Stargazer

[Crossword]

I've had an idea for a story bouncing around in my head for quite some time, and recently I finally got around to start putting it to paper. So I figured I might as well put it up here for those interested to follow along. So, without further ado, let's begin.
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Chapter 1: Normality Ends

! It was during the early evening on the final day of August when Terrence Eaves finally arrived at Marine Cove City, which was to be his new home for at least the next year. As he stepped out of the train and onto the busy platform of Axis Station with his duffel bag, the very first thing he did was to stretch out his arms and back. For nearly the last two days he had been cooped up on that cross-country train, and as a result he was very, very sore. It felt good to finally be out in the fresh air and free of that cramped train seat.
! Terry, as he usually called himself, was a fit young man with green eyes and slightly mussed brown hair that had grown a little bit shaggy towards the back. His outfit was simple, blue jeans, t-shirt, sneakers, and a black leather coat that had been given to him as both a birthday and a going-away present. A week ago he had turned 17 years old, and had come to this city in order to attend the Marine Cove Preparatory Pre-Collegiate Academy, or simply Marine Cove Academy, a moderately well-known and prestigious private school for ages 17-19. He had managed to do well enough on the entrance exam to be granted admittance for the new school year, and so he had left his quiet hometown out in the western part of the country to come to this new and unfamiliar city. He could have simply stayed at home to finish his high school education and go to college the normal way, but he was ready for a change in his life, and this option had struck him as the most readily available way to accomplish that.
! Once he had cleared the platform and entered the station’s fairly grand lobby, filled with people waiting or going to and fro, he found a small corner slightly removed from the crowd and took out his cell phone in order to check the time. It was 5:37. His train had been nearly an hour and a half late.
! He pondered what he should do next in his head. There was a brightly-lit food court stationed right outside the central waiting area designed to entice weary travelers, but he had already eaten a meal on the train. Besides, he only had roughly eighty-five yura left in his wallet, and he might very well need to spend on something more important by the night’s end. No, the best choice for him to make was to find and check into the dorm building that he had been assigned to as soon as possible.
! Of course, that was far easier said than done. This was Terry’s first visit to a city, let alone a major one like this. He was used to quiet country and suburban roads, where life moved at a steady if slightly leisurely pace, not a sprawling urban metropolis filled to the gills with thousands upon thousands of people all of whom moving at a comparatively chaotic pace, with a cacophony of sound and a kaleidoscope of color attacking his eardrums and eyes no matter where he turned. The name ‘’cove’’ implied to him a small, calm, peaceful community. Maybe that name had been appropriate for this city in centuries past, but now it most certainly wasn’t.
! Terry quickly found that the simple map that he had brought with him was becoming indecipherable and useless. He wandered the unfamiliar and busy streets for close to three hours, getting himself hopelessly lost and leaving him both tired and sore. Eventually, he found a small playground park at which he plopped himself down on a bench, completely worn out from all of the walking that he had just done.
! As he sat, he looked up at the sky. Due to all of the light pollution coming from the skyscrapers and the other tall downtown buildings, he couldn’t see any stars save for maybe two or three, whereas at this time back home there would be considerably more spread out across the sky. Heion was visible though, a few specks of light just barely discernable on its darkened rim; it would be just over a week before it was full in the sky.
! He had always liked to stargaze ever since he was a little kid, picking out distant stars barely visible to the naked eye, hoping to glimpse a shooting star, tracing constellations, and discerning the arc of the galaxy’s spiral arm. However, Heion was his least favorite celestial body in the sky. It wasn’t because he thought it blotted out other stars that he could be looking at or looked ugly, in fact it looked like a blue and white marble against the black sky. The reason that he didn’t like looking at it was due to the fact that whenever he did, it caused old memories to resurface, memories that he didn’t particularly care to revisit.
! Terry then took out his phone to check the time again. It was getting close to nine o’clock, and he was starting to get worried that his dorm might be locked for the night or otherwise be under curfew when he finally found it. He was starting to get a headache even, one that slowly intensified to a splitting migraine as he was absentmindedly flipping through his phone’s display menus. He instinctively put his hand to his forehead as an arc of stars briefly filled his vision; it felt as if something was being slowly crammed into a head that was already filled to bursting. But almost as soon as it began, the sensation came to an abrupt end, leaving him puzzled and a little sorer than before.
! ‘’I must really be getting tired…’’ he muttered, massaging his worn-out forehead. He decided that that was a sign that he really needed to get going. He put his phone away and gathered up his bag. As he stood up to leave, however, he heard a voice call out to him, stopping him before he even managed to put one foot forward.
! ‘’Wait a second, please!’’ A boy hurried over to him, panting a bit as he came from his brief sprint. He looked to be around Terry’s own age and height, if maybe just a bit shorter, though his spiky black hair probably made up the difference. His narrowed brown eyes probably meant that he was Oriental, though Terry couldn’t identify at first glance which area he was from precisely. ‘’I’m really sorry to ask you this,’’ he said a bit bashfully in between pants. ‘’Could I, uh, borrow some money from you? I only need like ten yura for train fare.’’
! That wasn’t exactly what Terry had expected him to ask, but the boy sounded sincere and he didn’t feel like it would be very becoming of him to turn someone down after having been asked like that. And also, he could use this person’s help. ‘’Uh, sure I guess.’’ He went to take his wallet out of his pants pocket. ‘’But in return, can you help me find a place I’m looking for?’’
! ‘’Sure, I guess so.’’ the boy replied. ‘’Sorry ‘bout this. I was just more comfortable asking someone who looked closer to my own age, you know?’’
! Terry took the bill out of his wallet and handed it over along with his map. ‘’Here you go. The place I need to go is marked with a circle.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ The boy slipped the money into the pocket of the gray and maroon hoodie that he was wearing. ‘’My name’s Akira Kamiya, by the way.’’
! ‘’I’m Terry Eaves.’’ Terry replied in kind. Well, with a name like that, it wasn’t that difficult to figure out which part of the Orient he was from. Terry was admittedly a bit curious if he was a local or not.
! ‘’Ah, I know what you’re thinking.’’ Akira noted, seeing right through him. ‘’Don’t worry, I’ve been in this city for over a month. I know my way around, more or less.’’ He studied Terry’s map for a few moments. ‘’Dude, you are so lost.’’ he said, which told Terry nothing that he didn’t already know. ‘’This is practically on the other side of town, across the river.’’ He continued to scrutinize the map. ‘’Hey, this is a dorm for the school!’’ he exclaimed, brightening up considerably. ‘’Are you going to the Academy?’’
! ‘’Yeah, that’s right.’’ Terry said.
! ‘’What a coincidence, I am too.’’ Akira said grinning as he handed back the map. His voice and tone were a lot more enthusiastic now. ‘’Since you’re lost and have a bag with you, I bet you're not from around here, right?’’
! ‘’No, I took the train in to Axis Station.’’ Terry replied. ‘’I arrived just a couple of hours ago.’’
! ‘’Axis…Station?’’ Akira frowned and narrowed his eyes. ‘’You know you could’ve just taken the bus or the monorail from there to find your dorm. There’s a station marked out right here on the map, see?’’ he said, indicating said mark with his finger.
! That made Terry feel quite stupid and even more frustrated now that he had learned that his trek across the city had been ultimately pointless and completely unnecessary. But he wasn’t about to say that outloud, especially to a stranger. ‘’Well, there isn’t any public transportation where I’m from.’’ he said instead, deciding to be rather stubborn about the issue.
! ‘’Hey, I won’t hold it against you.’’ Akira insisted, raising his hands in a gesture of innocence. ‘’Well, I may just file it away to make sure that you never forget it.’’ he added, chuckling a little bit. ‘’But anyway, you know the monorail?’’
! ‘’Are you talking about those tracks that run above the main streets?’’
! ‘’Yeah, those.’’ Akira confirmed, nodding. ‘’Just get on one of the outbound ones and they’ll take you where you need to go. Since you’re lost, and that dorm’s in kind of a shady neighborhood, I’ll show you the way there.’’
! ‘’That’s all right,’’ Terry said, trying to discourage him. While he was grateful for being pointed in the right direction, he didn’t really feel like going out of his way and risk embarrassing himself in front of his companion again. ‘’I can take care of myself.’’
! ‘’After you totally failed at reading a map, I can’t let you go off alone in good conscious.’’ Akira persisted, with a faint trace of faux-worry creeping into his voice. ‘’I’d feel so guilty, like I had just sent you off to certain death!’’
! Terry let out a barely-contained sigh. ‘’Oh all right already.’’ Well, at least he’d have someone his own age around to talk to, he thought.
! ‘’ Cool, then come on.’’ Akira grinned broadly. ‘’Let’s go!’’
! The two left the park and Akira began to lead Terry through the streets. Unlike Terry’s earlier wanderings, Akira clearly knew where he was going, as he cut through the crowd of people as smooth as could be, with Terry following behind, trying hard not to jostle people with his bag. After a short walk the two reached one of the main city streets and located one of the stations for the monorail line. It wasn’t a long wait before a train slid quietly into the station, and Terry and Akira managed to find a car that was mostly empty, which was unusual for this time of night, but it was an arrangement that would afford them plenty of privacy.
! ‘’You’re really unlucky you know.’’ Akira commented as the train began to pull out, smoothly and almost silently on its maglev tracks.
! ‘’What for, because I didn’t realize what public trans was?’’
! ‘’No, it’s just that your assigned dorm’s the crappiest one of the lot.’’ Akira replied, resting his hands behind his head as he leaned back in the hard-cushioned seat. ‘’I guess it’s not that bad during the day, but once the sun goes down, like right now, a bunch of shady people hang out around there. That part of town has a bit of a gang problem, you see.’’
! ‘’Really?’’ Terry was looking at Akira a bit incredulously. ‘’And they let students live there?’’
! ‘’Yeah, and they’re really mad about it.’’ Akira leaned a little further back and slid down a little in his seat. ‘’From what I’ve heard they raised a big stink about it. Apparently a new dorm building is being built in another part of the city, closer to the school, but until then unlucky guys like you are stuck there.’’
! ‘’Well, if there’s gang activity near where the students live, why don’t the police crack down?’’ Terry asked. ‘’That’s the most sensible response, isn’t it?’’
! ‘’Eh, they’re kinda reluctant.’’ Akira admitted. ‘’I mean, to the gang’s credit they don’t do much that’s too over-the-top and draw a lot of attention to themselves, just enough to keep people on their toes, you know? The rumor is that their leader is a little, well, special, if you know what I mean.’’
! Terry could make a pretty good educated guess as to what Akira meant, he thought. ‘’Is he a…’’
! ‘’Yep, or so they say.’’ Akira said before he could finish, nodding grimly.
! Akira was talking about a Stargazer.
! Terry had never seen a Stargazer before, but that was hardly unusual as most people did not, at least not knowingly. Stargazers were people who, through some unknown means, were said to be able to wield superpowers, and these powers tended to vary wildly from Stargazer to Stargazer. Terry had heard someone once say that the number of Stargazers in the world numbered in the low hundreds, and that while most of them were in the employ of the government, there were still plenty of rogue Stargazers who were either criminals or were otherwise members of society's underworld. This gang leader Akira spoke of must be from that group.
! An awkward silence hung for a few moments before Akira started to chuckle. ‘’Heh heh, why do you look so serious?’’
! ‘’I’m not worried.’’ Terry responded. ‘’But,'' he added. ''there’s really a Stargazer in this city?’’ A criminal Stargazer did not sound like good news to him at all.
! ‘’Well, as I said, there’re rumors.’’ Akira said. Terry got the impression from his sudden reversion to vague answers that he was trying to avoid discussing that topic, in which case he would have been better off not bringing it up to begin with. ‘’It’s got nothing to do with us, at any rate. Come on…’’ He leaned down and peered intently at Terry, and his face broke out into a grin. ‘’…that isn’t fear I see in your face, is it?’’
! ‘’Who’s scared?’’ Terry retorted. Normally he would be a little annoyed by this exchange, but after all that time that he had spent on the train alone, he actually found that he was appreciating Akira’s sarcasm, just a little. He hadn’t known him for very long at all yet he could already tell that he was a very easy-going, cheerful person. There were times when people like that got on his nerves a little, but they were generally good-hearted people, and as they talked about this and that Terry found himself feeling glad that he had encountered someone like him how could help him feel more at ease in this unfamiliar city.
! After around a half-hour or so the train reached their destination station, according to both Akira and Terry’s map. As they descended to the street Terry looked around to take in his new surroundings. Instead of the tall skyscrapers or the other building complexes that Terry had been surrounded with before, this part of town looked more residential, with the roads lined with what appeared to be old apartment buildings and the occasional convenience store, most of which were shuttered for the night. Just as Akira had warned him, a number of the buildings did look rather shady, with darkened interiors and minor signs of neglect showing. There weren’t any cars on the side streets, which were considerably narrower than the roads from before, and there were hardly any people around either save for a few small groups congregating beneath the uneven light of streetlamps here and there. Things probably looked nicer during the day, Terry thought.
! ‘’Well, here we are.’’ Akira muttered, glancing around. ‘’The dorm’s like two blocks away. I’ll go with you.’’
! ‘’What are you, my mom?’’ Terry said as he gripped his bag. ‘’Besides, there are hardly any people around here. I can make my way down a straight path just fine.’’
! ‘’Hey, just looking out for you.’’
! With some consternation Terry submitted himself to following in Akira’s wake. The few people they did pass didn’t really pay them any mind beyond a glance, preferring to stick with their little groups. Terry wasn’t really intimidated at all, he really had no reason to be, but he could tell that Akira was tensed up, and that he had his hands buried deep inside his pockets.
! Akira eventually came to a halt and seemed to be considering something. Terry looked around him to see that he was looking at a group of three people talking and laughing to themselves approximately thirty feet away. They took up most of the sidewalk, but Akira apparently decided that it would be too conspicuous to cross over to the other side of the street, for after some hesitation he continued on down towards them.
! As they got closer Terry could see that each of these three people were anywhere from two to three years older than he and Akira were. Physically, they were a bit large, and with their rather loose attire and slouching postures they looked like stereotypical wannabe urban tough guys.
! ‘’’scuse us.’’ Akira muttered as they tried to pass through. Terry’s bag, unfortunately, was not compact enough to slip through without incident, as it brushed up against one of the people, prompting him to call out to Terry: ‘’Hey, you just gonna leave it at that man? Don’ you got somethin’ to say?’’
! A normal person would have been intimidated and would have tried to apologize and beat a hasty retreat. However, Terry was not the kind of person who would let threats like that faze him. He had conditioned himself to deal with obstacles that were far beyond a few guys looking for a fight. ‘’Yeah, you’re just going to have to deal with it.’’ he said cooly, stopping and glancing back over his shoulder back at the thugs.
! ‘’Hey…’’ Akira started worriedly as one of the other thugs chuckled a bit.
! ‘’Too good for us?’’ the one who had accosted Terry said, a threatening edge to his voice. ‘’Listen, on these streets you got to show the proper respect, you know man?’’
! ‘’Well I don’t care, you can just shove it.’’ Terry said dismissively, and began to walk away.
! The thug grabbed him by his left shoulder. ‘’Well that’s not how things work aro-‘’
! His words were cut off by a gasp as Terry whirled around and buried his right fist into his stomach. He went down with the wind knocked out of him, as the other two cursed in surprise.
! ‘’Dammit, why’d you have to do that?!’’ Akira bit out as he backed up in alarm. His face had gone pale, and his eyes were darting around, searching desperately for a way out.
! The other two thugs quickly recovered from their shock and made their move. One jumped forward and took a swing at his shorter adversary. Terry leaned back with surprising control to dodge the blow and managed to ram his forearm into his opponent’s ribs, sending him staggering off to the side. Immediately afterward Terry pivoted to the side despite still carrying his bag and deflected a blow from his final assailant before nailing him in the solar plexus, dropping him to the pavement like a sack of cement.
! Akira’s fists unclenched slightly as the final thug went down. The altercation had lasted little more than ten seconds, and had been largely silent. ‘’I didn’t know you could fight…’’ he breathed, astonished at both what he had just witnessed and that there had miraculously been no one else close enough to witness what had happened. ‘’But still, what the hell came over you?!’’
! ‘’Hey, if someone threatens me like that, I’m not going to take it lying down.’’ Terry replied, a little too causally for someone who had just come out of a street fight.
! ‘’Ugh, that’s not the point!’’ Akira protested, before deciding to drop it subject for both of their sakes. ‘’Come on, let’s just get out of here before they wake up and-‘’
! He had spoken too soon, for the second thug was getting back to his feet, this time brandishing something that looked like either a small knife or razorblade. Before Akira could cry out a warning to Terry, who had his back turned, the thug sprang forward.
! Everything seemed to slow down as Terry reacted sluggishly, foolishly caught off guard. As he began to turn, way too slowly too effectively counter someone with a weapon, something highly unexpected happened, something that should have been impossible. Terry’s eyes turned a light-blue color and the air seemed to crackle around him. Literally, even, for a bolt of blue electricity shot down his arm and leapt out, striking his assailant in the stomach before he could do any harm, sending him several feet backwards and dropping him to the ground, this time he was rendered well and truly unconscious.
! The electricity dispersed with another crackle and Terry’s eyes returned to their natural color. He had a look of stunned amazement on his face as he tried to process what on Lagoon had just happened. Slowly turning to Akira, he saw that his friend looked just as surprised as he did. But slowly, both of them arrived at the same conclusion, a conclusion that seemed completely unbelievable.
! ‘’Are you…’’Akira said softly, his eyes remaining wide in amazement. ‘’Are you a Stargazer?’’
! A Stargazer… That word echoed in Terry’s head as he looked down at his hands. His brain was refusing to register what had just happened. A Stargazer was something that he’d occasionally see discussed on the news, or hear rumors of. They weren’t anything that had to do with the simple, relatively quiet life that he had led up until now. They were a part of a completely separate world. But still, the display just now, as startling as it had been, was undeniable evidence of the truth.
! Just a few hours ago, Terrence Eaves had arrived in Marine Cove City as a perfectly normal, 17 year old student. Now he had become something more.
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So there it is, the first chapter. The beginning so far is laying down exposition and introducing the setting, so it may take a little bit before the real plot kicks in. At least, I hope it shouldn't take too long to get there.

[ChesCa]

Just three things I've got so far:
1. Read some of the dialogue out loud, especially the part where Terry mutters 'best get to my new dorm before it's too late' or whatever part that was. One thing I learned from reading in my writing group is that a good story is one that will never make you bored of your own voice, and it can catch mistakes in dialogue.
2. Terry becoming a Stargazer out of the blue. Cool, but hopefully we'll eventually get an explanation of it some day, and maybe even the immediate consequences of becoming a Stargazer.
3. I've been in a rough neighborhood, and it doesn't really match what you described. Even though it was only during the day, every shop I passed by not only had bars on the windows, but also signs saying 'this place is under surveillance' or 'smile, you're on camera.'
That could give a more ominous feeling. I know it certainly gave me one: I never come near that area at night now.
Bonus Fact: The area I was walking in was quite isolated and a long way from residential areas. Good place for 'nightly activities.'
Keep up the good work.

[Kitsune Inferno]

Crossword, were you interested in submitting this for the Bi-Weekly, or no? Just curious, because I wasn't sure. (I'll get to reading this once I get some significant free time)

[Crossword]

Once it gets longer and the conflict starts up I might. Right now I have four chapters written out, and I'm still laying out the setting and introducing the main characters.

[Crossword]

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Chapter 2: What is a Stargazer?

! It was late at night, but even so Gerald Centone arrived at Marine Cove’s 2nd Branch Research Institute twenty minutes after he had received a phone call from one of the staff members requesting his presence. Given the unusual time of day, this could mean only one thing: a new Stargazer had been found. Such an event didn't happen all that often, and it always sent two conflicting sets of emotions through his aging body: one of anticipation, and one of apprehension. What kind of powers would this person have, and what was their situation and story? What kind of person would they be? The decisions that he would have to make within the next number of hours could drastically alter a life, and despite the number of years that he had spent working for Lifeline, that knowledge was something that he had never grown comfortable with.
! He did his best to put aside his worries as he entered the building, as he knew that his meeting would go easier for him if he kept his mind clear, and reached a small reception room where a sleepy receptionist took notice of him and gave him a small file of documents that pertained to the case before leading him to a conference room.
! Waiting for him inside were two people. The first was the woman who was the director of this facility, Dr. Margaret Seedis. She was the type of person who was always on task and dedicated to her research work. Her gray hair was pulled back into a tight bun, giving her the look of a stern librarian or schoolteacher. Gerald had known her for a number of years, and knew that that aura suited her perfectly.
! The second person, on the other hand, was Dr. Seedis’s complete opposite, despite the fact that the military uniform he was wearing might make one think otherwise. The posture of the young man seated across from her at the table, Captain Dennis Ganut, was making it no secret that he was not looking forward to this meeting and that he wished to be elsewhere. Gerald had only crossed paths with him a few times before now, but from those few encounters he had learned that anything involving this man would be an uphill struggle.
! ‘’Good evening Dr. Seedis, Captain Ganut.’’ Gerald nodded to the others as he took his seat at the table and opened up the file he had been given. ‘’May I ask what the situation is at the moment?’’
! Dr. Seedis put on her glasses as she looked down at the set of papers lying on the table before her. ‘’At approximately ten o’clock this evening we received a phone call from Akira Kamiya that someone he was with had exhibited Stargazer powers.’’ she reported. ‘’We dispatched someone to investigate and we admitted the subject, Terrence Eaves, into this facility just after ten forty-five.’’
! ‘’What is the current state of this boy?’’ Gerald asked. This was always the first thing he asked, for the Stargazer’s state of mind was always the foremost concern in his mind. If the subject was stable, that was fine, and he could go forward with his plans, if not…
! ‘’The subject’s mental state seemed stable when I talked with him.’’ Seedis answered. ‘’At first he seemed to be a little confused, maybe even dazed if you will, but he seemed to recover, and understood what I was telling him though he didn’t say very much. I wouldn’t worry about his sanity.’’
! That was quite a relief to Gerald, and he mentally breathed a sigh of relief. There were occasional cases of new Stargazers undergoing disastrous bouts of psychosis due to being unable to process and cope with their newfound powers. Things would be much less complicated for all involved if the boy wasn’t in a heightened state of mental agitation.
! ‘’Well that’s good.’’ Ganut grunted, speaking up for the first time. ‘’I don’t want him snapping on me.’’
! ‘’Have you gotten a Weismann count?’’ Gerald went on, deciding that it was best to ignore him.
! ‘’The lab is working on it right now.’’ Seedis replied. ‘’We should have the results ready by tomorrow morning.’’
! ‘’I will wish to speak with him at that time.’’ Gerald said, adjusting his glasses. ‘’Now, can you tell a little bit about him?’’ he asked. ‘’As you probably know, I only received the file just now, and obviously haven’t had any time to peruse it.’’
! ‘’Gladly.’’ Seedis said, absentmindedly scratching her nose as she brought up her own copy of the file for reference. ‘’Terrence Eaves, 17 years old, born on August 21, 2631, native of Rentune, a small town located in the Severstone state.’’ she began to read off.
! ‘’That’s out near the mid-west, isn’t it?’’ Ganut asked, though he didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
! ‘’It is.’’ Seedis confirmed before going back to the file. ‘’His legal guardian is his uncle, a Dustin Eaves.’’
! ‘’His parents?’’
! ‘’ He was actually rather evasive around that topic.’’ Seedis admitted, steepling her fingers. ‘’And I didn’t think that this was a good time to force information from him. However, it wasn’t too difficult to find their names through census records. That information should be included with the other files you have there.’’
! ‘’Ah, yes, here they are.’’ Gerald noted as he looked at the second page of documents included in the file folder. The names he saw admittedly meant nothing to him at the moment, but he did find Terrence’s apparent reluctance to speak about them interesting. He could think of numerous reasons why one would dislike or be estranged from their parents, but for someone to refuse to even speak of them if even an authority asked, well, there must be some kind of grudge behind it. It was something to keep note of.
! ‘’He did strike me as being rather closed.’’ Seedis continued, once she saw that Gerald was finished reading. ‘’But that may simply be due to the current circumstances. When I talked to him, Akira Kamiya claimed that he more talkative after a little bit. Would you like me to give you the full version of what Mr. Kamiya told me, by the way?’’
! ‘’No, that’s alright.’’ Gerald waved that aside. ‘’I’ll speak to him myself later. I’d rather hear things from Mr. Eaves’s own mouth for the time being. This would be a confusing time for anyone, especially for someone so young.’’
! This was a rising concern indeed. According to the gathered data, within the last twenty years more and more newly awakened Stargazers were under the age of 30, with some even being minors. How many promising young futures had been sidetracked or even derailed by this phenomenon?
! ‘’I think it’s a good thing.’’ Seedis said simply, cutting into his thoughts. ‘’Better for it to happen now when their futures are still malleable rather than later when it’s too late.’’
! Well there’s something we disagree on. Gerald thought to himself, eyeing the doctor coolly. But now wasn’t time for the ethics debate. Not yet, anyway. ‘’It says here that he’s a Gemini Stargazer.’’ he noted as he skimmed the file again.
! ‘’There’s no mistaking it, as both Mr. Kamiya and Eaves himself reported that the power he manifested appeared to be electricity based.’’ Seedis explained.
! ‘’Not too many Geminis out there.’’ Ganut put it.
! They continued to go over the finer details of the incident. Seedis wanted to see if they could find the thug whom Eaves had inadvertently shocked, but as Ganut pointed out, it would be nearly impossible to find him by now. Between Seedis’s almost cold professionalism and Ganut’s snide comments and behavior, Gerald couldn’t say that he particularly enjoyed the discussion. He was quite thankful when they finally began to wrap things up.
! ‘’As I said earlier, I think the best course of action for me is to speak to Mr. Eaves as soon as I can so that I can get things moving on my end.’’ Gerald said to the others as he began to reorganize the papers before him on the table. ‘’Then once I’m finished explaining things, we can send the documentation to Heion to get the final approval for-‘’
! ‘’There’s no need to go through Heion.’’ Seedis said, interrupting him. ‘’The state governor wants Trident up and running as soon as possible, and so he’s already managed to clear most of the red tape. I believe the only forms you need are at the back of that file you were given.’’
! ‘’Oh, so they are.’’ Gerald noted as he spotted a document that he had somehow overlooked hiding at the back of the file folder, feeling a little foolish.
! ‘’ Ganut.’’ Seedis turned to address the younger man. ‘’We aim to begin the demonstration at eleven o’clock tomorrow morning.’’
! ‘’So I’ll be the guinea pig once again, eh?’’ Ganut said, not sounding particularly interested. ‘’Yeah, I’ll get it cleared with my bosses so I can come back down here no problem. Not like they’ll be able to refuse anyway.’’
! ‘’Well, if everything is in order,’’ Gerald said with an air of finality as he reorganized his files. ‘’I will be here at nine in the morning to talk to the patient.’’
! He gathered up his papers and belongings, wished Seedis and Ganut goodnight, and departed the conference room. As he left he noted, rather cynically, that not once in their long discussion had the subject of Eaves’s own wishes and thoughts on the matter come up.
! * * *
! With an effort, Terry slowly opened his eyes for the second time that morning. Once again, the ceiling before his blurred and sleepy vision was an unfamiliar sterile white and not the dull plaster that he expected from a dorm room. He slowly glanced around to see that he was still lying in the bed of a small hospital room. His bag and clothes were set aside nearby, and his jacket was hanging up on a hook attached to the closed door.
! Things slowly came back to him. Last night, against all odds, he had become a Stargazer, or so Akira had claimed. After several moments of confusion Akira had called someone on his cell phone, claiming that he didn’t know what else to do and that the people he was calling would. Before Terry could’ve gotten a straight explanation from him, an official-looking van had pulled up to sweep both of them away.
! They had been taken to this facility where Terry had been both interrogated and submitted to several physical examinations, and had spent the night hooked up to several different machines monitoring his sleeping body, which had only just been disconnected a little earlier in the morning. And during all of this, not once had Terry gotten a straight explanation as to what was going to happen to him. This was certainly not the way he had imagined spending his first night in Marine Cove.
! He looked down at his hand, and it definitely didn’t look any different than it normally did. While it was hard to imagine that just a few hours ago he had shot electricity from it, he didn’t really feel too strongly about it one way or another at this point. He assumed that his brain was perhaps still trying to fully comprehend the reality of what had happened.
! The staff monitoring him had apparently noticed that he was awake, for soon a nurse came in to bring him a meager breakfast of oatmeal and toast, after which he was allowed to shower and change into a fresh hospital tunic and had a few new sensors, thankfully not wired this time, reapplied to his body. By the time he had gotten back to his small room he found someone waiting there for him. It was someone he hadn’t seen before, an older man, whose face was just starting to sag with age, with slightly sunken eyes behind black-rimmed glasses.
! ‘’Oh, hello there.’’ he said, looking up from a sheet of paper he was reading as he heard Terry enter. His voice was a steady and cultured one. ‘’My name is Gerald Centone. Go ahead, feel free to sit, Mr. Eaves.’’ He made a gesture and Terry decided to sit down on the edge of the bed, eyeing the older man with just a hint of suspicion.
! ‘’Don’t worry, I’m not here to interrogate you, nor make you repeat anything that you already told the director last night.’’ Gerald assured, picking up on the look in Terry’s eyes. ‘’I’m actually here to answer some of your own questions, though I wouldn’t mind some answers from you if you’re willing to give them.’’ he added.
! Indeed, Terry had what felt like a million questions and threads drifting around in his head: where was he, who these people were, who did they work for, his powers, when he would stop being treated by the staff like a patient, and most of all, what would ultimately be happening to him. It was best to start simple. ‘’Well, for starters… Where am I, and who are you?’’
! Gerald shifted in his seat a little. ‘’Right now you are in the medical wing of the city’s 2nd Research Institute. As for myself, I am a member of the city’s board of education.’’
! ‘’So, what do you have to do with me?’’
! ‘’Well, you’re probably not aware of this, but what I do ties directly into your situation.’’ Gerald began to explain. ‘’But first I think it is best that I address what exactly a Stargazer is.’’
! Terry gave a small nod. ‘’Well, I know what they are, but only in a very broad sense.’’
! ‘’Admittedly, and this frustrates a good deal of the scientific community, we don’t know all that much about the mechanics either, nor do we know why the people that are chosen are.’’ Gerald began. ‘’What we do know, is that throughout history select humans have been granted extraordinary powers beyond the natural realm, by some unseen entity or force.’’
! ‘’That reminds me.’’ Terry cut in. ‘’Not long before I first used my powers, I got a really, really bad headache.’’
! ‘’Go on.’’ Gerald said, leaning forward with intrigue.
! ‘’Well, it felt almost like something was being forced roughly into my head.’’ Terry recounted. ‘’It was like…like…’’ He struggled to find the words that fit what he was thinking. ‘’It was like something was being installed.’’ he said finally.
! ‘’Hm, that’s an interesting analogy.’’ Gerald mused. ‘’Your experience is hardly a unique one, though. Almost every Stargazer I’ve talked to who was conscious of the moment that they became on have mentioned experiencing the exact same symptoms you just did, some even making almost the same comparison.’’
! ‘’Oh. Well, sorry to interrupt your explanation.’’
! ‘’No, that’s alright.’’ Gerald said. ‘’I suppose I better explain the breakdown in their power.’’ He paused to adjust his glasses. ‘’While the powers themselves are quite broad, encompassing many, many different abilities, and there is some overlap, they can be divided up into seven categories: Leo, Aquarius, Gemini, Taurus, Sagittarius, Virgo, and Capricorn.
! ‘’The first category, Leo, draws its power fire and its derivatives. Aquarius, as the name may suggest, draws its power from water. Gemini, what you are, covers electromagnetism, or in your case, actual electricity. Taurus is rather broad, but often deals with metal or earth. Sagittarius, conversely, is associated with air.’’
! ‘’In fact,’’ he added. ‘’Your friend Akira Kamiya, whom you met last night, is a Sagittarius Stargazer.’’
! ‘’He’s a Stargazer too?’’ Terry’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. No wonder he had been able to get in touch with these people. ‘’He did briefly bring up Stargazers when we were talking last night, but he backed off quickly, making me think that he was worried about saying something that he shouldn’t. I never would have thought that that was his secret, though.’’
! ‘’Well, it’s not a fact that one would want to flaunt about, even for someone like him.’’ Gerald said evenly. ‘’But I’ll come back to that later; I still have two more Stargazer types to explain to you.’’
! He briefly paused. ‘’Actually, Virgo and Capricorn are a little more difficult to narrow down.’’
! ‘’How so?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’Well, these two don’t deal with a clear-cut element.’’ Gerald began to answer. ‘’How should I put it… I guess the simplest explanation is that they deal with creation and destruction, though not all of their recorded powers reflect this. They can be quite powerful, if you’re lucky. In fact,’’ He shifted in his chair once again. ‘’In fact, the strongest known Stargazer at present is a Virgo, though I don’t know the particulars of his power.’’
! Terry took a few moments to take all of this in. The system wasn’t that difficult really. Most of the classifications seemed easy to associate with their respective powers. But the time had come to get the big issue out into the open. ‘’So,’’ he said slowly. ‘’what’s going to happen to me?’’
! Gerald let out a sigh and geared himself. ‘’Well, in the past the government would take direct custody of any Stargazer that they could find.’’ he began to explain. ‘’Naturally, this caused quite a few problems. Imagine, if you will, suddenly ripping a person from their regular life and putting them into a role that they would never have been put in otherwise, like being a spy, or a soldier.’’
! ‘’So basically all Stargazers work for the government.’’
! ‘’Not necessarily.’’ Gerald corrected. ‘’Some slip through the cracks before SPHERE can discover them, and either end up in the employ of shady fringe groups or simply remain independent.
! ‘’Anyway, in recent decades there has been an increase in the number of people being awakened, especially young adults like yourself, and we can’t just throw children into the armed forces, can we? That’s where I come in.’’ Gerald paused to take off his glasses and clean them.
! ‘’In addition to being a part of Marine Cove’s board of education, I am part of a worldwide organization called Lifeline. What Lifeline does is reach out and discover these young Stargazers, just like you, and find ways to utilize their talents in such a way as to not disrupt their civilian lives. For example,’’ He took a moment to think. ‘’I remember reading about one case not too long ago about a Stargazer who could communicate directly with animals ending up working at an aquarium, I believe. There's another Stargazer on Heion who uses their power to help the scientists run experimental simulations.’’
! ‘’So what do you have in store for me?’’ Terry asked after hearing this. ‘’You do have something planned, right?’’
! ‘’Well, I’m not sure if Akira told you this or not, for he has a tendency to lose track of his words, but this city has a bit of a gang problem.’’ Gerald admitted. ‘’It’s mostly petty crimes in the poorer, more industrial parts of the city, but things have been slowly escalating in recent months. Their leader is a confirmed Stargazer, and we have reason to believe that he is trying to bring a second one into his fold as well.’’
! ‘’So basically,’’ Terry began to put together. ‘’You want us to fight this gang then.’’
! ‘’And any other criminals that local law enforcement cannot tackle on its own.’’ Gerald added. ‘’It is more dangerous than some of the other examples I just gave you, but that is the purpose of a Stargazer cell that I have been put in charge of organizing, code-named Trident. Apart from yourself, it will consist of Akira Kamiya and another young man named Theodore Bown, whom I’m sure you will meet in the coming days.’’
! ‘’You say that like I’m going to join no matter what.’’ Terry pointed out, his eyes starting to become a little suspicious again.
! Gerald’s face visibly tightened. ‘’Well, to be blunt, unless you want SPHERE to take direct custody of you, and if that happens than neither you nor I will have much power over what will happen to you then, you don’t have much of a choice. That is why Lifeline was created, to prevent that sort of thing.’’ He leaned forward, focusing in on Terry. ‘’If you join Trident, in addition to getting paid – rather well mind you – for your services, you will be able to attend school as usual – I know that you came here to attend the Academy – and the government will continue to provide you support as you grow older. Aside from certain obligations that you will be asked to fulfill, you will be allowed to live a normal teenage life.’’
! ‘’Except for putting myself in harm’s way and hiding all of this from my friends and family.’’ Terry said dryly.
! The older man winced slightly. ‘’Yes, except for that.’’
! Terry let out an audible sigh. ‘’Well, I don’t have any friends here, and I don’t have much in the way of family either.’’
! ‘’Speaking of,’’ Gerald began to say, trying to broach this topic in the smoothest manner he could, which admittedly wasn’t very. ‘’would you mind telling me about your family? Dr. Seedis told me that you didn’t want to speak of them when she was talking to you last night.’’
! ‘’And I still don’t.’’ Terry said flatly, and Gerald could detect a hint of bitterness under there. Just a little, but it was there. ‘’I’m sure you can find out about them on your own, but right now, I don’t want to talk about them.’’
! Judging from the boy’s tone of voice and attitude, Gerald decided that it was better for him to not press too heavily. ‘’Very well then, that is your right.’’ he commented as he pushed back his coat’s sleeve to check his watch. ‘’Well, think about what I’ve told you about my offer. I’d really like to have your cooperation on this.’’
! He stood up. ‘’I believe that I should be taking you downstairs now; the time for your demonstration is drawing near, and I still have to pick up some results from the lab in the meantime.’’
! ‘’A demonstration?’’ Terry repeated. He could already make a pretty good guess as to what that would entail, but he still asked Gerald anyway.
! ‘’Yes.’’ Gerald said as he patted some creases out of his suit. ‘’It will be a practical demonstration of your powers. As your power is of an offensive type, and because you can already handle yourself in combat, as I’ve been led to believe, it will be in the format of a mock battle.’’
–----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ChesCa]

The only comment is that I'd like to learn more of this world, but I have a feeling we're going to get that if we're patient enough.
That, and Terry seemed really resigned. I can understand him eventually accepting his fate, but I'd be holding back a lot of anger if I were him.
That's just me, though.
Will we find out why there are only seven types of Stargazers and not twelve?

[Crossword]

The reason why there are seven categories instead of twelve is because I couldn't come up with a way to efficiently split what I had in mind across the entire Zodiac without some of the types being stupidly specific and restrictive. Luckily, this story isn't set in the real word, so I can fudge things if necessary.
–-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 3: Stargazer Fight

! Terry was led by Gerald through the facility to an elevator that Gerald had to unlock with a swipe of a keycard. ‘’What do you mean they’re going to make me fight?’’ Terry asked as the doors closed behind them. ‘’And what exactly are they going to make me fight anyway?’’
! ‘’You’ll see when you arrive.’’ Gerald replied as he keyed in their destination. ‘’What we’re looking for is a demonstration of what your powers are capable of in a combat simulation.’’
! ‘’Actually fighting someone isn’t a simulation.’’ Terry protested. ‘’And I’ve only used my powers once, on instinct. How on earth am I going to be able to fight something with them when I still barely know anything about them myself?!’’
! ‘’I don’t like how they’re rushing you through the process either.’’ Gerald said as the elevator began to shutter and descend. ‘’Consider this a test of your ability to think and strategize on the fly under duress. You already have some skill in the martial arts, correct?’’
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’My uncle was a boxer when he was in high school, so he thought that I should know how to fight too.’’
! ‘’Well, then the only advice that I can give you is to draw upon what you have learned from that.’’ Gerald answered, eyeing the young man carefully through the corner of his field of vision. ‘’And your instinct too, of course.’’
! The elevator shuddered to a halt and the doors opened to reveal a slightly dimly-lit corridor. As he was led through, Terry got a glimpse of offices and a few research laboratories down branching hallways and through windows set into the wall. The distant hum of a heavy-duty generator or other such machinery could be heard all around.
! ‘’What is this place?’’ Terry asked his guide as he angled for a better look at the facilities. ‘’Is this where they conduct top-secret research?’’
! ‘’Some of it.’’ Gerald answered. ‘’I’m not exactly privy to all of it, of course.’’
! ‘’This part of the facility is located underground.’’ he went on. ‘’It affords some additional privacy and security.’’
! They soon reached a rather spartan chamber that looked like an especially drab waiting room. There were a few chairs set against the wall, and there was a slight indentation in the wall at one point that was probably a concealed door, but other than that the chamber was bare and looked far from welcoming.
! ‘’Here we are.’’ Gerald announced. ‘’It may be a bit of a wait, but as soon as they’re ready for your trial to begin, they’ll call for you. I have to go to the lab to pick up your Weismann count.’’
! ‘’What’s that?’’
! ‘’Oh, I haven’t explained that?’’ Gerald adjusted his glasses, looking remiss. ‘’You know what mitochondria are, right?’’
! ‘’They’re a part of a cell, right?’’
! ‘’Correct.’’ Gerald said. ‘’To put it simply, these particles, named after the scientist who discovered them, Tessel Weismann, are unique to Stargazers, and appear to be produced by their mitochondria. While we still haven’t figured out what triggers their production, we do know that the concentration per cell correlates to the potency of a Stargazer’s powers.’’
! ‘’I see.’’ Terry looked like he was mulling something over. ‘’Should I be concerned about the results?’’ he then asked.
! ‘’No, you shouldn’t.’’ Gerald said firmly. He could easily tell that Terry was doing a very poor job of hiding the uncertainty and confusion that was inside of him, and so tried to come up with some fitting words for the young man. ‘’Even if I’m not in the same position, I can understand that this is a trying time for you.’’ he began. ‘’But try to keep your spirits up. I believe that you should take pride in your abilities. Out of all of the people living on Lagoon and Heion, you are one of the very few who were given this power, and that means something. I sincerely believe that.’’
! Terry didn’t say a word in response, but he did give a visible nod and allowed himself to smile slightly.
! ‘’Oh, and of course, good luck.’’ Gerald added as he turned to leave. ‘’I’ll be seeing you later on, hopefully.’’
! He left, leaving Terry all alone in this barren room with nothing at all to do but wait. So he sat himself down on one of the chairs and let things stew around in his mind for a bit. Right now, above all else, he felt anxious. What exactly was in store for him at this demonstration? And what about his powers? It wasn’t as if he had consciously used them before. What if he went out there and turned out to have nothing at all to show for it?
! With a tinge of annoyance, something that his uncle had once told him came to his mind. If you approach a fight with the wrong mindset, you’ve already lost. There’s no forgiveness for mistakes once you put things on the line. And that was true, Terry had to admit, not just for fighting someone, but for any sort of conflict one might encounter in life. His uncle may not be the most philosophical or pleasant person, but he did say some things that were definitely on the mark, Terry begrudged. It wouldn’t do him any good to fret over these sorts of things right now. Terry took a deep breath, and began to banish the doubts from his mind one by one as he mentally girded himself for what was to come.
! * * *
! Having picked up his report, Gerald hurried over to the observation room from which he would witness the demonstration. Waiting for him inside were Dr. Seedis and a few assistants who were monitoring the equipment. Beyond a thick pane of security glass was a chamber which was about the size of a gymnasium. Hidden in the walls from the naked eye were multiple cameras and sensors of all kinds, each attuned to a different setting in order to process as much data as possible and transmit all of it back to the observation room for study.
! ‘’How is the subject?’’ Seedis asked as Gerald entered, once again cutting straight to business.
! ‘’Outwardly, remarkably calm, given everything I’ve told him and what he’s experienced.’’ Gerald reported as he took his spot next to Seedis where he would have a good view of the proceedings. ‘’Though inside, despite his attempts to hide it, I can sense that there is some unease and uncertainty.’’
! ‘’That’s only to be expected.’’ Seedis remarked, looking completely unfazed. ‘’He’ll come out of it soon enough. Have you looked at the results of his Weismann test yet?’’
! ‘’No, but I have it right here.’’ Gerald opened up the file to quickly skim it. ‘’Let’s see…the number should be right, about…here.’’ He found the spot and his eyes glanced over it. ‘’A concentration of two-hundred-fifty-seven…’’ he read. ‘’That seems to be within the average range for a Stargazer who has just awakened his powers.’’ That number wasn’t set in stone, of course. As a Stargazer learned how to control their power and harness it more efficiently the number could go up, signifying their growth. As a result, the powers could range from near-uselessness all the way up to the potential to destroy entire cities, allegedly. Gerald hoped to never encounter someone capable of such terrible power.
! But of course, there was no need to worry about that at the moment. One of the assistants announced that the calibration of the equipment was complete, so Seedis keyed a button on her console to signal that things were ready for Terry’s entrance. Now it was time to see what he could do in action. As Gerald watched Terry’s opponent take his spot at the center of the testing chamber, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of eager anticipation rise up within him, as if he were a young child once again, excited, and a little anxious, over the prospect of receiving new presents on Christmas Day. With these feelings, he visibly swallowed and looked on ahead.
! Terry, meanwhile, was still mentally prepping himself when a voice spoke up over a hidden intercom, requesting his presence. The indentation in the wall began to slide open, revealing the large testing chamber beyond. He stepped through, doing his best to suppress his nerves as that feeling of anxiety slowly tried to resurface. The chamber was rather large and dim, with the lighting coming from alcoves interspersed along the walls and ceiling. The only other visible feature was what looked like an observation booth elevated at the far end of the chamber, though it was too far away to clearly make out its occupants in this lighting.
! Terry’s attention was quickly drawn to the center of the chamber, where a man was standing with arms crossed and legs set slightly apart. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, and was wearing what seemed to be a gray military uniform, only he had stripped off the tunic and was just going with the black undershirt beneath. His other distinguishing feature, Terry couldn’t help but notice, was that his bangs were a lighter shade of brown than the rest of his hair.
! ‘’I am Captain Dennis Ganut, of the 4th Branch of the Founders’ States’ army, under the umbrella of the SPHERE government.’’ he stated in a brisk, military manner. ‘’Though I suppose,’’ he added in a more casual tone, ‘’that I am a captain in name only.’’
! ‘’Um, I’m Terry Eaves.’’ Terry said, eyeing his opposite carefully. That hadn’t sounded like something any self-respecting soldier would say. ‘’Am I supposed to fight you?’’
! ‘’That is correct. What we want to see is a demonstration of your abilities in combat.’’ a voice said, probably coming from another hidden speaker. Terry recognized it as the voice of the woman who had interrogated him the night before. ‘’But, on a person?’’ he said, a little uneasy at the prospect.
! ‘’It’ll be fine; it’s what I’m here for.’’ Ganut said, holding out his palms in a gesture of either reassurance or smugness. ‘’Come at me with your fists, powers, whatever you want. I’ll take ‘em.’’
! ‘’Well then, okay.’’ Terry said, sliding back into a combat stance as the speaker announced the demonstration’s commencement. The only problem was, of course, that he still wasn’t exactly sure how he was supposed to use his powers.
! Well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. Since his opponent was offering, he’d oblige by taking any of his remaining pent-up frustrations out on him. He dashed forward and ground to a sudden stop right in front of Ganut, who hadn’t moved at all. Planting his feet firmly to the floor, Terry drew back his fist at incredible speed and threw a straight punch right at the other man’s face.
! Only his fist never connected.
! Well, it actually did, but much to Terry’s surprise, his forearm had gone clear through Ganut, as if he was facing a projection of some sort instead of a man.
! ‘’Hm, I can tell that that was a solid punch.’’ Ganut observed, completely unperturbed by the arm going through his head. ‘’That would’ve hurt quite a bit had it connected.’’
! Terry quickly leapt backwards, noticing that Ganut’s eyes had gone from brown to blue. Only one conclusion then. ‘’You’re a Stargazer?!’’ he got out.
! ‘’Indeed.’’ Ganut confirmed, clearly enjoying the teen’s surprise. ‘’I’m a Virgo Stargazer, who can manipulate my own space. Think of it as similar to how light bends to create the effect of a mirage, or even invisibility.’’ With that said he himself sprang forward and swung his own fist which Terry managed to block with his arm. The blow was all too solid, but when he tried to retaliate the other man was intangible once again.
! ‘’Dammit, I can’t fight like this.’’ Terry growled in frustration as he put some distance between himself and Ganut.
! ‘’Hey,’’ Ganut called. ‘’I showed you my power, time to show me yours.’’
! ‘’But how the heck am I supposed to do that?!’’ Terry shouted back. ‘’It’s not like I’ve done this before, you know!’’
! ‘’Tch, you’re thinking like a human, still.’’ Ganut grunted, tapping his head to illustrate. ‘’You’re not a human anymore, you’re a Stargazer. It should be second nature to use your powers now!’’
! Maybe he was right, Terry thought to himself. He was hung up on that point because his only other usage of his powers had been reflexive, and it was a different matter to consciously draw upon them. By obsessing over that, he was going about this the wrong way and doing nothing but a disservice.
! Ganut, however, was not going to give him the time he needed to collect himself. ‘’If you aren’t going to do this on your own,’’ he said. ‘’I’ll have to take a step up on the pressure and give you an incentive.’’ With that, he held out his hand before suddenly plunging it inside himself, at least that was what it looked like to Terry’s surprised eyes, and drew out what looked like a metal telescoping police baton. ‘’How’d you – ‘’
! ‘’I told you, my power is to manipulate my own space.’’ Ganut said, brandishing his new weapon as he sized Terry up again. ‘’Of course it’s child’s play to create a space inside myself like so. There are many ways a Stargazer can apply his or her powers, you just have to discover them.’’
! He dashed forth and took a series of aggressive swipes at Terry, forcing him on the defensive as he reasoned that it probably wasn’t a good idea to let himself get hit with that. His own punches and kicks continued to be ineffective, and it was difficult to concentrate with Ganut’s fierce attack, which was probably his entire game.
! He himself had studied martial arts since he was 11 years old. One of the most basic things that he had learned, and what his uncle’s words from earlier had alluded to, was the importance of maintaining focus and keeping a clear head at all times, lest his movements become sloppy and easy to read, and he become unable to strategize properly. Once again, he needed to clear his mind despite the circumstances. Don’t worry about whether he could activate his powers or not, just do it.
! As that thought went through his mind, Terry felt an odd sensation in the air around him and was rewarded with the sight of a few bolts of electricity crackling in the air around him. ‘’So you can do it after all.’’ Ganut said, looking pleased.
! ‘’Alright!’’ Terry couldn’t help but exclaim that. Normally, he’d probably be unnerved by that sight, but instead he felt a mixture of excitement and joy. This was his power. His and his alone. Now, all he had to do was harness it.
! He made a bit of a slashing gesture, trying to ‘’will’’ the lightning as he did so. With a crack, the bolts gathered to his arm and jumped off towards Ganut…only to phase right through him like all of his other attacks had.
! ‘’Hah, what a priceless look on your face!’’ Ganut called out, gleeful. ‘’Sorry, but you’ll have to do a little more work than that to land a blow on me!’’
! Terry gritted his teeth, trying to keep the resurging feelings of frustrations down. That power was so unfair. There was no way that he could hope to touch someone who could simply hide behind intangibility at will.
At will? Terry was struck by a thought and quickly flashed back to earlier in the fight, to each time he had seen Ganut’s eyes go blue and use his powers. Never once had it been when he was attacking…
! And so, Terry knew what he must do. He charged blatantly forward, heedless of whatever Ganut could throw at him. He angled his left shoulder forward, catching the brunt of the baton’s inevitable blow. Surprisingly, it didn’t hurt quite as much as Terry had figured it would, but there was no time to dwell on that, as Terry’s other fist was already moving, with his powers electrifying it. With a shout of kiai, his fist made contact with Ganut’s face, resulting in a satisfyingly solid blow and a small burst of electricity. Ganut yet out a cry and was bowled backwards, though he managed to catch himself before falling completely, dropping his baton to the floor.
! ‘’Are you okay?’’ Terry couldn’t help but ask. He did have some genuine concern, as before this he hadn’t considered the effects his power would have on a human body.
! ‘’Yeah, I’m fine.’’ Ganut grumbled as he regained his bearings and signaled towards the observation booth for the demonstrating to end. ‘’It just felt like I got hit with a taser or something…’’ He picked up the baton and used his powers to return it to the strange space inside his body that he originally drawn it from. ‘’I suppose you pass.’’ he said as a buzzer went off and the intercom formally announced the demonstration’s end.
! ‘’I passed…’’ Terry repeated, finding himself looking down at his hands again. Now that the fight was over, thoughts were flooding his mind once again. But this time, they were happy thoughts. He had just experienced his first trial as a Stargazer, and had passed. There would undoubtedly be many more in the future and even more uncertainty ahead that he would have to face, but this win made him feel confident, and even proud.
! He looked up from his thoughts to see Ganut extending his hand. His expression was stern, his face lightly singed from Terry’s attack, but his eyes were sincere. ‘’Good job.’’ he said. ‘’I mean it.’’
! ‘’Thanks..’’ Terry replied, taking the man’s hand and shaking it. ‘’That means a lot to me.’’
! ‘’You have a good head on your shoulders, since you were able to think like that despite the circumstances.’’ Ganut said when they mutually withdrew their hands. ‘’You managed to figure out the limitation to my power rather quickly.’’
! ‘’Heh, it was obvious once I thought about it.’’ Terry replied, allowing himself to grin slightly. ‘’Why don’t you try fixing that?’’
! ‘’I believe I will, kid.’’ Ganut said mildly. He then stood straight, and snapped into a military salute. ‘’You’ve earned my respect. As a fellow Stargazer, I think you’ll go far.’’
! ‘’Heh, I wonder about that.’’ Terry said, scratching the back of his head. ‘’Say, how do you view your powers?’’
! ‘’My powers?’’ Ganut repeated, eyeing Terry with a bit of a quizzical look. ‘’I view them as a skill like any other. One that is to be honed and used as efficiently as possible in the service of my duties, slight as they may be.’’
! ‘’I see.’’ Terry said. He thought back to Gerald’s words in the waiting room. ‘’I don’t know where my came from, or why I was given them, but I think…I think that I’ll make mine my pride.’’
! * * *
! ‘’And there we have it.’’ Gerald said to himself as he watched Terrence and Ganut talking. Ganut acted abrasive because he knew he would get special treatment because he was a Stargazer, so it was rather surprising to see him act so cordial. ‘’What did you think of him?’’ he asked, turning to Seedis.
! ‘’He seemed to grasp the basics of controlling his power rather quickly.’’ Seedis mused, chin resting on her fist. ‘’I’m sure the data will be quite interesting once it’s done being processed. His growth projection in particular should be a fascinating read. Would you like a copy of the results when we’re finished?’’
! ‘’No, that’ll be all right.’’ Gerald replied. He himself, he felt proud. Proud of this young man who had managed to throw off his doubts, who had found an answer amongst the stormy seas that he had been thrust suddenly into. Or at least, he hoped that he had found an answer.
! ‘’He’ll be turned over to my custody once I file that last bit of paperwork, correct?’’ he then said, turning his focus back to his colleague.
! ‘’Yes, that is correct.’’ Seedis answered, looking out into the testing chamber again. ‘’I think he’ll make a fine addition to Trident.''
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[Jazzy Jinx]

I only read the first chapter but I feel it's worth noting that there's this unshakeable sense of detachment I have for the characters. Though you may think your description is adequate and truth is, it does allow me to see everything, there's no depth or life to it. I feel like description, rather than being the words that carry the story, have a life of their own just as the characters do. And that life is tied to the characters. Rather than describing how Terry feels have Terry tell us how he feels through your description. Not once should you ever take your mind out of the characters' thoughts. The perceptions we should be seeing should be from their perspective. Even if it's third person, tie the description to the characters and breathe life into them. I'll even provide an example:

A: It was obvious that, because of the rain, Mike would need an umbrella. Almost instinctively, he reached towards the back of the door without a conscious thought and to his surprise, his umbrella was not there. "How odd." Mike muttered. "This doesn't make any sense."

