Sioux Falls, South Dakota
1900 Hours
43°32′11″N 96°43′54″W
The whirring of the helicopter's rotary blades nothing but background noise to the young adult male who had a cigarette tucked between his lips. His hair was as dark as night, but his eyes...they were visually mesmerizing; swirling with a constant flux of energy that ebbed and flowed like any tide would in the water. The effect was their glow which emanated from this almost capricious nature that electricity seemed to naturally be beholden to.
The cigarette was burning slowly. The 'cherry' at the tip, glowing every now and again to signal an inhale was taking place before he exhaled smoke through his nostrils encompassing his face like he were a demon walking through some hellish plane. Maybe he was. After all, did he trust humanity to save itself? That's what he had been asking himself ever since he became a part of this. Some labcoat's pet project. The truth was, he didn't know. After everything he'd seen; all the fighting, and the chaos around him. He only knew what
he wanted to believe.
That somehow, human decency would triumph. That these past few years, where he'd faced many life-threatening situations. He could have given up many times, but his need to know the truth, to uncover the secrets that other's were hiding, and to survive, forced him to keep going. Most of the time he tried to keep his values in mind, knowing his actions did not have to needlessly harm others. He held on to his humanity, what little he felt was left, and resisted the urge to abuse power or resources in order to meet his goals. And in the end, he always seemed to get the job done.
But Lelou understood something; this wasn't HIS world anymore. His documents shredded and burned, his parent's likely told that he had been killed or they had been themselves. He even killed his former girlfriend turned abomination, Experiment #3, when the trials began. So any source of outside relation or lingering attachment were just like the ashes that built up when a cigarette burned for too long. Too fragile, so they had to be cast away. But as a person with his power, did it make it right for him to choose for everyone? No. It wasn't up to him.
Everyone had their own choices to make. But those with power, often pushed those without around. That was his niche. He was a checks and balance for those with remarkable traits. They needed protecting from the powers that be, but perhaps just as much, they needed someone to keep them in-line. He never did care for when Experiments went rogue and began butchering. Then there were the abominations; Experiments with powers out of control because the chemical had warped them so completely they became nothing more than savage and blood thirsty. Nevertheless, he tried to save as many of his brethren as he could when and where ever he could.
"Tell me about the Experiment we are after, Dr. Nolan." Lelou opened the side door. They were fourteen-thousand feet up in the air.
"Who is she, what are her powers?" He had told the scientist, in no certain terms to "dress warm". It was his first outing with Nolan, and it may have come off threatening due to unfamiliarity.
However, when he opened the door the temperature suddenly plummeted to negative twelve below zero. Lelou's boots, magnetically stuck to the plating of the interior. They could've flown side ways and he'd never leave that spot unless he wanted to. He gave the motion to the pilot to circle the area and then did something...interesting. He stuck his hand out of the helicopter as it began to make wide laps. Unseen forces were in play the minute he had done so. He was charging the air; he'd been noted on a few occasions to create electrical storms by drawing the positives and negatives into a frenzy.
Dr. Nolan was the only one who remained sitting and strapped in once the plane took off. He had been chosen for this field mission to collect one of his favorite cases. Experiment #11, shadow manipulation, class 3; the same level as the experiment with him in the plane. Experiment #11 has killed as many people as Experiment #4 and she was younger then the male in the plane with him and the Unit 4 Collection force. It would be interesting to see these two interact. It would also be the first time in years that Samuel would have new information to study about this case. #11 was one of the interesting cases. The doctor looked about at the others along for the ride, holding #11's file open and reading through a few things before they arrived.
"Tell me about the Experiment we are after, Dr. Nolan." The door opening pulled Samuel's attention over towards Lelou, glad he had dressed warmly.
"Who is she, what are her powers?" Samuel smiled and looked down at the file.
"We're after Experiment #11, a shadow manipulator, class 3," the doctor read from the file that Lelou had no access to. It was interesting, this experiment had a name on record but no note of who named her or if she named herself.
Samuel didn't look up from the folder as he the plane began circling. Although Nolan had never been on a retrival mission with #4, he's seen many videos and read every report on the male. He looked up and watched as the experiment held his hand out into the cold air.
"You might know her as Rillow," he continued, that calm smile still gracing his lips.
