T H E Y S T O P P E D A T Natasha's place where Lucas helped her set up the new Life Cell before arriving at Carter•Labs towards the afternoon.
"Hello?" called Natasha at the entrance.
"Shouldn't there be like security for this place?" Lucas asked, still marvelling at the size of the building.
A whirring sound followed the moment Natasha set foot at the entrance and a machine that looked like a large kind of gun appeared right in front of Natasha.
"You sure you've been here before?" Lucas asked, wanting to pull back Natasha from the entrance.
A bright green beam of light then flowed out of the machine and traced down Natasha's body from head to toe.
Identity confirmed. Natasha Austin-Johnson.
It was an automated voice that came from the interactive consciousness installed in the
"...Betty!" called out a man while he fumbled in his seat.He was tied up with duct tape all round his torso to a seat, down to his feet save for his mouth."Betty!" he called out again, turning to the person seated next to him.The last time he had seen her, she was hosting a beach party in Sydney, her white face now red and unresponsive as she sat there, tied up like him.It had happened so fast, he hadn't gotten the chance to do anything.The couple were in a dark room which could have been darker had it not still been daylight outside as the man in the chair figured from looking across a window.He spotted the large white Opera House out through the window when suddenly, a door burst open followed by what appeared to be white flashes of light. Lightning.The man managed to smile after realising what it was or who it was.In an
T U N E S O F T H E famous Amazing Grace swayed along with the sombreness of the vicinity as the trumpets blew to the wind.Six men, soldiers, dressed in black, carried a casket with white gloved hands, walking at a slow pace as a twenty-one gun salute was held.Large cannons emitted their contents at the heart of the city, with thousands of people walking behind the casket until it was lowered to the concrete six foot hole below.Far out in the city, thousands of fans had laid out flowers arranged in a way that they formed one large lightning bolt on the ground.The casket was black and sleek, reflecting the dark sky up above which was blanketed with clouds that threatened to release their bowels down on the forsaken city.It was lowered down with conveyer belt bindings as the large blue lightning bolt emblem repres
H E R B R E A T H I N G W A S fast while she felt the wind brush across her face. She rounded a corner which led towards her house where she came to a stop after her usual morning jog.Opening the door, Natasha Johnson found her mother in the kitchen as she walked towards the fridge."Breakfast is ready, " came Jenna, whipping something from the pan, "I made pancakes, your favorite! ""I think I'm gonna be late for school, mom! " Natasha teased before brushing back a strand of her golden pony-tailed hair and taking a gulp of water from a bottle."You know how great your pancakes are!" Natasha added.Jenna smiled as she handed her a plate with two pieces of pancake.She took time to notice how her daughter had grown over the past fifteen years from when she was just the tiniest, cutest thing back o
N A T A S H A W A S W A L K I N G over to her seat in class and her eyes momentarily landed on the boy seated just right across her desk to the right, a desk in front of her. This had happened a couple of times before but she always pretended to be looking at something else-or was he doing that too?Passing by his desk, Natasha noticed he was scribbling something in his book. No. He was drawing. He was kind of an artist-okay, he was a great artist. Natasha briefly looked back at all the things he had drawn, all of which she never actually got to see up close.The boy never showed anyone his drawings, so Natasha would always catch him sketching something during class and at times she would be so 'drawn' to the art work that she would fail to hear Mr. Eisenhower point at her to explain the Bernoulli's Principle.Natasha was placing her books on her desk and moving to her
L U C A S K I N G W A S still having a hard time in deciding whether to join the Warriors or not and it so happened that he wasn't the only one with a full plate as Susan Claire was seated in her office at the precinct, going through a group of files scattered all over her desk.The APD were caught in a fix with the rampantly rising drug smuggling cartels which started out in 2026—two years earlier."We just caught one, Captain!" came a voice from her door.Yes. Claire was the department's new police captain, currently going on six years after Mayor Joshua Avery was impeached and charged with the assassination of the National Guard Commander back in 2016 together with the mastermind; Trevor Brandon, who is still in Atlanta's most wanted list after his escape from Georgia and has never been heard of since.Following the events of the impeachment,