B: On a rainy day like this, Mike would instinctively motion his hand to grab the umbrella behind the door. But when he reached out and felt nothing, it came as a major shock. And in this shock all he could mutter was, "How odd". Why wasn't his umbrella there? "This doesn't make any sense."

–-

It may seem subtle or perhaps even unnoticeable but B should have preserved the stream of consciousness whereas A somewhat disrupts it. There should be a natural flow between description and dialogue and the way to obtain that flow is to always remain within a character's mindset. The way your story (or at least, chapter 1) is written now, this flow is disrupted because there's a clear line separating description from dialogue. This forces the reader to constantly shift the stream which is something that should never happen. It becomes tedious quickly.

Also, by always tying description directly to the characters' perspectives you further develop and breathe life into those characters and even the situation and atmosphere. It's all well and good to tell us however someone is feeling but is that enough to provide empathy for that character? The way one engrosses oneself into a story is through understanding how a character feels and dialogue with padded descriptions just plain isn't enough. The descriptions should lend itself to the characters, not take away from them.

Also, the text is really small. You should knock it up at least one font size.~

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That aside, you don't truly suffer from any major mistakes. For grammar, I'd recommend controlling any repetition. You never want to say a character's name too many times. For spelling mistakes, just use the in-built spell check that should be available. Structure is fine. And as for everything else, this definitely seems like it's striving to be a novel. You can tell there's a lot of effort placed into it and that's certainly a good thing.~

[ChesCa]

Read the third chapter.
A couple of parts seemed a little cliche, but we're just getting to meet the characters and all that. Plus, as you develop your characters more, you can always go back and hammer in minor details into their dialogue and mannerisms.

[Crossword]

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Chapter 4: Welcomes

! Despite the simulation being wrapped up, Terry still wasn’t allowed to leave the facility. The rest of the day consisted of him undergoing yet more tests and physical examinations, all of which he found highly redundant as they were the exact same ones he had already been put through the night before, and they were just as tedious as he remembered. The whole thing made him wonder if someone up the chain of command was taking some kind of twisted pleasure at seeing him suffer like this.
! And so it was much to his relief that on the afternoon of his second day of being kept in he was informed that he was being released and that someone was here to pick him up. After changing back into his own clothes Terry found himself standing outside of the facility’s entrance, in much the same state he had been upon his initial arrival at the train station, a little dazed and unsure of what to do.
! He didn’t have that long to wait, however. As he tried to get his eyesight adjusted to the brightness of the outdoors, he heard the sound of a horn honking as a car exited the busy street ahead and swung into the parking lot before finally pulling up in front of him. The driver rolled the window down, and a familiar voice came out to address him.
! ‘’It’s me. How are you?’’ Gerald Centone asked as he leaned out of the window. ‘’Get in, I’m here to take you to your new home.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ Terry said before going around and opening the passenger-side door. He tossed his bag in and then climbed in himself into the empty seat waiting for him. As he got in, he got a good look at Gerald and was taken aback a bit by his appearance. When he had met him the other night, the older man had been wearing a causal gray business suit, and as such that had gone a ways towards influencing Terry’s first impression of him. Now he was wearing a casual T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of some local sports team, Terry assumed. Just goes to show that people tend to have more sides to them than is usually first apparent, he thought to himself.
! Gerald, meanwhile, glanced back to check to see if Terry was all set. ‘’You’re all buckled in? Good.’’ He revved up the idling engine and his car began to move forward, making for the exit back to the main road. ‘’I’ve arranged for your transfer to a new dorm.’’ he began to explain as he waited for an opportunity to turn. ‘’It’s a special one. ‘Officially’, it’s for students with special backgrounds, but in reality it serves as a base for Trident. As I told you before, you’ll be living with the other two Stargazer members, Akira and Theodore.’’
! ‘’An entire dorm building for only three people?’’ Terry asked, gazing out the window as they began to drive down the road proper. It was taking them past a series of public-looking buildings and offices, and in the distance he could see a bridge stretching off towards the south over a large river. ‘’That sounds kinda wasteful.’’
! ‘’You three won’t be the only ones there, of course.’’ Gerald began to explain as he turned on his blinkers to switch lanes. ‘’My own nephew, Daniel Centone, will be there as well. He helps me in processing paperwork and other logistics for Lifeline. In fact, he’ll be starting at Marine Cove Academy next week as well.
! ‘’In addition to him there are a few administrative personnel, since Stargazer or no, we can’t leave teenagers living unsupervised.’’ he continued. ‘’And in the event that someone else joins Trident, they will move in as well, so I assure you that things won’t be lonely.’’
! That wasn’t too bad, Terry supposed to himself. He already had a decent grasp on Akira’s personality, or at least he thought he did, so they’d surely continue to get along. As for the other two Mr. Gerald had mentioned, he’d have to just go in there and see what they would be like. While meeting new people for the first time could oftentimes be awkward, especially for those whom he’d be seeing every day and be sharing his life with, Terry was secretly glad that he had been given this opportunity, being that this city was completely foreign to him and that now he would be with people that he had at least one thing in common with to relate to and become friends with. That would be worth something, at the very least.
! While he was thinking of all of that he had gone silent, and Gerald was trying to keep conversation going. ‘’So, how was it exactly that you came to learn how to fight like that?’’ he decided to ask. ‘’Did you take lessons?’’
! ‘’Oh, well, after my uncle said that I should learn, I started to study martial arts when I was eleven.’’ Terry began to answer as he gazed out at the river that they were now crossing.
! ‘’Like judo or tae-kwon-do?’’
! ‘’Not exactly.’’ Terry said, thinking back to his years of study. ‘’I did a lot of reading and practice of things covering self-defense, ways to train reflexes, the proper way to throw and take blows, that sort of thing. I didn’t want to restrict myself to just one fighting style since they all have their limitations, so I basically just sampled various bits from a handful of different ones.’’
! ‘’So you’re more freestyle then.’’ Gerald observed. ‘’Hm, I wish I had a hobby that I could’ve put to practical use when I was your age.’’
! ‘’Well, I never thought that I’d be applying them like this.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’A lot of it was to challenge myself and stay in shape. I wasn’t expecting to ever have to seriously fight outside of a sporting setting.’’
! He looked out the window again. They were almost across the bridge and beginning to enter the south side of the city. Terry could see the tall skyscrapers of the north side falling away in the distance as the scenery gave way to lower-rise, more residential buildings and smaller businesses. It would seem that the economic, political, and main industrial centers of Marine Cove was on the north side of the river, while the residential, social, and recreational centers lay on the south side.
! That wasn’t to say that the south side was insignificant by comparison. Before they returned to normal street level Terry could see that it extended quite a ways both east and west. Along the bank he could see an arborway path dotted with trees and people trying to taking advantage of the last few days of summer before the cool September air fully took hold over the city. He couldn’t see all the way down to the ocean bay that the river flowed into, but he was pretty certain that the city extended east all the way down the shoreline, and almost certainly went on further south for numerous miles, even if the buildings thinned out the further they got from the downtown.
! Once they were finally over the bridge Gerald began to pull away from the main road that they had been on and over onto a slower one that connected to the main traffic grid. ‘’How much further is it to the dorm?’’ Terry asked as he turned back to face forward.
! ‘’It shouldn’t take much longer providing the traffic is good.’’ Gerald told him as the car eased to a stop for a red light. ‘’When we get there I’ll give you some time to settle in. Why don’t afterwards I treat you to something to eat? I doubt that the food you’ve been eating here has been very filling.’’ he offered. ‘’Oh, and if Akira or Daniel are around, I can invite them as well and you can get acquainted.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ Terry said, his stomach suddenly feeling very empty and impatient now that he was thinking of food. ‘’I haven’t had a solid meal since before I came to this city.’’
! ‘’That’s good to hear.’’
! After what was probably around thirteen minutes of navigating the busy streets they reached a new section of town that was clearly residential. The streets were narrower and less busy than the main ones, lined with brick sidewalks and old brick apartment buildings complete with greenery blocked off by cast-iron fences, giving the neighborhood the air of being well-to-do.
! Gerald turned on to another road and began looking for a parking spot on the side of the road. Finding one, he smoothly maneuvered the vehicle into a parallel parking space. ‘’We’re here.’’ he announced. ‘’The dorm’s only a few steps away.’’
! They got out and took those few steps, bringing them in front of the building that was to be Terry’s new home. It was three floors high, making it roughly a story shorter than most of the other buildings neighboring it, and made out of beige-tinted brick. Judging from the style of architecture, Terry estimated that it was anywhere from fifty to eighty years old, possibly a little more.
! ‘’Unlike the normal dorms, which were built specifically for the students, this one used to be an old apartment building.’’ Gerald explained as he stepped towards the stairs leading up to the door, out of the flow of pedestrians, and gestured for Terry to do the same. ‘’It may be an old building, but we’ve done some extensive renovations on it.’’ he added. ‘’I think you’ll find it rather nice. Come on.’’
! He led Terry up the steps leading to the entrance. The ornately-handled door looked just as old as the rest of the building, which left the electronic card reader set into the wall next to it look incredibly out of place. Gerald held his ID card up to it and there was the click of the lock unbolting. Through the door was a small lounge area, complete with a table and several sofas, opposite a security desk staffed by a bored-looking police officer. Terry was reminded of the hotel lobbies that he had seen on TV, and following the upholstered floor he could see that the far end of the room branched off into two separate hallways, with a stairwell to the upper two floors located at the splitting point.
! While he was looking around, Gerald had gone over to the security officer to exchange a few words and returned with an envelope in hand which he turned over to his temporary charge. Within was a key and an ID card, which Terry noticed was using a picture that had been taken of him at the research facility earlier this afternoon. ‘’The key to your room and your student ID.’’ Gerald explained. ‘’The ID will let you into the building, as well as allow you to ride the city’s public transportation for free once the school semester starts.’’
! Terry turned over the key to see that there was a number inscribed in its head. ‘’What’s this?’’ he asked.
! ‘’That’s your room number.’’ Gerald told him. ‘’Do you need help finding it?’’
! Terry shook his head. ‘’No, I think I can handle that one on my own.’’
! ‘’Alright then.’’ Gerald straightened up in an authoritarian manner. ‘’I’ll be taking my leave, then. Get yourself settled in, and I’ll be back in about an hour.’’
! ‘’And one more thing.’’ He extended his hand, and his aged face took on an apologetic look. ‘’Thank you for putting up with all of this.’’ He extended his hand.
! ‘’And thank you for looking out for me.’’ Terry replied with a little smile, shaking the older man’s hand. ‘’I really appreciate it.’’
! With that, they parted ways, and it was time for Terry to get himself moved in. Since the first number on his key was a 2, he first headed up to the second floor in search of his room. Once up there, he found that the hallway ran lengthwise through the floor, with six rooms on each side of the hall. His own room ended up being at the opposite side from the stairwell, at the front of the building. He unlocked the door, and stepped inside what would be his new home.
! The room, he discovered, was actually a little bigger than the one he had had back home. The bed, currently bare, was located directly across from the door, underneath one of two windows that overlooked an alley. At its foot sat the rest of Terry’s luggage that had been shipped separately from him. At the right side of the room was a writing desk which was illuminated by dusty sunbeams filtering through the half-shaded windows that were overlooking the street below. A decent-sized dresser and bookshelf were set against the near wall, and on the left side of the room was a closet and a cramped bathroom unit. After he was done going around and opening all of the drawers and doors that he could to see what was in them, Terry returned to the center of the room and gave it one last sweeping appraisal. Well, he thought, it was a little barren at the moment, but once he got everything put away made the bed, and maybe even buy some other decorations he was confident that he could make it a cozy little living space. Well, he’d better at any rate, given that this would be his primary home for at least the next three years.
! With first impressions taken care of he began to go about the arduous, but necessary, task of unpacking everything. He was starting to unpack and sort his clothes when he heard a light knock on the half-open door and turned to find none other than Akira standing in the doorway. ‘’Yo.’’ he said, raising a hand in greeting. ‘’I heard someone moving out in the hall and thought to check it out. So you’re one of us now, huh?’’
! ‘’Looks that way.’’ Terry said as he began to fold the clothes that he had unpacked before laying them out for sorting. He hadn’t been thinking about it, but now that he was face-to-face with Akira Gerald revealing that he was a Stargazer as well came drifting back to him. He still found it a little difficult to imagine that he had been hiding something like that when they first met.
! Akira, meanwhile, strode slowly over to where Terry was and leaned against one of the bedposts. ‘’So…’’ he began, his tone a lot more serious than it had been before. ‘’How are you holding up?’’
! ‘’Well, at first things hadn’t really sunk in yet, and I suppose I was simply confused.’’ Terry began to reply. ‘’I wasn’t all that wild about being thrown into this thing either, you know, the fighting that we’ll probably have to do.
! ‘’But then I thought, ‘I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my life, so maybe this will help give me some answers.’ Plus, Mr. Gerald seems to be looking out for me, and he said that I should view my powers as something to be proud of, so that’s what I’m going to do; make them into something that I can take pride in.’’
! That was most of it, anyway. He did have another reason or two, but he didn’t want to share it. Instead, he turned to Akira and looking him fully in the eyes. ‘’How was it with you?’’
! ‘’Oh, I suppose Mr. Centone told you all about me, huh?’’ Akira scratched his head as he thought back. ‘’I became a Stargazer four years ago. I was back home, playing baseball with some of my friends.’’ he began to explain, looking up at the ceiling as his mind drifted back.
! ‘’And you got hit in the head with the ball?’’
! ‘’Ha, no.’’ Akira said, unaffected by the snark. ‘’I hit what should have been a fly-out, but I managed to push the ball a little further so that it wasn’t caught.’’
! Terry gave him a slightly incredulous aside glance. ‘’You used your powers for that?’’
! ‘’Hey, it was subconscious; I had no control over it.’’ Akira insisted.
! ‘’Actually, I’m curious. What are your powers anyway?’’ Terry asked. ‘’Mr. Gerald told me that you were a Sagittarius.’’
! ‘’Yep, that’s right.’’ Akira said pleasantly, nodding. ‘’I can control air currents.’’ He went over to one of the windows that overlooked the street below and fully raised the shade. ‘’Let me show you. See that guy across the street with that hat on?’’
! ‘’Yeah, I see him.’’ Terry said as he came up behind Akira, peering around him to see the person who he was talking about.
! ‘’Watch.’’ Akira leaned forward, nose almost touching the pane as he focused intently on his target. There was a whooshing noise and the pane rattled a bit as a gust of wind swept the street below, kicking up dust and dirt, ruffling the leaves of the planted trees and blowing the man’s hat off, sending him scurrying after it.
! ‘’Cute.’’ Terry commented simply and started to go back to his sorting. ‘’So how did you end up here?’’
! ‘’Well, my power’s pretty easy to hide, as long as no one sees my eyes.’’ Akira began to answer, now leaning against the windowsill. ‘’The third day after I came to this city was really hot, so I was using my powers to cool myself down, and well, I guess someone saw me. Before I knew it I was being carried off in a van just like we were the other night. Pretty careless, huh?’’
! Terry threw him another incredulous aside glance. He made to say something, but ultimately thought better. To be honest, that didn’t come as that big of a shock to him. Akira had struck him as someone who was half in his own world. Someone who wasn’t really clueless, but was energetic and didn’t always have as much common sense as he could.
! ‘’But hey,’’ Akira was continuing. ‘’I’m grateful that I was able to meet some good people because of it.’’
! ‘’How do you view your powers?’’ Terry asked him.
! ‘’How?’’ Akira repeated. He pursed his lips as he thought. ‘’A challenge.’’ he said at last. ‘’An opportunity to test my skills. That’s why I agreed to join Trident.’’
! ‘’I see.’’ Terry said. So Ganut had viewed his powers as a tool, while Akira viewed them as a challenge to meet. Something to think more about later, for he still had some questions for Akira.
! ‘’What about the other guy that Mr. Gerald told me about?’’ he asked as he finished his sorting and began to set about the task of putting them away. ‘’Theodore, I think was his name. What’s he like?’’
! ‘’Oh, you mean Nova.’’ Akira said.
! ‘’Nova?’’ Terry repeated.
! ‘’Yeah, that’s what we call him.’’ Akira tilted his head a bit and made a slight face. ‘’I don’t know why he’s called that, though. It just sort of happened. I haven’t seen him around much actually. I think he’s living with his family somewhere in the city. But he’s not very…’’ He paused, his brow furrowed. ‘’Oh what’s the word…personable, I think it is. I don’t know what his power is, either.’’
! ‘’Say, after you’re done here, want me to show you around the place?’’ he then suggested after a little pause. ‘’I think Daniel’s somewhere around here too, though I don’t like dealing with him for too long.’’
! ‘’Yeah, that’ll be fine.’’ Terry said. ‘’Actually, Mr. Gerald said that he was going to come back and take us out to eat somewhere.’’
! ‘’Did he? Awesome.’’ Akira said, face brightening at the prospect. ‘’I first thought that this Stargazer business would be all serious and…authoritative, I think it is, but Mr. Centone works hard to help us feel at home and comfortable. I’m grateful.’’
! ‘’So am I.’’ Terry agreed.
! It took him a little while to finish putting most of his clothes and toiletries away and make his bed, since Akira wasn’t exactly jumping up to help. He still had some other odds and ends to organize such as books and office supplies, but those could wait for another time. As promised, Akira gave him a little tour of the building.
! The first thing he showed Terry was his own room, located just down the hall. Since he had been living here for a longer period of time than Terry, his was already decorated and much more full than Terry’s own. Right inside the door was a small mat where he kept his shoes when he was inside, which he explained was a custom from his home as he had Terry take his own off while inside. In the center on the floor was a mat with several seating cushions, and to one side sat a television with a video game console hooked up to it. Hanging from the wall was a scroll with what Terry assumed was an inspirational word or saying written in Oriental script. His bookshelf had a few books and manuals in it, and sitting next to it was medium-sized cardboard box with manga volumes stacked inside. The sheets on the bed hadn’t been straightened since the morning, and there were a few minor things strewn on the floor. While Terry preferred his own things to be keep neatly, he didn’t mind the messier aspects of Akira’s room. It showed character.
! Since there was nothing to see on the third floor but mostly-unoccupied rooms, Akira decided to skip it and take Terry down to the first floor to show what he hadn’t seen during his brief time there before. Beyond the lounge and the security desk was a small dining area set with two tables and a handful of chairs, connected to it was a moderately-sized kitchen, where Akira explained that each week a shipment of food was delivered and a hired chef would come in each day to prepare the day’s meals, though they themselves were free to make their own meals if they were so inclined.
! After pointing out the mailboxes, laundry room, and a few administrative offices, the last place Akira showed Terry was the recreation room. It contained a pool table, a vending machine for both drinks and snack food, several really comfortable-looking couches, a large flat-screen plasma TV, and a glasses-wearing boy who was reading a book.
! ‘’Hey Daniel.’’ Akira said when he took note of him, his voice losing some of the energy that it had previously held.
! Daniel looked up from what he was reading. ‘’Oh, hello.’’ he said, blinking in surprise. ‘’I was so absorbed in this I didn’t hear you come in.’’ His gaze moved from Akira to Terry, where he began to scrutinize the newcomer. ‘’You’re…the third member, right? You must be.’’
! ‘’That’s right.’’ Terry said, nodding. ‘’I’m Terrence Eaves, but you can call – ‘’
! Daniel suddenly jumped up from where he had been sitting, his brightening considerable and he grabbed Terry’s hand. ‘’It’s very nice to meet you!’’ he said, pumping Terry’s hand enthusiastically. ‘’I’ve heard about you! You’re a Gemini Stargazer and you’ll be helping us in our struggle, right?’’
! ‘’Hey, you’re not the one who’s going to actually be fighting, you know.’’ Akira put in, a bit sourly.
! ‘’Come on, we’re all part of this.’’ Daniel insisted, turning his attention back to Akira and giving Terry’s arm a rest. ‘’It’s important that we all learn to foster a sense of camaraderie, yes?’’
! ‘’Alright, alright.’’ Terry said, trying to deflect the conversation from the path it was sure to follow. ‘’It’s my first day, I don’t want to start things off on the wrong foot with us getting into an argument, you know?’’
! ‘’You’re right.’’ Daniel admitted, adjusting his glasses in a manner similar to how his uncle tended to. ‘’I apologize for not introducing myself properly. I am Daniel Centone, Gerald Centone’s nephew, and my job will be to help provide logistical support during your missions.’’
! ‘’Your uncle entrusted you with that?’’ Terry asked. ‘’Mine sure wouldn’t trust me with something like this.’’
! ‘’Well, I am good with numbers and research,’’ Daniel said, in a tone that suggested he was trying to downplay himself. ‘’But I believe his real motive towards taking me on was so that there was another teenager here at Trident to keep you company.’’
! Akira began to open his mouth to say something, something no doubt snarky, but Terry wasn’t paying attention to him. So these were the folks that he was going to be working and living with. Akira was energetic and cheerful, if a little clumsy and lacking in discretion maybe, and Daniel struck him as being very bright and eager to please, if a bit overly-formal and bit of an over-achiever perhaps, Terry thought. But his first impressions were that they were all good people, and that they would all get along well, with perhaps a little bit of vitriol every now and again, just like all friends did.
! He was left wondering though, what exactly Theodore, or Nova as he was apparently called, was like.
! * * *
! As night slowly began to fall across the city and both the north and south sides began to light up, a figure moved through one of the South Side’s less glamorous neighborhoods, aiming for a certain apartment building. This one was dark, and vacant. It had been condemned and scheduled for demolition some time in the past, yet like so many things that order had fallen into red tape limbo, and now was fenced off and boarded up, sitting there as silent and grim as a tombstone marker. Mostly, that is, for in recent times it was no longer abandoned, as its basement and storage level had been secretly taken over by the Beings, one of the street gangs of the city looking to become top dog.
! The individual walked along the graffiti-covered partitions surrounding the building until he found the secret loose panels he was looking for. Making sure that no one was in sight to see him, he quietly moved the panel, emblazoned with an ironic ‘’no trespassing’’ warning, to the side and crept through the gap and then replaced the panel to its original place. With his entrance to the grounds complete, he sought out one of the ground-floor windows, covered by similarly-faulty boards, and slipped inside the dark, dusty building.
! As the gang member descended to the lower levels the sound of voices began to reach his ears, growing louder and louder until he reached his destination. In this well-sized room, formerly for storage, dimly-lit by rechargeable bulbs strung from the ceiling by hooks, a handful of other roughly-looking gang members were lounging around on roughly-conditioned furniture, talking and joking amongst themselves in low voiced tones.
! ‘’Hey, Trigger’s back!’’ someone called.
! Trigger went to the back of the room, acknowledging the other members that called out to him as he went by. He had something important to report. At the back, lounging on a large leather sofa was their leader, Deck, a well-built man wearing a heavy brown leather jacket and a yellow bandana wrapped around his head. Accompanying him was a girl whom he had his arm around, and a rather uncomfortable-looking guy wearing a tank top. Beside them stood the large, imposing Tank, who was effectively Deck’s second in command. Trigger nodding in respect as he approached this group. ‘’I’m back.’’
! ‘’And how did things go?’’ Deck asked as he removed the sunglasses he almost always wore to scrutinize his subordinate. His tone was pleasant, but everyone knew that he was someone that you absolutely did not want to get on the wrong side with.
! ‘’It looks like your hunch was right.’’ Trigger reported. ‘’I staked that place out all day, and I saw that kid people say is the new Stargazer going in and out of that building several times.’’
! ‘’So it’s true after all.’’ the uncomfortable-looking person sitting with Deck said. ‘’Now they’ll start coming after us in full force.’’
! ‘’Don’t be so defeatist, Raker.’’ Deck waved. ‘’I’ve had ears all over the city. We’ve been facing this possibility ever since Nova left us. It’s why we have those backup plans in place.’’ He pocketed his shades and bent down to pick up a handful of magnetic darts that were lying on the floor and took aim at a dartboard that was stuck to a pillar. ‘’And even if they have three Stargazers, it doesn’t matter.’’ He let the dart fly, and it struck the board about two inches left of the center.
! ‘’I’m this close,’’ He put his thumb and pointer finger together to illustrate. ‘’This close to sealing the deal that’ll let us rule these streets. Neither the cops or their pet Stargazers will want to mess with us.’’
! ‘’Man, I dunno.’’ Raker muttered. ‘’That chick, she’s…’’
! ‘’Ooh, you’re trying to get another girl?’’ the girl at Deck’s side said in a playfully whiny tone. ‘’Am I not good enough for you?’’
! ‘’Haha, you know I wouldn’t do that.’’ Deck said, patting her shoulder.
! ‘’That woman scares me, to be honest.’’ someone else in the room said. ‘’They say she’s a total psycho. You hear what she did to those guys from the Sunport district? I heard they couldn’t even be recognized after she was done with them!’’
! ‘’And that’ll be the advantage.’’ Deck said, stroking his goatee. ‘’See, she’s different from us. We’ve got our morals, and never go too far, right? No one will want to mess with us with her on our side, because they’ll know that she’s got no restraint.’’
! Raker was still highly wary. ‘’I still dunno ‘bout this.’’ he said, rather timidly. ‘’What if she turns on us?’’
! ‘’In that case we’ll have to take her out, plain and simple.’’ Deck let a second dart fly, this one landing a little closer to the bullseye. ‘’But as I’ve said before, don’t worry about this. For now, we should be taking measures against a raid.’’ He looked up to address all of those assembled. ‘’Tomorrow morning everyone, get word out to all the boys who aren’t here that we’re closing up shop and going with our contingency plan, and keep an ear out at the usual places until we get more info.’’
! There was a host of acknowledgements from the rest of the room and Deck sat himself back down and picked up a third dart. ‘’What are you gonna do about the Stargazers?’’ Trigger asked.
! ‘’What am I going to do? Simple.’’ Deck said. ‘’With the exception of Nova, they’re all amateurs, probably lived cushy little lives before this completely free from danger.’’ He let the final dart fly, and it landed dead center in the bullseye.
! He smirked, and his expression became one of someone relishing a moment that was yet to come. ‘’I want to see what they’re made of, and give them a nice, friendly gift to welcome them into the world of Stargazers.’’
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Hm, even with some extensive rewriting, I'm not totally satisfied with the material towards the end there. I think one of my weaknesses is winding a scene down to its conclusion in a manner that doesn't feel abrupt.

The next chapter has a fair bit of worldbuilding info-dumping, so I'm having fun writing that.

[ChesCa]

Just putting a placeholder post here. I'll be able to review tomorrow (I don't like it when it looks like I'm ignoring other stories).

[ChesCa]

The ending doesn't feel abrupt at all.
In fact, unless there's some grammar mistakes or whatever that I'm missing, I was highly pleased with this chapter.
The other chapters were fine, but this one really makes it feels like the show's getting on the road. I'm looking forward to more.

[Crossword]

And finally, here it is, chapter 5.
–-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 5: Marine Cove Pre-Collegiate Academy

! Even after he had moved in to the dorm, there was still much for Terry to do in the week leading up to his first day at Marine Cover Academy. He had to arrange to rent textbooks through the school, get fitted for a uniform, and handle a few other clerical odds and ends as well. Luckily for him, Akira and Daniel were also going through the same process, so if he ever ran into a problem or something else that stumped him, he had others to fall back on.
! For their part, Akira and Daniel had taken it upon themselves to help show him around the parts of the city that they knew. Where the best places to eat were, where the best stores were, where the good places to just hang out were. Daniel was a better guide than Akira was, and occasionally they got lost without him, but it was a good experience, for that way they discovered some little gems hidden in places that they would not have found otherwise.
! And then the day finally came. On that Monday, September 8th, Terry was awoken early in the morning by his alarm. After shutting it off he lay in bed for a few more minutes before finally dragging himself up out of it, still half-asleep, and managed to stumble over to his bathroom to take a quick shower. Afterwards he was feeling more awake, which would serve him well for the challenge of donning his uniform.
! His school back home hadn’t required a uniform, so all he needed to do was throw on some clothes that he had had laid out and be out the door without much hassle. Not so with this uniform. It consisted of a white button-down with gray dress pants, a black-and-silver-striped tie, a belt and dress shoes, and finally a navy-blue blazer. The whole thing brought to his mind, appropriately enough, the old boarding schools in Kingland one would read about, and here he was, attending one.
! It took him nearly three times longer than it normally would have to get dressed in this getup, and afterwards Terry had to gather up the books he’d need into his bag and also stow away a gym outfit in another bag. When all was said and done, his his load was rather heavy, but he’d be able to store some of this stuff at school, he hoped. He slung his bags over his shoulder and grabbed whatever else he thought he’d need. He stepped outside of his room into the more brightly-lit hallway, and just down the way he could see that Akira was emerging from his own room as well.
! ‘’Morning.’’ Akira said, still sounding a little sleepy as they met up. ‘’How’re you?’’
! ‘’I feel overdressed.’’ Terry replied, fingering his blazer’s lapels as if for emphasis.
! ‘’Eh, I’m used to it.’’ Akira replied. ‘’The uniforms aren’t much different from some of the stuff my school back home made us wear. The schedule’s what’s throwing me off. Back home, the school year starts in the spring…’’
! The two went down to the dining room next, exchanging a few bits of small talk as they went. There they found Daniel already there, munching on some toast from a breakfast food spread that had been set out. ‘’Good morning.’’ he said as the other two came in. Unlike them, he didn’t sound tired in the least. ‘’I see you’re all up and ready.’’
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Akira muttered, going over to the table and picking out a bagel from it. ‘’Still used to sleeping in, though.’’
! ‘’Where’s Nova, by the way?’’ Terry asked as he picked out his own food. ‘’I haven’t seen him at all since I moved in.’’
! ‘’Ah, I suppose he must still be at his own home then.’’ Daniel said. ‘’I’ve met him before though, and he’s a responsible person, so he’ll definitely show up at school. Maybe we’ll run into him there.’’
! ‘’Knowing him, I doubt it.’’ Akira muttered as he took a bite of his food. ‘’I think he’s avoiding us or something.’’
! ‘’Maybe.’’ Daniel said, actually agreeing with Akira for once. ‘’I don’t know, I’m sure he has his reasons for not being here with us.’’
! ‘’How long does it take to get to school from here, anyway?’’ Terry asked, grabbing a Styrofoam cup to get a drink from.
! ‘’It’s only about a fifteen minute ride on the monorail.’’ Daniel answered. ‘’Actually, we should start moving now if we want to get there with enough time to spare.’’
! ‘’Yeah, yeah.’’ Akira said as he popped the last of his bagel into his mouth before picking up his briefcase-like schoolbag. ‘’I’m ready to go.’’
! The early morning outdoor air was a little chilly, due to the cool September air starting to set in and the fact that their uniform blazers hadn’t been designed to hold in all that much warmth. It was much quieter outside than it had been in previous days, as at this time most people were either still asleep or just getting started with their day, though the distant sound of rush hour traffic on the main road could still just manage to reach Terry’s ears. The monorail station was located not far from their home street, and once they reached the elevated platform Terry could recognize two other students waiting amongst the crowd wearing uniforms just like theirs.
! As they waited, mostly silent, once again Terry couldn’t help but think how different things were in the city from what he had known. Back home his trips to school had only required a short eight minute walk down a simple suburban street, and the passerby would know who you were and greet you as you walked by. In the city things were much more impersonal; people passed by without a second thought, more absorbed in whatever they were involved with or where they needed to go than pay attention to those around them.
! The ride on the monorail actually took a little less than the fifteen minutes that Daniel had said it would. As soon as they stepped out on to the street, Terry could see a few seagulls drifting in the air above and hear their cries, and thus could surmise that they were near the water. Sure enough, he could see the buildings starting to thin out ahead to the north, and with a few prompts from Daniel, he and Akira spied their destination, a stone bridge marked up ahead at the edge of the block, and the tiny dots of people traversing it.
! ‘’The Academy was built on an artificial island in the middle of a small bay, see?’’ Daniel explained to the two. ‘’Come on, you’ll see.’’
! While it wasn’t all that apparent from the station, as they got closer they could indeed see that the shoreline of the river lay ahead, and that yes, the bridge did connect to a relatively sizable island given the location. The bridge itself was about fifty yards long, and a steady stream of students were making their way across, the boys in their blazers and ties, while the girls wore a simpler blazer, pleated skirts that fell to just above the knee, and in place of ties had a navy blue piece of ribbon tied into a knot at their collars. At the other end of the bridge the paved pathway, lined by well-manicured bushes, continued until it reached the front steps of the main school building and branched off to go around it. Looking out to the left or right treated students to a view of the shoreline and river.
! Terry could see that the school was about four stories high, with the front of the building being lower than the rest. It was an off-yellow color, with large windows to let in plenty of light. Right before the stairway was a stone archway supported by Hellas-style columns, and in the center was installed a fancy clock and below that, hewn into the stone, was the full name of the school and the date of its founding. Terry was a little surprised to see that it was only around fifty years old, since judging from the way people had talked about it and the language used on some of the application forms, he had assumed it to be at least three times that age. Regardless, it was certainly much grander than the single-story high school that Terry had known.
! ‘’This feels weird.’’ Akira was saying as Terry was taking the view in. ‘’Back home when we would start the trees would be flowering with their petal blowing through the air… Just doesn’t feel right without that.’’
! ‘’Well, soon the leaves will turn and fall, if that helps.’’ Terry replied as he continued to look around the courtyard. ‘’Oh hey, is that a map?’’
! And indeed, there was one installed by the side of the pathway that a handful of students were gathered around. The three went over to join them, and just as Daniel had said, they were indeed on an island located in the center of a bay which looked like someone had taken a big scoop out of the river’s shoreline. The grounds were rather expansive, as in addition to the main school building there was a physical education center located to the east, just visible from where they were, and behind the school buildings was a grassy commons area containing two scaled-down baseball diamonds, a soccer/football field, and a free recreational area. Through all of this snaked the pathways.
! Directly through the school doors was a rather impressive-sized lobby, brightly lit thanks to a skylight set above. In the back was an entrance to the cafeteria, as well as a stairwell than led upwards to the bulk of the school building. There were a few other corridors off to the sides, but Terry couldn’t know where those led.
For now, the main attraction here was a series of three electronic bulletin boards set in the wall to the right, listing the student roster by year and which homeroom each student belonged in. Terry, Akira, and Daniel had to wade their way through the crowd of students already surrounding them to get close enough to read the tiny font on the display screens and find their names.
! ‘’I’m in class 3-12.’’ Terry managed to tell the others once he found his, having to raise his voice to be heard over the omnipresent rumbling and buzz of all of the students around him. ‘’You guys?’’ he asked as they stepped back from the mob.
! ‘’I’m 3-26.’’ Daniel reported.
! ‘’I’m actually in 3-12 too.’’ Akira said as he scratched the back of his head. ‘’At least, if I read that right.’’
! ‘’I would have been nice if we were all in the same class, but I guess it’s lucky that you two are in together.’’ Daniel lamented a bit. ‘’Oh well, we’ll still be seeing plenty of each other. I’m going to go look around for a bit before homeroom starts, so see you guys later.’’
! They said farewell and he departed. Terry and Akira decided that they should get moving as well. While there were some faculty members and upperclassmen on hand to direct any potentially-lost students, the two were confident that they could find their room on their own. It really wasn’t too difficult. In addition to the crowds thinning out a bit once they were off the stairs, they layout of the building wasn’t too complicated. The ground floor of the building appeared to be mostly administrative, with the actual classrooms starting on the misleadingly-named first floor above. Each floor seemed to have a total of thirty rooms per floor, though not all of the marked rooms were classrooms, spread out between two hallways on either side of the building. Lockers were set into the walls by the homerooms, something else that Akira found a little odd since the schools he was used to had them located near the entrance.
! Class 3-26 was on the third – actually fourth – floor. ‘’Geez, walking up all these stairs first time in the morning each day is really going to be a pain…’’ Akira was muttering as they finally stepped through the classroom’s door. ‘’So what do we have here?’’ The classroom was moderately sized, with exactly twenty student desks laid out, six rows of three and one of two at the front, with the teacher’s desk on a raised section of the floor at the head of the room.
! ‘’Is that an electronic touchboard?’’ Terry commented as he looked at the whiteboard behind the teacher’s desk. ‘’Fancy stuff.’’ There still weren’t all that many students present, and thanks to the unfamiliarity that came with the first day of school coupled with it still being the early morning, there wasn’t really any discussion amongst those who were.
! The two decided to snag two empty desks on the other side of the room by the windows, from which they could see out across the grounds to the physical education center. ‘’This is so awkward.’’ Terry said as he tried to settle into his desk, acutely aware of how his voice carried in the mostly-silent classroom despite his efforts to contain it. ‘’I hope we don’t get stuck with a real bad teacher, you know?’’
! ‘’I hear you.’’ Akira said, nodding. ‘’My math teacher last year, Houtsuin-sensei, was a real bastard. We came up with so many names for him…’’ His voice started to trail off as a new girl came into the classroom and took a seat a little in front of them. She looked around and saw that there was company already seated behind her. ‘’Oh, hi.’’ she said, a touch of both nervousness and timidness to her voice as she fiddled with the brim of the shapeless white hat that she was wearing.
! ‘’Hey, I’m Terry.’’ Terry said, raising his hand slightly in greeting. It was best, he reasoned, to leave a good first impression, especially for a girl.
! ‘’And I’m Akira, his roommate at one of the dorms.’’ Akira piped in.
! ‘’Oh, well, I’m Karen.’’ the girl said. From the tone of her voice, it was clear that she hadn’t planned on carrying the conversation past her initial greeting, but at the same time a look of curiosity came over her face. ‘’You two aren’t from here?’’
! Terry shook his head in response. ‘’Nah, I’m from Severstone, out west.’’
! ‘’And I’m from Daiokuni.’’ Akira put in again. ‘’Though, I guess the rest of the world calls it Kamagura after the island, right?’’
! ‘’Lucky.’’ Karen sighed a little bit. ‘’I’ve never been out of the state, let alone the country.’’
! ‘’Well, I’m sure there’s a lot here in the city.’’ Terry reasoned. ‘’I’ve only been here a week, and already I’ve encountered so much stuff I’ve never seen or heard of before.’’ In more ways than one, he thought to himself, grimacing a little inside.
! ‘’Yeah, I guess you would say that, if you were new here.’’ Karen said. ‘’This is the biggest city on this coast, but I’ve lived here all my life, and eventually everything just becomes part of the routine, you know?’’
! ‘’Well,’’ Akira began. ‘’I’m sure one could say that for anything that they’re familiar with. I mean, when I first came here a month ago I was a little lost and overwhelmed, but now I’ve got a better hang of things, the city doesn’t feel quite as unfamiliar, though I know there’s a lot to it that I haven’t seen yet.’’
! ‘’I suppose.’’ Karen said, not sounding all that convinced. ‘’What’s it like where you guys came from?’’
! ‘’It’s nice.’’ Akira said, before Terry could speak. ‘’It’s in the hills, so the view’s great, and there are lots of paths to hike on, with nice little shrines dotting them here and there. It can get kind of muggy and humid during the summer, but there are some small local festivals to attend at night that are nice, and during the day just walking or biking around in the suburbs is pretty fun and relaxing. Everything’s all quiet and still with everyone at work, save for the old housewives and the kids on their break.’’
! ‘’Yeah, my town’s quiet too.’’ Terry picked up. ‘’It got its start thanks to being near a train depot. It’s pretty quiet now, mostly. There’re some mountains nearby that I used to explore when I was a kid, and the view of the sky is great at night.’’ He leaned back in his chair a bit to gaze up at the ceiling. ‘’That’s one of the biggest things I miss here.’’ he said. ‘’You can’t really stargaze in a big city.’’
! ‘’So which dorm are you two in?’’ Karen then asked. ‘’It’s pretty neat that you two ended up rooming together.’’
! There were three dorms for non-local residents located across the South Side, so Terry mentally picked one of them and was about to speak, but Akira managed to beat him to the punch, and not in a way that Terry welcomed. ‘’Oh, we’re not in one of the normal dorms.’’ he said cheerfully, forging on ahead with reckless abandon much to Terry’s alarm. ‘’We get bigger rooms than normal, private bathrooms, and a whole bunch of other perks. Thankfully he wasn’t talking loud enough to broadcast everything to the rest of the class, but him giving away hints to their secret was the absolute last thing that they needed.
! ‘’Really? How’d you get into that?’’ Karen asked, her eyebrows raised a bit. ‘’I hadn’t heard of a special dorm. Are you really rich, or part of a special scholarship or something?’’
! ‘’Well…’’ Akira finally caught the surreptitious death glare that Terry was sending him out of the corner of his eye, the mental equivalent of a kick to the shins. ‘’I guess you could say that. To the last one.’’ he said a little sheepishly.
! While they had been talking more students had made their way into the classroom, to the point where the room was nearly full. It was almost eight o’clock, the time homeroom was set to begin. And right as a series of notes played over the PA system to signify its start, a smartly-dressed woman walked into the classroom and went up behind the teacher’s desk at the front of the room.
! ‘’Settle down, please.’’ she told the class as she set her bag down by the desk’s chair and withdrew a teacher’s planner from it. Though she didn’t appear to be much older than thirty, if even that, she had a stern countenance and a steady, gray-eyed gaze, giving her the air of someone older.
! ‘’My name is Maria Fencen.’’ she introduced herself. ‘’And I will be your homeroom teacher for the next four years. I’d like to first congratulate you all on being excepted into this school, and I hope that our time together will be a pleasant one.’’ All business, she was, cutting right through the fluff and getting to the core of what had to be done.
! ‘’Before we get too settled,’’ she continued, opening her planner to a certain page. ‘’I have a seating arrangement that I’d like to implement. If everyone could please stand I’ll read off your names…’’
! Everyone did and sat themselves down in the new order that Ms. Fencen read off of. Terry found himself seated near the middle of the classroom, while Akira ended up towards the front and Karen was placed where he and Akira had been sitting before, by the windows. Once this task was completed Ms. Fencen began to hand out school policy guidelines and spent the next ten minutes discussing the rules and regulations of the school that the students were expected to follow. There were a number of them, but they all largely boiled down to simply keeping a proper conduct.
! ‘’With that done,’’ Ms. Fencen said afterwards. ‘’Ah, Miss Emerage, please take that off, we’re indoors.’’ Cue Karen scowling as she removed her hat. ‘’I’m sure that some of you are already acquainted with one another.’’ the teacher continued after that little interruption. ‘’But the majority of you are probably not. So, let’s all introduce ourselves to the class, one at a time, and tell us a little about yourselves so that we may all get to better know one another.’’
! During this exercise each student stood up at his or her desk and stated their name, where they were from, and any other relevant pieces of trivia that they wanted to share about themselves. In total, there were exactly twenty students in the class. There was the somewhat nervous, wide-eyed Christian Toole, the son of a city councilman Vanon Hestly, the sporty Adrian Madner, Samuel Conner, whose parents owned a restaurant in the city, Bar Syon-Un from the faraway island nation of Agrippas, Keena Ghent who wanted to be a pediatrician, Lisa Hang who was the daughter of first-generation immigrants, Cassandra Tallow who had been class president in her old school, Steven Match, who boasted that he could eat an entire pizza in five minutes or less, Karen admitted to reading comic books when she was younger, Victoria Meso said that she was on the news once, Justin Danders claimed to be really good at video games and sports, Mefandia Suoni had lived in five different states before coming here, Fendo Hiozy had once broken both of his arms snowboarding before, Sinclaire Fonlarn was a cinemaphile who had watched almost every movie that had come out in the last three years, Elizabeth Judes had actually skipped a grade to come here, Carrie Rush got straight A’s on her entrance exam, and Caitlin Dune who was bilingual. For their parts, Terry decided to mention how he was a freestyle martial artist, and Akira gave an explanation as to the different meanings the Kamaguran characters that made up his name were. Most of the students were local, though a few were from neighboring states. Terry, Akira, and Bar were the only ones in the class who had come a significant distance to be here. For her part in this exercise, Ms. Fencen revealed that this was only her second post after becoming certified as a teacher, and that she taught several levels of history at this school.
! Homeroom came to an end, and they were off to attend a welcoming assembly in a well-furnished auditorium where the headmaster spent a little over an hour congratulating the future class of 2651 on their acceptance and extolling the school’s legacy and prestige that they were now expected to uphold. Terry found it all a little long-winded and pompous, but he supposed that all well-known institutions like this one would seek to puff out its chest to impress the newcomers.
! After the assembly they were finally let loose to attend their classes. There were six periods, each normally running for an hour though today the morning classes were shortened a little in order to accommodate the assembly. Five of these were class periods, and the sixth was a free study period, replaced by Gym on Mondays and Fridays. The schedule for the first years was pretty simple, giving a basic overview of math, literature, and history, with a noticeable emphasis on science, given that they had two periods devoted to it. Once they reached their second year, their class selection was more loose and students were free to select their own courses.
! The first class was Earth Science, dealing mainly with geology and meteorology with a touch of biology as well. It was taught by Mr. Pashni, a somewhat forlorn-looking man who nonetheless was able to spend almost the entire period doing nothing but giving them a spiel on how science helped people in their everyday lives, like how the power that they used to run electricity came from nuclear fusion, or how sporting activities dealt with the laws of motion, and how science was being put to work solving some of the great mysteries of their world, like what was the source of the Stargazer phenomenon, or what materials Heion was made out of in order to have enough mass to sustain an atmosphere despite being only a fraction of Lagoon’s size.
! While Terry did have a fair degree of interest in science, thanks to his interest in astronomy, he found the long, droning speaking style of Mr. Pashni very dull, and as such found himself gazing around the room during the lecture. Unlike his homeroom, this one had been decked out with scientific teaching aids and books and other posters pertaining to the subject its assigned teacher taught. There was the periodic table of elements, diagrams of how chemical bonds worked, diagrams of the layers of the atmosphere, applications of certain equations, and in the center of the ceiling was a large display of the solar system. There was the sun, Al-Shim, a perfectly normal G-type star, then came the barren Har-Ghayh, the perpetually cloud-covered Shabh-Kin, then Alak-Da’erh – known colloquially as Lagoon – and it’s moon Heion, followed by the ringed gas giant Alma-J’sur and its many moons, and finally there was the tiny, frozen Jalid-Aljin. All long, somewhat hard-to-pronounce names, but ones that Terry knew by heart.
! He ended up getting a little too absorbed in observing the poster, for his reverie was snapped by Mr. Pashni reprimanding him for spacing out, followed by his classmates’ quietly suppressed sniggering.
! After Earth Science came Pre-Collegiate Mathematics I, taught by a rather stout woman named Mrs. Beadly. Terry wasn’t exactly bad at math; he did very well with algebra and geometry, and could even hold his own with early calculus, but when it came to complex graphing and higher-end mathematics, things started to go downhill for him. Mrs. Beadly left the impression that she was someone who moved briskly through the material, so he could only hope that he could hold on and that the material didn’t turn out to be as merciless as some of it looked.
! Following math was World History I, taught by Ms. Fencen. Unlike some of his other peers, Terry actually enjoyed history classes. Both Lagoon and Heion’s modern history was rather fascinating to study, given the unprecedented changes that had been wrought by the achievement of spaceflight.
! * * *
! The Stargazer Phenomena had been occurring as far back as recorded human history did, probably even longer. These ancient individuals often ended up as kings, or worshipped and even feared as gods and deities, for what else would an ancient citizen believe if they saw someone’s eyes turn blue and perform such feats as spitting fire, or fly, or read minds? Many of the technological and scientific advances of the day such as gunpowder or primitive flying machines such as gliders in fact came about due to normal people trying to find ways to replicate these abilities and make them their own. As the world steadily modernized thanks to the development and spread of technology mankind was able to stand apart from the Stargazers and study and experiment with them, sometimes humanely, other times not, no longer seeing them as gods, but as chests of mysteries just waiting to be uncovered. Others sought to exploit them and their powers, and so began the governments of the world taking custody of any Stargazers that they could find, and use their talents in the name of national self-interest and as tools of war, during times of battle.
! Fortunately for the world the countries of Lagoon began to by and large outgrow their desire for imperialism by the dawn of the 26th century and began to turn their efforts towards exploring the frontiers that lay before them. Once man had achieved spaceflight through the in retrospect clumsy usage of rocketry, they set their sights on Heion, that blue and green orb in the sky that had long since fascinated those on the ground. In 2524 mankind first set foot on this new world.
! If they had been expecting a fantastical place filled with wonders and mysteries beyond imagining, they were sorely disappointed. While Heion did indeed have a longer day-night cycle than that of Lagoon, its environments and biomes were not all that different, with many species of both flora and fauna analogous to already-found terrestrial creatures. But any such disappointments at how anticlimactic setting foot on a new world may have been were soon swept away by a new discovery.
! The initial survey teams eventually found ruins on the surface of Heion. Completely featureless pyramids and other such structures made from an at-that-time undiscovered material. They dated back millennia, and while there were absolutely no clues left behind as to what their functions might have been, they did prove one thing beyond any shadow of a doubt; mankind was not alone amongst the stars.
! Naturally this triggered a lot of questions and speculations, of both a scientific and philosophical nature. What were these people like? Where did they go, and how long ago was that? Were they advanced, or primitive? What does this mean for humans as a species and their place in the universe? Is Heion somehow the source of the Stargazer Phenomena?
! Amidst all of these debates, the seats of government back on Lagoon realized that if something wasn’t done, the countries of the world would begin to struggle and compete over the resources of this new world, and thus took action. With the lead of the Founder States, after much debate and wrangling and compromise, an umbrella governmental body, made up of a coalition of the willing world leaders named SPHERE was formed in order to help regulate and oversee the settlement and industrialization of Heion and manage political affairs both on the moon and at home. As the decades went on, SPHERE set up the Space and Atmosphere Research Assembly, a worldwide scientific research organization tasked with the study of the two worlds. As a symbolic move, both SPHERE and SARA relocated their headquarters to Helios City, Heion’s capital. Thanks to advances in spaceflight and the breakthrough in nuclear fusion, this arrangement was more practical than it could have ever been, and Heion became settled by civilians and opened up trade with the planet it orbited. And so both worlds were able to grow and prosper more than they had ever been able to.
! * * *
! Ms. Fencen’s brief rundown of the syllabus came to an end, and afterwards came the students’ second science course, Physics I, taught by, once again, Mr. Pashni. Perhaps he was somehow unaware that he had already had this exact same class earlier in the morning, as he spent this class period giving almost exactly the same scientific spiel that he had before. Without question, it was just as boring and tedious to sit through as it had been before, and as Terry glanced around the classroom, a bit more subtly than before, he could see that there was not a single student who was paying attention, instead looking glazed and unfocused, openly yawning, or sneaking glances at their cell phones. The one thing that was probably keeping them from dozing off outright was the fact that lunch was just around the corner.
! ‘’What a relief that’s out of the way.’’ Akira was saying afterwards as he and Terry were joining the mass of students heading downstairs to the cafeteria. ‘’That man is so boring, and we have to deal with him twice each day!’’
! ‘’Yeah, I feel you.’’ Terry agreed. ‘’You could tell that everyone else felt the same way. But maybe things will start picking up when we actually starting doing stuff?’’
! ‘’History was pretty dull too.’’ Akira went on. ‘’Maybe that’s why they hired an attractive woman to teach it.’’
! ‘’You know, give them something nice to look at to keep their eyes up front.’’ Akira started to explain as he saw Terry’s glance. ‘’And at the same time have her have a stern disposition so that they’re afraid of getting her angry.’’
! ‘’Is that so?’’ Terry remarked. Admittedly, he was a little amused at his friend’s explanation. ‘’Well, come on, let’s get something to eat.’’
! The cafeteria was pretty large, seemingly spanning almost the entire length of the ground floor, with scores of tables set out and a number of serving stations in order to feed the thousand-something number of students who attended. The place was already packed to the gills, and Terry was worried that they wouldn’t be able to finish their food in time before the period was up, but it turned out that things were actually moving along at a much steadier pace than he had expected.
! ‘’Let’s get out of here.’’ Akira suggested once their meat-and-vegetable dishes had been served to them. ‘’There’s nowhere to eat in peace here.’’
! The rear of the cafeteria opened out to the outdoors behind the school building. There was much more room out here, and quieter too. In addition there was a nice view of the river and the North Side’s skyline. There were a few other students out on the grass as well, probably with the same idea Terry and Akira had had, while a few teachers also on break patrolled the area, presumably to make sure that the students actually went back in once time was up.
! ‘’So what classes do we have left?’’ Akira asked as they found a spot on the grass to sit.
! Terry tried to think back to his schedule as he began to eat. ‘’Uh, next we have gym, and after that it’s Literature, I think.’’
! Akira frowned a bit as he began to dig in to his own food. ‘’Literature, huh? We have to read and write, right?’’ he said listlessly. ‘’Great.’’
! ‘’What’s wrong?’’ Terry asked, a little puzzled at Akira’s sudden downturn. ‘’You're bilingual, aren't you? You don’t even have an accent.’’
! ‘’Yeah, I know. I can speak Anglosine just fine.’’ Akira said, still frowning. ‘’I just don’t really like reading or writing it any more than I have to.’’
! ‘’How are you going to study, then?’’
! ‘’Like this.’’ Akira reached into his bag and pulled out one of his notebooks. Terry put his plate down and flipped through the first few pages and was a bit surprised to find that, aside from an occasional name or complex bit of terminology, the notes were written entirely in Kamaguran characters, most of which looked like were much more time-consuming to write than the letters in the Anglosine alphabet.
! ‘’So let me get this straight.’’ Terry said, once again giving his friend an odd look. ‘’You can translate and write Anglosine to Kamaguran on the fly, yet can’t, or rather don’t want to, read it?’’
! ‘’Come on, isn’t there an English word for that?’’ Akira persisted as he took his notebook back. ‘’Someone who’s really good at one thing but sucks at something else?’’
! ‘’Idiot savant?’’
! ‘’Yeah, an idiot savant, that’s what I am!’’
! It took a few seconds for realization to dawn. ‘’Damn, you’re snarky sometimes.’’ Akira muttered as he went back to his food.
! ‘’I must get it from my uncle.’’ Terry said off-handedly. He pulled out his cell phone and switched it on to check the time. ‘’I need to get back to my locker to grab my gym clothes, and I bet you do too.’’ he said. ‘’Let’s finish up here and get going to the gym building.’’
! ‘’Yeah, yeah.’’ Akira said, apparently still feeling a little sore over the little jab. ‘’I didn’t really care all that much for gym, but compared to the lectures we’ve had to sit through, it’ll be a breath of fresh air.’’
! After finishing their lunches and discarding their trash and gathering up their things, the next stop was the physical education center, where they were directed to the boys’ locker room to change into their gym clothes. Terry was glad to finally be able to ditch the uniform, if only for an hour, as he felt so much lighter and less stuffy in the easier-to-move-around-in T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers instead of the blazer. Their teacher was one of the school’s three coaches, Mr. Mulver, a very severe-looking man who spoke with a very commanding tone of voice. He had the class run a few laps around the gymnasium, which served to wear out the less athletically-inclined students, and Mr. Mulver barking at them to pick up the pace certainly didn’t help them either. But perhaps he was more merciful than he looked, or just gave up on them, for instead of putting the class through even more strenuous exercises afterwards, he instead took the class outside to the diamond to play a scaled-down baseball game for the remainder of the class time.
! Though they were divided up into teams with Mr. Mulver officiating, no one was really taking things too seriously, save for Adrian being the only girl who wasn’t dead weight and the opposing team’s pitcher. When it was finally time for Terry to come up to bat, his team was being shut out. He himself had played baseball a few times before, but he was still very much an amateur. Once he assumed his batting stance and locked eyes with the pitcher, he knew that he was in trouble. The boy standing on the pitcher’s mound had not been going easy on the opposition at all, and Terry could see why. This boy was a born-athlete, and he could feel his aura of competitiveness all the way at home plate. Well, if he was fighting someone so serious and set on winning, than he had to just do the same. All right. he thought as he girded himself. Let’s go.
! His own spirit of competitiveness was rewarded by having the ball blaze right past him and into Mr. Mulver’s mitt. ‘’Strike One!’’ he called.
! A strike? Terry blinked, feeling a little dazed. He hadn’t even had a chance to swing his bat before the ball had passed him. Still, it was only one ball, he had at least two more chances. He’d hit it.
! This time he actually managed to move into a swing as the ball screamed by him. ‘’Strike Two!’’ Mr. Mulver called before throwing the ball back to the pitcher’s mound.
! Again? Terry scowled and went back into his stance. Now he was starting to get a little peeved. There had to be some kind of way to get past this kid’s pitching. There just had to be. He wasn’t just throwing the ball really hard; there was some else that he was doing to it, there had to be.
! Wait an minute, on that last pitch he could have sworn that he had seen the ball move just a fraction towards the right just as he had started his swing. Okay, now he felt more confident that he could hit the ball. As he squinted out at the pitcher, he could once again feel his aura roll over him.
! The third pitch actually managed to just barely make contact with his bat, blooping off the very edge and falling behind for a Foul, keeping Terry in the game. But now, he had a fairly good idea of where the ball would be coming. All he needed to do now was to make a slight adjustment to his swing…
! His persistence was rewarded with the sharp, audible crack of the bat making solid contact with the ball. Instantly, Terry dropped his bat and sprang down the first base line. He had won their little duel, and as he felt a sense of pride start to surge within his chest he took a glance over at the pitcher’s mound as he ran…
! …and that sense of pride deflated suddenly like a balloon as he watched the ball sail smoothly right into the pitcher’s outstretched glove. Mr. Mulver called him out as his dash slowed down to a sheepish trot as he peeled off and made his way back to the bench where the rest of his team was waiting. He’d failed, but there was nothing that he could do about that. There were others out their more skilled in certain areas than he was. The ones with the real fires in their spirits, like that pitcher, who undoubtably did their hardest to better their skills were the ones to be admired for their dedication.
! Terry’s team continued to be shut out and eventually lost. While he was getting changed back in the locker room afterwards, Terry heard a voice from behind him.
! ‘’Hey, congratulations.’’
! Terry turned. It was the pitcher, a short olive-skinned boy with bright brown eyes and a buzz cut, who he could now identify as Bar, the boy from Agrippas. ‘’I didn’t expect someone here would be able to hit my special curveball.’’
! ‘’Thanks, but, you still caught it.’’ Terry said, feeling both a little sheepish and proud that his former opponent was praising him. ‘’Did you play baseball for a team?’’ he asked. ‘’You were pretty much the only one out there who was actually being serious, and you were throwing really hard too.’’
! Bar nodded. ‘’Yep, I did back home. I want to be a pro-baseball player when I’m older.’’
! ‘’As a pitcher?’’
! ‘’For now, yeah.’’ Bar said. ‘’But depending on how things work out I might be a fielder instead, so that I’d get to bat and there’s less strain on your arm, you know?’’
! ‘’That’s pretty neat.’’ Terry said as he was struggling to tie his tie without the aid of a mirror to guide him. ‘’I’ve never really been into organized sports myself.’’
! ‘’Really?’’ Bar looked a bit puzzled. ‘’You said in homeroom that you practiced martial arts, isn’t that a sport?’’
! ‘’I guess.’’ Terry conceded. ‘’But it was more for myself than for anything else.’’
! ‘’Hey, I’m going to try out for the school’s baseball team in a few weeks when tryouts start for the spring season.’’ Bar said enthusiastically, eyes growing even brighter. ‘’You should join a team too!’’
! ‘’Eh…I dunno.’’
! ‘’Come on, you’d be great!’’ Bar insisted. ‘’I could tell from the way you carried yourself out on the field and the fire that was in your eyes at the plate that you’d make a great athlete!’’
! ‘’I’ll think about it.’’ Terry said evasively with a noncommittal tone. ‘’Why don’t you go ask Akira? He’s played baseball before and to hear him tell it he’s got some really neat skills.’’ Well, if using his Stargazer powers to push the ball where you want it to go counts… he thought ruefully to himself.
! ‘’Yeah, he did look like he had some experience.’’ Bar pondered for a bit. ‘’You’re right.’’ he said. ‘’I’ll go ask him too. Nice meeting you by the way!’’
! He hurried off to find Akira while Terry smiled to himself and donned his blazer. Fire in his eyes, huh? He supposed he didn’t mind that description, for it was true that he could be very motivated when the time came. He’d put that spirit to good use.
! Literature rolled around, taught by the somewhat stuffy and imposing-looking Mr. Matthews, where the class learned that for this semester they would be reading and analyzing five different important works of literature from the past century before receiving individual copies of their first text and given a lengthy reading assignment.
! And then the clock hit three and the first day of school finally came to an end. Terry, Akira, and Daniel all met up at the school’s entrance and spent the whole trip back to the dorm exchanging stories about how their day was, their classmates, teachers, courses, and other assorted anecdotes. Evening and dinner came by, and afterwards Terry found himself alone in his room, still thinking about the day’s events. The atmosphere and setting, of both the school and the city, were very far removed from what he had been used to, but he found that he didn’t mind. Before when he first arrived in Marine Cove he might’ve felt a little intimidated, but no longer. He found that he liked the energy, the colors, some of the noise, and the people that he’d met. There would certainly be plenty of challenges that would lie ahead, especially considering that he was now a Stargazer, but if this was how the next three years of his life would be, he wouldn’t particularly mind that at all. He’d welcome the challenge.
! Since his mother was the one paying for him to come here, he then supposed that it was only fair that he write her something to let her know how things were going for him, and well, he hadn’t talked to her in a long while, even though he preferred it that way for now. So he walked over to his desk, fired up his laptop, opened a word processor and began to get to work typing his message. He couldn’t reveal everything that had happened to him, of course, but there were plenty of other things to tell regardless.
! Mom,
! It’ll probably be a while before this gets to you, but I’d like you to know that today (9/8) was my first day at Marine Cove Academy. Right now I’m rooming with a kid from Kamagura named Akira. He can be a bit of a goofball at times, and some of the things he says makes me wonder how his mind works or makes me irritated at him, but for the most part he’s fun to hang around with since he’s almost always cheerful. I’ve also met one of our neighbors, Daniel. He too can be a bit annoying sometimes because he always tries to act and sound smart, but like Akira, he’s a good guy.
! School today was a lot different from what I’ve been used to. I’ve met two kids in my class already: Karen and Bar. Karen’s kind of normal and plain, but she’s nice, while Bar’s this kinda wired guy who’s really into baseball and tried to get me to sign up for it too. I don’t really know them all that well yet, but they seem like good people and I get the feeling we’ll make good friends, and I’ll definitely meet more as the year goes on. Anyway, the rest of…
! He had intended to go one and describe his feelings about the city and school in more depth, but as he worked be found his enthusiasm for the message getting smaller and smaller with each tap of the keys, until it got to the point that he decided that he should just take a break and come back to it later.
! However, by the time he finally went to bed a few hours later, the letter remained untouched and unfinished.