∴
The food and water they had collected was all laid out before her as she came to, slumping against the cave's wall. It took a lot of energy for her to control them. With tasks like this, she could normally let them do as the like, but she wanted to know her surroundings a bit more. It took a little while for Rillow to calm her breathing, her eyes returning back to normal. As she looked ahead of her, she nodded her head at the sight. They had found plenty for a good meal; rabbits, wild onions and potatoes, fresh water and some wild herbs. She had enough to eat for the week before she would have to leave again.
The sudden surge of energy in the air surprised her; her body freezing in place. This was not natural energy. Not just that... her creatures were vibrating. This had never happened before and her eye brows furrowed as she leaned down, looking at one of the creatures, seeing them vibrate but the seemed to be filling with the energy in the air. Something was not right.
The only thing that came to mind was the possibility of having been found. This caused her to cross her legs once more focusing, her eyes glazing over black. The creatures continued to vibrated but morphed together into a smaller group but with wings forming on their backs.
"Lend me your eyes," she whispered softly, her voice echoing.
The creatures scurried off, those with wings taking off into the air to find where the energy is coming from. In this state she didn't have much control over them as they went rampant, looking for the source, but she could keep them below the forests canopy. She watched through their eyes and felt fear clutch her chest at the sight of the military plane. They found her.
It was a sudden thing, the fear was small but it grew like fire within her, her body trembling. It was fear that made her loose control and her control was slipping quickly. The area of the forest she was in began to darken. If it weren't for the fog, those in the plane would have been able to notice it.
"Come back... Come back now!" she yelled in a panic, her control slipping faster and faster.
∴
The air would chill most to the bone, yet he was unfazed. His cells were going to fast, producing more warmth than the cold could take. He might as well be on fire. If someone were to point a thermal imaging device they might go blind. But his hand was doing more than simply swimming through the night clouds. His electrokinetic powers were stirring the atmosphere in a violent maelstrom.
It would begin with the wind shear; a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. With a low wind shear and moderate instability, a pulse storm or single cell thunderstorm could form. The low wind shear contributing a short average lifespan of less than an hour. Severe weather in a pulse storm most often occurred during a momentarily forceful updraft, taking the form of hail or particularly damaging winds brought about by down bursts. As such, the ground below them was in chaos; winds howling like maddened creatures. It strength like claws, tearing at the vegetation, ripping limbs of trees free, pouring golf ball-sized hail down from great heights.
Though the township had been abandoned due to bombing, houses and cars remained. Belongings let to rot and decay. These things bore evidence of a bygone era and now were shattering and being pummeled.
"We're after Experiment #11, a shadow manipulator, class 3," Nolan told him. He could feel the man's eyes on without looking.
"You might know her as Rillow," The scientist continued calmly.
"I know what you're thinking doctor," Lelou said abruptly, adjusting the manacles on his arms. He then looked straight at the man.
"There is a reason I am a class 5." Lelou said firmly, lighting flashing furiously behind, casting its immeasurable light past his shoulders.
"I do believe you there when I dealt with my girlfriend."
Lelou walked to the opposite side of the plane, about faced--planted a foot and a hand down as if about to sprint. The plane then lurched going against what the pilots where doing in the cockpit, it 'leaned' to one side completely vertical. If the doctor had been buckled in, he'd have surely have fallen. But as the plane was tilting Lelou took off, the muscles in his legs propelling him forwards with a powerful spring-like motion and just as the plane came to be fully on its side he leapt out the plane. No parachute, no safe guard. Sending the plane 'flopping back onto its belly. The motion jarring for those inside.
Memories flooded his mind one in particular of when he had first met Rillow. when she was first brought in. The scientists cared nothing for her humanity, all they saw was a number. But he was the first one to give her a name. He'd sat with her maybe a handful of times. It was shortly before his girlfriend had become an aberration. Before the chemical had transformed her physically and mentally. After that, he lost touch.
As he plummeted through the clouds at a 120 miles an hour. He came like shooting star, he came like an asteroid. Electricity had formed a heated shield around him. Electromagnetism slowed his descent to a point where it he could land safely. The moment he had set foot on the ground the creatures of darkness were alerted to his position. Not that it wasn't hard, he stood in the eye of a mesocyclonic supercell. The vortex of air within the convective storm rose and rotated around a vertical axis in the same direction as low pressure systems in a given hemisphere.
