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CHAPTER 1 (OMNISCIENT P.O.V) : "AN ETHEREAL DOVE"
BOOM! A loud rumbling sound shook the earth under her feet. A violent gust of wind blew through short hair.
Ignition was underway. Half of the entire warehouse was blown to pieces. Shrapnel was scattered everywhere.
A tumultuous cyclone ripped through the upper roof. In the distance, on top of a nearby knoll on the grassy plains, a shadowed figure emerged from the woods behind him
The mysterious man, lanky with a strong and muscular build, was wearing a black suit tainted with white spots all over, purple gloves, and a sleek,the only color outside of a slim red tie. His helmet, however, radiated austerity and demanded loyalty and professionalism. Shielded with what seems to be titanium covered with a sheet of dark glass and a grayish silver finish, the helmet had a scarlet cobra symbol carved on top.
The man , communicating with his leader through a holographic quantum communicator , spoke,
"The mission was a success , Lynx." He walked back into the woods with his briefcase.
Back at the warehouse, Fuyu Miyazaki couldn't believe her eyes.
She was astounded, standing in shock and fear at what she had done. Her hands were paler than usual, her veins more prominent. The shockwave from the blast caused the factory's walls to collapse ,obstructing the exit to the plains outside.
Fuyu was trapped. Her memory blurred. Everything felt hazy to her. All she could remember was how she was abducted by two "Men in Black", who had then threatened Fuyu, pushing her to come to rescue her mother, before she"was scorched alive." The last thing she remembered was the men leaving her and the sound of something ticking.,
"A bomb?" she said to herself, sweating profusely,
In the blink of an eye, her memory sparked when she remembered the voice of someone calling out to her seconds before the blast. Fuyu quickly glanced behind her and cried out at the top of her lungs,
"MAMA! MY GOD! NO, NO, NOOOO PLEASE NO!"
Laying there on the ground, barely breathing, blood pooling out, was her mother. Upon seeing Fuyu, she struggled to reach out with her arm.
Fuyu was at a loss for words. She ran towards her mother, and fell to her knees, grabbing her mother's hands on her own. They felt weak, at odds with the rough calluses she could feel on them..
A crisp wave of air sent a shiver down her spine. Her mother, Yuma Miyazaki, slowly looked up at her, meeting her eyes.
"Watashi no itooshī hito..." (My sweetheart).
Fuyu, always used to being called the "the silent one" Her breath came faster and faster, pressure building in her chest, and try as she might, she couldn't get control. Her body was hurt, fatigued, and fragile. Her chest was filled with smoke and residue from the blast, so much so that she was choking.
"You'll be okay, mom," she cried. " Please stay with me. I beg you, please! Why did you come to save me?! Why did you have to come for me now!" She choked on her words. "I am so sorry Mom! I failed you. Forgive me."
Fuyu stuttered; she was too appalled to speak. The right side of her mother's body, from eye to toe, was completely crushed. The skin on her face was torched, like paper turned to ash.
Yuma tells Fuyu,
"Don't hold in the pain, Fuyu.Let it go, my daughter. I can't stand seeing you devastated like this, even in the face of Death..."
"But... but ... I can't lose you ..." Fuyu attempted to speak but the words refused to come out of her mouth. "I don't know what ...without you ..." Soon, they failed her completely.
Her mind was still processing how everything swiftly occurred. She wondered how the men, the ones who'd kidnapped her, and left her here, had just vanished.
These men didn't get anything in return for giving up Fuyu to her mother, no ransom, no money for them to earn. She realized she'd been nothing but bait for her mother to come and walk into a trap. Yuma was the target. Fuyu couldn't control it anymore, as the wind around her started to shift.
She was brought out of her thoughts by Yuma, barely conscious and slipping quickly.
"Fuyu, I have not ... the truth about your father. I kept it .....out of love..... your father. It was his final request to me , but I..."
Fuyu looked at her mother in a moment of confusion, a tear trickling down her red cheek.
"Mom, this is not the time to talk now! Stay with me. I'll get you out of here."
