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
It didn't take long for Megan to get a reading on the girl in front of her, not that she needed that long to begin with.Thing is, unlike the boys, the girl was an open book. Her thoughts and emotions were vividly on display in everything that she did.She wanted to be read, Megan deduced,perhaps even loved when she was.A few minutes of professional psychological analysis and the first thing that made the headline about the girl was that she was fully aware of herself. She knew exactly who she was, superpower and all; and not just that. She was also well-aware of her feminism, her youth, and the role she had been brought to play in Olympus- whatever they were, Megan thought as she still hadn't quite figured that out yet- and how those things made
Hello reader,First of all, let me say how glad I am to see you here. I don't know if you're a first-time reader of my works, or perhaps you've read my book on GN, Tekna (do give it a read when you have the time :-)), or perhaps you've even read any of my works of any other place apart from here. Whatever it may be, thank you for giving me and my work the opportunity to be a part of your reading history.Now, you probably may have already read some part of the work before getting to this point. I do hope you enjoyed it, and will continue to do so till the end. Please don't be shy in leaving your comments about what you enjoyed, or enjoying, or not about the book; and of course, gems are highly appreciated.If you like this book, please share with your friends.Till I come your way again. I give you all my love.Your friend,The Author.
To Megan's surprise, Dennis's office was as normal as would be expected of the head of an organization, not that she was sure she could imagine what an abnormal office would look like in relation to Olympus to be honest.Maybe a direct phone line to the Justice League,she thought,or perhaps a photograph where Dennis was posing with Santa Claus- she meant like therealSanta Claus there.Whatever it was though, she knew it would be something that would really blow her mind into a billion pieces like everything in the organization had been doing all day.However, the office was just that: a standard workplace with nothing out of the ordinary sticking out.At least for the moment,
"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
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
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
That couldn't be happening. Megan looked around herself in disbelief.How could that be happening? She asked again.Before the group stepped into that theatre, she was sure they were in charge of the scenario: Dennis had stopped the mole from getting word out of Olympus to the enemy, he and Arthur were on said mole's trail, she, Ricardo and the kids uncovered the location of the Doomsday beacon, they were all going to stop Martin for good before he had the chance to use Item 13.But somehow he had managed to best them again, Megan realised. How?"Surprised?" Martin's question snapped her out of her thoughts to see the smug smile on his face. "You should be. You're playing against the best after all.""This isn't a game, Martin," she returned. "Real lives are at stake here; and if you deploy Item 13, I'm afraid even you may lose yours.""Well Miss Months, that's a risk I'm willing to take."Martin took a big, exaggerated bow before signalling to his men and they opened fire.Kei caught
Shanghai, China Ricardo accelerated the SUV through the highway like a mad man, swishing in and out of traffic without concern for the law or the motorists screaming at him. "Is the signal locked yet?!" he shouted to the teenagers in the back seat with their eyes intently fixed on a tablet in their middle. "Still working on it," Adolf returned. "Work faster!" "Hey, dude," Kei looked up, pissed, "you wrote the program. If you find it unsatisfactory, then change it." She shoved the tablet in front of him and would have caused quite the commotion if Megan hadn't grabbed it from her hands. "Enough!" She cut out whatever retort Ricardo had in mind with a look. "We're
The director's office was still in a state of tempered chaos when Megan arrived back with Ricardo in tow. Dennis remained in front of the monitor-map with a glare like that would somehow force the red dots to converge on to one stable point, but Kei and Jay had now joined Adolf, who was obviously at wit's end with the tracking, by the computer-desk. Arthur just watched everything on by the side in concerned silence.The door slid open to admit the duo in and the others turned to acknowledge their presence; Arthur and Dennis leaving their spots to meet them."Heard you're in quite the pickle, Director," Ricardo started with an almost taunting smirk on his face, but he sobered when he saw the state of the monitor-map. "What can I do to help?""The Doomsday beacon was activated a
Megan had thought that she knew what a red alert looked like in Olympus, but she was wrong. When she, Arthur, and Jay stepped out of the conference room, the entire building was in utter chaos. Alarms blared from everywhere, people ran helter-skelter in no particular direction; the whole atmosphere was just in a state of disarray.What the hell was going on? she wondered. Was it possible that Item 13 wasn't the only imminent threat the world was facing?Arthur tapped on Megan's shoulder just then, snapping her back to where she really was in the middle of the whole situation. "We have to move," he said and she followed him with Jay in tow as he weaved his way expertly through the chaos to the director's office.The office had the same chaotic air as the rest of the bu
"Your activities have not gone unnoticed." Arthur's displeasure was very vivid in his demeanour as he stared at the faces seated around the conference table. "Rio, Havana, Chersky. Your debacles have made headlines, and all in the presence of an unauthorised personnel who could very well be an enemy combatant too. Tell me, is this how the Supermen are supposed to operate?""All due respect, Mr. Principal Officer, none of this is our fault," Kei returned. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that we would have recovered Item 13 by now if-" Whatever she wanted to say got stuck in her throat as Dennis shot her a very stern glare. A silent debate ensued between the two of them as she seemed to insist on going ahead with her statement and he preventing her with his glare.Finally, Kei huffed. "You deal with this." She kicked back her chair and zoome
The steady hum of the Chariot in flight was the only thing that Megan could hear as she looked at the faces staring back at her around the battlestation. Ricardo, Adolf, Jay, even Kei; none of them spoke as they awaited what she presumed was her reasonable explanation for what she had blurted out in Chersky.Thing is, after Megan's confession, she had walked away from the warehouse to one of the SUVs and drove away without a word, leaving the others to catch up with her at the airstrip; and while none of them had spoken a word directly to her in return about her actions- Megan was actually surprised that Kei hadn't but she figured the others had forced her not to- she knew it was only a matter of time before they physically demanded an explanation.Well, looked like the time had come, she realized when Ricardo stood up. Apparen