Whew, this chapter turned out to be much longer than I had originally planned it to be. Pretty much an opportunity to exposit a bit on the world a few minor characters. Hopefully it won't take me this long to get the next chapter out.

[ChesCa]

Good chapter, just 4 things:
1. Some of the dialogue are little too wordy, but those can be hammered out should you ever revisit the story.
2. 'Wait a minute'. That part where Terry realizes how the pitch is done all of a sudden gets way into his head, which isn't quite in the story before. I'd take that out.
3. When I read my futuristic story to my writing group, they asked me some good questions: Why are there still cell phones, why are there still books? And so on and so forth. It's annoying, but it's one of those things people will ask, and for a pretty good reason. Might want to give a more careful look at the technology of this world and replace anything that would be 'obsolete.'
4. And, I really feel bad for saying this, but maybe you should tone down the Japanese stuff just a tad. Nihongo, the school bulletin board, the uniforms, a kid that comes from Japan (or this universe's equivalent). It's just a bit much for me, ya know?
Anyway, solid writing here.

[Crossword]

Thank you for the feedback. I do want to address these two points though:

While I know it says that the story takes place in the 27th century, since this is an entirely different universe it's best not to compare it to Earth in regards to the dating system. Some areas of technology have progressed at different rates than others. I know it may feel a little schizophernic (we live on the moon but I still don't have my personal jetpack?!), but how I think of it is that, while in some areas Lagoon is more advanced (like in spaceflight and medicine) than Earth, for the average citizen going about their day to day business, life's still a lot like it is for us, only shinier, and a little more electronic in areas. I'm going for more a near-future kind of setting, rather than say, oh, Star Trek.

About the whole Japanese encroachment thing, don't worry, I feel kind of the same way (the only reason I made him Asian was because the sketch of what I had in mind ended up looking Asian to me, and honestly I hadn't fully considered the baggage that would come with that at the time). Outside of this chapter though, I don't really plan to bring much attention to it, and to be blunt, compared to Terry and Nova, Akira's not all that important to the narrative of this story aside from being Terry's best bud.

The uniforms are actually based off of the uniforms at a Catholic school I went to when I was younger just wth added blazers for extra formality. I realize the simularity, hence Akira's comment, but that honestly was not what I had in mind; I just wanted something that would look nice.

The bulletin board too, though? That, I don't understand.

Anyway, thank you for putting up with the above, and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.

[ChesCa]

Ah, now the school things makes sense.
Sorry about the bulletin board thing, it just reminded me of Azumanga Daioh and Love Hina and all that. That time I was clearly being an ignorant weeaboo.
Also, you're time thing does make sense now.

[Crossword]

–-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 6: The Third Prong

! The first week of the new school term meant that Gerald Centone and his sector at the Department of Education had been kept quite busy with the new load of work to process. In fact, it was almost a relief to him when he learned that on Friday afternoon he was being summoned to meet with his superior at Lifeline, Wallace Landsley.
! The Lifeline department in Marine Cove City was rather small, consisting of no more than two small offices tucked away inside the building housing the Public Safety Commission, rather meager accommodations considering the amount of money the organization usually received. Gerald left his own workplace a little early in order to insure that he would make his five o’clock appointment, and on the dot he lightly knocked on Landsley’s office door.
! ‘’Come in.’’ a slightly muffled voice called out, and Gerald stepped inside into the cluttered and tiny office.
! ‘’Good afternoon.’’ he said as he closed the door behind him. There wasn’t much standing room between the desk and the doorway.
! ‘’Good afternoon to you too, Mr. Centone.’’ the other man responded in kind. ‘’Please take a seat.’’ He made a gesture to hold down a stray piece of paper that had been disturbed by the change in air. ‘’I apologize for the mess, by the way. Since we’re finally getting Trident up and running, these papers keep coming in faster than I can file them.’’
! Gerald took a seat in a chair wedged in the corner of the room. ‘’I don’t mind.’’ he said. ‘’My own office isn’t exactly a paragon of cleanliness either, sir.’’
! ‘’Good to hear.’’ Landsley smiled briefly before adopting a more serious expression and he began to tap the surface of his desk with his index finger, a tic that always showed when he was being especially serious. ‘’So, how are the Stargazers under your custody faring?’’
! ‘’They’re doing well as far as I can see.’’ Gerald replied. ‘’They leave for school on time, attend all of their classes, and when it lets out they are free to do whatever they wish as long as they meet the dorm’s curfew. I haven’t heard of any problems being reported.’’
! ‘’I see.’’ Landsley continued to tap. ‘’You don’t think that you’re…being a little too lenient on them, allowing them free reign around the city without supervision?’’
! Inwardly, Gerald felt himself sigh. He knew that this would be coming eventually. ‘’With all due respect sir,’’ he began, trying to choose his words carefully. ‘’They are young adults, not children, and I do not believe that they need to be looked after as if they were.’’
! ‘’Young adults with powers beyond anything that should be natural.’’ Landsley corrected. ‘’No matter, I just thought I should bring that up considering what’s been happening in this city during the past month or so. You’ve been keeping up with your news tablet, I assume?’’
! Gerald nodded grimly. He was certainly very familiar with the incidents that Landsley was referring to.
! ‘’Well, let’s not dwell on that for now; that’s why we’re having this meeting.’’ Landsley went on. ‘’Before you came in I was on the phone with the chief of police. One week from now, on Friday the 19th, we plan to conduct with them Trident’s first operation.’’
! ‘’So soon? Isn’t that unusual?’’ Gerald asked, frowning as he adjusted his glasses a bit.
! ‘’So soon?’’ Landsley repeated. ‘’You were the one who insisted that they didn’t need to undergo any additional combat or psychological evaluations and training.’’
! ‘’Oh, yes.’’ Gerald muttered. ‘’I apologize. I must be getting more absentminded in my old age.’’
! ‘’Aren’t we all.’’ Landsley said ruefully. ‘’As I said, this operation will be a joint effort between Trident and the city police, with the aim of capturing the Beings’ leader. You’ll get more precise outline of things in the near future, but for now here’s a rough outline of the plan.’’ He picked one of the many papers stacked on top of his desk and handed it to Gerald to read.
! ‘’Is this all?’’ Gerald asked as he scanned the document. It was a simple raid, really. The three Stargazers would go in first and sweep the target site and subdue or otherwise incapacitate any adversaries that they came across, with the police moving in afterward. It put most of the burden on Trident, but it was a simple plan nonetheless.
! ‘’For now, yes.’’ he superior said, replying to Gerald’s question.
! ‘’Well in that case, I’ll make sure to inform them of this and to tell them to prepare in any way they can.’’ Gerald promised, tucking the paper into the inside of his jacket.
! ‘’Good.’’ Landsley said. ‘’We’ll be counting on them.’’
! * * *
! The next Tuesday morning came around, and the first thing Terry did after shutting his alarm off was to go back to sleep, as he had been up late the previous night finishing an analysis paper for his literature class. As a result, he came dangerously close to excessive oversleeping and had to scramble in order to dress, get breakfast, and leave for school at a semi-reasonable time. Akira and Daniel had already left without him, leaving him no one to be kept company by during his trip to school.
! Once on the train he had a few moments to spare and he took out his cell phone, only to nearly drop it when he turned it on as it began to vibrate unexpectedly, indicating that he had some new unread messages. One was from Akira, wondering why his phone was off and where he was, one from Daniel saying pretty much the same thing only with a bit more tact, and finally one from Mr. Gerald.
! Now what could Mr. Gerald want with him, Terry wondered. A quick glance at the subject gave him a decent idea, as the words ‘’important’’ and ‘’members’’ quickly jumped out at him. Within:
! To all members of Trident,
! On the 19th of September we will be carrying out our first operation. Don’t make any plans for that Friday afternoon, and needless to say, don’t tell anyone outside of Trident of this. You will be required to return to the dorm directly from school on that day. More details will be given to you then.
! - Gerald Centone
! Terry returned his phone to his pocket and gazed out at the city passing by through the window. So there it was. He hadn’t forgotten the fact that he was now a part of what was in essence a special strike force cell, but with school starting and the new responsibilities that came with it, it had been pushed to the back of his mind. Now that it was coming back to him, he found that he wasn’t really afraid of what was coming and what he might have to do, but nervous? Maybe a little. There were definitely some feelings of apprehension lurking deep within his chest. But no matter, as just as right before his trial against Captain Ganut, he realized that it wouldn’t do him any good to worry himself to death over this. He would just have to take things as they came.
! He made it to school a little later than he would of liked, but still managed to make it before homeroom started. As had become usual, he spent a little time chatting with Akira and Bar, the former of which made sure to rib him a bit for oversleeping, and then Ms. Fencen arrived to take attendance and make any announcements that needed to be made before the students were off to class.
! The morning was rather unremarkable, save for Ms. Fencen snapping at Vanon for falling asleep during History, thereby proving half of Akira’s hypothesis from the first day. Terry managed to lose sight of him while he was standing in line during lunch inside the crowded cafeteria. As a result he was left standing around awkwardly trying to see if he could spot someone he knew or otherwise recognized amongst the throngs of students. He couldn’t spot Akira despite being on the lookout for spiked hair, but he did see Karen across the way, her white hat instantly giving her away.
! ‘’Mind if I sit here with you?’’ he asked once he had made his way over to the table she was sitting at.
! The girl looked up, a little surprised to see him. ‘’Oh, sure, go ahead Terry.’’ she said, scooting over a little to give him a little more room. There were two other upperclassmen seated at this table, but they weren’t paying her any mind, so she was probably grateful to have a classmate to sit with, Terry thought.
! ‘’Where’s Akira?’’ she asked. ‘’I always see you two together.’’
! ‘’Lost sight of him somewhere.’’
! ‘’Oh.’’ A few silent moments passed before Karen got an emboldened expression and leaned in so that her voice wouldn’t carry to the upperclassmen, though with all the background noise she probably needn’t have bothered. ‘’Hey, I’m trying to get a few friends together to go out and do something at the end of the week, like going out and seeing a movie, getting something to eat, or something else like that. Would you like to come?’’
! As soon as she had said ‘’get a few friends’’ Terry had felt a bit of a sinking feeling come over him. Of course something like this would come up on the very day he had received his first set of marching orders, as it were. This was always how these things seemed to play out. He adopted an expression somewhere in between apologetic and downcast, and prepared to let her down gently.
! ‘’Well, I’d really like to.’’ he began. ‘’But unfortunately I already have plans for that night. Certain circumstances and all that. Maybe some other time.’’
! ‘’Oh.’’ Karen looked much more crestfallen than Terry had expected her to. ‘’Oh. That’s too bad. Sorry for asking.’’
! ‘’Nah, I’m the one who should apologize.’’ Terry insisted. The truth was that he’d much rather prefer to spend his Friday night unwinding with friends, but instead he’d be out there doing who-knew-what, possibly risking his life, even, and that was only the beginning, who knew how many other times stuff like this would come up where he’d have to put aside a normal social life due to being led down a different path from most people?
! Terry and Karen didn’t really talk much during the remainder of lunch, both parties feeling differing degrees of awkwardness. Terry turned in his paper during Literature when it rolled around and when the bell rang indicating that the school day was over he hung around for a little bit before meeting up with Akira at the school’s entrance to go home.
! ‘’Where’s Daniel?’’ was the first thing Terry asked when the two met up. Normally, the glasses-wearing boy would already be here waiting for them.
! ‘’Ah, I just got a message from him, actually.’’ Akira said as he absentmindedly scrolled through his cell phone’s inbox. ‘’He said he left to go back to the dorm right away because he already has a test to study for. Can you believe that? We’ve only been here a week.’’
! ‘’Hm.’’ Terry looked down in a slightly pensive manner as they began to walk down the pathway leading to the bridge. ‘’Did you get the…other mail?’’ he ventured.
! ‘’Yeah, of course I did.’’ Akira said, not breaking stride. ‘’Let’s not talk about it right now. Let’s save it for later.’’
! They returned to the dorm, where for the next two hours Terry spent his time in his room, working on his homework. By the time he was done it was starting to get dark outside, and he was considering spending the rest of the evening surfing the Internet when his cell phone began to vibrate. ‘’Hello?’’
! It was Akira. ‘’Hey, you wanna go out and get something to eat?’’
! ‘’Sure, just let me change out of my school clothes.’’
! ‘’Cool. Meet me in the lobby downstairs when you’re ready.’’ He hung up.
! Terry spent a few moments gazing at the home screen before slipping his phone back into his pocket. Akira’s offer to go out was surely a cover for them to discuss the upcoming operation privately amongst themselves. That was fine with him. It would do him well to discuss what he was thinking about with someone who was in the exact same position.
! Once he was changed he grabbed his leather jacket off of his closet’s inside hook and headed downstairs, where he found Akira already there waiting for him.
! ‘’I asked Daniel if he wanted to come too, but he said he wanted to study some more.’’ he said. ‘’I’m actually glad he isn’t coming though. Not to be mean, mind.’’ he added. ‘’We’ll just have more privacy.’’
! Terry nodded. ‘’I understand. Where are we going?’’
! ‘’I actually don’t really know yet.’’ Akira admitted, shrugging his shoulders slightly. ‘’I was just thinking a restaurant or something.’’
! ‘’Two guys going alone to a restaurant together?’’
! ‘’You’re right, that would look odd.’’ Akira conceded. ‘’Well, we’ll find something just by walking around. It’s a big city.’’
! It was much cooler outside now than it had been earlier, and with the sun down and a light breeze blowing in from the east it was going to stay that way. On their street streetlights were automatically beginning to switch on to full power in order to safely illuminate the surroundings, while what was visible of Heion behind a cloud was lighting up the night sky with a soft glow. Terry and Akira spent an hour or two just walking around with no particular destination in mind, making light conversation but still avoiding that one topic that they both knew they would have to touch upon eventually. They eventually settled on stopping at a hole-in-the-wall pizza parlor to have dinner at, and afterwards another hour of walking had them on a street that ran along this part of the shoreline of the river that separated the two halves of the city. It was here that Terry finally decided to broach the topic.
! ‘’So… How do you feel about Friday?’’ he asked, in a tone that felt close to casual indifference. ‘’You know, the operation?’’
! ‘’The operation…’’ Akira repeated, the pace of his stride slowing. ‘’Well,’’ he began. ‘’I guess on some level, I’m kind of apprehensive, maybe a little scared, but I think more than anything else, I’m actually looking forward to it.’’
! That made Terry curious. The few times that he had heard him refer or allude to his own Stargazer powers, he had treated them rather lightly. It was probably simply because he had had them for much longer than Terry himself that on some level he took them for granted, but that had always struck Terry as a bit odd. Akira was comfortable with them on a level that Terry certainly was not, though one day he might reach that same point.
! ‘’So I suppose you’re looking forward to testing out your skills like you told me before, huh?’’ Terry told his friend.
! ‘’I guess so.’’ Akira replied. He stopped walking and spent a few moments studying Terry’s face. ‘’Alright,’’ he said. ‘’I can tell that you want to hear my full story, don’t you?’’
! ‘’What? No, not necessarily.’’ Terry backpedalled, not sure if he should be embarrassed or not that the normally goofy Akira had just seen right through him.
! ‘’That’s okay, I’ll tell you anyway. Get a load off my mind.’’ Akira said, leaning back against the railing that overlooked the river. ‘’Do you have any siblings?’’ he asked after a brief moment of silence.
! ‘’No.’’ Terry said, shaking his head. ‘’I’m an only child.’’
! ‘’Well, I have an older brother.’’ Akira said, his voice getting a bit lower and more contemplative. ‘’His name’s Shigeru. He’s smart, serious, has ambition – maybe a little too much – and manages to do quite well for himself.’’
! So as you can imagine, my parents often compared us. ‘Look at what your older brother can manage to do, why can’t you follow his example?’’’ He gave Terry an aside glance and smiled slightly, his face and eyes brightened by the light coming from across the river. ‘’You know, the old story.’’
! ‘’There was a time when I tried to be like him.’’ he continued. ‘’But nothing ever worked out for me, so I thought ‘what’s the point?’ and stopped. Trying to deceive myself and be someone I’m not isn’t going to work for me. That’s one of the reasons I came all the way out here to go to school; to get away from my family and just do something different with my life for once, instead of having others trying to set me down a path of their choosing.’’
! He turned to fully look out over the water at the lit skyline. ‘’And now look at me.’’ he went on. ‘’Now I’ve got something that only I can do, and no one can ever imitate. That’s why I like having this power and seeing what I can do with it. It’s proof that I’m myself, my own person.’’
! Terry was busy taking this all in. ‘’Well, I envy you on this.’’ he said as he joined his friend in gazing at the lights. ‘’I wish I could be as sure as you about things.’’
! He sighed a little bit. ‘’When I first came here, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations, and I suppose I was just coasting through life. Now look at me, I have supernatural powers and am part of a secret ops cell. Go figure.’’
! ‘’What would you have done otherwise?’’
! ‘’Normal things, I suppose.’’ Terry said as he closed his eyes. ‘’Go to school here, go on to a decent college afterwards, get a girlfriend, a steady job, get married, raise a family. You know, normal stuff.’’
! ‘’You can still do those things, you know.’’ Akira said, yawning a little. ‘’Just because you’re a Stargazer doesn’t mean you can’t live a normal life these days. I mean sure, we face things that normal people don’t, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t do what you want to in life.’’
! ‘’Well, I guess I just wasn’t really sure what to do exactly to reach that point.’’ Terry continued. ‘’I just didn’t have as much ambition as I would have liked. But now I’m involved in something I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be. I’ll have to find a new path for myself.’’
! ‘’Well, is there any one certain thing you want to do?’’ Akira suggested. ‘’Maybe you could start from there.’’
! ‘’Maybe, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with this.’’
! ‘’Aw, come on, tell me.’’ Akira said, nudging his friend playfully. ‘’It’s nothing embarrassing, is it?’’
! ‘’Oh all right.’’ Terry took a step back from the railing and pointed upwards to the night sky. ‘’Just once, I’d like to go into outer space. See what Lagoon, Heion, and the stars look like from up there.’’
! ‘’That’s cool.’’ Akira said, nodding in approval. ‘’You could be an engineer or an astronaut or something. I’m sure SARA would be thrilled to have someone who could control electricity.’’
! ‘’Nah, I’m not brainy enough to be a scientist.’’ Terry said, still looking up at the sky. ‘’But these days, there are plenty of ways for a normal civilian to get up into space.’’
! He shifted a bit and stretched his stiffening shoulders. ‘’But for the present I guess I’ll just have to give it my all, I suppose.’’ he said. ‘’I’m glad we talked about this stuff. I’ll figure out what my path will be.’’
! Indeed. This was really the first time that he had had this sort of conversation with someone. All of his problems hadn’t been solved, not by a long shot, but just by confiding in someone, it felt like a cloud was clearing up inside his conscience. He’d do well to heed Akira’s story and find a way to forge himself a new path and a new personal identity.
! ‘’I’m glad too.’’ Akira was saying in the meantime. ‘’So, uh, where are we?’’
! The mood instantly evaporated. ‘’What?’’ Terry repeated dryly, in disbelief.
! ‘’No seriously, where are we?’’ Akira repeated, looking around a bit. ‘’I don’t recognize this place.’’
! ‘’I thought you said you knew your way around the city!’’
! ‘’I said I knew it pretty well, not flawlessly!’’ Akira retorted. ‘’Does your phone have a GPS? Mine doesn’t have that app.’’
! ‘’Yeah, but I think it’s still in the pocket of my school pants.’’
! Akira let out an exasperated sigh, something that Terry thought was hardly fair given who was uttering it. ‘’Well, let’s go find a street sign, or something.’’
! Once they found the name of the street they were on, Akira brought up a map on his phone so that they could figure out how to find a way back to the dorm. ‘’It’s a bit of a walk back to the nearest train station.’’ Akira observed as his eyes followed their projected route as displayed on his phone’s screen. ‘’We’ll have to cut through Sunport too.’’
! ‘’What’s Sunport?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’I’ve never been there myself.’’ Akira said. ‘’But Daniel once told me that it’s home to a bunch of small, independent businesses.’’ As he was speaking he was keying a number into his phone.
! ‘’Hello?’’ Daniel’s voice came over the phone.
! ‘’Hey, if we miss curfew, could you cover for us?’’ Akira asked.
! ‘’Huh? Where are you?’’
! ‘’Lost.’’ Akira said simply. ‘’But don’t worry, we’re on our way back now. Just have to cut through Sunport to get to the train.’’
! There was an audible sigh over the phone. ‘’Oh, fine, if I have to, I’ll try to get you off the hook.’’ came Daniel’s voice. ‘’Curfew’s at 10:30, so you don’t have very much time left. Are you sure it’s a good idea to go through Sunport at ni-‘’
! ‘’Thanks man.’’ Akira said, cutting him off and hanging up, much to Terry’s quiet disbelief at his display of rudeness.
! ‘’We’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us.’’ Akira said. ‘’Let’s get moving.’’
! The two boys once again began walking through the city, this time with an actual path laid out for them to follow thanks to Akira’s phone, which he checked and rechecked every now and then to ensure that they were on the right track. As they went on, Terry began to notice that, despite the small office buildings beginning to line the streets being well-lit and clearly still occupied at this time of night there weren’t all that many people out on the streets themselves compared to the other parts of the city. What’s more, those few that were out seemed to be deliberately moving in groups of at least two, and rather furtively at that. The air was tense, and something was clearly up.
! ‘’You get the feeling that everyone here’s really on edge?’’ Terry asked, a bit of wariness creeping into his voice.
! ‘’Huh?’’ Akira looked up from his phone. ‘’I’m not really paying attention, but I guess there should be more people out now that I am.’’
! ‘’Something’s off with this neighborhood.’’ Terry muttered, turning up the collar of his jacket to ward off the growing cold. ‘’How much farther is it to the station?’’
! ‘’Just over a mile.’’ Akira told him. ‘’Can we take a quick break though? My feet are starting to ache from all the walking we’ve done tonight.’’
! ‘’Alright, but make it quick.’’ Terry sighed. ‘’I don’t like the feel of this place.’’
! They rested at a bus stop, at which no buses were stopping at during this time. Terry was one-hundred-percent certain now – he didn’t like the atmosphere that this part of town was giving off. But he couldn’t think of any reason for it to feel like this. A run-down or otherwise dangerous neighborhood certainly, but not a business district, however some at may be. The people here, it seemed to him, were afraid of something, but what could it be?
! His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of sirens blazing. Looking up, he saw two police cruisers and an ambulance speed down the empty street and take a right at the intersection just down the way, their bright lights and shrill sirens piercing through the still night.
! ‘’I wonder what that was all about?’’ Terry said as he gazed off in the direction that the vehicles had vanished in. ‘’Some kind of crime or incident?’’
! Akira shrugged, apparently done with playing with his phone. ‘’Who knows? Wanna go check it out?’’
! Terry shook his head. ‘’If it was any other time, maybe, but right now that would just make us late for sure.’’
! ‘’Guess so.’’ Akira admitted, pocketing his phone and getting up again. ‘’Well, I’m all rested up now. Let’s go.’’
! As they walked further down the block Terry saw a few more people hanging around outside than he had before. The air was feeling even tenser than it had been before, so he assumed that they had been lured out here, against their better judgment, by the sounds of the sirens from earlier.
! Still though, he wondered, unless it was something particularly he couldn’t imagine a crime being that big a deal in a big city. Then again, what did he know, he hadn’t actually lived in a big city until now. Well, whatever was going on, it didn’t have anything to do with him, and he already needed to be somewhere, so no reason to dwell on that.
! After a bit more walking the sidewalk took them past a small park, similar to the one that Terry had first met Akira in, located on the corner of a block and with a few small lamps to provide illumination. Akira came to a stop and his body slumped a bit as he let out a quiet, exasperated-sounding sigh. ‘’Not again.’’ he muttered. Ahead of them, clustered around a bench were three troublesome-looking kids. They were muttering to each other, and one of them nudged his head a bit in Terry and Akira’s direction.
! ‘’Whatever you do, don’t beat these guys up.’’ Akira whispered. ‘’Just ignore them.’’
! But that, unfortunately, was not possible. As the two came closer, the group fanned out a bit to completely block the sidewalk. Unlike the thugs from Terry’s first night, these three looked to be around his own age. His intent was to go right through them, but he had to stop when the lead punk brought out a small baseball bat that he had been holding behind him, out of sight, and held it out, blocking the way forward.
! ‘’What the hell, man?’’ Akira said irritably, well and truly exasperated right off the bat.
! The punk with the bat ignored that. ‘’I haven’t seen you guys ‘round here before.’’ he said. ‘’You’re not the one who’s been going around knocking off our buds, are you?’’
! ‘’I don’t even know what you’re talking about!’’ Akira exclaimed, bewildered. ‘’We’re just passing through here!’’
! ‘’Hey, we’re not taking no chances no more.’’ the punk said, moving a few steps closer to Akira. ‘’You don’t look like you belong here, you’re on our turf, and from the sounds of those sirens coming from your direction, someone just got wasted. I say you’re plenty suspicious.’’
! ‘’Oh come on.’’ Terry spoke up. Even if this was only the second time, he had to wonder what he had done in the past to deserve drawing this kind of attention whenever he went out at night. ‘’We have nothing to do with whatever it is that has you guys so riled up! So let us pass in peace!’’
! ‘’Are you trying to be a smartass?’’ the punk said threatening, brandishing his weapon and taking a step forward to intimidate. ‘’That’s not how things work around here.’’
! Terry tensed himself, and could feel Akira do the same next to him, albeit for different reasons. These guys didn’t scare him at all, but they also didn’t look like they’d listen to reason. He supposed if worst came to worst he could give the three a little jolt and make a break for it…
! Or maybe not. ‘’H-Hey Mano…’’ One of the other two punks was rapidly going pale. ‘’I-I think I know how that is! You’re trying to start shit with that lightning freak!’’
! ‘’What’re you…’’ The lead punk, Mano, Terry presumed, briefly scrutinized Terry as if suddenly seeing him for the first time before he too went pale and leapt backward as if Terry had actually shocked him. ‘’Holy shit you’re right!’’ he exclaimed in alarm.
! While Mano’s one-eighty from a tough-guy to a frightened child was admittedly somewhat funny to watch, Terry couldn’t help think that this was just great. Did the entire city know that he was a Stargazer now? He had no choice but to feign ignorance, the fat lot of good that would do him. ‘’The hell are you talking about?!’’ he said, sounding as bewildered as he could.
! ‘’Yeah, yeah, I recognize him from the description!’’ the second unnamed punk exclaimed, backing away to join the other one. ‘’A kid in a black leather jacket accompanied by an Oriental kid! It’s him!’’
! ‘’Hey, I’m far from the only Oriental guy in the city!’’ Akira said, sounding genuinely indignant. ‘’You’ve got the wrong guy, I tell you!’’
! Mano gripped his weapon tightly, seemingly unsure if he should foolishly try fighting or just run away and keep his well-being if not his dignity. The decision was made for him though, when a hand reached out grabbed hold of the bat, wrenching it out of his hands. ‘’Who’re – ‘’ Mano began to shout, but as he got a good look at the owner of the arm that they hand was attached to, he shut up and went even paler.
! It was a tallish, built young man with a well-defined jaw line and deep, almost cherry red hair that fell around his shoulders. His face and mouth were set in an expression that was nothing if not stern, and his brow was furrowed into a death glare strong enough to intimidate even the most hardcore of gangsters. This was someone who was clearly not to be trifled with.
! ‘’What do you think you’re doing, Mano?’’ he demanded, his voice a low growl.
! ‘’W-We…’’ Mano began to sputter, wilting already under the glare coming from the young man’s cold blue eyes. ‘’Th-These guys are suspicious, they could be the culprits!’’ he finished lamely.
! ‘’Seriously?’’ the newcomer said. ‘’Do you honestly believe that these two are the ones responsible for what’s been going on here, truly?’’
! ‘’But, but he’s a Stargazer!’’ one of the other punks insisted. ‘’I know he is!’’
! ‘’Please.’’ the newcomer sniffed. ‘’There are lots of other people who could fit that description, and you can’t just decide that someone’s a Stargazer just like that.’’ He then jerked his thumb in Terry’s direction. ‘’And ‘sides, you really think someone with a clueless expression like that’s going to be going around picking fights with the underground?’’
! Mano looked hesitant, as if unsure of who he was more frightened by: the teenager that might be a Stargazer, or the guy who was a good foot taller than him and much more muscular.
! ‘’Well regardless, get out here.’’ the young man said. ‘’I don’t want to see your faces around here again. Oh, and one more thing,’’ he added. ‘’If you’re trying to find the culprit, don’t. It’s a good way to get killed, Stargazer or no.’’
! The three punks finally turned and fled. ‘’Hmph, pussies.’’ the young man sniffed before turning his focus to Terry and Akira. ‘’Now for you two…’’
! ‘’Nova!’’ Akira gasped now that they were free from the punks. ‘’What’re you doing here?!’’
! Terry’s eyes widened a bit. That was the elusive Nova? Akira had said that he was only a year older than they were, but he found that hard to believe, actually looking at him.
! ‘’I should be asking you that.’’ Nova said, taking a few steps off to the side to deposit the club he had snatched away into a trashcan. ‘’I came back to the dorm to find Daniel fretting over you two being late and going through Sunport at night. What the hell were you thinking?!’’
! ‘’What do you mean?! Akira retorted right back. ‘’What’s wrong with Sunport?!’’
! ‘’Have you looked at the news at all?’’ Nova asked, his own temper clearly boiling just below the surface as his voice took on a dangerous tone. ‘’Pay any attention to what we were just talking about? Did you even see those cop cars just now or hear the sirens? People have been getting attacked here at night recently – horribly burned – a few have even died, and I’d bet ten-thousand yura that a Stargazer is behind it!’’
! ‘’So that’s why this entire neighborhood’s on edge!’’ Terry exclaimed. Of course, the answer had been so obvious. Why had it taken him this long, until someone had pretty much spelt it out for him, to realize it?
! ‘’See, this guy has a least some sense of perception.’’ Nova said, pointing in Terry’s direction. ‘’You’re that lightning kid, aren’t you?’’ he asked.
! ‘’My name’s Terry.’’ Terry replied, not wild at being called that.
! ‘’Well, sorry we had to meet like this.’’ Nova told him, shrugging a bit. ‘’I’m Theodore Bown, but you can call me Nova if you like, I really don’t care. Now come on, if you two miss curfew you’re going to get hit with demerits.’’
! ‘’Why’re you after us, anyway?’’ Akira asked as they walked down the street, his voice sour. ‘’We were on our way back anyway.’’
! ‘’I came home to the dorm to find Daniel fretting about how you guys were late.’’ Nova began to explain, roughly. ‘’I asked if he knew where you guys were, and he said you two should be going through Sunport. Again, what the hell were you thinking when you decided that?! You're lucky I still have some clout on these streets.’’
! ‘’Well, what’s wrong with Sunport?’’ Akira demanded.
! ‘’So what if it’s dangerous?’’ Akira shot back. ‘’We’re not babies you know. We can take care of ourselves.’’
! For what felt like the umpteenth time, Terry gave an odd glance. This coming from the guy who had freaked out at him fighting back against some thugs?
! ‘’Maybe, but you don’t understand, do you?’’ Nova gestured towards Terry. ‘’Thanks to the stunt this guy pulling in zapping that guy ‘bout two weeks ago, damn near the entire city underground knows that there’s a significant Stargazer presence in the city and are all on edge.’’
! ‘’And I don’t know about you,’’ he continued. ‘’But I take my job as a Trident member very seriously, so I had to get to you first in case you pulled something stupid out here. If you pull stupid shit that’ll compromise our operations, there’ll be more than Hell to pay, I swear to you.’’
! And that was the end of that. Nova did not say one more word to them the rest of the way back to the dorm, and for their part Terry and Akira also remained silent. While they ultimately managed to get back just before curfew, the rather sour turn the evening had taken towards the end there did not help Terry’s mood, and the upcoming operation was weighing on his mind anew.
–-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm an old man when it comes to cell phones. Mine is six years old and can only call and text, the latter function I refuse to use. So about halfway through writing this chapter I realized ''oh, given the setting, they should have the local equivalent of iphones or Androids, or whatever, and solve this stuff on their own'', so that required a bit of on-the-fly revision.

[ChesCa]

Okay, two small things, one asshole thing and one big thing.
Small things:
[hide]
1. The conversation at the beginning, the part where he asked why the kids were given free reign. It was kind of pointless because he accepted the caretaker's excuse so easily, but this could be fixed if you gave him just a slightly more convincing argument, like overlooking the Stargazer's shoulder every second would be difficult or something.
2. The part where Terry thinks to himself. Now what could Mr. Gerald want with him, Terry wondered
It seems like the narration was speaking for Terry and he was thinking at once. It would probably be best to change it to 'Now what could Mr. Geraled want with me,' Terry wondered.
[/hide]
Asshole thing:
[hide] First off, I'mma big hypocrite because I suck at naming things, but 'The Beings?' If you absolutely think they should be called that then okay, but personally I find that gangs/criminal organizations usually name themselves with numbers, street locations and/or really intimidating names. I'd probably go with that last one. Could give The Beings a more miniature terrorist group kind of image.[/hide]
And the big thing:
[hide] The end of this chapter was kind of anticlimatic. Here we spend the chapter with Terry and Akira feeling a little tense about their assignment, and yet when they go to Sunspot Terry just gets a bad feeling and Nova bails them out. Personally, I'd top off all the tension in this chapter with an attack on them. Not a big attack (obviously those must be saved for Friday), but something that gives Terry a 'taste' of what danger he is getting himself into. I could see the two getting jumped because they weren't prepared by two grunts. And once it becomes obvious that those grunts mean to harm them (can't be reasoned with, want their money, etc), Nova comes in and rescues them and the mission and what it will entail can finally start sinking into Terry.[/hide]
Despite what I see to be flaws, this was still a pretty good chapter. Just needs a little more of a satisfying ending by my count.

[Crossword]

There actually is a non-arbitrary reason why I named the gang The Beings as opposed to something more intimidating (well, that and I too kinda suck at coming up with names as well at times). Whether it's ultimately a satisfactory one, well, that'll just have to wait until I get that far.

The ending…I agree with it being anticlimactic, and I'm trying to think of a way to fix that. What I originally had in mind felt too much like a rehash of the end of chapter one, but changing that into an anti-climax wasn't all that good a move, either.

[ChesCa]

I can wait for the explanation of The Being's name, no problem.
As for the rehashing problem, perhaps you could change the circumstances? Like they were followed home and didn't even notice? Perhaps a near breach of security of the dorms if Nova weren't there?
That's just one suggestion and I admit there's probably better out there, but hopefully as an example of what you could can do it can help.

[Crossword]

Chapter 7: The Briefing

! Friday turned out to be an overcast, grey day.
! ‘’I really hope it’s not going to rain tonight.’’ Bar was worrying as he, Terry, and Akira were leaving Mr. Matthews’s class at the end of the day. ‘’I want to go out and shoot some hoops.’’
! ‘’I thought you were in to baseball.’’ Terry said.
! ‘’Yeah, I am.’’ Bar replied as he stepped to the side to avoid some incoming foot traffic. ‘’That doesn’t mean I can’t play another sport for fun, does it?’’
! ‘’I guess not.’’ Terry admitted.
! ‘’What’re you guys gonna do?’’
! ‘’I wish I didn’t, but I have work on Friday afternoons.’’ Terry told him, feeding him the most natural-sounding excuse that he could think of. ‘’Doing it on Friday afternoons suck, but I don’t have a choice at the moment.’’
! ‘’Hm, that’s too bad.’’ Bar said, pity in his eyes. ‘’What about you, Akira?’’
! ‘’Sleeping.’’ the other responded simply.
! ‘’No offense guys, but those sound like pretty boring ways to spend the start of the weekend.’’ Bar sighed. ‘’Maybe we should really do something together sometime.’’
! ‘’Yeah, we should.’’ Terry agreed. ‘’Just not today. Some other time.’’
! ‘’I’ll hold you to that.’’ Bar said. ‘’I gotta go talk to Mrs. Beadly about something, so see ya.’’
! After depositing their gym clothes in their lockers, Akira and Terry began to head down the stairs to the school’s entrance.
! ‘’It figures.’’ Terry sniffed. ‘’You know that just the other day Karen tried to invite me to do something with her tonight?’’
! ‘’Did she?’’ Akira said, sounding mildly interested. ‘’So what did you tell her?’’
! ‘’I told her I couldn’t, of course.’’ Terry answered. ‘’She seemed pretty down about it.’’
! ‘’Doesn’t surprise me.’’ Akira said with an air of certainty. ‘She strikes me as one of those people who are rather insecure with themselves, you know? The kind of person who needs to be around others but is too shy or whatever for their own good.’’
! ‘’All that, really?’’ Terry said, eyeing his friend. ‘’How would you know that when we barely even talk to her?’’
! Akira shrugged. ‘’Hey, that’s just the impression I get. You should probably make it up to her sometime.’’
! They had come to the school’s entranceway where, as usual, Daniel was waiting for them, standing off to the side to avoid the flow of exiting students.
! ‘’I just got a message from Nova.’’ he explained as the three headed out. ‘’He says that he’s already heading back to the dorm.’’
! ‘’Is he staying there full-time now?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’Looks like it.’’ Daniel replied. He gave a small, quiet sigh. ‘’You guys didn’t really hit it off with him very well the other day, did you?’’
! ‘’Hell no, he was a total dick to us!’’ Akira spat, obviously still holding a grudge. ‘’He told us that we were messing things up for Trident, and then he threatened us by saying he’d make us pay if we did!’’
! ‘’Too bad.’’ Daniel said. ‘’But still, you’re going to have to learn to at the very least tolerate each other if you want to work well as a team.’’
! ‘’Tch, screw him.’’
! While it was true that their first encounter with Nova hadn’t left them with a good impression, Terry hoped that Akira was just being overly-judgmental in regards to him. Like Daniel had said, they would need to learn how to cooperate with one another in order to operate efficiently, but given that their first operation, their trial by fire, was only a few hours away, they didn’t really have time to really get down and hammer out their differences. As far as Terry’s feelings towards Nova went, while he too didn’t care for the older boy’s attitude, he seemed to understand that there was a reason behind it. What that reason was though, he didn’t know.
! ‘’Hey,’’ he spoke up. They had now crossed the bridge connecting the school to the rest of the city. ‘’Nova’s been with Trident longer than we have, right?’’
! ‘’Obviously.’’ Daniel answered. ‘’Though technically, Trident didn’t officially exist until you and Akira came along.’’
! ‘’D’you know why he joined?’’
! ‘’Apparently he actually came forward all on his own.’’ Daniel said, starting to sound a little uncomfortable around this topic. ‘’There were apparently some special circumstances and –‘’ He cut himself off. ‘’Look, I don’t know all that much, really. Ask my uncle or Nova himself if you’re really curious.’’
! ‘’You know what his power is, at least?’’ Akira asked, looking a lot less grumpy than he had been a couple of minutes ago. Apparently that was the only aspect of Nova that he was actually interested in, and Terry had to admit that he was more than a little curious as well.
! ‘’All I know is that it’s a Taurus ability that has to do with augmentation.’’ Daniel answered, sounding thoroughly tired with talking about Nova now. ‘’I’m sure you’ll see him in action tonight.’’
! He remained silent for a few moments, as if soaking up that last phrase. ‘’So how do you guys feel about tonight?’’ he eventually spoke. ‘’You…ready to use your powers and all?’’
! ‘’I guess I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.’’ said Terry. ‘’I’ve been thinking of some ways to use my power. I think I can handle whatever these guys can dish out.’’
! ‘’Me too, I’m definitely ready.’’ Akira added, his voice projecting a lot more confidence. ‘’Even if my power isn’t all that well suited to offense.’’
! ‘’That’s good.’’ Daniel said, nodding. ‘’To tell the truth, I’m really nervous, even though I know I won’t actually be out there fighting and putting my life on the line like you guys. Even though I’ve just done some minor stuff on the clerical side of things in putting this operation together, I just can’t help but question if we did a good enough job to keep you guys properly informed and safe.’’
! ‘’I don’t think you should worry too much.’’ Terry said. ‘’You did your part, and now it’s ours, and we’re the ones responsible for handling what ultimately goes down, good or bad.’’
! ‘’Well, good to hear that you feel like that.’’ Daniel replied, smiling just a tiny bit in a somewhat sheepish sort of way. ‘’Let’s go home.’’
! * * *
! Upon returning home to the dorm, the first thing Terry did was to go to his room and take a shower before changing into a fresh change of clothes. As he was getting dressed, he received a message on his cell phone requesting him to come down to the dining room at seven o’clock sharp.
! When the time came he went down to the dining room as told. Akira and Daniel were already down there, helping themselves to the dinner buffet that had been laid out against the wall for them, and sitting at one of the tables was Nova, who was already eating, and at an adjacent one sat Mr. Gerald and someone who Terry recognized as the bored-looking officer who usually staffed the security desk out in the foyer during the day.
! ‘’Good evening, Terrence.’’ Gerald said as he saw Terry enter. ‘’How are you?’’
! ‘’I’m doing fine, sir.’’ Terry acknowledged him. He was sounding rather subdued tonight compared to when he had brought him to the dorm, even more than he had when he had first met Terry at the facility several weeks ago.
! ‘’That’s good, very good.’’ Gerald smiled tightly before gesturing towards the buffet. ‘’Help yourself to some dinner. The meeting will start once you’ve settled down.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ Terry went up to grab a plate and utensils and began to pick out his food. Mr. Gerald was trying to put on a friendly face to hide his anxieties about the operation, and was doing a really bad job of hiding them.
! Once Terry had finished loading up his plate and sat down at a table with Akira and Daniel, the officer stood up. ‘’All right.’’ he began, moving so that he could address the entire audience, small as it was. ‘’Let’s begin this meeting. Though I’ve already seen each and every one of you and know your names, we haven’t been properly introduced yet. I’m Officer Paul Davidmen.’’
! The others acknowledged him, and Davidmen went over to the corner of the room and picked up a scroll-like object that had been resting against the wall. Unfurling it, he attached it to a hook hanging on the wall, took a small remote from the pocket of his uniform, and with the press of a button the screen lit up. Nodding in satisfaction, Davidmen turned it off again before turning to address the others again.
! ‘’All right.’’ he began. ‘’Let’s get the stuff you already know out of the way. This Lifeline Stargazer cell, Trident, has been formed with the current primary objective of providing assistance to local law enforcement in order to combat types of crimes that they themselves cannot handle on their own. Tonight, in approximately an hour and a half, you will be participating in a raid against one of the city’s most notorious gangs, The Beings.’’
! ‘’The Beings?’’ Akira repeated. ‘’Shouldn’t a gang have a more intimidating name like ‘Crimson Bloodfins’, or ‘The Sale St. Twenty’, or…’’
! ‘’Please stop.’’ Nova said, looking physically pained.
! ‘’Well, regardless of what you think of the name,’’ Davidmen said. ‘’they are the largest gang in the city, with just over two-hundred-thirty confirmed members, who lay claim to a rather sizable turf in the South Side’s less…developed neighborhoods.’’
! ‘’Two-hundred-thirty?’’ Terry frowned a bit. ‘’That sounds like a lot to me for just a street gang.’’
! ‘’It is.’’ Davidmen said, nodding. ‘’At that size a gang is treated more like a small criminal organization. The Beings generally try to keep their heads down, staying out of high-profile crimes and while attention is shifted elsewhere, they slowly spread their influence through intimidation and fear. Their steady rate of growth and coordination is worrying, which is one of the reasons why we’re deploying Stargazers against them. The other reason is…’’
! He clicked on the remote and the projection screen lit up, displaying a detailed sketch of a thick-necked, square-jawed man who was wearing a bandanna tied around his head. Like most people who appeared on mug shot photos, he had this kind of unsettling look to him, likely due to either the deep lines under his eyes, or the dark, glowering look the artist had apparently taken great pains to produce.
! ‘’This is The Beings’ leader.’’ Davidmen explained, gesturing at the image. ‘’His name is Anthony Balast, though his street name – each member of The Beings has a one-word pseudonym, by the way – is Deck.’’
! As he said this, Terry’s mind started working and he surreptitiously took a glance at the back of Nova’s head. With a nickname like that, it was hard to believe that the older boy didn’t have some kind of connection with the gang. After all, he did seem to know the streets of the city and its going ons rather well. Something to consider for later.
! ‘’In addition to being their leader,’’ Davidmen was saying in the meantime. ‘’what makes him our prime concern is that he is a Stargazer himself.’’
! ‘’So what’s his power then?’’ Akira asked before the officer could explain himself.
! ‘’It’s a Taurus ability.’’ This time it was Nova who spoke up. ‘’Lets him summon weapons. Spears, axes, those sorts of things. Not all that dangerous compared to some of the other Stargazer powers out there, but deadly enough for this stage, and he’s not hesitant about using it when he feels it’s necessary.’’
! Which stood to reason that he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty if need be.
! ‘’Now, on to the details of the operation itself.’’ Davidmen clicked a button on the remote and the projection shifted to a new image. This one showed a map of a specific neighborhood in the city, with a small photograph in the corner of what looked like a set of vacant apartment buildings.
! ‘’What you’re looking at right now is the Sedmore neighborhood, in the South Side.’’ Davidman began to explain, making gestures towards the map. ‘’It was supposed to be a public housing project, but some legal issues came up and, long story short, it never really took off and only a very small fraction of the buildings were opened to the public.’’
! He took a short pause to ask is there were any questions so far. There were none, so he continued on.
! ‘’The building you are looking at has been taken over, needless to say illegally, by The Beings for use as their headquarters.’’ the officer said, having switched to a differently-angled view of one of the buildings. Not that anyone else in the room could tell the difference, as they all looked the same. ‘’We’ve had it under surveillance for the past few months, learning their patterns and such, and from our observations we’ve learned that starting around this time of night going into the late hours is when it is most heavily occupied. Generally, there are anywhere between fifteen to thirty occupants at most.’’
! ‘’And of course,’’ Nova put in. ‘’those are the hours when Deck himself is present.’’
! ‘’So basically the point of this operation is to snag the leader, right?’’ Akira said. ‘’Take out the head, yeah? Let the body die.’’
! ‘’Basically, yes.’’ Davidmen answered. ‘’Organized gangs like these usually tend to cluster around the one person who can hold them all together. Without that one person to guide them, the members become confused and unorganized, leading to splintering amongst the group and a greatly diminished threat overall, allowing us to mop them up.’’
! Terry had to admit to himself that he saw no problems with the logic behind the plan. Deprived of their Stargazer leader, The Beings’ power, both literal and metaphorical, would be dulled, killing two birds with a single stone.
! ‘’Now, the plan itself.’’ This time the image being displayed changed to show the physical layout of the target building and the immediate surrounding neighborhood. ‘’You three will be dropped off at these three points.’’ As he spoke, three red x’s appeared at different points on the map. ‘’You’ll be given more detailed floor plans and such while you’re en route, and you can decide amongst yourselves which order you will go in.
! ‘’Once inside, you will scour the building floor by floor, neutralizing any resistance you may happen to find.’’
! ‘’What about Deck?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’You are to neutralize him in the same manner.’’ came the man’s simple reply. ‘’He is, after all, the primary target of this operation.
! ‘’Once you’re in control of the building,’’ Davidmen immediately went on, preventing Terry from getting another word in. ‘’you’ll signal us on a wireless communicator which we will provide you, and the police taskforce will then move in to breach the building and apprehend the members of The Beings that you have incapacitated.’’
! ‘’Why aren’t they coming in with us?’’ Akira asked. ‘’You know, we clear a room, the police move in to mop up, that kind of thing?’’
! ‘’Deck has one eye open at all times.’’ said Nova, his eyes closed and arms crossed. ‘’We’re doing this the hard way because we want to have the element of stealth and surprise on our side. We can’t afford to make a show of pulling up to the building and kicking the door down as we’ll risk alerting the targets, so we’re sneaking in first. We’re dealing with a Stargazer, so we need to use a lot of finesse with this one.’’
! That explanation didn’t really sit all that well with Terry. While he supposed infiltrating a building wouldn’t be too difficult for him, from everything he had heard of the plan so far, it felt like all of the hard work was being shoved onto Trident’s shoulders, while the police themselves would be shielding from most of the potential harm. With this in mind, he asked his next question.
! ‘’What will happen if we get injured?’’
! ‘’As we can’t afford for Trident to be operating at anything less than full capacity, if you get injured, medical treatment will of course be given.’’ Davidmen replied. ‘’Of course, you shouldn’t injure easy to begin with, being Stargazers, yes?’’
! ‘’Right…’’ Terry muttered. It certainly felt to him, from the outline of the plan to Officer Davidmen’s seeming indifference that they were being seen more as tools to be used in this operation rather than actual human participants. That didn’t sit very well with him.
! ‘’…and that’s more or less it.’’ Davidmen said in conclusion, switching the projection off. ‘’In about twenty minutes we’ll be heading out and you’ll be given more detailed literature to review, so in that time do whatever else you need to do to get ready, and then meet back here.’’
! The only one who got up to leave was Akira. Everyone else, Mr. Gerald included, remained exactly where they were, not saying a word. Nova’s eyes were shut, perhaps in meditation. Daniel was leaning forward a bit, his elbows resting on the table he was seated at, his chin resting on his knuckles in a rather pensive-looking pose. His uncle sat with his face set in such a way that suggested that he was trying to remain impassive about the whole affair, but even so it was just as clear as ever that he was still concerned over this whole matter.
! ‘’Are…you all right, sir?’’ Terry eventually ventured, addressing Gerald.
! ‘’Hm? Yes, I’m fine.’’ the older man said, with the tone of someone who had been snapped out of a trace. As soon as those words came out of his mouth, however, he looked as if he immediately regretted them. ‘’Well no, I’m obviously not.’’ he admitted. ‘’It’s one thing to go on about how this cell’s purpose it to fight crime, but those are just words. Now that the time has finally come to call upon you to risk your lives, all of that weight and responsibility suddenly feels very real and heavy.’’
! ‘’Responsibilities only become burdens if you let them.’’ It was Nova who spoke, eyes still closed and arms still crossed. ‘’They’re duties meant to give direction, and purpose.’’
! ‘’I suppose that is true.’’ Gerald admitted quietly, adopting a posture in his chair that was even more pensive than his nephew’s.
! A couple more minutes passed while Terry was trying to absorb and process everything he had heard this evening, before Akira returned, carrying what looked like a foot-long wooden bar of some sort.
! ‘’What’s that?’’ Terry asked him.
! ‘’My weapon, or at least it’s going to be my weapon.’’ Akira responded. ‘’Unlike you, my power isn’t exactly made for knocking people out.’’
‘’So what is that then, a shiv?’’
! ‘’It’s not a shiv.’’ Akira said, a touch of indignation creeping into his voice. ‘’It’s called a w-‘’
! ‘’Are you all ready now?’’ Officer Davidmen’s voice cut him off. ‘’Good, then will you please follow me and…’’
! Gerald held up a hand. ‘’Wait a moment please, I have something to say.’’
! ‘’Try to make it quick, we’re on a timetable.’’
! ‘’I understand, I understand. Don’t worry.’’ Gerald got to his feet and turned his eyes to survey the three Stargazers before him, the three teenagers you were about to be thrust into battle that they hadn’t signed up for.
! ‘’There are a million things going through my head right now.’’ he said, slowly and carefully. ‘’But I suppose that, in the end, I find that I have only these words to say to you three: be safe.’’
! ‘’Yeah, good luck guys.’’ Daniel added.
! Nova stood up. ‘’You don’t need to worry about me.’’ he said. ‘’I knew what I was getting into when things first began.’’
! ‘’And I’m not gonna let these gang guys scare me, either.’’ Akira added. ‘’I’m getting tired of running into these guys at night and looking like a fool, right Terry?’’
! ‘’Uh, yeah.’’ Terry said, getting up as well to stand alongside his comrades. ‘’I’ll be careful, and do my best.’’ This was it. This operation was a challenge that he could not back down from, not that he could in the first place. It was time to prove his abilities, not just for the sake of the operation, but for himself as well.
! ‘’Good to hear that you’re all in confident moods, then.’’ said Davidmen, giving them the first compliment he had all evening. ‘’Now follow me, it’s time to go to work.’’