T O W A R D S T H E E V E N I N G of the same day, Natasha was just getting back home from school to find piles of boxes lying all around the living room.Her mother appeared from the stairwell in a sweater with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and her hair was ruffled up a little. She had a large box in her hands."Oh, hey! I was just gathering some old stuff from the attic.""What old stuff?"Natasha set down her bag and went to help her mother with the box she was carrying."Well, you know...stuff. The attic's getting crowded.""What are you going to do to with it?""Katie told me about this charity home and I it sounded like a good idea."Natasha's eyes moved past where her mother was standing, making her turn to see what she was looking at."Are those...Dad's clo
P O L I C E C A P T A I N S U S A N Claire slid her glock into her holster next to her hip as she walked out of the precinct, wearing sunglasses.She stopped next to her car—a Dodge Challenger Hell Cat and watched two detectives move past her with another man between them whose hands were cuffed in front of him. She waited until they had gotten with him into another car, a yellow cab and she did the same.The cab was first to get out of the precinct's parking lot, followed by the captain's car.Claire checked the time displayed on a small screen at the dashboard, next to the steer wheel, which was charged by a high power battery as well as the rest of the car after an advancement was made to replace fuel energy. Half past four o'clock in the afternoon—the exact time the delivery guy was expected to show up at the exch
S H E S T O O D A few feet away from the tall mound of stone and marble that cast a shadow over her from the setting sun.For an unknown reason, Natasha found herself visiting that place more than once in a week, just to let out the day's weight and gaze upon the twenty-foot statue of the Blue Streak which captured him in a sprinting position and the large lightning bolt emblem plastered to his chest being the only thing that had color as a blue glowing lamp enclosed in a glass case was attached on top of it, highlighting the emblem.The rest of the sculpture was a solid dark grey with one of his feet, the right one, erected onto a pedestal while the left one was raised and bending almost forty-five degrees to give the perfect running position. TO WHOEVER SEEKS TRUE STRENGTH&nbs
T H E Y S T O P P E D A T Natasha's place where Lucas helped her set up the new Life Cell before arriving at Carter•Labs towards the afternoon."Hello?" called Natasha at the entrance."Shouldn't there be like security for this place?" Lucas asked, still marvelling at the size of the building.A whirring sound followed the moment Natasha set foot at the entrance and a machine that looked like a large kind of gun appeared right in front of Natasha."You sure you've been here before?" Lucas asked, wanting to pull back Natasha from the entrance.A bright green beam of light then flowed out of the machine and traced down Natasha's body from head to toe.Identity confirmed. Natasha Austin-Johnson.It was an automated voice that came from the interactive consciousness installed in the
J E N N A G O T H O M E from the hospital just in time to find her daughter alighting the school bus.She grabbed her and hugged her, almost squeezing the life out of her."Mom, it was just three days!""Well, you're still my daughter and nobody's taking that away from me, so deal with it!" Jenna said comically, hugging Natasha even tighter."I missed you too, mom."Natasha was more than relieved to learn that her mother had no idea of what had happened back in New York. She would have been freaking out as if the embrace for having not seen her for less than three days wasn't enough.The beeping noise of the alarm startled Natasha after which she suddenly found herself lashing out her left hand and hitting the device to make it stop.Her face was smothered into a pillow and did not feel like getting out of be
"W E A R E S O dead!" began Cassie after she, Natasha, Lucas and Bianca got back to the museum only to find out that everyone was gone — the students, that is."Hey, why were you following us?" Cassie turned to Bianca.She gave a faked surprise expression."I don't know what you're talking about.""You...""Speaking of death," Lucas cut in, "Here comes Mr.Gilbert."The History teacher appeared from an office while walking with a security guard. His face clearly showed he was furious or was it concern and/or relief?"Where have the four of you been?""I was the one who saw them sneak out!" Bianca blurted out."Nice going, genius!" Cassie shot back, "and that's how I know you followed us!"Bianca rolled her eyes."Ok, the important thing is that all of you
N E W Y O R K C I T Y. They got there towards noon as the coach cruised through Manhattan."We're here!" said an exhilarated Cassie Richards, dragging Natasha out of the bus.Natasha took a moment, observing the scenery filled with skyscrapers with jumbo-trons and the streets lined with theaters as well as yellow taxi cabs moving to and fro on the freeways."Well, it's pretty much like Atlanta but way bigger and with taller buildings, I guess," Natasha said.They got to the entrance of the Museum of Natural History where they were lead through the reception by a guide. Lucas lagged a little behind to look at the statue erected in front of the museum which depicted a sculpture of a man riding a horse.
