Chapter 1 - Re-awakening
#1 of Redemption
Volume 4 â€" Redemption
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Several rounds of fire erupted off Spencer's ship; he was firing; the missiles and cannons spluttering into the vacuum, the charges igniting the stations hull.
The station quaked and a section detached, the power core, the container exploding, the waves of energy washing across the shields of Spencer's ship, the waves of energy and mass pushed the ship away from the station, just far enough.
When the eruption of Serion, occurred, everything went white, screens for display sparked to static, losing all images.
The space station glowed red hot, the second and third hidden reactors detonating, enhancing the blast. The additional Plutonium and Uranium caused the explosion to collapse upon itself. The blast imploding, compacting into a black hole.
"A black hole!" Becka warned from her shielded AI holo pad data bank.
Spencer, Evan and Alex were just far enough, the blast from Joey's first core explosion had pushed them to a safe distance, the Alpha base was not so lucky; they were trapped in the gravity well.
The space station along with Joey dissolved into nothing, the particles being sucked into the advent horizon.
"We can't escape this one!" Becka sighed, "It's been an honour sir!" she saluted Skye and Ryan in the dimly lit room.
Skye pulled Ryan close; embracing his brother, they knew this was going to work out; luck was on their side, that's all they had.
"No matter what happens, I'll always love you!" Skye whispered to his brother, who had started sobbing.
Ryan weakly smiled, and they quickly kissed, before the ship entered the advent horizon, the energy ripping into the hull, exotic particles washing over the boys.
Everything went dark, the black hole collapsing in upon itself, and disappearing leaving Spencer and his crew in the dark... alone.
Skye and Ryan along with the rest of the ship... gone.
"I'll setup the beacons," Spencer said almost robotically, "Could be months until we get rescued."
"Years even," Alex corrected, quietly.
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Chapter 1 â€" Re-awakening
"Ryan!!"
"Ryan, can you hear me?"
Ryan slowly opened his eyes, squinting in pain; he slowly lifted his head to meet Becka's holo-pad which was now lying on the floor.
"Thank god!" I thought... I thought I'd lost you as well." Becka replied.
"What... What happened?" Ryan asked, rubbing his aching head, noting the red smear of blood that had appeared from his head.
"The ship got sucked through the black hole, we... we survived," Becka replied.
"How... It wasn't a stabilized field, it was just a vacuum to no where..." Ryan replied, wincing... thinking mad his head hurt.
"Where's Skye?" Ryan shouted noticing his missing brother.
"His bio sign is barely registering, he's on the deck above us somehow," Becka replied.
Ryan closed his eyes, focusing as best he could despite the throbbing pain he was feeling in his head. There was a small green flash and Ryan disappeared, re-appearing one deck up, and right beside his brother.
"Skye!" Ryan screamed, as he found out why his brother had such bad vitals, Skye was impaled on a two-meter crystalline rod; it was lodged right through his chest, missing his heart just barely.
"Hey, buddy," Skye managed, gritting his teeth in pain.
"Hang, on I'll get you!" Ryan shouted, limping over to him, sliding in the pool of his brother's blood.
"Are... you, okay?" Skye asked weakly.
"I'm fine, just stay quiet, you'll need your strength." Ryan whimpered, holding back his tears.
Ryan's right hand began to glow a bright gold, with golden wisps of energy surrounding it; Ryan quickly grabbed the crystalline fuel rod, his energized hand crushing the re-enforced crystals shattering, spilling bright blue plasma into the room, and splashing across Skye's exposed chest.
Skye grunted in pain; Ryan tugging the rod cleanly from his brother's chest.
Ryan eased his brother to the deck, his burnt chest was no longer bleeding, the heat of the plasma had cauterized the wound.
"Skye, Speak to me!" Ryan gasped, feeling more pain rush across his body.
"I'm okay, I just need to heal!" Skye grunted.
"Ryan, you're bleeding!" Becka reported, as she appeared on the holo-pad behind them.
"I'm okay," Ryan said.
"You have a chunk of glass embedded in your skull, and I'm reading six broken ribs." Becka replied.
"I'm... Okay..." Ryan gasped, as one of his broken rips ruptured his right lung.
"Ryan!" Skye shouted.
Ryan collapsed onto Skye's chest, the pain of his chest wound burning all the more.
"Your bodies aren't healing!" Becka warned.
"I'm too weak to heal, and Ryan can't get enough air or anything." Skye gasped.
