FSE

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Chapter One: Rise of the Prawns

"What does he want, at this hour?" Roland Hobart said as he stood in the darkened light of the abandoned subway station. He probably should have been more genre savvy about standing in an abandoned subway station in the middle of the night, but that apparently flew over his head.

Two shadows walked into the station, their faces blocked by the darkness on their face.

"Now what do you want?" Roland asked as the taller shadow approached his body. The second shadow said nothing. Roland screamed in pain and grabbed his stomach as the large shadow hit him; the shadows threw more punches over Roland's face and body until he was a bloody pulp.

The second shadow pointed towards the edge of the station, and the second shadow obeyed. He grabbed the body and threw him onto the rails. The two shadows turned around and exited the station.

Roland Hobart groaned as he attempted to get up, his body bleeding, he was going to die soon if he did get help. However, a light shined in the tunnel and Roland groaned again and lay down on the rail, as if accepting what was going to happen.

The alarm woke Alison Smith up like a train traveling down the rails. She shot up and slammed on her alarm clock. She got up and got out of bed. She walked into the bathroom and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

She grabbed a comb and combed out her fizzy bed head, straightening her hair. After her hair was in acceptable condition, she turned on the water on the skin, grabbed her toothbrush and cleaned her teeth in the morning giving them a sparkly white look.

She smiled at the mirror and walked out of the bathroom, and back into her bedroom. She walked over to her drawers and pulled out her clothes for the day. She grabbed a tee shirt and quickly changed into it. She grabbed a red leather jacket and placed it over the tee shirt. She got her cargo-shorts and sneakers and got herself into acceptable condition.

She opened the door and she had to check the time again, it was seven forty five in the morning in the summer, and her little brother, Valo, was sitting on the couch and playing a video game. He looked purely focused on the game; she was at least comforted in the fact that there was a bowl of cereal.

She walked behind the couch and gave him a kiss on the head, rubbing his hair as he stayed focused on the game. She laughed and turned around walking forward and out of her apartment's door.

One might wonder how a young 20 year old with no parents and a 17 teen year old brother could afford an apartment, perhaps good rent control, robberies, or maybe she had an arrangement with the landlord.

None of the previous was true; she had a special arrangement with the government. She worked for S.T.A.R, which sounded like a terrible beauty parlor. However, it was a blacklisted device known only by conspiracy theorists and top government officials. A perception filter protected her apartment, so that did almost do existed. The government had them handle and investigate high-level crimes that they did not want the public to know.

She walked down into the street and walked down the street, through Hell's Kitchen and after a few minutes, she arrived at a large building. It was the World Trade Center, a gleaming glass lined building, stretching up five hundred feet into the skyline and a symbol of freedom and democracy around the world.

She walked into the building and passed through the automatic threat detector, which she of course passed. She walked through the sun kissed lobby, two fountains spraying water up to the 13th floor in a controlled matter. There was a white lined counter with three assistants to help with tower navigation.

She walked towards the counter, drifting off to the right side of the counter and arriving at one of the two main elevators. She and a few other people piled in the elevator and she waited a few seconds, before getting in front of the button panel and pressing the basement floor-2 button.

It was quite literally implanted with a perception filter button, which worked out as no one would normally push it, but with the filter, no one would notice that it even existed. The elevator was annoying programed to override all commands when that basement 2 floor was dialed, which made it easier for people to get angry or curious of her, when she say entered on the 72th floor and the elevator was currently shooting down to the bottom, passing floors it should of stopped on.

However, no one took much notice when the elevator started to descend into the basement instead of ascending. She waited a few moments and the elevator arrived at her floor, she exited and the doors closed. She was in a white box room, with a second door to exit.

She walked to the sidewall and entered a passcode into a panel. The door blinked and the secondary doors opened, allowing them into the main room. She was on a balcony above the large basement, which had to have at least five floors encompassing the area.

She walked down the metal stairway, which had not been updated since the Great War of Two Thousand Twenty Five and into the main area. It was a large open area and for the sake of organization, dividers were placed up to spilt the room.

In the back corner of the room was the medbay, which was rarely used, but Sarah, their medic, still kept in order for obvious reasons. There was a swimming pool for leisure, a sunbathing room where Arlo hung out to help him store energy, a forensic morgue with equipment that would make the CSI program jealous, and the command room, which held a large green felted table, a power supercomputer and was mostly used for Poker Night.

She walked into the command room and did her job, streaming news and looking at craft projects until someone called them. Sarah would probably be in Medbay or Forensics keeping everything straight and organized, or using the hologram feature to increase her skills in one subject. Arlo would be like Sarah wasting government money on leisure, keeping him in the sunbathing room and using the swimming pool to not dry out.

