The TriGen Chronicles: Chapter I

[Dreamless Days]

11:00 AM, Location Unknown

Two men walked down a long dark hallway. The walls were cold and grey, and the only light came from the few low hanging fluorescent lamps. The lights flickered as the men walked side by side under them swiftly. The man on the right lifted both a cigarette and a lighter to his mouth before speaking. His voice was scratchy, as if his vocal chords were damaged.

"This is complete and utter fucking bullshit. I don't see why she has to make ME do this." He growled "Will the Shadow's be ready for tonight?"

The man had pale white skin, as if he hadn't seen the light of the sun in years. He had a long pointy nose, and golden eyes that were locked in a constant sneer. His dark black hair was slicked back with some kind of product, there wasn't a single strand that wasn't shiny. He was dressed in an expensive looking grey suit with a black tie. Even though he was only a tiny man, his body seemed to ooze power. He took a long drag on the cigarette in his mouth before exhaling the smoke out of his nose. Finally the man to his left spoke.

"They will." He stated, his voice so deep it seemed to just rumble out of his mouth.

This man was very different from the other one. We was huge, his head almost hitting the lights the two were walking under. His skin was a dark brown. His face held a stoic expression on it, never seeming to change. His eyes were dark brown, with slight flecks of what appeared to be yellow in them. His hair was shaved down to nothing. He was dressed much more casually, wearing a dark red sleeveless shirt and blue jeans. His muscles showed a great physical strength, they bulged out in such a way that they looked unnatural.

The smaller of the two growled once more, he sounded like a snarling animal.

"Fine. Make sure everything else is ready too. And tell that T.O.D.D.I.M to run recon, if I have to do this then it will be going off without a HITCH. Understand me?" He asked.

The bigger man nodded silently.

"Good. Then go."


11:17 AM, Tetlab U

Tetlab University was huge. The buildings all looked relatively old even though they were only build 30 years ago. They had a Gothic feel to them, with his towers on either end of the main building, and grey stone buildings scattered around campus. The whole place looked rather out of place inside the hustling Mission City, in which it was situated. The campus was lovely and peaceful, even though the city surrounded it on all sides. Pathways crisscrossed the campus, splitting the bright green grass from the buildings.

Various students sat around on the grass while they didn't have classes, relaxing or studying peacefully. Shady areas underneath the large trees scattered about where the only outside solitude from the hot bearing sun that was high in the sky today. Even the large building around the campus couldn't protect it from the harsh light.

Keith walked down a crowded path, his head low and his hands in his pockets. He was wearing a loose white t-shirt and loose white cargo pants held up with a black belt. On his back was a tan backpack, which had one loop over his right shoulder. On his neck sat a black pair of Skullcandy Headphones. Occasionally he muttered under his breath, though he was actually talking into the headphones.

"Well look at that Jonah..." He mumbled.

A voice answered back quickly.

"That's "Operator" Keith, we can't be too careful. And what are you talking about?" The voice asked.

The voice belonged to a young man at SOURCE HQ, who had a headset sitting over his ears. A microphone sat in front of his mouth allowing him to talk to Keith through the headphones. He was Keith's Operator for the mission. His name was Jonah.

Keith was looking up at the sky, a small smile on his face.

"Looks like it's gonna be a sunny day." He stated.

Jonah rolled his eyes on his end of the line as Keith continued down the pathway. He stopped however when he heard a few students sitting on the grass nearby, overhearing the radio they were listening to. It was some news broadcast.

"And once more for all you listeners out there. Remember, the US Military is apparently closing all main roads at five o'clock onward tonight so they can get through the city safely. According to what I've heard, a convoy will be coming through our lovely city. So make sure you don't get stuck out there!"

Suddenly Keith heard Jonah sigh.

"And all too suddenly that sunny day of yours just got overcast. Shame that." He stated.

Keith chuckled before continuing forward. He walked over to a nearby bench and plopped himself down, lifting his headphones over his ears.

"I'm going offline for a few hours. Contact me if anything changes." He ordered.

"Understood, same goes for you Agent." Jonah replied.

And with that Keith plugged his headphones into his iPod, selecting a song to listen to while he waited for his first "class". However, elsewhere, a student was only just waking up.



In his apartment about two blocks from Tetlab U, Derrick was laying on his back in bed. He yawned and turned his head slowly, still very tired and wondering if he could get any extra sleep. He looked at his clock, seeing the time, and sat up incredibly quickly.

"Oh shit!" He yelled.

