• Chapter 3

    It broke my heart to see Ariel like this. She was collapsed on the ground with a look of a mixture of terror and anguish pone her face. I did not really have any idea about what was going on but apparently she does because through the strange man’s and Julie’s threats against me had even got Ariel to start talking and to tap into her powers, both of which Aaron and I had been trying to accomplish just this for the last five years. She even seems to know who they work for.
    All I wanted to do was run over to Ariel and consul her but Julie had restrained me and I am incapable of movement. I opened my mouth to say something to try to comfort her when the strange man that was with Julie picked me up and slung me over his shoulder knocking the air out of me. There was a moment in which it felt as though I was being squeezed through a tiny whole a wall and whoosh of wind past my head. As soon as all of this was concluded, I was dropped to the dirt ground, as one would do with a sack of potatoes. He then reached back down, pulled me back to my feet by my upper left arm, and started to pull me along a dank hallway that was lit by torches.
    We ended up in an open cavern lit by a chandelier and dozens of torches. In addition, there was a alter placed in the center of the room draped in to a black and red cloth. On top of it there was six candles representing each of the six physical elements of the world. In addition, a small ritual dish placed in the middle of it. In addition, a chalice that looked as though it was filled with blood. There was a man standing before it wearing a black garb with a hood veiling his face so that I could not really see who he is.
    After he had turned around, I wished that it had remained that way. I could see that on the surface that he was actually a rather cute young man but after taking a closer look, I could tell that this was a weak guise to hide what he really was. What that actually is I could not really say but it sent chills down my spine. His blood red eyes bore through me and down to my soul and my breath was caught in my chest. No wonder Ariel seemed to be so terrified. The only question that came to mind at the thought of this is just how Ariel even knew this man. Although he knew of the A.P.S.S., he clearly was not affiliated with them. In addition, ever sense her imprisonment from the A.P.S.S. and the few short months with her parents after her escape this last mission was the first time that she had left the school in the last five years.
    So how was it that Ariel knew him well enough to be petrified of him? In addition, how did he know her well enough to want to go through all of this trouble just to get a hold of her? This only made my stomach twist up into a knot even more. The fear was not for my own well-being but for what the creature standing before me had in store for her.
    I struggled against the strange man’s grip hopping the if I were to somehow break myself free that I might get lucky in busting out of this place and getting back to Nebula Academy so that the man before me would not be able to black mail Ariel. The man before the alter cackled a malevolently sounding like thunder shaking anything that stood loose where they stood. He sauntered over to stand before me. Taking a cold clammy clawed hand, he stroked the side of my face. “I am Atomos Tenebra. Moreover, as long as you do as you are told and be a good little girl that I know you are there will not have to do anything to extreme to you. In fact, this may not be completely in my nature but I am completely willing to let you return to Nebula the moment I get what I really want, which is Ariel.
    When Atomos said this, I realized a very important detail. He was not going to kill me. I was not worried about all of the other stuff that he, Julie or any other of the others that serve under them can do because I believe that I had seen and experienced it all when I was a captive of the A.P.S.S... Therefore, as long as he needed me I was safe, but the moment that he gets Ariel and everything else that he needed from me I was done. I do not believe for a moment that he was going to let me go the moment that he gets what he wants. I was not stupid enough to believe that for even a moment. This gave me to the confidence that I needed to say what I felt I needed to say next.
    “So what is it that you really want with Ariel? She was already hurting so much before you came in to her life and did this. I don’t understand why do you want to hurt her?” I felt the strange man tighten his grip on my arm in warning. Atomos noticed this and I am not completely sure why but waved at the man to have him release me and to leave the chamber, and he directed Julie to do the same. Therefore, he released me and I dropped carelessly to the ground. The man left without a second hesitation, but Julie hesitated.
    “My lord, are you sure. She might try something; after all, she has telekinetic abilities, which is quite similar to my own talents. I just do not think that it is wise that you are having us to leave you alone with her.”
    Smoke billowed out of his nostrils and chamber shook from the pure energy of his anger, and his hands literally became engulfed in flames. Julie took a step back realizing that she had over stepped a line. The dark power that filled the chamber terrified me as well. I had never felt anything so pure and malevolent before in my life. “Are you questioning me? How dare you!” He released a burst of energy striking Julie in the chest and throwing her against the rock wall. “You will never question me again or the consequences will be much worse next time. Now get out of here before I lose my patience.” It looked to me as though he already had but from what I could see, it could get much worse than it had. Julie scrambled out of the chamber as fast as she could to avoid any more of Atomos’s wrath.
