Post by sorcerersupreme on Jan 28, 2018 14:43:48 GMT
San Diego, United States
Maxine huffed through her teeth as she padded, barefoot, down Zoo Drive. San Diego was cool this time of year, although she appeared not to feel it. Her body had adjusted to the cold, or at least she’d forgotten how to care.
Her breath huffed out with little sounds of discontent, walking with her head bowed past people on their way to work, who all gave her a wide berth. Maxine allowed an angry grin to spread across her face, before she stopped with a perfect view of a huge screen, playing an Advert for the local business. The Local business which owned most of the business in the county, even the country.
“Sunderland Corp,” she said, under her breath, “More like Sunderland Corpse.”
"Honey?”
Maxine’s head snapped around, her fists balled at her side. The woman behind her recoiled away for a moment, before reaching out a searching hand. A Soccer Mom holding a bag of Groceries in her arm.
“Are you OK? Do you need me to phone your parents?”
Maxine pulled her hood down, revealing a cluster of dirty dreadlocks; Strawberry Blonde and out of control. Her face was dirty and lines had drawn themselves on her cheeks and brows which expressed more anger than her lips ever could.
“You could try, but you might find them unresponsive,” she said quickly.
“Oh. Are you…”
Maxine’s lips quirked up into a crooked smile.
“Homeless?”
“Y-Yes,” the woman said.
“Yes, I am currently between residencies,” Maxine chuffed and pulled her hood back up, “Thank you for asking, but I’m OK as I am.”
The woman paused, frozen between her desire to do something right, and indecision.
“It’s very cold. Can I…give you some money for shoes? A shelter?”
Maxine laughed. A laugh that was colder than the air they stood in.
“The shelters are all owned by Sunderland, lady,” Maxine said, “There’s no way in hell I am going in one of them.”
“But…they’re sheltering people like you. What’s wrong with them?”
Maxine laughed again, stepping closer to the woman and putting a dirty hand on her shoulder, whispering conspiratorially.
“They’re using people like me. They’re hunting people like me and using us up until we’re dead. They did that to my Dad and his friends. They’re using people to kill the planet, do you understand? They’re using technology in your phones, in the water, in the air…they control it all.”
Maxine stepped back, as the woman’s eyes filled with fear. She sidled to one side and thrust her head down to stare at the ground.
“I’m sorry, I have to…”
“Yeah, you have to go,” Maxine said, another cruel grin painting itself on her face, “I hear that a lot as well. Take care, Citizen.”
Maxine waved over her shoulder and thrust her hands into the front of her dirty, and hole infested blue hoody. She turned to hear the woman’s SUV fire up and she shook her head and pursed her lips as she walked.
“They don’t know a damn thing,” she said, looking up at the huge display screen in front of her, which flashed with images. Beautiful people laughing and running on a beach, their muscles sculpted and the weather perfect. Golden light playing off their features, the water clear, and that deep turquoise that people love. Old people, happy and without any aches and pains in a Doctors surgery, receiving their medication. A flash of Solar panels and wind farms. Children collecting litter in a park.
All preceding the glowing S that signified the Sunderland Corp.
Maxine spat on the ground and marched off, towards where he should have been five minutes ago.
“Godamned Well-Wishers.”
A man stepped over her spit, which fizzled against the pavement. He flicked a dog-end down into it, and watched, with interest as it spat itself into ignition again.
**
Maxine stood in silence in the corner of an alleyway, her eyes cast down the length of her nose at the people walking across the side of the street.
The Entrance to the Sunderland Corporation Laboratory lay before her. She opened the crumpled piece of paper in her pocket, which had a list of dates and times written against it. Handwritten notes to illustrate the comings and goings of a Sunderland Corporation Doctor that Maxine had an affinity for.
Maxine unfurled another piece of paper, much thicker than the last from her pocket. She held the photograph up to the light and stared at it hard. She nodded to it once and kissed its surface.
“I won’t let you down.”
She folded the photo up against carefully and put it back into her pocket.
In ten minutes, Dr Pamela Isley, with her beautiful Green hair, and a reek of mulch to her person, would walk into the office and begin her workday. Before she did, she would stop outside the office, and purchase an Egg Sandwich and a Coffee from the merchant on the street. As she did every day for the last week since she had become a Vegetarian.
