A Pearl Before Swine Pt. 06 Ch. 19-21

A Pearl Before Swine returns for Act Two! Buckle in as the drama escalates. A lot is going to happen very quickly. Time for our protagonists to deal with the new world they now live in.

Table Of Contents:

ACT ONE: Rising Tides (Parts 1-5)

ACT TWO: Swells Upon the Shore

Part 6: (You are here)

Prologue: King of Kings

Chapter 19: A Beacon of Hope

Chapter 20: It Grows

Chapter 21: Brewing Vengeance

Part 7: (Coming Up)

Chapter 22: New Conflicts on a Fateful Day

Chapter 23: Spilled Secrets on a Fateful Evening

Chapter 24: A Curse of Nightmares

Chapter 25: Unseen, Unsaved, Unbroken

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACT TWO: Swells Upon the Shore

Prologue: King of Kings

It was dark beneath the crypt. Lit by oil rag torches, the darkness stemmed not from light but from atmosphere. The oppressive weight hung in the air like a dense fog. The air itself was thick and stale. Charcoaled whale oil was the only scent that broke the ancient smell. The whispered roar of torches was the only sound that broke the stony silence. The undisturbed steps wound deeper and deeper into the abyss that seemed to never end.

No man had walked this path in years. No database held record of it's depths. Great magic had been placed upon it's walls to ensure that none could find it accidentally. 13 people in the world once knew of it's location, but 10 of them were killed on the spot once the job was done. Their bodies rotted to bone in a cell along some lonesome passage. Of the remaining three, there was a pact. The old man died of natural causes less than a month later. The strain of the job had brought him to the brink. The strong woman died eliminating the leftover rogue Powered in the final battles of the last Powered War. The third was supposed to die in a break-in gone wrong. The other two did not trust the quiet one to take the secret to his grave. Ten assassins were hired to ensure his end of the pact. His body was found the next day surrounded by the bodies of nine assassins. And so the pact was sealed. If the other two had broken their end of the bargain to live long enough to see it though, they might have suspected since one of the assassins was a form shifter.

At last the steps ended. The bottom floor had but one room. 15 meters wide and 80 meters long, the tomb was spacious. The walls were lined with statues of Powered long since dead. Their serene poses showed no signs of their agonizing deaths. Their bodies were moved here out of reverence. It was the most noble place of rest that kept the public from knowing about their demise. It was fitting that they stood vigil over this tomb, fulfilling their final mission even in death.

The final statue dwarfed all others. Sitting at the end of the great hall, it's granite surface was neither polished nor worn. Unlike the other proud postures, it knelt with it's head bowed towards the ground. It held no weapon, no decorations, and no craftsman flourishes. It's shape was human, and the shape was all it was. Before the kneeling giant laid an iron plaque. It's features were emblazoned into the dark metal. Upon the upturned face, Percy Shelley's famous sonnet was engraved.

-----------------------------------------------------

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings."

Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!

No thing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

------------------------------------------------------

The figure stopped then. His gloved hand reached down, and his fingers ran lightly over the words. He paused in rumination. His cloak swept silently over the stone floor as he approached the statue. Then, the quiet one spoke. Only the statues bore witness to the sound.

"To think -- that I... would ever stand before you. A dream -- I had... now see how far we've come. The world -- it seems... grows ready for the changing. Your time -- at last... will come, and all will be forgiven." He slowly removed the glove on his right hand and raised his palm to rest on the statue's forehead. "The end -- is near... ten years delayed. They erred -- to fear... your wrath before the sun had shone." He pulled away and walked back towards the long climb to the surface. At the door, he tilted his head back for a final remark. "Just know -- that I... am truly sorry for what is to come." He bowed his head. "The price of your death will send this city straight to Neptune's depths."

The statue stood motionless at the end of the dreary hall. It almost seemed to breathe.

Chapter 19: A Beacon of Hope

The outskirts of town were sparsely traveled at this time of day. Quaint houses and roadside markets screamed character, and the light hubbub of traffic and meanderers did not overtake the simple charm of a sunny day. Passersby stopped to converse or pick out some lunchtime fruits from the stands. For once in the three months since the city fell into chaos, all was peaceful.