Chapter 8: Confrontation

! Officer Davidmen led Terry, Akira, and Nova out through one of the building’s backdoors and into the alleyway lot out back, where the dorm’s food was usually delivered. Waiting in this space was a gray, somewhat beat up-looking van, the kind that one would expect repairmen to use. In fact, Terry couldn’t help but notice that it was the same model that his uncle owned.
! Davidmen went over and exchanged a few brief words with the driver, who was waiting inside, before coming back around and opening the rear doors. ‘’Come on, get in.’’
! The four of them clambered up into the back of the van. Most of the storage space behind the driver’s and passenger’s seats was taken up by what looked like radio and monitoring equipment, so there was very little room left for comfortable seating. It was admittedly a tight squeeze, but in the end the four of them were able to all fit in, though they had to stoop down low when not sitting to avoid banging their heads on the storage compartments above.
! Davidmen managed, with some difficulty, to squeeze his way past the others and open one of said compartments, from which he withdrew a rather thick briefcase. Unlatching and opening it, he retrieved from inside three pairs of gray vests. ‘’Put these on first.’’ he instructed the others. ‘’They’re safety vests.’’
! They were made out of a smooth, flexible material that Terry didn’t recognize. It felt pretty light too; even after slipping into it and putting on his jacket back over it, it barely felt like it was even there.
! ‘’Aren’t these a little light?’’ Akira asked as he was pulling his own vest on, apparently on the same wavelength as Terry on this one.
! ‘’I know they don’t look like much, but they’ll keep you safe.’’ Davidmen said. ‘’They’re woven from a special kind of carbon-fiber manufactured on Heion. They’ll dampen a blade thrust and stop a bullet from penetrating, so they’re tougher than they look.’’
! Next he bent back down to the briefcase and this time retrieved three small devices that were unmistakably wireless headsets, designed to fit snugly, almost invisibly, into one’s ear. ‘’And these are the communicators that I told you about.’’ Davidmen went on. ‘’We’ll use these to keep in contact with each other during the operation.’’
! After teaching them how to cycle through the channels available on the communicators, he finally handed out a set of documents to each of the three which contained information such as the blueprints of the target building, a general map of the neighborhood, and other miscellaneous pieces of information that they would need to know. On the map were several marked red dots, from which paths were drawn to three separately-marked spots on the target building. ‘’What do these mean?’’ Akira asked, indicating the spots with his finger.
! ‘’Those are your drop off and entry points.’’ Davidmen explained. ‘’Bown will be the first one that we’ll be dropping off, then Eaves, and finally you, Kamiya.’’ He pointed each route out with his own finger as he spoke. ‘’So make sure that you memorize which route you’re assigned to. It shouldn’t be too difficult.’’
! Terry looked at his designated route. It didn’t look too bad; all he had to do from his drop off point was to simply walk north for a few blocks, then take a left at a certain corner and he’d be practically right in front of the building. It was certainly a lot better than Nova’s path, which was much longer and complicated, but given how Nova seemed to know these streets a whole heck of a lot more than Terry or Akira did, it probably wasn’t a big deal for him.
! ‘’Once we get inside the building, we’re not going to meet up and instead just split to the different floors.’’ It was now Nova who was talking. ‘’There are six floors, four above ground and two basement levels, so that splits evenly between the three of us.’’
! ‘’Well, since Akira doesn’t like going up lots of stairs, I’ll take the top two.’’ Terry offered.
! ‘’I’m taking the basement.’’ Nova said.
! ‘’Then I’m left with the first and second floors, I guess.’’ said Akira. ‘’So once we’ve cleared out the building, or at least most of it, then what? Pack our bags and go home?’’
! ‘’I’ll contact these guys.’’ Nova said, jerking his thumbs towards Officer Davidmen. ‘’And we’ll be able to call in the police vehicles that’ll be lying in wait.’’
! ‘’That’s right.’’ said Davidmen. ‘’We’ve got a small fleet of cruisers and undercover vehicles ready, plus a paddywagon if need be.’’
! ‘’One more thing.’’ Nova’s voice grew even more serious than it usually was. ‘’If either one of you two encounter Deck, don’t do anything stupid, contact one of us immediately. He’s not like the other gang members or thugs you may have encountered. He won’t be intimidated by a display of our powers, in fact, he’d just see it as a challenge. He can be cocky, but at the same time very smart, so don’t push your luck if you can help it.’’
! With all of the preparations seeming to be taken care of, Davidmen instructed the driver to start moving. Since there were no windows, Terry couldn’t tell which direction they were going in, not that that really mattered as he still wasn’t familiar with much of the city. So instead of wondering where they were going, he busied himself with studying his map and doing his best to get the apartment building’s layout memorized. After all, in order for this to work they would each have to execute their roles perfectly, and he didn’t want to be the one liability that brought everything down.
! After driving for twenty, maybe thirty minutes, the van slowly came to a stop and pulled over to the side of the road. ‘’It’s time, Mr. Bown.’’ Davidmen said.
! ‘’Yeah, I got it.’’ Nova grunted as he affixed his earpiece snug inside his ear. The van doors were unlocked and opened, letting the cool night air into the van’s stuffy confines. Nova stepped carefully over the others and hopped down to the ground. ‘’I’ll contact you guys when I’m there, so make sure your communicators are set properly.’’ he said before stepping away and shutting the doors behind him.
! ‘’Think he’ll be alright?’’ Akira asked as the van started to move again. ‘’Not that I’m particularly concerned with him, mind you.’’
! ‘’I think he’ll be fine.’’ Terry replied as he stretched his legs out a bit in the now-roomier space. ‘’He sounds like he knows what he’s doing, not to mention a lot more about what’s going on than we seem to. I wouldn’t worry.’’
! It didn’t take very much longer until the van stopped a second time. ‘’Your drop off point, Mr. Eaves.’’ Davidmen said.
! ‘’Guess so.’’ Terry stood up as well as he could in the van’s limited space and opened the doors, again feeling a fresh night breeze on his face. There didn’t seem to be anyone on the street, at least no one he could see. Finally, his time had come.
! ‘’You know what to do, right?’’ Akira asked as Terry stepped out of the vehicle and onto the pavement.
! ‘’Yep, it’s all up in here.’’ Terry tapped his temple with one hand while he adjusted his earpiece with the other.
! ‘’Well, good luck then.’’
! ‘’Thanks. You too.’’
! With a final, half-hearted wave from Akira, the van doors closed and it drove off, leaving Terry all alone on the street.
! He immediately set off in the direction that he was supposed to, continuing to fiddle with the earpiece as he did. Officer Davidmen had said that this part of town wasn’t really very lively, and he could see why. While the streets surrounding the neighborhoods of both his dorm and school were well-maintained and full of people, this one looked rather woebegone. The sidewalks were cracked in places, the streetlamps looked to be at least fifteen years older, most of the commercial buildings were small and low to the ground, and as he passed a graffiti-covered fence at one point, he could see a vacant lot overrun by grass and weeds nearly as tall as he was. Occasionally a car drove slowly down the street, and while he did see a handful of people out, their numbers were still nowhere near the amount he was used to seeing.
! After walking for about fifteen minutes or so with his hands in his pockets, trying to look like he belonged here, Terry reached the corner that had been designated on his map. To the right across the street was a small parking garage for residents, while in front of him sat a shuttered convenience store, and next to that was a row of apartment buildings, all of which were eerily dark and empty, looming against the night sky. The one closest to him, the one that was the target if he remembered correctly, looked to be in the worst shape, as several windows were boarded shut and a chain-link fence encircled the property, sides covered with a blue tarp in order to discourage climbing. Front and center by what was the entrance was a ‘’no trespassing’’ sign.
! Terry spent a few moments gazing hard at it. He didn’t see any signs that it was being inhabited, illegally or not, and certainly not being used as a gang’s hideout. He’d expected to see hoodlums hanging out by the entrance, or heard the sounds of people carousing coming from within, but he neither saw nor heard anything of the sort.
! He was thinking that that was rather peculiar when his earpiece came to life and he heard Nova’s voice inside his ear. ‘’Where are you?’’ said the tinny voice.
! ‘’I’m actually standing right by the building.’’ Terry told Nova. ‘’Thing is, though, I don’t see any sign that anyone’s here at all.’’
! ‘’Well, they wouldn’t want to be advertising their presence, would they?’’
! Terry said nothing, but mentally shrugged instead.
! ‘’Anyway,’’ Nova continued. ‘’find a way to get inside from your location, and cover your floors like how we discussed. I’m almost there myself, and I’m sure that Akira is too.’’
! ‘’Got it.’’
! ‘’One more thing.’’ Nova’s voice grew quiet, almost deadly. ‘’Don’t cock this up.’’
! He signed off, leaving Terry rather miffed. As much as he usually tried not to, he had to agree with Akira on this one; Nova was being a bit of a dick. Sure, he was older than they were, and probably had a little more experience with stuff like this from the sound of things, but that didn’t give him leave to talk down to the others like he didn’t think they were up to the challenge, and if there was one thing Terry didn’t like, it was the implication that he was useless. He’d had enough of that when he was young growing up, he didn’t need any more of that. Looking at the desolate building again, he resolved to find a way to prove himself.
! But first, he had to find a way to get inside. Scanning the area, he noticed that there was a small space in between the convenience store and the apartment building’s partition, and in there, set against the store, was a dumpster. It smelled pretty bad upon getting closer, but it was large enough that Terry felt that it would work. Checking to make sure that there was no one nearby who could see him, he climbed up on top of it, and, after turning his nose up at the rank stench, steadied himself before leaping outward and managing to get his fingers on to the links that were exposed at the top of the fence. After a few seconds of scrambling against the tarp, making more noise than he would have liked, he succeeding in swinging his legs up and over and landed firmly on the ground on the opposite side. He had made it.
! He had about three feet of space between the fence and the building. Enough to move in, but certainly not enough to do any sort of fighting in. He needed to get inside the building proper, and if he remembered correctly, an entrance had been marked out on the plans just ahead, so he began to slowly inch his way forward.
! He heard voices almost immediately. There was what the sounded like the shuffling of wood, and the sounds of two people arguing quietly amongst themselves over something. But what it was, Terry never got to hear, for two punks appeared around a corner and, with there being no space to hide, practically walked right into Terry.
! ‘’Who the hell’re-‘’ the lead punk began to exclaim, the surprise on his face clear as he tried to fumble around in his back pocket for something, probably a knife. Terry knew that he didn’t have any time to waste, and given that there was no room to fight, he instead emitted a mild discharge of electricity, dropping the two punks to the ground in a heap.
! Aside from a small flash of light and a brief zap noise, this had been quick and neat; over in a second. Terry cautiously knelt down to examine his prey: they were unconscious, but still breathing. He hadn’t let out a large of power he thought, at least not consciously, so these guys would probably come around eventually, and he aimed to be far away by that time.
! Continuing on, he found a wooden covering over what he assumed to be a broken ground-floor window. While the two punks from before had replaced it, they hadn’t done that good of a job, for it was lying noticeably askew compared to the window frame. Terry shifted it aside without any trouble and, minding the remaining shards of glass still stuck in the frame, he climbed through the window and into the building.
! It was hard to tell given the inside room’s emptiness, state of disrepair, and dust layer thick enough to leave sneaker prints, but he was inside what looked like the main living area of a somewhat large apartment, maybe the former landlord’s tenement. Terry stepped cautiously out into the hallway, but he didn’t see or hear a single person. There was a staircase at the end of the hall, which he took up to his designated floors to begin his search. Up there things weren’t any better. Cracks and the occasional spots of mold and water damage covered the walls and ceilings, while bits of plaster and coatings of dust lay on the dirty floor. As he searched his designated floors, carefully peering around corners and the few unlocked doors in an attempt to not get jumped, he found it hard to believe that people actually hung out here, though occasional pieces of garbage or graffiti seemed to prove otherwise.
! But as he started to run out of places to search, a very uneasy feeling began to stir in the pit of his stomach. It wasn’t because he was expecting someone or something to leap out at him from either around a corner or from the darkness, it was the very fact that he hadn’t encountered a single soul, and that was beginning to worry him. The two people whom he had encountered outside should be evidence that The Beings really were here, but then where were all of the others? Was the intelligence wrong? Was this a trap or some sort of set-up? Or was everyone else simply on the lower floors?
! ‘’Okay.’’ Terry said aloud to himself as he reached the top floor unmolested. He took a deep breath, and then bellowed, in a voice loud enough for the entire floor to hear: ‘’I am a Stargazer here to take down thugs like you!! If you don’t want to be arrested, you better come and get me!’’
! As he expected, nothing happened. Nothing stirred save for a small trickle of dust falling from a crack in the ceiling. Nova probably would have killed him for that stunt, but it had saved him a lot of time. Now the question was ‘’what now?’’ He reached towards his earpiece, ready to contact Nova and tell him that something was off, when he realized that there was one last place that there could be people; the roof. Sure, anyone who would try to hide up there was really, really dumb, but it was the only place left up here where he thought there could be people, so it was worth at least a shot.
! As he climbed the stairs once more, Terry wondered how Akira and Nova were faring, whether they had had better luck than he had or if they had found their floors similarly deserted.
! He came to the top, pushed the set of double doors open with an ear-splitting wail of old hinges, and stepped out onto the roof.
! It was even cooler up here than it had been at street level thanks to the wind. Terry surveyed the place with his eyes, scanning each exposed ventilation duct, old steam exhausts, and other various bits of metal doodads scattered across the roof for a sign of activity. But, unsurprisingly, he failed to see a single within his range of vision. But as he began to turn back towards the doors, he distinctly heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. He whirled back around took several steps in the direction of the noise, and from just beyond the range of his initial line of sight, he saw a man sitting on top of one of the ducts.
! The man was wearing a heavy-looking murky green coat, and while he had a bit of a goatee and was wearing sunglasses – at night even! –, from his build and off-yellow bandanna he was wearing, Terry instantly recognized him from the picture he had been shown earlier: this was Deck, the leader of The Beings.
! ‘’For a minute there, I thought you were actually going to walk away.’’ he said, sounding very pleased. ‘’That’s real irresponsible of you man. Real irresponsible.’’
! Terry tensed up cautiously, moving forward a fraction of an inch.
! ‘’Though given how easy it was to dupe your so-called Trident,’’ Deck went on. ‘’to say nothing of the cops, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.’’
! Terry tensed even more. Of course, this was the reason why he hadn’t encountered anyone inside the building itself. Deck had known that they were coming all along. Before he knew it, he had opened his mouth to speak. He knew this was a bad idea, that he shouldn’t be speaking to Deck, but he couldn’t help himself. ‘’How did you know about us?’’ he asked, fists clenching.
! ‘’Oh, I know lots of things.’’ Deck said unpleasantly as he absentmindedly fiddled with the chain hanging around his neck. ‘’About your organization, and you…Terrence Eaves.’’
! A shock ran through Terry. ‘’H-How do you know my name?!’’ he exclaimed on reflex.
! ‘’Oh come on, like I’m really going to tell you that!’’ Deck exclaimed, sounding maliciously delighted. ‘’I know a fair bit about you, Sparky. Born in the state of Severstone on August 21, 2631, raised by your uncle, Dustin Eaves, came to this city on the last day of August and became a Gemini Stargazer on that very same night, causing the underground to shit their collective pants, joined a Stargazer cell alongside Theodore ‘’Nova’’ Bown and Akira Kamiya at the behest of the Lifeline administrator and Marine Cove Board of Education member Gerald Centone… If only they knew that deep down, you’re just some self-pitying, bitter little punk who can’t get over the fact that mommy and daddy - ’’
! ‘’Shut the hell up!!’’ Terry said forcefully, anger welling within him. ‘’You don't know shit about me, so don't talk like you do!’’ The vestiges of his calm were rapidly losing ground to his swelling anger at being talked down to like this. No matter what the circumstances would be, Terry’s true feelings towards his family was one subject that he would never, ever discuss with anyone, and to have some complete stranger throw them in his face and belittle him like this over them? Try to patronize him in this way? It wasn't something that he'd stand for.
! ‘’Aww, did I hit a nerve there?’’ Deck said mockingly, thoroughly enjoying Terry’s sudden outburst. ‘’But really, I’m glad that you’re the one who ran into me tonight. For so long nothing in this city could harm me at all. All those shitty gangs in this city wouldn’t dare oppose me just because I have Stargazer powers, and the police are just a bunch of spineless cowards as well… But then your organization was formed, and I finally had competition…I can’t tell you how excited that made me…’’
! So that’s why Deck set things up like this tonight, Terry realized. He just wanted to take a stab at them. It certainly fit with Nova’s words earlier that the gang leader could be quite cocky. He knew that Deck was trying to psyche him out with this talk, but he didn’t care. Deck's insults had indeed hit a nerve, a deep one, and his anger was growing by the second.
! ‘’Keep talking, asshole.’’ he warned, his eyes narrowed dangerously and his body tensed, ready to explode into action at a second’s notice. ‘’If you want me to kick your ass, I will.’’
! ‘’Are you serious?!’’ Deck asked, getting off of the duct and standing up straight. ‘’Man, right now, you are acting just like some arrogant little punk who thinks he’s all that. Let me tell you that in my world, people who think they’re hot shit without anything to back it up are the first ones to get rubbed out. You know what happened to the last guy I knew who was like that? He got the ever-living shit beat out of him to the point where he fell into a coma! Are you trying for a repeat performance or something, Sparky?!’’
! Nova’s words of caution from before were the furthest things from Terry’s mind right now. To say that this guy was pissing him off was an understatement. A small part of him knew that he was making a huge mistake right now, that he was ignoring the principals that he lived by, but he didn’t care right now, not one bit. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingle, whether it was from his anger or his powers he didn’t know. What he did know, however, was that right now he wanted more than anything else to wipe that stupid smug grin right off of Deck’s face and shut him up.
! ‘’Well, I can’t hang around here all night long.’’ Deck said casually, slipping on a pair of fingerless gloves. ‘’I’ve got places to be, and people to silence.’’ He flashed Terry a very unpleasant grin, the vicious grin of an animal surveying its prey. ‘’I really hope you don’t disappoint me, Sparky.’’

Hm, I don't really think the writing or story has hit a stride yet. I guess I'm a bit out of practice since I haven't had much time or energy to write since I started working full-time. This was originally intended to be only one chapter, but given how long I realised it was going to be, I decided to split it up into two.

Oh, and the end of chapter six has been revised a bit too.

[ChesCa]

Sorry to take so long.
The ending to the last chapter felt a lot better, and for a story that hadn't 'hit its stride' yet, you did a really good job of keeping the voice consistent and an even pace. I' looking forward to the aftermath of this botched(?) mission.
…..Nova's going to snap and become evil isn't he? :ninja:

[Crossword]

I guess I feel that way because there's so much more that I'm looking forward to getting to. The real meat of this arc is yet to come, and afterwards there's a whole 'nother one I want to get to.

Nova evil… heh, that's an amusing thought. Out of all the good guys, he's probably the least likely to go evil.

[ChesCa]

I'm guess it's because I'm still on my Twin Peaks high. One of the main villains always played 'by the rules', before and after he snapped and became homicidal.

[Crossword]

Chapter 9: Amateur

! As it turned out, Akira ended up having better luck in his search of the building than Terry had.
! Like his friend, he had managed to find the apartment building without much trouble and had snuck inside. As he was cautiously searching the floors that he had been assigned to, keeping an ear out for even the most minute of noises, waves of apprehension were beginning to flood through his body.
! ‘’I’m full of it, huh?’’ he eventually commented to himself in a quiet voice as he leaned against a dark wall. It was true that he had originally been looking forward to the operation and had told Terry as such, but now that he was all alone in the building he realized just how ill-suited he was for this, both in temperament and as a person. He wasn’t like Nova, who was clearly quite comfortable with the darker side of the city, nor was he like Terry with his fighting skills and the apparent ability to hide whatever he was truly thinking. He was just a skinny teen with very little in the way of combat ability or experience with the underworld.
! But still, he had already gone on about how he had been looking forward to this mission to the others; he had no choice but to try his best to live up to those words now.
! He crept down the hallway he had stepped into but came to a halt when he heard the unmistakable sounds of movement from nearby. Emulating what he had seen his countless movies and video games, he crouched down low to the ground by a corner as he heard the sound of a door opening up ahead followed by two sets of footsteps emerging from it, and a third set coming up to meet them.
! ‘’Are you sure they’re here?’’ one of the voices said, sounding rather annoyed.
! ‘’They’ve gotta be.’’ a second voice said. ‘’Tack and Marsh told me that they were gonna take a quick look outside earlier, but they haven’t come back yet. They probably ran into those bastards…and keep your voices down!’’ he added angrily.
! ‘’Dammit, why’s Deck making us do this?’’ the third person muttered mutinously. ‘’I don’t want to fight no Stargazer! This whole thing is pointless!’’
! ‘’Heh, better not let Deck hear you saying that.’’ the first voice said. ‘’Let’s get outta here if you’re pissing your pants so much. I think it’s been long enough anyway…’’
! The footsteps started up again, and Akira realized that they were heading right in his direction. Of course they were, this was the second floor and he had come up the only staircase, if the blueprints to the building had been right. Gripping the handle of the dagger resting in his pocket, Akira held a quick mental debate in his head over whether he should simply let the approaching gang members run into him, or if he should step forth himself. He ultimately settled on the latter.
! It was worth it if only for the three different flavors of dumbfoundedness that graced their faces. It was just for a second though, for they quickly regained their composures. Two of the thugs, both somewhat short and stocky, raised their fists threateningly, while the third, who was a little taller and thinner, had pulled out what was unmistakably a switchblade.
! ‘’Out of our way Stargazer!’’ the one in front snarled, seemingly emboldened by the fact that they outnumbered this skinny-looking kid.
! ‘’You know I can’t do that, right?’’ Akira said, the words coming out as he brandished his own weapon. He had tried to sound somewhat cool and smooth, like how the heroes in fiction usually sounded, but he realized that that was only going to make him look a fool.
! The three thugs, meanwhile, were looking rather warily at his blade, clearly seeing that it was much larger and more dangerous-looking than their one knife. ‘’Ah come on!’’ one of them finally said. ‘’Even if he’s a Stargazer, he’s just one kid! There are three of us, we can take ‘im!’’
! They started forward, and as they did so, Akira closed his eyes and let loose a huge blast of wind, buffeting his adversaries and sending the collected dust and plaster into the air. As the gang members staggered, trying to get the dust out of their eyes and clear their visions, Akira opened his and lashed out with his blade. He wasn’t trying to inflict any grievous harm, but it was his only means of defending himself. He heard a grunt of pain and then someone winged him in the cheek. Staggering, Akira sheathed his weapon and clubbed his assailant in the side of the head as hard as he could, knocking the guy right into the peeling wallpaper. There was the sound of thudding footsteps, and then silence.
! Breathing a little heavily, Akira got to his feet, jaw bruised, and surveyed the damage as the disturbed dust settled around him. Much to his amazement, the thug that he had clubbed appeared to be out cold. He supposed that what was said about there being certain spots on the human body that one could strike to render a person unconscious. The other two thugs had fled, and judging from the drips of blood on the dusty floor he had managed to at least nick one of the other ones with his knife.
! He still felt pretty dazed, but his head was beginning to clear a bit. He had actually managed to down one of the thugs. It had been a lucky shot, sure, but it still counted. That thought made him feel a lot better. He was starting to feel more like his old self again.
! But now a new thought struck him; what had happened to everyone else who was supposed to be in the building? He had already thought that this place was pretty deserted for a gang’s HQ, not that he had a frame of reference, and since no one was coming to see what the commotion he had gotten into was all about, he was sure that there was no one else around.
! He decided that the best course of action was to consult with one of his other companions on what to do next. He brought up Terry’s frequency, but all he got was a burst of static, painfully loud in his ear.
! ‘’Ow!’’ he grunted involuntarily before quickly switching his earpiece off. The communicators had never done anything like that when they were testing them in the van; perhaps it was broken somehow? He tried switching the frequency to that of Nova’s, and got a light background buzz, which was what they had heard in the van. He switched back to Terry’s, winced at the burst of static again, and quickly switched it off.
! There was only one conclusion that he could draw from this: his friend must be in some sort of trouble. But what could he do? There could still be a small chance that there were more Beings members entrenched elsewhere, out of sight, and he didn’t know precisely where Terry was. He hated to do it, but he was going to have to contact Nova.
! For his part, Nova knew that something was off as soon as he had entered the building. The air didn’t feel right. When he had reached the lobby on the ground floor, he knew right away that they had been set up, for the customary guard, usually Plug or his friend Crane, were absent, which was something that Deck would never have allowed. From there, he made directly for the lower of the two ground floors. He knew exactly where he was going, he’d trodden down this path plenty of times before in the past, during the old days. He found the slightly ajar door that he was looking for and kicked it fully open. The sight within the room beyond confirmed his fears.
! It was completely empty and barren. No people relaxing on worn furniture, no pool table missing half of its balls, no jokes being told, no empty soda and beer bottles stacked in the corners or rolling around underfoot, no one there to greet his entrance. Nothing at all.
! How long had this place been abandoned? It couldn’t have been that long, Nova reasoned, for he could still see light patches amongst the dust where the old furniture had been. How had they managed to get all of that out without being spotted by the people who were supposed to be monitoring the building? Surely they weren’t that incompetent? Or did Deck just have some knowledge that he had simply kept to himself?
! His earpiece communicator suddenly activated and Akira’s somewhat high voice rang out in his ear.
! ‘’Hey, I think Terry’s in trouble.’’
! ‘’The new kid? What makes you say that?’’
! ‘’I tried contacting him just now, but all I get is static.’’
! Nova experimentally switched to Terry’s frequency and immediately winced as he got hit with a burst of static just as Akira had described. ‘’Okay, where are you?’’ he asked, switching back to Akira.
! ‘’I’m on the second floor.’’ Akira replied. ‘’You haven’t encountered any guys, have you?’’
! ‘’No, this place has been abandoned.’’ Nova said, voice low. ‘’We’ve been had.’’
! ‘’Huh, I’ve actually run into a few, even knocked one out.’’ Akira replied, an annoying undertone of smugness creeping into his voice.
! ‘’They wouldn’t make it that obvious, I suppose.’’ Nova said. ‘’Okay, fine. I’ll go look for the new kid. You just sit tight right where you are.’’
! He signed off and headed back the way he had come, up towards the upper floors. It looked like neither The Beings nor his teammates were going to make this easy for him.

---

! ‘’I really hope you don’t disappoint me, Sparky.’’
! As soon as he said these words, Deck made a simple gesture with his hand, and Terry caught the sound of metal clanking slightly. He quickly risked a glance over his shoulder to see that two thick, heavy-looking wooden bars had appeared out of nowhere and had slipped through the handles of the double doors that opened out to the roof, effectively locking them from the outside. That was fine with him, he didn’t plan on running.
! Deck’s hand again twitched a little, and, again from out of nowhere, a spear appeared in it, just as Nova had described. Surprisingly enough, it was a very well-crafted spear. There was a flowing pattern of gold trim wrapping itself around the finely-hewn shaft, and there was some sort of ornate floral design carved into the blade. It contrasted rather strongly with Deck’s gritty, gangster appearance.
! But Terry couldn’t afford to be distracted by the craftsmanship. He knew how to deal with an opponent who was wielding a knife, but a spear was a different matter entirely. With his weapon, Deck had a much longer reach than Terry did, and the blade at the end, designed in such a way so that it could be used for both slashing and stabbing, was much larger than a pocket knife. Instead of lacerations, a direct hit from that would probably result in missing fingers or a deep stab wound, even with his safety vest on. While he couldn’t afford to get hit by it, he also couldn’t afford to show Deck any hesitation, and with his anger still in the back of his mind, he didn’t plan on giving any quarter.
! Deck was still wearing that unpleasant leer of his even as he burst into action and quickly closed the gap between himself and Terry. Terry quickly backpedalled, as he was forced to twist his body away from the series of two-handed spear thrusts that Deck was throwing at him. The gang leader was no amateur, he knew exactly how to handle his weapon. His handwork and stance were very light and fluid for a man of his size. However, his movements were far from unreadable, as from just his brief assault, Terry was able to identify several patterns and openings in his attacks, which he demonstrated by ducking under a high thrust, moved to his left to avoid the slash that Deck was going to transition to, and with a pivot of his feet he was well-past the range of the spear blade and he managed to halt his next swing by catching the shaft on his arm.
! That probably hadn’t been the best idea, Terry realized as soon as he brought up his blocking arm. The shaft was rather thick, the shock of the impact almost numbed his whole arm, the blade was poised almost right behind his ear, and to top it all off, Deck was taller and more massive than he, meaning that he could bring more force down on Terry from this position than Terry himself could. But while he wasn’t as large or muscular as Deck, Terry was still physically strong himself, and he could definitely hold on for a few more moments. He tried to send an electrical current up the spear to his opponent, but nothing happened. Of course, Terry realized, feeling incredibly stupid. A current couldn’t pass through wood.
! ‘’Heh, what was that, Sparky?’’ Deck said mockingly, for he could see Terry’s eyes turn Stargazer blue, even if nothing had come of it. He pulled his spear away and took another hack at Terry, who ducked down to the ground and scooted away. Once he had put some distance between himself and Deck he got back upright, electrified his fist, and leapt back at his enemy. Deck took up a defensive stance, dodging or blocking with his spear the short volley of punches that Terry threw at him, before backing away to a safer distance.
! ‘’So that’s your power, huh?’’ Deck commented. ‘’Producing and manipulating electricity… Pretty basic, but effective. I wonder what else you can do with it?’’ he wondered as he started to advance on Terry again. ‘’Magnetize objects? Cling to metal? Defibrillate yourself? Maybe even read my mind?’’ He caught Terry off guard by lashing out with a kick instead of his spear, nailing him in the torso, which winded him despite his safety vest.
! ‘’In the old days people went as far as to say that lightning was God’s own personal weapon.’’ Deck went on as he watched Terry try to regain his composure. ‘’It’s such a shame. You’ve got all of that power at your fingertips, no strings attached, yet you simply squander your potential by throwing your lot in with Trident.’’
! ‘’So what?!’’ Terry retorted. ‘’It’s not like I asked for power or anything!’’
! Deck cast his spear away and this time threw a punch at Terry’s head; he was barely able to get his guard up in time. ‘’I’m better than that.’’ Deck sneered as he threw a second punch, which missed. ‘’Stargazers like you are, who let themselves and this awesome power go to waste under the thumbs of those weaker than themselves are pathetic!’’
! Terry didn’t care what Deck thought of him, but he was wrong; right now Terry was fighting and using his powers purely for his own self. He wanted to bring Deck down and prove himself to Nova and the others, he wanted to find out how Deck had known about his personal feelings, he wanted…
! He threw a punch of his own. Deck managed to block it, though he had clearly underestimated Terry’s physical strength, for his mouth cracked into a grimace as he tried to hold his ground. Terry quickly ducked down low to the ground and swung his leg up in an electrified arc, catching his opponent in the right shoulder, transferring both the kinetic force of the impact as well as the electric current that was coursing within. Deck didn’t cry out, but he did let out a grunt of pain and stumbled backward a few paces before his footing slipped and he fell unceremoniously onto his backside.
! ‘’That…really hurt…’’ he grunted as he tried to pull himself up. ‘’But it’s good to see that you have some bite, Sparky…’’ He made the mistake of trying to steady himself by gripping onto one of the metal ducts that was running adjacent . Terry simply had to touch it himself to knock Deck back down on the ground.
! ‘’Now tell me.’’ Terry growled, feeling that he was now in control of the situation. ‘’Tell me how you know about my family!’’
! ‘’You aren’t in any position to threaten me, Sparky.’’ Deck grunted, this time taking care not to touch anything metal as he staggered to his feet. ‘’And again, like hell I’m gonna tell you.’’ Despite panting heavily, he managed a sneer. ‘’I can read you like a book right now, and I’ve seen your type before plenty of times. You try to look big, but down inside you’re just an angry little brat who feels like you’re the only one in the whole goddamn world that’s had it bad, right? No one else understands, right? You just wallow in self-pity and cowardly hide your true nature from yourself, am I right?!’’
! Deck’s words cut through Terry like a blade, and his anger was once again stoked. Not because a complete stranger was insulting him like this, but because, once again, he was right…
! Suddenly he had a feeling of danger and leapt backward just as a spear came crashing down with enough force to get stuck in the concrete on the spot where he had just been standing. Looking up, he saw at least a dozen or more other weapons floating in midair. In addition to spears, he could also see other weapons such as axes, halberds, staves, and maces. One by one, they began to shoot to the ground like small missiles. Terry was forced on the evasive, constantly hopping from side to side, back and forth, to avoid the improvised missiles in a stupid kind of dance, and their numbers did not seem to be decreasing at all.
! Deck was clearly finding his performance a riot. ‘’Ha ha ha ha!’’ he laughed, having largely regained his swagger. ‘’If this is the level you’re at, I don’t know why I’m even bothering with that funny lady!’’
! Terry didn’t have time to ponder who this ‘’funny lady’’ was, as he had to quickly duck so that his head wasn’t pulverized by a particularly heavy-looking mace. He needed to do something about these weapons, and as he looked up, he was struck with an idea. Electrifying his hands, he shot a large burst of electricity into the air at the assembled weapons. Judging from Deck’s grunt of annoyance, he had succeeded in keeping the weapons held in place with his electricity by their metal parts. Terry made a sweeping motion, moving the electrified weapons away from himself before releasing the electricity. The weapons came crashing down around Deck, but with a wave of his hand he vanished them before they could do any harm.
! The distraction was enough. Terry took advantage of it to shoot a bolt of lightning straight at Deck. Unlike his electrified punches, Deck couldn’t block or dodge this attack, which hit him head on. This time he let out a howl of pain and dropped heavily to the ground, facedown.
! Terry exhaled and brushed his sweaty bangs out of his eyes. He’d done it. He’d managed to defeat the leader of The Beings all on his own. He felt…elated. That would be good enough for Nova, and for Trident.
! But he had committed one of the biggest mistakes a fighter, or any person, could make: overestimating his own abilities. Slowly, painfully, heavily, Deck heaved himself up on his elbows, and then rose to his feet and swayed a bit. ‘’Well, Sparky…’’ He was no longer smiling. ‘’I guess I have to complement you. No one’s made me feel this much pain in years…’’
! He adjusted his sunglasses, which were beginning to slip. ‘’Now…I’m gonna beat the ever-living shit outta you!’’ he snarled.
! For someone who had just been shocked by a powerful electric current, Deck was quick on his feet. He dashed forth, much faster than Terry had anticipated, and threw a punch with his left fist. Terry blocked it, but realized too late that Deck was pulling the same trick that he himself had used to strike Captain Ganut. Deck’s right fist collided a micro-second later with the side of Terry’s face, painfully throwing him off balance, and leaving him wide open to a second volley of blows which sent him reeling. Deck finished his assault by painfully cracking him underneath the chin with a vicious uppercut, knocking him to the ground.
! Terry reflexively rolled away and sprang to his feet before Deck could try kicking or stomping on him. His entire face was aching and he thought that he could feel a small trickle of blood starting to drip from his nose. He threw out a small lightning bolt, but Deck had already moved in closer. He was now holding a new spear, one that was longer and thinner than the one he had wielded earlier. He made a short stab at Terry followed by a longer-ranged thrust. Terry dodged both strikes and once again put some distance between Deck and himself.
! Deck didn’t try to get closer this time. He swung the spear from where he was, and as he did so the tip suddenly extended, revealing that this particular spear was actually segmented and extendible, each segment attached to the next by a thin silver cord.
! Deck grabbed part of the cord and tugged it. The resulting whip-like motion of the spear tip caught Terry off guard and he came close to losing some of his fingers as the tip lashed by. It was much more difficult to judge the range of the weapon like this, but despite this handicap and a few close calls, Terry managed to just barely dodge the weapon’s strikes, though once it cut across his chest, the safety vest thankfully protecting him.
! But his tired body could not keep this dodging game up for very long. His tired legs began to move and react more and more slowly as his stamina wore down, until finally he couldn’t get away cleanly and the blade cut across the back of his left hand. He grimaced as the sensation of pain began radiating from his hand, and with his free hand he tugged the sleeve of his prized jacket up so that he wouldn’t get blood on it.
! Deck retracted the extendible segments of his spear and moved to perform another attack, but he instead froze in mid-stance as a loud crash reverberated across the roof. Both Terry and Deck turned their heads towards the sealed rooftop entrance which was rattling on its hinges, straining against the bars. Someone was apparently trying to ram or kick it open from within.
! ‘’Shit.’’ Deck muttered. Before Terry could react, he suddenly found himself trapped; at least a dozen or so spears had appeared in midair all around him, blades angled in such a way that he wouldn’t be able to move without inflicting injury upon himself.
! ‘’What the hell?!’’ he cried.
! Deck smirked a bit, breathing heavily. ‘’Sorry, Sparky.’’ Some of his old swagger was returning. ‘’Looks like I can’t play with you any more tonight. But we’ll definitely be meeting again one day, so take care of yourself until then, yeah? Later!’’
! ‘’Hey, wait!’’ Terry called uselessly as Deck took off. There was the sound of metal creaking as Deck jumped on to what was presumably a fire escape, and then things went silent…
! …until another crash, more violent than before, rang out. Terry would’ve jumped in surprise, but refrained as that would have turned him into a human pincushion. The crashes continued to sound out, rattling the entire set of doors. Since Deck had fled as soon as he had heard it, the person on the other end couldn’t possibly be one of his gang members, so it had to be either Akira or Nova.
! A feeling of dread slowly grew in Terry’s stomach. He had let Deck play him like a fiddle, had tried to take him on alone, against the mission’s protocols, and had been overconfident enough to believe that he could succeed. Instead, Deck had left him humiliated and got clean away, leaving him with a bloody hand wound, a tired and battered body, and, worst of all, a heavy feeling of shame. He wasn’t looking forward to facing his teammates.
! The banging grew yet louder, and Terry was rather astonished to see that now there were visible dents in the metal doors, as if someone had taken a steel-tipped battering ram to them. The two poles slipped between the handles began to splinter, and with an almighty crunch, the poles finally snapped and the doors were kicked open.
! It was Nova who emerged from the doors, warily glancing around before making a beeline for Terry. His eyes had the distinct color and line patterns of an activated Stargazer, and, most telling of all, his right arm had changed. It was covered in silver, segmented plates of armor, going all the way up to his shoulder. It was machine-like, similar to what one would expect to find in the possession of a robot or cyborg.
! ‘’So this is where you were.’’ he muttered as he went to plucking Deck’s weapons out of the air and casting them away. His expression wasn’t very different from the stony expression he usually wore, but there were a noticeable few extra furrows at his brow.
! ‘’What happened?’’ he said tersely as he cast away the last spear. He had deactivated his powers. ‘’What are you doing up here, and not on your assigned floors?’’
! ‘’I…fought Deck.’’ Terry admitted, his body feeling stiff from his temporary prison. He was having a hard time meeting Nova’s icy gaze. ‘’And he got away.’’
! ‘’Why the hell did you do that?’’ Nova demanded. He wasn’t shouting, but it probably would have been better if he had. ‘’Didn’t I tell you not to cock things up and do something stupid like that? What do you think this mission is, a goddamn children’s game?!’’ He had put his hand on Terry’s shoulder, as if to either steady himself or punch him.
! ‘’I…I know.’’ Terry said, quietly. Admitting his own faults was one of the most difficult things to do. ‘’He…said some things to me, things that made me really angry.’’ He took a deep breath. ‘’They made me angry because I knew that they were true. I just wanted…to shut him up.’’ With some effort, he raised his eyes to fully meet Nova’s. ‘’I’m sorry.’’
! Nova withdrew his hand. ‘’Forget it.’’ he said finally. ‘’It’s done. There’s no point in getting angry over it now.’’
! Terry was a little surprised, but thankful. He had expected Nova to yell at, or even hit him.
! ‘’Don’t misunderstand.’’ Nova said suddenly, as if reading Terry’s mind. ‘’I’m still not happy with what you did.’’
! ‘’I understand.’’ Terry said. Then he blurted out, ‘’Deck knew that we were coming! Somehow, he knew! That’s why there was almost no one in the building!’’
! ‘’That I already figured.’’ Nova said. ‘’I’m going to have to have a long, serious discussion with Mr. Centone about this later.’’
! ‘’And those things he knew about me…’’ Terry continued, swallowing. ‘’They were personal things. Things that I’ve never told anyone else about before.’’
! ‘’Really now…?’’ Nova went silent, closed his eyes, and apparently pondered something for a bit. ‘’Well, I won’t pry right at the moment.’’ he said at last. ‘’For now, give me your earpiece.’’
! Puzzled at this sudden request, Terry used his good hand to remove the communicator that was still fit snug inside his ear and handed it over. Nova held it up to examine it and then tried activating it experimentally. Nothing happened. ‘’I thought so.’’ he muttered.
! ‘’What’s the matter?’’
! ‘’It’s broken.’’ Nova said, handing it back to Terry. ‘’Akira told me that he couldn’t contact you, and had assumed that something had happened to you.’’
! ‘’But it worked fine earlier…’’ Terry wondered. ‘’I haven’t done anything that would –‘’ Realization hit. ‘’Oh, it must’ve been when I shocked two guys I ran into right after speaking with you. I didn’t focus the current, so I guess the transmitter’s insides got fried too in the process.’’
! ‘’That’s going to be troublesome.’’ Nova commented. ‘’Be more careful in the future.’’
! Nova’s gaze travelled downward towards Terry’s injured hand. Blood had dripped down his hand, and there was a small dark puddle on the ground beneath it, slowly expanding with each drop. ‘’You better get that looked at.’’ he said. ‘’Come on.’’
! Gratefully, Terry began to follow Nova towards the exit. As they passed the door, Terry got another good look at the large dents that had been pounded into the doors by the locks. ‘’Did you do that with your powers?’’ he asked.
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Nova said. ‘’That’s what my ability does, gives me an arm that amplifies my strength, and that’s about it.’’ He looked down at his arm in a semi-contemplative manner. ‘’It’s not like controlling electricity or wind; it’s much more limited, but it’s changed my life.’’
! There was one more thing Terry wanted to ask Nova, about his apparent connection with The Beings, but decided that that was enough for tonight. He had a lot of personal thinking and reflection in store for himself; he had no right to pry into someone else's affairs right now.

