His body felt like it was floating on the air, and endorphins rushed to his brain to push out the grief.

Sierra had kissed him. He stood from the stony ramparts that formed his late night bed. The aches of sleeping on the hard surface was long since evaporated along with his exhaustion. She had kissed him. He shook his head. He had spoken to her a single digit number of times, and hadn't really thought about her at all prior to a few days ago. He didn't even remember her last name.

He glanced at where she had kissed him while they sat and watched the stars. She had apparently picked up and left while he was sleeping. She had entered a note on his holo pad. "That was fun. Lets do it again sometime."

Finally Evan sobered up. His mother and friend were still missing, and he had a job to do. The so called Office of the Registry (colloquially referred to as the Records Office) handled all sorts of official documentation for the city. Inside their database was a set of files with the ID number he had discovered last night.

He had checked his holo pad last night to see if the information he was seeking was public, but as expected, the search yielded no results. Each sector of the city had its own Records building, but only Sector 1 stored critical classified information. Out of habit more than anything since his mother constantly worked with classified information, Evan took a bullet bike to the central Records office. Sitting down at a terminal, he plugged in the file ID into the search bar and waited for results.

Nothing. The file did not exist. Evan banged his fist on the desk, and several nearby people shushed him. He was sure this number went to the Records office. He knew of no other numbers used by the city that were eleven digits. Maybe the numbers were just another code that he had to decipher. Thinking back to anything that could help him, he thought of one desperate option. His mother's entire job premise was to transcribe paper documents that were unable to be transcribed by machines to electronic formats. It was a long shot, but the file he needed could be back with the physical filing system.

Looking around at all the security, he wondered if it was worth it. It was such a low probability of being a correct guess and such a high probability of screwing up his life. He glanced back at the terminal, and the default browser news article caught his eye. "Crime spree spreads across the city in the wake of NEXUS attack". He grimaced in determination. Leena and his mother were still out there. He had to try.

He circled to the back of the building. The records required several large servers, so there was a large fenced off area containing a high volume power transformer and several large vents for cooling the circuitry. Downtown Evan bought a toolkit and a large hooded coat. Disguising his face and form, he came back to the building, jumped the fence, and began loosening a vent cover. When it was finished, he used some spare stacks of wood lying around to boost himself up into the ventilation system.

His face was constantly blasted with hot air that grew hotter as he approached the servers. Eventually he found a narrow passage that was cool enough to reach the end of. It exited into the ceiling of a maintenance hallway. Dropping into the hall, he navigated his way to the physical library. The heavy security door was already cracked open. Cautiously he snuck in. Then, as he turned a corner, she backed up into him.

They both fell down out of shock, and all the papers she was holding scattered across the floor. Evan scrambled to run away, but when she did the same, he stopped and stared for a moment. "Kaitlyn?"

His private investigator froze and stared back at him frozen in fear. He couldn't take his eyes off her. It was probably because she was naked. Her pink skin stood at sharp contrast with the dreary grey and brown floors and shelves. Her healthy C-cups slowly stopped jiggling, and she subconsciously attempted to cover herself.

"What in Neptune's depths?" he said amazed. "What are you doing here?" Her mouth moved in a failed attempt to form a sentence, and then she suddenly vanished. "WHAT??" Evan almost yelled as he stumbled away in shock.

"Shhhshshshh" she quietly tried to shush him. "This is dangerous. You can't tell anyone, and you have to get out of here now."

"You're a Powered?" he asked. "And you can turn invisible?"

"I'll explain later. Right now, you need to go. Its not safe here."

She pushed him towards the door, but he pulled out the number on his holo pad and hurriedly began to tell her his tale. "I've got a clue. I followed that mysterious note, and it gave me a number that I think goes with a file in this room." He couldn't see her, so he had no idea if she was listening or if she was even still around him.

Finally she spoke. "Fine, but we have to hurry." They followed the cataloging system until they found the shelf of pull-out drawers containing thousands of folders. "I've got it" she said, and a large manilla folder levitated into midair. Just then a loud clang echoed in the distance. "Take it an move" she whispered to him as she shoved the folder into his arms. "I'll draw them off while you go back wherever you came from."

"Who are they? Is their security that amped up?" Evan asked.

"There are a lot of things that could be hidden here that people don't want found" she answered. Evan snuck back to the open door while Kaitlyn scouted ahead. Eventually she tapped his shoulder as an 'all clear', and he ran back down the maintenance hallway to his exit. As he used pulled himself back up into the vents he heard a loud commotion followed by a lot of shouting, but there was nothing he could do for her if she was in trouble. He hoped she would be successful in escaping.

He fell out of the vent outside, and replaced the grating. There was some sort of alarm going off in the main complex, so he hustled down the street to call a bullet bike. Back at home, he spread the files out on the kitchen table. There were a wide variety of technical engineering documents from floor plans to all sorts of strange devices. The main focus of the folder seemed to be some sort of tube shaped device similar to his water bed. It was labeled as a medical device, and the documentation described it's capabilities as a regulating fluid chamber that could apply precise doses of treatments along with dozens of other medical terms that Evan didn't really understand.