Landing on one knee, he rose slowly with the tumultuous sky twisting and grinding above him. One of the shadows leapt to attack but as it did, the static in the air rapidly rose and as he lifted his head his eyes caught the monster swiftly moving towards him. 3,000 megajoules of energy with 180,000 amperes of electric current surged straight down blasting the creature into oblivion and setting fire to dry grass and weeds birthing a walk way for him to follow.
Samuel smirked to himself, nodding his head.
"Of course," he recalled, his voice even and calm as he sat there.
I had fun dissecting her for my studies, he thought to himself, recalling all the data he gathered from one of the many dead experiments. The doctor enjoyed testing #4 every once in a while. It may have been his first time on a recall mission, but he knew the reason why he had been kept from doing it for such a long time. He'd rather watch #4 kill the experiments so Dr. Nolan could dissect the fallen experiment in his labs. It was more fun for him that way.
"Bring that experiment back, alive Dr. Nolan," the voice of the head researcher echoed in his mind as he crossed his legs, looking at the file once more. Experiment #11 was one of the few experiments they knew nothing about, how her powers developed or how strong she might be at the moment. The file says she's class 3, but that was the assessment off of the video of her escape and the reports that led them to the Experiment. As far as they knew, she could be even stronger. Dr.. Nolan was more then excited to begin the experimentation on this interesting case.
"Be sure to keep her alive, #4," he reminded the experiment with him, before he jumped out of the plane. Samuel looked to the task force with him.
"Land the plane and prep the weapons with the tranquilizers. We have to set up a perimeter," the doctor began,
"#11 cannot escape."
∴
The intruder might have thought he had killed the shadow, but all he did was charge the shadow, forcing it to disappear into the shadows that suddenly grew in the area. This power was doing nothing but making the shadows grow in number and prickle with energy; a reaction that was not recorded in #11's file. The blast, however, did cause Rillow to cry out in the cave she rested in, causing her fear and anger to grow.
No! I need to keep my head level! she yelled at herself mentally.
"We need to leave," she whispered to herself, trying to stand, but it was too late. Her body moved sluggishly as she tried to leave the cave. Her eyes still hadn't changed back, which was not a good sign. As the female stood outside of the cave, most of the smaller creatures had returned and were trying to help her stay standing. The energy in the air coupled with the wind was making her concentration break.
"We need to leave," she whispered to herself once more. Rillow knew this... but she was so tired; all she just wanted to be left alone.
I'll make them leave me alone... she thought to herself, before she let go.
Rillow's body became limp and unmoving, crashing to the ground. If she were a normal girl, she would have hit her head very hard against the stone and moss, but she was far from normal. Her body fell into a growing mass of darkness. This was the true power of her abilities; these monstrous creatures that would destroy everything in their wake if she did not control them. The shadows grew larger and larger, forming huge creatures that looked like nightmares. One of the creatures, that stood at the back, held the female. It's chest opened up and tentacle like hands grabbed onto Rillow, pulling her into the safety of it's chest; sealing off their creator in a protective bubble of darkness.
The heavy breathing filled the forest, driving all the life from it. Any darkness in the area was pulled to the massive creatures that stood by and waited.
Don't kill innocents, the words echoed within the creatures. It was the only order Rillow gave them and it was a simple one that they could fool, since they will be allowed to kill others who would hurt their creator.
Kill. Protect.
Those words echoed through out the surrounding area before two of the creatures to where the plane had landed, while the remaining two protected the fifth, who held their creator.
∴
Lelou's eye's glowed a mesmerizing deep blue as he continued deeper into the dark blackness of the forest, undaunted, unswayed by the things he was hearing. They were the words of someone frightened and tired. He could tell her willpower had been sapped. She was expending more energy than she had to conjure and control her powers. But whatever the case was, he was going to protect her. After all, he'd been the one to give her the name Rillow. It was only fitting that he take responsibility for her capture. The reason why it was never documented was because it was a name that she had gotten only after she had been brought into the project. A secondary name, for a secondary life. Where the scientists only saw them as numbered guinea pigs, Lelou saw them as family. And family deserved names.
Lelou came to a clearing, and old construction site. He knew he'd be facing a challenge ahead. He looked around carefully enough, and then he found what he was looking for--reinforcing bars of steel. He picked one up feeling the weight before turning back to the darkness, his hand sparking before electricity encapsulated the rod with a high voltage current that struck at the ground in loud 'pops'. Walking, he neared the cavern in which Rillow had hid. He stopped a few feet from its entrance.