---

! There was hardly any light in the largely empty underground level of the parking garage that sat near The Beings’ former headquarters, save for one glowing cigarette tip. Auto exhaled a small cloud of smoke and pushed back the sleeve of his work uniform to check his watch. He had come here straight from his job as a mechanic and as he had been waiting down here for nearly three hours, he was getting tired of waiting for Deck.
! This whole plan of Deck’s, sticking around to test Trident’s mettle, wasn’t something he had agreed with. It was incredibly risky and egotistical. There was little point to it. Much of The Beings had thought that too, but they didn’t dare to speak up against their boss. Neither had Auto. In all his years as a member of this gang, he had rarely ever spoken aloud, and when he did, he was short and terse. Anything more simply didn’t suit his fancy.
! Just as he was thinking of going back inside his truck and lying down, he heard the distinct groan of rusty hinges swinging outward. Letting his cigarette fall to the ground and grinding it out with his heel, he strolled over to a section of the wall nearby, where a hidden door was slowly swinging open as someone pushed it from within. Out from the exposed passageway beyond came Deck.
! He didn’t look any different to Auto, but his movements were off. He moved slowly, almost daintily, and while he was trying to hide it, his breathing was slightly ragged.
! ‘’You all right Boss?’’ Auto asked. ‘’How did things go?’’
! ‘’I’m fine.’’ Deck grunted as he laboriously pushed the door closed. With it shut, not even the most astute, eagle-eyed person would be able to notice the secret door. The two got into Auto’s truck, so that they could speak in total privacy.
! ‘’Did you run into Nova?’’ Auto asked as he settled into the driver’s seat on the left.
! ‘’No.’’ Deck replied shortly. He wasn’t much in the mood for talk. ‘’I ran into that Eaves kid. You know, the Gemini Stargazer.’’
! ‘’Hm. How was he?’’
! ‘’Another hot-tempered punk.’’ Deck muttered. ‘’Didn’t take much to push his buttons. He at least has some fighting ability, I’ll give him that. I had hoped to at least give him a nice long stay in the hospital, but he weaseled out of it.’’ He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His entire body was starting to go numb, though he preferred that to the sensation of his entire body feeling like it was on fire, as it had after each time he had been hit by that kid’s electricity. Not that he would ever admit to feeling pain in front of his subordinates.
! Auto leaned on the steering wheel and thought. It was as clear as day to him that that kid had turned out to be a bigger handful than Deck had expected. Thanks to going relatively unchallenged for so long, Deck had begun to develop a tendency to lean towards recklessness, the same recklessness he often chided his enemies for. While he had yet to make any fatal underestimations, his lucky streak could not go on forever.
! ‘’So, what’s next then?’’ he asked. ‘’What does Trident mean for us?’’
! ‘’Psh, Trident means nothing.’’ Deck said dismissively. ‘’Even with Nova on their side, there’s not a damn thing they can do to us as long as we’ve got our little secret mission underway. And tomorrow, I’m going to try and meet with Sayren again. I’ll get her over to our side, you’ll see.’’
! Auto glanced at him out of the corners of his eyes. Deck could instantly tell what he was thinking. ‘’Christ, not you too!’’ he breathed. ‘’I’ve already explained it to everyone over and over and over again why we need her, and I’m getting friggin’ sick of it!’’
! ‘’Mm.’’ Auto grunted. Well, it wasn’t really his problem right now anyway. He’d figure out what to do when the time came.
! Deck meanwhile, rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses at Auto’s indifferent expression. ‘’Goddammit why do you ask this stuff if you don’t care?!’’ he said with exasperation. ‘’Come on, let’s just get outta here.’’
! * * *
! ‘’Wow man, I can’t believe your luck.’’ Akira was saying, quite amazed. ‘’Your first mission, and you encounter the big boss right off the bat. Lucky you.’’
! ‘’You wouldn’t be saying that if you were in my position right now.’’ Terry retorted, doing his best to look away from his left hand as the large gash was being sewn up.
! Following the rather undesirable conclusion to their first mission, the three Stargazers had been quickly debriefed by Officer Davidmen and an assistant before being brought back to the dorm so that Terry’s injuries could be tended to. Davidmen and Mr. Gerald had had a lengthy, no doubt serious conversation in private before the two left. Gerald, who had been in a hurry, had briefly spoken to the three of them, saying that he was glad that they had made it back relatively safe and sound. In the morning, he would no doubt have a lot of work ahead of him. Terry didn’t really want to talk about the mission right now, but seeing as how Akira, Daniel, and now Nova had all squeezed their way into the rather small medical office, he had no choice but to listen to them talk.
! ‘’What I don’t get is,’’ Daniel spoke up. ‘’Is how they managed to move everything out of the building without alerting the guys who were monitoring it. I looked through some of those reports myself, and there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary in there at all leading up to today.’’
! ‘’I actually just got finished talking to one of the investigators about that.’’ Nova said grimly. ‘’It turns out that large parts of this city have old passages that run just below street level. They used to be used for construction, laying foundations, power cables, gas and water mains, that kind of thing. The building that The Beings used as their headquarters was apparently build right on top of one such tunnel, which connects to that parking garage you guys saw on the map. They’re supposed to be sealed off, but I guess Deck managed to get that one open again and kept the knowledge to himself. Even I didn’t know of it.’’
! ‘’So they got away like rats, huh?’’ Akira commented. ‘’Well, what about those guys we brought in? Think they know anything?’’
! ‘’Nothing useful, I’d bet.’’ Nova said darkly. ‘’Deck certainly has backup hideouts, but he’d keep the information to himself until it needs to be used. He wouldn’t tell it to anyone that he plans on sacrificing.’’
! ‘’Ugh, and on top of our possible security breach, I heard that three more guys were attacked by that serial burner tonight…’’ Daniel sighed. ‘’Geez, what a night this has been.’’
! ‘’Hey.’’ Terry finally spoke up. ‘’Deck told me, well he didn’t say it directly, but he implied to me that he was trying to get some girl to help him. What if that person was the serial burner?’’
! ‘’If the person’s an unknown Stargazer like we think, I wouldn’t be surprised.’’ said Daniel. ‘’And that will be the last thing we need right now.’’
! ‘’Finished.’’ the doctor who was stitching up Terry’s hand said. He put his medical tools away and began to wrap a white bandage around Terry’s hand, covering up the ugly black stitching that ran the length of his hand. Once he was done, Terry flexed his fingers experimentally. His hand was still numb thanks to the anesthesia, but otherwise it appeared to be working just fine.
! ‘’Make sure to change the bandage at least once per day.’’ the doctor instructed as he scooted over to the sink to rinse off his tools. ‘’Wash the wound when you do so. It helps to prevent infection.’’
! ‘’Thank you.’’ Terry told him. ‘’And, sorry for this.’’
! ‘’Don’t worry. This is my job.’’ the doctor said with a wave of his hand.
! Seeing that the show seemed to be over, Akira let out a little yawn. ‘’Well, it’s late. I’m going to bed. I’ve had quite enough excitement for one night.’’
! Taking that as their cue, one by one the others wished the group good night and left for their individual rooms. Terry climbed the stairs slowly, one hand on the banister, the other holding a box of bandages. It would be quite a grievous understatement to say that his first mission had not played out in the way he had expected. It had highlighted a number of issues with the arrangement that had been set up with Trident, not to mention a number of his own personal flaws. Deck’s insults echoed through his mind once again. He had let them rattle him and rise to Deck's bait, and in so doing he had ignored the principles that he tried to live by. As far as Terry was concerned, he fully deserved to feel ashamed.
! But it was hard to ignore something that was true. He tried not to think about it most of the time, but deep down he really was just a teenager who let his feelings of bitterness fester dangerously inside to the point where something so small could set him off.
! ‘’No.’’ he finally said aloud to himself on the stairs. ‘’I’m not going to prove him right.’’
! But simply saying that was easy. Actually facing himself and changing was something that, he had learned, was much, much more difficult and painful.
! He got to his room, locked the door, tossed his jacket onto his desk chair and collapsed onto his bed, without even undressing. Despite everything that was occupying his mind, he fell right fast asleep.

Hm, this ended up being rather long.

Obviously, I'm not treating the effects of getting hit with electricity entirely realistically. In real life, getting shocked by electricity can result in heavy burning, scarring, neuropathy, muscle damage, and of course, death. (and I thought get zapped with static electricity was plenty painful enough!)

[Gerri]

Finally managed to read through all of the chapters.

[hide]First of all, compliments on putting so much work into it and making it this far. Even though it is still very much at the beginning, it has become a pretty long story already. I'm liking the general plot so far and how it develops and I think that you managed to create a fitting atmosphere for the respective situations. What I find strange is that despite all this I don't really feel in touch with the characters yet. Maybe it's because of the amount of reflection Terry does, but I can't grasp him yet, at times finding him contradictive. Also, the flow of the story, especially in regard to timing of revelations and descriptions, feels rather off at times. Was it really necessary to make a secret out of Nova's ability. They are supposed to be a team so shouldn't they now those things before heading out to missions? And why did the stargazers have to tackle this mission so seemingly unprepared. Sure they have powers and even more than that potential but it felt strange and careless to just throw them into it like this. The history part felt a bit detached, as well. Those are just some examples but it feels like you could work on the timing and the extent of exposures. It feels a bit unbalanced at times and I would sum it up with prepared unpreparedness. And, as others have mentioned, the dialogue occasionally seems a bit unnatural. Sorry if this is a bit unprecise for constructive criticism. Those are just some impressions that remained after a first read. Despite all this, it still remains an interesting read. One can tell that you put a lot of thought into the happenings and the descriptions and that there is still a lot more to come in this story. I'm going to keep following your story - and if you don't mind commenting on it. ^_^ [/hide]

[Crossword]

First of all, why would I mind commentary? I certainly can't improve without criticism, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm far from the most skilled of storytellers.

Regarding the flow of the story, I think the reason the story may feel unbalanced, or otherwise rough, is that when I first started writing it, I didn't have nearly as clear of an idea as to how I was going to progress with it. I knew the overall layout of the plot, but how I was going to precisely connect the dots, and where I wanted to go with the characters beyond their initial impressions, I didn't have quite as clear a vision of as I did now. I feel that, when looking back over the first few chapters, it's pretty obvious which concepts were more thought-out than others. I do plan on, once I have more free time at my disposal, going back and trying to revise some of the old material to try and bring it more in-line with my current vision. Especially with Terry, because as you said, he does feel a little more nebulous to me than I would like, and he's the main character, the one who's going to be doing most of the heavy lifting! If you can't get a bead on at least him, what can you do?

So yeah, every bit of criticism is appreciated, and for what it's worth I do feel like I'm getting more comfortable with writing this thing (or at least, the chapters keep getting longer) as I go on and on. Don't hold anything back.

[ChesCa]

Finally got around to this chapter.
Things that need work:
There are some sentences in the beginning that don't make sense grammatically, like you started writing one sentence but then ended up changing the tense and focus midway through.
When Terry is rescued by Nova, it switches to first person for one sentence.
Deck not wanting to kill Terry is a little cliche but acceptable, but when Terry has his weapons raining down on him this contradicts heavily about Deck wanting to just send him to the hospital. Even if Deck didn't care if it killed him, it still wouldn't make sense for him to let Terry live. I know it's supposed to be his pride but I'm not seeing that 100%.
In the end, where Terry is looking over his flaws, they're being told instead of shown. Even if you can't have body movements there should at least be more subtlety in how he thinks about them.
I agree with Gerri about being no need to keep Nova's power a secret….unless Nova himself has to keep it under wraps, in which case it's fine.
The Good:
The fight, the characters, I don't care what lightning will realistically do (I blame that on cartoons), I think I saw an Enel reference, and the attention to the earpiece was pretty cool.

[Crossword]

Chapter 10: Walls and a Tenuous Alliance

! When Terry awoke the next day, it was to a mild sense of discomfort and soreness. His body still hadn’t fully recovered from the strain it had been subjected to the night before, and there was a dull, throbbing sensation emanating from his injured hand. A few brown stains on the bandage told him that it had bled a little bit through the stitching. With a groan, he rolled off of his bed, shook off his clothes, and dragged himself into his bathroom to take a shower.
! Though he wished that there was a bathtub to soak in, the hot water pouring from the showerhead did him good, and he felt quite refreshed upon finishing. After re-bandaging his hand and getting dressed in a fresh pair of clothes, he picked up his phone up off of his desk and found, much to his surprise, that it was nearly two-thirty in the afternoon. That meant, as his stomach so conveniently reminded him at that moment, that he had missed both breakfast and lunch, and would have to go out if he wanted to get a decent meal. But before that, at least he could still get something to drink. Grabbing his jacket and wallet, Terry headed downstairs to the rec room, where the vending machines were.
! When he reached the downstairs and opened the rec room door, he found Nova sitting on one of the sofas, thumbing through something on his cell phone. ‘’Afternoon.’’ he commented briefly before looking up to briefly study Terry’s face. ‘’You look better than you did last night.’’
! ‘’I heal quickly.’’ Terry said simply as he went over to the drink machine and inserted a five yura bill. ‘’Do you know where everyone else is?’’
! ‘’I don’t know where Akira is.’’ Nova replied. ‘’Daniel I think went home for the weekend, and from what I understand, Mr. Centone is over raising hell at his office over last night.’’
! ‘’Mr. Gerald? Raising hell?’’ Terry stooped down to retrieve his dispensed drink. He was having a really hard time imagining that kindly man getting angry.
! ‘’Yeah, he’s not happy at all with how the mission was planned.’’ Nova said. ‘’We could’ve used a lot more support than we ended up getting. Maybe now the police will realize that we’re not superheroes or anything like that.’’
! ‘’Superheroes, huh?’’ Terry took a sip from his drink and thought about that. The very idea of being considered a superhero felt patently ridiculous to him. ‘’I think I prefer being treated just like a regular human.’’
! ‘’Yeah, I feel the same.’’ Nova said, putting his phone away before resting his chin on his hands.
! ‘’Look…’’ he began. ‘’I…I’d like to apologize for giving you a hard time over the last few days. I’ve just been on edge with what’s been going on: the mission and some other things. I had no right to come down on you like I did last night, because I probably would have done the exact same thing if I had been in your shoes.’’
! ‘’Well, it’s okay really.’’ Terry said. He was feeling a little awkward, even a little taken aback by Nova’s sudden apology. ‘’I mean, I let myself be provoked; it was my own fault really.’’ he insisted.
! ‘’We’re just going to be going around in circles like this, aren’t we?’’ Nova said, his normally serious face almost looking a little bemused. ‘’Let’s just forget it then and bury the hatchet.’’
! ‘’I agree.’’ Terry made his selection on the vending machine’s touch screen. ‘’You know, you kind of reminded me of my uncle.’’
! ‘’Pardon?’’ Nova was looking a little wary all of a sudden.
! ‘’Well, don’t take this the wrong way,’’ Terry began as he bent down to retrieve his dispensed drink. ‘’but at first you came off to me as a hardass workaholic. Perpetually cranky, but you still have some truths to say, like what you said at the meeting last night about responsibility.’’
! ‘’I…see.’’ Nova looked like he was busy processing that information and was at a loss as to how he should respond to it. Eventually though, he seemed to give up, for after a few moments of silence he stood up. ‘’I’m heading out.’’ he said. ‘’Have a nice day, Terrence.’’
! This was probably, no, certainly not the proper time for it, but Terry couldn’t help himself; there probably wouldn’t be any more chances in the near future to ask the question that was lurking in his mind. ‘’Hey,’’ he said, lowering his drink. ‘’did you used to be a member of The Beings?’’
! Nova, who was almost at the door, turned his head slightly to look at Terry from out of the corner of his eyes. His expression had reverted to its old stoniness, and from the angle his face was at his bangs appeared to cover his right eye, enhancing his intimidating look.
! ‘’What makes you say that?’’ His voice was calm, deathly calm.
! ‘’Uh well,’’ Terry tried hard not to lose his nerve as his gaze met that piercing blue eye. ‘’Well, you have a nickname just like all the other members apparently do, and you seem to know a lot more about the shiftier parts of the city than anyone else here, so I assumed-‘’
! ‘’Yeah, I used to be a member.’’ Terry was surprised to hear Nova come right out and say it, without a hint of hesitation or denial. ‘’But that’s not where my nickname came from, and that’s the only reason I still allow it to be used.’’
! ‘’Oh, I see.’’ Terry wasn’t sure how much further he should push this. It felt like he was intruding upon something very private. ‘’Um, then…why did you join Trident?’’
! Nova was silent for an agonizing minute. It looked as if he was mulling something very serious over.
! ‘’Do you really want to know?’’ he said finally, very quietly.
! ‘’Well, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, of course!’’ Terry said, hastily backpedalling.
! ‘’If you really want to know, then put on that jacket and follow me.’’ Nova said.
! Terry was very unsure at first, as he briefly wondered again if he should be poking his nose around in this matter. But as long as Nova was offering, he might as well take it. It might be his only chance to learn the story behind his older and mysterious companion, so he followed Nova outside and into the city.
! They took the monorail all the way to Axis Station, where Terry had first arrived in the city, and from there they took a bus line that he was unfamiliar with further out away from the city center. During their journey, Nova did not say one word, and Terry couldn’t bring himself to speak either, though he was wondering where Nova was taking him.
! The bus ride lasted nearly forty-five minutes. They had left behind the concrete and metal buildings of the downtown, and had now arrived at a more residential, green area of the city, where the busy streets gave way to quiet, tree-covered neighborhoods with the occasional small business district.
! They finally got off at a stop situated near a red brick school building. The traffic was pretty light here, though the buzzing from cars whizzing by on the main road several hundred meters away could be heard in the background. This neighborhood was on a gradually sloping hill, and in the distance Terry could see the skyscrapers of Marine Cove’s North Side poking above the trees.
! Nova gestured for Terry to follow. They ended up on a quiet side street, a canopy of trees overhead. They approached a white house a little ways down. It was two stories tall, somewhat old-looking, and had clearly seen better days. The small lawn was a little uneven and in need of a little trim, the wood of the porch creaked noticeably under their feet, and the whole thing could’ve used a new coat of paint to cover up the fading and the cracking. Terry felt a little bad for noticing these things, given that this was surely Nova’s home, but he had some experience with this kind of thing thanks to living with his uncle, and couldn’t help himself.
! At the door, Nova reached into his pocket as if to take out a key, but he stopped himself and instead rang the doorbell. After about a minute, there was the sound of movement on the other side, and it opened to reveal a short woman with gray hair that was styled short as many middle-aged women tended to have it.
! ‘’Oh, Theodore!’’ she said, sounding mildly surprised. ‘’I didn’t know that you were coming!’’ She peered around Nova’s body to spy Terry standing a little behind him. ‘’And who is this?’’ she asked.
! ‘’This is one of my dorm mates, mom.’’ Nova told her, stepping to the side so that he was no longer blocking Terry from his mother’s view.
! ‘’Hello, I’m Terry.’’ Terry said, trying not to sound a little sheepish as he raised a hand in greeting. ‘’It’s, uh, nice to meet you.’’
! ‘’It’s nice to meet you too dear.’’ Mrs. Bown said, holding out her own hand. Terry shook it, but as he did he noticed the woman’s eyes drifting down towards the conspicuous bandage on his injured left hand. He quietly moved it behind his back and out of sight.
! ‘’I’m surprised, though.’’ Mrs. Bown said after she was done with shaking Terry’s hand. ‘’Theodore’s never brought a friend home with him before. What happened to change your mind?’’
! ‘’Are you going to keep your guest standing out here on the porch, mom?’’ Nova spoke up.
! ‘’Oh yes, of course!’’ Mrs. Bown shifted to the side. ‘’Please come in.’’
! Terry and Nova stepped inside into the foyer, and Mrs. Bown closed the door behind them. ‘’Let’s see… You can leave your coat in Theodore’s room, dear.’’ she told Terry.
! ‘’Where’s Liren?’’ Nova asked as he took off his own coat and slung it over his shoulder.
! ‘’Oh, she’s in her room. I’ll let her know you’re here, and make sure you introduce your friend to her, okay?’’ his mother replied. ‘’I’ll go to the kitchen and start making something, and I’ll call you when I’m ready. You really should have let me know that you were coming…’’ She headed off down the hall. Terry could see that she had a rather noticeable limp.
! ‘’Come on.’’ Nova said. He led Terry up a flight of stairs to the second floor. It appeared to be much smaller than it had seemed from the outside. ‘’We got this house from our grandparents.’’ Nova explained.
! His own room was pretty small, definitely smaller than the rooms back at the dorm. From what he knew of Nova’s personality, Terry wasn’t surprised to see how neat and tidy it was. The bed was perfectly made, and the floor was spotless. Aside from the bed and a chest of drawers, most of the floor space was taken up by a writing desk, atop which sat a stereo system which was quite old, and a neat, organized stack of exam prep books. On the wall was a poster of a sports team, and, much to Terry’s bemusement, a pin-up of several bikini-clad women.
! ‘’Just put your jacket on my bed there.’’ Nova said offhandedly as tossed his onto the bedpost. Terry felt a little guilty for destroying the bed’s immaculate look, but complied.
! Back downstairs they went. Now, Nova led Terry down the short hallway that his mother had disappeared. Right before they reached a living room, Nova stopped before a side door that was slightly ajar and lightly knocked while Terry’s picked up the sounds of a TV show coming from within. Nova gently pushed the door open and they stepped into this new room.
! It was a bedroom, but it was much more spacious than Nova’s, which probably meant that it had been converted to one from something else. The entire floor was covered by a soft, heavy rug, which was the same off-white color as the room’s wallpaper and ceiling. There was a large bed in the corner, opposite a TV, and next to it a girl was sitting upright in a large chair, wrapped in a blanket as the room was rather cool compared to the rest of the house. Terry could tell that she was younger than he was, but by no more than a few years. He was amused to see that she had the exact same cherry-red hair as her brother, meaning that it was apparently natural after all.
! ‘’Hey, Liren.’’ Nova said as he stepped instead. His voice was a little softer than it usually was. ‘’How’re you doing?’’
! The girl looked up from the TV. ‘’Oh, hi Nova.’’ she said, not sounding nearly as surprised to see Nova as her mother had. ‘’I guess I’m going okay.’’
! She peered around Nova. ‘’Who’s that?’’ she asked, pointing at Terry.
! ‘’His name’s Terrence.’’ Nova replied. ‘’He’s another resident of my dorm.’’
! ‘’Hello.’’ Terry said, waving his hand a bit.
! ‘’This is my younger sister, Liren.’’ Nova said to Terry. ‘’She’s what…four years younger than me.’’
! ‘’Three!’’ Liren corrected his crossly. ‘’And don’t tell him that!’’
! ‘’My sister likes to think she’s bigger than she really is.’’ Nova remarked, a very faint undertone of teasing to his voice. ‘’So what have you been doing today?’’ he asked before his sister could launch a retort.
! ‘’Just watching TV.’’
! ‘’That’s no good.’’ Nova chided, going over to the window to see if it was open or not. ‘’Why don’t you read something instead?’’
! ‘’I have!’’ Liren declared. ‘’There isn’t much else to do around here; it’s boring! Why don’t you take me somewhere?’’
! ‘’Can’t.’’ Nova answered. ‘’School just started. We’re both busy. Maybe once things settle down, we’ll go somewhere, okay?’’
! ‘’All right…’’ Liren said in the drawn-out sort of way kids did when they weren’t fully satisfied with an answer as she pulled her blanket tighter around herself. ‘’Do you go to school with my brother?’’ she asked, now addressing Terry.
! ‘’I do.’’ Terry replied. ‘’But I’m not in the same grade; I’m a year younger than your brother.’’
! ‘’I can’t believe you had the window closed.’’ Nova said as he came back from the sill. ‘’You need fresh air, you know?’’
! ‘’I know, Nova, I know.’’ Liren sighed, tightening the blanket around her again. ‘’I’m not a little kid you know? You don’t need to baby me, mom does that enough already.’’
! ‘’It’s just that I know if I left you to your own devices, you’d just read and watch television in here until you turned into a plant.’’ Nova replied, a note of disapproval in his voice. ‘’So if I don’t make sure that you at least get some air, I’d be shirking my role as an older brother.’’
! ‘’He’s right, you know.’’ Terry decided to put in. ‘’It’s healthier, too.’’
! Liren looked at him, and then frowned at her brother. ‘’And now you’ve got your friend bugging me too.’’ she said, a little indignant at a stranger taking her brother’s side.
! Nova sighed. ‘’Fine, I’ll back off.’’ He glanced at Terry, a glance that told him to do the same. ‘’I’ll talk to mom and see if she can’t take you outside more often.’’
! At that moment, the distant voice of Nova’s mother echoed throughout the house, calling for her son. Nova turned his head towards the doorway and sighed. ‘’I’ll go see what she wants.’’ he said. ‘’Sorry to do this to you Terrence, but can you stay here with Liren until I get back?’’
! ‘’I guess I could, sure.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’
! So Terry was left alone in the room with Nova’s sister. It had been kind of fascinating to watch Nova and his sister go back and forth, but now he was expected to sustain conversation with a complete stranger without any support. He was wondering what he should say when Liren herself spoke up first: ‘’So what’s your power?’’
! That was not what Terry was expecting at all. ‘’I’m sorry.’’ he began, trying to sound politely puzzled at that question. ‘’What do you mean by that?’’
! ‘’I know you know what I mean!’’ Liren said, a kind of fire coming into her blue eyes. ‘’I know that my brother is a Stargazer, and about that group he’s a part of. If you’re living in the same building as him, then you have to be one too! Come on, show me please? I won’t tell anyone!’’
! Looking into this girl’s eyes, Terry saw plainly that he had no choice. ‘’All right, fine.’’ he said. ‘’But you probably shouldn’t tell your mom or your brother that I showed you this.’’ He held up his hands and let a tiny arc of electricity pass through the space in between his index fingers. Liren’s eyes widened in fascination as she watched the small blue-white arc flicker and undulate.
! ‘’Wow, that’s so cool… Your eyes even changed color…’’ the girl said, awestruck by that simple display. ‘’I heard that there are different types of Stargazers, which one are you?’’
! ‘’There are seven types, I’ve been told.’’ Terry decided to explain. ‘’I’ve been told that each type is tied to a specific element. I’m a Gemini, so my power is electricity-based, while your brother’s is Taurus so his is earth.’’
! ‘’Do you get to choose what kind of power you get?’’ Liren asked.
! ‘’Heh, I don’t think so.’’ Terry answered. He was feeling a lot more comfortable now in talking with this girl. ‘’I didn’t ask to become a Stargazer or anything; it just sort of happened out of the blue.’’
! He spent the next few minutes fielding Liren’s questions about being a Stargazer. It was mostly simple stuff, like explaining the seven different types as best he could, or what he could do with his own ability. Terry surprised himself a bit with how comfortable he had become about talking about his powers. He’d only been a Stargazer for about two weeks, yet already he had reached the point where he himself took them almost for granted, in a similar manner to the fighting skills that he had trained developed over the years.
! ‘’Hey, what do you think of your brother being a Stargazer?’’ he eventually asked Liren. He was curious as to what she thought about having a Stargazer as a family member. Eventually, he’d have to tell his own family that he was one, as he knew that this wasn’t a secret he’d be able to keep forever.
! ‘’I think it’s really cool.’’ Liren answered quickly, but then her tone became a bit more somber. ‘’But Nova doesn’t really talk much about it, or about the group he’s supposed to be a part of, and mom doesn’t like talking about it either.’’
! Terry sensed that he was approaching territory that he should definitely avoid intruding upon and decided that he should back off. Trying to shift the topic, he cast his eyes about the room for something to latch onto, and eventually settled on something that had been sitting right next to him. Resting on Liren’s bed was a small stack of DVD cases. Looking at their spines, they appeared to all be travel documentaries; presumably what she had been watching when he entered the room had also been one.
! ‘’You like these?’’ he asked, thinking that they should be safe to talk about.
! ‘’I love them!’’ Liren exclaimed, with just as much enthusiasm that she had had regarding Terry’s Stargazer powers. ‘’When I’m older, I want to travel all around the world and visit all of the big cities and sites out there, especially the city of Fium’stella with its marble aqueducts and gondolas, and one of the wonders of the world, the Statue of the Reconciling Kings off the coast, and…’’
! She went on like this for maybe ten or so minutes, listing off all of the many locations and monuments that she wished to see. Terry listened to every word she said, putting in his own thoughts when he could. He had thought that talking alone with her would be a difficult thing to do, but here they were, having a rather lively conversation. It was good that she had a dream that she was so passionate about. That was more than Terry could say about himself.
! ‘’But my mom and brother both tell me that I should be more concerned with looking after myself before I think of anything else.’’ Liren finished. ‘’But I hate it when they talk like that, especially Nova.’’
! ‘’Well, they are your family.’’ Terry ventured, trying to think of what was safe to say, for he felt that they were drifting toward personal territory again. ‘’They’re just looking out for your best interests, right?’’
! ‘’Mmm, I know.’’ Liren laid back in her chair. ‘’But I still don’t like it.’’
! A brief silence hung, and then Liren spoke up again. ‘’Well, I know that Nova has a lot to deal with, with that organization Trident and all…’’ Her eyes darted briefly at Terry.
! ‘’Ha, sorry, but I don’t think that I should be saying anything either.’’ he said, again moving his injured hand out of view.
! Liren was on the verge of saying something again when Nova returned. ‘’Oh, you two seem to have gotten on just fine.’’ he observed before turning to Terry. ‘’I know that this is kind of rude, since you’re our guest, but I’d like to speak with Liren in private for a bit.’’ he said. ‘’My mom said that she’d like to speak with you. She’s in the kitchen; it’s connected to the living room at the end of this hall.’’
! ‘’Sure, that’s fine.’’ Terry said, thinking that he should probably do what Nova told him to. ‘’Nice meeting you, Liren.’’
! ‘’Bye.’’ the girl said in farewell.
! Even without Nova’s instructions it wouldn’t have been difficult to find the kitchen, since as soon as he had stepped into the hallway he could smell the scent of food being prepared, and all he had to do was follow it. He reached a small, but packed kitchen, where Mrs. Bown had apparently started preparing something immediately after leaving him and her son in the hall. She was busy cutting greens on a cutting board while a pot of water and some kind of sauce were being heated over the oven range.
! ‘’Oh, hello.’’ Mrs. Bown said as Terry entered. ‘’Please sit down.’’ She gestured to a small table that was situated across from the refrigerator. A teapot began to whistle and she hurried over to the stove to remove it. ‘’I hope you like orange tea.’’
! ‘’Do you need any help?’’ Terry asked, eyeing the woman’s limp again.
! ‘’No no, I’m fine.’’ she insisted as she took the pot off and began to pour the tea within into a cup that she had set out.
! ‘’I just met your daughter.’’ Terry said as he was served his tea. He hadn’t drunk much tea in his life, let alone specially-flavored tea, so the taste as he carefully took a sip wasn’t something that he was very used to.
! ‘’Did you?’’ Mrs. Bown went back over to the oven range and back to preparing ingredients. ‘’How did she look to you?’’
! ‘’She was quite talkative, considering that I was a total stranger.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’She seems very interested in geography and visiting places.’’
! ‘’Yes, that girl does like to learn about all manner of things.’’ Mrs. Bown remarked. ‘’And I’m grateful for that.’’
! ‘’I was actually a little surprised that Nov – I’m sorry, Theodore,’’ Terry corrected himself. ‘’that he had a younger sister.’’ He took another sip of his drink. ‘’Their personalities are quite different.’’
! Mrs. Bown finished her work at the stove and went over to sit down at the table across from Terry and began to pour herself a cup of tea. Now that they were nearly eye-to-eye with one another, Terry couldn’t help but notice how worn her features were, making her seem a few years older than she probably was given the ages of her two children. Aside from her limp her actions didn’t outwardly show it, but looking at her eyes, Terry could tell that she had been through a lot.
! ‘’How is Theodore?’’ she asked. ‘’As a member of your group?’’
! Terry took another thoughtful sip, and then spoke. ‘’Well, I’ve only known your son for a few days, so maybe I’m not being the best judge, but he’s…’’ He thought some. ‘’To be honest, at first he kind of came off to me as a jerk. He takes what we’re doing very seriously, like he has more at stake in it than we do, but he keeps it to himself.’’
! ‘’Though I don’t suppose I can’t sympathize.’’ he added. ‘’There are things about myself that I’m not ready to tell others about yet.’’
! ‘’I see.’’ Mrs. Bown put her cup down on its saucer. ‘’That does sound like him. He’s always been rather introverted, more so in the past than he is now. He tends to put walls around himself when it comes to things that he doesn’t want to talk about or share. I’m very glad that he decided to invite you over today.’’ she said. ‘’It means that he’s finally bringing down some of those walls.’’
! ‘’So you live with your uncle? What does he do?’’ Mrs. Bown asked.
! The early dinner that she had prepared was laid out handsomely on the dining room table, and the four of them, Terry, Nova, his mother, and Liren, who had been carried into the room giggling by her brother, were just beginning to dig in. Both Liren and Mrs. Bown were beginning to ask Terry about himself.
! ‘’My uncle runs his own private contracting firm.’’ Terry began to explain. ‘’Home improvement and renovating, roofing, plumbing, electrical work, carpentry in his spare time… Basically if he can get the materials, he can he can do the job. He’s kind of a rough person, so the work suits him.’’
! ‘’So what’s Severstone like?’’ Liren asked as she loaded her plate up with pasta and greens. ‘’All the books and stuff I read only talk about the plains and farmland.’’
! Terry couldn’t help but sigh a bit as he heard that. How he hated that stereotype! ‘’The West is more than just its plains. There’s also Lake Crensty and the Aurelian Sea, you know?’’ he started to say. Liren was nodding a bit as he mentioned those places, obviously having read up on them. ‘’And the Drevak mountain range too. In fact, the part of Severstone where I live is near the tail end of the Drevaks, where the mountains are still green and below the clouds. I did a lot of hiking and exploring on my own when I was younger.’’
! ‘’Oh, then moving to the city must have been quite a large change for you.’’ Mrs. Bown commented.
! ‘’Yeah, I suppose it was a little overwhelming at first.’’ Terry admitted, thinking back to his first night in the city and those hours he had spent wandering Marine Cove’s streets before meeting Akira. What would he have thought back then if he had known how things would’ve turned out? ‘’But luckily for me I met people who were willing to show me around and help me learn some of the ropes of living in a city, so I feel a lot more confident now.’’
! ‘’What was it like hiking on your own?’’ Liren asked, apparently still wanting to talk about Severstone.
! Terry put his fork down on his plate and began to think back, to reminisce on those times. ‘’At first it was a little scary,’’ he began. ‘’I was a little kid, and all alone, too. But then I decided to view my hiking trips as little adventures, and as opportunities to toughen myself up, so even when I got lost or hurt, I didn’t mind. But it drove my uncle quite crazy, let me tell you.’’ He finished with a little chuckle, namely because he could sense Mrs. Bown’s disapproval at the idea of a child roaming the wilderness all on his own.
! ‘’That’s also how I got interesting in astronomy and stargazing.’’ Terry went on. ‘’Without city lights, you can see a lot more of the stars in the night sky in the country than you can here, and Heion’s much more brilliant too. It left quite an impression on me back then.’’
! ‘’Astronomy is how Theodore got that nickname of his.’’ Mrs. Bown put in.
! Obviously, Terry had figured that out already, but he wanted to hear the full story behind the name.
! Nova sighed a bit and set his utensils down, preparing to speak for the first time since they had sat down to eat. ‘’When Liren was four,’’ he began to explain. ‘’she was looking through a news magazine – this was before most of the mainstream ones went digital – and saw an article featuring color photographs sent from some new orbital telescope of SARA’s.
! ‘’Since she was a little kid, she was drawn to the pictures instead of the words, one of which happened to be of the remnants of a supernova.’’ he went on. ‘’After mom told her what it was of, she wouldn’t stop calling me ‘Nova’, since my hair was the same color as the picture. Of course, she didn’t realize that her own hair was the same color.’’
! ‘’But it’s a cool name, isn’t it?’’ Liren insisted.
! ‘’It’s good enough.’’ Nova replied, going back to his food.
! ‘’C’mon, Nova, can’t you ever say something positive?’’
! ‘’That was positive.’’
! ‘’No it wasn’t! Why are you always so terse about everything?’’
! ‘’None of your business, it’s just how I am.’’
! ‘’You two! We have a guest!’’
! ‘’Fine, mom.’’
! ‘’Uh huh.’’
! As Mrs. Bown spoke up again, Terry’s thoughts turned briefly inward. So this was what it was like, he thought as he watched the three Bowns talk, to sit down at a table and have a family meal. To simply relax, be together, talk in a casual familial setting, and leave behind the day’s stress. It was…a nice sensation.
! They continued to talk for a while, even after they had eaten dessert. Even though it was still relatively early in the evening, Liren was growing tired, so Nova carried her back to her bedroom while Terry helped Mrs. Bown clean up in the kitchen and wash the dishes. Afterwards she offered to brew him some more tea or coffee, but Nova insisted that they should be leaving, as it would take them a while to get back to the dorm.
! ‘’It was nice meeting you. Thanks for dinner and having me over on such short notice.’’ Terry said as he and Nova were, standing on the sidewalk outside, about to leave.
! ‘’Not at all.’’ said Mrs. Bown, smiling. ‘’You’re welcome back here any time, Terrence. And Theodore, dear?’’
! ‘’Yes?’’ Nova asked as he was buttoning up his jacket.
! ‘’You should bring some of your other friends over some time. I’d love to meet them, and I’m sure that Liren will too.’’
! ‘’I’ll consider it.’’
! Mrs. Bown let out a little huff of exasperation at the laconic nature of her son’s reply and held out her arms. Nova bent down a little to hug her, which was admittedly a little funny to watch, given how much taller he was. ‘’I love you, and be safe.’’ the woman said.
! ‘’Yeah, I love you too.’’ Nova replied. For the first time since they had met, Terry saw that Nova was genuinely smiling. It was a soft, almost sad smile, so unlike his usual stoic expression, and to Terry, wholly foreign. ‘’Say goodbye to Liren for me.’’
! ‘’And that goes for you too, Terrence.’’ Mrs. Bown said as she disengaged from her son. ‘’Be safe.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ Terry said, understanding what she was referring to. ‘’I’ll do my best.’’
! The three exchanged a last set of hand waves, and Nova’s mother went back inside, leaving Terry and Nova alone on the street.
! ‘’Are we taking the bus back home?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Nova said slowly, as if he had something on his mind all of a sudden. ‘’But first, I want to talk. Follow me.’’
! Just like earlier in the day, Terry followed Nova, neither of them saying a word. They were going in a wholly different direction from the bus stop that they had arrived at. They continued up the sloped street, until they reached the hill’s summit, where the trees thinned and a public park and playground sat, facing in the direction of the city, bathed in orange light from the setting sun.
! ‘’Wow, nice view.’’ Terry commented, putting a hand up to shield his eyes as he admired the sight of the sunset reflecting off of the shining skyscrapers. It was nothing compared to some of the vistas that he had seen back in Severstone, but it still wasn’t half bad.
! ‘’Yeah, it is, isn’t it?’’ Nova said absentmindedly as he watched a mother pushing her child on a swing set over in the playground while the father looked on. ‘’My mom often brought Liren and I here to play when we were younger.’’
! He took a few moments to collect himself, then spoke. ‘’So, what did you think of your visit?’’
! ‘’Well,’’ Terry thought some. ‘’Your mom was a nice person, and your sister was really energetic and eager to learn new things. It was fun talking to her.’’ He paused for a brief moment, wondering how he should phrase his next statement. ‘’But…I could tell that they were also worried about you. They told me that you tend to put up walls around yourself, and that you don’t like to talk about things that are bothering you with them.’’
! ‘’Yes, I suppose so.’’ Nova agreed. ‘’I suppose it’s good that we’re all worried about each other. It’s proof that we are close. But…we weren’t always like that.’’
! He paced a few steps, inhaled, then exhaled before his next words came out. ‘’Liren’s crippled.’’ he said in a quiet voice.
! Terry’s brow instantly furrowed in confusion. ‘’She’s what?’’
! ‘’Just what I said; she can’t walk.’’ Nova said curtly. ‘’You probably didn’t notice, because she was wearing a long nightdress, but the bones in her legs are just barely being held together by a network of screws, bolts, and rods. She can’t walk, she can’t even stand or support herself on her own.’’
! Terry slowly sat himself down on a bench and let that slowly sink in. He had simply assumed that the reason she had been confined to her room was because he had just happened to be sick, but this… Suddenly her dream to see places around the world and her hunger for knowledge seemed very sad and depressing to him.
! ‘’How…did that happen?’’ he asked hesitantly.
! ‘’You wanted to know my history with The Beings and Trident, didn’t you?’’ Nova replied, now staring out at the city. ‘’Well, it’s a long story. I might as well start at the beginning.’’
! ‘’I was always a bit of a rebellious kid when I was younger.’’ he began. ‘’I suppose becoming a Stargazer helped me think that way, since that made me different from most people. As I began to approach my teenage years I started falling into the company of delinquents and other shady people, and eventually I became one myself. That was how I met Deck.
! ‘’Deck’s a little older than me, and by the time that I first met him he had already built up a fair amount of notoriety of his own thanks to the fact that he made no attempt to hide his powers. He wanted to start a street gang, and was gathering members. He learned that I was a Stargazer and knew that I would be a valuable asset, so he recruited me.
! ‘’We formed The Beings, and began to expand throughout the South Side. At first it was a lot like a game; you know, gaining territory and new members. It was easy at first, even a little fun. Many of the small-time gangs we encountered surrendered without a fight once they saw that we had Stargazer powers. But then we started going after the larger and more violent gangs, as well as having run-ins with the police. Our confrontations got a lot more dangerous, and I was causing my family great worry, since I was rarely home during those days and when I was, it was obvious that I had been getting into fights.’’
! Nova paused here, and took a few more paces before resuming his story. ‘’Things were no longer fun for me. There were a few others who felt similarly to me, but Deck didn’t share our feelings. He relished the challenge, basked in the new-found attention – I’m sure you saw all of this the other night – and began to ratchet things up even more. In order to compete against these more violent groups and win, we had to get more violent and notorious ourselves. I grew tired of the dangerous lifestyle that I was leading.
! ‘’I eventually realized that The Beings that I had originally joined was no longer the group that I had known, and decided to quit that life. I even told this straight to Deck’s face, that I was through. I left The Beings and the underworld behind, returned to my family, and did my best to make amends with them and turn over a new leaf. I wanted to make up for the time that I had thrown away, so I helped my mom and Liren in whatever ways I could, and resolved to elevate myself to become a productive member of society. I felt like a great cloud had been dispersed. I felt free.
! ‘’But Deck wouldn’t just let me go. Over the months he sent people to stalk and harass me, hoping that I’d give in and rejoin The Beings. Finally, just over a year ago, I finally agreed to meet with Deck one last time, to declare to him in no uncertain terms that I was never coming back. If he was going to be so insistent, I was going to lay my foot down.’’
! ‘’And how did he take that?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’Well, we met.’’ Nova replied. ‘’We talked, and then departed on not-exactly amicable terms, to say the least. But at least he finally gave up on me. He said so himself. I thought that I was finally done with him for good, but as I was leaving our meeting, I received a phone call that changed everything.’’
! Terry was rapt with attention as Nova was reaching his tale’s climax.
! ‘’That day,’’ Nova began, his eyes looking distant, seeing things no one else could. ‘’Liren wanted to go into the city for something or another, I don’t remember exactly why. Normally, I would have gone with her, but as I wasn’t there at the time, my mom went with her instead. They were going to take the bus in to the city, but somewhere along the way they got involved in a really bad traffic accident involving the city’s buses. Thirty-four people were injured and six died.’’
! He sighed heavily, wearily. ‘’My mom broke one of her legs really badly – I’m sure you saw her limp – but Liren, well, she wasn’t so ‘lucky’. The bones in her legs were crushed. My mom, well, she told me that she would recover, and she did, but Liren? The only way she’d ever be able to walk again or live independently would be with very specialized care, and there was absolutely no way we could possibly have afforded something like that.’’
! ‘’I guess I don’t really need to tell you how shocked and horrible I felt.’’ Nova continued, ruefully. ‘’Even now I don’t want to dwell on it. Everything just came crashing down for me on that day, and I-‘’
! Terry was taken quite aback. Nova was keeping things together, but beneath his stoic and tough exterior, it was clear that he was being eaten up inside by all of this. ‘’But, it wasn’t your fault.’’ he said weakly. ‘’You can’t blame – ‘’
! ‘’I’m not!’’ Nova snapped, startling Terry. ‘’I know I had nothing to do with that accident, but the what-ifs are still going to haunt me! I wouldn’t have been able to stop it, but perhaps my powers could’ve made a difference? Maybe I would be the one grievously injured instead, or maybe nothing would have changed at all?’’ He shook his head, trying to stop himself. ‘’Enough of that. Anyway, there I was, with a crippled family who could take care of themselves. I had to do something.’’
! ‘’What did you do?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’Isn’t it obvious?’’ Nova seemed puzzled that his younger companion couldn’t figure it out on his own. ‘’The next day I marched myself right down to the branch office that Lifeline has in this city and declared that I was a Stargazer and that I wanted to speak with the person in charge.’’
! ‘’How did that go?’’
! ‘’No one believed me until I showed them my arm, right there in the reception area.’’ Nova snorted. ‘’Scared the shit out of the receptionist, let me tell you. And then when they learned that I had been a member of The Beings, there were more interested in throwing me in jail rather than talking!’’
! ‘’And how did that turn out?’’ Terry asked, incredulous.
! ‘’Fortunately for me, Mr. Centone eventually stepped in.’’ Nova replied, smirking a bit at the memory. ‘’He’s a good man, even if he needs some prodding sometimes. Anyway, he sat down with me in private and listened to my entire story. As it turned out, he was looking to organize a Stargazer cell to fight back against Deck and The Beings, and heavy crime in general. Obviously, that’s Trident.
! ‘’So, we eventually worked out a deal. I’d work for Trident and in exchange, Lifeline would provide for my family. Of course, Deck found out about this, and then rumors of a second Stargazer, the serial burner, eventually began to pop up. Mr. Centone was given a deadline for putting Trident into action, but with only one person, we couldn’t really do much. The deadline loomed, and Mr. Centone was going to look into transferring someone in from another branch, but then Akira came along, and then you, and here we are.’’
! The sun had almost completely set by now, and the family at the playground had left. Silence hung in the darkened air.
! ‘’Liren’s a strong kid.’’ Nova said at last. ‘’Her condition’s tough for her, and there are times when she gets angry and frustrated at it and can’t do anything but cry, but she tries to look past all of that. She throws herself into her studies to distract herself, and tries her best to not dwell on her disabilities. She’s had a couple of reconstructive surgeries already, with several more lined up in the future and lots of rehabilitation afterwards, and she already spends a loy of time at the hospital. It’s tough on her; it’s tough on all of us, my mom especially, since one of her kids is crippled, while the other is a Stargazer doing who-knows-what. The desire to see my family whole again, that’s what’s motivating me to fight.’’
! Terry, seated on his bench, said nothing at first, thinking deeply. Before, he had speculated to himself that Nova had to have reasons for his initially-abrasive personality, but to have such a storied and difficult history… He himself didn’t know exactly what he would do if faced with such a situation, but he did know that he probably wouldn’t be able to shoulder such a burden without complaint like Nova was.
! ‘’Well, I don’t really know what I should say to you.’’ he admitted. ‘’I mean…I guess, compared to what you’ve been through, what you’re still going through, I guess I realize that my own problems don’t seem to be as bad after all.’’
! ‘’That’s fine, you don’t have to say anything, I’m not looking for pity or anything like that.’’ Nova told him, now staring out at the abandoned playground. ‘’I’d actually like to say thanks to you for listening to all of that. It was very cathartic.’’
! ‘’You know, I find it impressive that you’re family has managed to remain as close as you have.’’ Terry decided to say. ‘’My family, well… My uncle and I, we don’t really get along all that well, and my parents…I don’t feel anything for them.’’ He sighed, and stood up. ‘’I guess what I’m trying to say is, tonight was really the first time I’ve sat down and experienced something that normal families, or at least my perception of them, do.’’
! He got up from the bench and stretched a bit. ‘’I never really had a proper family life compared to other kids my age growing up.’’ he said. ‘’I went to school and studied, worked for my uncle during some of his bigger projects, hiked in the mountains, and trained myself to fight. There was always tension between my uncle and me, so I never felt like I could simply hang around and relax.
! ‘’So what I think,’’ He looked right at Nova, into those stern, piercing eyes of his. ‘’is, to put it simply, it’s very impressive that you three are still close even after all that’s happened to you.’’
! Nova shrugged. ‘’Liren sets a good example for us, and well, my mom and I can’t fall apart after seeing how she handles herself, can we?’’ His tone had softened again, to one of mild amusement at his own words. ‘’Now come on, it’s going to be a long way back to the dorm.’’
! Terry let himself smile a bit and thought as he took one last look at the city skyscrapers when they turned to leave. When he had first met Nova during the week before, he would never have imagined that the older boy could possibly have had a side to him that wasn’t strict and harsh. But now he knew what had made Nova the way he was, and that he just preferred to keep his lighter side under wraps, but under those wraps, past those walls, he was still a good, reliable person.
! He wondered what Akira would have thought of that.

---

! The John Rendale Memorial Park, located near the center of Marine Cove’s downtown district, was not the largest public park in the city, but thanks to its location relative to several key monorail lines, it was always full of people going to and fro, especially now in the early evening with adults getting out of work and young adults heading out to have a good time. Watching the passerby from one of the park’s benches, the young woman Sayren couldn’t help but smirk inwardly to herself. She loved the anonymity that the large city could provide, she thought as she watched the crowd. All of them were preoccupied with their own trivial troubles or desires, all of them ignorant to the fact that the serial burner, who had brought panic to parts of the city, was sitting right there in their very midst!
! ‘’You know,’’ a voice from her left said. ‘’considering the amount of trouble you’ve caused, you sure are a difficult person to track down.’’
‘’Who the hell are you?’’ Sayren grunted in annoyance as a man sat down next to her on the bench.
! ‘’Oh, come on, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me?’’ the man said, grinning. He took the baseball cap that he was wearing and turned it back-to-front briefly.
! ‘’Oh, you.’’ Sayren muttered. Even if he wasn’t wearing his usual outfit, that aggravating, arrogant grin could only belong to one person. ‘’Piss off.’’
! Unsurprisingly, the woman’s coarse reply did nothing to dampen Deck’s spirits. ‘’Ha!’’ he chuckled. ‘’It’s always a pleasure meeting with you!’’ he said sarcastically.
! The two sitting side-by-side on the same bench provided a noticeable visual contrast. While Deck was a rather large person, helped by the heavy coat he usually worse, who had light hair, Sayren was anything but. While she was a little tallish for a young woman, she was also rather skinny, wore thin clothing, and had jet-black hair. Both of them were alike, though, in the fact that they were both Stargazers, and quite dangerous people.
! ‘’So,’’ Deck began after a moment’s silence. ‘’I heard that last night you sent two more people to the hospital. That’s what, the ninth, tenth victims in the last two months?’’
! ‘’Fourteenth.’’ Sayren corrected, her tone one that suggesting that she was thinking of making Deck her fifteenth.
! ‘’Fourteenth, then.’’ Deck amended. ‘’So then, why are you doing this? Attacking people like you are?’’
! ‘’You really want to know?’’ Sayren responded, her eyes closed and her tone unpleasant. ‘’Because I can. I don’t need a frikkin’ motivation or shit like that.’’ Indeed, why should she let something like ‘’reason’’ constrain herself? She had the power to do whatever she wanted, whatever amused her, and right now, what she enjoyed the most was the fact that people feared her.
! ‘’Okay, fine then.’’ Deck said, shrugging his shoulders as if completely unfazed by his benchmate’s declaration. ‘’I’ll just get to –‘’
! ‘’I know why you’re here, you think I’m retarded or something?!’’ Sayren snapped. ‘’It’s the same thing every goddamn time!’’
! ‘’That makes things quicker then.’’ Deck said, unfazed by the woman’s ugly language. ‘’So how about it?’’
! ‘’Goddammit…’’ Sayren rolled her eyes incredulously. Whenever Deck got like this, she wanted nothing more than to inflict great pain upon him. ‘’I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again, for the last time: I’m not joining your gang!’’
! ‘’Come on, don’t be like that.’’ Deck said, trying to sound smooth. ‘’We’re both Stargazers – we need to look after one another. And your name’s perfect too, we could call you Siren and –‘’
! ‘’Just shut the hell up.’’ Sayren muttered. ‘’I don’t even know why I’m bothering to put up with you…’’
! ‘’Well before you blow me off, at least let me say something.’’ Deck said, going with his new tactic. ‘’Some things have changed since the last time we met.’’
! ‘’What do you mean?’’ Sayren asked, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
! ‘’Well first,’’ Deck began, shifting in his seat a little. ‘’you might have heard already, since news travels fast in this city, but there’s a new Stargazer cell in this city called Trident.’’
! ‘’Really now?’’ Sayren didn’t look very enthused, but Deck felt like he had grabbed at least a small bit of her attention.
! ‘’Yeah.’’ he affirmed. ‘’I’ll even tell you what I know about its members, on the house, even.’’
! Sayren folded her arms. ‘’I’m listening.’’ she said tersely.
! ‘’The first guy’s actually a former member of my gang.’’ Deck started. ‘’His name’s Theodore Bown, but he’s known on the streets as Nova. He has a Taurus ability that lets him turn his arm to metal and boost his strength. Something of a one-trick pony, really.’’
! ‘’You’re selling out one of your own men?’’ Sayren questioned. ‘’And I’ve heard that the leader of The Beings would never do such a thing.’’
! ‘’As I said, he’s an ex-member.’’ Deck replied, adjusting the brim of his cap a bit. ‘’If someone wants to leave my gang, that makes them a coward. But not only did he leave, but he sold himself to the government and thus betrayed me. I don’t forgive traitors under any circumstances, and he needs to be made an example of for anyone else who may be havin’ bright ideas.
! ‘’The second guy is some Oriental kid. Akira Kami-something-or-other.’’ he continued. ‘’He’s Sagittarius and can control wind, but I’m not worried about him, his ability’s pretty harmless. I don’t even think he can even fight properly.
! ‘’The last guy is some kid from the boondocks named Terrence Eaves, I think it was. He’s a Gemini who can control electricity. I actually fought him last night. He can actually fight a little, but it’s so easy to mess with his head! I’d be worried if he weren’t such an amateur.’’
! ‘’Oh yes, I think I’ve heard of him.’’ Sayren muttered, absently. ‘’I’ve seen a couple guys worrying that the new Stargazer was going to electrocute them or some shit. Cowards.’’
! ‘’Heh, you’d love to meet him.’’ Deck said, smirking.
! ‘’And what is this other thing that’s changed?’’ Sayren asked.
! ‘’Ah that. Well,’’ Deck motioned out towards the seemingly endless stream of pedestrians before them, and then even further out to take in the skyline. ‘’how would you like to see all of these people panicked and trembling in fear?’’
! ‘’What do you mean?’’ Sayren asked, eyes narrowed still further. ‘’How could you possibly go about pulling something like that?’’
! ‘’It’s still in the works.’’ Deck admitted. ‘’But we’ve got tabs on the police. They’ve underestimated us, as have you, it seems. We’re much larger and more organized than they think, and we know –‘’
! ‘’Just get to the point!’’ Sayren snapped, her already-worn patience with Deck’s prattle at its end. ‘’What do you have planned?!’’
! ‘’Fine, fine.’’ Deck said, gesturing for her to settle down. ‘’In about a month, on Landing Day, we’re gonna riot.’’
! ‘’Riot?’’ Sayren repeated.
! ‘’Yep.’’ Deck said. ‘’This city and its people are too complacent, not to mention willfully blind. They need a good shock to their system, and be sent clear message. A message that we’re not intimidated by their pet Stargazers, and that we’re not gonna be ignored. My guys are raring to go.’’
! That wasn’t entirely true, though he certainly wasn’t going to tell that to Sayren. While it was true that many of his boys were chomping at the bit for the chance to finally cause some real damage, there were others who were more hesitant, fearful of the possible repercussions. Which was silly, for once he got Sayren on their side, and crushed Trident, The Beings would be unstoppable and have a free reign over the city streets.
! ‘’So once again,’’ Deck went on. ‘’How about it? With us, you’ll get the chance to go after some better prey than street urchins, homeless bums, and random civvies, eh?’’
! ‘’I’ve told you this before, jackass,’’ Sayren started, not caring how coarse her language was, for she truly despised this man and his ridiculous pride. ‘’I don’t need to join you or anyone else in order to strike fear into this city. In fact, I’m doing a perfectly fine job of it, or don’t you have a new tablet to read?’’
! ‘’Perhaps, but think about it like this.’’ Deck suggested, deciding to try a new tactic. ‘’You and us, it’s like we’re in a cause-and-effect kind of relationship. If, perish the thought, but if we’re somehow taken out, you’ll be next, and you’re just one person. You don’t have access to the resources that we do.’’
! ‘’You’re saying that I’m only still here because of your shitty gang?!’’ Sayren said angrily, grinding out each and every word with pure venom.
! ‘’Whoa, no!’’ Deck said hurriedly, as he could feel the temperature of the air around him rise by a few degrees, and there was no way he was looking for a fight at the moment. ‘’All I’m saying is that it’s in both of our best interests to join forces. But it’s not like you have to be a full member of The Beings or anything! You can still do your own thing, just as long as you still help us on occasion!’’
! Sayren could see right through Deck. She knew that what he was after was her power, nothing more, and that he would try and throw her away when he had no more need for her services. She despised him, that didn’t need to be repeated. But then she thought of something. While she had no interest in the man itself, the idea of meddling in his personal war with the city sounded like it could be very entertaining, and it was true that she’d love to get her hands on the new Stargazers and crush them. And since Deck was so confident in his plans, beating him to the punch and crushing them all herself would deal a tremendous blow to his manhood and pride. She liked that idea. She liked it very much.
! ‘’Fine,’’ she said finally. ‘’If it will get you out of my hair, I’ll…collude with you for the time being.’’ Anticipating Deck’s reaction, she added, with plenty of ice: ‘’But don’t you friggin' dare, for even a second, that you’re going to boss me around, or else I’ll kill you. As soon as I lose interest in your fight, I’m going to do whatever I want, and you won’t stop me.’’
! ‘’That’s fine with me.’’ Deck said. ‘’But,’’ Now it was his turn to speak in a deathly manner. ‘’if you lay even a finger on one of my boys, I’m going to be the one to kill you.’’
! ‘’Sure, whatever.’’ Sayren said dismissively.
! Deck sighed. ‘’Fine, let’s not start off on the wrong foot shall we?’’ To Sayren’s surprise, he held out his bare hand. ‘’We’ll agree to a ceasefire.''
! Sayren looked at Deck’s extended hand for a moment, apparently unsure of how to respond to this bold gesture, but in the end, she shook his hand, or rather, very briefly grasped it before withdrawing with a speed that suggested she had gripped something repulsive.
! ‘’You know,’’ she said, surveying Deck with an expression that managed to be simultaneously bored and amused. ‘’that was all it would have taken for me to hurt you really, really badly.’’
! ‘’But I knew you wouldn’t.’’ Deck was quick to say. ‘’Because now we’re partners, yeah?’’
! Sayren had to exercise all the self-restraint that she could possible muster in order to not unleash her power upon this idiot. Oh how she truly despised this man!

