Scene I: Cast aside your mortal coil! (V 2.0)
Daniel ran a fingertip along the cool, freshly cut wall, providing a steady scratching noise to accompany the echo of his footsteps. The entire underground structure was smooth and sterile smelling, like a fresh-slate.
Soft chatter probed at his ears as he neared a pair of doors at the hallway’s end. He squinted, searching for a handle, more so due to inadequate lighting and a lack of contrasting colors than aging eyes. So is the discomfort one reaps with a team of laymen. It mattered not. They couldn't take the building with them.
After a few seconds of fumbling and a soft click, the constant uneven roar enveloped him. Plates and silverware clattered against wooden long tables, laughing, shouting, and the happy shrieks of children at play resounded. All of this transpired over a backdrop of the sweet greasy scent produced by fresh sausage links and bacon.
A silver ring, taller than an average human standing on another's head, and just as prominent, took up more than half of the wall opposite of the entryway on a raised platform.
“Omph!”
A blur of color from his peripheral was the only warning spared before something solid slammed into his sternum. He grunted, air whisking out of his lungs. A grin broke through his grizzled features.
Tiny arms wrapped around Daniel's torso and a mass of red hair shifted from side to side as his assailant wriggled her nose against his belly, tickling the pain away. She looked up for a breath of air, revealing deep green eyes and heavily freckled cheeks. The very image her mother.
He returned the hug with one arm and mussed up her wiry hair with the other, drawing breath in the same instant. “Sorry Little Star, did I keep you waiting long?”
Samantha broke away, shaking her head vigorously. “Nope, not even a teeeeeny bit.” she pinched a sliver of empty space between thumb and forefinger with a smile, there was little a gap where a baby tooth once stood.
“Good.”
The child was one of nearly thirty others scattered about. Like her, they were oblivious to the odd symphony of fear and anticipation that never failed to gnaw at the heels of those confronting the unknown.
Few dreamwalkers still believed that there were “lines” between planes of existence. Fewer ever mustered the courage to seek them out, or even peer into their depths. Fewer still, dared to dive in.
And no dreamwalker to date, survived such an endeavor.
Daniel spied another young one scamper around a table towards Samantha from the opposite side of the room, flitting around and squeezing past bodies and chairs in the way. He invited Samantha to a game he and his fellows were occupying themselves with, prompting an upwards, pleading glance from her.
Daniel nodded his assent and tracked their forms until they disappeared into the crowd.
Onwards once more, to the platform Daniel strode, offering and acknowledging greetings to and from passerby. Outwardly, he was as relaxed and confident as those around him, thoufh he pressed his palms against his thighs to stifle their trembling.
Even if the ring could open a way to the void, there was no guarantee that it would be filled with as much aether as the progenitors claimed. He could think of one thousand and one alternative possibilities, the best of which being nothing happening at all. The worst? A repeat of The Great Halt. Inside of Sub Rosa's walls.
But if the progenitors were right, they could find a suitable niche to craft a world inside of. Not a dreamscape or some lackluster imitation, an actual world as real as Earth or Nexus. One untainted by fear, or constant strife, or death's sovereign fist.
A blonde, barely out of his teens, stood on the platform's edge, when he locked eyes with Daniel he waved him over with that almost perpetual grin that simply grew on people years of close interaction.
He stretched out a hand, pulling Daniel onto a smattering of short, uneven steps. “Have I told you that you're craziest boss I've had?”.
Daniel offered nod of gratitude before the turning to face the multitude before them, scanning for his daughter, “How many are we, Alex?”
“One hundred and seven exactly” though Daniel could not see it, the smile plastered onto his face probably faltered given the tone of his voice, “Marshal said he wasn't coming.”
Daniel looked Alex in the eyes, “If you are uncertain about this,” he said, voice barely above a whisper; “it is not too late to join him.”
“What? And miss the opportunity of a lifetime?” Alex scowled for a brief moment, as if even the thought of abandoning ages of research, speculation and labor was a mortal sin. “You might be crazy, but the theory behind planer travel is sound, I just didn't think we'd actually get to it so fast. I’m with this.” he motioned towards the crowd with an arm, “One-hundred and one percent.”