"Let me step in," Serina suggested, "Boosting exotic particle content from the core."
"Why would you do that?" Becka asked.
"While standard scans wouldn't show this, I scanned them using my technology, exotic particles have direct effect on their powers, allowing them to be used without drawing any energy from the user, and they can essentially use their powers free of negative side-effects." Serena replied.
"How will using their powers help?" Becka asked.
"It won't help their powers; it'll remove the energy need from their bodies, which would allow them..." Serena paused.
"Heal," Becka replied.
"Exactly," Serena replied, "watch, the particles will excite their powers, and allow them to heal."
There was a flash of white light, rainbow flashes and an almost aurora filled the air, the energy rushed across the skin of both boys sending a tingling sensation across their bodies.
Skye and Ryan groaned, their backs arching as their powers were set free; both boys gasped, their powers erupting from them, flashes of light, wisps of matter and pulses of elemental particles erupted from the boys. The coloured matter formed into streams of light blue and white, the energy first expanded and then began to contract back around the two, the matter and particles washing across their skin, causing their wounds to flash heal. The exterior wounds healing seamlessly, as the two boys embraced one another; they looked deep into one another eyes, a deep hunger filling their minds and then they both fell into a passionate kiss, their lips dancing across one another.
It was like electric shocks dancing between the boys lips; first it was a feeling, than literal sparks of energy began erupting from the boys connected lips.
"See what I meant," Serina said, staring at Becka.
"I never found any information that indicated that, how did you know," Becka questioned.
"Just call it a gut feeling," Serina replied.
"We AI's don't get gut feelings, so spill." Becka chided.
"All right, so I may have some prior experience with this type this, I'll let you see the file." Serina replied as she passed the files on to the other AI.
Meanwhile in the room, the sparks between the boy's bodies were now full blown eruptions of their elemental powers, their bodies literally channelling the power into extremely powerful volleys of matter.
"See what happens when you do radical things?" Becka asked.
"Everything is fine; this is just their powers settling back into them." Serina replied.
"All right, when will it end?"
"Now!" Serina replied, "look!"
Skye and Ryan re appeared, their body's normal and flawlessly healed, only a few flares of energy were spotting across their bodies.
A few minutes later, the two boys walked out of the room, which was now completely charred from their body's elemental outburst.
"Where are we?" Skye asked.
"Currently we are in standard orbit over Earth," Serina calmly reported.
"No way!" Skye gasped, "You mean that worm hole some how was just right to get us home, that's almost impossible, the fact we arrived in one piece is one thing, the chances that the black hole lead here, its almost impossible.
"We're not in a paradox, if that's what you're thinking." Becka replied, "I've already verified that."
"Well, then we need to contact HQ, tell them about this." Skye suggested.
"Are we going to tell them about the ancient ship that we're currently on?" Serina asked.
"Yes, but they won't have access to it!" Skye answered.
"Fair enough," Becka agreed, "let's get the transport beam ready."
About ten minutes later Skye had managed to slip into a clean uniform and with Ryan in step, walked onto the transport pad of the ship.
"Beaming in 3....2.....1..." Serena said as a large flash of white light enveloped the two boys, the next thing they saw was the inside of their old HQ, they were in the main conference room, a massive room the UN would envy, there were hundreds of people there, both military and civilian.
"Skye glad you could make it!" a voice welcomed him, it was the commissioner.
"Sir!" Skye snapped off a crisp salute.
"How the hell did you get home so fast, from our latest Intel you were on Seron, that's light years from here." The commissioner said.
"Yeah, I know, it's kind of complicated." Skye replied.
"And who is that?" he asked, motioning to Ryan.
"He's my brother sir, genetically speaking too," Skye explained.
"What's your name son?" the commissioner asked Ryan.
"Ryan Sir," he said, "Skye's told me a lot about this mission he's on, count me in."
"I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into son," the commissioner replied.
"With all due respect, I don't think you can justify telling me no after all I've been through, abducted by Joey, erasing my parents memories, a lot has happened sir, things that can't be un-done." Ryan explained.
"Do you even have... abilities?" he asked, almost too cautiously.
Ryan looked at his brother, who nodded in agreement, they both closed their eyes.
A split second later, the area around the two brothers erupted into flames, bright white around Skye and an iridescent blue surrounding Ryan.
Once the flames had died down, there were several gasps around the room, clearly a few had yet to see the dragons, let alone witness them morph.