"Is this the way you want this to go down?" He questioned sternly.
"With us fighting each other? Killing each other? Hasn't enough of our blood been spilled by them?" He enunciated the last word because he no longer felt human. Or at the very least, what they would consider human.
He drug the electrified rod across the ground engraving a line.
"If you continue using your powers in such a destructive manner as to kill unarmed people--I will have no choice but to cross this line and come after you in full force. Please, don't make me do that. I've lost enough people...Don't make lose anymore than I have to."
An open field, not far from the construction site, was the perfect size for landing the plane. As the plane landed, the armed group stepped out of the plane first, surveying the area. Samuel remained within the plane, using his computer to see through the various cameras attached to each person.
-Keep formation!- Samuel heard the squad leader yell at the group. Typical loud mouthed alpha male behavior. It was entertaining to the doctor; like puppets on strings, they knew nothing of what would be happening right now, but now was not the time to let himself be so amused. It was time that he focused on the goal.
"Keep your UV lights going," Samuel's voice was level, devoid of humor and the normal joking tone. The good doctor was serious.
That's when the radio's began to get static. Those outside looked around, unsure as to what was going on, until the breathing started. At first it was soft, surrounding the area like fog slowly rolling in, but then it became louder. The breathing surrounded everyone, filling their ears. The breathing seemed to come from every crevice causing the men outside to look around with confusion; even Samuel could not deny the chill that went down his spine.
This... this isn't the same...
∴
The shadow creatures looked at the male that stood before them, gauging whether or not they should engage.
"Is this the way you want this to go down?" The male spoke, drawing the attention of the largest of the three creatures. In this state Rillow could hear the words being spoken, but they sounded distant; echoing within the protective bubble she had grown accustom to.
"With us fighting each other? Killing each other? Hasn't enough of our blood been spilled by them?" Rillow felt her eyes open within the darkness, this was the first time she had ever done this. Her eyes took in the scene before the creatures and then her vision split.
Suddenly the sound of gunshots echoed into her ears and she couldn't help the scream of surprise that came from her throat. The sound echoed within the creatures chest. It was a soft, distant sound, her scream barely whispered into the air, but it caused the breathing to grow even more so; a heavy sound that surrounded everything like tar.
After her initial shock, Rillow seemed to calm down enough to be able to focus on what she was seeing; what
they were seeing. Rillow never new she could see what they could see. Usually she felt the anger and the pain that triggered them to form; her body unable to move, but whoever was speaking somehow had them calmed down enough. They were calm enough for Rillow to be able to open her eyes. One eye could see the other two creatures fight against the armed men who kept shooting at them; shouting that she could barely understand. Whoever these men were, they were lasting longer then the ones who had gone after her before.
The other eye looked ahead of her, at the person who stood before her and her creations. This energy was coming from him... he is one of the experiments, but there was something more familiar about him. The bright blue of his eyes brought back a memory she had never seen so clear.
"How about... Rillow?"
The voice that always echoed in her mind, became clearer; the memory became clearer and she could see the person before her in her mind. Her eyes widening at the memory. The person who gave her her name... the person who stood before her now was the person who gave her happiness. What was he doing here? Was he with
them?
"If you continue using your powers in such a destructive manner as to kill unarmed people--" He was with them... he chose them in the end. "I will have no choice but to cross this line and come after you in full force." I'm not so weak anymore... I won't hesitate to kill you... traitor. Malice began to grow within her and she felt her eyes slowly closing.
"Please, don't make me do that." Her eyes re-opened as he continued to speak.
"I've lost enough people...Don't make lose anymore than I have to."
Before her mind could continue; before her anger and malice could take root, her voice echoed within the creatures.
This person is innocent... don't hurt him... Her mind echoed the orders over and over again and as it did, the creatures began vibrating.
Spare the innocent.
The creatures voice echoed, the breathing suddenly stopping. The sound of hissing replaced it as the two smaller creatures joined together with the larger third one. Together, the creature was massive; wings sprouting out of its back. Rillow needed to get out of there while she still had a bit of control. With all the energy she had left, she had the now winged creature, to get into the air. The other two had finished making most of the armed men loose consciousness after being attacked ruthlessly; now they flew into the air as well, wings formed on their backs to join their creator.
