Apshodel – Sixth Age – Third Year – Seventy-Ninth Sun

Adam woke back up in Asphodel with the concrete floor he lay on rumbling. Unsure of what had happened during his break, he allowed his vision to adjust, then took a moment to absorb his surroundings. Still in the cell. The ground shook again, this time causing cracks on the floor and a few chunks of concrete to fall from the ceiling. Adam rushed over to the laser field covering the doorway and called to the guard in the hall. “Hey,”

The guard was visibly nervous and in contact with someone else through Asphodel’s peer to peer communication system build into the user menu. The facility shook again, and more concrete fell from the top of Adam’s cell.

“Hey!” he shouted again. This time the guard turned to look at him. He said something to the person he was talking too, then walked over to Adam’s door. “What the hell is going on?”

“It’s just a raid,” the guard was trying to sound tough, but fell short of pulling it off. “Don’t worry…” before he had the chance to finish, a blast rocked the entire facility and red lights started flashing in the halls, coupled with a high pitched alarm.

“You were saying?” Adam asked.

The guard started talking to someone else in the facility and Adam took a step back to process what was happening. They figured out a way to make him much more powerful, and Mary sidelined him in an HTG facility to protect him. Assuming that the her micro expressions weren’t lying, she really does want to protect him. So this facility, was more than likely one of HTG more secret and well protected locations. Not something that would be effected by or even subject to normal raid.

“Hey, hey!” Adam shouted to the guard. He turned around. “You need to let me out of here, they’re coming for me.”

“No one’s coming after a simple thief, shut your mouth.”

“Think about it man, think about where we are, the security you have in place,” Adam was making an educated guess. He had no idea where they were, but with recent events, he didn’t take Mary for someone who would hide him in plain sight. The guard hesitated. Adam had him. “Listen to me, I’m a Shifter, a Wrathic.”

The guard scoffed. “Sure you are buddy,”

“Come on! Use your head. A thief gets put in a prison like this? Let me guess, they upgraded your electrical systems a few months ago right? Amped them up by a ridiculous amount?

The guard looked at the ground pensively. “They did…”

“That was for me okay. It was in case HTG needed to stash me somewhere out of sight.” The facility was hit again, hard. This time Adam and the guard both lost their footing. Large chunks of concrete fell from the ceiling in the cell and the hall, just missing them both by inches.

“There, look!” Adam pointed to the hole in the ceiling near the door to his cell. You could see exposed electrical wires hissing and arching toward the ceiling. “The whole cell is electrified under the surface, there’s enough juice running through there to kill a level cap in any class okay? Why do that for a common thief? Because I stole of wheel of cheese? Come on man."

Another blast hit the facility and the alarms died. The flashing lights extinguished and then lit up a few seconds later, but the electricity continued to arch from the wires in the wall. “Okay, maybe you are, but I still can’t let you out. They’d kill me. I’d have to start all over.”

“They knocked out the main electrical line. A few more hits and I’m getting out anyways,” Adam activated the transformation, the pain came hard and fast as his bones started cracking. “Grah! You’re getting hit and you’re getting hit hard…Ah!”

Adam’s eyes were flooded red and his voice was raspy. “Let me hit back.”

“I can’t,” the guard stressed. He was right at the edge, Adam just had to push him a little more.

Adam focused on the transformation. He looked at the ground and wailed in pain. Focusing all of his energy to his eyes, he turned back up to look at the guard. He eyes were on fire, just for a moment, just long enough to frighten the guard and confirm who he was. Adam lowered his voice and growled “I’m getting out of here one way or another, only question is whether not you’ll be caught in my path.”

The guard struggled, but Adam could see the look in his eyes. He’d relented, he just didn’t want to believe it. Finally the guard shouted “Damn it!” He tapped a few commands into the skinterface on his forearm and the laser field in the doorway deactivated. Adam fell forward through the door, his bones still realigning, the skin begining to peel from his body.

“My god,” the guard exclaimed.

Adam stumbled forward, slamming face first into the ground, trying his best to head toward the commotion. He struggled to his knees and started to crawl, than burst into a little sprint before losing his footing again. Adam’s fist slammed into the ground cracking the floor. His head shot back and he released a monstrous roar into the air.

* * *

Tony rushed into the control room of the prison, it was the safest place in the facility at that moment. A second after he ran through the door, the lock down procedures activated, sealing him into the fifteen by fifteen room. The prison’s director, who’s user name was Minos, stood at the main control station with Ghost and the three other Wardens in his team for security.

“What’s going on?” Tony managed through sucking air into his lungs. He leaned over and supported himself on his knees, trying to catch his breathe.

“Well,” Minos answered feverishly tapping away at the controls. “It would seem that someone’s coming after your boy.”