The peace was abruptly broken by a crashing window. A pair of burglars dressed in grey carried bags of stolen goods from the local hardware store. The owner had hit the automatic locks, but the bandits were able to shatter the large display window with a retrofitted handheld sonic drill. A couple helpful citizens moved to confront them, but dual desert eagles forced a hurried retreat. The pair took off down the street. Vehicles swerved and pedestrians dove for cover in whatever store they could.

Then, the air was rift with the sound of a light meteor. Cautious eyes peeked up over countertops and display stands. The talk began to spread.

"What is that?", "Who is she?", "Is that a Powered? I thought they were outlawed long ago", "Oh my Neptune, she just destroyed them".

A heroine in an opalescent costume that seemed fluorescent under the sunlight stood between two fallen criminals. Their highly illegal firearms were quickly dispatched, and in a lighting fast series of moves, both bandits lay gasping for air on the marble pavement. Pearl leaned down and whisked their balaclavas from their faces. A pair of young blonde women stared back at her with shock and anger. They were twins by the look of things.

"I'll be taking that" Pearl said while relieving the burglars of their wares and throwing the bags to the side of the road for someone to pick up and return.

"What the riptide?!?" screamed the first blonde. "So cliché!" muttered the second prissily. "This hagfish thinks she can play vigilante?!?" screamed the first again. "You just wait. You'll pay for this" muttered the second.

"And you say I'm cliché?" Pearl laughed at the defeated duo. She used their dark grey sweatshirts to bind them together before hanging them from a low hanging street pole. As they dangled a few feet above the ground, they spat a few more insults at her, so she gagged them with their own balaclavas. Her job done, she leapt onto the rooftops to find more crime.

The chatter didn't stop. "Did they register new Powered to fight the crime wave?", "She is gorgeous", "I... I've heard of her! That was Pearl! She was on the news last night for stopping that break in at Blue Lobster! NeptuneWatch is calling her the true hero of the city", "Bah! NeptuneWatch has been dead for a decade. All they do now is spout conspiracy theories".

The twins struggled and shouted over the gag as they became the centerpiece for a group discussion. Pearl had used their sweatshirts to bind them, but it was too hot to wear baggy sweatshirts over much. Their lacy brassieres shook as they tried to squirm away from their predicament. No one bothered to cover them up.

Pearl skid to a halt on the secluded roof of an produce warehouse. It was an ideal place to regroup because unlike most of the buildings in the city, it had no rooftop access, plenty of room to slip away unseen, and walls to prevent anyone from seeing her. The company had tried to build another story on top of the massive building, but it had already ran afoul of height limitations in the sector. The fact that it was on the outskirts of the city meant that there was no vantage point high enough to see what she worked on here.

She had accumulated a small workspace and used it to plan her daily heroics around the city. The events of three months ago had unleashed a torrent of crime and panic around the city. The terrorist cell now known as the Dark Sun had somehow regrouped from their attack on the Light zone, and they now threatened major strikes on businesses and government offices. Small criminal businesses seemed to spring up on every street corner, and huge numbers of citizens were inspired to try their hand at a life of crime. Pearl had taken down dozens of petty criminals every day for the last two weeks, but she didn't seem to make a dent in their numbers.

Turmoil and crisis was the name of the game. The police was overburdened ten times over, and the inner city was still in a state of lockdown. The less metropolitan outer sectors occasionally flirted with peace and quiet for a day before a whole new batch of criminals sprouted out of nowhere. The crisis was the only reason Pearl had joined the fray in broad daylight. She knew people needed her help, and the government just wasn't able to provide that right now. Also, the government was in no fit state to attempt to punish a vigilante heroine even if they wanted to. As Pearl thought back on her day's work, she held close the real reason she fought like this. Most of all, people needed hope.

She stripped off her costume to change back into civilian clothes, and she admired her body in the broken standing mirror that she had found in a dumpster. Every day was an extremely long workout that taxed even her superhuman physiology. Always fit, now she had the body of an elite athlete. The contours of each muscle set faint lines on her skin. They were much smaller than anyone of her strength had a right to be, and she had toned her lithe body into a weapon.

