Re: Ascension – A Community Development

[Iscarioto]

In a blinding flash of light, another survivor appeared. The Triad was the only one who actually reacted, dropping into stance, hands aflame. Bewilderment still seemed to have a hold over the rest of their group.
“I mean you no harm, I, I think I’m one of you,” Adrian spluttered.
“And what makes you think that?” The Triad spoke, somehow suddenly capable of fluent English.
“Well, partly the inferno in your hands,” Adrian replied, “partly the fact that they aren’t all robotic.”
“Wait, so, so you can do things too?” Terrence inquired. There was another flash.
“I.. I think I can teleport,” came a voice, this time from inside the sports store. “What can you guys do?
The tourist was growing increasingly agitated, hair frazzled, his broken camera hanging limply from his lanyard. “What in the name of the Lord is all this?”
“Well, I was kind of hoping you guys could tell me.”
“This is insane, I’m trapped here with heathens. A girl who can see the future, a mobster with fire for hands, a dirty urchin who, who forgets items and then,” he paused, “then he brings them to himself!”
Terrence remembered the armour and the severed arm that Xiao Tou had back at the subway. How uncanny, he hadn’t noticed the boy once again had all of the salvaged parts, disappearing himself inside them, his frame far too small to fit the chest plate of a grown man. A grown cyborg. A.. thing
The tourist threw his hands up in the air, “And now a man that can vanish and reappear somewhere else, this is lunacy.”
“My friend, stay calm,” Shu Ji offered.
“Calm?! I’m in hell!” he shrieked, throwing his camera to the floor. If he himself had an ability, it certainly wasn’t triggered by rage.
“Buddy, look, none of us know what’s going on here, but we have to deal with it,” Terrence softly suggested, moving to place a hand upon his shoulder.
The man jolted. “Stay away from me,” he shuffled back “all of you, leave me alone!” He turned and bolted towards the escalator. In a flash of light, Adrian appeared in front of him.
“You don’t want to do that, there are more of those things out there.” Adrian urged, emphatically, but also weakly, as he clutched his skull with one hand to dull that hum which increased every time he flashed.
The tourist threw all of his weight into the young businessman, bursting through. “Stay out of my way!” Adrian was too pained to restrain him, watching him bolt off as he wiped a small speck of blood from below his nose.
“Maybe super-speed is his power,” Terrence joked, watching the man clamber away at a ridiculous pace.
“We can’t let him leave,” Shu Ji said sternly. “He’s going to get us all killed.”
Terrence nodded, “Newbie, can you, like, teleport other people with you?”
“I’ve never tried.”
The Triad pointed to Terrence, Shu Ji and Adrian “You three, come with me!” He yelled, once again in perfect English. Why had he hidden it? Terrence wondered, as they bounded after the man.
They had made it all the way to the ground floor atrium before they had almost caught up with the runaway. Terrence wondered why the new arrival hadn’t just teleported after him, but glancing over, he noticed he wasn’t looking the healthiest. His lower nose and top lip were coloured with a faint smudge of blood. He remembered how drained he had felt when he finally sat down after the incident with Shada. Then he remembered Shada. ”God, what a day. Has it really only been a day? “
Everything was moving so fast. How did this all happen? Terrence’s thoughts engulfed him again, and he did not notice an entire squad of troopers coming into vision out in the forecourt.
It was Xiao Tou this time, who pulled him out of the firing line; “Stay low, Xiansheng!(Mister).”
“Oh god, he’s going to die.” Terrence whispered. The tourist froze in his tracks. There were at least a dozen armed cyborgs in an orderly formation.
“Not if I can help it,” the Triad roared, fire literally in his eyes. There was a bright flash as he rose from his crouch, two thick beams of fire erupting from his palms, shooting out past the tourist and striking at least two troops with each torrent. So it was the gung ho approach, then. The front row of troops caught in the blast flew back off their feet, flung into the next row of their comrades like bowling pins. They had little time to react. Before they could return to their feet, indeed, before Terrence could even register it, there was Shu Ji. Or he was there. Or maybe he was over there. The man in the ripped convict jumpsuit flew through the air with such grace and speed, emanating a shower of bullets in every direction. Terrence counted eight separate handguns which the man had unloaded the clips of and whimsically discarded as he moved onto the next in his graceful dance of precision firepower. He dived under and flipped over them like a feather caught on the cusp of wind. But it was unfortunate that the number of guns to hit the floor was greater than the number of bodies. The group had yet to analyse the weaknesses of these metallic monsters. Headshots seemed to work, but the bullets of their own pistols merely dented their armour, and whatever it was they had for limbs.
“If only,” Terrence thought in the longest of instances, “he tried their rifles.” But it seemed Shu Ji’s gift, if not only his preference, was for that particular Akimbo, John-Woo, Slowmo-Doves image. Why not?

