2 HOURS TILL THE INCIDENT.
Hiro, Denis and Polly walk forward, " Names and schools? " The receptionist asks,
their hands hovering over the keyboard. The Catalyst Game's registration booths are packed
with students rushing to participate, some even fighting over registration.
"Hiro Piltar! Catalyst High New-Jersey!" Hiro yells confidently, pointing a thumb
to himself and putting on a toothy smirk.
"Denis Ward. Same as him. " He punches Hiro in the gut, "GUH!"
"Polly.." She mumbles.
"Hm?" The receptionist turns, "P-Polly."
The keyboard clicks sequentially, the paint on the keys of the keyboard
worn and the letters unrecognizable.
Hiro slowly leans over the booth's table, "Ooo."
Denis drags him back by the collar of his jacket before he can
knock over the stack of official forms.
"Don't mind him," Denis sighs, "his brain is mostly decorative. Just give us the badges."
The receptionist sighs, sliding three silver-rimmed badges across the counter. "Team 12.
Your first round is in Sector B. If you die, the R.C.T. isn't liable for the cleanup. Next!"
Hiro grabs his badge, pinning it to his chest with a flourish. "Sector B, huh? More like Sector 'Be-Afraid-Of-Hiro'—!"
"That was terrible. Truly," Denis muttered. His pale hand clamped over Hiro's mouth, his height making it easy to restrain the struggling boy. "Polly, you okay? You’re shaking again."
Polly grips her badge so hard her knuckles turn white. "I... I just feel like everyone is watching us. Like we're.. Targets."
Hiro slaps Denis's hand off his mouth, eyeing him for a second, a single dread covering his left eye.
"Targets? Yeah duh, because we're the BEST!" Hiro laughs, staring at his badge, "Hey- SILVER? IT SHOULD BE GOLD!"
Denis drags Hiro, grimacing while keeping his head low to not let people recognize him. " I WANT A GOLD ONE! " Hiro flails
his arms in the air, pulling forward desperately. His hands grab onto the table next to him as
he's dragged away, " RAGHH!! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I GET THE CORRECT BADGE!! " Hiro roared, the beads
in his dreadlocks clacking together as he thrashed against Denis's grip.
"NEVERR!"
After a few minutes of walking, the three emerge in a forest outside of the city, a distinct atmosphere from the crowded
plaza. The trees had grown in odd ways, unnaturally. The plants were a bit too large, some glow, others with what
looked like eyes.
Polly turns to one of the patches, a dead, gigantic sunflower, at least as tall as her, slumped on the ground. Bugs crawl all
over the collapsed flower, boring holes into it with their teeth.
"Spooky.." Polly shudders.
Hiro laughs, "Not to me! This ain't nothing!" A grin spreads across his face,
Polly gripped her badge. Her wide, orange eyes reflected the dead sunflower on the ground—
two bright petals staring at a withered, dying beauty. Surrounded.
Denis kicks a twig to the side, his white eyes wandering around the forest's corners, "Something's
wrong—"
Out of the blue, the sound of a young man clearing his throat echoed from
the borders, a rough voice.
Hundreds of purple blobs formed from the floor, flesh connecting them. They all created a dome-like
shape, closing the trio inside.
They all stop at once, Hiro jumping into a defensive stance almost instantly.
"They're putting up the borders already?" Denis turns, staring at a large, bulging
eye staring directly at him.
"Those.."
"T-Those aren't normal boundance borders."
A sludge-like fluid pops out from the eye's pupil, splashing onto Hiro's
sneakers.
"The fuck? Not cool, man!" Hiro shook his foot, looking more offended by the stain than the danger.
[-/-]
" Hello, catalysts. " The man in the haori spoke, his voice reflecting to every corner of the forest. " You will all still be participating in the catalyst games as usual, so do not worry. "
"But there will be some changes."
The sound of Ether and yelling comes from the other side of the wall. He turns, a stern expression.
He flicks his wrist, "Be gone, apes."
Outside, instructors and teachers attack the blight dome's wall, " The kids! They're still inside! We have to get in,
now! " One of them yells, Ether forming at their hands as dolls. The dolls jump forward, biting and gnawing
at the Blight.