Twas the life she lived waiting in the command room until someone or something murdered some big and mighty millionaire, they have to scrap the remains off the track and figure out who put him on the tracks in the first place. She lived the life.

Bored out of her mind she was quickly laying back in the chair and falling asleep form boredom before seven o'clock in the morning. For two hours she would sleep and that would how it be for the rest of the day and she go out to party that night, or if she was unluckily at nine o'clock a notification would appear on her screen and finally wake her up.

"Oh god thank you someone died." She said as she woke up and looked at the computer screen. She pressed a red button and the entire group was called into the command room.

Alison stood up before her two partners who were sitting down on at the green felted table.

"Now men and ladies, we have got another one. For the third time this month, once again someone has pushed a millionaire off the subway and the subway cart did the rest. Which wouldn't happen if the council would reconsider my bill for forcefield generators to be placed on the platforms, any ideas anyone?" Alison asked as she sat down in her chair and looked at the two.

"Well someone did not mind the gap." Arlo said he was a spotted salamander. His body covered in black oily skin with yellow polka dots all over his body. He had the power to absorb sunlight and convert it into energy. This allowed him to enter a "form" where he could spend this energy for mental and physical increases to his body. As he tried to absorb as much sunlight as possible he wore a thin tee shirt and cargo shorts, temperature was not a problem for him as he could burn the energy and make heat.

"That's the London underground and right know their being invaded by the warring Cybermen and Yeti forces, hopefully the Brigadier can take down the great intelligence." Alison said before switching the subject.

"Eh, at least we don't have to deal with that, but back to the subject at hand what station are we talking about?" Sarah piped up she was their medical officer. She was a Golden Retriever and she had big floppy ears. She wore a grey tee shirt and a white lab coat with jeans.

"Just get on your black jackets, kids because where going on a trip." Alison said as they walked out of the command room and as they walked into the back of the base. Next to the stairs was a large rack of black coats covered with a metallic plastic vest.

Alison placed her red leather coat on the rack and switched it to the black jacket and zipped it up, followed by Arlo and Sarah who placed her lab coat on the rack. Instead of walking back to the elevator, they walked to an exit by the medbay.

They walked into a secret compartment that was connected to the parking lot underneath the trade center. They got into their team vehicle which was a black SUV, and they drove off.

"Now kids don't ever say I don't take you anywhere interesting." Alison said as she drove the vehicle through the New York streets which even in the 22ndcentury was still filed with traffic.

"Are we there yet?" Arlo said joking from the backseat that Alison always forced him to sit in.

"Ok, if we make a left here we should be right at the station." Alison said as she stopped at a stop light and let the opposing traffic pass. After a few seconds, their light turned green again and she took a right onto the next street.

They arrived at a random place and Alison parked in place. She walked out of the SUV and as did Sarah and Arlo. There was a large building, which they walked into. As the amounts of stations increased, so did the amount of abandoned stations which were usually sealed up, but a few people liked the idea of having a personal station and saved it for themselves.

They walked to the basement, after getting security access and walked down from the basement access to the abandoned station. The station was dark and gloomy, water was dripping from the station's roof and a tiny light was flickering on and off in the corner.

"Well then this is just like any subway station, except without all the people trying to get money off of you." Arlo said as he walked into the station, his body not liking the cold and the darkness of the station.

Sarah walked over to the corners of the station and placed a tiny ball down. It quickly expanded, with two stabilizers popping out along with a large pole and eventually a large light, she placed another one in the other corner illuminating the whole station.

"Ok, that's better but you did say he was on the track right?" Arlo asked Alison as they looked at the lit up station.

"Yeah, I did. Didn't I." Alison responded as he saw what the salamander was seeing as well.

"Then, shouldn't the blood be on the tracks no splattered around the station. Unless there were two murders, Sarah you should get a sample of the blood on the floor!" Arlo yelled out to Sarah as all three of them put gloves on their hand, as not to leave evidence of themselves.

"I'm already working on it." The golden dog said as she bent over one of the larger pools of blood and used a q-tip to get a nice sample of the blood before placing it in an evidence bag.

"So now where is the body?" Alison said as she walked over to the edge of the subway and saw the massive mess the was created, someone of the body had landed in the gap underneath the station and as a result half of the body was squashed and the other was partly intact.

"I've seen some bodies but half squashed millionaire takes the cake." Arlo said as he leaned over the edge and looked down onto the rails. "Now how'd they find it? It looks pretty hidden."

"There's a body on the track, trains still come through here. First train that came through here got quite the bump; luckily they rerouted the trains around here for an hour so we can investigate." Alison said as she jumped down onto the track with no care in the world.

"Well then, Sarah when you're done with that blood sample come down here and get a look at this guy." Arlo said as the salamander jumped onto the track. "Well he is just a pancake, but someone had to attack him before they got on the track and must off put him on the track to finish him off."