He messaged Sierra what he had found, and within five seconds, she had responded demanding to meet up. They met at the abandoned church again, and Evan showed her the documents. She seemed shocked and alarmed. "I have no idea what this has to do with my mother" he stated. "These are just some technical documents for some experimental medical technology. I don't think the numbers we found were actually a Records ID number. It doesn't make any sense. Do you know what this is?"

"No, no" she said nervously as she finished scanning the documents into her holo pad. "Listen, this could be bad. These aren't old documents. The fact that they were excluded from the electronic archive, even as a classified document means that someone really doesn't want these to be found. It might even be illegal. You need to go home and hide this stuff."

"Oh I don't know about that" said a new voice that made them both jump. A darkly clad figure and a dozen more armed soldiers moved forward to surround them.

"Who in Neptune's depths are you?" Evan stammered. "What's going on?" He wondered if they had followed him from the Records office.

He saw them slip a bag over Sierra's head before the same happened to him. He kicked out wildly, but they were far too strong, and the chemical stench began to push him towards unconsciousness.

His last thought before slipping into darkness was that he should never have gotten her involved.

Chapter 16: It Stirs

"Its all coming together" the Angler thought to himself as he watched the final preparations take place. "Win or lose, it happens tonight." The large metal crate was loaded into an industrial troop transport, and the entirety of the Dark Sun was gathering to head out to their final destination. All the prisoners had been released in a 'prison break' to reinforce the rumors of the terrorist cell. Vicious was planning to slaughter them all as a message, but word came in from an unknown benefactor to let them go. All prisoners were released, bar one.

Alina was still locked in her room. Vicious had never even looked at her or seemed to realize she was still around after her pepper spray attack, but the Angler knew better than to presume that she could ever let go of a grudge. "Now I'm on that list too" he quietly mused. He had usurped her position, and slighted her station, and now she would never forgive him. He was a dead man walking, and everyone knew it; however, quick and easy was never her style. She needed to humiliate him and assert her dominance.

Her primal need for supplicant compliance would be her downfall. "I'm not finished just yet" he smiled grimly. He had studied his mistakes. He had hurdled past so many obstacles the night he was promoted, that he grew hesitant of overstepping his bounds. Now he knew the game. Now he must have no bounds. Unbridled ambition wielded by his insight and patience could turn this city on its head. But first, he would have to survive the night. Tasked with opening the door of the captive Axolotl as she unleashed the depths upon the upper city, no one saw any escape for him. Putting a resigned look upon his face, he took his place amongst the troops.

Vicious couldn't resist a jab. "O' cometh our glorious LEADER" she mocked. She marched forward with such an air of superiority that all the troopers sitting near him shrank in an attempt to disappear. She looked down on him with a satisfied grimace. "Now you see your mistake. You should have known your place ... at my fucking boots." The Angler only lowered his eyes. He didn't even have to act to look cowed.

She brought Alina to her own private transport. The Angler watched her being led into the back in chains. No doubt it was her destiny to die tonight as well. All those who have demeaned Vicious defeated in a single night of glory. Alina snuck a glance back at him as she was loaded. He nodded almost imperceptibly. She was searched, and they pulled a syringe out of her pocket. It was empty. No, he was not finished yet. His hopes lay in a girl who was being led to the slaughter, a girl who despised him, a girl who only suspected that he could give her what she so desperately desired. If he had read her wrong in the slightest, the game was over.

Not a soul in the world knew what he knew, what a broken spy had managed to protect from all the greatest torturers and manipulators, what she revealed only to him in a final hail mary before she died out of the pure necessity to keep the secret alive. He wasn't in this just for criminal power. His ambition had grown far beyond that now. In retrospect, it was incredibly lucky that Alina had been captured that night, although perhaps it wasn't quite coincidence. The ball had begun to roll downhill, and nothing could stop it now.

Bright lights blasted Evan awake as the bag was torn off his head. The room he was tied up in was very white and shiny. The man who captured him was sitting at a blue-grey metal desk anchored in a corner. Two armed guards stood watch at the door. Evan looked around and saw Sierra tied to a chair with the bag still over her head. He tried to say something but found his mouth gagged with bulky cloth.

The man at the desk just laughed. "Oh what's that? You want her to be safe? Well here's the deal. She's not safe. She's gonna die. She's gonna bleed. I can't wait to hear her scream." He laughed harder as Evan tried to shake off the military grade knots around him. "But unfortunately, my boss plays nice, at least at first. I'm gonna bet he's gonna offer to trade her safety for what he's after." He leaned in closer. "Please be made of sterner stuff than that. I really wanna see how far you can last while I peel her in some places and ... puncture her in others." He winked savagely.

"Who's she" came a stern voice. A man in a Business Suit walked into the room carrying a large briefcase. His inset dark eyes glowered from beneath a wide brimmed bowler hat. "Is this him?"

"Yeah boss. He's the twerp. And her? No clue. We bagged her with him. I haven't even gotten a good look at her yet. I think I'm gonna save her face for last this time. You know what they say. Leave something to the imagination right?"