Spoilerific impressions are below:

! I agonized a bit over this backstory, as the whole ''invalid family member'' device is used so, so often already. In the end I went through with it, but I tried not to make Liren's personality angelically sweet to help levy the blow (that's also why the mom ended up getting hurt too).

Anyway, geez, this chapter was the longest one yet, outstripping the previous one by a considerable margin. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing, but man, it's something. It's only been two full chapters and I've already filled up half of the new notebook I'm using to write my first drafts. Yeesh.

Coming up with locations for my imaginary world is fun (deliberately mangling the language I studied for four years in highschool was a bit painful, though). I should draw and put up a map of the world or something similar.

[ChesCa]

Last but most certainly not least.
[hide] Areas of improvement: Like you already guessed, the sickly family member is often overused, but right now this is your first draft, right? I'm confident that as you go along you'll put some meat on those bare bones. I would suggest have it permeate more of Nova's character. An extreme example is how Batman's parents dying is always haunting him and being more sympathetic than cliche. Also, how old is Liren and Nova? I was given the impression that Nova is in his late teens and Liren is like eleven or something by her dialogue, but then they're only four years apart? Go ahead and correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like she's acting younger than she actually is.
The biggest thing with me is the fact that most of the story (from what I remember) tends to stick with one point of view at a time, yet when it comes to Siren and Deck you switch quite a lot. It seems to break away from your style a bit? Perhaps the 'camera' of the narration should do less close ups and a more wider shot to accommodate the both of them? (If that makes sense).

Now the good news: We get more character development with Nova, and the scene on the bench played out pretty nicely in my mind. I had this image of this laid back Deck talking smooth while Siren is going through a multitude of crazy facial expressions reflecting her sadism, anger and/or smugness. If I had time I'd draw what I was envisioning, but then again my style doesn't exactly do all stories justice.

Good luck in your further chapters! [/hide]

[Crossword]

I can see what you mean with the sudden viewpoint switches. I'll try to fix that up when I have time (waist-deep in the end of semester crunch at the moment). Going off your comment about drawing the bench, I'd actually really like to draw out each of the characters and putting 'em up here to show what they definitively look like, but I can't figure out how to get my scanner working. Maybe over the break I'll try to get that done.

Nova's 18 and Liren's 15, though she only just turned. If she sounds overly childish, that was probably because I was trying too hard to avoid the angelicly sweet personality invalid younger siblings tend to get in fiction. I'll see if I can flesh her out a bit more the next time she appears.

Heck, why don't I just provide the ages and birthdates for all the characters who have shown up so far, just for the trivia.

! Keep in mind that currently the story is in early September 2648:
! Terry: 17 (August 21, 2631)
Akira: 17 (January 12, 2631)
Nova: 18 (March 4, 2630)
! Gerald: 62 (June 17, 2586)
Daniel: 17 (May 8, 2631)
Ganut: 25 (November 17, 2622)
! Ms. Fencen: 31 (July 27, 2617)
Karen: 17 (April 13, 2631)
Bar: 17 (May 6, 2631)
! Liren: 15 (August 14, 2633)
Mrs. Bown: 51 (February 16, 2597)
! Deck: 22 (November 18, 2625)
Sayren: 19 (July 13, 2629)
Auto: 18 (December 16, 2629)
! Fun fact: Their current calender year (as in, the day of the week that each day falls on) corresponds to our 2014.

[gottalt3OP]

Now I got confused. In england/america is it usual to count the ground floor as the 1st floor? Cause in Portugal we never count it. :S That got me really confused for a second.
Nice story. Only read the first 5 chapters. I'm liking the setup. Really looking forward to see how this battles will be. Sounds fun.
I also like your descriptions. They're simple but effective. Only point that you could improve, if any, is the repetitions. I noticed you always use "Terry said" "Akira asked", playing with hypernyms would definitly help. For instances "Said the gemini stargazer" "asked the japanese"
I know its not something crucial, and you may even think it would get confusing, but I totally think it would be an improvement.

[Crossword]

Right, in America we usually count the ground floor of a building as the first floor, and since I'm an American myself and the story takes place in its universal-equivalent of America, it does too. What's confusing, is that I've encountered instances where we've eschewed that, like at my highschool. We used ''ground'', ''first'', ''second'' and so on because the classes were numbered ''0XX'', ''1XX'', ''2XX'', etc.

If the setting ever goes overseas, I'll try to keep that quirk in mind.

[gottalt3OP]

Finished reading. Eager for next chapter :3.

! For instances I tought Deck was the one who crippled the sister But good ol' traffic accident was a nice choice. Enjoyed this chapter a lot. Lyren is one of my favorite characters, and Nova reminds me of the 'captain' character in sports manga.
I'm also liking Deck, he's a good villain and his conversation with Sayren was a really good read.
! I kind of disagree with cuddles about having Nova's past troubling him, I think it reflects in is character a lot. And he knows it was not is fault despite still thinking about the What If's. I don't think it would be enjoyable to read if everytime he was on a fight he started 'I have to do it for my sister'. Mildly affecting him seems more realistic to me, with the occasional break down once something bad happens.
! About Lyren's age, I think the Dialog is about right for her age but inserting a little bit of unformality would work to 'age' her. You know, talkin' like this, and having more quirks, like saying 'you know' at the end of her words. Things that 15 years old use but 11 do not.
But I really like her being 15 with a kind of childish personality.

[Crossword]

Chapter 11: Intermission

! After the relatively mild weekend Friday’s gloomy, damp weather returned on Monday morning, as the city awoke to find that it had rained earlier that morning, with a light mist currently drifting down from the sky.
! Following the by-now-usual routine, Terry hauled himself out of his bed, showered, dressed, and then went down to join Akira and Daniel in the dining room for breakfast before leaving for Marine Cove Academy. Grabbing their bags and tugging their jackets tightly around their shoulders, for Daniel was the only one who had an umbrella, they reached the dorm’s entrance hall, where they found Nova and Officer Davidmen discussing something. It was rather unusual to see Nova still in the building, as by this time he had already left.
! ‘’What’s going on here?’’ Akira asked as they neared the door and came within earshot of the two. ‘’What’re you still doing here?’’ he added, pointing at Nova.
! ‘’Something’s come up, that’s what.’’ Nova replied, his tone coarse. It was clear that just as Akira wasn’t fond of Nova, Nova wasn’t fond of him either.
! ‘’Come out and see.’’ Davidmen said, sighing wearily as he zipped up his orange rain slicker and gestured for the others to follow him through the front door. ‘’Watch your feet, though.’’ he warned.
! The street outside was damp with the misty rain that was drifting down from the overcast sky. When he got out onto the stairs Terry didn’t know what they were supposed to be looking for as he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, until he heard the doors close behind him followed by a gasp of indignation from Daniel. Smeared across the double doors and part of the brick beyond in yellow paint was an emblem that resembled an elongated eyeball, or even, Terry realized, a spear tip. Some of the paint had run down the doors and onto the stairs thanks to heavier rain from earlier in the morning, and was apparently still damp as traces of Davidmen’s footprints could be seen.
! ‘’What is this?’’ he asked, even though he already knew what the answer was.
! ‘’It’s The Beings’ emblem.’’ Nova replied grimly. ‘’They tag buildings and landmarks with it to designate their turf.’’
! ‘’Yeah, I think I saw some graffiti that looked like this in their hideout.’’ Akira remarked as he studied it. ‘’But those were green.’’
! ‘’Green is the color that they use for stuff that’s part of their turf.’’ Nova explained. ‘’When they use yellow, it’s more like a threat, an intimidation tactic.’’
! ‘’I can’t believe this! How could they!’’ Daniel exclaimed, apparently offended more by the act of vandalism itself rather than the sentiment behind it. ‘’Do they have any idea how expensive it’s going to be to restore this?!’’
! ‘’We’re certainly going to have to do something about increasing security in the neighborhood.’’ Davidmen muttered, scratching the back of his head. ‘’More work for myself… Well kids, you better get going on your way to school. The police will deal with this.’’
! ‘’This Deck must be rather vindictive.’’ Daniel sorely muttered as they set off towards the monorail station. ‘’That was quite juvenile!’’
! ‘’It might not be him specifically.’’ Terry suggested. ‘’Some of the members could’ve been acting on their own. I mean, we were told that there were around three-hundred members. That’s a lot of people.’’
! ‘’That’s probably possible.’’ Nova reasoned. ‘’I’m sure that Deck would approve of it regardless.’’
! ‘’Heh! Well they’re not going to intimidate me!’’ Akira snorted with a trumped-up defiant attitude.
! They were in for a bit of a surprise when they finally reached the bridge that led to Marine Cove Academy. ‘’Oh come on, now that’s just petty!’’ Daniel exclaimed, both his voice and body language thoroughly exasperated at the sight before them.
! Part of the bridge was blocked off by a maintenance crew who were using a high-pressure water hose in an attempt to wash away not just another one of the yellow graffiti emblems, but also a large splattering of red paint. The students passing by were eyeing the work with a mixture of mild curiosity, wariness towards the red splatters, and annoyance at the extra mist that the water hose was kicking up.
! ‘’At least leave the school out of this!’’ Daniel continued to grumble as he and his friends passed by the cleanup efforts and across the bridge. It was slower going than usual thanks to the bottleneck that had been created, and they didn’t have any time to so any serious discussion until they had cleared the traffic.
! ‘’You’d think that they’d realize that doing something like tagging a school zone is going to draw unwanted attention.’’ Terry commented as they mounted the steps up to the front entrance. He was still glancing over his shoulder towards the bridge, even though by now it was too far away to discern anything.
! ‘’They’re confident that the police won’t be able to do anything.’’ Nova said. They stopped walking and formed a little group off to the side of the doors so that they wouldn’t get in the other students’ way. ‘’Some of the members can be brazen in that belief.’’
! Terry certainly could agree with that assessment. It wasn’t as if the members responsible for the graffiti had tagged a random façade or wall somewhere; they had gone well out of their normal territory, nearly halfway across the city in fact, into two rather nice neighborhoods to carry out their work, one of their targets being a public building that was sure to draw plenty of scrutiny given its reputation. ‘’It’s like a grab for attention.’’ he said. ‘’You know, like ‘hey, look at what we can do! Don’t get cocky and think you’ve seen the last of us!'’’
! ‘’They’re still not going to intimidate me!’’ Akira defiantly declared yet again.
! ‘’What happened to your hand?’’
! Terry tried to suppress a grimace upon hearing Bar’s question. He had exchanged his bandage wrappings for a less-conspicuous-but-still-noticeable oversized band-aid, but even that would not go without comment, it seemed.
! ‘’Well, I was making myself a sandwich in my dorm’s kitchen,’’ he began, reciting the false explanation that he had thought up beforehand. ‘’and I accidentally cut myself with the knife.’’
! ‘’He was bleeding all over the place.’’ Akira added helpfully.
! ‘’Eleven stitches.’’ Terry finished. ‘’But I’ve had worse injuries in the past, so it doesn't really bother me.’’
! ‘’Really?’’ Karen asked, an incredulous look on her face. She was hovering around their desks, listening to the conversation. ‘’Like what?’’
! ‘’Once when I was hiking in the woods I broke my arm when I fell down an incline, but I didn’t realize it so it got a really ugly black bruise and then it –‘’
! ‘’Ugh, forget I asked!’’ Karen exclaimed, the look of incredulity turning quickly to disgust.
! ‘’Hey, did you see that graffiti that was outside?’’ Bar asked the others. ‘’You have any idea what was that about?’’
! ‘’I actually overheard some policemen talking about that earlier this morning.’’ One of the other students in the classroom, Stephen Match, spoke up. ‘’They said that it was the emblem of some gang, I think.’’
! ‘’A gang? Really?’’ Bar repeated. ‘’Does this sort of thing happen often?’’
! He turned towards Karen, who immediately scowled back at him. ‘’Why are you looking at me?’’
! ‘’You are the only one of us who’s actually from this city.’’ Akira pointed out, making her scowl deepen.
! ‘’My dad’s also a cop.’’ Steven continued. ‘’He’s always going on about how the number of violent incidents in the city has risen since the new commissioner took charge.’’
! ‘’I was told that there were even some incidents near one of our dorms.’’ Terry added, recalling what Akira told him on his very first night.
! ‘’Oh yeah, I have a friend in a higher year who told me about that.’’ This time it was Carrie Rush, one of the class’s two straight-A students, who was speaking. ‘’She says that she hates not being able to go out at night because she doesn’t feel safe in that neighborhood.’’
! This sparked a discussion amongst the class over the safety of the city. Terry got the impression that most of his classmates, the ones that were actually from the city, didn’t really follow the news’s crime reports, save for the more sensational story of the serial burner. He had heard from Daniel beforehand that only the more violent cases had been reported to the media, and even then only in rather vague terms. He supposed that it was an attempt to prevent the public from knowing that a second rogue Stargazer was on the loose in the city.
! ‘’Does all this scare you?’’ Bar asked him all of a sudden. ‘’I doubt you had to deal with any stuff thing like this in your hometown, huh?’’
! ‘’No, we didn’t. Not to say that we didn't have crime’’ Terry replied, not amused at Bar assuming that he’d be scared just because he was from the country. ‘’But I’m not scared, either.’’
! ‘’Oh yeah, aren’t you supposed to be like a black belt or something?’’ Vanon Hestly asked, as he was leaning on the corner of his desk. ‘’If anyone tried attacking you, you could just kick their asses, right?’’
! ‘’I didn’t teach myself how to fight just so I could beat people up, and that’s not how a practitioner should handle themselves anyway.’’ Terry corrected. ‘’But yeah, I know how to defend myself.’’
! ‘’My dad keeps getting on my case about this kind of stuff lately.’’ Karen said, resting her hand on her chin. ‘’Even though I don’t stay out late or anything.’’
! ‘’Well, what can you do?’’ Bar shrugged as he started to head over to his own desk. ‘’Aw well, nothing any of us can do about it, eh?’’
! Terry and Akira exchanged glances, both bemused at their classmate’s innocent ignorance.
! * * *
! Maybe it was due to the increased police vigilance in the area following the vandalism of the Trident dorm and Marine Cove Academy, or perhaps they had been told by their leader to back off, but The Beings remained quiet for the rest of September, and there was hardly a peep heard from them as the first full week of October began.
! That was just fine as far as Terry was concerned. His hand ended up healing nicely, without the slightest trace of a scar being left behind once the stitches were removed. Without any Trident business hanging over his head he was free to concentrate on his school life. Apart from his doing schoolwork he made sure to try to hang out with some of his classmates when he could. Bar had initially been a little sore that he had neglected to take him up on his offer to join the school’s baseball team, but he’d eventually gotten over that, and Terry found him to be a very chatty person. Since he was from almost the other side of the world, he was quite eager to get acclimated to this new city and country. He was quite possibly the biggest sports fan that Terry had ever met, knowing a vast amount of baseball trivia and he practically lived and died by the national rankings. He was always up for their Monday and Friday gym classes, where the less athletically-inclined students were starting to call Mr. Mulver “Mr. Murder.”
! Karen still tended to shyly hover around the fringes of their group, but she was starting to get a little better in that regard, speaking up more often during the group’s conversations and looking quite pleased when the others included her in them. Akira still thought that she was insecure, but it was still nice to see how she had changed in only a month.
! On Monday the sixth of October the students were looking forward to lunch more than they usually did, for to celebrate Landing Day, the day when Man first set foot on Heion, on the 8th, the school cafeteria was serving food imported from Heion. All food products originating from Heion - meat, fruit, vegetables, and other natural products - were imported, as while one could grow crops or plants native to Heion on Lagoon, miniscule differences in the makeup of the two bodies’ soils made it incredibly difficult to do so, even under the most heavily-controlled conditions. What was able to sprout was usually far from edible, and it was illegal to transport live animals on the giant cargo spaceliners that travelled between Heion and Lagoon. As a result, imported Heion food tended to be somewhat expensive and usually ended up on the menus of fancy restaurants than in a local grocery store, so most of the students had never eaten any of it before. For them, this was quite a treat.
! Terry and some of his classmates had managed to snag one of the round tables which were located in little alcoves scattered throughout the large cafeteria. These only sat eight people, making it very difficult to find an empty one. In addition to Akira, Karen, Bar, and himself, the group consisted of Vanon Hestly, Carrie Rush, Samuel Conner, and Justin Danders. Terry didn’t hang out with them all that much, though he had spoken to them numerous times in classes.
! ‘’Who’s going to dig in first?’’ Vanon asked with just the faintest trace of trepidation in his voice as he looked down at the unfamiliar food on his plate. The vegetables that had been served didn’t look that different from string beans and asparagus, but the meat was a noticeable purple color. It had come from a bovine-like creature called a Majuen bull.
! ‘’I’ve had Heion food before, it’s not bad.’’ Samuel said as he started to cut a piece off of his own beef side. ‘’You just have to get used to it looking different from regular food.’’ With the rest of the table watching, he took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. After a few moments passed and he didn’t pass out onto his plate, the others began to cautiously dig in to their own food, while Akira first put his hands together and muttered some words of grace in his native language as he habitually did before meals.
! Terry found the beef to have a distinctly foreign tang to it, but putting that and its unsettling color aside he found that it tasted fine. As he ate, Bar and Justin were speculating what Mr. Mulver would have in store for them after lunch, Samuel was eating in silence, and Karen was trying not to snigger as she caught Carrie trying to steal glances at Vanon, who was talking to Akira about schoolwork. Most of the class had noticed that Carrie had a bit of a crush on Vanon, which simultaneously bemused and puzzled them considering their differences in personality. While Terry supposed that Vanon was handsome in a roguish sort of way, he was notorious for being a slacker and was even worse than Akira when it came to running his mouth. Carrie meanwhile tried to put on an air of aloofness and was one of the class’s two straight-A students. It was rather fascinating to watch the two, being so different from each other.
! ‘’I can’t wait for Landing Day.’’ Akira was saying. ‘’It just sucks that Ms. Fencen had to go and give us a test to study for, and knowing her it’s going to be really hard.’’
! ‘’I’m not going to bother worrying about it.’’ Vanon replied, casually twirling his fork on top of his hand, causing Samuel to cautiously lean away.
‘’Aside from winter break we don’t get much time off during the school year. I’m not going to waste it studying.’’
! ‘’I can’t do that.’’ Akira replied, sounding dejected. ‘’I did okay on the first test, but my homework and quiz grades since haven’t been very good.’’ He suddenly whirled to face Terry. ‘’You’re really good at History, help me study!’’
! ‘’I would if you’d just write your notes in a language I can understand.’’ Terry replied as he swallowed his food. ‘’ Akira was still insisting on writing his notes in Nihongo, which meant that he often fell behind in his note taking and made doing any studying with him much more strenuous and aggravating than it needed to be.
! ‘’We could do a study group.’’ Karen suggested.
! ‘’You don’t know what it’s like to do schoolwork with this guy.’’ Terry sighed before taking a sip of his soda. Akira was an overall decent guy, but he didn’t like having to deal with his friend’s eccentricities. However, if that was the worst thing that was bothering him at the moment compared to some of the other problems that he was facing outside of school, he noted that he was lucky indeed.
! A rap at his office door caused Gerald to look up from his computer screen and the spreadsheet that he had been working on. ‘’Come in.’’ he called, and the door slowly opened to reveal his nephew, Daniel.
! ‘’Are you ready Uncle Gerald?’’ Daniel asked as he stepped into the somewhat cramped and cluttered office, taking care to both close the door behind him and avoid jostling a stack of papers precariously sticking out from an overhead shelf.
! ‘’Yes, just give me a minute.’’ Gerald replied. The Centone family had made it a yearly tradition to go out and eat dinner together on the first day of Landing Day week, and Gerald hadn’t seen his younger brother and sister-in-law for quite some time, so he was especially looking forward to it this year.
! ‘’What are you working on?’’ Daniel asked, coming around behind his uncle’s desk and peering at the computer screen.
! ‘’I’m figuring out the school district’s estimated budgetary expenditures for the coming year.’’ Gerald explained, quickly double checking some notes he had. ‘’I have to present this to the rest of the committee next week so that we can allot a budget.’’
! ‘’Oh, in that case, take as long as you need!’’
! Gerald chuckled to himself. Given the circumstances, most boys would want him to hurry up, but not his nephew. Daniel was very straight-laced, studious, and understood the value of hard work, sometimes to a fault. In fact, his Marine Cove uniform and blazer that he was still wearing and the coat draped over an arm, he looked just like a young professional.
! ‘’No, I better wrap up, otherwise I’d keep your parents waiting.’’ he told his nephew as he saved his work and logged out, and then locked his computer. He packed up his briefcase, put on his coat and picked up his hat, and gestured that they were leaving.
! ‘’So how have your studies been going?’’ he asked as the two of them left the building and began to walk down the busy city street.
! ‘’I got a ninety-three and a ninety-one on my first two Math tests.’’ Daniel reported, pride seeping into his voice and raising his chin. ‘’My Literature teacher commended me on my analysis of Hubert’s Follower, and my science courses have been going well.’’
! ‘’Good, good.’’ Gerald nodded, satisfied. ‘’Your parents will be proud.’’
! Daniel shrugged. ‘’Well, it’s what they expect.’’
! They continued to walk in silence for a bit before Daniel spoke up again. ‘’Say, I haven’t been to the Lifeline offices recently, so, I’m curious to know if there’s been anything new with Trident and The Beings recently?’’
! Gerald’s face hardened a bit at hearing this. ‘’Well, not much has happened since our abortive raid on their hideout.’’ he said. ‘’Right now it’s up to the police department to handle them, we can only wait for them to signal us. Honestly, I don’t think there’s been much progress. Once they went quiet they were put on the backburner.’’
! ‘’Maybe we gave them a good scare?’’ Daniel suggested. ‘’Perhaps them going quiet means that they believe it’s too risky to fight us?’’
! ‘’Hopefully, that will be the case.’’ Gerald agreed. Come to think of it, he hadn’t read anything about the serial burning incidents recently either, not since that very same night. If the culprit was trying to lay low just like The Beings presumably were, that was fine, but if there was somehow a connection between the two, as some members of the police and Lifeline had worried, and they were simply biding their time… That possibility was very troublesome indeed.
! ‘’Uncle Gerald?’’ Daniel asked, seeing his uncle’s eyes turning distant.
! ‘’Oh sorry, I just got distracted by something.’’ Gerald quickly apologized, snapping back to the present.
! ‘’You aren’t starting to go senile, are you?’’ Daniel asked, completely straight and without any hints of sarcasm, which was probably worse for Gerald than if he were.
! ‘’Of course not, I’m not that old!’’ Gerald exclaimed to his nephew. ‘’I just got distracted by a thought – you’ll understand what that’s like when you’re my age and have to worry about a great many things.’’
! ‘’If you say so, uncle.’’ Daniel said, not sounding totally convinced. Gerald certainly wasn’t fond of having fun poked at his age, whether intentionally or not, but he was glad for the change of topic it invited – a distraction from his thoughts that this could just be the momentary respite before the storm hit.
! * * *
! The Beings tended to not have large gatherings, as doing so would lead to drawing unwanted attention and scrutiny. Deck preferred to have his orders disseminated to the rest of the gang via word-of-mouth but tonight, the evening before Landing Day, was an exception.
! After leaving their old hideout in the Sedmore neighborhood Deck had chosen the old Moseseon Building on the North Side as their new one. It was located in a neighborhood that was downright squalid, even compared to their old one, and was far from the glistening town center. In the past it used to house a gym and fitness center that drew a decent amount of money into the neighborhood. But the neighborhood began to slowly fall into decline as the times changed, and the gym company relocated to a bigger, more expensive facility elsewhere and the empty building fell into private ownership. It was rumored that the owner wanted to tear the entire building and the adjacent parking lot down and build something bigger in its place to rejuvenate the neighborhood, but as the years had ground on and nothing changed, the building continued to sit, vacant and gathering dust, a monument to urban waste. Since a similar fate had fallen on the apartment building that had been their old hideout, several of the gang members began wondering if Deck was choosing these types of buildings on purpose. Regardless, once they had found a way inside and saw that it was much roomier and overall larger than their old base, there were few, if any, objections.
! What used to be the building’s gymnasium was currently playing host to Deck and roughly forty-five other high-ranking Beings members. They were all gathered around a large map of the city, as big as a blackboard, that had been attached to the wall. Various neighborhoods and locations had been marked in red, designating the sites to be attacked come Landing Day. The Beings had been divided into numerous cells and each had been assigned to one of those targets.
! ‘’The key here boys, is speed.’’ Deck was saying to the assemblage. ‘’Once you arrive at your targets, smash up the surroundings however you want. Break windows, storefronts, beat cars, people, I don’t care. But do it quickly and get out.’’
! ‘’Remember this,’’ he said, pointing his finger for emphasis. ‘’The average response time for the police in this city is twelve minutes, with that number getting smaller the closer you are to the city center. It’s gonna be impossible to completely evade the police, but if things are coordinated like we’ve planned, we should all be safely away before they can get a solid bead on us.’’
! ‘’That’s why we’re gonna have two waves, right?’’ one of the younger members, Portal, spoke up.
! ‘’Yeah, that’s right.’’ Deck nodded. ‘’The first one’s going to be the main attraction. The second one’s going to be smaller, and mainly to disorient the responders, letting us safely slink away.’’
! ‘’Won’t they be coming at us with suppression gear?’’ another member asked, his voice filled with apprehension at the idea of confronting his boss. ‘’Stuff like tear gas and shit?’’
! ‘’If you don’t wanna run into that stuff, then stick to the plan and move fast.’’ Deck responded. ‘’This isn’t going to be like a traditional riot, it’s going to be hit and run. You’re supposed to be like phantoms out there.’’ He and his crew had spent months observing how the police responded to incidents and by which routes, how much time it took them per neighborhood, and what equipment they used. They had painstakingly researched and chosen their targets based on their findings and which scenarios would result in the least amount of interference. It was foolish to think that their plan would go off exactly as planned, but Deck and his fellow architects were confident that they had made the best decisions that they could make.
! ‘’Um, what about the Stargazers?’’ someone else asked. ‘’What about them?’’
! ‘’Have you been listening at all to what I’ve been saying?!’’ Deck snapped back. He was sick of his boys worrying so much over them. ‘’If things go off as I’ve just described, you shouldn’t encounter any of them. We have nearly four-hundred members, they have only three – they’re insignificant next to us!’’
! Judging from the low buzz of murmuring and conversation that had begun to fill the air, his audience wasn’t fully convinced of that. Gritting his teeth, clenching his left fist, he pointed with his right at one particular point on the map, and raised his voice as he addressed the others to show beyond a shadow of a doubt how annoyed he was with this topic. ‘’If you must know, this is where Trident is headquartered.’’ He pointed to another point on the map, one that had been designated as a target. ‘’This is the closest targeted location from there, Trettor Street. Boxer’s group is the only one that has any significant chances of running into them, and if my orders are followed, they should be away before they can mobilize!’’
! With that having been said, he crossed his arms and looked as large and imposing as he could to dissuade any further questioning. ‘’Is that all?’’
No one said anything. They were wise enough to know when to keep their mouths shut around their boss, at least.
! ‘’Good.’’ he continued, but he made sure to maintain his intimidation posture. ‘’All I have left to say to you is, remember the schedule, and remember where your assigned escape routes and vehicles are. Make sure that everyone else assigned to your groups knows their assignments too.’’
! He paused to take a breath. ‘’If we pull this off,’’ he began to say. ‘’we’ll give this city something to think about. We’ll show them that we aren’t just a bad dream. We’re not going to go away if they don’t think about us – we’re here to stay. We’re gonna send them a message that nobody, whether it be the police or their Stargazers, is going to root us out! After this, everyone from the people in the slums to the workers in their tall skyscrapers are going to know and fear us, The Beings! This meeting is dismissed!’’
! The assemblage let out a roar of agreement, and then began to slowly drift out of the gymnasium. Some were heading to other parts of the building to hang out or sleep, while others waited for the opportunity to slip outside and head home for the night. There was still a day of preparations to be made, and everyone needed to be at their best.
! When everyone had filed out, Deck turned to look off at one of the gymnasium’s corners. There stood Sayren, leaning against the wall with her arms folded, her dark head faced away from the sight of Deck’s presentation. ‘’You didn’t say anything.’’ Deck commented as he walked over to her.
! ‘’Why should I?’’ she replied, neglecting to face him. ‘’I’m not a part of your gang, remember?’’
! ‘’Oh, come on, don’t be like that.’’ Deck insisted. ‘’I consider you one of us.’’ he said, making sure to say it in a way that was sure to aggravate her.
! ‘’Don’t you dare say that again.’’ Sayren said dangerously. ‘’I don’t care about your gang, I’m just using it.’’
! ‘’And you’ll get your chance to cut loose all right.’’ Deck answered. ‘’I built this organization up from nothing, and now we’re going to permanently carve our name into this city. Even you can’t just dismiss us like that.’’
! Sayren made a dismissive hissing sound. ‘’People band together because they’re weak.’’
! ‘’And I suppose you’re different because you try to be the lone wolf, huh?’’ Deck added, knowing her train of thought. He paused for a moment, and then laughed. ‘’Ha ha ha! You know, I really like you!’’ Saying these kinds of things to someone like Sayren was like poking a sleeping dragon, but he couldn’t help it. Pushing people’s buttons was just too much fun for him.
! Seeing that he’d finally managed to get his ill-tempered companion to react, he grinned broadly and continued on. ‘’You don’t let anyone chain you down and speak your mind freely. That’s what a real Stargazer should be like.’’
! ‘’You’re full of yourself.’’ Sayren grumbled. ‘’Whatever, I’m getting the hell out of here.’’ She got up from the wall, stretched her arms a bit, and made to leave.
! ‘’What’re you gonna do on Landing Day?’’ Deck asked as she walked by him.
! ‘’Carving my own name into the city.’’ the young women replied, sarcasm dripped from her words. ‘’And thanks for that tip on Trettor Street.’’ Though she was giving thanks, the tone of her voice certainly didn’t sound sincere.
! Deck watched her go, the amused grin still decorating his face as she exited through the set of double doors. He chuckled to himself, and then when about packing up the map on the wall.
! The locker rooms were dirty and musty, full of typical locker room-smells that had been left festering overtime and assorted patches of scum and mold. But neither the smells nor the dankness were really bothering the small group of Beings who were gathered around one of the room’s central benches, for they had started up a game of cards, and there was money to be gambled and won.
! ‘’Seventy yura.’’ one of them, Trigger announced as he looked up from the hand he had been dealt and laying a couple of bills down on top of the bench. He was one of the gang’s newer and younger members, and since he both looked and dressed very unremarkably, Deck had tasked him with staking out Trident’s dorm building back when news of the lightning Stargazer had reached their ears.
! ‘’Only seventy? That’s chump change.’’ one of the others scoffed.
! ‘’Fine, three-fifty then.’’ Trigger said sourly, scowling as he added another couple of crinkled bills to his bet.
! ‘’That’s more like it.’’ the other member, Catch, said approvingly as he placed his own bet on the pile. Out of the four players, Catch was the oldest of the group. He was originally from the Founder States’ southernmost state Perejos giving him a darker complexion than the others. There was a sense of mature swarthiness about him.
! The third player, Soap, was a fairly muscular guy. He had multiple tattoos, which were currently covered up by his heavy-weather jacket. Despite his intimidating appearance be had a relatively benign personality, and was quite sensitive to the cooler fall and winter weather. ‘’You wanna join in, Auto? There’s still time.’’ he peered over his shoulder to ask. ‘’Last chance.’’
! ‘’No thanks.’’ Auto replied. Still in his stained, multi-pocketed mechanics clothes, the quiet, impassive teenager was standing in the entranceway of the exiting corridor, leaning against the tiled wall with an alcohol bottle dangling from his hand.
! ‘’You’re no fun.’’ the final player, Delivery, commented as he arranged his hand. Like Trigger, he was relatively new to the gang, and was known for having a bit of a fiery temper when provoked.
! ‘’Whatever.’’ Auto replied lazily as he took a sip from his bottle.
! ‘’The hell’s that guy’s problem?’’ Delivery grumbled as he turned back to his cards.
! ‘’He’s always been like that, don’t mind him.’’ Catch waved.
! ‘’You guys heard what went down at Deck’s meeting?’’ Soap asked the others as he drew a card from the deck. ‘’About what’s going down on Landing Day?’’
! ‘’How can we not, it’s all he’s been going on about for the past month.’’ Trigger replied, shoulders slumping a bit as he surveyed his hand, failing to put up a poker face.
! ‘’I can’t wait!’’ Delivery boasted, voice filled with the kind of youthful bravado a lot of the newer members tended to have. ‘’There’re some places that I wanna smash up real good!’’
! ‘’That’s what everyone says at first.’’ Catch commented. His face was rueful, but as he was a much better card player than Trigger, there was a high likelihood that he was trying to bluff the others. ‘’The ones that don’t grow out of that phase tend to be the first ones to get hauled off by the cops.’’
! ‘’Hey, I’m not gonna the damn cops put me away!’’ Delivery angrily snapped back.
! ‘’See what I mean?’’ Catch continued. ‘’We were all like you once, all hot-blooded and shit. But if you want to get far in this life you have to be smart, you have to know your strength and pick your battles. That’s how Deck’s gotten this far.’’
! ‘’To be honest, I’m a little worried.’’ Trigger admitted. ‘’I mean, if any of us gets caught, I don’t think the police will just keep us in a cell for a day. We might be sent straight to jail!’’
! ‘’No you won’t, not if you’re not caught doing anything particularly bad!’’
! ‘’Just shut up and play.’’ Soap grumbled.
! The game they were playing was simple: the goal was of course to empty one’s hand by putting together three-of-a-kinds and flushes. Each player drew one card per round, and after a predetermined number of rounds the game was over. Any player with cards still in their hand would have points deducted from their score based on the leftover cards’ values. The game usually worked best with at least five players, so the gang members were employing a house rule stating that each player could make an additional extra draw of two cards once per game. This rule of theirs turned out to inject a surprising amount of intensity and strategy into this otherwise dry card game.
! ‘’Beginner’s luck.’’ Soap said sorely as Trigger, grinning from ear to ear, collected his winnings after the first game ended. Catch gathered up the cards and began to reshuffle the deck and the others started to prepare their new bets.
! ‘’Hey, do you think we can really become the most powerful faction in this city?’’ Trigger eventually asked, breaking the silence that had settled over the group. His tone of voice suggested that this was a question that had been bothering him for some time, but had only just now worked up the courage to ask it aloud.
! Catch snorted as he shuffled. ‘’I highly doubt it.’’
! ‘’What? How the hell can you say that?!’’ Delivery demanded, indignant.
! ‘’Haven’t you thought about it?’’ Catch replied matter-of-factly. ‘’Sure, we’re big, but can we really stand up to the mob, or the guys who are willing to use guns? A lot of our guys are young and green. I can’t imagine some of you having the balls to stand up to people like that. No offense.’’ he added, glancing at Trigger and Delivery knowingly.
! ‘’Yeah, well, so what if we don’t use guns?’’ Delivery persisted. ‘’We’ve got two Stargazers on our side now! With Deck and that Siren chick on our side –‘’
! ‘’It’s Sayren, and don’t talk about her in front of me!’’ Soap suddenly snapped, slamming a fist on the bench and making Trigger jump in alarm. ‘’That bitch is a real psycho, and affiliating ourselves with her is gonna lead to nothing good!’’
! ‘’Since when did you feel so strongly about her?’’ Delivery said warily.
! ‘’Sorry.’’ Soap wiped his brow with the back of his hand. ‘’It’s just that a guy I know was one of her victims. She attacked him outta nowhere one night. His entire arm’s covered in burn scars.’’
! ‘’Even her name’s bad news.’’ Catch added.
! ‘’What do you mean?’’ Trigger asked.
! ‘’It’s a car.’’ Auto replied from over by the entranceway. Trigger jumped again – he had clearly forgotten that he was still there.
‘’What do you mean, a car?’’ he asked, but there was no answer forthcoming.
! ‘’Since our resident car geek won’t say anything, I’ll explain.’’ Catch offered. ‘’Sayren’s just like us – she’s using a pseudonym. The Sayren is a notorious thirty-five year old car brand that was advertised as using a new type of fuel mix for greater efficiency, conveniently hiding the fact that it was volatile mix, so the car tended to blow up during accidents. Caused quite a scandal, I heard. Anyone who’d name themselves after one is bad news.’’
! ‘’Anyway,’’ he went on. ‘’taking over the city and power isn’t why I joined this gang. I joined because there are people here that I belong with and to unwind, not to take over the streets, or fight Stargazers.’’ He looked up towards the ceiling, the game of cards forgotten. ‘’Sometimes, I feel like Nova had the right idea in getting out.’’
! ‘’Who’s that?’’ Delivery asked.
! ‘’I can’t believe that you don’t know.’’ Catch sighed. ‘’He was one of The Beings’s most senior members and a Stargazer, even. He left us a little over a year ago, I think, and now he’s a part of Trident, if you can believe it.’’
! ‘’Why the hell would be do that?!’’ Delivery asked in apparent disbelief that anyone would want to give up the gang life.
! ‘’How should I know? I barely even spoke with him.’’ Catch retorted.
! ‘’Wasn’t he also one of the founding members?’’ Soap asked, pointing in Catch’s direction as he spoke.
! ‘’Yeah, he was.’’ Catch nodded his head. He began to count off on his fingers. ‘’Let’s see…there was Deck, Nova, Tank – geez, I hate that guy - , Sands, Blazer – I think he left the city four months ago - , Den, Stereo – man, I don’t even know what happened to him - , and finally,’’ He jerked his thumb back towards Auto, who still hadn’t moved from the entranceway. ‘’that guy.’’
! ‘’Huh, I didn’t know that.’’ Trigger admitted. ‘’So what do you think about Deck’s plans?’’
! Auto took another sip from his bottle before just barely turning his gaze towards the others. ‘’Shouldn’t it be obvious what I think?’’ he asked, voice flat and impassive. ‘’It’s not worth commenting on.’’
! ‘’That’s our Auto…’’ Soap rolled his eyes. ‘’Inscrutable as always.’’
! Auto ignored him and tipped his bottle upside down. Finding that there was nothing left inside, he tucked the empty bottle inside one of his baggy pants’ pockets. ‘’I’m going home.’’ he announced. ‘’My work starts early.’’ The others gave him halfhearted farewells as he trouped away and out of sight down the corridor.
! ‘’Tch, why’s he always have to be like that?’’ Catch muttered in annoyance. ‘’He’s just as strange as the Stargazers, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that he was one himself.’’
! He looked around the room at the other three, and then down at the pile of cards that he had left on top of the bench. He hefted a weary sigh. ‘’I don’t even feel like playing cards anymore.’’
! ‘’Well then what are we gonna do?’’ Trigger asked him.
! ‘’You guys do whatever, but I’m gonna head home too.’’ Catch replied, pulling himself to his feet and stretching. ‘’I’m gonna get some rest, because after Wednesday, I don’t think any of us will be getting much.’’

This was originally intended to be a nice, short chapter to give myself a little break after 9 and 10. Huu huu, that sure worked out.

Anyway, the last update of 2011! Thanks to everyone who's humored me this far, and there will will be plenty more to come in 2012!

[Kitsune Inferno]

Hmm, where to begin? I just read all eleven chapters and I'm happy to say I really really enjoy what you've got so far. I'll give a full review later when I have the time, but as I thought, this story's pretty darn good and definitely one of the best on here. Good work.~

[Crossword]