"Fuyu..." Yuma stopped coughing as she started to choke on her own blood. She was even weaker after the fit.
"Listen to what I have to say," she gurgled.
"Reach..... to.... my pocket, Fuyu." she gasped.
"And promise...me that you won't..hate yourself for my...death."
"Mom, no! Stay with me! PLEASE! We are almost there. We will be okay! Mom? MOM?!"
Yuma's eyes, now dull and glassy, lost their luster and finally shut down, forever.
"MOM!! No, no, no, don't leave me here, I NEED YOU!" wailed Fuyu, letting out a gut-wrenching, blood-curdling scream of desperation."
Fuyu gave in to her sorrow, her head dropping to rest on her mother's shoulder one last time as she closed her eyes. One hand reached out to grab Yuma's letter from her left pocket, and the other hand holding Yuma's back that was drenched in blood.
Fuyu tried to pull her mother from under the rubble but to no avail.
She never realized how frail her mother was at the moment because, for her whole life, she thought of her mother as a strong woman with a high sense of self-esteem and dignity. Yuma never blinked when faced with a problem. She stayed patient and vigilant until she found a way to overcome it.
At the back of her eye, Fuyu saw another spark. This time, a fuel barrel ignited, exploding in a ball of flames. The heat brushed Fuyu's skin.
The flames closed in on them both. Fuyu felt she could no longer breathe, as the smoke filled her lungs. Fuyu held Yuma's letter in her left hand , a tattered piece of paper that was blackened by soot and ash from the smoke.
She looked at the approaching fire, her eyes barely making out the outline of the blaze.
Everything seemed to fade away into the looming darkness....
Accepting that these may perhaps be her final moments, Fuyu started reading her mother's letter loudly, tears welling up in her eyes in disbelief.
"Dear Fuyu,
If you are reading this, that means my time has passed, but hopefully, you are still there in our world. If so, then I have done something right , for the first time, and that is, raising you and being your mother. I am.... "
Because of the heat that the letter was exposed to, the ink from the scribbled handwriting faded at several parts of the letter. Several sentences were left incomplete, and a quarter of the letter was burnt at the end.
All what Fuyu could make out with her blurry , hazy eyesight was the following:
"Your father never died, Fuyu, he is still alive....but he....left us because....hated you. He knew....you were gifted... you were meant to be an Angel of the Skies... OUR angel...
Feeling mixed emotions, from shock to anger to sadness to pain all at once, Fuyu still continued reading the letter , imagining her mother's voice in her head as a way to push herself to keep going.
"Do not despair over my death, Fuyu .....whatever happens, I will ALWAYS be proud of you. Even if I didn't make it out and you.... I still won, because your existence in this world is my prize. Go forward and live your life. Forge your own path and strive to fight for what you think is right , that which is definitely worth fighting for more so than anything else. I named you Fuyu to change your direction with the winds, soaring high and mighty like an ethereal dove."
Fuyu held Yuma's letter close to her chest, hugging it tightly as she closed her eyes and imagined her mother smiling at her and calling her, " 私の小さなふゆ" (My Little Fuyu)
It were mere seconds, but to Fuyu, it felt like an eternity.
Then, she finally opened her eyes. Her head was resting on Harper Tristen Collin's lap. Harper, Fuyu's bestie since kindergarten, was on the phone with Yuma when they both found out Fuyu was kidnapped and rushed into the scene as quickly as possible to help Yuma rescue her, but by the time she arrived, unbeknownst to her, it was already too late.
"FUYU ! Oh my God! Are you alright? I can't believe what just happened! You were literally covered in a whirring BALL of AIR!! Do you know what THAT MEANS?! Also, where is Aunt Yuma?"
Fuyu was struggling to fully open her eyelids, and the glare from the sun struck her red eyes like a knife cutting through butter. She could hear nothing of what Harper was saying. She tried to muster a few words to tell her friend that her mother is gone, but she couldn't'.
"Fuyu, where is Aunt Yuma?" asked Harper again, innocently.