Daniel nodded again, allowing himself a smile, “Than you may do the honors.”
Alex's grin widened until it threatened to split his face apart, if he were a dog, Daniel figured, he would be wagging his tail into a blur. With a quick mock-salute, Alex raised his left arm into the air, engulfing his drive, an oval shaped arm guard embroidered with a scale pattern, within a bright red, smoke-like aura.
“Ahem.”
His amplified voice came out slightly distorted as it echoed across the room, garnering silence and expectant stares from those below save for a baby crying somewhere to the far right.
He gave Daniel a quick glance before continuing.
“Everyone! The time we've been working toward is finally at hand!” he swept his arm across the crowd, the cloud of aether streaking across his drive’s path. “Let those among you who are sullied by trepidation, who are faint of heart, or fourtitude not tarry here any longer! For the Earth was left as an inheritance for the meek! Our ship is gonna be sailing a long, long, long ways from that blue rock!”
A few chuckles arose, with a number of groans being audible for the attentive.
Through a tremendous effort of self-control and will to preserve his student’s image, Daniel resisted the urge to bury his face in his palms.
Before the young “prophet” said anything else, he activated his own drive, shaped in the image of two interlocked horseshoes. He cast out a thin tan aether line that connected with Alex’s drive, earning a backwards glance from him.
“Too much?”
Daniel nodded.
With a sound akin to an unorganized volley of rubber band fire, streamers of color burst across the room as each person anchored their drives to their neighbor's.The last line, a dull yellow, latched on Alex's.
It belonged to perhaps, the oldest man that Daniel had ever seen. He bore a heavily wrinkled face with a bald head and a curly, white beard that reached his collarbone.
He looked to the person at his left, and then his right before giving a huff of air, condemning the two as cowards when they did not come forward before stepping up himself. Daniel all but leaped to offer a hand in assistance with the stairs. The old man stopped just short of the first step and pressed it aside.
Knees hobbling at the start, he pushed himself up on worn legs, giving a few labored grunts to the platform’s main body before he took Daniel’s hand and squeezed it in a vice, pumping up and down, releasing him only after making eye contact with a denture-filled grin.
“Alright then.” Daniel dug his toes into the edges of his shoes, resisting the urge to rub his throbbing hand. “Alex, if you would.”
“One step ahead of ya.”
Alex turned on his heels and with childlike gusto; lit his drive, aimed, and loosed a bolt of pure aether at the ring's center.
It stopped mid-flight and emitted something between a long whine and an angry crackle, prompting many to cover their ears or yelp in discomfort.
The bolt stretched out in every direction to fit over the ring like a drum, the noise gave way to a dull thrumming that changed between a high and low pitch at regular intervals. Daniel waited until the gentle pulses could be heard well above any murmuring before turning his attention back to the old man, he seemed to be undaunted by the idea of being a guinea pig. Whether this was because of his guarantee of safety, which he himself was uncertain of, or a disregard for possible danger, he could not tell.
Nonetheless, he did not hesitate, nor ask questions, allowing Daniel to lead him to the ring. The man prodded it with his finger, creating ripples along its thin, water-like surface.
He flashed Daniel another smile, “Tingly,” he said, giving a short, bark-like laugh. “Immortality feels tingly.”
Head first, he took the plunge.
Ripples went across the surface once more and then settled. Daniel eyed the line connected to Alex's drive, seconds seemed to take the span of hours and he braced for the worse. Yet there were no explosions, nor black holes, nor nightmares crossing over from the other side.
The line twitched two times in quick succession.
Alex gave a wolfish grin, raising his drive-arm in the air, “He's in!”
Daniel could hardly think, much less stay stern faced as the cheering broke out, he and Alex helped one person after the other onto the platform and into the ring.
People hugged, cried and laughed freely. A gentle warmth spread its way to Daniel's heart. He saw his greatest wish being fulfilled. He saw hope, satisfaction, joy. He saw the double doors at the back jolt in the wrong direction.
Whump.
A shout echoed through the room, some made a panicked shuffle away from the doors while others stood transfixed. Dread clawed its way up Daniel's spine.
