The young and thin man went to introduce everyone there. His name was Cayden, and the other two men were Rick and Jacob, they were rather average middle aged men, their only defining features were their glowing eyes. Rick’s was grayish that seemed to swirl as you looked at it. Jacob’s was a mix of orange, green, and yellow. The colors would slowly swirl but never mix.
However when Hale looked at Aila he got a strange feeling. A strange suspicion crossed his mind. She looked just like Aila and Shira but gave off a different vibe than either of them. Aila was carefree and lustful while Shira was strategic and political. This new woman gave off the feeling of professionalism and seriousness. It created an odd tension around her, it could be seen why no one stood by her and she seemed unbothered by that fact.
Hale remembered Shira’s strange reaction when he had told her he was already acquainted with Aila so he decided not to mention his interactions with either of them with this new triplet. After an introduction led by Cayden Hale learned that her name was Ava. The fact that all their names ended in ‘a’ did not escape Hale’s perception.
Once again looking at her and learning her name he got that feeling once again that things were being hidden from him. Now knowing his concept Hale had figured that this was some sort of passive-like ability he had developed. Although it didn’t help him get to the truth it would at least put him on edge and may save him from being tricked. But these triplets, or more, truly perplexed him. They all hid something from him.
After that Cayden showed him around and gave a brief explanation on what the scout units did. Essentially, everyone with a concept gave off what they called conceptual radiation. When this conceptual radiation came into contact with normal things, especially for a long time, they would become CIOs or conceptually irradiated objects, but most called them artifacts. This same thing could happen to normal people turning them into CIPs, or conceptually irradiated people but in reality they were monsters and abominations. This is why the awakened had to live separately.
When reports of these artifacts or monsters came in then the scout unit would, well, scout it out and once confirmed then they call for combat units, or if it's a rather inert and useless artifact as most are then they would deal with it themselves. Hale was just glad that he wasn’t in the combat unit.
“We were actually scheduled to check a report of a CIP so I think seeing and doing will be easier than explaining all the finer details.” Cayden said as he slung a pack on his back that was reminiscent of a survival pack.
“Oh ok. But, I can’t even use my concept. I’m not sure how much use I’ll be.” Hale said.
“That’s alright. It usually takes people quite a while to figure it out. And you’ll just be shadowing us. Plus, we’re just a bottom tier group and this time is just reconnaissance. No need to take anything too seriously.”
Hale found it incredulous that with all the high tech gear around him and everything in this building that this is low tier but he didn’t want to argue. He had little understanding of the real world.
Hale threw on some lightweight garb that had a few tools like a flashlight, a GPS tracker and a few other gadgets in the pockets while still looking vaguely civilian. They were the scout unit after all. After everyone was ready they all headed out towards the industrial part of Boston by way of a large van with what Hale could only describe as spy equipment inside. It was in a parking garage under the building. Rick drove while Cayden told stories of unrelated things. Jacob was rather taciturn while Ava seemed to be too disdainful to speak to anyone else.
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After 45 minutes the van pulled off the road and into an above ground parking garage. They went round and round the pillars, passing the half filled rows of cars as the van slowly made its way towards the top.
There were no windows in the van but it was illuminated by a few small lamps and a mounted computer on one side of the van that seemed to be connected to some sort of cameras on the outside of the van. With a jolt the van came to a stop and Cayden swung the double doors open as everyone shuffled. Hale found himself on the sixth floor of the parking garage. Hale was shocked that it was actually midnight, he hadn’t thought that his circadian rhythm would be so off. The stars twinkled above their heads, but Hale looked at them with a strange look. Are stars just another concept?
Everyone followed Cayden as everyone stood on the east edge overlooking an abandoned building that was a quarter of a mile away. The windows were broken and from their height they could see into the main open area of the old warehouse-like building. Rick had walked off and set up orange cones on the ramp so people wouldn’t go up to the top floor and the team could have solitude.
“So, what do we do now?” Hale asked incredulously. The idea of monsters still wasn’t fully accepted by him.
“Now? We wait.” Ava, the third triplet, said very matter of factly.
Hale waited for her to elaborate but by the way she never even looked at him and seemed focused on the abandoned warehouse he probably wasn’t going to get an answer.
Time moved by and at this point a few hours had gone by. It was three in the morning and the peak of darkness. Everyone was sitting around watching the building. Cayden was relaxing and didn’t read a book by flashlight. At some point he put the book down, Hale peaked and saw it was Plato's book ‘The Republic’. He didn’t take Cayden as a philosophical person. Cayden stood up and came to Hale’s side, who was just stargazing and thinking on the last few days of his life. So much had changed in such a short time, he was just swept up by the waves of change and didn’t even fight back but he also had no goals still.
“Hale, you smoke?” Cayden said as he slid a Marlboro cigarette from its red and white package, and moved it towards Hale to take.
“No thanks. I’m happy being cancer free.” Hale said curtly.
Cayden simply laughed before he put the cigarette in his mouth and lit it. After a minute Cayden looked to Hale and said, “We are all guaranteed to die the moment we become awakened.”
Jacob heard his words and slightly nodded to himself. Hale didn’t understand his words. Yeah it was dangerous but none because he couldn’t be irradiated by an awakened by accident wasn’t he in less danger than he was before? And now he knows the dangers so he can plan accordingly. But, the others seemed to disagree so he didn’t say much as he caught second hand smoke from Cayden.
Hale was tempted for a moment but in the end he banished the idea. He had a long life ahead of him. Just as Cayden finished and stomped on the cigarette to put it out everyone perked up as Ava told everyone that she saw the abomination. Cayden jumped up and his eyes began to glow a white and yellow, he acted as if he could now see everything clear as day as he confirmed what she saw. She passed the binoculars to Hale and he couldn’t believe what he saw. It was like the wind was kicked out of him.
Cayden pulled out a walkie talkie and called in the combat units as they confirmed that the CIP was here. Everyone looked solemnly at the monster down below that seemed to just be prowling around in the abandoned building. Hale immediately understood why everyone was so serious when facing this thing. He looked at it through his binoculars and it sent shivers down his spine. This thing was dangerous to put it lightly. It still had the vague shape of a human but it was unnaturally lithe and tall. Thin sharp bones jutted out of its joints and all down its spine peaking out of the bits of rags that were left on what was a normal person. Its face’s flesh was falling off as the head was horridly misshapen, like the skull was shattered and the shards were haphazardly glued back together. Hale’s disgust and trepidation turned to pure fear as he watched the CIP pick up a steel beam and casually bend it until the tensile strength gave out and it snapped. Hale let out a long breath as he realized that he was lucky to not be in the real combat unit.