Right then and there, Fuyu burst into tears, weeping and rolling like a baby that lost its favorite toy teddy bear. Her tears dripped down along her left cheek under the bright glow of the midnight moon. Harper, obviously, was left trapped in awe. Its was clear as day to her that Yuma never made it out alive. She didn't know how to react to either Fuyu's sphere of air or the fact Yuma just died in that explosion. Regardless, Fuyu couldn't hear anything. Fuyu's ears were ringing in pain. Fuyu's glazed eyes were no longer glistening, much like her mother's. Except that unlike Yuma's eyes, Fuyu's lost their luster because she was dead on the inside, not physically. These hazel bloodshot jewels of hers lost their dazzling gleam. Harper sensed Fuyu's aching soul. Sweat and blood dripping from her forehead, Fuyu felt nauseous and dizzy as Harper held her hands and pulled her up.
"Slowly. There. You can cry now. It's okay." whispered Harper.
Fuyu hugged Harper tightly and broke into tears once more. They stayed still like this for 10 whole minutes. Eventually, Fuyu wiped off her tears and made eye contact with Harper.
"Mom's letter, she said my father is still alive." said Fuyu.
"What? How?! And why didn't Aunt Yuma say anything about it before?" said Harper.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that Mom somehow felt she was not going to make it, so she wrote this letter for me. But the smoke from the fire dried the ink, causing it fade and burning the part that talked about my dad to a crisp, and I don't know the full explanation." said Fuyu.
"How convenient. Is it still with you?" asked Harper.
"I think so." said Fuyu, sorrowfully.
She tried to reach for her right pocket but didn't find it there. Fuyu was confused.
"Oh GOD, Fuyu, don't tell me you lost it while you were summoning that ball of air?! Also, how in the world did you do that? You never told me that you were one of them before!" said Harper.
"What?! What do you mean by 'one of them' ?" asked Fuyu , perplexed.
"Huh? You don't remember? You literally hovered in a ball of air!" exclaimed Harper.
"Ball of air? Flew?! What are you talking about? I was trapped and couldn't... breathe?" said Fuyu, pausing as she attempted to recollect what she did.
"Oh GOD, Fuyu," said Harper , widening her eyes in realization, "you're one of them ! You're a KINETIC PHASER ! " she said.
A thousand questions and thoughts spurred in Fuyu's mind. She was as speechless as her dear dear best friend. She never thought once in her life that she was a phaser, let alone one that was capable of pulling such a superhuman feat as floating in the air.
Meanwhile, Harper was concerned and anxious as much as Fuyu was. What she saw changed how she perceived her friend. Not in a necessarily detrimental way for their friendship, but in a more dangerous and "raising the stakes to the next level" way.
"You were never an ordinary person to begin with, Fuyu." said Harper.
Harper embraced Fuyu again, who was staring into her hands like she was some sort of monster.
Harper sympathized with her desperate friend who had never cowered in fear like this before and was always patient and never surrendered hope. She knew that a hug wasn't enough to cure Fuyu of her trauma, but maybe, just maybe, she can help alleviate the fresh mental scars caused by it, through a warm, comforting gesture.
"Don't worry, you aren't a monster, Fuyu, you will never be one. And I will always be standing by you, no matter what happens, I just need you to trust me , okay? And we will find out the truth about your father, I promise." said Harper, reassuringly.
A bystander who saw the bomb explosion from afar called the authorities and let Harper and Fuyu know that the ambulance was on their way.
Fuyu became insensitive. Her face was still devoid of feelings and apathetic, similar to the turbulent awakened waves of the ocean during a stormy night. Fuyu felt empty inside, mortified at what just took place. This day would change her life forever.
Soon , the ambulance arrived , and Harper helped the paramedics carry and place Fuyu on the stretcher. In the ambulance , Fuyu looked at the bright white light inside as the paramedic injected ketamine and put her on a respirator. Harper smiled at Fuyu , still trying to comfort her. She remembered Harper's words earlier,
"Oh GOD, Fuyu, you are one of them ! You are a KINETIC PHASER!".
