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

As they crept down the hallway, she whispered in Evan's ear, "and you can definitely only call me Ghost Girl. Got it?" He nodded again. He had only pretended to be ready to give away her name to stall Business Suit, but since they merely left him unconscious and bound to a chair, maybe it wasn't the best idea to give him the notion that Evan really knew her name.

Pearl suddenly held up a hand, and everyone stopped at the corner of the hallway. It led to a large balcony that overlooked a central hub of travel. There was a huge commotion as dozens and dozens of guards swarmed over the premises. "Neptune curse it" she stamped her foot. "Its like someone poked an anthill. Wait, where are they going?"

"Something is happening" whispered the disembodied voice. "This could be good for us. Confusion is our best disguise." Evan moved forward to point out an open lift on the opposite side from the commotion.

Then something exploded.

Chapter 17: It Rises

They approached their destination with an air of finality. In mere minutes, everything would change. The Angler just hoped he would still be around to witness it. The transport rumbled to a halt at they reached a staging checkpoint. From here on out, their convoy would be far to suspicious. There was only one last dash towards the heights of the city.

The plan was simple. No police force could assemble in time. The only possible obstacle was any business or organization that was keeping a security detail to protect their secrets. Knowing the state of the shadow organization, they probably had several small armies scattered around the place. A few key figures had sponsored this attack, but the majority of the organization as about to be blindsided. The Angler saw a glimpse of Vicious giving some final orders. She was taking a mighty risk. It just might pay off though. The drivers hit full throttle on the transports, and they accelerated towards their doom or salvation.

The Angler meditated in silence. He silently felt the vial hidden under his sleeve. It was identical to the empty syringe that the troops had confiscated from Alina, unwitting of what it could mean. It was a last resort. He so desperately wished that he could simply inject himself and solve every problem, but fate had not graced him with her blessing.

Nearly two years ago, Angler team had been involved with shutting down a rival operation. Their specialty in chemical warfare threatened to upend the uneasy alliance that the shadow organization was built upon. The founders of this other illicit company had intents to change the world order and finally bring peace to the cycle of wars that raged across the city years before. Their business and laboratory was ruthlessly ripped apart in a devastating blow. In a desperate attempt to prevent their product from unleashing chaos, they destroyed it all.

Or so they thought. One lone scientist still carried the dream of a new world order. She was a spy who had infiltrated the Anglers, and after she was caught, she sought to pass her secret legacy onwards. Only the Angler had seen the signs. The woman was not strong. Her broken mind and body had fooled even the most experienced interrogators. The Angler had retrieved two key pieces of information from her. The first led him to a secret notebook buried under five tons of asphalt. It took him over a year to figure out the chemistry of the formulas involved. The second piece was a document in the Records office. He only just figured it out when he used a covert operation as an excuse to sneak into the office. It would only be if Alina had taken the formula, if she even realized what she needed to do, and if she decided to take his side that he would he succeed.

He had kept a list of everyone involved in the rogue chemical operation. Most of them were loose ends that he silenced. He hadn't even realize that he had missed her until he noticed her investigating the situation months later. No, it wasn't an accident that she had been captured that night. She hadn't been anywhere near the blast, but the Angler had spotted her and decided to eliminate her in the chaos. When the shadow organization tried to silence and gather all those who had witnessed the event, he made sure to point her out. When his fortunes flipped on his head, so did hers. Her search that had nearly been her final mistake turned out to be her saving grace. Now he knew how to control her by tempting her with what she desired to know most. He showed her a single document, and she was hooked. Now it was all on her. The Angler put on his specialized earplugs.

The radio flickered. It was showtime. The silence was interrupted in a torrent of chaotic activity. Dozens of officers barked orders into their headsets. A wave of armed criminals overtook the hastily constructed police barricade and stormed towards their target.

It was over before it began. No one could stop them. In a flash, he stood beside the tall iron box. The entirety of Dark Sun looked down on him from a safe distance. The Angel was slowly floating backwards as her mental grip on the creature waned. In ten seconds the Axolotl would be free whether or not he opened the door. In ten seconds, he would be dead. The Angler took a deep breath and spoke a solemn verse. "Blessed is he who doth stand before the deep." One way or another they would be his last words in this world. In ten seconds, the world would be rendered anew.