His first class started at eleven o'clock. He was now twenty minutes late. He rushed around the apartment, grabbing a very quick shower and throwing on his black jeans, red sleeveless shirt and black jacket before snatching his bag off his floor and shooting out the door, locking it quickly. He slid the single strap bag over his chest and ran down the hallways, racing down the stairs as quickly as he possibly could.

Once outside, Derrick launched down the street, pushing through people as he tried to run to the campus. In the end, he jumped off the path and cut across the road. A driver beeped the horn angrily and flipped Derrick off as he gave the driver a quick wave while stepping out into traffic and racing across the street.

He ran as fast as he could for both blocks before finally getting onto campus and legging his way into the main building, screaming down the hallway and finally reaching the door to his first class. He opened the door slowly and tried to sneak into the back row, breathing hard, however his lecturer stopped dead in the middle of a sentence and cleared his throat. Derrick let his head drop before turning to face his lecturer.

"Late again Mister Stife?" He asked.

"I am really really sorry Professor Leyt. I overslept." Derrick replied "I promise it won't happen again!"

"See that it doesn't. Because this is the last time I let you get off with a warning, understand?" Professor Leyt asked.

Derrick gave a brief nod before sitting down in a nearby seat. The professor continued with the lecture. Derrick took a moment to calm down, he was feeling warm, he had accidentally stressed himself on the run over here and was making sure not to go and burst aflame in the middle of class. That would sure put a damper of Professor Leyt's lecture after all.

After smiling at his inward joke, Derrick finally calmed down, settling into his seat as he pulled out a pad of paper and a pen, writing down what the Professor was saying.

[*Lozy]

Lacey sat in the middle of the dark lecture hall. The room was only lit by the large projector and the slides that appeared on the screen. They were pictures of devastation from every part of the world; Africa, Japan, Haiti, Afghanistan, England, Hawaii, even Alabama. They were slides of natural destruction and of human destruction. It was quite a lesson. Only taught through sense of sight, but every picture tugged at your heart strings. Especially when you could see the path of human destruction far out weighed the path of the natural.

Not many students were all that interested however; you could see the lights of their cell phones and hear the whispers of idle chatter. For Lacey, there was no one to chit chat with, but there was always something to distract her; this time it was the paralyzing thought of what is waiting later on today. For the assignment given a week ago you were suppose to find something, and make it news; take several pictures, develop them, and write out a report. Well, what her professor didn't tell them until yesterday was that they would have to stand up and give their speech. The very idea had Lacey's vocal cords tight. Speaking in front of a group a of people would have been nothing a couple years ago. In fact, for Lacey, it would have been something she'd jump at the chance for. Lacey, before, would have jump at any chance to speak her mind; but now she just does her best to keep as quite as possible.

Life was so much easier a year or so ago. Lacey didn't have to watch her every upset, and calm her every excitement. She'd always had trouble with her throat, but never trouble like this. If she wasn't careful she could break every window in the house, again, just cause she jammed her finger in the door. A year ago she didn't have to go out into the woods away from anyone just to scream. Life was alot easier a year ago.

The slide show stopped. The last picture was of the back of a young woman and around everything was destroyed.

[Sunwolf007]

Two days ago

Lucas had been this tired before but he couldn’t remember when. He had been tracking his mark for days using his telepathy. Staying just out of eyesight. Learning his habits. Waiting to find the opening that wouldn’t endanger bystanders. This case had turned personal and now Lucas couldn’t wait for much longer. This guy was a walking time firebomb. The last time he was engaged by an agent a small town was erased from the map.

His mark finally made the mistake Lucas was looking for. He turned down a small deserted alley. Now is my time. I wont get a second chance. He is too careful. Lucas thought as he quickly turned down the alley. Finally he was brought within eyesight and could see his mark. It was just a boy around 16. It was short for its age. It had brown hair and black eyes.

“This is your last chance. We can help you if you come with us,” Lucas yelled. His mark quickly turned around. Lucas could see the anger in its eyes.

“I told you people to leave me alone!” his mark yelled.

“You put an agent in the morgue. To do it you leveled a small town. You didn’t think we would leave you alone after that did you?” Lucas yelled holding back his anger. It was required to give the target one last chance regardless of their past. But that didn’t mean that Lucas had to wait to be attacked. This game is already won. It doesn’t even know it yet.