"If you are going to start behaving yourself like Killcreek, I just might feed you to him" Business Suit scolded. "We are on the Neptune cursed brink right now. No. Messing. Around."

"Aww, y'know I'll never turn on ya for that clown." The maniac almost seemed apologetic for a moment. Then his face split into a wicked grin. "Besides, he takes all the good pieces to himself."

Business Suit just ignored him. He removed Evan's gag and began to question. "I am going to keep this simple. What were you after in the Records office? Who were you with? What information led you to this point? Three questions. I am going to listen to three answers. If you tell me what I need to know, you and her can go."

Evan's mind was wandering. Why did he want to know what he took? He remembered dropping the papers when he was abducted, but surely they picked it up. Maybe it was just a test to see if he told the truth?

"How about this" he hardened his resolve. "You send her home unscathed and unfollowed. When she gets somewhere safe, she gives me a call." He indicated his holo pad sitting in a pile of his belongings. His face darkened, and he stared back at the man with all the fury stored up from his week-long ordeal. "I've just about had it with things going wrong. My mouth is sealed with an iron grip tighter than Vesta's clam. And if you try to sic that lunatic on her, I'll laugh as you slowly despair of ever learning anything from me."

Business Suit just silently mulled over his outburst. After a pauses, he just huffed in a gesture something akin to amusement or approval. "Alright. Tit for tat. But, I need something first. You tell me who that invisible bitch that helped you break in is, and this one goes free."

The Maniac walked over and held a knife to the rope around Sierra's throat. "This knife either cuts shallow, or it cuts deep. Your choice my friend. STOP struggling girly." Sierra had begun to struggle, but Evan was the only one looking at her. She was shaking her head no.

With two pairs of eyes and three pairs of ears focusing on nothing but his move, Evan smiled. "It's your lucky day. I know exactly who that bitch is. In fact, she's probably panicking right now knowing that I could ruin her life with a single sentence." Business Suit craned in. Evan smiled politely and began to count, "Three, two, one ..."

Business Suit's eyes narrowed in confusion, but he was too slow. No one had been turned to see the briefcase being lifted over his head except Evan. As the case came down on Business Suit's head, Evan shrugged off the newly cut ropes and tried to throw Maniac off of Sierra.

With a heartbreaking wrench, he realized that he was the one who was too slow now. The world seemed to move in slow motion. Maniac roared in defiance, and his knife slashed across Sierra's throat. She crumpled in a heap as Evan threw the man against the wall. Maniac was lean and strong, but it would have taken a Powered to defeat Evan in that moment. He knocked the knife to the floor with a slap, and pinned Maniac's throat against the wall. His other hand began to slam relentlessly into Maniac's torso. He barely felt four pairs of hands attempting to pull him away as both Maniac and the invisible lady who rescued him struggled to overcome his rage.

Then a third pair of hands touched his shoulder. Maniac was dropped to the floor forgotten as Evan turned in disbelief. Sierra smiled at him alive and unharmed. "He missed" she started before being taken off her feet in his weeping embrace. It didn't even register to Evan that he had seen the knife press solidly against her currently unblemished skin.

"Sorry to interrupt" came a soft voice from midair, "but we are still in trouble here. I can sneak in and out, but I am sorry to say that I cannot get you two out of here safely."

"I can."

You could hear the drop of a pen as both Evan and the invisible lady stared at the ordinary girl. Sierra walked to her discarded bag in the corner of the room. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out a long shimmering piece of OlympiaWeave.

"You're the Pearl" whispered a breathless voice.

"You're a Pearl?" Evan gaped.

"I guess it is time" she smiled softly at him. "A secret does no good if I can't answer the call." She held the suit aloft and stood for a moment in resolution. "Turn around."

Still in a trance, Evan did what she asked without thinking. Without the revelation of his life standing in front of him, he began to blink. His coddled brain failed to figure it out in time. He turned back trying to figure out what in the world was happening today, and then he saw her.

Her long toned legs showed subtle signs of the power in her body. Every inch of her back was smooth and perfect. Her narrow but round cheeks rippled as she lifted her legs into her costume. He had never realized how beautiful her body was until he saw her naked curves even from the back. As she pulled her costume up to her waist, Evan's reverie was suddenly broken by an "ahem".

His eyes grew wide as saucers, and his face turned red as beets as she looked back over her shoulder to see him staring. She turned towards him while holding her slender arm over her breasts and giggled. "Tsk tsk tsk. You're cute when you're sweating bullets like that."

She pulled on her costume, and grew serious. This is going to be dangerous. Evan, you stick right with me and do everything I say without hesitation." She turned and looked at an empty slice of air. "I would appreciate your assistance. I need all the distractions I can get."

"You can see me?" asked the apparently not so invisible lady.

"I can see ... an aura" responded the Pearl. I don't really know, my powers are still developing.

"Alright" said the voice in the air again. "I snuck in, but we need a different way out. We're high up in the Light zone of Sector 1, so we really need to find a working elevator before the alarms start sounding. It's a long way down. Everyone ready?" When they nodded, she added "oh by the way, you can call me Ghost Girl".