Maxine smiled at the thought of it. Maxine was a Vegetarian because of the source of her abilities, and her life. Pamela could eat what she wanted, and if anything, as a Botanist she should avoid eating plants.
Maxine continued to wait, drumming her fingers into the alleyway wall. Her vantage point was perfect. Shadowed from the side she leaned against, her profile low, crouched by a Bin. Her hood pulled over her head to avoid the gaze of the cameras around her, but the active camouflage of the shimmer chromatophores of the Cephalopods running patterns over her skin, even if she was noticed. Her eyes, true to the change of her skin, took on the same pupils of Cuttlefish. Pupils rimmed with a thick outline of Gold, and hour-glass shaped.
She licked her lips and continued to wait, her fingers pressed to the pavement. Pamela was late.
Slowly, something licked her senses. Immediately, Maxine reacted, standing up and staring blankly into the distance up the street. A feeling that was oily to the skin, and strong against her skin. Something that pushed her head back a fraction of an inch. She sighed into it and rocked on her heels. Another wave of sensation washed over her and she opened her mouth, tasting it on her tongue.
It was distinct, a far cry from Pamela’s Mulch and Earthy scent. This was full of salt and cold. Her senses rebelled at the size of the feeling, pushing Maxine back against the wall again. She sighed and hissed through her teeth.
A woman walked hurriedly out of the Sunderland Corporation front entrance, the door rocking in her wake. Maxine caught the sent of salt and a creaking sound that rubbed against her eardrums. Despite months of planning, of anger and angst and patience, the grip of this sensation grabbed Maxine’s instincts and pulled her along in rhythm, as consistent and powerful as breathing, full of peaks and troughs.
Maxine fell into line with those around her, moving behind the woman, who held herself tightly. Her coat was large, thick and blue, with a light blue fur trim. She shivered, and her breath came in tidal bursts of steam. Maxine could feel her teeth chatter and feel the undulating waves of power coming from her.
She would need to be quick.
Sprinting with a barefoot patter, Maxine ran in front of the woman and darted into an alleyway, between some bins and a back entrance to a Restaurant. As the woman passed, Maxine grabbed her upper arm tightly and pulled her in, clamping a hand over her mouth. The woman had short, white hair, shaved at the sides of her head, with it thick, and luscious on her scalp. It was pulled into a tight pony-tail. She stifled a scream, and Maxine felt cold against her skin.
“Stop what you’re doing, right now,” Maxine hissed, her face inches from the woman’s. The woman’s voice croaked in a muffled
“Huh?”
“You’re pushing out waves of power, woman. You’re drawing their attention.”
The woman slammed her hands against Maxine’s shoulders, pushing her back. Maxine was behind her in an instant, in a vertical jump with a twist that put her at the entrance of the alleyway.
“Leave me alone!” the woman cried. Maxine pushed her, hard, sending her tumbling backwards.
“What are you? Stones? No,” Maxine closed her eyes again and sucking in a breath, holding it for a second.
“Waves. You’re Waves.”
“Get away from me,” The woman said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about and you’re scaring me.”
Maxine let the crooked grin creep into her features again. Fur sprouted at the edges of her jawline, thick, orange, white and black tufts. Her eyes, blinking once, slid into feline slits. A gestured with her head, a partial nod and slow blink make the woman's blood run cold.
“You work for Sunderland?” Maxine asked.
“Yes,” the woman responded with a quiet voice. Maxine’s hand ripped open her coat and pulled her badge from her, lifting it to her eyeline.
“Caitlin Snow,” she read aloud, “You are…”
“A Scientist,” she said, in a small voice, “I’m just a technician.”
Maxine threw the card into the bin and crouched low, fingers spread out before her on the pavement, her eyes distant.
“What are you going to do to me?” Caitlin asked. Maxine chuffed.
“Nothing,” Maxine said, “But it’s what they will do when they catch up. Do you understand what is happening?”
Caitlin shook her head violently.
“Tell me. When did you begin to feel strange?”
“I…”
“Don’t lie. I can smell it,” Maxine said. Her eyes shifted again. Dark, cold eyes of Shark. Huge pupils, and rolling, yellowy whites. She stared blankly at Caitlin, her nose twitching. “I can tell if you lie.”
Caitlin nodded once swallow. She closed her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose.
“I…There was an accident. I was working on a…Solar project. We were trying to use Solar Panels for Desalination of Sea Water and for…”
Caitlin sniffed once and crunched her face together in anger.
