The Turn: Chapter Thirty-Nine

The Turn

Chapter Thirty-Nine

~Wake of Devastation~

One Year Before The Turn

“Father!” Kaiba walked into the Mission’s room. He looked around the room and saw his father lying on the ground. Sirius tried to get to his feet when Kaiba came and assisted him, “Are you alright?”

Sirius looked around. Several Agents were sprawled on the ground and at their desks. Sirius got to his feet and looked at Kaiba, “What happened?”

Kaiba looked out the window, “It looks like Fang and Zara’s teams were able to do some damage. However, the enemy seems to have access Silver Void. No one seems to be able to use their powers.”

“We have to evacuate the Tower,” Sirius stated.

“Evacuations have already started,” as he said that Agents came it and started helping the others in the room to their feet. “You and I need to get off the Island. Mother and Amber are already headed to the helicopter. Lynx is waiting in the car downstairs.”

“We can’t just leave,” Sirius said.

“Well, we can’t stay here and risk getting caught,” Kaiba tried to get his father to the door, “You know we have to. It’s the policy if the Island is compromised. And if you haven’t noticed, the Island is all sorts of compromised.”

Sirius thought a moment before nodding. Kaiba led his father down from the Tower. They walked out of the building and met with Lynx. Lynx leaned against a black car. He walked up to Kaiba and Sirius when he saw them come out of the building. Several other people ran out away from the Tower as well.

“Is he alright?” Lynx asked.

Kaiba nodded, “He got caught up in the Silver Void radiation like everyone else. Help him into the car.”

“Right,” Lynx helped his father into the car.

Kaiba got into the driver’s seat as Lynx sat in the back. Sirius looked out the passenger window. He closed his eyes as he thought about all that went into the Tower. When he opened his eyes, Kaiba started the car and drove away from the Tower. He sighed; his eyes looked sad and remorseful. The Tower was lost as Agents evacuated the floors.

All over the Island there were explosions as missiles and bullets smashed into buildings. The streets were blocked with rubble and Kaiba had to maneuver his way towards their destination. Sirius simply looked out the window, saddened by the Island’s predicament. Kaiba pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

Chaud gasped for breath as he broke through the water. He reached up and grabbed a concrete ledge. Chaud pulled himself onto dry ground as he coughed up water and collapsed onto his back. He heard explosions in the distance as he watched missiles sail above him in the sky. Chaud sighed once he was able to breathe normally.

He wasn’t sure what happened exactly but one second he was flying and then the next second he was falling from the sky. The impact with the water knocked the wind out of him. It didn’t help that he was several feet underwater and couldn’t breathe. He had almost passed out before be broke the surface of the water. Chaud thanked his Agent training.

Chaud lay still. He felt empty like something was taken from inside of him. There was a ringing in his pocket. Chaud grabbed for the phone and looked at in.

“Seriously?” he stated. He brought the phone to his ear and answered it, “Hello?”

“Get to the evacuation point,” Kaiba said.

Chaud paused, “Now?”

Kaiba hung up. Chaud put the phone down and got to his feet.

Hina pushed a wooden board off of her person. She looked around through the dust that was settling. Hina saw her brother lying on the ground a little ways away. She ran toward him and crouched by his side.

“Naru!” she cried, “Are you alright? Naru!”

“Ow,” Naru groaned. He shifted and got to his knees.

A building collapsed behind them after being damaged from a missile blast. Hina grabbed her brother by the arm and pulled him out of the way just before a block of concrete crashed down where they were. She looked back at the pile of rubble. Hina helped her brother to her feet.

“Come on,” Hina said as she pulled him through the city.

“Where are we going?” Naru said.

Hina looked at him, “Away from here. Come on!”

Naru followed her away from the docks.

Fang climbed up onto a half broken dock. He staggered to his feet. When he looked up he saw Shadow standing on the other end of the dock. Shadow smiled and walked toward Fang.

“Well, well, look what the tide pulled in?” Shadow laughed.

“I’m going to kill you,” Fang stated. He looked around, “Where are the others?”

Shadow shrugged, “Who really knows. Things are going to the dogs now.”

Fang looked around. The airship was making quick work of the Island. Smoke billowed from several parts in the city. Missile trails decorated the sky and reflected the setting sun. Oranges, reds and bright yellows painted the sky. Fang looked back at the city.

“Come on,” Fang walked passed Shadow, “We have more work to do.”

Shadow looked interested, “We have work? What are we going to do?”

Fang looked over his shoulder, “Look around. Someone has to put order the chaos.”

Shadow shrugged, “This might be fun.”

Fang walked off, “Stop lagging behind. I’ll leave you if you can’t keep up!”

“Awe,” Shadow laughed as he walked after Fang, “You couldn’t leave me and you know it!”

Sirius got out of the car and looked back at the Island. He understood the reason he had to disappear and yet he didn’t feel like he could. The Island needed him and he would be nowhere to be found. Kaiba got out of the driver’s seat and walked toward the awaiting helicopter. He turned and looked at his father.

Amber ran after toward her adopted father. She threw her arms around his leg. He got her attention and he looked down at her and smiled.

