Part Five - The Beginning of The End - Part Two

As I hinted in one of these previous posts somewhere, I was going to experiment with making more stories that come from the point of view of someone other than Trevor. This, hopefully, is the first of many to come. It was a challenge to write and I'll talk more about it, tomorrow:

Time is that quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be working.

NOVEMBER 27, 2007

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

It’s evening. There’s an empty bench and flickering streetlight. A newspaper blows past as the streetlight flickers off.

The light flickers back on and now standing in front of the bench and light are Trevor Tanaka, Mack Johnston, and John Bishop. They look across the street at a seemingly innocent looking five story building.

Trevor - “The only access points are through the ground level and it’s been outfitted with safeguards salvaged from Primatech. It generates a field that disrupts our capacity to use our abilities. If were to just storm in now, we’d be powerless.”

[Volume One to Three - Primatech prison cells]

John Bishop - “Just the three of us? Tell me this doesn’t sound just a little insane?”

Mack Johnston - “I know. They don’t stand a chance.”

Trevor - “I’ve got another on his way but in the meantime, we can clean house. Johnston, I need you to generate an electromagnetic pulse and overload the building’s power grid. Then we can slip in and say howdy.”

Johnston - “Alright.”

Johnston focuses. A brief hum is heard, the streetlight turns off, then the hum fades and the streetlight turns back on. He tries again and fails. Johnston is about to try again when Trevor interrupts.

Trevor - “Most advanced abilities are empathic in nature. Think of a memory, an event, something that happened to you that you can never forget, something terrible.”

Johnston - “I got just the thing.”

Sparkplug closes his eyes as does the camera then opens again.

NOVEMBER 26, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO

THE GARDEN OF THE GODS

Johnston - “Are you sure your parents won’t mind?”

Phillip DeParis - “ ‘Course not. They’re used to me bringing friends over for dinner all the time. Thanksgiving isn’t any different.”

Johnston - “Thanks, Blue. I owe you one.”

DeParis - “No prob.”

DeParis shapes his hand into a gesture.

DeParis - “Live long and pros…”

[Star Trek]

Bone protrusions erupt into the scene. Close up on DeParis’ face as he gets stabbed below his chest. He falls over offscreen.

Johnston - “Blue!!”

Johnston kneels and holds Blue in his arms.

Johnston - “I’m going to get help…Just put pressure on it and you’ll be fine!”

DeParis - “There is no time…It’s okay, man…”

DeParis is dead. Johnston looks up and electricity surges from his body. He screams. The scene shifts back to the present, with the exact position on Johnston. He screams as an electromagnetic pulse emanates from him. The building blacks out. The trio walks forward, and then they notice the rest of the city blacks out in succession.

Trevor - “…They probably have candles…flashlights…back-up generators.”

Bishop - “Yeah…”

Johnston - “Let’s do this.”

UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the panel.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART TWO: THERE IS NO TIME - in Heroes title font -

NOVEMBER 28, 2007

SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST, ILLINOIS

THE GARDEN OF THE GODS

Johnston is talking to someone, offscreen.

Johnston - “They never stood a chance.”

Scenes from the building raid are interlaced with Johnston.

Johnston shoots down the door with electricity. Bishop generates a force field on himself and Trevor. Trevor goes in. Shots are heard soon after.

Johnston - “Trevor went in guns a blazing. I’d bet money he had the blueprints memorized, how many of them were in there, what their powers were, and what size jeans they wear.”

Johnston turns into pure electricity and parts of the room light up as he races forward, Trevor and Bishop are unaffected, various people are jolted and fall offscreen. Trevor comes into view and shoots down at them.

Johnston - “He’d never admit it but Trevor was just as affected by all this like the rest of us. Maybe more. Maybe he blamed himself for not figuring out it was going to happen in time and save everyone. He wasn’t going to let any of them get away. There was this rage in his eyes during the attack, like you’ve never seen before.”

Camera focuses on Trevor. His eyes are cold and full of death. He’s staring at the man whose duplicates were sent to Colorado.

Johnston - “You’d think I was nuts to say this, but past all that brooding and sarcasm, is a heart. A big one. We all have one to stay together this long.”

The man shoots several bone protrusions at Trevor. Trevor is about to shoot but a bolt of electricity shoots past him, slithers around each bone, and pierces the man. He goes flying backward into the wall.

Johnston - “Seal sounds corny sometimes but he’s always right. We’re simple folk that don’t like being bothered with.”

The trio exits an elevator and enter the last room. A lone man is waiting for them. He is shrouded in the dark. Johnston is about to act when Trevor says something and stops him.

Johnston - “But then we always return in kind.”

Bishop places a force field around the man. Trevor sheathes his gun in its holster. The camera zooms out behind them. They turn to greet the fourth Undaunted. It is Azuteor.

Johnston - “Then Trevor reveals his ace in the hole, as usual.”

Azuteor uses his gravity repulsion power on the man. The gravity around him gets stronger and stronger. Then he falls through the floor, and the next floor, and the next, until finally dropping through the earth, never to be seen again.

Johnston - “But he’s kept us alive like that and being two steps ahead of us.”

Bishop shields everyone. Azuteor brings the building down. After the dust settles, the four are standing on the ground floor nonchalant, like nothing happened.

The scene shifts back to the present. Johnston takes off his signature baseball hat and walks forward offscreen.

Johnston - “They all needed to know we’re not going anywhere. Not by a long shot. That it’s not all for nothing…Rest in peace, bud.”

Johnston walks away without his cap on. The camera abandons him and turns around to reveal who he was talking to. A grave with a pile of rocks as a headstone. The cap is resting on the headstone.

The camera pans out to reveal several rows of graves and similar headstones. The sun is about to set and illuminated the sky in an orange glow as Johnston walks into a nearby forest. He looks back one more time at the graves, then turns and disappears into the brush.

Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in life.

Boise, Idaho; in the year 2000. A 16 year old, Mack Johnston is working on an engine in his parents’ garage. His back is turned to the sky and a solar eclipse.

If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to think, you’re no longer in control of your life.

[David Kekich]

The engine roars to life, much to Johnston’s shock and curiosity. He notices electricity coming from his fingertips. Close up on Johnston as he looks closely at his finger. Nothing. Then a jolt of electricity jumps from his fingertip. Johnston smiles and laughs at his new discovery.

TO BE CONTINUED...