"Good idea, and that works of a cause of death but know who and what did it?" Alison said as she examined the body. "I think his body was bruised before he died, so someone must have been hitting him. Their so big through, whoever did it must have been a professional boxer or something."

"Ohh, look at this body. So much to work with, so he was probably alive when the train ... you know, because why else place him perfectly on the track, but that implies that someone wanted to do that, maybe he just landed that way." Sarah said as she jumped down to track level, out of one of her pockets she pulled out a white slate with a blue interface.

"Liver temperature suggests he has been dead for about seven hours, well at least what is left of his liver. Now this thing says that he was attacked by something, but it had to be something strong enough to punch through steel." Sarah said as she scanned his body, confounded on what could make that kind of damage.

"Interesting, according to the forensic data base Roland's wife was an avid boxing fan and was even taking place in a tournament, does that sound interesting to anyone?" Arlo said as he looked at the man's records.

"Well then, Sarah teleport the body back to the base, get the scrubberbots out clean up the floor and call the transport committee." Alison said as she jumped off the tracks and onto the platform.

...

"Alright, now why don't you tell me what you were doing last night, because there are a few things we'd like to know." Alison said as she stood over Roland's wife, Cynthia. "Last night your husband was murdered on rail road tracks, he was found with blunt injuries suggesting that someone beat him, do you know anything about this?"

"Oh no, god no, why did it have to be him." Cynthia said as she started to cry, possibly trying to fake emotions. "I was at my house last night, watching Netflix and eating ice cream."

"Does anyone know you were at your house, was anyone with you at all?" Alison asked as she stood up and started to circle around the table. "Because we know you like boxing and perhaps you decided to practice a round on him." Alison put her hand's on Cynthia's shoulder, starling her.

"No why would I do that we were in love, we weren't fighting and theirs not particularly much in life insurance." Cynthia argued as Alison made a complete rotation around the table.

"So what perhaps you found him with someone else, and you wanted to take your anger out?" Alison said as she sat down back in the seat, however as soon as she sat down she received a punch right to her face, knocking her against the floor.

"What the hell was that for?" Alison yelled as she stood up from the ground, quickly running around the table and preparing to give one right to Cynthia.

"Because he didn't cheat on me, I cheated on him. I didn't do it as I was with another person and we were busy all night." Cynthia said as she slammed her head against the table and started to weep. Had she not just punched Alison, the wolf might have felt sorry for her.

"Guys, it wasn't her. Those injuries couldn't have been caused by any human species." Sarah said suddenly beeping over the radio.

"That would have been nice to know, before my face got a whopping!" Alison said as she pressed the wall communication button.

"Sorry ma'am but I just got contacted by the man she was with and her story checks out." Arlo said over the communication panel. Alison banged her head into the wall, disappointed on what just happened.

"Let her go, I think I found a new lead." Sarah said over the communication channel.

...

"So what is this new lead?" Alison said to Sarah as she looked over the partly crushed body of Roland Hobart, Sarah got a hand-light and ran it over the victim's body. On the non-crushed side, glowing green spots appeared as she waved the light over.

"What is it?" Alison asked as she looked at the mysterious glowing spots.

"I don't know, I've never seen a chemical like it. I'm running the analyzers on full speed but they don't have an idea of what it is, and their appears to be another tinier amount of a different chemical trapped inside of the chemical.

"I say we let the processors run overnight and come back in the morning and see what it comes up with." Alison suggested as it was starting to get dark and her eye was starting to darken.

"Sounds like a plan." Sarah said as she slid Hobart's body back into the morgue.

...

Alison didn't know how to explain to Valo how she got the black eye, especially as she never really received an injury like that before. She calmed herself down as she opened the door and she walked in.

"Hey Valo, how's it going." She said trying to act normal as she walked in, he was still playing his game and he didn't seem to notice her as she quickly walked into her bedroom. She groaned and laid her body down on her bed, relaxing and going to sleep.

...

Valo was curious when he saw his sister with a black eye, he didn't want anything bad to happen to her and so he decided to follow her. She woke up at her normal time, but as soon as she left he quickly started to follow her in a black hoodie that keep his appearance. He got close enough to hear one of her of her conversations into a phone.

She seemed to be taking a different path today, instead of going to the Trade Center she seemed to be walking towards the nearest subway station, which he soon confirmed.

The wolf followed her sister into the subway station and followed her, staying with-in view of her following her even as she took the subway to Staten Island. Valo wondered what she was doing on Staten Island and she seemed to be talking in her cell phone so much she wouldn't have noticed him if he was naked.

She got off on the first stop of the subway near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, walking off the subway platform and to the ground level. Valo was careful to follow her but she stopped near a large factory by the ocean, near a black SUV, with a few other people.

