Chapter 1 - A New Beginning
Three Hours Earlier
The twentieth day of October would change Emma’s life. She was sure of it. Only five students get chosen every year to go on this tour. It was a wildcard day in what had become a life of routine for her. The alarm that she swore got louder every morning had been blaring in her ear for five minutes, interrupting the same nightmare that she had every time she closed her eyes.
She decided to lay there for a bit longer, opting out of the snooze button. Once she couldn’t take the loud ringing in her ears anymore, she grudgingly rolled over and pressed the dismiss button on her phone’s alarm clock. She convinced herself that today was different, and that difference was good. Being able to tour Harding Labs was a dream for someone like Emma, who loved science, even though science stopped being able to explain everything many years ago when babies began to be born with unusually colored eyes, babies that would grow to be able to lift cars and run at the same speed as a bullet train.
They say that one in every ten million people born these days are supers. A special screening process occurs before birth, and if the baby is discovered to be a super, they proceed with the birth prematurely, documents are signed, and the government takes the baby, and raises them with all of the other supers from the United States in a special facility in Nevada. Occasionally, however, there will be one born far stronger than the others, such as John Harding. They get to be raised in the Ares, a ship orbiting the Earth. They eventually join the Knights, a global peacekeeping force made up of the strongest of the strong.
Emma was never certain how she felt about supers. Not since the event that began her nightmares, even if she had met some very heroic ones in her life, her parents being two of them.
After a few more minutes that consisted of rolling around under her covers and convincing herself that she had better places to be than her bed, she crawled out from under her sheets. After checking her calendar to make sure that today was the day that she had circled many times, Emma quietly slid open her door, crept past her Grams fast asleep on the couch, her fuzzy, heavily colored black hair sticking out from under a single thin blanket.
She silently made herself two pieces of toast (always extra crispy) she quietly folded the top of the blanket down from her Gram’s face and kissed her on the forehead before she set out. As she placed her hand on the bronze doorknob to leave, her eyes lingered on the small framed picture on the wall by the door. The picture was of a tall, broad-shouldered man with jet-black hair and bright hazel eyes, and a smaller, more petite woman with deep, violet eyes that sparkled and glowed. Her Father possessed the incredibly rare power associated with the hazel eye color, which was the ability to manipulate, create, and control elements. Her Mother’s eye color was indigo, which is associated with telepathy, and Emma’s mother was an especially gifted one. In the picture, their hands were on the shoulders of an innocent-looking, lanky girl who was nervous about her first day of high school, and the only human ever known to have been born from two supers. It was hard to believe that the picture was taken of her and her parents two years ago. It seemed like a lifetime away.
Her trance broke, she closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath, and opened the door.
The morning was deathly quiet, the fresh chirps of birds pairing with the sun peeking it’s face over the horizon, teasing the world with only a glimpse of its warmth to come. She stood in her doorway for a minute, taking in the beauty of the morning, before she glided over to the corner of her street, where Dawn was supposed to pick her up.
Emma saw the charcoal-dark mustang flying down the road at a speed she assumed was just a tad too fast for a neighborhood.
The car thundered down the street and skidded to a stop at the curb.
“Someone’s excited” Dawn spoke in her perky, preppy voice as Emma swung open the door and planted herself in the passenger’s seat.
Dawn was the type of person who always had one foot on the gas pedal, in any situation she was in. She once dyed her shoulder-length blonde hair blue, then decided after a week she didn’t like it and went back to blonde, and a month later dyed it the darkest black and decided that black was her new favorite color. She could never wear the same outfit twice, she considered it a mortal sin. But she was loyal, like the type of friend that would face the world with you and be fully confident in your winning probability. Emma buckled her seatbelt and wrapped her arms around the black skateboarding backpack she used for school, knowing that she would have to cling to something with the ride that she was about to experience.
Dawn had that effect on her.
“Can you blame me?” Emma said with a raised eyebrow. Emma, Dawn, and the rest of their friends had been waiting for their chance to tour the grand laboratory that sat as an out of place marvel within their quiet, sheltered town. Harding Labs resided in the heart of Midlothian, with John Harding choosing to build it in the same town he grew up in.
Through John and his research, governments around the world were able to better understand supers, and find a place for them in society. Today was the only day of the year where the massive front gate of his laboratory would lift, and four selected students from Midlothian High would get to tour the massive facility. The students who applied had to go through a series of written tests and exams to test their enthusiasm and love for exploring the unknown. Emma, Dawn, and their other best friends Quin and Grayson had been the only ones who passed, considering all of them share a curiosity and passion for whatever resides within the walls of the lab.