“Looks like you’re going to join your friend,” the mark said. Blue flame rippled across it’s body, just as Lucas wanted. Suddenly the mark started coughing. The flames died out as the mark started to hyperventilate. Soon its eyes rolled into its head and it collapsed to the ground. Lucas removed his telekinetic barrier from around the mark. He pulled out his phone and pushed the speed dial for his Operator.

“Need a team for retrieval. Might want to send a medic,” Lucas said.

“What did you do to him?” his operator asked.

“Encased him in a telekinetic bubble. It decided to use it’s pyrokinesis. Burned up all the oxygen in the bubble and passed out,” Lucas said.

“Team should be there in a few minutes,” his operator said.

“Roger,” Lucas said. He waited for the team and once they arrived he took off. He needed to sleep but he could do that on the plane to his next mission.

Today

Well rested and ready for his new mission Lucas found himself on the campus of his alma mater. He had to make a quick stop in the main office for an investigation on his use of force on the last case. In all it was a formality but required since the mark had been sent to the hospital. It would survive but since it had almost died there was an investigation. On this case there wasn’t a specific mark but a general idea of what to do. Basically protect the innocent people and take out the people who started a ruckus. Open ended missions like this were always a favorite of Lucas since he could do whatever was needed without the red tape slowing him down. He knew there a few other agents in the field but that didn’t matter unless they needed to cooperate.

He kept his telepathy open and far ranged to try and pick up someone with a lot of fear. If they were scared it was possible they were under attack and that was where Lucas wanted to be. He felt someone suddenly have great fear of something. What it was he couldn’t tell but he figured to check it out. I don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to attack a university but just in case… Lucas thought as he headed towards the person with the fear. As he walked across campus he began to think it would be a false alarm since it was only one person in a crowd. Well, I’ve come this far so I might as well take a look. I’m not that far away.

Lucas arrived at a classroom and peeked in the door. The presentation was of destruction. Pictures of natural and human destruction flashed across the screen. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary he sat down on a bench and leaned against the wall. He began scanning the crowd again for a spike in fear. This is going to be a long day.

[Eternal Phoenix]

Samantha Carson sat at her kitchen table, working feverishly on her laptop. Her rooms were about a block from the main Tetlab U campus. She had rented them from a nice old lady who was going a bit deaf and was lonely iin her old age. Sam kept her company when Miriam needed it, and in return got a sweet deal on the rent. Sam was muliti-tasking, carrying on a IM conversation with an anonymous source close to her father's disappearance and writing her biology paper at the same time. It wasn't due for over a week, but Sam was a big believer in getting your work done and over with. Hands touched her shoulders, massaging them.

"You should really relax, Sam. I never see you not working on one thing or another." It was her fiancee, Stan Gresham. He was fresh from the shower and wearing only boxers. Sam glanced up at him. Stan was her age, but coasting through college on a baseball scholarship. He wasn't stupid, but calling him a genius would be stretching things.

"Stan, you know I can't turn my brain off like some jocks I could name."

"Oh, no. Now I'm wounded. You've struck a mortal would, my foreign princess. Whatever will I do?" Stan mock-staggered back into the bedroom.

Sam twisted in her seat to see him and smiled at his theatrics. "All right. My paper's done anyway. I was just perfecting it. And my friend needs to go too." She tapped the keyboard, saying her farewells and saving her document. Then she closed the laptop and glanced at her watch. "Hmm. Just enough time to get to class. Stan, come on." He appeared, fully dressed.

"No time for a goodbye kiss? That's a pity. Your lips are looking especially luscious this morning."

Sam faked hesitation. "Well...all right." The couple kissed, then exited the building and walked to Tetlab U. Once there, they parted ways, promising to meet after Sam's shift at the bookstore.

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile in a Tetlab U office, Lei Gong sat in his office, preparing the day's lessons. He listened to the weather report on the radio. They were right, for once. The clouds were shifting, he could feel it. There wouldn't be much sunlight today. As always, he had mixed feelings about that. Like most people, he enjoyed a sunny day. Yet a cloudy day always carried the threat of rain, and he found rainstorms infinitely fascinating. One of his classes had their reports on the historical weather patterns of this area due today. He always found it interesting both how right and how wrong the students could be. Ah, a knock at his door. "Come in, Mister Maxwell."

The offensive lineman for Tetlab U's football team stepped in. He was a big one, that was for certain. Perhaps even NFL bound. "Professor Gong, could I have another day to turn in my report? I got caught up with skywatching, like you said we should do, and I lost track of time."

Lei smiled gently. "You mean Miss Sky Raines? She is a lovely young woman." Maxwell suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Hmm. You can have another day." He looked grateful. "But I'm removing five points off the top." Then not so grateful. "I could give you a zero, if you like."