Etty stops walking as she approaches the dark wall, staring at the sky-high pillar of pure Blight,
an expression of pure horror, " I've.. Never seen anything like this. Not once. Ever. "
The mysterious man turns once more as he felt a familiar trace of Ether coming from outside, " Etty.. "
One of the instructors stumbles over to Etty, breathless, "We... Can't... Get it... Open!" He yells, breathlessly—
The grotesque wall opens up, slowly. The mysterious man slowly walking out, his hands resting
in his haori's pockets in front. " We meet at last, the inner heads. "
The instructors and teachers scatter at the sight of his face, not daring to look back even
for a second.
The wind picks up, "You."
A bo staff approaches Etty from the sky, light green wind surrounding it. The staff flies into Etty's
hand perfectly.
"Where are the other two?" The man asks, looking around.
"Up."
He smiles, looking upward.
But nobody was there.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The man's eyes snap downwards, his head still tilted to the sky. The bo staff hovers inches from his face, moving
at great speeds. Etty had closed the distance in a millisecond.
He steps to the side, his head tilting towards Etty, " Long time no see. "
"Don't act so friendly... Especially after what you did." Etty grits her teeth. Her bo staff spins, compressed wind shooting out on
opposite sides. It cuts through the air as it accelerates toward the man, the sheer rotational speed
making it more like a disk.
He snaps his head downwards, the bostaff hitting a hair on his head, " They had to be cleansed, Etty. I was hoping
if anyone, you'd be the one to appreciate it." He slowly turns his head back toward Etty.
"But you're a waste of a person, a subhuman, a catalyst. So i was foolish to
expect any better. " He smiles, his dark, apathetic eyes locked onto her.
She sprints forward, swaying to the side as the catches her bostaff. She swings it
directly toward his face, wind covering her arms. The bostaff creates an arc
of pale Ether.
The bo staff lightly grazes the mysterious man's nose as he tilts backwards.
Etty keeps her bo staff's momentum and spins, flourishing right before she swung the
tip of her bo staff directly into his gut. Her hand accelerates at unnatural speed, compressed
wind flowing from her arms. The man is unsurprised, using his knee to
block the attack.
`` He hasn't even taken his hands out of his pockets yet. ``
"You're not taking this seriously, are you, Kensho?" She takes a few steps backwards, staring at his
posture, his eyes, his movements, his body language.
His hands leave his pockets, "Tell me, Etty. Do you believe tainted souls can tell truth?"
Etty's eyes widen. Her arms snap upwards, wind bursting out of them. The wind collides
with Kensho, moving him an inch.
He starts walking forwards, "And if you can't answer that, let me ask you a more simple question.."
The wind creates shockwaves as he approaches, the pressure so powerful grass is stripped from
the ground, the air around him heavily distorting from the shockwaves.
"Do you believe in a perfect world?"
The wind parts in two as a massive arm comparable to a tree bursts out from behind Kensho, rapidly speeding
towards Etty.
Etty lifts her bo staff to her chest, flying through the forest as the arm of blight hits her. She struggles to keep a grip, and the staff starts to groan under the grip of the hand. An eye forms on the palm and stares at her, Etty's eyes widen.
From the eye, Kensho shoots out, the pupil bursting into a dark green fluid. He grabs her staff, tilting his entire body upwards and kicking her in the jaw.
Etty's head snaps backwards as she is hit by Kensho's gata. She passes through the hand's fingers, rolling
onto the arm itself. She glances back, the pillar of blight barely visible.
"Do you not have manners? It is disrespectful to ignore your opponent when in battle." Kensho
crawls up from the fingers, holding Etty's staff. She lifts her arm, "Give it.. BACK!"
Her pupils glowed a distinct green, Ether shooting out from her arm. Kensho looks down at the bo staff as
it pulls towards her, " Interesting. You're able to move it? "
The bostaff is outlined by a purple aura, black edges unnaturally spiking on the sides of it. It flows like a fluid
in reversed gravity, or a sketchy flame.
The trees pass by them at the speed of a fighter jet, their voices barely heard. But Catalysts can hear
each other on the Ether wavelength, allowing for communication at unimaginable speeds.
Etty stood up, the wind she created growing in density. `` I have to end this NOW! I'm rapidly
leaving Washington D.C, the students are alone- I CAN'T afford a fight. ``
Tick, tock. They were fighting on the clock.
Etty breathes in, the air pressure around them changing rapidly.
Kensho approaches, her bo-staff in his hand, " You're using that? Now? "
The pressure around her collapsed to normal, " Synthesis. "
He rushes forward, swinging the bostaff in an arc toward Etty. She ducks
downwards, sweeping with her left leg. ``She's not using synthesis. No,
she's using covergent Ether. What's this monkey's plan even supposed
to be?``
Kensho slams his bostaff onto the blight under him, flinging himself
upwards. He lands right as her sweep ended its arc, kicking her right in the
face with his foot, balancing on the bo staff sideways.