This flaming orgy bookended by a graceful bullet dance had been flowing for no more than ten seconds when the Triad fell to one knee, inhaling deeply. Terrence noticed that blood too ran from his nose. Five of the troops slumped to the ground, the little glowing lights in their right eyes going dim. Good, but not enough. Several others, the ones that should well have been writhing in agony from absorbing the full force of the Triad’s inferno, were merely patting themselves off. To the horror of the rest of the survivors, the one who appeared to be the squad leader had Shu Ju by the throat, lifted high above the ground.
“Caught ya,” he smirked, before he tossed him effortlessly in the direction of the tourist, who had cowered on the floor of the mall. The remaining troops readied their rifles. In what seemed like an age, through what appeared to him to be no will of his own, Terrence was in motion. Time stretched out, and every very step forward seemed to be emphasised by the corresponding familiar thud of their terrible weapons. The glowing bolts shot through the air, spread wide and moving incredibly fast, but only to a point. Both arms outstretched, Terrence realised he was able to halt the movement of these projectiles. They hung in the air, each one slowly losing its glow, reforming from some molten element into a solid metal. ”Throw them back” he thought to himself. ”Come on.” More projectiles flew into the invisible field, stopping instantly. No matter how hard he willed it though, he couldn’t return them to their senders.
This distraction proved enough. As the projectiles fell to the floor, the Triad rose to his feet. “Drop!”
Terrence complied, throwing himself over the two downed survivors as a deluge of fire roared over his head, forcing the squad to retreat a few feet back. The window was now open for the others to prove their worth.
Xiao Tou got on his tip-toes; “zai wu miao zhong, tingzhi (in five seconds, stop),” he whispered to the Triad, before bolting off up the side of the atrium. Adrian utilised this time too.
”So, public transport. Well here goes nothing.” he thought, bewildered by his sudden control over his ability, but wary of the pain it was starting to cause. In a flash he jumped to the spot where the three survivors were huddled, taking immense care not to wind up in the middle of a fireball. “This is how it should work in theory, grab a hold!” he yelled, spotting the little street kid from the corner of his eye. Xiao Tou had moved to flank the soldiers, and Adrian knew, as the boy raised his arm, that this was the time to move. If this ability was capable of what he thought it was, then they should be out of the way in time.

The four disappeared in a flash of light right before the petrol tanker came down atop the soldiers. Xiao Tou was already on the move as Adrian yelled over a banister four stories up: “Now!”
The Triad didn’t need the hint. He held both his hands together, channelling his energy into one last, mighty blast.
“Shit shit shit!” Terrence yelled, bolting down the escalator that hung above the atrium, just above the tanker, knowing full well that his skill was required again. He got his hands up just in time, encapsulating the explosion to surround the soldiers, but forcing it away from the rest of the mall.

The smoke cleared and the dust settled as they regrouped, exhausted, but not as much as they expected.
“Giz a light, “Terrence asked the Triad from behind a somewhat dented cigarette. Flick[/f]
“So that, that was something.” The tourist muttered.
“I think, I think that got easier,” Adrian mused, “I mean, my head was pounding when I first got here, when I went after this guy. But in I moved people.”
“I know right,” Terrence chimed in.
“Maybe it’s like a muscle,” Shu Ji suggested, “You know, when you work it, it gets stronger.”
“So I’m Adrian by the way.”
“Hah, Terrence; this is Shu Ji, that’s Xiao Tou…” The handshakes distracted them from the burning hunk of flesh and wires that was crawling towards them, pistol clasped in hand.
They spun around in time to see yet another cyborg, this one in a trench coat, with massive trauma to his face, land gracefully, drawing his own weapon, aimed squarely at the head of the charred husk. A single shot rung out as he turned to look at them.
“G’day, I’m Rick,” he holstered his sidearm. “I’d like to join your little gang.”

After the pleasantries were over with the group, and the new recruits had been properly introduced to the rest of the survivors, it was back to hunter-gatherer mode. Many, particularly those like the tourist, who had yet to exhibit any form strange ability, basically anyone not scratching at their elbows, were visibly uneasy about the man with the robotic arms. Adrian felt a pang of relief, as this took the heat off him. They had all worked together to stop the troopers, but nobody could be blamed for at least being sceptical that this man-thing could be some kind of cybernetic mole. Still, he had given them a lot of information. Ascension. At least they could put a name to the face. And Terrence seemed to trust him, it was apparent to the rest of the group that this was really his nature. Terrence: he trusts. That and Rick had revealed that he was also a New Zealander. “What are the chances?” they had said. ”Convenient” others had thought. Rather than continue uncomfortable conversations about motives, about super powers and transhumanism, they busied themselves with the list. Adrian and Xiao Tou combined their abilities to speed the process immensely, flitting about between floors so that the boy could touch the items that were needed. The plan being that once he’d made contact with all of the items they could all find a way onto the roof and the boy could bring the items to them. When asked how all the action was affecting him, Adrian remarked that the headache was constant, but the more he used his ability, the greater he felt he could push himself. Every second or third time, the strain was too strong, or the distance too great, so Xiao Tou offered to walk, but after a rest, Adrian would appear next to him, ready to take him to the next destination. The others pondered if they were capable of pushing themselves just as much. They followed the process to a T. The Triad indeed provided the fire, and once all was in place, the climbed to the roof a little after dark. Each took turns trying to rotate the Westernmost satellite dish, before Terrence decided to flex his telekinesis. It worked.
“Okay, so, how quickly do we need to get to level five?” asked the food vendor lady, wary of the frigates hovering not too far above them.
“It says ‘immediately.”

The urgency seemed wasted. The mysterious woman was kind enough to put them on the floor with the furniture stores, which they needed, as nothing appeared to happen across the entire night. So they bunked up, and got lost in talking. A real chance to learn about each other, to map out their lives and share their fears. Bonding, in the middle of a war zone. By damn, most of them had managed to fall into at least a shallow sleep.

Several kilometres away, a frigate, carrying 150 troops had finally zeroed in on the distress signal of the entire squad that had been lost the night previously. Times Square. Somewhere on that building. The squad had been sent in rather brashly, without scanning for resistance first. This team would not make that same mistake. Floating almost directly overhead, the sensors moved over the roof of the building. Everything checked out, no signs of life. The operator looked out his porthole at a strange flickering glow coming from the mall’s communications array. That will need closer inspection. It was over in an instant. The beam crossed paths with the dish, supercharging it and reflecting it back at its source.

The group awoke to an incredible explosion as all but the floor above them rolled down into the atrium below.