She gently pinched her erect nipple and let out a breathy moan. Even after her daily exertion, her taxed muscles did not feel tired. They felt alive. She felt alive. Her acts of heroism filled her with energy and adrenaline that could carry her through the toughest battles. Other hormones also bubbled up in the excitement. She wondered if it had anything to do with the venom The Viper had injected into her that one fateful night, but she had done some bloodwork on herself and found nothing out of the ordinary.

It might just be the fact that for the first time in her life, she thought about romantic activities. She was very socially isolated, and she devoted all of her free time to pursuing the missions of her alter ego. Exposed to a social life, she now struggled to control herself at times. She smiled. Speaking of romance, her boyfriend was waiting. She shrugged on her ordinary clothes and jumped down to ground level.

There was one more reason why she had chosen this location as a staging ground. With a quick jaunt down the alley, she walked up the back steps to her boyfriend's apartment and rang the doorbell. Evan opened the door with a smile that seemed to beam with rays of sunlight.

"Sierra! Hello again." He bowed gracefully and kissed her hand. She just giggled and returned the kiss to his lips. She was feeling light as a balloon, so she extended the kiss and pushed him back into the wall.

"Wow!" he said when she finally relented. "You must have saved a lot of people today."

"I stopped four burglaries, two bar fights, three vandals, a stabbing, and yes, I did save a child from a burning building." She pushed him into his room and onto the floor. Her eyes were alight with energy.

As she laid down on top of him on the soft carpet, he stopped her. "Listen, I don't want you to think I am using you. This is just so fast. Some days you come in all amped up and... I just don't want to ruin what we've got."

She looked at him. "Hey, if anything, its me who is using you. Let me know and I can hit the brakes. Don't feel like you are doing something wrong. You're doing this for me. You're the sweetest guy I've ever met... I love you."

Evan's breath hitched, and he felt her muscles tighten in hesitation. She didn't know if she went too far. He smiled at her. It wasn't as big of a deal as they made it out to be in the stories, and he had never felt stronger about anything in his life. "I love you too." She dove on him, and they continued their make-out session.

There was a knock at the door. "You kids better not be doing anything naughty in there."

"MOOOOM!" Evan groaned at the door. His mother laughed and walked away, her job done. Evan and Sierra looked at each other while blushing and started to giggle. Diana Ray had made nearly a full recovery since she was rescued from the laboratory. She still retreated to her room for a few hours each day with bouts of illness, but she was back to her usual light-hearted self. She didn't know anything at all about what happened to her, and Evan had not told her about Sierra's powers or how they rescued her. They told her the same story that they told the police: An unknown caller had contacted Evan after finding her along with some of her folders that contained her contact information. Diana had taken a health related leave of absence from her work to recover, and Evan found a lot of free time to spend with her.

Their fun interrupted, Evan set up his computer and loaded his work. Life had been good for them since the disaster. Sierra had unleashed her alter ego upon the waking world and loved every second of it. Even the darkness that shrouded the city could not hold back her newfound light. Now graduated, Evan had taken up work as Pearl's mild mannered assistant. He was never into computers, but now he found that he had a knack for it. He navigated databases, news reports, and internet traffic while writing his own codes to monitor crime around the city. Many criminals that got away with patterns of illegal acts were tracked down, and they were ambushed by Pearl at their next adventure. He was also trying to trace the big fish.

The Dark Sun had taken most of his attention recently. The terrorist organization had spouted some rather generic dialogue about tyrannical government, but half of their attacks seemed to be at random around the city. Evan spent nights awake attempting to find any pattern in their movements.

"Nothing?" Sierra asked.

"Well, I think I have something, but it is pretty unlikely. They seem to hit chemical facilities more frequently with smaller scale hits. Things like medical labs. They also haven't hit any of those types of facilities with huge attacks using that creature."

"I feel bad for it" Sierra lamented. "I saw her at the lab. I looked into her eyes. I didn't see hate there. I saw pain. She is their weapon, and I don't think it is her choice."