“Sirius,” his wife called from the helicopter.

He nodded and walked toward them. Lynx followed close behind. Sirius waited as the members of his family piled into the helicopter. He noticed that Chaud was still missing and stood outside.

Chaud walked up. He smiled at his dad as he approached. Sirius hugged his son tightly.

“It’s good to see you are still alive,” Sirius sighed.

Chaud hugged him back, “I’ve had several close shaves.”

Sirius released his son and looked in his eyes. His shoulders dropped as he looked deep into his son’s eyes.

“You aren’t coming, are you?” Sirius sighed.

Chaud shrugged, “I don’t think I could leave my friends here by themselves.”

Sirius shook his head, “Your mother is going to kill me you know. Make sure we see you again.”

Chaud stood at attention and saluted, “Yes, sir.”

Sirius climbed into the helicopter. The blades started up and Amber neared the opened door and looked out at her brother. The helicopter started to rise. An explosion detonated near the helicopter. In order to avoid the explosion, the pilot turned suddenly. Amber lost her balance and fell out. Mrs. Galaxy lunched to try to save her daughter. Her reach was just short and Amber fell into open air.

Chaud lunged and used himself as a buffer and caught his sister. The helicopter flew away leaving the two siblings together.

Zara woke up on a piece of driftwood. She was temporarily confused as looked up at the sky. As she tried to move around she realized that she was surrounded by water. She looked up and saw the looming airship directly above her.  Zara looked back at the Island. Her shoulders fell when she saw the damage and the smoke.

She heard the laser cannons above her charging. The lasers struck the Tower. A numb feeling came over Zara’s body.

“No!” she shouted as the tall monumental building collapsed and fell.

Black smoke rose from around the base of the Tower. The Tower was gone. The Island was destroyed and the Tower was defeated. Only ash, fire and rubble remained of the unstoppable Tower.

Insanity Chapter Thirty-Nine

Insanity

Chapter Thirty-Nine

~Alister’s Tower~

Day Thirty-Two

Sage sat in his office. He looked deep in thought. His office was large with a desk in the center. The walls were lined with bookshelves and bookshelves of books. It was late in the afternoon and he was getting some last minute things done before he had to check on some of his Agents.

There was a knock at the door. Sage looked up and sighed.

“Come in,” he said.

A man dressed in a black suit came in, “Hello sir.”

“What do you want?” Sage asked without looking up from his work.

“We have a situation, Sir,” the guard said.

Sage looked up, “What situation?”

“If you would follow me, sir?” the man said.

Sage stood up and followed the man out.

***

The Mansion

“I’m bored!” Alister lay on the couch, “Can’t we do somethin’?”

Fang walked by with duster in hand. He ignored Alister and kept himself busy with the chores that the others seemed to always avoid like the plague. Shadow even seemed to be suspiciously missing when Fang went to ask him to clean the house. Alister just didn’t seem to care either way.

“I’m bored!” Alister complained again, “Is there anythin’ to eat?”

“Keep that up and you might not be able to lift your dead body off that couch,” Fang snapped.

Alister kept his mouth closed. When Fang turned his back he heard a faint “yeah, but at least it would put an end to my boredom” coming from Alister. He let the comment slide. There were more important thing to do than deal with Alister right now. Alister had his own category of problems. On top of that, Fang didn’t have much sleep the night before. There was something bugging him in the back of his mind. He tried the whole night to figure out what it was. Even Shadow stopped by when he saw the light under the door.

Fang glared at a few cobwebs in a high corner. As much as he was pleased that the spiders were getting rid of the other more unpleasant insects, he did wish that they would choose to make their homes in a less attractive corner. He crossed his arms. There was no stool high enough to get him up there. He turned to Alister.

“Alister,” Fang stated.

Alister looked over the couch back. He looked at Fang. His eyes looked guilty, he must have been muttering other things that Fang was wise to ignore.

“Make yourself useful and help me clean,” Fang said.

With a heavy sigh, Alister got up and walked over to where Fang stood. Fang handed him the duster and pointed to the spider webs. Slowly, Alister looked at the duster that up at the corner. He started to make the connection.

“How do I—” Alister started to ask.

“You’re creative,” Fang said as he patted Alister on the shoulder, “You can figure something out.”

“Why do we have to clean again?” Alister asked.

“Would you rather we live in a pig sty with rats crawling around?” Fang responded in a question.

Alister shrugged, “I’d be good target practice.”

“It wasn’t an opinion question Alister,” Fang stared at the younger man in front of him.

“I knew that! I was just sayin’!”

There was a knock at the door. Fang watched for a moment as Alister contemplated the situation he had to conquer. Then he went to the door.

“Who is it?” Fang asked before opening it.

“The man who pays you so you’d better open up before I cut your pay,” a voice said on the other side.

Fang opened the door, “Sage?”

The Tower director looked agitated, “No, it’s Bob. Who do you think it is?”

“It’s just that we don’t normally get many visits from you,” Fang said cautiously, his natural skepticism was in overdrive. He was expecting to overrun by Agents at any moment now.