"No thank you. I'll have it to you tomorrow morning." Maxwell beat a hasty retreat.

Lei called after him. "On this desk by seven o'clock, Mister Maxwell." He got up and shut his door. On the way back to his chair, he stopped by his window and looked out. It was clouding up already. He closed his eyes and felt the wind move the suspended water droplets. The meteorology professor smiled. All was right with his world.

[Balisar]

Allen sat at his desk trying to pay attention to what the teacher was saying. He had been reading a book the night before and hadn't noticed that it was midnight untill he had finished three-fourths of it. As he started to fall asleep his head slipped from his hand and hit the desk with a dull thunk. He quickly sat up straight and looked around to see if anyone noticed. No one did or they just didn't care if they had. After class he was walking down a hallway trying to find his locker. He always had trouble with that whenever he moved to a new school. Nothing you haven't done before, he thought to himself.

After all his classes were done and it was time to head back to the apartment, he ended up getting lost on the way home. Great. First day out of the apartment and you get yourself lost on the way back. He went to the nearest person he saw and asked for directions back to the neghborhood was living in. Following the instructions they had given him him as best as he could, he eventually got back, and promptly collapsed on his bed. What a day, huh? Just remember, there are a lot more in store for you. Look on the bright side, at least you didn't hurt anybod- "Shut up!" he yelled at himself. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of what he can do to people.

[Talas]

Marcus tapped a pencil ideally against his open spiral notebook while the Professor Ward droned on in monotone about the specifics of optimizing cyclical voltammetry assays. Normally, one would expect notes on tuning the chemical media with different salt solutions, or the benefits of different kinds of using a carbon versus glass for working electrodes for electrochemistry section of Advanced Analytical Chemistry 552. At least then Marcus could postulate why Casey Ward would utilize each part in analytical assays; it was, in a sense, black magic. It was sensitive as hell, and twice as likely to go wrong. Improper cleaning of an electrode could ruin an entire data set from a bad calibration curve, or how the graphite conducters would break if you looked at them funny. Instead, Marcus was doodling… and itching to test his new found abilities.

Ward continued to drone on about her miraculous discoveries about the versatility of graphite conducters in the use of a new novel quantitative capsaicin assay, despite the fact that Marcus had attended a similar lecture from an undergraduate researcher two years before using the exact same methods. Mr. Dorsey had even managed better calibration curves, and credited his ideas to his advisor and a prior paper using nanotechnology for the hell of it. Marcus twiddled with his pen, too bored to even doodle. He clicked out a lead onto the paper, and looked up to see Ward glaring at him. He lazily glanced up at the board, specifically analyzing the graphs she presented.

“Excuse me Professor Ward, but it seems to me that you failed to properly clean the oxidized version of the capsaicin properly. Wouldn’t you normally usually soak the working electrode 18M nitric acid prior to rinsing with ionized water to ensure the reduction and glass wool wipe to uncover fresh surface, rather than just use a chem wipe with weak solution of benzoaic acid?”

Ward spluttered and turned a fantastic shade of purple. Looks like I hit the mark. He closed his mouth into a more respectful and slightly serious mien and continued. “Furthermore, isn’t using carbon nanotubes a waste considering the capsaicin needs to be extracted and diluted to 20,000th of its previous concentration to prevent a current overflow?”

Ward fell silent, glaring at him. He mentally sighed and rued the fact that he was covering for Nancy as her Gen. Chem. I class today. “However, didn’t the Carter Lab use your new method with glass electrodes to refine their acid concentrations with the new wash system?” Her purple faded to a tinged pink, and she began prattling on about her second latest paper. It was also based off the work a few years of undergrads doing grunt work, but at least it was interesting. He tuned it out, having already read the paper. Ward never talked about the failed methods or anything that wasn’t already published.

Marcus concentrated on the pencil lead, willing it to move. It stayed conspicuously still. It was the smallest thing he tried so far, and was having little success getting the damn thing to move. The paper crinkled a little bit but the lead stayed still. He frowned absentmindedly, and set his hand so his palm faced the lead and tried again. The paper crinkled a bit and lead smeared a little as it moved a few millimeters. He took a deep breath while twiddled his pencil again. That was interesting. It moved despite the same amount of effort this time. Experimental designs filtered through his head; the spirit of his thinking was at least in concordance with the intent of the class. He rested his chin on his palm and tried to force himself to pay attention to Ward’s self aggrandizing bullshit again.