She took off her red leather jacket and placed a strange jacket over her body. She talked to her other friends and Valo overheard some of it from a trashcan in which he hid himself.

"The goo was some sort of membrane that produced by prawns, and inside was metallic hydrogen dust. The only company that uses metallic hydrogen is this company, I thought about it, and it's easy. Darian Cuban, the owner of this company has been illegally hiring prawns and Roland figured out and was going to tell the authorities." A male voice said from outside the trashcan.

"Oh I think I see where this is going." Valo heard Alison's voice from outside the trashcan and wondered what she was doing. He stood still in the can trying to figure out what she was doing.

"He took a prawn and confronted Roland, killing him and putting him on the track. Now we just have to go in and get some evidence." A different female voice said.

"Sounds good enough lets go, everybody armored up. The owner might not take this well." Alison said and Valo heard the sound of footsteps as the group walked away.

Valo shook his body, knocked down the garbage can after a minute, and pulled himself out of the can. He looked and Alison and the other group was walking towards the factor, which seemed to be built in an abandoned terminal.

He followed them as they walked to a side door, Valo looked carefully as Alison put her hand against the door and almost magically it made a clicking sound and unlocked. Alison and her group walked into the building and Valo grabbed onto the door as they walked in.

He walked in following them in and grabbing another door. However, before he could pass through the door someone grabbed his face and pulled him back. Valo tried to scream but someone silenced him and pulled back into the wall.

...

"Oh sweet Jesus, all these prawns are being forced to work. This is not an illegal hiring; this is slavery." Alison said as she looked down from the balcony over the factory area. Prawns were low class citizens that resembled shrimp. An invading force kicked off their own planet and they emigrated to earth.

Prawns were taller and thinner than most humans and furs, standing at an average seven feet tall. They were covering a greyish brown exoskeleton. They have face tendrils, tiny chest arms, and long claws on their hands. They had compact muscles in their arms and they could exert more strength.

On the bottom level the Prawns seemed to be doing manual work, pushing around large machinery and seeming pushing around a large wheel as if some sort of medieval torture. Their shells seemed cracked, their looked over worked and their appeared to be some that were lying down and dying on the floor.

"We have to set them all free this is torture, we need to report this and stuff like that." Arlo said facing a lack of words.

"Now I wouldn't be too sure about that, or else your little friend here will face the consequences." The group turned around and found the CEO of the company, Darian Cuban, holding Valo hostage with a gun to his heart.

"Valo, crap." Alison said as she stood looking at the situation trying not to get the gun fired.

"It's okay sis, I shouldn't have been stupid like that." Valo said as he quickly contemplated his life. He moved his hand and grabbed Darian's arm, the leader who seemed to be going crazy reacted accordantly, pulling the trigger, while Valo tried to get the gun.

For Alison it seemed to be happening in slow motion, Valo sent the gun out of Darian's hand and on to the lower level, while the already fired bullet hit him square in the chest. He was knocked over as Darian attempted to run away from the situation.

Valo screamed as he fell over the fence on the balcony and landed it a massive vat of Prawn Waste. Arlo reacted accordantly and ran towards Darian, activating his ability.

A red glow engulfed Arlo's body and his running sped up. Arlo quickly caught up to Darian and knocked him down. However, Allison and Sarah ran over to the edge of balcony and dropped themselves down to the edge of the vat.

There was luckily a platform on the large vat and Alison and Sarah were able to act there. Alison reached into the vat and managed to grab ahold of Valo's leg, she pulled it and they pulled the wolf onto the platform.

"Sarah quickly you have to heal him, he's my brother, use your powers on him." Alison begged the dog as she knelled down and looked at his dying body. She raised her hand and her hand released a calming golden spray of light.

Valo made a groaning noise and relaxed when Sarah started to treat him.

"Alison, I'm sorry I was such a dumbass. I shouldn't have followed you, I should have let the can of worms closed." Valo said coughing up a bit of blood as well.

"Uh Alison, this isn't normal. The Prawn waste is absorbing into his skin and healing his wound, that's not my power." Sarah said as she looked at the prawn waste soaking through his skin, and the bullet hole closing.

Valo screamed out suddenly as all the waste absorbed. His skin suddenly started to shift, build-up of calcium-like materials appeared. His arms thinned as compacting itself and becoming longer. His legs followed suit in a few seconds as well, two bones started to grow out of his chest followed by muscles and exoskeleton, before becoming tiny arms.

"Well then Alison, why don't we just back up." Sarah said as she looked at the rapidly changing body of Valo.

He screamed out as his entire face structure changed, bones snapping and reattaching as his entire face changed into a shrimp like structure. Tendrils dropped down from his mouth, his hair fell off and the back of his head became armored.

"Well then, shit." Alison said as she looked at her brother's changed structure and wondered how that would affect them