"Maybe" mused Evan. "But the scattered reports you collected said they used a telepathic Powered to keep her in check, and that one hasn't been seen since the disaster. Anyways, this is probably nothing. With a small sample size, lots of fake patterns emerge. Look here" he pointed at a graphic. "They've hit an ice cream shop every Friday for the last three weeks. I need more data on them."

"That chemical stuff still might be worth following up on" Sierra responded. "Maybe I can stumble on some more information by chasing all the potential loose ends." She turned off the computer, and he turned in annoyance, but his frown was quickly replaced by lust. "You owe me a snog" she said seductively, laying on the ground.

As they continued their session, they both thought about how good life was. There was still darkness in the city, but there was also hope.

In the corner of the room, Evan's pet puffersquid ELM shed the last of his exoskeleton. The first and last of his species, the puffersquid was made with unknown genetical tampering. No one know how large he would grow or whether he had other forms. He looked much less like a pufferfish now. The spines were completely withdrawn into his body, and the squid like portion had grown much longer. He was almost too big for the tank now, and his primary tentacles stretched almost the length of a forearm.

He watched the couple making out on the floor. His tentacles twitched and a flicker of color ran along his body. His entire gelatinous body suddenly contorted and morphed into a base approximation of a human form. The original colors revealed themselves, and then he tried again. The chameleon of the tank waved his almost human looking limbs while watching the commotion. Throughout the night, he camouflaged into a human shape looking better each time.

Chapter 20: It Grows

The wind was steady at this height. His hair and cloak flapped cinematically on his high perch. The Angler stood like a hawk on the edge of a fancy restaurant's roof. He was flanked by several darkly clad associates. Their costumes were simple. Their hooded cloaks came with a cowl around the neck that pulled up over their noses to hide all but their eyes. Mottled grey like the steel oasis they prowled, the cloaks had become synonymous with fear. The front of their chests were covered by a black sun embroidered with a white liner to make it stand out. The Dark Sun was on the hunt.

The Angler made a motion to another group of operatives on an adjacent roof. They began to move in. Their target this fine evening was a seafood marketplace. A large multistory plaza was lined with stores, restaurants, aquariums, and anything else seafood related. The Dark Sun reached their set positions. Their directive was clear: chaos.

A dozen smoke bombs were thrown into the central clearing, and alarms began to ring out and echo between the tall walls. Sparkling fireworks added to the confusion as they executed their assault. Trios of Dark Sun operatives dropped into almost every storefront. They ransacked the registers for cash, took any expensive looking items, and terrorized the customers cowering behind counters. When they had their fill, the whole place was set ablaze.

The entire operation was over in less than two minutes. Every operative had vanished in the haze. No one was killed this time, but haggard emergency crews were too late to save the property. The Dark Sun was already moving to hit the second of five stops that night. Unpredictability was the name of the game, and a sudden burst of hits would keep all their potential opponents guessing.

The Angler thought silently about their mission. Despite being massacred in the ill-fated attack on the Light zone, and the illegal laboratory they happened to wreck, the shadow organization had decided to reform the Dark Sun to act as their cover. The Angler was raised to a position of great power and given the resources to rebuild his army and unleash havoc upon the city. He wasn't complaining, but he had grown wary of his position. He was being used, and if he didn't make himself indispensable soon, he would be discarded along with the Dark Sun when it's mission had run its course.

For now though, he was having the time of his life. The entire city had devolved into a cesspool of depravity which made his job so much easier. Attack after attack went unanswered, and the sheer magnitude of his success allowed him to smuggle in his own operations. He glanced over to the operative on his right.

Alina was casting a narrow sonic pulse to the glass factory they were attacking. The air was filled with a high pitched roar of shattering and crashing glasswork. He nodded in approval. He had spent three months figuring out her character. She had been sheltered her entire life, but her free spirited personality had burst out at every opportunity. She struggled at first when he tried to manipulate her into becoming one of them, but it turns out that a lifetime of rebelling against authority makes for poor moral restraint once freed. Her naivete was putty in his hands. She was still conflicted, but he was successfully keeping her on a leash. Her desperate search for her lost brother had consumed her.