He turned towards the platform where Vicious held Alina captive. She had stopped taunting her victim to watch her would-be usurper get his just desserts. No one noticed the girl stare back at him or nod. He took off to get as far away from the explosion as he could. Vicious jeered as she saw her enemy break in cowardice. She never saw it coming.

The air began to hum. No one took great offence, since they had never seen the Axolotl activate her powers up close before. The pitch began to rise and grow in volume, and several troopers began to hold their ears in pain. Then the Angel fell to the ground in agony, and a rolling panic began to set in. The sound wasn't coming from the box. The very air seemed to vibrate as several lower harmonics joined the fray. All eyes traced the hazy vibrations back to the source and gasped.

Alina was floating. Her silhouette was blurred with the power surging through her. Several guns opened fire on her, but an invisible bubble of pressure stopped the bullets midair. Everyone's attention was fractured when the explosion happened. The box and platform it sat on were instantly obliterated in the blast. The shockwave and flames consumed the Angler before he got to safety. The shockwave continued to shatter all windows within a three block radius. The adjacent skyscrapers groaned under the damage caused to their sides. The Angel was not yet recovered enough to control the Axolotl. The plan went haywire as everyone tried to shoot or run to safety.

The flames cleared and the Angler stood unharmed. Not only did the Angler hold one of the most dangerous secrets in the world, he held two. The two pieces of information that he recovered from the broken spy led him to the secrets of a world about to be upended. He had discovered the long fantasized secret of making Powered, and he could predict what they would become. A genetic library of all (legal) citizens of the city was kept under lock and key, but of course he had a copy. Given any genetic code, he could predict what Powers that person would develop when given his serum.

Sound is an interesting thing. It consisted of pressure waves in the air. Even the blast of a bomb can be stopped if the air simply lets nothing through it. Alina just stared at him with demanding eyes. It usually takes Powered years to realize their true potential. Powers don't change, but they can take a long time to be figured out. The serum that Alina had taken was no exception to that. It was only because he had shown her exactly what she would capable of that she was able to control it.

Now he had unleashed a new beast upon the city and he wasn't talking about the Axolotl. He could not take her powers back, and he was unwilling to inject himself to compare with her power. He had given her power, and she would almost certainly try to use it against him. It would be a dangerous game, but she would yet be his to control. Now, however, he needed her to help him to safety.

Unfortunately, the power ran to her head. Finally, she could punish those who unleashed havoc upon the world. Sonic pulses emitted from her palms laid waste to droves of troops. A mass wave of retreating soldiers began to scramble into the cover of the nearby building. But that was just the beginning. On the way in, they met droves of guards wielding melee weapons. The Angler noticed their surprising numbers and realized that they had disturbed a nest of some faction of the shadow organization.

The battle raged throughout long white hallways as both raging Powered chased them indoors. Each wall was lined with a long series of massive chambers. They were filled with some sort of blue goo and were dangerously close to being punctured or smashed. The Angler took shelter behind a tube in a corner. As he thought of his next move, a slow swirling caught his attention.

Something was in there. It's two legs were thick like and elephant and covered in warts. Looking at the nearby tubes, he saw several other types of abominations. A wave of fear and realization came over him. He was still sure his formula remained a secret, but he no longer felt secure in his assertion that he held the only key to the future. Someone else was making monsters.

Pearl quickly thrust Evan behind a vending machine as several more guards ran past them. The guards just kept coming. This facility must have been massive to warrant such a large presence. Looking around for another opportunity to slip away she cursed.

"Neptune's depths. There are way too many of them." She looked back at Evan still recovering from the blast that knocked everyone off their feet. "You okay?" He nodded groggily. Their options were limited. None of the lifts appeared to be working in the wake of the explosion. The staircases were plugged with guards, so escaping that way was not an option either.

"Hey! Who are you?" yelled a gruff voice. Pearl picked Evan up to his feet and began to run from the observant guard. Several more baton wielding thugs joined in the pursuit.