"I told you sir," Skye's voice echoed through the crowd's minds, "He's defiantly my brother, he wants' to fight, and I think we should let him!"
"Sir, please!" Ryan's voiced joined Skye's in their minds.
"What powers do you have?" he asked.
Ryan clenched his fists and then relaxed them, electricity dancing between his fingers and hands.
"I can control electricity and some matter, like my brother," Ryan explained.
"Well we don't have someone like you in our group at the moment," the commissioner stated, "are you sure you want to join us?" he asked.
"Of course, I really want to, please allow me to help you guys end Joey's work!" Ryan stated.
"All right if you really want to, I guess we could use all the help we can get..." he trailed off.
"Thank you so much sir, you wont be let down!" Ryan shouted.
"In the mean time, let's discuss this ship we have floating in high orbit," the commissioners voice changed tone.
"It's... complicated," Skye replied.
"Well you better be willing to elaborate on that," the commissioner replied.
"Okay here's the story, as per your instructions, we were left on the planet Seron, alone, with nothing to our names but a destroyed Prowler." Skye started, "As soon as we had successfully captured three enemy vessels you not only maroon us on an island, but you also took our ships, the ones we had captured for you. Skye spat. Once we were on the surface we had to survive on our instincts, fight to survive. We used our powers to hollow out part of the mainland's mountain, and make a shelter, which served its purpose. After a while we made a rescue attempt and freed two addition boys, the joined our team and we tried to get to know each other, but you sent an AI, none the less to come take them away from us, before we even had got to know them." Skye finished.
"Which is why there is a pending charge of insubordination against you," the commissioner replied.
"That very well may be, but I wasn't about to give up my new men to you, I needed them to survive, and thanks to the reckless actions you took, once we found Ryan, we lost a good soldier to Joey, he took over his body, and killed him, that is on you sir!" Skye retorted.
"Watch your mouth soldier, or I'll...." The commissioner was cut off.
"Let him finish, I'm interested," the president of the company walked in.
"Sir, I think you should let me do the de-briefing," the commissioner stumbled.
"That's enough Leo, let him finish!" he returned.
"Aye president Paul sir," Leo replied.
"Now Skye continue, what else happened?" Paul asked.
"Well, Ryan and I were captured while trying to save James," Skye started once more. "We were kind of tortured, that we got past, but the main thing was while I was under..." Skye paused.
"Continue son," Paul urged.
"My neural interface was accessed by an AI, and old one." Skye answered, "Serina, she's ancient."
"You have an ancient AI with you; do you know how much we can learn from her?" Paul asked.
"Sir with all due respect, yes I do, however, she doesn't want to..."
"Want to what?" Paul asked.
"She doesn't want to be involved with us that way, she said she only wants to work with us in bringing down Joey and the AI, he has." Skye explained.
"What AI? You mean Joey has another ancient AI?" Paul asked, gasping.
"That's enough!" Leo cut Skye short once more.
"He's clearly delusional we know that Joey doesn't have an AI!" Leo snapped, "And Skye probably doesn't either, he's crazy!"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that!" a woman's voice filled the room, floating down onto the holo-pad a tall woman with silvery hair and a small frame stood in the pale moon light screen, Serina sure knew how to make an entrance.
"You are," Leo asked.
"I am Serina, AI to the Shadow's Embrace. My task it to look after the ship and its crew and that means the cloak and dagger approach." She said calmly.
"I'm so sorry for my subordinate's behaviour," Paul grovelled, "Is there anything we can do for you?"
"Well for starters stay off my ship, I'm sorry sir, but new technology or not, I can't risk a breach in security." Serina replied.
"We can maybe come to some sort of agreement?" suggested Paul.
"I'll think about it," Serina replied, "In the mean time I need Skye and Ryan aboard, so if you'll excuse us." Serina turned to the boys, "We're off."
The room filled with a white light, the boys felt like they were being crushed under an enormous force, then nothing, the light vanished and they were back aboard the Shadow's Embrace.
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"So we're just supposed to go back to our lives, and live normally..." Skye gaped.
"Only until repairs are complete, then we can get back into the chase of Joey's tools." Serina calmly replied.
"Okay, but please make it fast; I'm not sure how much more of Paul I can take." Ryan grinned.
"Don't worry, tomorrow is a school day, so you get to meet you new teachers and suffer their wrath." Skye laughed.