It might have been her escape... but something hit her in her back, a sharp pain that knocked her from within the creatures chest. Some had shot a tranquilizer at her. Just as the drug began to take effect, the smaller two creatures dissipated into the air. Rillow would have fallen had it not been for the large creature that caught her, falling with her back to the forest.
By the time she landed, the creature dissipated as well, her body limp as she laid on the ground. Rillow was fighting the drug, but it was already too late. They caught her.
∴
Samuel kept a level head, even though all he heard was gunfire and screaming. He focused on the breathing, making sure his recording software was working as they fought the creatures not recorded in the files. There was not much about this experiment, to be honest. Even her class was just a speculation. Having sent a few mercenaries to provoke her and possibly kill her before hand, not one ever returned alive. Samuel knew she would be interesting, but he did not expect this much strength in the amount of years she has been outside of the compound.
Experiment #11 had exceeded the scientist's expectations. Now to the task of acquiring her, alive.
"Have a sniper ready with tranquilizer rounds. We need her alive," the doctor announced over the radios.
-Sir, there's no one left qualified to take a shot.- Samuel side, unimpressed. Unbuckling himself from his seat, he set his computer aside, removing his coat and grabbing one of the rifles that had been stocked in case.
Dr. Nolan was a decent marksman, and with targets that size he'd be perfectly fine.
Climbing up onto the top of the plane, he set up his rifle and aimed at the creatures fighting them, however, through his scope he noticed these would be too small to carry the experiment and too large to be the experiment herself. It was when the breathing stopped; the creatures suddenly sprouting wings and flying into the air, that Samuel followed with the rifles scope, aiming towards the largest creature and firing a shot.
Watching the scene from atop the plane, he handed the rifle off to his bodyguard and climbed down to the ground, rallying the remaining conscious guards to go retrieve the experiment.
Lelou held the steel reinforced bar parallel with his arm as he held it out to the side. The metal crackled loudly, sparking with so much energy it was glowing white hot with visible currents flowing up and down its length. He'd created a sort of perimeter with fluctuating lightening strikes being called forth by his own energy displacing the negative and positive charges creating invisible conduits which allowed the lightening to rain down in rapid succession proving the old adage that lightening never struck the same place twice, completely and utterly false.
The screams and shouts in his ear piece seemed to cease--rather they were dead or unconscious remained to be seen. But it seemed his words got through to her. She was scared and defensive, and he was the only one that truly understood how she felt. However, she tried to take flight, adding her other shadows to the one she had enclosed herself in. He'd have struck her with bolt if he didn't believe it would outright kill her.
Watching, he increased the intensity of the strikes; the ground exploding like bombshells were going off with each strike. He'd leave her no where to go. Added to the maelstrom winds, it was highly unlikely she'd have gotten very far. However, something happened. The creature ceased, then plummeted.
He raced below her, watching creature dissipate just as he was there to catch her before she hit the ground. A tranq dart was embedded in her shoulder. He carried her bridal style with her legs draped over one arm and her back resting easily against the other built limb. He calmed the storm as he carried her back towards Nolan.
"Easy now, I got you. I won't let them hurt you." He whispered to a drugged Rillow.
The doctor walked through the forest, a stretcher waiting as the men who had been woken from their unconscious state went looking for the fallen experiment. They had 4 hours to find her before the drug began to loose it's strength. He looked around, seeing how the darkness remained, thick like a fog, it clinged to everything only to slide lower towards the ground. Samuel used his camera to record the fog as it slowly moved passed their feet.
-Sir, #4 has #11,- the news caused the strange scientist to smile. The solders held guns at the unconscious experiment as #4 carried her out of the darkness. The doctor could not help but notice the dark fog followed the two as they walked towards the open field.
"You can lay her on the stretcher #4," Samuel said, walking towards the stretcher. They had to quarantine her, retrain her and keep her sedated until they had her in a secure cell. This was protocol... all but keeping her sedated for the whole time. She would be kept in this state until they could properly handle her; this bit of information would be kept from the male experiment holding the unconscious female.
Rillow woke suddenly, her eyes looking around her new home she had arrived at just a few days ago. The raven haired girl sat up, feeling the shadows slip away from her like they always did when she woke in the morning. The sound of scraping filled her ears as they crawled up away from her, up onto the ceiling of the cave she has crawled into the night before. She nodded her head to the shadows. Rillow always woke with shadows wrapped around her, like a living blanket, they kept her warm, dry and, most of all, safe. 