"At least they don't have guns" she observed. "Wait, why don't they?" Her question was soon answered, as they ran out of room to run and ducked into a side room. Like most of the other rooms in the facility the room was huge and white. "Oh no" she breathed. "We're here."

"You've been here before?" questioned Evan. She didn't respond as she took in the rows upon rows of massive blue filled chambers.

"I took care of those guys, but there will be more" came a voice out of midair. Ghost Girl continued "we have to keep moving." Pearl scouted for an exit.

"Come on!" she shouted as she located a ground level vent behind one of the machines. A ventilation system was a far better option than walking around exposed, even if it didn't lead downwards. She focused her power and smashed the flimsy metal apart. "I've got it. Lets go!" She looked around and saw Evan staring at one of the tubes. "No time, lets GO!"

He didn't budge. He didn't even acknowledge that he heard her. "Hey we have to get out of here!" she said with urgency as she ran back to him. Then she saw what he was looking at. He was transfixed by the sight of what floated in one of the tubes. His face looked like he had seen a ghost. "Oh no" she whispered again.

"Mom."

A tall golden blonde woman floated in her tube. Her long limbs embodied her slender grace. Her entire body beneath her neck had been shaved of hair. The blue jelly apparently sustained humans without breathing as her pulse could be seen slowly throbbing on a vein in her neck. She was only visible because she had floated to the front edge of the tube designed to fit something much larger than herself. Her teardrop breasts pushed into the glass which smooshed her nipples upwards.

Evan began to frantically search around the tube for a control panel. Pearl was torn. She could just tell him to abandon his mother, but they simply did not have time. Before she could make a decision, the doors slammed open.

The newcomers were dressed in a completely different military garb than the other guards. Pearl started in a shock as they pulled out guns and opened fire. She tackled Evan behind the tube as bullets ricocheted around the tiles. Suddenly the shooters were shot in the back themselves. An invisible hand threw a pistol to the ground.

Pearl and Evan didn't even notice as they saw the cracks begin to spread. A bullet had nicked the tube, and the high pressure gel inside was slowly breaking free of it's confinement. At last the entire cylinder shattered and collapsed. Pearl looked at Evan in his state of delirium and made a decision.

"Head to the vent. I'll carry her." She bent over to pick up the woman where she had fallen on the edge of the blue gel. She grabbed her around the shoulders, but jumped back with a shriek as if shocked by lightning. The blue stuff BURNED. It was ice cold, incurred a sensation akin to instantly being frostbitten. She wiped her hands clean of the stuff on the floor, but her entire arms felt drained. "Neptune's trident! Don't get that stuff on you. It feels like the depths."

Evan ignored her and moved to pull his mother from the offending substance. He gritted his teeth in pain but had a much less severe reaction to the contact.

"Look around" came the invisible voice. "Not all of these things are human. I think this is some sort of suppressive chemical. It might affect us Powered more than him." Suddenly a loud hissing could be heard. A blue-green gas began to seep from vents in the ceiling and floor. "Neptune's depths! They are flooding this place in something. We have to get out of here NOW!"

With the strength equal to what he felt while beating up Maniac, Evan began to run with his tall lanky mother in his arms. They just managed to escape the room and close the door before being engulfed. Luckily the hallway was still unsaturated. Unluckily, they ran out of the pot an into the fire. Chaos erupted all around them. Goons in security vests wielding melee weapons fought ruthlessly against a much smaller number of armed soldiers in black. A loud screech filled the air, and two unlucky fighters were thrown through a wall by a massive slimy woman.

An unarmed young man in a military outfit ran right into them in his escape. Pearl made to knock him out, but hesitated when he held up his empty hands. "Wait! I can help you. You need to escape this? I have a way out. All you have to do is get me close enough to talk to her." He motioned towards the edge of their vision. A floating girl unleashed pulsing waves of sound that tossed aside all who were unlucky or stupid enough to get near her.

Pearl stared at the man for a second, but she didn't see any other option. "Fine, but you better have a plan." She turned to figure out how she was going to get close to the deafening sound waves, but Evan was already ahead of her. She stared wide-eyed as he walked too close to the danger.