After a journey that consisted of Emma quietly reminding Dawn to slow down twenty-seven times, Dawn pulled into her designated parking spot in front of the school. A single, small yellow school bus was waiting for them, Emma assumed that the school had insisted on transporting them.
“And here I was hoping a big muscular super would carry me in his arms as he sped across town in seconds.” Dawn quirked with her signature pouty face.
Emma decided against politely reminding her that her face would burn off from the friction that came with zipping through town at speeds faster than a car, which is why supers are prohibited from it.
Emma grabbed her hand and dragged her through the rest of the cars in the parking lot on the way to the bus. As they approached, they saw Mr. Blackwood, the school’s principal, talking with a broad-shouldered man in a suit in front of the bus doors.
“Are you sure it’s safe? From what I hear this thing hasn’t been tested ye-- Emma!Dawn!” He cut off abruptly.
“You’re a bit late, but I wasn’t going to leave without finishing my coffee, so you’re in luck.” He paused and looked at the broad-shouldered man.
Stolen novel; please report.
“This is Neal, one of the two supers assigned to security at the lab.” At the mention of the word super, Emma immediately looked at Neal’s eyes, which always give away the powers they possess. She had to crane her neck all the way up to look at their deep hazel color, which meant he controlled elements. She glanced away quickly, it was like looking at her Father again.
“Always a pleasure to meet the young talent every year” Neal had a thick African accent.
He gestured towards the swinging doors of the bus with his hand, and Emma and Dawn entered to see the others.
“Good lord, of all the days you have been late, today Dawn? Really?” Quin’s voice carried from the back of the bus as they entered. Dawn flung the plastic water bottle she had been carrying at Quin, missing him by a couple of hundred feet. In his effort to dodge, Quin flung himself backward and landed flat on his back in the middle of the aisle. Emma was always in silent marvel at how disproportionate Quin was. He was of average height, no more than five foot seven, but he had humongous feet that he always tripped over, and long arms that hung almost past his knees, he had big bushy eyebrows, and his high cheekbones made him look a bit like Rumplestiltskin.
Emma immediately searched for Grayson, and shifted her way into a seat next to him, yanked one of his earbuds out, and stuck it in her right ear, a lo-fi music mix filling her eardrum.
Grayson was a classic golden boy, though a bit strange. He was very reserved and withdrawn, and he wore the same white Pink Floyd hoodie every day. Grayson had perfect olive skin and short, raven-colored hair that was messy at the front, and curled outwards just before his eyes, which were light brown. But he was the most sincere person Emma had ever met. He moved to Midlothian just after the incident and was able to relate to Emma because Grayson had been without his parents for years now, the result of a car accident. Dawn had developed an insane crush on Grayson the second she saw him, and after he joined their friend group, she immediately coined him “dreamboat.”
“That Neal guy said something about Ionic being at the lab,” Grayson said through a smirk wide enough to see a mouth full of perfect white teeth.
Ionic was a member of the Knights, but he was banished for flattening a school when he lost control of his power. He had been fighting two rogue supers, which should have been easy for someone like him who mastered the azure power, which entailed harnessing energy and turning it into beams or heat rays. Somehow, during the fight Ionic set off a blast big enough to rival a bomb, which flattened a school that resided a mile from where they were fighting, taking the lives of hundreds. After he was banished from the knights, John Harding let him stay to work security at the lab, though he was prohibited from using his powers anywhere else.
The swinging doors of the bus opened, and a very flustered looking Mr. Blackwood stepped on and sat in the driver's seat. He took one look over his shoulder, opened his mouth like he was going to say something, and then decided against it. Emma looked over at Grayson, who was gazing out of the window at Neal strolling over to the school’s designated take-off zone, where he calmly squatted down like he was about to jump, and took off into the sky with enough force to slightly rock the bus. Regardless of their powers designated to their eye color, all supers have enough strength to rip steel doors off their hinges, and enough speed to outrun a dart train, though supers are not immune to aging, they are invincible to bullets penetrating their skin. They can also fly, though the process for them to be able to fly is the same process a teenager goes through to get their driver's license.
“Hmph, showoff,” Grayson mumbled in a tone just loud enough to hear over the music playing in Emma’s ear.
When Mr.Blackwood finally started the bus and got on the road, Quin perked his head up from the aisle on which he was still laying.