The day passed quickly and with a fairly uneventful night the boys woke up and get ready for school, getting dressed in their uniforms and walking out of the house and into the bright morning sun light.
"Time for another wonderful day of hell," Skye said sarcastically as they approached the school grounds.
"I can't believe it's been almost two years since I was here last, since that accident," Skye reminisced.
"Yeah, you think they will remember you?" Ryan asked as they walked into the school yard.
The crowds of kids in front of the school froze each looking at Skye, then quickly away.
"Yeah Ryan, some how I think they remember." Skye replied.
The first period passed quickly, Skye had advanced calculus with Ryan, they had a pop quiz and for being away almost the whole first half of the semester, they got 99% on the test, this was so basic now compared to the vectors in space.
"Skye, Ryan," their teacher called, "I'm really impressed with how much you know, and how well you showed your work, unfortunately I can't accept this test, clearly you both cheated." He replied.
"What do you mean; we solved those problems fair and square." Ryan snapped.
"Well for starters, this is work I would expect an advanced physicist to know, not a grade 12, which was a bonus question in its self.
"Can you write a problem on the board and I'll solve it in front of you, prove I didn't cheat!" Skye asked.
"Well... okay, but I warn you it's not going to be easy!" he replied.
"Bring it," both boys replied together.
The teacher wrote the most advanced equation his university text book had the longest and hardest equation that actually had an answer. Most of the class gasped when they saw it, it was horribly complex.
"Okay, go!" their teacher said.
"All right," they replied setting to work, dividing and conquering.
Each brother took a different part, Skye the particle theory side, and Ryan the advanced calculus part.
Their teacher stood there in awe as the two boys solved the problem, seemingly without any problems.
A few minutes later they had arrived at the conclusion, filling the entire white board and part of the spare board.
"Wow boys, I am impressed, I guess I should give you those marks," he said, "But why did you mess up the easiest problem on your test but ace the rest?"
"Well, we didn't wanna get perfect and set the bar too high," Ryan said with a smile.
Just as they had received their 99%, the bell rang, and they walked out into the commons and into the courtyard, they both had spares this period.
"You two think that you're so smart, just because you were abducted and some how survived!" both boys turned to see a group of six behind them.
"You make us sick, don't come back!" another said.
"What's wrong with you?" Ryan asked.
"Shut up, fag! We're talking to Skye!" the leader spat.
Ryan clenched his fists, the familiar blue lightning coating his fist
"Ryan, calm down," Skye whispered.
"What... what are you doing!" the leader screamed, looking at Ryan's fists.
"Leave us alone!" Ryan replied sternly.
Their leader seemed to regain some courage, "why don't you make us?" he spat.
"Not this again," Skye muttered under his breath.
"I said why you don't make us?" he repeated, pulling a knife out of his pocket.
"You really think that's going to stop me?" Ryan laughed.
"Ryan, I said cool it!" Skye mustered.
"Let's see just how tough you are big guy," he lunged at Ryan, his first swing missing, as Ryan caught him with an upper cut, he managed to get the knife to dig in though on the second try.
He stumbled back looking at the fresh blood running down Ryan's out stretched arm, the artery had been severed.
"Not so tough now, huh faggot?" he smirked.
"I said SHUT UP!" Ryan shouted his wound flash healing.
"How'd you do that?" the bully replied, "Get away from me!"
Ryan lunged at the boy, picking him up by the throat, and hauling him into the air. "Not so tough now huh big boy?"
"Ryan, let him go," Skye said, walking between the two.
"No, I'm not putting up with his shit!" Ryan replied, his anger building causing the lightning to coat his hands, burning the boy's throat.
"Ryan!" Skye snapped, "Let him down!"
"Fine!" Ryan conceded, dropping the boy then kicking him swiftly in the groin, "Suck it up princess, I'm not going anywhere!"
He stormed away, Skye following in tail, leaving the boy with his group of so called friends, all of whom had hidden in the school's doors before the fight heated.
***
Skye ran into the field following Ryan, walking up beside him, "Dude, calm down he was just a jerk!" Skye said.
"Skye, I don't know what to do about him!" Ryan replied, "He's pissing me off, everyone is, I'm so mad, I don't know that I can contain it anymore!" Ryan broke down.
"Hey, hey, come here!" Skye offered pulling him close.
Ryan closed his eyes and leaned in against his brother, "I don't know how to deal with this all, it's so much change!" he began to cry.
"Ryan..." Skye froze, un-able to believe his eyes...
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