Tony stood back up walking closer to the control screen. “That’s impossible, the six of us are the only ones in the Outer Bay that knows he exists.”

“Then someone else back at HTG command betrayed you.”

An explosion rang out through the facility and the power died before the backup generators kicked in. The Wardens were blocking Tony’s view of Minos, but as he moved from one terminal to another, Tony caught a side view of his face between the guards. Sweat was rolling down his cheek and his pupils were dilated. Tony looked down at his arm and pulled up his inventory. He scrolled down through his skills until he found what he was looking for, Stone Cold. The description read…

‘So you’ve got a big heart. You try to find the best in people and have tendency to get overwhelmed in tense situations. Technology speaks to you more than people or weapons ever could. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Stone Cold will drain your character of emotions and allow you to make the tough decisions that Wardens, Soldiers, and Enchanters make every day. Duration: 5 mins. Class restriction: Technomancers only Level restriction: 30+’

Tony tapped the Stone Cold icon and the skill activated immediately. The situation became so clear. With the security protocols in place, there was only one answer. Tony walked forward, grabbed a pistol from Ghost’s belt, then pushed his way through them. Minos turned around at the same time that Tony raised the pistol to meet his head. There was a second of shock on his face before Tony blasted the contents of his brain across the main control station. Emotionless, Tony turned to the Wardens.

“Who doesn’t understand the chain of command?”

The four men remained silent. Tony held the pistol out to Ghost, who took it and re-holstered the weapon.

“Good, Director Minos betrayed us. The Wrathic housed in this facility was supposed to be secret, but that’s no longer the case. I don’t care who’s coming after him, I want them stopped. Now. The priority is keeping Adam safe. Are we clear? ” Tony asked decisively.

“Yes sir!” the four answered.

Tony turned to Ghost. At six foot three inches tall, he was the smallest of the four, but he was also the most experienced in the group. He wore a plain black ball cap, dark blue jeans and had a olive t-shirt under his black combat vest. “Ghost, you have command, all security personnel now report to you. Get it done.”

Tony released the control room security protocols and the four Wardens poured out of the door. Another bang rang out in the facility, but this time it was different. It wasn’t an explosion, something physically rocked the foundation of the prison. Tony walked over the to the controls and pulled a wire out of his arm. As a Technomancer, Tony had unlocked a skill called ‘Plugged In’ that allow him to plug directly into any piece of technology in Asphodel. The amount of control he had over the system and how quickly he could access it depended on how much he focused on that skill. Tony’s Plugged In skill was maxed out.

Eyes darting back and forth, Tony looked like a possessed zombie as his mind raced through the system. He pulled up all five hundred and sixty two camera feeds and surveyed them at the same time. Adam’s cell was empty, the laser field at the door had been disabled by the guard. Tony found Adam stumbling down the hall, the concrete floor behind him shattered. He was already halfway through the transformation and having a hard time getting through the tight halls. Tony flagged his signature in the system, then pulled up a map of the facility to track his progress.

Tony’s focus switched the exterior of the facility to see that whoever was attacking, showed up in force. Waves of Soldiers were attacking the front walls and trying to take down the automated turrets out front. Tony spotted over two hundred Soldiers storming the gates, at least fifty Tigers in armor, twenty or Gryphons in flying around and five large mechs that stood fifteen feet tall pulling up the rear of the attack. There were also two F-class bombers making strafing runs from above. With the damage that Minos did to the security system before Tony stopped him, there was little chance of them fighting off the force, even with Ghost and his team taking lead.

Tony placed a secure call to Mary. “Status?” she asked.

“Minos betrayed us, they’re hitting hard, and we won’t be able to hold them for long.”

“I’m headed to you now. It’s going to take me some time though, I’m nowhere near a flash door. Any idea who it is?”

Tony scanned the assault. “No banners, hard to tell. Mass of Soldiers, Shifters, five mechs and two bombers.”

“Well, it’s not DARC. The force it too small. Though they could have tapped a smaller crew to test the defenses and draw us out. Hold on.” Mary went silent for a moment and Tony heard gun fire in the background. “Adam?” she asked.

“Out and completing transformation. Guard released him. I have protocols in place to stop him.”

“No,” Mary said quickly. “Will he transform before he gets to the main assault?”

“Yes.”

“Okay regardless of how this happened, we have to assume the secret is out, we just need to control the outcome. We’re going to make an example of this assault. I want the whole of Asphodel to cower in fear at the mere mention of a Wrathic. I want high level users fleeing from any town that’s within a thousand miles of his last known location. Send the word out, priority number one, all security forces are to provide support for the Wrathic. I expect EVERY user involved in that assault to be rendered to ash and I want a video of the Wrathic feasting on their remains, looping on every broadcast screen in Asphodel minutes after the event, are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Tony confirmed coldly.