    I was really beginning to realize the true gravity of the situation. How evil this entity is and how bad it would actually be if he were to get his hands on Ariel. It was clear that he knew exactly how powerful she actually is where before I had believed that only Aaron and I knew that she was so much more than a plain old neutral talent. However, none of us knew the true extent of her powers. Somehow Atomos had found out about her, why else would he want her?
    Atomos moved to stand directly over top of me and waved a hand and I felt his power move. I flinched under the impression that he was going to punish me for challenging him a little while ago. Instead, I felt the ropes around my wrists heat up and fall away into a pile of ash, and my friends were freed. I brought them in front of me and rubbed them trying to sooth the rope burns around them. “As I have said before, I have no need to harm you. And when all is said and done I will let you go.” As he said this, he held out a hand to help me to my feet. I hesitated before I took it. I was smart enough to realize that there was not any point in refusing it and it would not get me anywhere at all.
    I decided to take advantage of the fact that now he needed me and would not kill me for the time being. I am going to say exactly what I was thinking. “Am I really supposed to believe that as soon as you get your twisted grip around Ariel’s throat that you were going to just allow me to walk free, with all of that I have seen and learned? Not only that but because of my connection with Ariel I will always be a threat to your hold on her. I mean that is the whole reason that you’ve kidnapped me, now is it not.” This was more of a statement then a question since we both knew what the answer to it is.
    Atomos gave off an amused laugh at my audacity in speaking that way to him. “Believe what you want,” he responded. “But you are mistaken in one point. It is not when I get my hands on Ariel, for I already have a firm grip on her. My capture of you is just the final straw that will break the camel’s back.” His lips curled into a sneer revealing a mouth full of shark teeth.
    “But why? I do not understand why you want her so badly. It is not as though she will use her powers for you, she does not even use them for herself. It is quite obvious that that is the reason that you even want her.”
    I bit my lip terrified at the concept of two things. One of which, this one being of lesser concern then the other one, is that at some point that I was going to over step a line and place myself in even more danger then I already am. Then the other one is that I sensed that there was some connection other then the obvious conjuncture between the two of them through me. “Also, how is it possible that both of you know about each other? Ariel has only left Nebula Academy once in the last five years, and that was on this prior mission where your diminutive cohorts abducted me right before her very eyes.”
    “As you previously stated it is her powers that I am after. To be frank it is actually just a bonus compared to what I am actually after from her.” Atomos guffawed at the look that this brought to my face. The pit of my stomach just dropped. What more could he possibly want from her. She was an immense and beautiful person, but someone like him could not possibly understand that.
    “What,” I quested sardonically, “is so eminent about Ariel that it stands out and beyond her abilities? Which we have both established is above and beyond.”
    I heard footsteps as the eccentric man from before had returned, I was swift to notice that Julie had not. She probably did not want to face off against Atomos once again. He finished our diminutive conversation by raising a finger in an enigmatic way. “That, child. Will remain my little secrete for the time being.”
    The man at that moment steps forward and took me by the arm. Atomos at the same time turned away and back towards the alter. He had clearly finished with me, and something moved within me. I do not know how but whatever Atomos was but he had somehow got me to delude myself into thinking for a moment that in some way I may mean something to him. However, with the way he had just brushed me aside and turned back to what he had been doing before I was brought in to the chamber I came crashing back down to reality. I am a nonentity compared to Ariel to him. I was then guided down the hallway to where ever they expected me to stay for an undetermined amount of time.





    I woke up in Nebula Academy’s infirmary head pounding from a head ach; two days after the nightmare of watching Julie and her accomplice kidnap Alexa. It had made no difference for me to break my promise to myself and not only talk but to use my powers. How naive had, I been to actually think that after five years I could just pull them out and everything would be just fine and dandy. I feel as though I taking that taking a risk in opening up a bit to attempt to protect Alexa just make things worse. I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest, burying my face in my arms.
    For the first time I noticed something with in my heart that I had not noticed, or had denied it until this very moment. A deep and unyielding resentment, an anger, and hatred at the lot that I had been dealt in this life. I hated the A.P.S.S. for killing my sister. I hated Atomos Tenebra for haunting my dreams and for kidnapping Alexa. Ultimately, I hated Aaron for bringing me here and letting all of this happen after he had promised that things would be different and that the ones that I care about would be safe. Most of all I have to say that the one I hate the most, is I. I hate myself for being a huge failure and the fact that no one can rely pone me.