"M O M, F O R T H E one hundredth time, my stuff is okay!" cried out Natasha while dragging her wheeled bag out of her room."OK, just making sure you don't forget anything, honey."Natasha then noticed the long look her mother was giving her."You know I'm only going for three days, Mom."Jenna moved over to the door before grabbing her daughter's bag.She put the bag in the trunk of her grey Prius as Natasha got in the car."Alright, students. Listen up, please," began the fairly tall man in a broken suit and short brown hair.It was Mr. Gilbert-the History teacher.He was addressing his class."I guess everyone knows where we're going today.The Museum of Natural History in New York..."A student raised his hand."Yes, Lucy!"
T H E L A S T T I M E she had set foot at that place was way back before she'd started high school.Apparently, her mother never really talked about that place as much.The building was one of the biggest structures in the city with five storeys. There were other buildings with more storeys but this one covered a pretty big area of land and was entirely made with glass from the outside.CARTER•LABSNatasha still didn't get the title which was plastered at the very center of the facility. Why was there no space separating the two. As in, Carter Labs.Oh well, must be a 'successful scientist' thing. "Hi there, Natasha!" called Katie Patterso
S H E S T O O D A few feet away from the tall mound of stone and marble that cast a shadow over her from the setting sun.For an unknown reason, Natasha found herself visiting that place more than once in a week, just to let out the day's weight and gaze upon the twenty-foot statue of the Blue Streak which captured him in a sprinting position and the large lightning bolt emblem plastered to his chest being the only thing that had color as a blue glowing lamp enclosed in a glass case was attached on top of it, highlighting the emblem.The rest of the sculpture was a solid dark grey with one of his feet, the right one, erected onto a pedestal while the left one was raised and bending almost forty-five degrees to give the perfect running position. TO WHOEVER SEEKS TRUE STRENGTH&nbs
P O L I C E C A P T A I N S U S A N Claire slid her glock into her holster next to her hip as she walked out of the precinct, wearing sunglasses.She stopped next to her car—a Dodge Challenger Hell Cat and watched two detectives move past her with another man between them whose hands were cuffed in front of him. She waited until they had gotten with him into another car, a yellow cab and she did the same.The cab was first to get out of the precinct's parking lot, followed by the captain's car.Claire checked the time displayed on a small screen at the dashboard, next to the steer wheel, which was charged by a high power battery as well as the rest of the car after an advancement was made to replace fuel energy. Half past four o'clock in the afternoon—the exact time the delivery guy was expected to show up at the exch
T O W A R D S T H E E V E N I N G of the same day, Natasha was just getting back home from school to find piles of boxes lying all around the living room.Her mother appeared from the stairwell in a sweater with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and her hair was ruffled up a little. She had a large box in her hands."Oh, hey! I was just gathering some old stuff from the attic.""What old stuff?"Natasha set down her bag and went to help her mother with the box she was carrying."Well, you know...stuff. The attic's getting crowded.""What are you going to do to with it?""Katie told me about this charity home and I it sounded like a good idea."Natasha's eyes moved past where her mother was standing, making her turn to see what she was looking at."Are those...Dad's clo