Whump.
Daniel motioned towards the ring, urging people to clamber up at a faster pace. A man lifted a child above himself, Daniel darted his eyes around the room, heart slamming against his chest as he looked for his own.
Whump!
With the last impact, the doors flung open, the one on the left hanging by a single hinge. At least thirty men and women, dressed in black uniforms; aether-absorbent pyre-wood vests, helmets with protrusions at their backs reminiscent of backwards curling crest feathers. Uniform cylindrical drive-casings adorned their arms. They stood in the ruined entryway, the one in front holding a miniature battering ram.
Vultures, the Nexus' police force.
With a sharp clang, the ram fell and its user moved aside. First, there was only the steady clomping of heavy boots, but the neat row of vultures at the front parted soon enough.
A tall women with strands of auburn hair just visible under her helmet took one more step before she spoke up loud enough to be heard without the assistance of a sound amplification program, “By the authority of the council of eight! You are all suspected of committing acts deemed dangerous to Sub Rosa, submit, and you will be detained without harm!”
The woman grasped the baton at her side, opposite of the service pistol on her belt. Most of the vultures behind her followed suit.
Gasps and quiet whispering turned into incoherent shouting as nigh everyone made a break for the ring, some going as far as pushing or stepping over any in their path.
One woman who, until that point, was sitting quietly near the front, snapped her turtle shaped drive to bear and loosed a blue strand of lighting into the vulture who previously bore the battering ram. It produced an ear ringing crack against his chest, staggering him. This spurred a collection of other stragglers into action, some shouted obscenities while more lit their drives, loosing a hail of hardlight in many colors and unpleasantly sharp shapes alongside the occasional dedicated offensive program as well as a lonley steel chair.
With practiced fluidity, the first rank of vultures rose tall, projecting aether-fields that rippled against the incoming projectiles, absorbing their momentum, causing most of them to drop on contact or plink impotently off of the vultures' gear. They marched forward slowly with the main bulk of their force. Ones of particularly lithe frame skirted around the edges of the formation, making for the defenders' flanks.
Daniel noticed movement in his peripheral vision; Alex, drive alight, headed towards the fray. He pulled him back by the collar and pushed him into the ring before he could protest.
Trying to salvage everything he could, Daniel yelled, “Inside!” to anyone close enough to hear him over the surrounding cacophony. There was no need for saying it. He was jostled back and forth, and clothes-lined by an anchor connected to a pair of dream walkers in retreat. It tugged and snapped on his neck, leaving red dots in his vision with a screaming line of pain in its wake.
Eventually, the stampede of those in fortunate positions tapered off to the odd person reaching the ring from the middle. Most of the anchors, including his own, were cut; either by vultures, or in an attempt at a faster escape.
Daniel took deep breaths, palms resting on his knees until the dots faded, he looked up. The pleasant aroma of food melded with that of ozone and burning paper. Shattered plates and silverware dotted the floor.
More than half of the dreamwalkers putting up a resistance had been subdued; most laid on their stomachs, unscathed, though others were clearly bruised or bleeding, or unconscious—he hoped—. All were cuffed or shackled. He estimated about twenty remaining, an upended table in the middle marked the last of their lines. Two dreamwalkers leaned against it, siblings by their close appearance, fired gouts of flame at the ever slowly advancing rows of vultures to no effect.
A second skirmish to the far right had a smaller number of vultures fleeing a three-man-tall golem made on the spot from tables and loose building materials. Four dreamwalkers armed with nothing more than table legs, only one of them reinforced with a hard light casing, attempted to tie them up in melee to give the golem time to catch up.
Another detachment of vultures made it around the platform's left flank, dispelling anchor-lines and pulling teens and toddlers back to another group closer to the exit.
Daniel grimaced and aimed his drive at the one closest to him, with a deep hum, gravity obeyed his program, bringing a female vulture to her hands and knees as she struggled to escape.
"Daddy!"
His concentration faltered and the program collapsed, Daniel was faintly aware of his previous target gasping for breath as he snapped his head in the direction of his daughter's voice.
