It wasn't Item 13. How could it not be Item 13?A million questions raced through Megan's head as she stood in front of the scene before her, the questions flying by so fast that she could neither hold them for more than a second nor ascertain their logic in that space of time.However, the crux of the query remained, what in the world was the containment box holding if not Item 13?"What is it?" she asked Ricardo who was standing closest to it at that time.Inside the containment box was a transparent glass structure. It held a metal rod seemly floating in space- probably by some electromagnetic force, Megan deduced from what little her science knowledge had grown since she took the job at Olympus.Some strange-looking, octagon-shaped objects were attached to the floating rod; so small that she couldn't make out what materials they were actually made of, and so finely arranged that they almost looked like one whole piece of work if not for the tiny spaces in between them which was abl
Every beep from the equipment resounded heavily through the room, almost as if it was heralding the end of the world; and it might as well be to Megan.Nothing had gone right since the beginning of that day. Nothing had gone right since the beginning of that mission. Nothing had gone right perhaps even longer before that; and she feared the culmination of it all was soon to come in a catastrophe that neither her nor Olympus – or even the world for that matter – would be able to withstand.Another beep and she looked to Ricardo who was now bent down in front of the equipment with his brows furrowed as he concentrated all that he had in trying to figure it out before the worst they all feared happened. "Can you shut down the self-destruction?" she asked."I'm afraid not, Megan." He ran his hands through his hair in a frustrated motion for the umpteenth time in that moment. "I'm locked out of the system and nothing I do is meeting any response." He swiped his hand over the glass panel an
"Before the equipment explodes, there are some things we need to take care of," Megan said after the group had settled. "First is the people. "Jay, I need you to trigger every fire alarm in this building and maybe some in the nearby buildings too, as many as you can manage. Can you?"He nodded affirmative. Putting his hands to the ground, he pushed against it and a yellow energy passed through the floor and up the walls on all sides. Not so long after, the sound of a fire alarm reached the room they were, the pitch increasing as more joined in from farther away; and soon, the pounding of footsteps could be heard from above as people seemed to move in droves."Next, Rick, I need you to reach as many people as you can over the phone. Tell them that the alarm isn't a drill. They must evacuate the building as quickly as they can and shouldn't stay anywhere near the area to observe. If they ask why...""Don't worry, I know how to deal with them." He patted her arm in understanding and she
New York City, USA The moment Megan opened the door to her apartment, she knew her night wasn't going to be a usual one. Not that she had usual nights to begin with, to be honest. A psychologist by profession, Megan was no stranger to the unusual. From dawn to dusk, in her little ground floor corner office,Months Counseling, her clients included a range from awkward college students, to stay-at-home parents, to overworked office goers, even sometimes to the high and mighty but still radically depressed elites of the city. They all brought with them their own batch of weirdness factor to dump on her lap and leave there when their session was complete; and truth be told, she didn't mind it one bit. Thing is, Megan had discovered from her childhood that
Location UnknownThe elevator came to a stop with a silent hiss and Megan stepped out of it. Going with something from a shady source was a bad idea, she knew, but there she was, doing exactly that.As it turned out, the envelope left by the strange man from Megan's apartment the previous night, Arthur Dean, Principal Officer in charge of the United Nation's Covert Affairs Department on Threat Assessment and Response- she still couldn't bring herself to believe that that was a real thing- contained not actually a job offer but a set of instructions.Go to Grand Central Station, it said. Enquire about which trains leave to the farthest parts of town at exactly 11:15am.Which was exactly what she
The elevator deposited Megan and Dennis on the sub-basement level of the building, the doors sliding open to reveal a long, narrow, empty corridor ahead."Where are we?" she asked."Where the magic happens," he replied, smiling.Dennis stepped out into the corridor and fluorescent lights above became lit almost as if in response to his presence. They revealed that the corridor wasn't quite as barren as Megan had first thought.Thing is, on either sides of the wall were large numbers written boldly in red paint. As Megan would soon realise, the paints weren't just paints as whenever Dennis got close to them, they came alive and began to shimmer, reacting to his presence just like the lights seemed to have some minutes earlier.
"What the hell?!" Megan's eyes went wide. She looked from Dennis to the doctors who looked unmoved by what was happening in front of them, and then she looked back at the teenager still on fire on the other side of the see-through glass.It couldn't be real, the thought raced through her head. Or could it? It was like her mind couldn't settle on any conclusion and the effort it was taking to try caused her pain."Miss Months, please calm down," Dennis said when it looked she might soon suffer a panic attack. Surprisingly, he had a little smile on his face, almost like he had expected the reaction from her from the start."But how can you expect me to calm down?" she returned. "Someone just lit on fire right in front
Five...Four...Three...Two...One.The moment the countdown reached one, the four ballista guns launched their missiles into the air, the projectiles flying with a grace and accuracy that could only have been AI-guided. They soared through the air for some seconds before beginning their descent right towards Adolf."You may want to take cover for this one," Dennis said to Megan who immediately huddled closer as he pressed the screen of his wristwatch and commanded, "Blast protection," and immediately, what looked like a force field covered the both of them.With bated breaths, Megan watched Adolf stare down the missiles coming towards him like he could just will them away with his mind if he wanted; and just as they were a few metres from him, he wrapped his wi