Sector 14
It must have been over an hour since we traveled from Sector 11 through the lower level pipes, but we had arrived in a new section of the city. Being greeted by the sight of shops and homes lighted in neon colors, I asked my companion and savior where we were now. “Where is this, it's not Sector 11 anymore.” Walking forward with me still in tow, she responded with a low voice. “This is Sector 14, a sector built for business and crime alike. We don’t want to stay out here unnoticed for too long, not everybody is as friendly as you think they are.” And sure as she had said this, I noticed some of the people on the street look at us with dark and brooding stares, It was almost as if they were animals and we were the unsuspecting prey that had walked into their lair. I had to keep my eyes on the lighted signs over the shops we passed, the only thing here that helped me keep calm. “Sector 14, it doesn't look all too different from the other sectors, but the people sure are.” I thought to myself as we kept our pace up on the street until we came to a complete stop at what seemed to be an old and rusted door. Letting go of my hand, the girl started feeling the door, as if she was looking for something on it. “What are you doing?” I asked her, not aware of anything that would help her on the door. Not looking at me, she responded as she kept working on the door. “This is one of our ways into your new life Blue.” As she said it, a small keypad shaped light popped on in the center of the door and she let out a slightly pleased sound. As she typed whatever code was needed on it, she kept talking.
“Of course it might be new to you now, but you might find it's a bit older than you thought.”
As soon as she finished typing on the glowing keypad, the old and greatly rusted door sprung open loudly. Just as much as I was surprised to the sight, so were any people who were happening to pass us by. Quickly taking my arm, the girl took me inside the darkness of the newly open space, with the door shutting behind us. As soon as the door closed, bright white lights suddenly sprang to life from the ceiling, illuminating a long corridor that seemed to go down a bit into the city. “Where are we?” I whispered to myself, amazed at the simple hallway. Walking in front of me, the girl talked to me. “You are now in the protection of the great and wonderful Draco Organization. The people you will find here are much the same as you or me, just with different back stories and such. And now you will find someone who is more willing to talk to you and tell you. And well,” She paused to look over her shoulder at me as we walked into a brightly lit room full of monitors and other high level looking computers. “Tell you your old and new life if that makes sense.”
Walking away from in front of me, she waved an arm to an older looking man who stood in front of a lone chair in the room. Looking at me with a small smile on his face, he spoke up to me. “Thank you for being able to get here Blue, I was afraid Tasha might not be able to get to you in time. The Phantom is getting harder and harder to calculate these days, it's like he’s a machine hooked up right to us. But anyways,” He motioned for me to sit down in the seat, and I was somewhat grateful for it. Sitting down into the chair, I spoke to him. “Can you tell me what the hell is going on here? First a guy comes up and points a pulse rifle at me, and then she shows up and tells me a Phantom is after me? What have I ever done?” Sensing my confusion, the man looked at me with the same soft smile as before. “Ah yes, why did we save you? Why would an unknown person such as the Phantom target a child like you who only ever competes in tournaments for his daily living? I will tell you why Blue.” He looked at me now with all seriousness in his face and voice, as if he was about to share the deepest secret he had. “You do not remember currently, but your memory has been altered in order to protect you from the Phantom. It was done a long time ago when you were a child, as per the instructions given to me by your parents. They wanted you to stay safe from what they did and from the Phantom himself.” Pausing, he waited for my reaction to everything he had just said in the space of a minute.
Having been caught off guard by hearing altered memory and my parents wishes, I had an almost funny tone in my voice. “You mean to tell me that the parents I never knew fucked my memory up and sent me off to survive on nothing but the next first place prize? You have to be kidding me!”
Stolen novel; please report.
Not at all surprised by my reaction, the man motioned for the girl, Tasha her name was, to come behind me and pick up something. Looking at her, I saw her lift what looked to be a helmet with a long cable attached to it, running all the way to one of the monitors. As she placed it on my head, the man spoke to me again. “It's not uncommon to not believe such things, because your memory has indeed been altered. It was changed when you were seven years old, and now you are 16. I think it's times you got some of the memories you deserve, memories that will help you fit in a bit more.” Nodding his head, Tasha tapped something on a keyboard and I began to feel an immense pain in my head. It was as if a million volts of electricity were being pumped into my brain, causing me to jerk here and there as I felt the pain. Still talking to me as I began to get odd feelings in between pain, the man continued. “The pain is only short, do not worry. You should be entering the reconstruction period now of the treatment we are giving you.”
Just as he had said, the pain diminished and my eyes closed and opened rapidly. Not hearing the old man's voice or even seeing him, I was replaced with a scene of a young child and an adult woman. The child’s voice screamed out in sadness, not happy about something with the woman. “Mom, why are you going away, why?! Take me with you!” Looking at the child with the welling of tears in her eyes, the mother bent down and took ahold of the child near her. “Hush, it's alright, it's going to be okay. You have to stay here and protect everyone from the ghost okay?” She whispered into the child's ear, something that soothed him. Shaking his head slightly, the child spoke back. “B-but the ghost scares me, he never goes away! How can I protect anyone from the ghost?”
Setting the child back down, the mother crouched and responded with the lightest tone I had ever heard. “You have a bit of power inside of you, just like everybody else. And there are others that will help you through the good times and the bad no matter what. And you know what?”
“I don’t know.” responded the child. Smiling, she answered him.
“I don’t think the ghost will ever harm a hair on your head, because he’s really afraid of someone like you Blue. So never forget that or us okay? We are always here, no matter what.”
Just as soon as the mother had said that, a shock wave reeled over me as I realized she was my mother again. The shock ws so hard that I broke out of the memory and was once again in the room with Tasha and the old man. Smiling at me again, he spoke to me in a somewhat caring voice. “I take it you saw someone close to you again? Who was it?”
“I-it was my mother….”
“And what was it about?”
Rubbing my hair, I spoke with a shaky voice. “S-she was leaving me behind...and she said to protect everyone from the ghost….” Looking him in the eye as I said this, I had a mini realization. “Wait! The Phantom…..Ghost…..are they the same person? Or was I just afraid of a make believe creature….” Shaking his head to me, the man sighed. “Your mother was a very brilliant woman, and she was right about you too. The Phantom was around back then, but he was much different in those days. It was as if he were a ghost, a man and a virus all in one. Your parents both went after the Phantom to stop him in the Net, but never returned….”
“The Net, what is the Net?”
“The Net is exactly our world,” This time it was Tasha speaking to me to help explain what the Net was. “The Net is the past, present and future of this world we live in. You can go to any time within it and live out ones days, albeit with the main events never being able to change.” Hearing her say this to me barely helped my already swarming brain, still hurting from the information “download” from the headgear still attached to me. “The Net, a world just like this…” I whispered to myself, as if it was some kind of imagination of my mind. Walking over to me, the man held out a hand to me, which I accepted. As he helped me up out of the chair, Tasha took the headgear off of me. Putting a hand on my shoulder once I steadied myself up, the man smiled. “They are still alive Blue, going through time in the Net. Hell, they could be in this same time right now watching us as we speak here. Only a very thin wall exists between us and the Net. And that brings me to the next part of where we are.”
Walking away from me, the man spread his arms out wide. “This here is the Draco Defense Organization, a secret operation set up by me and your parents. Here we can unlock the hidden potential within any human, the secrets left behind by God himself. You will be trained in what your parents helped to unlock and protect others like she said you would. Because…” He looked at me square in the face as he help me captivated. “We are the sworn protectors of this city and world, the DDO. We stop anything, be it a small hacker or even a dreaded ancient creature, nothing gets in the way. Now, shall we get you to the enigma gear your mother entrusted to me?”
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