    I will never kid myself like this again. The ironic thing about this whole mess is, was the fact that this whole fiasco is that this is the first time for as long as I can remember that I did not have to wake up in cold sweats from a petrifying dream that Atomos had concocted between the two of us. To be honest after he had taken Alexa and making sure that I knew that it was my fault, the lack of communication more terrifying then being trapped in one of his delusions.
    I heard the door to the infirmary open. I heard footsteps approaching the hospital bed that I was in and I recognized them as being Aarons. I felt the mat trice sink and the bed creak as he sat down on the end of the bed. We both remained silent for a moment, I did not even bother wasting the energy to look up and acknowledge him. “Things have gotten difficult, haven’t they?” He stated blatantly. I tensed up, my anger coming to a boil. For him to come in and just state the obvious and not doing, or having done anything about any of it when I knew, he had the power, literally, to do it. The fact that he had not done anything it just made me even angrier then about the fact that he had failed to keep the promises that he had made to me. “I am sorry that I have not been able to protect you or the people around you. I never meant for any of this to happen. All I have ever wanted from you is your happiness, and I am irate with myself for being blind and ignorant to your distress for so long, and for allowing it to go so far as to having a student of mine snatched so that the adversary is able to get to you. For that I am so sorry and that I could never ask for your forgiveness because I can’t say that I deserve it.”
    ‘No you don’t.’ I thought still not looking up. ‘I would not give it to you anyway, even if you did ask.’ How could I? I do not have any one, and there are only a few people who can understand me and can read me well enough to be able to interact with me on any real interment level. Alexa and Aaron are the ones closest to me on that level; Alexa being my best friend in the entire world and very much like a sister to me, then Aaron being the one who had saved me from the A.P.S.S. and had brought me here where it was supposedly a safe place. Then to have Alexa, being one of them, stolen away from me, and Aaron, the other one, being no help at all; I am at a loss. Feeling in many ways betrayed by those who were closest to me. That was more depressing then many other things that are going on in my life now.
    Aaron moved a hand and placed it in a comforting way a pone my foot. “Why did you not tell me before that Atomos Tenebra had made contact with you anyway? I may have been able to prevent him from doing anything like this, or even from continuing to harass you constantly.”
    He paused for a moment in thought. “How did he make contact with you? Before a few days ago you had not left Nebula Academy in the last five years, how did he find out about you?” He just kept talking to me and asking me questions. I could tell him everything that I felt, knew, and what I did not know or understand but I would not do that. I felt that he did not deserve it. In accordance with the recent events, he had lost my trust and respect. I was not going to let him in on nothing. As much as he would like to pretend, otherwise he did not have a clue.
    “Things will get better,” he promised. “I will do everything within my power to make all this better. I will also take care of Atomos they will not bother you anymore.” I finally lost my temper shoving him off the bed as I got up. I was not going to continue to fall for his false promises. Some tears rolled down my face. Before I left, I turned to glare at him with tears burning in my eyes. I then spun back around and stormed out of the infirmary.
    I did not know what I was going to do but I knew that I had to do something to try to save Alexa. I was going to have to do it on my own as well. I am not quite sure how I am going to do it knowing that had no other way if I am going to save Alexa from the fate, that I in being friends with her, had set. As soon as I came up with some sort of plan even if it was just on how to get to Atomos’s layer, I would be gone. I felt that the rest would come later. I knew that over all that Aaron was sincere. I just could not handle any further disappointments from him. So for me to enlist him is completely out of the question now.
    I decided that I needed to look over plenty of maps of the world so that I can hope fully use this knowledge in finding Atomos’s hide out so that I can rescue Alexa. I strode purposefully down the corridors and towards the library. The library has an assortment of reading materials ranging from the fictional works, comics, and then several levels of talent practice and worldly history and geographic locations. It is the perfect place for young Powerless to broaden our minds and interests. There was not any one who really managed the library beyond the curator who had a small room at the back of the library that he lived in case any of the students needed help. Though everyone knew that his name is Cole Henbridge, but everyone believes that he looks like the person who plays Angel off Buffy the Vampire Slayer television show. Therefore, we all just call him Angel and he goes along with it.
    Pushing open the heavy oak door that guarded the sanctuary of books, I was immediately incased in the relaxing aroma of the old and faded aroma of all of the books that had survived the centuries. I love the look and feel of this place. It is built and set up to look as though it were in the middle of the forest. Greenery hugged themselves against the bookshelves and the walls, vines wrapped themselves around the railings of the spiral staircases leading to the upper levels of the library. I felt this environment the most at home in places like this. I headed in to the back of the library where we kept all of the resources that delved deeper into our people’s society that we keep hidden from any of the public that may come into the school for any reason.