“I’m gonna steal a lock of Mr. Big Shot’s hair so I can frame it,” he said through a lopsided smirk.
Dawn looked down on him and squinted her eyes, giving him a you’re so annoying look.
“Seeing John Harding vaporize you for pulling his hair would fulfill all of my dreams,” she said with a tilt of her head and a twist of her finger.
Quin glanced at Emma, then at Grayson, who was still staring deeply out of the window, apparently lost in thought. Quin raised one eyebrow and was probably about to say something about Dawn’s dreams not involving Quin being vaporized by John Harding at all, but probably had everything to do with Grayson.
“We’re here,” Grayson said in the same mumble voice. Emma hadn’t even noticed that they were this close to the lab, and she leaned over Grayson to get a good look at the massive gate that they were slowly approaching. Once the bus stopped, Mr. Blackwood made a big show of slowly turning around and hoisting himself out of the driver’s seat, puffing out his chest to give himself an inflated sense of importance.
“I know I don’t have to give this group any rules on how to act, but please just act like you all have been to town before.” Immediately after he finished speaking, the gate began to open slowly. A small, skinny man wearing a hospital mask, blue hood, and a nice business suit stepped forward accompanied by a taller woman of no less than fifty wearing her platinum blonde hair in a tight ponytail. Emma assumed that the man in blue was Ionic from the way his blue eyes glowed, but she was more interested in what was behind them. The lab was of considerable size, it was an oval-shaped building with the words Harding Labs in bold above the entrance. Once they had departed from the bus, the woman stepped forward.
“Greetings, and welcome to Harding Labs. We appreciate the effort each of you put in to get here, so in return, we hope we can give you an exciting tour.” Her voice was high pitched, and a bit too professional to Emma. “My name is Susan Sherwood, secretary to Mr. Harding. Beside me is my associate Ionic, and I believe you met Neal earlier this morning.” She gestured to the empty space beside her. “Please excuse his absence for now.”
Emma wondered how a super zooming through the skies at speeds rivaling an airplane could possibly be late. She looked over at Quin, who was making a not so inconspicuous show of trying to hold Dawn’s hand, with Mr. Blackwood giving him a murderous glare over his shoulder. Grayson was staring intently at a spot in the sky, his eyes squinting as if he was trying to see something far off. She punched his side lightly.
“What’s up? You seem kinda off today.” She whispered as they marched behind Susan, approaching the entrance. Grayson looked at her, and something shifted in his face as if realization had struck him. “I don’t suppose I could use the restroom once we get inside?” He spoke politely, ignoring Emma. She knew Grayson, and she could tell something was wrong.
Susan gave Grayson an arched eyebrow as the crossed the threshold into a building that pioneered the future. Directly in front of them was a spiraling blue core contained inside of a metal cylinder the size of a small classroom.
Leaning on the railing above it was John Harding.
Emma was perplexed at first, she had heard the rumors of his eyes and the powers that he uses, but even now she couldn’t believe it. One of his eyes was a deep blue, the other a bright red. He was an older man, probably approaching his fifties. He smiled at the group, and levitated off the railing, touching gently down in front of them, and they all stood in silent marvel.
“Welcome my friends, to the future.” He said in a booming voice through his smile. “I wish beyond relief that I could take credit for creating what’s behind me, but the thing that lays here is a mystery even to me.” He went on to explain that the ball of what appeared to be made of sheer energy had materialized in the cylinder they had been designing to retain a rogue super.
“We wanted to design a more humane system of imprisoning any super that doesn’t follow the rules, not necessarily a jail, but more of just a retainment center. However, this ball of curiosity just appeared in the containment system, so we’ve put a bit of a hold on the containment project to focus on studying the core, and it seems to be made of some sort of sheer energy, and today, we find out what type of energy that could be.”
He turned to face the cylinder, and lifted both of his hands up, gesturing towards the various people stationed at different sets of controls.
“My subordinates, I have been jittering with excitement all morning long, waiting for the chance to show you true power. It is with complete certainty that I tell you now, I alone will be the hand that guides the future, so without further ado, let me begin.” His grin widened as the core began to crackle and snap with energy as different probes went into it. However, John Harding had only moments to enjoy what he viewed as a direct path to what he knew was a stolen future.
Because that’s when the beam that would change everyone in the lab’s life forever crashed through the ceiling, and the last thing Emma saw before blacking out was a white light as it collided with the core.