Chapter 12: Landing Day

! Terry’s sleep was rudely interrupted by someone rapidly pounding on the door of his room. ‘’Hurry!’’ came a semi-frantic voice from the other side. ‘’Get dressed and hurry down to the dining room, immediately!’’
! Terry let out an involuntary groan as his body slowly shifted under his covers and he eventually raised himself up into a sitting position. He reached for his phone and saw through his sleep-blurred vision that it was just a little bit after three in the morning of October 8th. What on Lagoon could’ve happened to warrant waking him up at this hour?
! It was then that his ears caught what was unmistakably the distant wail of a siren, and not just one either. As he strained his hearing, he could hear several more join the mix, forming a distant-but-cacophonous din. Frowning, he slid out of bed and walked over to the windows located on the wall perpendicular to his bed and peered through the slats of the blinds. The street down below was quiet and desolate, as it should be at this time, but something was definitely going down out there in the city. His frown deepening, Terry set about dressing himself.
! He tried to stifle a yawn as he entered the dining room downstairs but forgot all about it when he saw the people who were waiting for him. Nova, Akira, and Daniel, the latter still clad in his pajamas, were seated at one of the tables. Nova was looking especially stony while Akira, still visibly sleepy, was looking over Daniel’s shoulder as he was rapid thumbing through something on his phone. The room’s other three occupants were Officer Davidmen, who had his hand resting on his radio, and two other policemen, who appeared to be highly fidgety and agitated. Davidmen’s hand was resting on the small radio clipped to his uniform, through which Terry could hear the occasional static-filled transmissions that it was receiving, despite being too far away to hear what they were actually saying.
! ‘’You’re here, good.’’ Davidmen noted as Terry took a seat at the nearest table. ‘’I’m going to make this quick and to the point.’’ he told group of teenagers. ‘’We have a riot on our hands.’’
! Terry blinked, trying to rid his eyes of their bleariness. ‘’What do you mean, a riot? Here? Seriously?’’
! ‘’It’s true.’’ Daniel said soberly. ‘’Take a look.’’ He passed Terry his phone. Terry took it and saw that he had been looking at online local news articles, each one about the same thing. Small groups of thugs had sprung up at numerous locations spread out all across the city and had taken to attacking whatever was within reach, whether they be stores, cars, public property, or even the unfortunate civilian who had happened to be the wrong place at the wrong time, and then fleeing as quickly as they could. Terry had a hard time believing it as he skimmed the articles, some automatically updating themselves as he went. Marine Cove was the third largest city in the country: he just couldn’t imagine something like this could happen here.
! ‘’What’s especially worrisome is the level of coordination.’’ Davidmen began to say once Terry handed Daniel back his phone. ‘’Pulling off something like this would be very difficult – lots of planning would have had to be done.’’
! Terry could clearly see the lines around Nova’s set mouth, and thus could make a pretty good educated guess as to what he was thinking. But could The Beings really be behind this? He wanted to dismiss the idea as sounding silly, but then, Nova had been involved with them far longer than he had. He would know the ways that they operated and thought.
! Davidmen’s radio let out a series of loud beeps and he pulled the receiver from the clip on his shoulder up to his mouth. ‘’Yes, this is Davidmen, I copy. Yes, I have them assembled. I see…yes… Roger, we’re on our way.’’ He replaced the receiver and looked up to address the others in the room.
! ‘’All right, I’ve just received deployment orders.’’ he said. ‘’There’ve been at least forty-one reported incidents so far. They’re mostly small groups that flee once they catch sign of the police or riot squad, but there have been a few that try to fight back, and there are two locations right now that want you helping with their investigations. Eaves, you’re to go with Officer Manbel to Trettor St.’’ He nodded towards one of the two other officers seated as he spoke. Terry tried to think back to his early days in the city when Daniel and Akira were trying to show him around. If he remembered correctly, Trettor St. wasn’t actually very far from the dorm, and it sat at the base of the Gates Hill district.
! ‘’Bown and Kamiya,’’ Davidmen continued. ‘’you two will go with Officer Dutis to Ward St. in Wards Square southwest of here.’’
! Both Nova and Akira nodded in acknowledgement, though neither appeared to be all that enthusiastic about having to work with the other.
! ‘’I have to head out myself.’’ Davidmen finished, standing up and straightening out his jacket. ‘’Let’s go people, every second counts.’’
! Terry and the others were led out to the small alleyway parking lot behind the building where two police cruisers waited. It was much like they had been on the night of their first mission against The Beings, only now there was a greater sense of urgency in the air. As before, they were given safety vests to put on under their jackets. Terry noticed that despite the chilly air, Nova wasn’t wearing his jacket having instead elected to tie it around his waist, leaving his bare arms exposed. Terry decided to chalk it up to being an accommodation for the nature of his senior’s powers.
! ‘’Hey, good luck.’’ Akira said to Terry, waving weakly as he bent down to slide into Officer Dutis’s cruiser.
! ‘’Yeah, you guys too.’’ Terry replied, trying to sound casual about the whole thing, though he was a little concerned that his friend still appeared to be very drowsy-eyed. Nova, for his part, nodded silently in acknowledgement.
! As soon as Terry had buckled into the passenger seat of his cruiser, Officer Manbel swung into the driver’s seat and began to fire up the engine and pull out. He switched on the car’s radio and began to offer assurances to the dispatcher that he was en route with Terry. As they drove through the city streets, Terry listened to the reports of vandalism and violence he heard over the radio, though it was too scratchy for him to be able to make out anything more than the occasional snippet, though Manbel appeared to have no problems understanding them.
! ‘’Damn kids.’’ he muttered, face furrowed into an expression that could only be called surly as he gripped the steering wheel.
! ‘’Has something like this ever happened before?’’ Terry ventured to ask.
! ‘’Of course not.’’ Manbel replied. It was clear from his tone of voice that he was quite angry over this whole matter, yet was trying, partially unsuccessfully, to regulate his emotions. ‘’We’ve had a few incidents of unrest in the past, but not like this. This was calculated and planned out. It’s an act of terrorism!’’ As if to punctuate his words, a report of an apparent case of arson came over on the radio. ‘’I can’t believe this.’’ Manbel grumbled. ‘’We’re the Founder States for crying out loud!’’
! They drove for a few minutes more before Manbel pulled the car over to the side of the road and gestured for Terry to get out with him. The intersection ahead was blocked off by police barriers and other pulled-up police cruisers. A squad of policemen, several of whom were decked out in riot gear, were stationed nearby, several of whom were talking to a small group of civilians who had apparently been witness to whatever crime had taken place here.
! Upon disembarking, Manbel led Terry over to the gray-haired officer who was apparently the most senior of those present. ‘’Captain Pastor,’’ Manbel reported to him. ‘’I’ve brought the Stargazer, sir.’’
! ‘’Thank you.’’ Pastor was a stocky, barrel-shaped man. He actually smiled slightly as he held his hand out. ‘’I’m Captain Gary Pastor, of Marine Cove’s 4th precinct.’’
! Terry took the man’s hand in his own and gave it a brief shake. After experiencing Davidmen’s professional coldness, this officer’s cordiality was an unexpected surprise. ‘’I’m Terrence Eaves of Trident, I suppose.’’ he replied.
! ‘’How old are you, kid?’’ one of the other officers said, voice filled with skepticism. Clearly he had expected more in the way of backup than a single teenager.
! ‘’He’s a Stargazer, you can’t judge him just by his looks.’’ Pastor told the doubting officer before turning back towards Terry. ‘’There’s something very important that I want you to help us with.’’ Terry nodded in understanding.
! ‘’They caught us flat-footed.’’ Pastor began to explain. He gestured towards the neighborhood, and Terry beheld the damage that had been inflicted upon it. Cars had been beaten and dented, with windows shattered, as if beaten with blunt instruments. Street-level businesses which hadn’t been shuttered had had their displays smashed and broken into as well, leaving the street and sidewalks sprinkled with shards of glass, glinting in the light from the streetlamps and the police cruisers’ siren lights. The aftermath of the attack on the battered street, by seemingly invisible assailants, felt quite surreal.
! ‘’Right now, my men are stretched thin patrolling and investigating the surrounding neighborhoods and trying to apprehend any stragglers.’’ Pastor continued. ‘’What I want you to do is help search for one of my men who has gone missing. Can I trust you with this responsibility?’’
Terry nodded. ‘’Yes sir.’’ He didn’t need to read into the man’s expression or tone to understand how serious and important this request was, and he felt bound to live up to this man’s expectations, which were clearly high.
! Pastor smiled at him. ‘’Thank you very much, Mr. Eaves.’’ His expression than became more serious. ‘’The missing officer’s name is Robert Pool. He went off to investigate the area around Gates Park, but didn’t return when I recalled everyone. His uniform has orange highlights, just like mine does, and his identification number,’’ He brought a finger to an ID number stitched onto one of his bulky vest’s pockets. ‘’is MC4-377.’’ he said. ‘’I hope that his radio’s just broken, but if it’s something worse…’’
! ‘’Right.’’ Terry told him. ‘’I understand. How should I contact you if I find him?’’
! ‘’Ah, of course.’’ Pastor held up a hand to beckon one of the officers forward and took from him a small walkie-talkie. ‘’Use this to contact me if either you find Officer Pool or you need some kind of assistance.’’ Terry nodded and slipped the device into one of his jacket’s inside pockets.
! ‘’Can we really leave it to him?’’ the officer who had brought over the walkie-talkie asked, dubiously.
! ‘’I asked for his help because I believe that we can.’’ Pastor answered his doubting subordinate evenly. ‘’As a member of Trident he serves the same cause that we do, to protect this city and its people. I want you to treat him the same you would one of your own comrades.’’
! The doubting officer backed down at this, and Pastor leaned down closer to Terry so that he couldn’t be overheard. ‘’I’m sorry about that.’’
! ‘’No, it’s okay.’’ the teenager replied. ‘’I don’t really blame them, to be honest.’’ After all, ‘unlikely’ would be the perfect word to describe his situation.
! But there wasn’t really much time for any further self-reflection. Since most of Captain Pastor’s men were already occupied with their duties, only a limited area could be effectively searched with the ones that were still available. Terry ended up on his own, instructed to search the length of Necks St., which led up to Pendis Park, located at the north edge of Gates Hill.
! As he went up the hill he moved at a steady, brisk speed, fast enough to cover the ground assigned to him at a brisk pace but still slow enough to search for the missing policemen as he went. He checked side alleys and building alcoves, and asked anyone that he came across wandering the street if they had seen a lost policeman. Unfortunately, none of the people that he encountered were of much help to him, as most were either justifiably preoccupied, didn’t know anything, or simply blew him off.
! Terry couldn’t really blame them for being like that, though. He’d be quite worried himself if a similar riot had occurred in his hometown. However, as Marine Cove wasn’t his birthplace he felt a sense of detachment towards this incident, despite the occasional reminders upon coming across scenes of hasty vandalism. So far he hadn’t witnessed any violence first-hand, nor seen any of the shadowy attackers. It was a strange feeling, to be both aware and unaware of the crisis.
! At the top of the hill the neighborhood opened up into a square with a medium-sized park area, whose center rest area was built into the ground, roughly ten feet below street level. This was Pendis Park. No one was around, leaving a disconcertingly eerie silence in the air, especially considering that this was considered part of the downtown. Looking up at the night sky Terry could see that Heion was full, and considering the events that were transpiring he couldn’t help but be reminded of the old superstition of full moons being ill portents.
! He still didn’t see any sign of the missing police officer from just a quick scan, but the park wasn’t very big, so Terry decided that he’d quickly look around the lower portion before heading back to the rendezvous point. Quickly, he hurried down one of the descending stairs to the lower level. He didn’t see anything at first, but then by one of the corners, feebly illuminated by one of the park’s lampposts, he could see something poking out from behind a stone block. It was an outstretched hand.
! Heart sinking, Terry ran to find the hand attached to the body of a police officer lying face-down on the ground. He had lost his hat but just as Terry feared he spotted the orange stripes that had been pointed out to him. Judging from how the man was splayed out on the ground it was possible that he had fallen from the upper level. At first Terry feared that he was dead, but as he knelt down by the body he heard faint breathing and realized that he was just simply unconscious, perhaps rendered so by his fall.
! Relieved, Terry reached out to try to rouse the officer, but then stopped short as he suddenly became aware that his nostrils had picked up some kind of scent, one that felt very familiar for some reason. He took a moment to realize that it smelt almost like cooking food, but where could it be coming from…?
! A jolt of realization struck him, followed by a wave of revulsion as he glanced at the further reaches of the officer’s body. Part of his right pant leg looked like it had been seared away, and the bare skin beneath was covered in a large, ugly, blistering burn – as if it had undergone direct exposure to flame. In addition, the heavy material of his boot appeared to have been warped and partially melted, fused to the skin in a grotesque manner.
! Terry recoiled and took a few steps backwards, trying to get the now-sickly stench out of his nostrils to no avail. His mind instantly leapt to the serial burner that he had heard about, and he whirled his head around, looking for some trace or evidence of the perpetrator, but as before there was no one else around that he could see, at least on this level.
! ‘’Shit, shit, shit…’’ he muttered to himself, trying to keep panic out of his mind. He had been startled by the discovery, and there was a chance that the serial burner, if indeed the perpetrator was the same, was still nearby. But despite that, he had found the officer, and if he moved fast, there would be no lasting damage done. He bent down again to try and rouse the officer once more, but then reasoned that he should probably call for help first. He was reaching for his walkie-talkie when he heard a voice that was smug, high-spirited, and most surprising of all to him, distinctly female: ‘’What have we here? Is this one actually going to let me have some fun?’’
! Terry looked up to see a young woman who wasn’t there before standing at the top of the ledge almost directly above him. Without warning she jumped down, forcing him to dive out of the way before transitioning into a roll and coming up on his feet.
! ‘’Nice, you’re quick on your feet.’’ the woman commented as she dusted off her pants after her landing. Sizing her up, Terry could see that she was somewhat tall for a female, at least an inch or two taller than himself, and quite skinny to boot, evidenced by her long legs, thin waist, and general lacking in terms of figure. Despite the chilly night air she was only wearing a thin sleeveless shirt that didn’t even fully cover her midriff and low-riding pants.
! ‘’What, are you surprised that I’m a woman?’’ she smirked, beholding Terry’s face – a mixture of uncertainly and tense apprehension – with her eyes, which were green like Terry’s but much more vivid, almost unnaturally so, like a cat’s.
! ‘’Who the hell are you?!’’ Terry demanded, keeping his voice as calm and steady as he could given the circumstances. ‘’Look, I don’t have time to deal with you, I need –‘’
! The young woman sneered, her wild black hair and bangs giving her a fierce countenance. ‘’My name’s Sayren. Remember it, for I’m going to carve a crest of fear into this city!’’
! What the hell is up with her?! Terry took a cautionary step backwards towards a nearby stairwell, away from the person standing opposite him. Going by her words, this girl had to be the culprit, but she wasn’t carrying anything that could inflict burns, like chemicals, or lighter fluid, or even a blowtorch. This meant that she had to be the rumored second Stargazer that Mr. Gerald had told him about, most likely a Leo.
! ‘’What’s the matter, kid? Scared?’’ Sayren asked, noting Terry’s slow retreat. ‘’Why didn’t you show up where you were supposed to, huh?! I hate having to rely on luck to find prey, you know.’’
! Terry ignored her words. ‘’Step away from that man, now!’’ he commanded. Sayren stood in between him and the fallen officer, and he had to do whatever he could to get her away lest she inflict greater injury on him.
! ‘’You’re worried about him?’’ Sayren asked, her unpleasant, mocking tone filling Terry’s ears. ‘’This worm who passed out after I gave him only a simple little singe?’’ She punctuated her sentence with a derisive nod of her chin in the officer’s direction.
! ‘’I said to step away, dammit!’’ Terry repeated, raising his voice and letting a few sparks crackle down his arm. ‘’I need to get him medical attention!’’
! Sayren smirked at his little display of his powers. ‘’That’s not going to scare me, Eavesy.’’
! Deciding not to let himself get distracted by the question of how on Lagoon she knew his name, Terry shot his hand into his jacket’s pocket and pulled out the walkie-talkie and thumbed the button. ‘’I’m at Pendis Park with the serial burner! Hurry!’’ he shouted into it.
! ‘’Calling for reinforcements? How cowardly.’’
! Terry had no idea how long it would take Captain Pastor and his men to arrive, but he prayed that it would be soon. Backing even further away, he desperately darted his head around, hoping that there was someone, anyone nearby that he could call to. But there was still no one, and there was no way Sayren was going to back down. Turning back to face her, he realized that it was all up to him to stall, or even fight, this sadistic woman until help arrived.
! ‘’What’s wrong?’’ Sayren continued to taunt. ‘’Deck told me that you were spoiling for a fight when he first met you.’’
! ‘’You know Deck?’’ Terry asked, hardly feeling surprised at this. ‘’You a member of The Beings too?’’
! ‘’Say that again and I’ll rip you to frickin’ shreds, asshole!’’ Sayren snapped, her dark face suddenly warping into a grotesque mask of fury. ‘’I would never dare to lower myself to taking orders from anyone, let alone a scumbag like him!’’
! ‘’And yet you’re still in cahoots with him, aren’t you!’’ Terry shot back. Pursuing this line of conversation was undoubtedly incredibly very dangerous given Sayren’s apparently volatile temper, but it was the only thing he had to go on. He had to stall for as long as he could. ‘’Why the hell would you do that if you hate him so much then, huh?!’’
! Sayren’s green eyes flashed unpleasantly, but her tone calmed down considerably. ‘’Deck wants my power, thinks he’ll be unbeatable with it.’’ she said. ‘’I don’t care about what he wants, or what he’s doing right now,’’ She made a sweeping gesture with her arms to take in the city as she said this. ‘’
! I just want to see people fear me and pissing their pants. Taking down the new Stargazer cell that everyone on the street’s so terrified of will further that nicely.’’ Her eyes continued to glint as she added: ‘’Taking advantage of Deck’s private war with the city and showing him up is an irresistible bonus, of course.’’
! By now Terry was almost at the foot of the stairs. In truth, he was more than a little unnerved by this woman’s behavior, for he was unused to the idea of dealing with someone who appeared to so readily enjoy violence and maiming, especially from someone who didn’t appear to be much older than he was. But there was too much at stake right now to back down from her, he had to man up and face forward. He stopped his slow retreat and instead flexed his fingers to make sure that they were loosened. This woman was dangerous sure, but he’d been in dangerous situations before, what was one more? He couldn’t allow himself to be fazed.
! Sayren noticed the change in Terry’s posture and expression and gazed back hard at him, assuming a loose stance of her own. ‘’Good.’’ she said, grinning in a manner that could only be called sinister. ‘’Those are nice, determined eyes. I’m gonna enjoy burning those features beyond recognition!’’
! As the police car that Akira and Nova were riding was reaching its destination, a neighborhood quite a ways from the city center, the driver let out a brief cry of surprise as a brick sailed right at him. The projectile was not able to shatter the reinforced windshield, but its impact left a spider web of cracks on the glass. The car swung to a sudden stop, wheels screeching in protest. The officers flung the doors open and Nova sprang out, his Stargazer power already activated. Down the street there were a small group of hoodlums fleeing a row of smashed park cars as fast as they could. The ruined vehicles’ alarms blared incessantly, shattering the night air. The hoodlums were way too far away to catch now, save for one who was holding back, fumbling with something in his hands.
! A firebomb! Nova realized as he saw a brief flash from the hoodlum’s clumsy attempts to light his homemade bomb with a lighter. ‘’Dammit, if only I had something that was long-ranged!’’
! ‘’Wait, I think I can get him!’’ Akira shouted. Springing forward with uncharacteristic agility, he pulled back his arm and thrust his fist forward with all the might that he could muster. Funneled by his arm, and propelled by his punch’s momentum, a strong gust of wind blasted forward, blowing dirt and tiny glass shards into the air as it traveled. The hoodlum staggered as he was buffeted by the airburst, causing him to drop his bomb, spilling fuel all over his feet.
! Nova was already darting ahead. The hoodlum panicked and snatched up the wooden beam that he had been using to smash up the cars, but one strike against Nova’s armored arm splintered it. A quick flurry of motion on Nova’s part and the thug was down on the ground, pinned helplessly by the Stargazer.
! ‘’Lemme go, bastard!’’ the hapless punk wailed, struggling in vain as Officer Dutis slapped a pair of handcuff on him.
! ‘’Damn, I had hoped that that would’ve been stronger.’’ Akira was muttering to himself as he caught up. ‘’I hope the rest get caught.’’ he commented as several other police officers hurried down the street in pursuit of the attackers that had gotten away. He surveyed the battered cars, taking in the mess before him. ‘’Geez, what a –‘’
! He stopped speaking when he saw that Nova was scrutinizing the captured punk’s face. The bandanna that he had been using to conceal his face had slipped down around his chin, revealing a pock-marked face. It was apparently one that Nova recognized, but has having a little difficulty placing.
! ‘’Trick?’’ he said at last, leaning in even closer to the delinquent’s face.
! ‘’I don’t think this is a trick.’’ Akira commented, slow to catch on.
! ‘’No, not that!’’ Nova snapped at him. ‘’This guy’s from The Beings.’’
! ‘’Really? He’s pretty scrawny compared to the guys I saw at their hideout.’’ Akira quipped as an officer relieved Nova of the delinquent and brought him to his feet.
! ‘’Wait a moment.’’ Nova told the officer as he was about to lead Trick into one of the police cruisers. ‘’Where’s Deck? He’s somewhere out here tonight, isn’t he?’’
! ‘’Like hell I’m going to tell you! I’m not a traitor like you!’’ Trick spat, continuing to squirm futilely against Nova’s renewed grip. ‘’I hope you get what’s coming to you, bastard!’’
! Nova heaved a small sigh and bent down to bring his face level with Trick’s. ‘’Look, I’m not in the mood for this.’’ he said in a quiet, threatening voice. ‘’If you know anything about Deck or cohorts’ whereabouts, this is your chance to spill it. Things will be easier on you if you do.’’
! ‘’I really don’t know where he is, only some of the officers do!’’ the young punk sputtered, his earlier defiant tone switching to a panicked one.
! ‘’He’s lying.’’ Akira said with a sense of finality, as if that was that.
! ‘’I don’t think so.’’ Nova muttered as he let Trick go. ‘’I remember him now. He was one of those guys that Deck didn’t trust, and so got left out of the loop on things. I had hoped that things had changed, but I guess not.’’ It didn’t really come as a surprise to him that The Beings were behind the upraising all across the city, but at the same time he couldn’t help but be amazed at how brazen this was. Damn you Deck, you’ve let your ego completely take over, haven’t you?
‘’Dammit…’’ Trick moaned as he was led into the car. ‘’I hope that Deck or Sayren get their hands on you, Nova! It’ll serve you right for betraying us!’’ He continued to hurl abuse, but his words were cut off as the officer slammed the door shut.
! ‘’Sayren? Who’s that?’’ Akira frowned.
! ‘’There’s no one in The Beings with a name like that, at least to my knowledge.’’ Nova muttered, thinking hard. This Sayren being mentioned in the same breath as Deck, the only one of The Beings who would willingly fight another Stargazer, set off alarm bells in his mind. He didn’t know anyone by that name, so this person had to be a newcomer. In addition, he’d heard plenty of rumors that Deck had been trying to recruit the second Stargazer that was alleged to be in the city, who was also possibly one-and-the-same as the serial burner…
! ‘’Huh? What’s wrong with you?’’ Akira tilted his head to the side a bit as he noticed the look of severe consternation sinking into Nova’s normally-stoic expression.
! ‘’I think things have just gotten a lot more complicated…’’ Nova growled, gazing back towards the distant lights of the city center, whose tranquil illumination masked the struggles that were occurring in its depths.
! Terry had managed to get almost all the way up the stairs to street level when Sayren made her move. She sprang forward and stuck out her arm in his direction. He recognized the danger and darted to the side. As he did so he felt a blast of scalding air graze his cheek. Despite being buffeted he was unharmed by the air blast, but then he saw that the grass that had been along its path had been withered brown in an instant and realized just how lucky he had been.
! Terry let himself crackle with electricity and threw an electrified kick at his opponent. Sayren deftly moved out of the way and took several clumsy swipes back at him. Despite the lack of finesse, Terry knew that making physical contact with her was very dangerous and did his best to stay out of her range. She did manage to grab a hold of his forearm at one point, but a single jolt of electricity was enough to dislodge her.
! ‘’Not many people actually try to fight back against me.’’ Sayren observed, catching her breath as she inadvertently wrung her no-doubt numbed hand. ‘’You actually have some balls compared to the others.’’
! Terry said nothing as he continued to glare at the deviant young woman before him. Her reflexes were good, but she didn’t appear to have much in the way of technique. Normally such an opponent wouldn’t be that difficult for him to subdue, but her power, as the now-stifling air constantly reminded him, made physical contact highly risky. Instead of martial arts, his electrical powers would be his best bet, but he still wasn’t as used to them in a fight as he would like.
! Eyes turning blue, he threw out a bolt of electricity that snaked across the ground towards Sayren, burning the tips of the grass blades that it passed over. His aim wasn’t perfect, allowing Sayren to hop to the side with nothing more than tickled feet. She clenched her fist and went right for Terry’s face. Normally he would laugh if someone so scrawny tried to do that, but he could see the distortion of air around her fist and wisely moved well out of the way, though drops of sweat began to trickle down his face as he felt its searing heat.
! Sayren then threw a kick at him, though since Terry could tell that it was a normal one he caught it with his own foot and repelled it. Seeing his opponent being thrown off balance, Terry took advantage of her distraction and threw a punch that impacted with her lower jaw. She fell back a few steps before regaining her balance and firing back with another blast of superheated air. Since the two of them were so close, Terry dropped to the ground, feeling the hot air tickle his back and scalp.
! ‘’Something’s wrong…’’ Sayren muttered in a dissatisfied tone as her foe jumped back to his feet. ‘’You’ve hardly used your Stargazer power, barely fought except in defense… You aren’t fighting at full strength. Killing you like this won’t be any fun…’’
! Terry was trying to regulate his breathing as he regained his fighting posture. He didn’t like where this was going, and just as well, for a sly, evil grin slowly spread across Sayren’s face and suddenly she swung back towards the sunken level of the park.
! Terry felt the bottom drop out of his stomach as he realized her intention and took off after her, coaxing every last bit of speed out of his body as he could. He heard a cry of surprise as he jumped down off of the ledge, not even bothering with the stairs, and saw that Sayren had grabbed the police officer by the collar of his uniform. He was now wide away, the expression on his face mixed with pain and wide-eyed terror.
! ‘’Let him go, now!’’ Terry shouted at her. He couldn’t do anything else, for he didn’t dare make any sudden moves or shoot electricity as long as she had a hostage.
! ‘’Run, kid!’’ the officer managed to shout at him, his voice carrying inflections of terror. ‘’She’s a Stargazer, you can’t do anything!’’
! ‘’I said, let him do!’’ Terry shouted again, painfully aware of how lame he was sounding.
! Sayren said nothing. Instead, the blackest smile that Terry had ever seen spread across her face. Her eyes turned blue, and her free hand and forearm began to glow brightly, like a red-hot branding iron. Terry opened his mouth to shout something out as he began to put his feet forward, but his movements felt retarded, like he was moving through water, while Sayren was at full speed. The officer’s hand scrambled towards his gun holster, but he never got the chance to use it, for Sayren grabbed his face.
! There was a horrible sizzling sound as the policeman let out an agonized scream. Sayren withdrew her glowing hand when she saw Terry move towards her and shoved the man’s body in his direction and hopped backwards herself. Terry staggered under the man’s dead weight as he fell into his arms. The man appeared to still be alive, but was falling into shock, and one look and whiff at what was left of the side of his face made Terry feel like throwing up.
! He settled the body against the wall and whirled to face the evil woman standing nearby, his eyes blazing with green fire. Her body and posture hung somewhat limply, while her dark bangs obscured most of her face save for her mouth, which was curled in a slight smile.
! ‘’Damn you…’’ Terry muttered, anger seething from him and threatening to explode.
! Sayren let out a little giggle, a disarmingly girlish act. ‘’Heh heh… Isn’t it great?’’ she asked, turning to look at Terry in the eyes, her own looking somewhat deranged. ‘’Now even if he survives, he’ll always bear a great scar. Cuts, bruises, even broken bones will eventually heal and be forgotten, but not something of this magnitude. That’s why I love this power; I can inflict pain that will never fade.’’
! Terry knew that she was trying to goad him into attacking, and while he really, really wanted to, the injured officer was more important. It felt like it had been forever since he had called for backup, where were they?
! Sayren’s body stiffened into a fighting stance again. ‘’This is it, Eavesy.’’ she grinned. ‘’All or nothing. If you don’t want to die, you better fight your little ass off!’’
! Again she bolted forward, arms outstretched. Terry ducked down below her reach, planted both of his hands solidly on the concrete ground, and kicked both of his feet upward, catching Sayren underneath the chin and almost knocking her to the ground.
! ‘’That’s a little better.’’ she wheezed, massaging her neck. ‘’Looks like the burn ward’s gonna get an extra patient tonight.’’
! Terry opened his mouth to retort but closed it almost immediately, both because he realized the futility and because his ears caught the distinctive wail of a police siren, at last.
! Sayren heard it too, and looked up in the direction of the noise, her eyes darting back-and-forth from Terry to the sky. She cursed viciously and made a dash for one of the stairwells. At first Terry was surprised to see her turn tail, but then he too bolted after her. After what she’d done tonight he felt obligated to at least prevent her from escaping.
! Sayren had almost made it to the sidewalk when three police cruisers came hurtling around the corner and came to a screeching stop at the park’s entrance, blockading her path. She threw an arm up to shield herself from the glare from the headlights as officers jumped out of their vehicles and pointed their weapons at her, using the open car doors for cover.
! ‘’Hands in the air, now!’’ Terry recognized that it was Captain Pastor who was shouting. ‘’She’s the serial burner, right?’’ he yelled to Terry when he recognized him.
! ‘’Right!’’ Terry shouted back. ‘’She’s also a Leo Stargazer!’’
! Pastor nodded and turned back towards Sayren. ‘’I said hands in the air!’’
! Slowly, Sayren complied and raised her arms above her head. Terry was behind her so he couldn’t see her face, but her body language was telling him that she wasn’t taking this seriously, even with the officers’ guns trained on her.
! ‘’Oh well, looks like I’ve been caught by those who couldn’t even capture Deck.’’ the thinly-dressed young woman sighed, glancing over her shoulder at Terry. The sarcastic cavalierness in her voice was more than palpable, and Terry couldn’t understand how she could be so defiant given the situation. But then he noticed that he visible eye was still Stargazer blue.
! Her powers were activated, but she didn’t appear to actually be doing anything. What was she planning now, Terry tried to puzzle out. The air was still deathly silent, with only the idling of the car engines disrupting the night.
! Idling… His eyes went wide as he realized what she was doing. ‘’Get away from the cars, now!’’ He shouted towards the policemen.
! ‘’Why?’’ one of them asked, confused.
! ‘’Just do it!’’
! Pastor looked puzzled, but still did as he was advised and began to pull his men back. It wasn’t a moment too soon, for a loud booming noise rang out as a gout of flame followed by thick, black smoke simultaneously blasted through the hoods of the three cruisers. The small explosions scattered chunks of debris about and the shockwave bowled the officers over. Even Terry, who was farther way, was staggered by the combined force of the blasts.
! Coughing from inhaling smoke, he managed to look up and see that the front ends of the vehicles had been reduced to blackened, smoldering husks, while the stunned policemen were slowly picking themselves up off of the ground. In the distance rang car alarms disturbed by the sound of the blast, while lights flickered on in buildings nearby. Sayren was nowhere to be seen.
! Dazed, Pastor came slowly over to Terry, waving smoke away with his hand. His hat had been knocked off and his uniform was dirtied, but despite that he appeared to be largely okay. ‘’Are you all right, kid?’’
! ‘’I think so.’’ Terry replied, wincing at the ringing in his ears. He felt rather dizzy, too. ‘’How about you?’’
! ‘’My guys seem to be okay, but I’m calling an ambulance all the same.’’ the older man replied. ‘’Was that girl really the serial burner?’’
! ‘’I’m pretty sure.’’
! ‘’Well, women are just as capable of violent crime as men…’’ Pastor remarked. ‘’I’m surprised that none of her victims came forward with that kind of information, though.’’ he continued. ‘’I guess it helped that most of the people she went after weren’t the sort to go to the police.’’
! ‘’Oh yes!’’ he added suddenly. ‘’Did you find any trace of Officer Pool?’’
! Terry nodded, grimly. ‘’I did, but that girl, Sayren, got him first. He’s…hurt really badly.’’ He pointed towards the park’s lower level. His anger was fading, but now he was feeling really bad over the events that had just happened.
! Pastor nodded and had one of his men go and investigate. Seeing the despondent look on Terry’s face when he looked back, he knelt down, put a hand on the teen’s shoulder, and tried giving him a warm smile. ‘’Hey, don’t feel so down, kid. You fulfilled your duty as well as anyone could’ve asked for.’’
! Terry smiled weakly, but he had a hard time feeling that way.
! Though there were still a few hours to go until sunrise, the eastern sky was beginning to slowly brighten. Deck stood leaning on the guardrail of the Watergate Bridge, the larger of the two pedestrian bridges that connected the North and South sides, gazing out at the brightly-lit skyscrapers past the shoreline.
! ‘’This was a very good night, wouldn’t you say?’’ he asked, turning towards his companions. Behind him stood the massive Tank, Deck’s airheaded floozy of a girlfriend Shine, and Auto, who appeared to be more interested with the traffic than anything else.
! ‘’Of course it was, boss.’’ Tank answered. There had been a few minor hitches in the execution, but so far they had heard remarkable few reports of arrests, and those that had been apprehended were mostly the ones who were at the bottom of the ranks; the inconsequential ones who couldn’t follow instructions. It was good that they were now weeded out.
! ‘’I think we sent a strong message.’’ Deck continued. ‘’I’m really going to look forward to seeing what’s on the news tomorrow.’’
! ‘’Maybe you’ll be on the front page!’’ Shine giggled.
! ‘’Heh, maybe I will.’’ Deck chuckled. He turned to regard the others. ‘’What do you guys think Sayren got up to tonight?’’
! ‘’You know I don’t like it when you talk about her!’’ Shine made a pouty face and grabbed her boyfriend’s arm, making him chuckle again and pat her head in reassurance.
! ‘’Heh, I just feel sorry for whatever sucker crossed her path.’’ Tank declared. ''She's got no mercy for anyone.''
! ‘’Heh, yeah.’’ Deck said. ‘’Well come on guys, let’s get out of here. We’re gonna have a lot to do.’’
! They departed, Shine hanging off of Deck’s arm and Tank following in his wake. Auto lingered for a moment, looking out across the river beneath. Taking one last drag of the cigarette he was smoking, he turned and headed off in the opposite direction, tossing the cigarette over the bridge and into the water.

I wrote this one in so many different places, my room, on the train, my dorm, on the john… This chapter really got around.

I was rather amused when I consulted the calender I'm using to line up the days and saw that the full moon fell on the date that I had already arbitrarily chosen for Landing Day. Neat little coincidence.

I'm thinking of working on some supplementary material for the world, like an atlas/encyclopedia. For the purposes of fleshing out some parts of the world and universe that are outside the current scope of Terry and co. Yay or nay?

[gottalt3OP]

yay! I always like reading atlas and encyclopedias. I think it would be a good thing as long as you don't spoil things that would have a greater impact in the actual story.

I'll read this later, I'm in a bit of a hurry :3.

[Crossword]

Nah, I won't show anything that'll spoil future events, though maybe I could introduce potential Chekov's guns or something. The encyclopedia's focus will be on general world and history building, since the focus of this story will remain in Marine Cove. I do have ideas for more stories though, so we'll see if I ever get around to committing them to paper.

[ChesCa]

Finally did Chapter 11! (I'll get to 12 after I get back from something).

The only real comment I have is that the tagging of the door should be a little more threatening. It isn't bad as is (it's actually pretty good), but when you find out that it's the Beings' way of declaring war the reader should get somewhat of a clench in their stomach or something. In your rewrite just add a little more to make the Beings much more fearsome before reaching that part. Then again, I could be just nitpicky. I loved getting the names dropped of the founding members of the Beings. I hope to see at least two more of them at some point.

Btw, did you make any significant rewrites recently you want me to look at?

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

Chapter 12 I have no big critiques in particular, just that when you rewrite take care of those spelling errors and redundancies (or overuse of words in certain parts. Those too).
Saeryn's fight was pretty sweet, and I am looking forward to what the aftermath will bring us. I'm also hoping Deck has an ultimate plan in mind, with the riots being step one.

[Crossword]

Finally, I have a chance to respond.

Aside from some minor additions and rewrites to the first two chapters that were submitted to the monthly contest, I haven't made any major changes to the story so far. I think after I finish off the last two chapters in my old notebook I'll give the others a once over and see if I want to revise anything.

It's encouraging to know that the action scenes have been all right so far.

[Crossword]

Chapter 13: Two Kinds of People

! Almost two days later there were still plenty of signs of the upheaval that had taken place remaining. To begin with, there was a noticeably-increased police presence on the streets, and a couple of damaged side streets were still closed off for cleanup. The local news had been covering the story almost non-stop throughout the day, accompanied with plenty of debate and finger-pointing amongst city and law enforcement officials over who was responsible for letting something of this magnitude occur, with the chief-of-police coming under the heaviest amount of fire.
! It had only taken what felt like a few hours for The Beings to become almost a household name. Lots of people were discussing them in the real world and on message boards online, many in apprehensive tones. Those who had been aware of the city’s gang problem claimed that they had seen something like this coming from miles away, while the formerly-ignorant majority was quite alarmed at the previously-hidden scale of the threat. If Deck’s plan had been to sow confusion and fear throughout the city, he hadn’t done a very bad job of it.
! It was this atmosphere that Terry and his friends returned to school on the 9th under. Aside from an extra handful of police officers patrolling Marine Cove Academy’s entrance though, they didn’t see much change from what was the norm in student behavior this early in the morning. People were filing to homerooms, getting a late breakfast in the cafeteria, grouping in halls to talk and gossip, or conferring with teachers before the day began. It wasn’t until Terry and Akira got to their homeroom that they noticed anything out of the ordinary.
! ‘’Yo.’’ Bar said listlessly as he saw the two, weakly raising his arm in greeting.
! ‘’You don’t look very good.’’ Terry noted as he laid his bag down on his own desk. Normally, Bar was active and bursting with energy, even during the early mornings. In fact, Terry couldn’t recall a time when the teenager hadn’t.
! ‘’I was up real late watching the news.’’ Bar replied, yawning for effect. ‘’One of the riots wasn’t very far from my dorm. How did you guys fare?’’
! ‘’Our neighborhood was mostly okay.’’ Akira answered him. ‘’There were a couple of incidents not too far away, though.’’
! ‘’First the serial burner, and now this…’’
! ‘’Tell me about it.’’ Akira sighed. ‘’Freaky how all this shit’s been happening lately, isn’t it?’’
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Bar nodded. ‘’I mean, I knew that there was a bit of a gang problem in certain parts of the city, but I didn’t think I’d ever see something like this.’’
! ‘’It’s a real wake-up call, isn’t it?’’ Terry said, sitting down in his seat. ‘’It’s pretty easy to dismiss stuff like this until its shoved right back in your face.’’
! ‘’They were called The Beings, weren’t they?’’ Bar asked, scratching the short fuzz of hair on his scalp. ‘’That’s not a very intimidating name for a gang, is it?’’ He paused for a moment, a thought having struck him. ‘’Actually, what they did makes them more like terrorists, doesn’t it?’’
! Terry had both seen and heard that order bandied around quite a bit in the news reports that he had been inundated with during the previous day, generally in the same tone that one would use for a four-lettered expletive. It was strong language, but it wasn’t really that far off the mark when it came to describing what had occurred. The actions that he and his fellow Trident companions had witnessed had served no point, no purpose other than to spread fear.
! ‘’Hey, have you heard?’’ Fendo Hiozy, being seated right behind Bar, had begun to listen in on their conversation. ‘’I’ve seen some people claim that the leader of The Beings is a Stargazer!’’
! The mention of that single word caused the general torpor of the members of class who were present to lift. Several students broke off from their own private conversations to look up, the glassy look in Karen’s eyes disappeared, poor neurotic Christian nearly fell out of his chair, Steven and Vanon visibly gulped, looks of deep concern spread over the faces of Samuel and Carrie, while Akira started looking quite uncomfortable, just as he had after he had first told Terry that very same piece of information. For his part, Terry decided to put on a subtly dubious expression.
! Bar’s reaction was by far the most extreme of all. He practically leapt straight up to his feet, his earlier drowsiness completely forgotten.
! ‘’There’s a Stargazer in the city?!’’ he exclaimed.
! ‘’Uh…that’s what I’ve heard.’’ Fendo answered apprehensively, apparently regretting revealing this.
! ‘’Hey, that reminds me…’’ Sinclaire took out her phone and began fiddling with it. ‘’I think I read a blog post yesterday about how someone had claimed to have seen some person blow up some police cars during the riots.’’
! ‘’Seriously, there's two?! I can’t believe the city just lets them run around.’’ Bar muttered, his normally-cheerful face covered in a dark glower.
! ‘’You…don’t like Stargazers?’’ Samuel ventured cautiously.
! ‘’Who would? They’re criminals and freaks!’’ Bar answered bitingly.
! ‘’No need to snap at me, dude!’’ Samuel said, a little disconcerted at his classmate’s sudden outburst.
! ‘’But not all Stargazers are criminals.’’ Karen spoke up, an action that was quite unlike her. ‘’There are plenty of Stargazers that are part of defense or rescue services.’’
! ‘’And how often do you hear of those ‘good’ ones?’’ came Bar’s dismissive answer.
! ‘’Well, yeah, what makes a better story?’’ Steven spoke up. ‘’Something that’s feel-good or something that’s provocative and dark?’’
! ‘’But it’s not fair to just…ignore that and view them all as criminals and monsters just because a few of them are bad! They’re humans too, you know, and before they got their powers they were normal people just like us!’’
! Bar was unshaken by Karen’s protests. ‘’I wouldn’t call someone with powers like they have ‘normal’.’’ he retorted. ‘’Why are you trying to apologize for them anyway? I mean, seriously, why?’’
! ‘’Well, I…’’ Karen looked very embarrassed. ‘’Sometimes I think that it might be cool to be a Stargazer…’’ She trailed off, her face going bright red. The rest of the class, Terry and Akira exempted, couldn’t do nothing but chuckle and snigger at this admission.
! ‘’Seriously?!’’ Bar threw his head back and laughed the hardest of all, putting one hand on his desk to steady himself. ‘’That’s such a stupid thing to dream of! Not to mention childish!’’ As he continued to go on, the class’s amusement began to diminish.
! ‘’Why would you want to be like them, anyway?!’’ he demanded, anger creeping back into his voice. ‘’You think they’re cool, do you look up to them?!’’ He pointed towards the classroom’s windows and the cityscape visible beyond. ‘’You’ve lived in this city your whole life, haven’t you? You’ve seen what that gang did to it? You wanna be a terrorist too, do you?!’’
! By now the class’s amusement had completely vanished, replaced by an awkward silence. Poor Karen’s face had gone beet red. Wilting under Bar’s tirade, she lowered her head in embarrassment and shame so that her hat and bangs covered her eyes. Up until now, Terry had remained silent and impassive, but now he had decided that Bar had gone far enough.
! ‘’Lay off her Bar.’’ he spoke up, turning a well-practiced glare on his classmate.
! ‘’But –‘’ Bar began to talk back, but he went silent as Terry rose up from his desk to his full height and glared down at the shorter boy.
! ‘’Look, I don’t know what kind of beef you have with Stargazers, but you have no right to pick on her like that. It doesn’t make you look better than them, it makes you look like a jackass.’’ Terry said, voice tranquil and dangerous. It wasn’t that Bar was unknowingly maligning him that was making him angry, but that he was witnessing someone that he considered a friend morph into a bully and spew forth words that were unabashedly hateful.
! Bar opened his mouth to protest, but upon seeing Terry’s glare and realizing that the atmosphere of the room was turning against him, he shut it and looked away. ‘’Sorry…’’ he muttered quietly and sat down at his desk and didn’t speak another word.
! Terry sat back down himself and there were a few moments of silence before the rest of the class went back to their interrupted conversations as if nothing had ever happened. Akira nodded towards him in a gesture of approval as he went over to his own desk. Terry looked out and saw that Karen’s face had faded to a hue of pink, though it darkened a shade when their eyes met. Despite her continued bashfulness, she managed to give him a smile that was warm and full of gratitude, a gesture that he returned.
! The rest of the day was largely uneventful, save for Ms. Fencen pushing their History test back a day, though she did give them a hefty writing assignment as if to balance things out, something which Akira and several of the other students complained bitterly about during lunch. Terry decided to get a good portion of it out of the way during his study period in order to keep his mind from straying back to the confrontation from earlier, though his rush to do so meant that it would probably not be the best piece of schoolwork that he had ever turned in. He didn’t really care, though. Once he returned to the dorm he did the rest of his not-inconsiderable amount of homework and then spent a few hours reading a book for his Literature class.
! It was much to his surprise when he ventured a look at his phone and saw that it was now almost ten o’clock at night. He put his book down and scratched his head for a moment, wondering what he should do before deciding to head down to the kitchen to see if there was any food left. Luckily, Daniel, Nova, and Akira had been merciful and hadn’t polished everything off, having left behind a shrink-wrapped dish in the refrigerator for him. As he ate, he found his mind starting to wander back to the events of the last two days. He decided to fall back on his old recourse when it came to muddling out problems: to do it while under the night sky.
! By its very nature, stargazing was an activity that lent itself well to thought and contemplation. It had helped that the night sky above Terry’s hometown was usually deep and resplendent with stars and other celestial phenomena, making it easy for one to get lost in it. The effect wasn’t as potent in a big city like this, admittedly, but it was still something that was worth giving a shot.
! The door to the dorm building’s roof was locked with several old latches that were easy to disengage, though the hinges on the door itself emitted painful squeaks as they went into operation. The night air outside was chilly, as it usually was these days, and Terry could hear the distant honks and grinding of traffic. When he had first come to this city, he had found the city noises to be a nuisance, a constant background irritant, but now he had gotten used to it and had come to intrinsically associate that constant buzz with the city. By now he could no longer imagine it without.
! As he had come to expect, the sky wasn’t as brilliant as he was used to, but looking upwards, he could still make out a few familiar sights up above. His mind once again began to drift back towards the events earlier in the week. After Trident’s unsuccessful deployment early Landing Day morning, he had spent the rest of the morning and into the late afternoon in the custody of the police department, who were feeling quite haggard and battered themselves. He told them all about his clash with Sayren, where he met her, her appearance, her powers, they made him tell them every last detail that he could remember. He didn’t get back to the dorm and see Akira and the others until the evening, where he had to repeat everything to them all over again.
! Daniel and Mr. Gerald had been both relieved and concerned at his tale. Relieved that their guess that the serial burner was a Stargazer had turned out to be the truth, and concerned for both that very same reason, as well as the amount of danger that he had been in. Akira was mainly surprised that a girl was behind all of the burning attacks, while Nova seemed quietly troubled at the implication that she was allied with Deck and The Beings, if only on a tangential basis.
! As for himself, Terry had been unsettled by Sayren’s actions because he had never encountered someone like her before. Her actions were nakedly and pointlessly cruel, and she clearly reveled in partaking in them. He couldn’t help but wonder about such a person’s circumstances; what had made her the way she was. Had she always been like that, or had her behavior been brought on after acquiring her powers? Were Stargazer powers alone capable of producing a person such as her?
! With people like Sayren and Deck in mind, he could certainly see how Bar could harbor intense dislike for Stargazers, though he had without a doubt gone over the line in verbally assaulting Karen for her defense of them. People tended to fear what was unknown to them, and for most people Stargazers were strange, distant beings who were, more often than not, the causes of trouble. He wondered how his classmates would react if they learned that he and Akira were Stargazers themselves. Would they reject and fear their two classmates, or would they look past their abilities and continue to see them as friends? Lots of similar questions drifted through his mind, questions that he didn’t have the answers to.
! More painful creaking wailed cut into his thoughts as the he heard the rooftop door opening once more. It was probably Akira, he decided. Akira seemed to have a kind of unique talent for seeking him out, even when he was looking for seclusion. And sure enough, it was. The Kamaguran teen trooped over to where Terry stood, hugging his arms around his body for warmth.
! ‘’Why isn’t your phone with you?’’ was the first thing he said. He had the look on his face that Terry had come to associate with him wanting something of others.
! He shrugged his shoulders a bit. ‘’You don’t need a phone to find me in the dorm, as you yourself are currently demonstrating.’’ he stated. ‘’Anyway, what’s up?’’
! ‘’Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.’’ Akira dismissed. ‘’Can you help me study for that test tomorrow?’’ he appealed. ‘’I really want to get a good grade on it!’’
! Terry decided that it would be rather mean of him to decline. He forced a bit of a smile. ‘’Sure, I guess so. I’ll be down in a couple minutes.’’
! ‘’What are you doing up here anyway?’’ Akira asked, arching his neck in an inquisitive sort of way as he spoke.
! ‘’Just looking out at the city and the stars.’’
! ‘’Is that stuff really that interesting?’’ Akira frowned and peered skeptically up at the sky, evidentially preferring to keep his interests closer to the ground.
! Terry shrugged his shoulder once again. ‘’I find it interesting.’’ He looked back up at the sky and pointed to one particular dot of light that had just been revealed by the passing of a cloud. ‘’That’s Bas’kad. It completed its transformation into a red giant only three-hundred years ago, and is part of the constellation Ignis the Hero.’’ He pointed to another star. ‘’That’s actually a binary system, meaning that one star’s orbiting another, and that…’’ He pointed towards a particularly bright point of light, sitting in the middle of the sky above blue Heion. ‘’That’s actually Alma-J’sur.’’
! ‘’Huh.’’ Akira said, not sounding particularly impressed. ‘’How many stars are there in the sky?’’
! ‘’Several hundred billion.’’ Terry supplied him. ‘’Though a lot of them are red dwarf stars that we can’t see.’’
! ‘’Red dwarf stars?’’
! ‘’One of the paths an aging star’s lifecycle can take.’’ Terry began to explain to his friend. ‘’When a main-sequence star starts to run out of hydrogen it turns into a red giant. Supergiants eventually go supernova and explode, and their remnants become nebulas, which birth more stars, starting the cycle all over again.’’
! ‘’Will that happen to Al-Shim?’’
! Terry shook his head. ‘’Nah, Al-Shim’s not that kinda star. After its red giant phase it’ll be running on empty and shrink down to a dwarf star, too small and cool to support life any more. Of course, Lagoon will be gone by this point, immolated by Al-Shim when it enters the giant phase.’’
! ‘’Immolated?’’ Akira repeated, unfamiliar with the word.
! ‘’Basically we’ll be consumed by Al-Shim.’’ Terry replied off-handedly. ‘’But it won’t be for billions of years anyway. Mankind will either be extinct or have moved on by then.’’
! ‘’That’s hardly reassuring.’’ Akira scowled. ‘’Especially since you say stuff like that so…so candidly.’’ he finished, finding the word that he was looking for.
! ‘’It certainly puts our problems in perspective, doesn’t it?’’ Akira’s response to that one was a derisive snort, so Terry decided to change the subject. ‘’I like being out here, looking at the sky. There are so many things it helps me think about. It helps me get my mind off of the troubles that are closer to home.’’
! ‘’You aren’t beating yourself up over what happened the other night, are you?’’ Akira asked him, a slight note of caution hiding in his voice.
Terry let out a long sigh to himself upon hearing that question. ‘’No, not particularly. I mean, I do feel pretty bad about what happened, but it’s not so much over what I didn’t do that bothers me as much as what could’ve happened; the what-ifs, I suppose.’’ he answered, borrowing the phrase that Nova had used.
! ‘’I think I see what you’re getting at.’’ Akira nodded, ever so slightly. He had begun to absentmindedly pace. ‘’Still, I can’t believe your luck. Both Deck and the serial burner…you certainly lead a charmed life.’’ He stopped speaking suddenly. ‘’That is the right meaning of the phrase, right?’’
! Terry nodded, smiling slightly, a genuine one this time. It was pretty rare for Akira to use an idiom like that in his speech. ‘’Tell me about it.’’ he said. ‘’I knew going in that leaving home and coming to Marine Cove was going to be the biggest change of my life, hell, that was why I came out here to begin with. I know it sounds cliché, but I never would have expected something like becoming a Stargazer to occur. I still go to school and hang out with my friends like normal people my age, but now it’s like I’m part of a whole different world.
! ‘’Sayren and Deck are sort of like heralds of the darker side of that world. Now I’ve witnessed first-hand the kind of danger that the world of Stargazers can represent. It’s a little disconcerting to be confronted with the realization that, under different circumstances, I could be capable of being like that too.’’
! ‘’You’re worried that you’ll snap or something?’’ Akira frowned, brows beetled to a point.
! ‘’No, no, nothing like that.’’ Terry waved his friend’s misplaced concerns away. ‘’I’m just rambling out loud here, I guess. It’s just that, with people like them around, I can kinda understand why people like Bar feel the way they do.’’
! ‘’Yeah, they ruin our names.’’ Akira agreed. ‘’This morning was honestly the first time that I’ve encountered one of those people face-to-face, and to think that it was one of our friends too…’’
! ‘’I feel you.’’ Terry said, turning his gaze back up towards the sky. It was still true that Bar’s bullying had gotten him angrier than his slandering, but his words still stung a little since they were coming from one of the people whose safety he was supposedly fighting for. ‘’It’s going to be a little difficult to look at Bar the same way again, though.’’
! ‘’Well, I won’t let it get to me.’’ his friend proclaimed, expression unusually stalwart and confident. ‘’The only way we’re gonna change people like Bar’s minds is by putting people like Deck in jail where they belong!’’
! ‘’Too bad we can’t publically take credit for it, huh?’’ Terry said, smiling. ‘’I guess it’s nice knowing that there are people like Karen out there too, huh?’’
! ‘’Yeah, it’s nice.’’ Akira agreed. His expression suddenly perked up, and the old mischievous glint that gave Terry cause for concern filled his eyes. ‘’Did you see how skittish and nervous she was acting around you after what happened this morning? Keep up with the white-knighting, and she’ll probably fall head over heels for you!’’
! Terry rolled his eyes, fazed more by Akira’s continued idiom usage than his teasing. ‘’Whatever you say, Akira.’’
! ‘’Come on, didn’t you say that you wanted to get a girlfriend when you came here?’’
! ‘’I was speaking generally, not specifically,’’
! ‘’And you’re just gonna let opportunities pass you by?’’
! ‘’I don’t see you chasing after anyone.’’
! Akira opened his mouth to fire back, but seemed to realize better and didn’t. There was a moment of silence, and then both boys began to simultaneously snigger to themselves over the inherent futility of the argument. It was the first time that either of them had genuinely laughed or joked over anything since Landing Day, and Terry was grateful for the breaking of the ice, of only for that moment. Sure, their worries hadn’t been fully resolved, but the ability to talk earnestly with one another and share a moment of levity together during such a time was a precious one.

Man, writing this kind of stuff is hard.

But that's not all, here's the first entry in that encyclopedia that I was talking about earlier. Since this is a dry run to see how this looks, the information in here isn't that pertinent to the plot, and I'll probably add to it later, but I suppose every little bit counts when it comes to world-building. Anyway, here goes:

! The Al-Shim System and Other Stellar Objects
! The Wildflower Galaxy A spiral galaxy with a diameter of roughly one-hundred-and-forty thousand light years and possesses an estimated three-hundred to five-hundred billion stars. At its center lies a supermassive black hole which is designated as GAL 3387 but commonly referred to by astronomers as Shayten, in keeping with the traditional naming scheme for celestial objects. Its stellar body consists of five arms, two main and three secondary, designated Al-Gabh, Al-Mhit, Si-Mha, Shr’a, and Jabl. Three dwarf galaxies orbit it, Jalal, Jahan, and Babur, and its closest neighbor is the Majestic bar-spiraled galaxy.
The Al-Shim System A five planet solar system located on the fringe of the Wildflower’s Al-Gabh Arm, thirty-thousand light years from the galactic center. Its third planet is currently the only known source of life.
Al-Shim: A four-billion-year-old yellow G-type star, and the primary of the titular Al-Shim System. It has a diameter of roughly 1,400,000km, making it close to one-hundred-and-ten times bigger than Lagoon. Among G-type stars, it is a perfectly average specimen.
! Har-Ghayh: Located a mere sixty-five million kilometers from Al-Shim, Har-Ghayh is both the smallest (diameter of five-thousand kilometers) and hottest of the five planets. This barren, rocky world is pocketed by craters left over from meteor impacts, and its surface temperature averages at around four-hundred-and-fifty-seven degrees Kelvin.
! Shabh-Kin: The second planet of the Al-Shim system, located 110 million kilometers from the sun. It is only slightly smaller in mass than Lagoon, and its surface is shrouded in clouds. Its surface is inhospitable, dotted with sulfur-and-methane-spewing vents, with heat being trapped by the overhead cloud layer resulting in a planet-wide greenhouse effect.
! Alak-Da’erh: The third planet of the Al-Shim system, Alak-Da’erh is known locally as ‘’Lagoon.’’ It is located roughly 152 million kilometers, or one AU (Astronomical Unit), from Al-Shim. It is the only known planet able to support life, thanks to its position in the Habitable Zone allowing it to form an oxygen/nitrogen-rich atmosphere and oceans of liquid water which cover over 70% of its surface. Its geographic features run the entire gamut from forests, deserts, mountains, all the way to ice floes. Millions of species thrive in this environment, with Humans being the dominant sentient life form.
! Its satellite, Heion, orbits at a distance of approximately 362 thousand kilometers. It too supports life and has a similar biosphere, though there are debates over how this is possible given its diameter being one-quarter of Lagoon’s and its much smaller mass. Humans began to colonize it during the first half of the 26th century.
! Alma-J’sur: A gas giant located nearly 6AU from Al-Shim. It is known for its spectacular system of planetary rings, composed of gravel and ice crystals. It has twenty-six moons and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky, making it an enticing target for amateur astronomers.
! Al-Nask: An asteroid belt located in between the fourth and fifth planets of the system, left over from the system’s creation 4.6 billion years ago.
! Jalid-Aljin: A frozen planet of nine-thousand kilometers diametrically, located 51AU from Al-Shim, making it dark and desolate. Due to its extreme distance, it is extremely difficult to examine in depth.
! Other Stellar Objects of Note The Pentastar Cluster: A cluster of five bright, young stars (York, Jurie, Kimmer, Gors, and Dactal) that bears the designation GAL 1872. Its relative closeness to Lagoon (6 light years) makes it quite noticeable in the night sky.
Ad-Din: The brightest star in the night sky, located 9 light years from Lagoon and bears the designation GAL 0176. This star has held great cultural significance to numerous ancient civilizations. Ancient Hellas and Pydos used its position in the sky to calculate times of annual floods and the summer months.
The Broken Necklace: A constellation that is visible only in Lagoon’s southern hemisphere. It is made up of nine stars arranged in a lengthy strand, hence its name.
Dal’il: Also known as The North Star or less commonly Apex, Dal’il has been a key component in navigation for hundreds of years. It has not always been the apex of the sky, however, and in seventy-thousand years it will cede its position to Mar’ju. It’s designation is GAL 0480.
The Goddess’s Veil: A dust cloud located nine light years from Lagoon. Only visible during autumn in the southern hemisphere, this cloud covers a section of the night sky beneath the constellation of Tzipetl. Legend has it that the Nulc goddess Cetlpocul blotted out that portion of the sky in grief after the death of her mortal son, the hero Xiceoci, at the hands of the serpent Jucpl.
Bird’s Comet: A comet discovered in 2572 by SARA astronomer Joseph Bird. It has a very lengthy orbit, taking over three-thousand years to make one pass by Al-Shim.
The Majestic Galaxy: A barred-spiral galaxy located roughly two-and-a-half million light years from Lagoon. It is the second-largest member of the Local Group after The Wildflower, and is one of only three full galaxies contained within. One dwarf galaxy has been observed to orbit around it.

Might as well call this post, chapter and all, the ''Astronomical Trivia You Don't Care About but You're Getting it Anyway, Dammit!'' edition.

[gottalt3OP]

Formatting does not work :<. I went mad trying to justify my text and use tabulations.

About the last two chapters.
Incredible. I really liked the landing day, and this milder chapter was really well placed.
I just don't know why Terry decided to shout, instead of lightning punching Syren She halted her movements, so he should be able to do it. But then she wouldn't get away and it would've been less fun. Maybe it is just something to show Terry isn't the most decided person there is. It kind of fits with is personality not to punch her like that, so I'll pass calling it a plot hole.

But I am the kind of guy who will hate Terry if he pulls a spiderman and dates Karin without telling her about his powers. :< Karin just seems so fun, I'd love to see her with the rest of the group. xD

I liked the different perspectives society has about the Skygazers. And Terry was definitly awesome when he told Bar to shut up.

And I will suggest a politics and geography chapter on the encyclopedia.

[ChesCa]

First, a belated B-Day gift:

I meant to do it earlier but time got away from me.
As for this chapter, I don't have a lot to say. It's a down time chapter, where the mood sets in and the audience is given a break. Whatever changes can be made to it I can't really say as the changes would totally depend on how the other chapters are rewritten.
Still, I do like the scene with Bar and Karen, and how Terry and Akira try to connect. It feels like a six but will shoot up to at least an eight after enough time passes.

[Gizmo]

Sea's thread reminded me that I have a lot of catching up to do in this forum, so I decided to read Stargazer. This story is really interesting. I can't wait to see where you're taking the story.

One thing that trips me up is how the members of Trident aren't shown to practice their powers or even try to coordinate together before going towards their first mission. It seems very…sudden or risky to me. I could imagine that they're busy with school and other things, or maybe it's just meant to be implied off screen with Akira and Terry messing around with their powers.

But keep up the good work!

[Crossword]

So much stuff to reply to. Taking things from the top:

I just don't know why Terry decided to shout, instead of lightning punching Syren

Several reasons for that. 1. Terry could've tried attacking Sayren, but doing that wasn't guaranteed to prevent the police cars' engines from overheating, 2. After what had just happened he was more concerned with the safety of the arriving policemen, 3. Guns were being pointed in his general direction; not wise to make any sudden movements, and 4. From a meta standpoint, this plotline with Terry and Sayren would be a bit of a dead end if she was captured then and there.

And I will suggest a politics and geography chapter on the encyclopedia.

Don't worry, that will come. I wanted to get the astronomical stuff out of the way so that the reader will know what they're talking about when the characters start mentioning these seemingly-random, psuedo-Arabic names without having to parrot each other and sounding derpy (''That's Alma-J'sur.'' ''Alma-J'sur?'' ''Yeah, a planet.'').

As far as romance goes, I'm not saying anything one way or another.

First, a belated B-Day gift:

Haha, that's cute. Thanks. Reminds me that I should try finding a working scanner to upload my own designs for the characters.

the members of Trident aren't shown to practice their powers

Well, Nova and Akira already had basic command of their powers before the story began, and Terry's power admittedly isn't very indoors-friendly. Of the three, Akira's the one most likely to (and has) just mess around with his powers. Terry can't hide his as easily as Akira can, though, so he's thinking up new techniques and usages in his head, but generally isn't given a chance to actually apply them until he's actually thrown into a fight. I think I had him imply that that was what he was doing in either chapter 6 or 7, but I suppose I could make that more clear.

Basically, I'm taking a leaf out of One Piece's book and showing progression through how the character applies their powers to combat. As he gets more comfortable and used to his powers Terry (and this goes for the others, too) he'll be able to pull off larger-scale and more varied abilities than the rudimentary ones he uses now.