    Nebula Academy in the public’s eyes is just a year around boarding school for the most brilliant young minds in the world. While this may be partially true, it was only to hide the fact that all of the people in this school, student and faculty alike, are all powerless and hold amazing power over the world. We have always kept ourselves separate from the world, although that has changed recently with in the last several years with the emergence of the A.P.S.S. and we have become even more reclusive and secretive with the rest of the world. This is to reduce the likely hood of our people being exploited by outsiders. As a race, we Powerless are an incredible pacifistic people. Although we do know how to fight when we are pressured into that kind of situation. We will defend ourselves without hesitation. If we cannot depend on our own kind to defend their people then whom can we look to, to trust.
    As I ambled down the aisles created by the towering shelves laden with books, I ran my fingers along the smooth and often ruff spines of the wonderful volumes that have made up my life. I love to read and gain all of the knowledge that lives within them. Just by the slightest stroke of the novels, all of the knowledge that I have gained from them came brewing back to the surface of my frontal cortex.
    With a sigh, I lowered my hand back to my side, pushed my way through the swinging doors and strode into the Global Information Center. The room is built in the shape of a sphere and is built to portray the current planetary landmasses and oceans. The walls had even been charmed to automatically up date themselves when ever any kind of global disaster changes the here and now look, shape, and location of the earth and water. This is the most high-tech world and most especially in the school. While the rest of the school, unless we had brought in the technology ourselves there was not any. Besides this room, the Academy did not even have electricity to light the school let alone anything else. None of us really minded it keeps us grounded and in tone with our endowments. The reason that the G.I.C. Built to be high tech is so that we can best help with the rescue and the finding of our people. I stepped up to the global mapping console and placed my right hand on the touch screen to scan. After all, we did not want just any one to be using our equipment.
    With several harmonic beeps the systems processor revealed where I currently am with a massive flashing red dot on the map; which indicated that am somewhere near Vail Colorado. I tapped the bottom right hand corner of the screen. A whir of mechanics filled the room around me, a piece of shelving unit shot out from under the computer screen. The center of it revolved around to reveal a keyboard.
    Everyone in the world has their own electrical field that represents them as individuals, also known as auras. The system within the Global Information Center designed to key in on those specific electromagnetic waves to search and find specific people. I typed Alexa’s full name into the search then hit the enter key. An enormous search error warning flashed on the screen. I bit my lip frustrated but not entirely surprised. Atomos Tenebra was shielding her or they are in a place that has natural electronic interference material. With a series of clicks for each time, I hit a key on the board I typed in a long strain of codes to up the program to a psychic search. Very few things or people are powerful enough to block this one. A window popped up with positions for both the right and left hand.
    Technically none of us students was not allowed to use this portion of the system. This is because it drains all of the power that is needed to break through whatever barriers that is in the way of locating the person that they are looking for. Obviously, this is dangerous sense if the person who is operating the system does not have the power to do the job they will die. Machines only do as they are told they do not know or understand the danger for energy that it is drawing from the user, it will keep draining power until it succeeds in what it is programmed to do or is shut down. So with the danger being so great all of us are warned not to use this specific program unless accompanied by a fully-fledged Powerless.
    I could not trust any of the adults to help me in my desire to find and rescue Alexa from Atomos’s layer because I knew that they would not go for it. They would say that I am too young for this kind of mission, it is too dangerous, and I could not handle the pressure. Well they are all wrong and I will not only prove it to them but also rescue Alexa and bring down Atomos at the same time. This is something that I needed to do and I am not going to allow anyone to stop me.
    I summoned my power up around me and placed my hands on the markers. I felt the power draining from me almost immediately. I closed my eyes, focusing my mind and power on Alexa. There were surprisingly many barriers along the way and I felt every single one of them in my chest. Every time that I hit one of them I gasped, knees shaking. Through every moment that passed my head grew heavy and my focus blurred. Finally, the computer beeped having found what it had been programmed to find releasing my energy and me. I collapsed to the ground weekend by the system and too exhausted to remain standing.
    After a few moments, I managed to pull myself to my feet to take a good look at the screen. Another red flashing dot is now shown on the screen. This one is positioned somewhere over the Amazon Rain Forest. I typed in a few more codes to narrow down the search parameters a bit more. Apparently, they are in an Aztec temple. To me that is a little weird, but hey, what do I know. All the same though. At least I know where to start.