“In fact,” Fang continued, “This is the first.”

“And I assure you, it will be the last,” Sage angrily crossed his arms, “Are you going to let me in or do you usually let your guests stand here on the front step?”

Fang stepped back and allowed Sage to walk in. Sage looked around briefly before sitting down in a chair. His back was to where Alister stood looking up at the high corner full of cobwebs. Fang sat across from him.

“Would you like something to drink?”

Sage waved his hand, “I don’t have time for that.”

“Well, then,” Fang said, “May I ask why you are here?”

Fang glanced in the back ground. Alister tried unsuccessfully to jump up to the spider webs. After a few tries, Alister stopped and sighed. He seemed to lighten up and walked off somewhere.

“I sent a few Agents to take keep an eye on Zeta at their last known headquarters.”

“You knew where they were?” Fang asked.

“Yes,” Sage stated, “But from what the Agents said I didn’t think of them as an immediate threat.”

Fang raised an eyebrow, “Crazy Other with the intentions of ruling the world didn’t ring any alarms?”

“Let me finish,” Sage sighed, “Well anyway, after the incident at Chicago I had my Agents look deeper into what they were doing. Recently, I instructed a raid on their headquarters. I was just informed that the Agents found nothing.”

Fang sat quietly. Alister came back into the room. The sound of wood scraping against wood broke the silence. Sage glared over at the red head. Alister continued pushing a large desk over to the corner. This took several minutes of off and on scraping. When he finally reached the corner he smiled an apologetic smile and waved at Sage.

“Which one are you?” Sage asked.

“Name’s Alister,” Alister smiled.

“Oh, so you’re the one,” Sage nodded, “Tell me, you really don’t have an imaginary friend named Shifter, do you?”

Alister’s face went plaster white. He looked to Fang for guidance.

“Not really an imaginary friend exactly,” Fang answered, “more like a voice in his head.”

Sage looked at him, “Really?”

“Yes,” Fang nodded, “He’s always muttering about something when I’m around. Talking to this Shifter that we don’t see.”

Alister narrowed his eyes. This was payback about earlier. Little did he know that Fang only really listened to one of his mutterings and not all but he assumed that Fang was getting back at him.

“The company you keep, Fang,” Sage shook his head, “I wonder about your sanity.”

“Let me worry about my sanity,” Fang said, “Why exactly are you here?”

“Right,” Sage paused, “As the Agents were looking through the building, they found evidence of a device. They searched everywhere but didn’t find where it could be.”

Alister walked away and came back with a chair and a small stool. He placed both on top of the desk. Fang started to get a queasy feeling in his stomach. Alister placed them in a way so that the opened end of the chair and the seat of the stool were even with each other. After that, he walked away again.

“And?” Fang asked.

“I had our engineers look at some blueprints they found and analyze them. It’s a unique device that turns normal humans into Others.”

“He said he’d do something like that,” Fang muttered.

Alister came in again, this time with a small filing cabinet. Assuming it was empty, Fang watched Alister place the box onto the chair. Alister stepped back analyzing what he had done. He then moved the stool and chair over a bit before walking away once more.

“Yes,” Sage sounded like he was swallowing something bitter, “You see we can’t have that happen. And quite frankly you…are one of the best teams…out there.”

“Did it hurt to say that?” Fang asked.

Sage glared at him, “Don’t push it.”

Alister came in again with five large pots. He placed one on the desk behind the chair face down. He placed another one on top of that face up. He continued doing that until the five pots were placed. They were collectively higher that the back of the chair. Alister stepped back and stared at his creation. Then with duster in between his teeth, he started to climb Alister’s Tower.

“We need you to go after Zero and stop him before he uses that weapon,” Sage seemed to gag on something.

“That hurt too, didn’t it,” Fang stated.

Alister stepped onto the stool and climbed up onto the box on the chair. He had to steady himself because of unsure footing but then continued upward.

“I assure you,” Sage went on, “It will be worth your time.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to,” Fang said, “The fate of the world depends on us.”

Sage smiled, “You don’t really care about that, do you?”

Fang shrugged, “Have you seen the news lately? They hate us Others so frankly I could care less. But personally, I would hate being ruled over by someone like Zero. And a kind of like this island. It’s sort of growing on me.”

Alister stepped onto the pots. He reached up and cleaned the corner.

“We’ll need you by tomorrow to discuss some things,” Sage stood up.

“Beats sitting around here doing nothing,” Fang stood as well, “Right Alister?”

“Yep,” he said as he reached for the last cobweb.

Just then Arisa came screaming down the stairs with Blue close behind her. She ran through furniture, not noticing that Mt. Alister was on the verge of collapse already as it was. Arisa accidentally bumped into the magnificent sculpture causing the bot to bump into the chair, making the chair bump into the pots, and sending the pots, plus Alister, crashing to the floor.

“Ow…” Alister moaned as he laid sprawled in broken pottery.

Sage glanced at him, “Will he be alright for tomorrow?”

“He should be fine,” Fang answered.

“Oops,” Arisa said as the unbalanced chair started to topple over in Alister’s direction.