Etty flies off the arm, `` PERFECT! `` She lands, skidding against the
dirt and grass at the speed of sound. Trees and bushes fly
in multiple directions in her wake.
She starts running in the opposite direction of her momentum, finally starting to move toward
the Washington D.C station. Wind starts blowing on her body, and then starts carrying her. Her
movements started flowing like water, as she now got into a full sprint, flying through the forest
like a supercar.
`` I need to get there ASAP- Notify every instructor and teacher there, then tell the
Ka'ji and Ze'ji clans about this. I can't tell the R.C.T, they'll just turn it into
money, and the clans would know.. ``
Her legs dig into the ground with every step, the trees she passes being stripped by their leaves. The
arm seems to stop growing, and start reversing? She gazes to the side, the black tube of
blight suddenly reversing, starting to move faster than her. `` He's using it to catch up- ``
She turns, quickly stepping to the side while she ran. Kensho was right next to her, keeping up
with an unnatural pace. " I've had my fun, Etty. But all good things must come to an end, right?
Catalyst? "
And in the blink of an eye- No not even, in a moment, he's in front of Etty. Her entire
sprint stopped instantly. Her body swings forward as her face slams into his hand.
He turns, Etty still mid-air. His leg positions under her, " Goodbye. "
Snap, he drives his leg upwards into Etty's ribcage, launching her upwards
at terminal velocity.
He stares up at the sky, and what he sees isn't Etty Bergentroff, but only a
casualty he has to bear. For his own ideology, for his perfect world. A world
he believes exists without the corruption of the R.C.T.
He looks down, in his hand is the Grade 1-S weapon, Gale. " Taintwood from
The Dark Spires, a material that can more effectively create pathways for
ether, and less well known, blight. "
He grabs onto the skin of the blight arm right as it passes him, sending him crashing back towards his
pillar.
1:45 HOURS TILL THE INCIDENT.
[-/-]
Students gather round the large pillar, hundreds of people in crowds fearfully making phone calls and banging on the dome.
Everyone thinks this is a prank, or a badly executed start to the Catalyst Games, but in the crowd, a few stood out, staring at the large dome and identifying exactly what it is, " Blight. " One of the students
mumbles. Another student looks over, " Hm? "
" I said, blight. " They say, the other student looking up, " That stuff doesn't get this big. "
He scoffs, " Mhm, well that's not Ether either.. "
The other student squints, " Well it COULD be a catalyst ability. "
" Mmm, maybe. "
" Maybe.. "
[-/-]
Kensho rides a bird-like Blightborn, approaching Link-Station. He looks down, students
pile up in groups waiting for the next train to arrive.
He remembers when he was a student, running among his peers. Laughing.
He was weak then, he's stronger now, he knows more now. The truth is darker than what he's doing
and he's fully convinced of it. It's necessary evil.
The blightborn melts, leaving him in free-fall. His arms flail without care as he approaches the grass
ceiling.
Blight forms at his palms and wrists, turning into a parachute of black sludge, an eye on the top, and teeth growing
out the sides.
He glides down, landing onto the glass with a clatter.
Kensho's eyes close, he does the hand sign he's so familiar with, his hands binded.
Blight compresses in between his intertwined palms, `` The larger, the more
unstable. The more dense, the larger the aftermath. The more dense... The more unstable. ``
The blight starts to let out rays of purple light, strings of rot and darkness seeping in between
his fingers.
" Blight Curtain. "
His fingers un-interlock, the blight expanding outwards in the blink of an eye. A barrier
is created, similar to the one in the forest, but it keeps growing.
[-/-]
The train driver adjusts his glasses, looking over to the portrait of him and his wife.
In his jacket, two plane tickets to Hawaii. He smiles, the day is almost over, dawn
is soon.
The beautiful sunset leaves rays of light onto the portrait, it's taped on
to account for it falling.
But the portrait darkens, as the sunset's rays are covered, hindered. A dark
shade looming over him and the train.
In the distance, right on his path, a dome the size of the entire station and plaza has emerged.
The man's heart skips a beat. He slams the emergency brake button, the train's brakes
screaming as the train begins to slow down.
But it is not enough.
The train keeps going.
1:30 HOURS UNTIL THE INCIDENT.