Fuyu's heart stung. The words "like an ethereal dove" echoed in the back of her mind, tearing right through her mind and conscience.
A few hours later, at an abysmal underground government facility,
Research Lab No. 3193 : the man with the suitcase from the warehouse attack arrived. The automatic doors to the lab opened.
"Doctor Oscar Wilhelm Mirelez, the X-Vision Corporation have been trying to reach you. They are interested in your study and would like to make use of someone with great expertise in the field like you, and they are offering you a contract you cannot refuse."
Dr.Oscar Mirelez, a shriveled, wrinkled man in his 50s suffering from Ataxia (a neurological disease that weakens the muscles and bones) , swiftly tries to put on his glass but drops them, cursing in annoyance.
"Me? The X-VISION CORPORATION IS 'interested in me'?! After what I have done to 'tarnish their legacy'?! HAHA, don't make me laugh with your stupidity. You are foolish if you think I am naive enough to fall for this trick. Plus, no one has seen a cursed phaser in 18 years! Furthermore, the last wave of phasers was already 'contained' by the government , wasn't it? Ever since the Phaser Purge, the number of phasers still roaming freely in the streets gradually decayed exponentially to ZERO. All the remaining phasers aged 36 or above are found only in facilities like these, and you know that thanks to recent advancements in technology, the anti-phasing vaccine was largely successful, so chances are, you are unlikely to find any new phasers in this next wave, certainly not younger than the specimens we already have in our facility here!"
Oscar then calmly reaches for his drawer to grab his backup pistol, wondering why an agent from the X-Vision Corporation , despite all that happened in the past , would come to Oscar for aid. He knew they must be playing him so that they could force him into experimenting on more phasers tirelessly for low pay and no sleep or mercy. Especially after what he did decades ago.
Oscar's grip on the drawer is too weak and he can't seem to open the drawer. He looks nervously at his hand , closes his eyes while counting down to 3 , then immediately pulls his gun from the drawer, his hand shaking vigorously.
"I wouldn't do that If I were you, Doctor," said the man
"If you shoot me, all the valuable knowledge on the research and experiments you conducted would be lost forever, and you must know that X-Vision wouldn't tolerate your retaliation. Let's also not forget that you are in no position to reject or deny this second chance you were given, especially after you betrayal, so shall we not overcomplicate this?"
Oscar puts his hand on the trigger.
In three quick coordinated moves, the man kicks the doctor's hand out of the way , picks up the gun , and removes the ammo.
"Damn you! URGH!" shrieks Oscar. He momentarily lost all control over his hand. It went completely numb.
"The Oni Sector has watched you for quite some time, doc. And they are very pleased with what you have done recently, especially regarding Test Subject K.E.417, whom you have just begun experimenting on 5 months ago, isn't that right?"
Oscar lit his cigarette , his fingers loose as the cigar drops to the floor. He cussed as the Agent smirked. Oscar bent down in pain and clutched his cigar, shrugging off his shaking hands and profusely sweating forehead.
"What do you want from me, Agent Viper?"
"As I told you , We want to grant you a second chance to come back, Oscar. To where you belong. Where your life's work ALWAYS belonged, among the elites, not among those mutant slaves. Besides, the wish that you desired will finally be granted , Oscar. But nothing comes without a cost I am afraid. There must be a sacrifice. It's only fair that since you betrayed us before , we have to guarantee that you won't escape us again." said the Agent.
Oscar puffed his cigar , "Huh? Give me a break you piece of crap. What do these bastards ever do without exploiting me?"
The Agent ignores the grumpy doctor and unclasps his briefcase, handing a file to Oscar. The doctor was mildly puzzled.
"They ordered me to deliver this to you, Oscar. Consider it a welcome back gift."
Oscar opens the folder to reveal a credit card adhered to a paper that said,
"Subject K.E. 417 Authorization Grant Accepted, proceed with biosymbiosis experimentation. Credit entry : 1 Million Zanters''
"Welcome back on board, Doc," said the Agent.