"Leena?!?"

The girl stopped and gaped in shock at her childhood friend. She zoomed over and held up a protective bubble that silence all outside noise. "Evan?"

Their connection was broken by the Angler. "Listen Alina. You have to get me out of here. I'm the only one that can help you." He paused for a moment to reconsider his situation. "You know this boy. These people also need your help. You have to get us out of here."

Leena stood frozen in a state of disbelief and confusion until Evan spoke. "Leena. Can you get us out?" She slowly lifted back into the air and closed her eyes.

"Focus" spoke the Angler softly. "There is nothing but you and us here. Just lift us up. We both know it is possible." Evan, Pearl, and presumably Ghost Girl stared at this strange man. Leena gasped in frustration.

"I can't get it. I can barely keep this bubble up. That stuff still burns. I can't keep my head straight." An explosion of some sort resounded across the surface of the bubble. For a second it wavered, and rapid staccato slivers of chaos breached the inner sanctum. "I can try to walk us out of here, but that one" she pointed at Pearl "will have to protect you from whatever gets inside."

They started down the hallway, and Pearl was forced to dash around the inside of the bubble to deal with any adversaries that entered the folds. The lower edges of the bubble were weak due to allowing it to slide across the ground, and several unlucky soldiers slipped through. Their progress was halted by the presence of a gangly man in a dirty smock flanked by a dozen like-dressed henchmen. They dragged along a curvy naked woman in chains.

"Killcreek" muttered the Angler in wariness and disgust.

"Dolphin" gasped an invisible voice as she saw the chained superheroine behind him. The Angler whirled around to locate the new voice, but he didn't have much time to think about it. Killcreek pointed at the hovering Leena, and the Dolphin reluctantly threw a sonic blast that shattered the bubble. Leena was thrown backwards, and Pearl dove to the side of the hallway, to push Evan and his mother to safety.

The Angler yelled something imperceptible over the din of the firefight. Pearl watched Killcreek tilt his head and appraise the young man. The Angler made a motion towards Leena's slowly recovering form, and extended his hand. The tilted sneer on Killcreek's face morphed into a grin as he shook hands. Then, he motioned to his followers and moved down the hall past everyone. He continued to use the Dophin to knock out clusters of fighting. As he passed Pearl, he took a sideways glance at her and winked.

Suddenly, the Dolphin was thrown to the side. An invisible force caused havoc in the middle of Killcreek's goons. "Ghost Girl come back" yelled Pearl, but the invisible lady was on a mission to free her comrade. Killcreek grabbed a wounded soldier and cut his neck with a long sickle knife. He angled the blood spray towards the threat. Ghost Girl was coated in a thin spray, and Killcreek grabbed her by the throat.

With surprising strength he lifted her off her feet. "Another for my collection" he laughed. He tweaked a soaked nipple, and she faded out of invisibility due to the lack of oxygen.

Suddenly the room darkened. Evan looked up in wonder as Pearl rose from the floor. Her eyes were the same color as her costume. The opalescent glow bathed the room in an eerie light. All the sounds began to quiet down. All over the hallway, people noticed their skin glowing. The space between life forms continued to dim as everything faded away but life. Evan felt himself lurch and begin to float along with the rest of the room. Bullets hung in midair as if time itself had stopped. Pearl's glow grew ever brighter, and Evan had to shield his eyes.

Then two things happened. The Axolotl burst through the wall into the hallway, and Killcreek stabbed his knife into the Dolphin's thigh. She let out another sonic blast that caught the Axolotl in full stride. In an instant, the blast became an explosion that tore tiling from the floor and tossed bodies aside like bowling pins in a hurricane.

The blast shattered the remaining tanks of blue jelly, and without thinking, Evan threw himself in front of Pearl. The explosion caught him just as the gel did. He screamed in agony as the searing cold of the gel splattered across his chest drained the life from him. He crumpled on the ground next to his mother. Pearl had been shielded from the worst of it, but her right arm hung limply from her side. A blob of the gel had paralyzed it, and she could barely crawl over to Evan to drag him behind a broken cabinet.