[Torturous Flame]

"Shit Shit SHIT!"

A small woman ran through campus, pretty auburn curls bounced everywhere. Despite the chill in the air the girl wore a long peasent style skirt and no shoes, though a thick jacket covered her torso. The woman seemed to fairly good shape so the running did not seem to bother her, though an onlooker would probably wonder how her bare feet were not killing her. A hemp satchel hung from her arm, containing a few notebooks and pens. About a half hour before the young woman had been at Occupy Mission City, handing out food and bottled water. She had stayed later than she ment to and was now late class. The worst part of it was she had missed her six hour dose of IB profin, so her head was pounding. She could feel the plants hurting because of the pollution in the air. She took a deep breath and could smell the plants greeting her as she passed. She smiled and soon ran into a classroom building. The girl ran into a classroom, the professor raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sorry Professor Leyt, I was handing out water at the Occupy Mission City and I lost track of time." She said, out of breath.

The teacher smiled a bit and sighed.

"Sit down Miss Matthews, try not to let it happen again."

Anna Matthews nodded and sat down in one of the only seats availible, beside Derrick. She pulled out her notebook and began to take notes.

Elsewere on campus, Gail Matthews had a pounding headache and her mouth tasted of vomit. It was one hell of a hangover.

"Dear sweet god...." Gail muttered.

The young woman had just woken up, her black hair mussed and tangled. Vauge memories of the previous night floated to the surface of her brain. She groaned again and pulled her pillow over her head. She could tell that she was wearing her party clothes still. After a little while she managed get out of bed, down some headache medication, and make herself some coffee. While she waited for the coffee to finish she downed a few glasses of water. Suddenly she felt her stomach lurch.

"Shit"

Gail ran to the bathroom and threw up.
She took more headache drugs (because she'd thrown up the last dose) and more water. She drank her coffee. Gail grabbed her phone and texted Keith.

'Next time i wanna drink, remind me that i gave up partying'

She shoved her phone in her pocket and climbed back into bed with her cup of coffee.

[Dreamless Days]

Keith opened his eyes as his phone vibrated in his pocket. Pulling it out, he read the message from Gail and grinned. That girl was incredibly dedicated to staying undercover. Or, maybe she just liked to party. Keith wasn't entirely sure. Not that it really mattered, Gail was a good Agent, and Keith enjoyed being partnered with her.

While Keith was good at keeping his eyes open for information, Gail was amazing at infiltrating the social groups of targets and the like. She seemed to adapt very well in the past missions they had worked together. Her ability to both blend in so well with the target's social life while keeping herself in line was probably why she was higher ranked.

Keith took a moment to think about this. Wondering why he hadn't been promoted any higher recently. He was a good Agent after all. Sure, the files said he talked too much, but so what? He could keep his mouth shut when he HAD to... most of the time anyway.

He shrugged his shoulders and closed his eyes once more, being enveloped by his music again.


11:57 AM, Location Unknown

"How long until we are ready to move?" A voice asked.

"Three hours until take off. Five until interception." Another replied.

In a brightly lit hanger, the two men stood talking to each other. People were running around all around them, carrying various items and the like to a big armoured plane.

The smaller man smiled, the evil grin twisting his face into something horrid looking. The taller man was unfazed however, and continued to wait for more orders.

"Make sure the ground team is prepared. I don't want them to go fucking up this mission, I will NOT see it fail due to their incompetence. When you're finished there, double check the C-130. That's OUR ride." The smaller man ordered.

"Understood. Going now." The larger man replied before walking away.

The smaller man's grin faded from his face as he looked on at the various people running around the hanger. He turned on his heel and left down a long hallway, going to get himself prepared.


12:00 PM, Tetlab U

As Professor Leyt finished his lecture, the students all began to stand and leave the room. Derrick shoved his notebook into his bag and pushed his chair backwards. Standing slowly he stretched his arms out wide and yawned. He grinned at Anna, who had had to sit beside him, and spoke.

"That took a while 'ey?" He mumbled.

He threw his bag over his right shoulder and gave Anna a little wave as he walked away.

"Later gorgeous." Derrick stated.

He left the room chuckling, hanging a right and making his way down the hallway outside. Anna was a cool chick, but he didn't really know her all that well. He'd only seen her in class every now and again. Sure, she was kinda pretty but he had to focus on Basketball, not girls. Though, he definitely loved to hit on them when possible. Pull their strings a little. It reminded him of high school.

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