“Sabotage, I think. It think it was one of the scientists, but it was too clean a break. Everything we’d tested for, all the tolerances, they were all well within the normal range, and it was. It’s only Salt Water. There shouldn’t be anything mixed in with it. It wasn’t… It felt like I was drowning.”
Maxine nodded once, her eyes breaking away from the Dark, Black pupils and pulling her up into a human gaze.
“You felt overwhelmed. I don’t know if it was the same for you as it was for me but…”
Caitlin nodded once. Maxine could feel her heart beating hard, her body flooded with hormones. Her adrenal glands going into over-drive.
“It wasn’t Sea Water, was it?”
Caitlin sucked air in over her teeth.
“Oh my God. What was it?”
Maxine touched Caitlin’s shoulder gently and pulled her close.
“I don’t know,” she said, “But it has changed you. Unlocked something in you. Either they saw that in you when they employed you, and have unlocked it deliberately, or they’re aware of it now, and want to bring you back. Either way…”
Maxine lifted her head up and sniffed the air, looking for something with wide, unfocused eyes.
“Either way, they’re after you, Caitlin. Either way, the Ultra Marines will be deployed.”
Caitlin’s eyes filled with fear anew, but something else nestled itself in her expression.
“Looking for me? After me?”
Maxine nodded.
“Sunderland Corporation uses people like us. People with power. They…”
Maxine paused and pulled Caitlin’s hand to her chest.
“For me, it was a beating inside my chest. Building in scale, in power, in intensity, until there is a beat, of such strength that it knocked apart my perception. It knocks away the structure of the world and showed me the skin and bones of it all. The life Blood of the world.”
Caitlin’s eyes widened.
“I felt that,” she said, looking into Maxine’s eyes, “I felt your heart beat and it rippled through me. Like a stone dropped into a pond.”
“Or a fish coming to the surface,” Maxine added.
“It wasn’t a beat for me,” she said, her voice tight and quiet, “It was like I was being filled up. A wave that started at my ankles, and slowly worked its way up to my knees and beyond. Until it reached my mouth and I felt I couldn’t breathe.”
She put her hands over her mouth, taking a rasping breathe as the memory encompassed her.
“Oh my God. Oh, God. What am I? What will happen to me? Am I going to die? Will I end up like…”
“Me?” Maxine finished. She grinned and grabbed hold of Caitlin’s forearm, “That’s up to you, but I need you to start trying to suppress this or we could be in serious difficulties, very soon.”
Maxine’s head snapped around quickly, dreadlocks slapping against her shoulder blades.
“Sunderland is after you now.”
“You said,” Caitlin pulled her coat closed and buttoned it tightly, “What do they want?”
“Last year was the hottest year on record,” Maxine said, quietly. Her lips turned into an angry snarl, “Flooding affected most of Asia, the Hurricane Season in the US cost nearly 10 Billion for repairs. You know who profits from this? Who Orchestrated it?”
Maxine pulled her dreadlocks back into a tight, messy pony-tail and stared dead into Caitlyn’s tear-filled blue eyes.
“Sunderland Corporation. They’re Geoengineering for profit.”
Caitlyn felt the beads of sweat form on her forehead and tried to push past Maxine. Maxine sniffed hard, and loudly. She snorted out her next breath and pulled her hood up over her hair.
“I…” Caitlin stared hard at Maxine, “I know it seems like they’re doing that, but they’re not. They’re just a company. I..I don’t even know your name.”
“Maxine,” she said quickly, “You don’t need to know my last name, but you need to follow me, quickly.”
Caitlin quirked an eyebrow.
“Ok. You don’t trust me to tell me your last name but I have to follow you? I know you think we’re part of some global conspiracy here, Maxine, but…”
Maxine held her hand up quickly.
“No,” she said, “Not a Conspiracy theory. This isn’t some mental illness, Caitlin. This is real.”
“I…think I need to go home. I don’t feel well,” Caitlin said. Maxine pushed her back a step and froze in place.
“Do they have your address at Sunderland?”
Caitlin shook her head in confusion for a moment and then nodded.
“Yes.”
“We can’t go there,” Maxine said, “To my place it is. It’s safe there. They can’t track you there, we…”
Maxine flexed her arms for a moment, before turning to face the alleyway. She poked her head around the corner and hissed through her teeth.