[Crossword]

Chapter 14: Visitation

! ‘’Could you drop by the classroom at the end of the day, Terrence?’’
Those were the words that Ms. Fencen had spoken to Terry as he had been gathering up his belongings as their class was winding down after having finally finished the postponed examination. Despite Ms. Fencen’s attempts to be discrete about her message, which was pretty much impossible considering the class’s near-silence, a couple of the students nearby had heard her and were no doubt coming to their own conclusions – and none of them were probably good. It was very rare that getting called out by the teacher led to anything good, and Ms. Fencen was not a person who did anything lightly.
! Terry himself felt pretty confident that he knew what this little meeting was going to be about. The news of Bar’s anti-Stargazer tirade had slowly spread to several other classes in the grade, as had the identities of the three participants. He wasn’t really concerned what people thought of him, for he had nothing to be ashamed of regarding his role in the affair. Meanwhile Bar, to his credit, had done his best to keep a low profile and had remained uncharacteristically quiet and reserved since. Karen hadn’t said a single word as far as Terry could tell since the incident.
! When the end of the school day finally came instead of meeting up with Akira and Daniel at the front entrance as he normally did, Terry headed back to his homeroom. As expected, Ms. Fencen was waiting for him, seated at her desk with the dark-eyed stringent look she tended to have whenever disciplinary issues arose.
! ‘’Sit down, and close the door behind you.’’ she instructed as Terry entered. Terry complied, shutting the door and pulling one of the classroom’s spare chairs over to the teacher’s desk before sitting down, putting on a look of mild polite attentiveness.
! ‘’First of all, you’re not in trouble.’’ Ms. Fencen began evenly. ‘’I heard about the incident with Mr. Syon-Un. I’ve already had a talk with him, and now I’d like to hear from you.’’
! It was hard meeting her gray-eyed gaze. A lot of things had been going through his mind for a while: being a Stargazer, Trident, living in a new city, Deck and The Beings, Sayren… Sharing his troubles with others was still something that was new to him. Growing up, he had never really had someone that he could really confide in, so he tended to keep his thoughts to himself. It hadn’t been until coming to Marine Cove and meeting Akira, Nova, Daniel, Mr. Gerald, and his other new acquaintances that he had slowly begun to talk more openly about issues that he was facing.
! ‘’If there’s anything bothering you,’’ Ms. Fencen was saying, her tone softening when Terry was taking too long to answer. ‘’you can tell me. Part of my job is to act as a councilor for my students.’’
! He couldn’t say everything, of course, but Terry decided to speak. He inhaled, exhaled, and then opened his mouth. ‘’Well, I suppose what’s bothering me most is what happened on Landing Day.’’ he began. Ms. Fencen nodded to show that she was listening. ‘’I was out that night, and I witnessed someone getting attacked.’’ Not the whole truth, but enough to get what he mean across. ‘’He was hurt pretty badly from what I could see. I’m bothered both because I witnessed such a violent, senseless act, and that I feel like I could have tried harder to stop it.’’ Nobody could fault or accuse him of not trying hard enough to save that officer, but he hadn't saved him from injury, and those what-ifs continued to pester the back of his mind.
! ‘’And that was your first time witnessing such violence?’’ Ms. Fencen asked. Her voice was softer now. If it had come from someone a little older it could’ve been described as motherly.
! Terrt nodded in response to his teacher’s question. ‘’Yes. And then yesterday Bar went off on his anti-Stargazer rant, and then went so far as to bully Karen. It was upsetting to see him exposing such an ugly side to himself. And while they’re not close friends, they’re still friends to me. It just wasn’t right, and no one else was doing anything, so…’’ He trailed off. He didn’t really feel like reiterating what had happened in the classroom.
! ‘’Everything and everyone in the world has a flipside to them, sometimes an ugly one, sometimes not. We all discover that sooner or later.’’ his teacher replied. He nodded in agreement, for just by looking at himself and his close friends he could see that. Akira was cheerful and easygoing, almost insufferably so, but that was because he wanted to be unique and stand out of his older brother’s shadow and defy what was expected of him. Nova was tough and serious, but beneath that exterior was a young man who cared deeply for his family and wished to right past wrongs. He himself came off to his classmates as an occasionally snarky but down-to-earth dependable, good-natured person, yet he kept many of his true thoughts to himself and just couldn’t let go of some of things that had happened in the past…
! His reflections came to an end when Ms. Fencen continued. ‘’I found that out for myself when I first started teaching.’’ She settled back in her desk chair and absentmindedly scratched her arm as she spoke. ‘’After completing college and earning my teaching certification I felt that I was as prepared for the challenges of my profession as I possibly could. Well, it turned out that I was quite wrong.
! ‘’My first day as a teacher was my worst. I was overcome with anxiety, and it showed. My students weren’t listening to me and I nothing I did came out the way that I wanted. Afterwards I was left feeling completely dispirited and dejected, not to mention afraid that I was going to get fired. My colleagues tried to offer me words of encouragement, saying that it was just nerves and that next time things would be different, but…’’
! ‘’They insulted you behind your back?’’ Terry ventured.
! Ms. Fencen nodded, and to Terry’s surprise actually smiled at the memory. ‘’Yes, later I overheard in the teachers’ room those same colleagues expressing their surprise that someone as unprepared as I had managed to land the job, and joking over speculations of how long I’d last.
! ‘’I suppose that I should actually be thanking them.’’ she continued. ‘’Instead of upsetting me any further, that moment galvanized me. I swore to show them wrong and worked hard to reinvent both myself and my teaching style. I expect a lot out of myself, so it’s only fair that I hold my students to the same standard.’’
! She stopped and then smiled in self-amusement. ‘’Heh, speaking like this isn’t my strong suit.’’ she said, continuing to smile. Terry had never seen her looking this relaxed.
! ‘’That’s fine.’’ he assured, smiling a little himself. ‘’You gave me some things to think about.’’
! ‘’Well, I’m glad to hear that.’’ Ms. Fencen replied. ‘’A student being able to take something away from a lecture is one of the most rewarding moments of a teacher’s career.’’
! She didn’t want to hold him after school any longer, especially on a Friday afternoon, so after exchanging a few more brief words with his teacher Terry departed the school and began to head home. Talking with her had given him an idea of how to deal with those pesky what-ifs.
! As the weekend dawned Terry was at his room’s desk with his laptop before him as he did some research on the serial burning attacks. Reading the news articles, he found that most of Sayren’s victims had been taken to St. Marguerite’s Municipal Hospital, the largest one located in the city center. So on Sunday afternoon he left the dorm and took the monorail into Marine Cove’s North Side.
! The large hospital was easily visible from the train station, as it was both located on elevated ground and its white façade shown up brightly against the darker, concrete buildings that were surrounding it. He could tell that the building itself was rather old, for it was built in a blocky, geometric style instead of the more organic, sleek styles that largely dominated modern architecture these days.
! Aside from when he had been born of course, Terry had never been inside a hospital before as the nearest hospital to his hometown was located several miles away and the local clinics were generally adequate enough to deal with most grievances. The interior was the same sterile white color as the façade, though in order to reach the visitors’ center of the wing containing the burn unit he had to pass through a small central garden area that he assumed had been installed for therapeutic purposes.
! When he reached the waiting room, he saw that it was a large area with a large skylight and shaft that kept the area brightly it. Benches and chairs lined planters that had been installed to provide greenery. Unlike the hospital’s main area, this one was quiet. Currently, its only occupants aside from the staff at the desk were an old man who was reading an old magazine from one of the waiting area’s bookshelves and a mother and son, the latter of whom seemed to be around Terry’s own age.
! ‘’Can I help you?’’ the receptionist at the desk asked as he stepped forward.
! ‘’Is there a patient here named Henry Pool?’’ Terry asked, making sure to keep his voice down.
! ‘’I can check.’’ the woman replied. ‘’Are you a family member?’’
! ‘’An acquaintance.’’
! The woman turned to her computer and began to pull up the hospital’s electronic database. ‘’Henry Pool, let’s see…’’ The light from the monitor reflected in her eyes. ‘’Police officer, 48 years old, admitted on the 8th for heavy facial and cranial burns? Does that sound familiar?’’
! ‘’That sounds like him.’’
! ‘’Are you here to visit him?’’
! Terry nodded.
! The woman picked up the receiver of an ancient cord phone and spent a few moments talking to someone on the other end of the line before she addressed Terry again. ‘’Take a seat and someone will be with you shortly.’’ She gestured towards the waiting room’s chairs, flashing a professional smile as she did.
! Terry went over to one of the seats and sat himself down. In the quiet of the room, he was becoming aware of just how loudly his heart was beating. Deciding to come here was one thing, now that he was actually here he was struggling against being consumed by anxiety. He had no idea how this meeting was going to unfold, or what condition the man was in. He was starting to worry if he had made his decision a little too hastily. He crossed his fingers, hoping that everything would go alright.
! His name was eventually called by a nurse so he got up to follow the woman into the hospital’s depths. The cloying scent of antiseptic hung about the air, and despite it being a Sunday afternoon they passed a handful of doctors, nurses, and patients in the corridors. Some were visibly busy, either going to a meeting or hurrying to attend to a patient, Terry assumed. Others were walking at a more moderate pace, making inspections, reviewing medical records, or even simply stretching their legs. Seeing the state a few of the patients were in, Terry wondered if it was wise to leave them unattended, but supposed that the hospital staff knew what they were doing.
! The burn ward wasn’t as busy as the rest of the hospital due to fewer patients. The scent of antiseptic was even stronger here, forcing Terry to involuntarily crinkle his nose when he was led through the doors, though he could easily guess why. He now knew firsthand how persistent the smell of burnt flesh could be.
! The nurse stopped in front of a door that was labeled ‘’Long Term Resident Rm. #17.’’ Next to it was a nameplate with space for up to four removable placards, though at the moment only one of them was inserted. The nurse announced her presence before opening the door enough to poke her head inside.
! ‘’Mr. Pool, you have a visitor.’’ Terry could not hear the reply, if there was one. But things must’ve been okay, because then the nurse turned back to warn him that he had twenty minutes before ushering him inside.
! The room consisted of an examination corner and three new-fangled electronic hospital monitoring beds which were each separated by partitions. Right now only one of them was occupied. The policeman, Henry Pool was, much to Terry’s relief, sitting up in his bed, its back elevated to support him, reading a book. His right leg was up in traction and swathed in bandages and anti-burn pads, as was his head, save for the uninjured side of his face.
! Upon seeing Terry hesitantly stepping into the room Pool put his book down on his bed sheets and studied him carefully. ‘’Who are you?’’ he asked, his visible good eye narrowing as he tried to place his unfamiliar teenage visitor.
! ‘’My name is Terrence Eaves, sir.’’ Terry began, again all-too aware of his beating heart. ‘’I was that kid on Landing Day.’’
! ‘’Wait…’’ Pool frowned. ‘’Now I recognize you.’’ His expression softened a bit and he pointed towards a folding chair that was resting in the corner. ‘’Pull that up and have a seat.’’
! Terry did so. He couldn’t help but feel a little perplexed at the genial treatment that he was receiving.
! ‘’First off, I’d like to thank you Terrence.’’ the officer began once Terry had taken his seat. ‘’Both for coming to see me, and for what you did on Landing Day when I was attacked. Captain Pastor filled me in on what had happened, and that you’re a member of the city’s Stargazer cell.’’
Terry nodded, slowly. ‘’How are you feeling, if you don’t mind saying?’’ he asked, trying to tread lightly.
! ‘’Right now, I’m suffering from boredom more than anything else.’’ Pool replied with a touch of levity. ‘’I don’t watch television and can only see visitors in short intervals. All that leaves for me is to sleep and read.’’ There was a stack of books on the bed’s small nightstand.
! ‘’But to be serious,’’ he continued. ‘’Third degree to the leg, fourth to my cranium.’’ He pointed to each of his injuries in turn. ‘’Fortunately the surgeons here were able to stabilize me and apply skin grafts. They say that as early as the middle of next week they’ll be able to transfer me out of the burn ward. My eye’s done for though.’’
! ‘’I’m sorry for that.’’ Terry lowered his eyes as he spoke. This was actually the wrong thing to do, as Pool soon made him aware.
! ‘’What are you apologizing for?’’ the other man asked, suddenly looking baffled. ‘’You didn’t do anything wrong, hell, if you hadn’t shown up that girl probably would’ve killed me!’’
! ‘’But, you face…’’ Terry began to say. He didn’t know why he was feeling so blindsided. It was simply irrational of him. ‘’And your eye… Maybe if I had been more aggressive, I could’ve –‘’
! ‘’Stop right there kid.’’ Pool said firmly, holding his hand up for emphasis. ‘’I’m the one who made the rookie mistake of thinking that I could take a criminal on just because I was armed. These injuries are my well-earned punishment for that arrogance.’’ He pointed towards the corner of the room, which resembled more a flower shop than a hospital room given the mountain of bouquets and get-well cards that were sitting there.
! ‘’See all of those?’’ Pool asked. ‘’Those are from friends, family, and colleagues.’’ he said, with the sudden sharpness of a veteran officer addressing a cadet. ‘’They’re all grateful that I’m alive, and I’m sure that they’re grateful to you as well for saving me.’’
! ‘’Thanks.’’ Terry muttered. ‘’I was just afraid. Afraid that you’d hate me because I failed to help you, or because I was a Stargazer like the one who injured you.’’
! ‘’Well, I won’t claim to understand them.’’ Pool admitted. ‘’Why do they get chosen for these powers? What puts them above the rest of the people? I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer to that question, but I can’t hate an entire group just because of the actions of one.’’
! He shifted a little bit to get more comfortable before continuing. ‘’What I do know is that those two Stargazers, that girl and that gang leader, are a threat to this city and the people that I love. But I’m not too worried.’’ He smiled. ‘’As long as there are people like you out there, Stargazer or not, then I think we’re in good hands.’’
! Terry appreciated Pool’s words, he really did. Yet he could tell that they had a dual purpose: to assure both him as well as Pool himself. The man’s face was calm, but Terry could see in his one visible eye a great sadness. It was to be expected, he decided. It was just another example of people showing different sides to themselves.
! Terry spent the remainder of his time talking with Pool about himself; his hometown out in Severstone, his coming to Marine Cove and enrolling in the Academy, the night that he became a Stargazer and discovered a side of the world that had been foreign to him. When the nurse finally came to take him away, Terry said farewell and wished Pool luck in his recovery, while Pool thanked him again for coming to visit him. Before the nurse closed the door he managed to sneak one last look into the room. Pool was still sitting up in his bed, chin resting on a clenched fist, staring out listlessly into empty space, his face a solemn mask.
! When Terry left the hospital building and stepped out onto the sidewalk pavement, it was with a new resolve. Before he had only fought because he had been told to and wanted to just let life take him where it would, but no longer. Now, he knew what he must do.

Don't have much to say but the following:

• Don't look up pictures of third-and-fourth degree burns. They're nasty. Same thing goes for skin grafts.
• I've been playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 recently, and some elements of it remind me of old ideas I had for Stargazer.
• Since there's only one episode left I have to get it off of my chest that I'm irked that some small parts (thankly superficial ones) of the Guilty Crown anime remind me of Stargazer.
• I think next I'll go back, look over, and tweak certain parts of the older chapters. And get another installment of that encyclopedia finished. Nope I haven't forgotten that. Hopefully I can do that and get another chapter out before the story's one-year anniversary.
• I've been writing this for almost a year already?! I've barely even scratched the surface of my vision!

[ChesCa]

This was a good, short downtime chapter. The biggest thing you can really change is your narrative voice but that comes with time more than anything. The ending's a bit corny though, but not a deal breaker. Just show and not tell about the new resolve somehow.

[Crossword]

So I look at the calender today and see that today marks this story's one-year anniversary. I believe than an update would be appropriate for the occasion.

Chapter 15: Daniel's Deductions

! ‘’Where’ve you been?’’
! Terry returned to the dorm to find that Daniel and Akira were seated at the small lounge that was located opposite the security desk. At this time of day Officer Davidmen was normally seated at the desk, but now it was empty.
! ‘’Where’s Davidmen?’’ Terry asked as he went over to see what the two were up to. Daniel had a map of the city laid out on the coffee table. Various points on the map were marked out with red Xs.
! ‘’Probably has something more important to do right now than babysitting us.’’ Akira muttered. He was holding a multi-page printout of some sort, and the veiled scowl on his face made it clear that he had been roped into this against his will.
! ‘’That’s probably it.’’ Daniel answered, absentmindedly twirling a red marker in his hand. ‘’Have you been by the police department recently? It’s been swarmed with angry protestors who’re calling for the chief’s resignation.’’
! ‘’So what’s this?’’ Terry waved his hand over the city map.
! ‘’Oh, well, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to find out where The Beings’ new base is.’’
! ‘’And how are you going to do that?’’ Terry folded his arms in skepticism. He didn’t want to doubt his friend’s abilities, but if the police hadn’t found it yet, he found it hard to believe that Daniel could all on his own.
! ‘’What I’m doing is marking out all of the sites that they hit on Landing Day.’’ Daniel began to explain, indicating the map with his marker. ‘’So far the spread’s pretty even, but I’m hoping that I can find some anomalies in it. They wouldn’t want to draw police attention to the neighborhood where their base is, would they?’’
! ‘’I suppose not.’’ Terry bent down to study the map. So far, most of the incidents were clustered within the South Side, with a smattering of incidents in the lesser-developed areas of the North Side and a couple other outliers here and there. Daniel had also attached sticky notes to certain areas of the map upon which he had jotted down his own thoughts on the possibility of certain neighborhoods containing the base.
! ‘’You’ve put some thought into this, huh?’’ Terry commented as he surveyed the work.
! ‘’Of course, I have to do something to help out too, even if I’m not a Stargazer.’’ Daniel remarked, grinning in a self-satisfied manner. ‘’I just wish that Nova was around more so I could get advice from him. The Beings have been known to turtle themselves when there’s pressure, so having someone who knows the streets would be a huge help.’’
! ‘’Is all of this really necessary, though?’’ Akira grumbled as he flipped through the considerable remainder of the handouts that Daniel had given him. ‘’Some of the members were arrested on Landing Day. Can’t we get the info from them?’’
! ‘’Not necessarily. Deck’s ahead of us on that one.’’ Daniel said, idiosyncratically adjusting his glasses as he spoke. ‘’Due to The Beings’ large size, only Deck himself and the higher-ranking members would have that information. The grunts just have their orders disseminated to them from the officers. They probably don’t have much contact with Deck himself.’’
! ‘’I guess that’s inevitable.’’ Terry noted. ‘'It is interesting to see how they run things, I suppose.’’
! ‘’Studying gang culture can be quite fascinating.’’ Daniel agreed. ‘’But just the same, I’m worried about the others.’’
! ‘’What about them?’’ Akira asked.
! ‘’Well, some of the sites that The Beings hit were on rival gangs’ turf.’’ Daniel replied, lying back in the chair that he was sitting in. ‘’Some of them could be planning reprisals, and the last thing this city needs right now is an all-out gang war.’’
! ‘’No, that wouldn’t be good at all.’’ Terry agreed. He had to begrudgingly admit that Deck knew how to run things. He had managed to build up his forces to the extent that he could launch a city wide attack while outmaneuvering the Trident and the police on two occasions. It must have taken quite a lot of time and research to plan out something like that, more than he’d imagine any street gang leader would put in.
! He frowned to himself as that thought made him remember his encounter with Deck atop the apartment building. The gang leader knowing that the raid was coming was one thing, but how had he known about his personal information? Not only had Deck known his name and his home town, but he had used his past, in particular his feelings of resentment, to provoke him into fighting. Try as he might, Terry had failed to come up with a convincing explanation for that, and that bothered him.
! ‘’How do you think The Beings managed to pull off what they did on Landing Day with hardly any arrests?’’ he asked Daniel. Hearing his opinion on that question would be helpful.
! The other teen shrugged in response. ‘’I assume that they spent a lot of time studying police movements and response times.’’ he said, just as Terry expected.
! ‘’How do you think Deck knew my personal information?’’
! ‘’Are you talking about the night we raided their hideout?’’ Akira asked, looking up from his papers. ‘’I didn’t see Deck at all back then, so I wouldn’t know.’’
! ‘’Oh, that.’’ Daniel closed his eyes and folded his arms in thought. ‘’Yeah, that stuff’s confidential, so I don’t see how he could’ve known short of you telling him, unless…’’ His voice trailed off suddenly as his brows furrowed in an uncomfortable expression.
! ‘’He has someone on the inside.’’ Akira spelled out for them.
! ‘’I actually thought of that at one point.’’ Terry replied. ‘’Like if there’s a registry where they could get access to that info or something similar. But then, the security would have to be laughably bad if something like that could happen.’’
! Daniel was starting to look very troubled. ‘’As far as I know, the information on Trident is archived at three places: the research institute, but they only allow government workers in there, the police department, it should be obvious why that option’s unlikely, and then there’s the Lifeline office…’’
! ‘’Where’s that?’’ Akira asked.
! ‘’It’s part of the public safety department.’’ Daniel explained. ‘’Well, it’s more like Lifeline has some office space in the same building.’’
‘’Have you been there before?’’
! ‘’Of course, my uncle works there every now and then.’’ Daniel answered. ‘’Hm, speaking of Uncle Gerald, hang on a second…’’ He reached down into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
! ‘’What do you think?’’ Akira asked, glancing at Terry through the corner of his eye as Daniel stepped away from them to make his call.
! ‘’I dunno for sure. This is pure conjecture, after all.’’ Terry admitted. ‘’But if it brings us a step closer to shutting The Beings down, we should pursue it.’’
! ‘’Yeah, I’ll agree with that.’’ Akira nodded, apparently satisfied with that answer. ‘’Come to think of it, I think this is the first time you’ve said that they should be taken down.’’
! ‘’Meaning?’’
! ‘’You’ve grown.’’ Akira grinned, a cheeky glint in his eye. ‘’You’ve changed so much from that lost, frightened child I met on that night.’’ He saw the look that Terry was shooting him and laughed. ‘’Ha ha, I’m just messing around with you. You’ve actually put a lot more on the line than I have.’’
! ‘’Not by choice, you know.’’ Terry reminded him. He wanted to add that to him Akira felt more immature than he had when they first met, but he refrained from doing so.
! ‘’I guess not.’’ Akira leaned further back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. ‘’I can’t say that I really envy you.’’
! Daniel returned, sliding his phone back into his pocket. ‘’I just called my uncle and told him about what we’ve discussed. He’s skeptical, but willing to hear us out nonetheless. He wants to meet us in front of the office in an hour.’’
! ‘’Oh, well that’s a good sign.’’ Akira said. ‘’But ‘us?’ Why do I have to go too?’’
! ‘’Hey, all three of us came up with this.’’ Terry told him, standing up straight and arching his back slightly. ‘’And I’ve still got my jacket on, so I might as well.’’
! ‘’Fine, I’ll go get my coat.’’ Akira stood up too, at a more lethargic pace. ‘’Besides,’’ he muttered out of the corner of his mouth so that Daniel wouldn’t be able to hear. ‘’it’ll beat helping him with his map.’’
! The sun was just about finished setting when Daniel, Terry, and Akira reached Marine Cove’s self-described ‘’Government Plaza,’’ a large, rectangular mall area which was located just west of the North Side’s city center. Municipal office buildings lined the plaza with City Hall set at its far end. The white dome of the State House was visible in the distance, peeking over the near skyline.
! Gerald was waiting for the three underneath one of the street lamps, standing away from the crowd of meandering pedestrians and looking a lot like a character from a noir film in his fedora and overcoat. ‘’Hello, Uncle Gerald.’’ Daniel called out in greeting as he had his friends pushed through the crowd to the older man.
! Gerald nodded in acknowledgment. ‘’Good evening Daniel. You too, Terrence and Akira.’’ He then turned and pointed to one of the office buildings. ‘’That’s where the Lifeline office is located.’’ He turned back to face his nephew, and his voice dropped noticeably. ‘’Are you sure about this?’’ he asked, his voice concerned. ‘’You know what this could mean, yes?’’
! ‘’I do, Uncle.’’ Daniel replied with the same tone of concern. ‘’But this isn’t really the best place to discuss this.’’
! ‘’You’re right.’’ Gerald inclined his head a fraction of an inch and began to turn away. ‘’Come inside.’’
! Given that it was a Sunday evening, it was hardly a surprise that the interior of the Public Safety Commission building was very quiet and appeared to be mostly empty. ‘’Usually the only people still in the building at this time on Sundays are either the janitorial staff or volunteer workers.’’ Gerald explained as the group passed yet another section of darkened office space. He eventually came to a stop in front of a locked door located towards the back of the building and swiped an ID card through the electronic reader and opened it. Sensing motion, the room’s lights flickered on, revealing a very modestly-sized work area consisting of a four cubicles, one of which was being used for storage, several work tables, and a single office located in the back.
! ‘’Welcome to the offices of Lifeline’s Marine Cove branch.’’ Gerald made a sweeping gesture, one that was no doubt sardonic in nature given the room’s small size. Terry couldn’t help but find it funny that an organization that dealt with managing super powered individuals would have something so mundane-looking. He’d always imagined Lifeline’s offices to be quite large and busy, full of hardworking staff members and bleeding-edge technology.
! ‘’You can leave you things over in my cubicle.’’ Gerald gestured towards one of the cubicles, which was cluttered with papers and file folders.
Out of the corner of his eye Terry could see Daniel turn his nose up a bit at his uncle’s mess.
! After they had left their coats on the cubicle’s chair, the three students looked up to see Gerald standing with his arms crossed and a stern gaze trained on them. ‘’Now, before I take you anywhere, I want to hear your explain for this in person.’’ he said, sounding more serious than he ever had before. ‘’I hardly need to remind you how serious an accusation this is.’’
! Terry decided to speak first. ‘’When I encountered Deck during our raid in September he tried to taunt me with my own personal information, and there was no way he should’ve known it.’’
! ‘’Ah yes, I remember you making mention of that now.’’ Gerald nodded. ‘’How do you suppose he came across that information?’’
! ‘’That’s just the thing!’’ Daniel cut in. ‘’How many places contain Trident’s data?’’
! ‘’There’s Dr. Seedis’s facility, the police station, and here.’’
! ‘’Right!’’ Daniel nodded enthusiastically. ‘’No offense Uncle, but I feel that the Lifeline office is the weak link.’’
! ‘’I suppose I can’t argue.’’ Gerald begrudged, momentarily glancing around the small work area.
! ‘’Aren’t the files on a computer?’’ Akira asked, folding his own arms. ‘’Wouldn’t you know if someone’s accessing them who shouldn’t?’’
! ‘’We still have paper copies.’’
! ‘’How come?’’
! ‘’Because while computers can hold vast amounts of data, they can be vulnerable in different ways than print.’’ Gerald began to explain. ‘’A hacker could break into the system and steal or erase data, or the system could be infected by a computer virus or worm.’’
! ‘’Well where are these duplicates kept, and who can access them?’’ Daniel asked.
! ‘’All the file copies are kept in the basement record room.’’ was his answer. ‘’They’re meant to be used for archival purposes, but thanks to the electronic database they are rarely used.’’
! ‘’Who takes them down?’’
! Gerald shrugged. ‘’Normally each department has its paperwork carted down to the archives in bulk by a volunteer worker or an intern or someone similar.’’
! ‘’And good infiltrators disguise themselves as lowly workers or commoners.’’ Akira pointed out cheerfully. ‘’That’s what good spies and sabotagers do!’’
! ‘’Saboteurs.’’ Terry corrected. Daniel’s line of reasoning made sense and was easy to follow, but at the moment it was nothing but conjecture.
! ‘’If someone’s been looking at those files who shouldn’t,’’ he raised. ‘’how are we going to prove it short of catching them in the act?’’
! ‘’Yes, how do you intend to prove this, Daniel?’’ Gerald asked.
! ‘’I’m not entirely sure, to be honest.’’ Daniel admitted. ‘’But we haven’t even investigated the files themselves yet. Why don’t we at least go and check the archives out before we discount my theory?’’
! As Gerald had told them, the archival room was located in the building’s basement. Rows of shelves stretched from wall to wall. Each contained organized stacks of boxes filled with files and documents pertaining to the city’s civil services, though they were hard to see until Gerald turned the lights on.
! Akira’s body shuddered involuntarily. ‘’Why’s it so cold in here?’’ he asked, automatically clutching his sides. Terry had to admit, it was significantly colder in here than the rest of the building.
! ‘’Some of these documents are quite old.’’ Gerald explained. ‘’The air conditioning helps to preserve them. Now let’s see…where was Lifeline’s box…’’ He spent a few moments scouring the shelves and peering closely at the labels until he pulled one out that was far less faded and worn than the others.
! ‘’Everything related to Trident is in here.’’ he said, taking a moment to catch his breath after he slowly set the box down.
! The others knelt down around the box. Daniel removed the lid and studied the folder tabs. ‘’Let’s see…’’ He thumbed through them. ‘’Well, since Nova isn’t here, yours is first, Terry.’’ He handed Terry his own file, apparently unwilling to invade his privacy.
! Terry took it, a little surprised at how relatively thick and heavy it felt in his hands. He hadn’t realized that there was that much that could be written about him, and as he leafed through the folder’s contents he couldn’t help but be impressed by how thorough they were. There were medical records and histories that had to have been pulled from clinics in Rentune as they dated back several years, covering anything from seasonal inoculations to broken bones. By far the thickest report was the one on his Stargazer powers. He had always viewed them in a very simple manner: he could generate and control electricity. The report, on the other hand, went on about personal magnetic fields, volts and amperage, neurology, Weissman particles, and more biological and scientific jargon that he didn’t understand.
! The final part of the documents consisted of his personal information and history. There were dossiers on his family, and at the very back was a psychiatric profile that had been written by Dr. Seedis herself. He scowled in chagrin as he skimmed it. What was written in there wasn’t wholly untrue, but did he really come off like that to her? A couple underlined terms in particular made his scowl deepen.
! But then something else grabbed his attention. These documents, despite supposedly being relatively new and untouched, looked worn, as if they had been handled none too gently.
! ‘’This looks pretty dog-eared.’’ he commented. The corners on some of the sheets were slightly crinkled and even a little dirty in places.
! ‘’Hey, there’s a tear here!’’ Akira noted in indignation as he looked through his own files. His were apparently in a similar state.
! ‘’I organized those files myself.’’ Gerald was scowling deeply, his fingers restlessly drumming against folded arms. ‘’I can attest that these forms were fresh off of the printer when I put them into those folders.’’ He stepped over to where Terry was and held out his hand. ‘’May I see one of those?’’
! Terry handed over the paper that he had been examining to the older man, who held it up towards the light. He removed his glasses and spent a moment squinting at the paper before announcing his observations. ‘’I can definitely make out a fingerprint on this, and it isn’t mine.’’ he announced. ‘’Whoever handled this must have had dirty hands.’’
! ‘’You sure those aren’t yours?’’ Akira asked.
! ‘’I don’t have whorled fingerprints.’’ Gerald responded as he handed Terry’s paper back to him.
! Terry looked at his own finger tips just to be sure. ‘’I don't either.’’
! ‘’Wow, whoever read those really sucks at covering their tracks.’’ Akira snarked. ‘’I take back what I said about good spying.’’
! ‘’Well, we shouldn’t handle them anymore, they’re evidence.’’ Daniel said snappily, clearly pleased that his theory was coming together. ‘’Now,’’ He turned to his uncle. ‘’what else is kept in that box?’’
! ‘’Budget figures, personnel assignments, transcripts, and of course,’’ Gerald had apparently caught on to what his nephew was getting at. ‘’a copy of the plan that my boss and the police chief drafted for our raid back in September.’’
! ‘’So, that was how Deck knew about our raid and about me.’’ Terry remarked to no one in particular, and none of the others responded as they contemplated what they had found. Despite the gravity of the situation, Daniel still had a look of self-satisfaction on his face. Akira looked surprisingly thoughtful. Gerald looked most displeased for reasons that were clear. Even in the event that the security breach had nothing to do with The Beings it was still a breach, and no doubt a great embarrassment for the Lifeline workers here. Someone was going to get in deep trouble, no matter how things ultimately ended.
! ‘’Mr. Centone, is that you?’’ a voiced called from the direction of the door. The four turned to see a woman peering around the side of the room’s doorway.
! ‘’Yes, it is.’’ Gerald stepped forward as he spoke to be more visible.
! ‘’Oh.’’ the woman said, stepping into the room. ‘’I was just locking up the server room and saw the light, so… Who’re the kids?’’
! ‘’This is my nephew Daniel.’’ Daniel nodded as his uncle introduced him. ‘’And these two are Terrence and Akira. They’re under my care.’’ He put a little bit of emphasis on that last part, which Terry probably could’ve gone without.
! ‘’This is Clarmezza, a cataloger.’’ Gerald explained. ‘’Her office is just down the hall.’’
! ‘’Y’know, I wonder if she’d…’’ Akira began to suggest.
! Terry shrugged. ‘’Perhaps.’’ he said.
! ‘’What do you think?’’ Daniel asked his uncle.
! ‘’I suppose there’s no harm…’’
! ‘’Is there something I can help you with?’’ Clarmezza asked, looking and sounding mildly confused.
! ‘’Ah, well, there’s something that we’ve been trying to investigate.’’ Gerald began to explain. ‘’Do you know who it is who carts the paperwork down here for storage?’’
! ‘’Well, this room doesn’t get much use these days, so usually the only ones who come down here are either the original authors,’’
! Gerald crossed his arms. ‘’I didn’t have the time to store the files myself, so I left the box by the mail pickup with a note for Landsley or someone else in the office to do so.’’
! ‘’In that case, it was probably Randall who brought them down.’’ Clarmezza answered. ‘’I’ve seen him come down here a few times with the cart. Come to think of it, he’s the only one I’ve seen come down here recently…’’
! ‘’Who’s Randall?’’
! ‘’Randall? He’s a volunteer worker.’’ Clarmezza replied, looking a little perplexed at her coworker’s questions. ‘’He comes in every other day of the week, even on weekends. He does clerical and custodial work.‘’
! ‘’How long has he been working here?’’ Daniel asked, eyes narrowing behind his glasses.
! ‘’I don’t know.’’ Clarmezza was starting to look overwhelmed by these questions. ‘’A little over a month, maybe?’’
! Terry and Akira exchanged glances with Daniel.
! ‘’When does he come in?’’ Gerald continued, his voice growing more and more steely.
! ‘’I’ve only seen him in the late afternoon and early evening. He has a workspace by the mailroom. I think I saw him an hour ago…’’ The poor woman was looking more and more overwhelmed by the minute. ‘’Is he in trouble?’’
! ‘’He might just be.’’ Gerald muttered. ‘’Daniel, help me put this box back, and then we’re going to pay him a visit.’’
! They turned out to be just in time, for when the group reached the workroom on the upper floor they found Randall, a tall, thin, college age young man, busy putting on his jacket as he was about to leave for the night.
! ‘’Excuse me, could we have a word with you?’’ Gerald called out as he hurried up the passageway, the others trailing behind him.
! ‘’Uh, I guess.’’ Randall had a wary look about him. ‘’Just make it quick mister, I have to catch a bus.’’
! ‘’don’t worry, this shouldn’t take very long.’’ Gerald said pleasantly, adopting a genial tone. ‘’We just want to ask you what it is you do in the archive room.’’
! ‘’I bring stuff down there, what else is there?’’
! ‘’Well, we have reason to believe that someone down there has been leaking information from there. Confidential, sensitive information.’’ Daniel said in the same pleasant tone.
! Randall opened his mouth slightly before thinking better of what he was about to say and closed it. Instead, he peered around Gerald to look at Terry and Akira. Terry could swear that he blanched slightly.
! ‘’What are you talking about?’’ Randall finally said. ‘’You’re not accusing me, are you?’’
! ‘’Well see, the information in question can only be accessed in two ways, one of which is impossible for non-employees.’’ Gerald explained. ‘’The other, you have ready access to.’’
! ‘’What are you talking about?’’ Randall repeated, starting to pale for sure now. ‘’Really, you’re accusing me?’’
! ‘’We have reason to believe that you’re leaking information on Lifeline to The Beings!’’ Daniel said sharply, having grown tired of his uncle beating around the bush.
! ‘’The Beings?!’’ Randall was now chalk-white. ‘’What makes you think I have anything to do with them?!’’ he exclaimed, backing up a step or two.
! ‘’That’s what we’re trying to clear up.’’ Gerald replied, remaining calm in the face of what was going on.
! ‘’Well, I not a part of them!’’ Randall insisted. ‘’And even if I was, there’s no proof!’’
! ‘’There’s actually evidence that we can use to determine that.’’ Daniel replied. ‘’Dirty fingerprints.’’
! ‘’Of course my fingerprints would be there!’’ Randall protested. ‘’I’m the one who brings those boxes down there!’’
! ‘’Not on the boxes.’’ Daniel corrected. ‘’They’re on the documents themselves.’’
! ‘’Rrgh, you know what this is?’’ Randall shouted, causing someone who was passing through a connecting corridor stop and stare. ‘’It’s abuse, that’s what! If you people don’t leave me alone I’m going to sue you people for harassment!’’
! ‘’Now please, calm down, listen.’’ Gerald was doing an admirable job of retaining his calm, polite demeanor while his nephew appeared to be bent on sabotaging his efforts. ‘’This is a very serious matter, and we need your help.’’ He put his hand on the young man’s shoulder, only to have it violently shaken away. ‘’If you’re innocent, then the evidence will prove it and you should have nothing to be afraid of.’’
! As Gerald continued trying to calm the shifty young man’s nerves, Terry looked down to see that Daniel had taken out his cell phone. He made a gesture indicating his curiosity as to what his friend was doing, but Daniel simply smiled in an unusually sly manner and motioned for silence. He raised his phone subtly, but not enough to escape notice, flicked the casing up and thumbed a button. Randall’s picture appeared on the screen. Quickly, he opened up an email window and began to furiously type.
! Terry realized what Daniel was doing at about the same time that Randall did. He let out a cry that was a mixture between surprise and fury as he lunged forward, brushing Gerald aside and went right for Daniel’s arm. His fingers scrabbled for the phone before he changed his mind and instead punched him right in the face. Possessing none of the physical prowess that Terry did, Daniel went down with an utterly graceless crash, his phone clattering to floor. Landing face-up, its screen displayed Nova’s number.
! By now the commotion had attracted a small crowd of people, completely blocking one end of the narrow corridor. Randall made a break for the opposite end, blowing past a startled Akira and Gerald. However, he didn’t get very far as Terry, the most physically-capable of the group, quickly caught up to him and managed to get a firm grip on his forearm before kicking the back of his knee. Randall’s leg crumpled beneath him and Terry was able to force him to the ground in a painful pin hold.
! It didn’t take long for one of the building’s security guards to come along and take the defeated young man into custody. Behind them, an incredulous Gerald was helping a slightly-dazed but smirking Daniel to his feet as Akira was scratching his head in bewilderment. Terry picked the fallen cell phone off of the ground and held it out to his friend. ‘’I believe this is yours?’’
! ‘’Yeah.’’ Daniel still looked a little out of it, like a triumphant boxer who had taken one hit too many. ‘’Thanks.’’
! ‘’I can’t believe you…’’ Gerald sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. ‘’Don’t ever pull a stunt like that again.’’
! Akira, on the other hand, gave Daniel a friendly slap on the back. ‘’Heh, didn’t know you had it in you.’’
! Some of the grogginess beginning to disappear from his face, Daniel winced and put a hand to his bruised cheek. ‘’Well believe me, I don’t plan on doing it again.’’
! About an hour and a half later Terry, Daniel, and Akira were back at the dorm, hanging out in the down stair’s entertainment lounge. Daniel was still feeling quite pleased with himself, and was proudly wearing the band-aid on his cheek like a badge of honor. Gerald had departed a little while ago, still shaking his head over his nephew’s actions.
! ‘’That guy was really dumb.’’ Daniel remarked for what was probably the fourth or fifth time since they had come back from the Safety Department. ‘’Everything we had on that guy was purely circumstantial. If he had just remained calm he probably would have been able to talk his way out things.’’
! ‘’And yet you kept on provoking him.’’ Terry remarked from one of the chairs as he leafed through a textbook that he was reviewing. ‘’You wanted him to attack you.’’
! ‘’Of course.’’ Daniel continued to grin. ‘’Accusations aren’t always enough to haul in a person, but assault is.’’ After being taken in, Randall had broken down and confessed to being a member of The Beings and that his position as a volunteer worker was a cover to relay guarded information on Trident to Deck. Despite their reputation as a whole, the individual members seemed to have quite a weakness for law enforcement.
! ‘’And what would you have done if we were wrong?’’ Terry asked.
! ‘’I dunno. Apologize, I suppose.’’ Daniel shrugged. ‘’But if he was truly innocent, he would have had no reason for getting as worked up as he did, let alone attacking me.’’
! ‘’What a dumbass.’’ Akira declared from his position sprawled out on the room’s sofa. ‘’What a crappy spy he was.’’
! ‘’But it’s an invaluable victory for us.’’ Terry said, putting his book down. ‘’Maybe now that Deck doesn’t have a mole telling him our movements, we can finally do some real damage to him.’’
! ‘’I’m all for that.’’ Akira sprang up into a sitting position. ‘’It’s about time they’re taken down a peg or two. Jigo jitoku, is what the saying is.’’ The others stared back at him blankly.
! ‘’Just desserts.’’ Akira scowled.
! * * *
! The old storeroom that Deck had repurposed as his main strategizing room was roughly big enough to house twelve to fifteen people, but tonight there were only five: Deck himself, the massive Tank, Den and Sands, two of The Beings’ founding members, and Quill, a guy who had only joined the gang recently but had managed to work his way into Deck’s inner circle pretty quickly. The five of them were sitting around a city map that was lying on the floor, coming up with their newest strategy.
! ‘’There’re only two gangs left in this city that can pose a threat to us now.’’ Deck was saying to the others, holding up two fingers to illustrate. ‘’The West Brands and the Red Claws.’’
! The others exchanged wary glances with one another. The West Brands, while not particularly well-known throughout much of the normal city, were notorious on the streets for being involved with the underground drug and narcotics trade. The Red Claws, meanwhile, were feared for their trigger-happy nature and for being the number one cause of gang-related deaths in the city. When they felt threatened someone tended to die.
! ‘’We’re going to go after the West Brands first.’’ Deck continued, pointing at the map. The Beings’ territory, shaded in blue, stretched across nearly a quarter of the South Side’s rougher neighborhoods, and Landing Day had proven that they were more than capable of striking closer to the city center if they chose to. The Red Claws’ territory, naturally shaded in red, had their territory primarily on the North Side, with a few small holdings further south. Finally, the West Brands’ territory consisted of a smattering of green in the southwestern slice of the city, parts of which were close to rubbing up against some of The Beings’ own territory.
! ‘’I’m not interested in their drugs,’’ Deck continued. ‘’but they do have some intercity holdings that could be very useful. It’ll be easy to sweep in,’’ He traced his finger in a path from their own territory to the Brands’. ‘’cut them off, and then drive ‘em out.’’
! ‘’Okay, then what about the Claws?’’ Quill asked. ‘’What’ll we do if they, well, kill one of us?’’
! ‘’Then they’ll pay the price.’’ Deck responded simply. ‘’Besides, it’s not like each and every member is packing heat. It’s more difficult to get a gun these days than it used to be. And we have Sayren with us. As a symbol of fear, she’s better than any gun.’’
! ‘’Can we really rely on her, though?’’ Den asked, scratching his head. ‘’On Landing Day she went out of her way to attack a police officer. Stuff like that’s just going to antagonize people, and we can only lie low for so long.’’
! ‘’I’ll handle her myself if she goes out of line.’’ Deck answered. ‘’She’s not hard to control, really. She’ll stick around and behave as long as there’s a promise of action.’’
! Den exchanged a glance with Sands. They were far from the only ones with misgivings concerning Sayren. The young woman had caught on pretty quickly to the fact that the gang members were afraid of her and so often hung out around the base and surrounding area just to intimidate them. Many wished she didn’t, and it certainly didn’t help that she reacted rather strongly to the idea that she was a part of the gang proper.
! ‘’Hey, are you doubting Deck?’’ Tank shot, his voice almost echoing in the small room. ‘’He’s shown that he knows what he’s doing.’’
! ‘’Fine, whatever, forget it.’’ Den sighed. Tank wasn’t very popular with the rest of the gang, as since the gang’s formation he’d manage to turn into little more than Deck’s sycophant.
! ‘’Don’t worry, we’re not going to go about this without a plan.’’ Deck interjected. ‘’We’ll take our time with this. I never once expected this to be easy.’’
! Sands was about to speak up when someone began pounding furiously on the door behind him, completely drowning out any words he might’ve said. ‘’Cut out that damn racket! Just come in!’’ Deck roared over the din as the others turned towards the door in annoyance. The door swung open and a member stumbled inside, almost falling over himself in his haste.
! ‘’What the hell’s wrong with you, Plane?’’ Quill asked with an eyebrow raised. The poor guy looked about to collapse, as if he had literally run all the way across the city.
! ‘’I-It’s Gecko!’’ Plane panted, doubling over with his hands on his knees. ‘’H-He’s…he’s been…!’’
! ‘’Speak clearly!’’ Deck ordered. ‘’What happened to him?!’’
! ‘’He-He was arrested!’’ Plane shouted. ‘’They got him!’’
! ‘’What are you talking about?’’ Den asked, looking mightily confused. ‘’How did he get arrested?’’
! ‘’I was waiting for him at the bus stop like I usually do.’’ Plane panted. ‘’But he was late, so I ran over to the Safety Department, and I saw him being taken away in handcuffs!’’
! ‘’Wait!’’ Deck suddenly reached out and grabbed Plane by the front of his collar and pulled him close, almost off of his feet. ‘’How did you know he would be at the Safety Department?!’’ he demanded, rage brewing within his voice.
! ‘’H-He t-told me!’’ Plane gasped, quaking in fear, almost lifted right off of his feet.
! ‘’That goddamned idiot!!’’ Deck roared, shoving the hapless Plane away from him. ‘’I told him not to tell anyone!’’
! ‘’Wait, what about Gecko?’’ Quill blinked in confusion, not following what was going on.
! ‘’No point hiding it now.’’ Deck ground out. ‘’He was spying on Lifeline, giving us information on Trident. It was thanks to that that we knew when they were going to attack us back in September, and it helped us plan out Landing Day.’’
! With that, he stalked out of the room, in no mood to entertain the questions and cluelessness of the others. He had entrusted Gecko with the role of spy because he had felt that he had had the right temperament and skills for the job, but even he had mucked that up. Thanks to his bungling, not only was that information stream cut off, but there was a chance that the location of The Beings’ new base could be divulged. Then someone was really going to pay.
! But then another thought struck him, and he stopped in the middle of the hallway. His lips slowly curled into a slight grin. A single chuckle escaped his lips, and before he knew it, laughter poured from his mouth, filling the dark, empty corridor with its rumble. So what if his boys were incompetent? So what if he had lost his inside source of information? He was still a Stargazer, and he had Sayren on his side. Sooner or later, Trident would come to him; he didn’t have to do anything.
! And when that happened, he’d prove once and for all why he was the strongest.

I could end there, but since this is the one-year anniversary, I'd like to make this update a little special, thus here's a new installment in the encyclopedia:

! Continents and Countries of Lagoon Pt. 1 Lagoon’s surface consists of six continents (Sentremane and Malasqa in the western hemisphere, Darlsine, Hiwanbi, Laingu, and Rande in the eastern hemisphere) along with assorted oceans and minor landmasses.
! Hiwanbi
Located primarily in the southeastern hemisphere, this is the second-largest continent in terms of landmass and the ancestral homeland of humanity. Its southwestern parts are humid and covered by jungle, while the rest of the continent is more dry and arid, covered by desert and savannahs. Its northern and southern reaches are industrialized and wealthy thanks to oil and other natural resource deposits. The northern section of the continent in particular has many resort spots for vacationers, and the various ancient Abaskan, Pydos, and Daundan ruin sites dotting the coastline generates much tourism. The countries of northern Hiwanbi do their best to sweep instances of poverty or signs of decay under the rug.
! By contrast, the center of the continent is far less inviting. Many of the countries of central Hiwanbi are not part of SPHERE and are quite poor and suffer from a lack of stable infrastructure, either due to corrupt government policies, hostile climatic elements, or ethnic conflict. Many of the central Hiwanbians are resentful of their more prosperous neighbors, resulting in tensions between the demographic subdivisions.
! Abaska
This northeastern Hiwanbi country is considered to be the birthplace of human civilization, and its ancient history is among the most celebrated in the world. The few surviving records show that the ancient Abaskans were originally a loose collection of warring tribes during the Bronze Age until they were united into what is now called the Proto-Abaskan Empire in roughly 1300TA (Time of Awakening). Armed with newly-wrought iron weapons, they ushered in the Iron Age and began to conquer the lands that lay to the west, up to the shores of the Kimiru River. However, it was not until the sixth century TA that its star would truly raise.
! Battered by hostile forces both internal and external, the Proto-Abaskan Empire was on the decline by the middle of the 6th century TA. However, in 533TA a single warlord managed to reunite the people and became the founder of the meteoric Abaskan Empire. Known simply as The Mighty One, his true name being lost to history, this king built a very powerful army and carved out a massive empire that covered most of the known world at the time, covering most of Hiwanbi and making significant inroads into Darlsine and even Laingu. It is speculated that The Mighty One was a Taurus Stargazer, as ancient oral tradition claims that the very land trembled in his presence, and that his sword alone brought great ruin to his enemies and could carve chasms deeper than any man could fathom. However, it is impossible to tell whether this is the truth or exaggeration of his feats. Regardless, he came to be revered as a god-king amongst his kingdom, with many temples and statues erected in his honor. When he died sometime during the 4th century TA his tomb supposedly bore the inscription ‘’I am The Mighty One, all peoples bowed to me.’’ Without his influence and power, his kingdom fell apart several decades later as other nations grew in power and took back their lands, and the limits of the Abaskan Empire gradually receded to its original borders, leaving behind its legacy of having once been the center of one of the world’s largest empires.
! Pydos
This northern-Hiwanban country sprung up around the Pydos River delta. Its capital city, Murt, is located on the coast of the Verde Sea and has been a major trading center since ancient times. Ancient Pydos was at one time part of the Abaskan Empire, but after its decline they carved their own empire out of the Abaskan Empire’s western remnants. During their time the Pydos army was famous for their extensive cavalry usage, ranging from mundane horse mounts and chariots, to even employing war elephants. The empire persisted into the early decades of the Age of Ethos, though the Daundines from Darlsine managed to reduce their influence. Today the country is a member of SPHERE, and despite occasional political friction caused by three opposing religious sects, is relatively prosperous.
! Their ancient architectural style favored ziggurats and obelisks, partly inspired by the Abaskans, and today their ruins can be found dotting the north Hiwanban coast.
! Mohajh Desert
The great desert that dominates much of the continent’s northern reaches. Once filled with trading routes, today only the most foolhardy of travelers dare to cross its vast expanse on foot.
! The Zonge Republic
A country that is split into two states, north and south. The people of Zonge are split into two different tribes: the Kwan-Zonge and the Nugu-Zonge, who split their nation in two over irreconcilable differences. Each state claims to be the ‘’true’’ Zonge Republic, and despite, or perhaps because of, attempts at foreign mediation both sides frequently come into conflict with each other.
! The Arws’ Range
A mountain range that stretches from the center of the continent to its southeastern tip. It contains Mt. Congru, which at twenty-eight thousand feet is the tallest mountain peak in the world.
! The Kings’ Forest
A vast burial ground for the kings of Ganwkwe. Each burial plot is marked out by a two-hundred foot tower made from dried earth and clay. Despite this practice originating in ancient times, Ganwkwe continues this tradition in the modern era, though on a slightly smaller scale.
! Birsku
A nation comprised of the twenty-four islands of the Birsku Archipelago which makes up Hiwanbi’s western side. The Birskus are a nation of devout fishermen, and only those who have been blessed and consecrated by their tribal shamans are allowed to sail in the straits between islands.

And finally, a little bit about the characters, or at least the eight that I could fit on this piece of paper. So you guys will be the first to witness my crappy artwork.

!
! Some came out better than others, but I'm sure you can tell who's supposed ot be who. If not:
Top row (left to right): Terry, Akira, Nova, Daniel, and Gerald
Bottom row: Deck, Sayren, and Karen (with the villains? Must be epic foreshadowing, heh. On a serious note that design on her hat isn't an infinity symbol, it's supposed to be a fish)

And lastly, character trivia on those eight:

! Terrence ''Terry'' Eaves Age: 17
Birthdate: August 21, 2631
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Height: 5'8.5'' (174cm)
Hobbies: Martial arts, stargazing, hiking
Stargazer: Gemini. The ability to produce and control electricity. He is working on a way to most efficiently combine his Stargazer powers with his existing martial arts skills.
Trivia: The leather jacket that he tends to often wear was a birthday/farewell gift from his uncle shortly before he left for Marine Cove City.
! He tries to spend at least an hour a day practicing and polishing his martial arts skills. In his mind he has a list of techniques cataloged, though he doesn't dare tell anyone else for fear of being called childish.
! Akira Kamiya Age: 17
Birthdate: January 12, 2631
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'7'' (170cm)
Hobbies: reading comics and manga, playing video games, mainly fighters and RPGs
Stargazer: Sagittarius. The ability to manipulate air and control wind. Since he never really used his powers for anything other than self-satisfying mischief before joining Trident he's finding it more than a little difficult to adjust to a combat role, not helped by the fact that his teammates are physically stronger than him.
Trivia: Due to his easy-going and even somewhat immature personality, Terry was shocked to discover that he was actually the second-oldest of the group.
! He has some skill as a baseball player, but turned down his classmate Bar's offer to try out for his school's team because he felt that he was being too pushy.
! Theodore ''Nova'' Bown Age: 18
Birthdate: March 4, 2630
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'1'' (185cm)
Hobbies: listening to music, mainly old rock, and weight-lifting
Stargazer: Taurus. When activated, hisright arm becomes encased in metal armor, greatly boosting its strength. However, after seeing how limited it is, Nova is trying to discover ways to expand his power.
Trivia: His street name was not bestowed upon him by The Beings, but was rather a nickname that his sister, Liren, had for him.
! He drew his hair out to at first stand out, and kept that look afterwards because he thought it looked cool.
! Despite his somewhat intimidating appearance he is actually a very good student, having made consistent straight-A's during his time at Marine Cove Academy.
! Daniel Centone Age: 17
Birthdate: May 8, 2631
Hair: Brown
Eye: Brown
Height: 5'9'' (175cm)
Hobbies: reading, studying, streaming television shows on his laptop
Trivia: His parents have high standards for him, and while he meets them without complaint, he prefers his uncle's easier-going company.
! His hair used to be shaggier and longer, but he decided to have it cut upon being accepted to Marine Cove Academy.
! Gerald Centone Age: 61
Birthdate: June 17, 2587
Hair: Gray (formerly brown)
Eye: Hazel
Height: 5'8'' (173cm)
Hobbies: reading, listening to classical music, and rooting for the Isle Birds, Marine Cove's baseball team
Trivia: Before becoming a member of the board of education and getting involved with Lifeline he was a highschool math teacher, and before that he was a sailor in the Founder States' navy.
! Anthony ''Deck'' Balast
Age: 22
Birthdate: November 18, 2625
Hair: Blond
Eye: ???
Height: 6'6'' (198cm)
Hobbies: Throwing darts
Stargazer: Taurus. He can materialize a variety of melee weapons such as spears, staves, axes, and maces. He has become fairly proficient in their use and can even exhibit a degree of telekinetic control over them, allowing him to set up traps and ambushes.
Trivia: He always wears sunglasses because of both the intimidation factor and because people won't be able to see his eyes change when he uses his powers.
! He always wears a bandana or hat because his hair is prematurely thinning.
! Sayren Age: 19
Birthdate: July 19, 2629
Hair: Black
Eye: Green
Height: 5'10'' (178cm)
Hobbies: None known
Stargazer: Leo. She can generate and manipulate vast amounts of heat. She relies on her powers to quickly incapacitate her victims by inflicting severe burns upon them.
Trivia: She dresses very lightly because her powers have changed her physiology so that exposure to the cold bothers her very little.
! Karen Emerage Age: 17
Birthdate: April 13, 2631
Hair: Brown
Eye: Brown
Height: 5'5'' (165cm)
Hobbies: In the past she used to collect comic books as a means for escapism, but grew out of it as she got older.
Trivia: She lives with her father, as her parents are divorced.
! Deep down, she secretly wishes that she could be a Stargazer so that she could say that there was something special about herself.

And that's that. I'd like to thank everyone who's stuck with me for this long, and I hope that you'll continue to follow and enjoy the adventures of Terry and co.

[gottalt3OP]

I'll read the actual chapter later. But I did enjoy those extras. The drawings are pretty decent. I'd fail SO HARD if I tried to draw characters. It seems like those western cartoons. (teen titans and stuff like that) IMHO the girls lack breasts, but that isn't a big deal.

And starting with Africa? Nice. So some countries there are not SPHERE, that seems like an interesting plot that will most likely be wasted. (I don't think Terry will live the town any time soon, let alone leaving the continent.)
Maybe Gowny will invade the city with an army of Hiwanbian kid stargazers. :ninja:

Just kidding, keep up the good work.