Samantha's hands were on the left side of the platform. She tried to hoist herself up, with little progress.
Daniel forced a portion of his aether reserves into his legs, allowing him to close the distance in a single bound. He reversed gravity's pull under her, lifting Samantha into his arms. “Are alright?”
She blinked and brushed bits of hair that got stuck to her face out of the way. “Yes,” she whimpered.
Daniel let out a sigh of relief and turned, they would leave immediately; most of the others had already escaped or were beyond help. There was no good he could do for the rest on his own.
A wrinkling noise akin to the crushing of aluminum foil came from his right. An invisibility program wearing off.
"Alex?"
He looked up into the eyes of the female vulture he immobilized moments before. She stood between him and the ring, her drive was alight in gray and she held her baton level with his chin, though she made no move to harm either of them.
“These incidents don't always end with exile.” She lowered her baton. “I'm sure what you guys did won't be considered a malicious act. Please just come with us. All you'll get is a slap on the wrist, I promise.”
Footsteps preempted the arrival of another vulture, a male, short with slim features. The one in front of the ring perked up. “Hey, Arnold!” She waved the man over. “Tell them about the time we caught a couple of Manipulars tryin' to rig an airship for 'space travel' Central gave them a job, right?”
The man shambled past with a slight limp. A violet hardlight needle jutted from a place on his calf, though he showed no signs of acknowledging it.
“What's the matter?” She put a hand on Arnold's shoulder, it too, was ignored. His lips moved in the same pattern over and over again, as he passed, enough times for Daniel to make sense of his mutterings.
“Their will be done”
Cladding his baton in an aura of green, he struck the ring's side and simply vanished, leaving not even a wisp of aether behind.
Daniel reached outwards with his senses, though couldn't find any sign of the man. Shock gave way to bewilderment.
The ring's consistent humming stumbled into a low moan and then a deafening roar before it changed from Alex's red to a sickly green. Samantha put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes, the vulture shouted words that Daniel couldn't pick up. Something pulled at his arm. In the same instant, Samantha's feet left the ground, she slammed into Daniel's chest, throwing both of them backwards. A certain wetness hit his outstretched limb, followed by nearly painful prickles up to his elbow. Glancing back confirmed his fears, the ring had him.
Two quick gravity programs, one to push against the ring, and another to keep his feet on the ground, prevented them both from being devoured. Daniel wrapped his remaining arm around Samantha.
It was unlike the familiar tug of a gravity program; there was a certain pressure on Daniel's wrist, as if an intangible beast clamped onto it with blunted teeth.
He looked upwards, debris, silverware, and drops of blood flew past them. An unfortunate dream walker screamed as she too, was pulled in by the hood of her jacket. Through some program of unknown design, the lady-vulture had rooted herself to the floor, slowly staggering her way towards them, she slammed her left leg down more harshly than the other.
With as much of gravity's force as he could muster while maintaining the other two programs, Daniel struggled to dislodge himself. The vulture grimaced, Samantha screamed just above the ring's howling, and Daniel tried harder still. It availed him none; the ring's pull was many times stronger on the inside, soon it would engulf half of his body. And if Samantha was still clutched to him...
Daniel smiled, laid a kiss on his daughter’s forehead, and murmured three simple words. Those too, were drowned out by the ring, but Samantha seemed to understand, for a fresh wave of tears flowed down her cheeks.
Fate seemed to have it in for the Vale family, Daniel came to that conclusion after what happened to his dearest Linda, though Samantha seemed to be unbreakable despite it all. She would smile when he couldn't and continued to care about the simplest things when he wouldn't. How many times has she kept him from drinking himself numb, or worse? Samantha was tough, of that Daniel was certain. She could make it without him.
He drew from his aether reserves until his drive burned against his forearm in the swell of his tan aura. Grunting, he released it all with one great push. It only propelled Samantha a few feet from the ring's maw, but it was enough. The lady-vulture drove no less than eight hardlight anchors into the wall at the left and caught Samantha in her arms.
Without any aether to sustain them, Daniel's programs fizzled out. With a terrible lurch, darkness swallowed him up.