“Shiiit.”
The doors to Sunderland Corporation swung open, and a man, of average height and build strolled out in a black trench coat. His boots, jeans, and shirt were all black. He sucked down a lungful of smoke, and nonchalantly looked in Maxine’s direction.
He winked.
And everything went wrong.
The shadows around Caitlin and Maxine suddenly burst into life, boiling with unseen movement. Dark shapes began to resolve themselves from the shadows, figures pulling themselves from the brickwork.
“Ink Men,” Maxine whispered.
“Caitlin,” Maxine said gently, “We need to get away from here. It’s Black, with his Ink Men.”
Caitlin turned to look at Maxine, anger on her face. She punched Maxine in the shoulder, knocking her a step backwards.
“You did this! I was fine until you start with your…insanity!”
“No, they did this to you when they broke your experiment and put you into the Waves.” Maxine grabbed her wrist tightly and pulled her, “You either follow me, or you stay here and die.”
The Ink Men stumbled out of the shadows, shaking their bodies and heads. Dark, floating globules of ink, slowly began to rise through the air in an unseen current. Maxine yanked on Caitlin’s arm, pulling her out of the alleyway and into the street. Ink Men were pulling themselves out of shadows all along their route.
“There must be…”
“Dozens, at least,” Maxine said. Black flicked the end of his cigarette into the street and took a step towards them, blowing the smoke into the air.
The nearest Ink Man, made a liquid grab for Maxine, it’s black fingers scraping and scouring her arm. She recoiled, stumbling, and lashed out with her foot. It sliced through the blackness, temporarily hobbling the figure before it melded back together.
“How do we…?”
Maxine swallowed, audibly.
“What can you do?” she asked. Caitlin stared at her.
“I’m a Lab Tech, I..I can’t fight.”
Maxine shook her head, pulling Caitlin into a loping run down the street, the Ink Men, flowing together into an over-lapping, multi-limbed, stumbling mass charged behind her. Black, unhurried in his pursuit pulled out another Cigarette and looked above him.
A streak in the sky, far above, gave Maxine all the warning she needed.
Her run broke into a sprint, and she pulled down on the life-web around her. Her strength increased, allowing her to throw Caitlin over her shoulder, with a squeal from her new passenger.
“Drawdown on whatever it is inside you,” Maxine advised, “Pull into the waves, swim through them. Whatever it is, but get a handle on it and put them to use, because I can only run, and I can only fly. They have Ink Men, and we have a War Maker above us, and Black will play for keeps.”
“For keeps?”
An explosion to the left of them blew out the entirety of a shop front, showering them and their path with glass and small debris. Caitlin screamed, and Maxine swerved violently to avoid the larger chunks of brick and mortar that flew in front of them.
“Kill us,” Maxine said, through a dry cough, “Can’t fly, because a War Maker will match us easily.”
“OK, OK,” Caitlin said, closing her eyes. Maxine could feel her tense up immediately, as the roar of the boot jets came closer. The pair skidded to a halt at the end of Zoo Drive. Ink Men roared from shadows all over, filling the street from pavement to pavement. Ahead the jets of the War Maker roared, leaving nowhere for the pair to go.
Manchester Black stood before them, again finishing his cigarette. He pinched the burning end between his thumb and forefinger and threw it onto the ground. He grinned widely at them, smoking pouring through the gaps between his teeth.
“Well, Well, Well. If it isn’t the little Baker, looking for some revenge again,” he said, “I told you once already, love. You can’t beat us. You can’t beat me. I got all these guys.”
He gestured to the Ink Men, folding through each other to encroach upon them.
“I got me War Maker above, and the rest of the Ultra Marines on speed dial. A Pulse 8, a 4D and a Glob. I even got me one of those new Goriaiko units, what speaks in Haikus and Formulas. Clever them.”
Black opened his hands expressively.
“The Snow woman? We’re none too fussed with her, if I am honest, Max. She’s new. Really new. I doubt she can do all that much, but you? You’ve had years to live with the Limbs. I bet there’s things you don’t know what we could use. What do you say? Come in easy, so we don’t have to rough you up?”
Maxine flipped him the bird.
“Go Fuck yourself.”
Black rolled his eyes.
“Suit yourself.”
He made a gun gesture with his left hand, aiming it at Maxine.
“Bang.”