Part Five - The Beginning of the End - Part Five

Here is the final chapter of the year. Commentary to follow today or tomorrow.

NOVEMBER 28, 2007

SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST, ILLINOIS

THE GARDEN OF THE GODS

It is pitch black night. Trevor and Future Trevor are sitting down near each other. It’s late and it seems like they are the only two who are awake. They are shaving something with knives.

Trevor - “Every night, since it happened, I lay awake at 1:35 am and I think about her. I think about how much I loved her. I think about what we had. But I…”

Future Trevor - “Slowly forget what her face looks like. How can it be possible when I can remember everything? Is my heart trying to forget? Is it trying to deal with the pain?”

Trevor - “To love and to have lost.”

Future Trevor - “That mysterious duality.”

[Loose Reference to M-Theory]

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

THE BEGINNING OF THE END - PART FIVE: THAT MYSTERIOUS DUALITY - in Heroes title font - pasted on the forest

The Next Day…

A group of specials watch a grove of trees. The camera point of view comes up behind them. Trevor is sitting down on a stump looking at his e-reader in the grove with his back turned to them. Their leader, Keith, is walking toward Trevor. Keith raises his right hand. The camera shifts back to his five cohorts. They watch in anticipation.

Karl - “He’s by himself? Where’s everyone else?”

Kevin - “We should get to that soon. I want to see him do in Trevor, first. He won’t see it coming.”

Behind them, in the bushes, are Wyatt, James Kelly, Samuel Whitman, Aaron Leuce, Mack Johnston, John Bishop, and Azuteor. Wyatt is visibly focused, his power being used on them to render them invisible by sound to the other faction.

Whitman - “Dibs on the jerk.”

Johnston - “Everyone remembers what to do? Kelly teleports away with Wyatt. The bubble is lifted. Azuteor splits the faction up. We take them one-on-one.”

Everyone nods.

Leuce - “We wait for Trevor to give the signal.”

Keith is about to use telekinesis when Trevor tosses the e-reader out in front of him. Trevor shoots it straight through the middle with his gun. Keith pauses.

Johnston - “Now!”

Kelly teleports away with Wyatt. Azuteor uses his repulsion manipulation to scatter the five. They wail in confusion. Whitman, Leuce, Johnston, Bishop, and Azuteor run towards their respective opponents, some in the forest and some in the clear. Keith turns and sees what happened. He turns back and Trevor has turned around and is staring right at him. Trevor holds out his gun to the side, pointing right, and shoots at a tree.

A rope snaps. A giant log swings forward at Keith. He stops it just as it is inches away from hitting him. He smiles and telekinetically shoves Trevor into a nearby tree. Keith walks a few steps forward.

Keith - “A log? How uninspiring, Trevor.”

[This Keith has similar words with Trevor as what Future Trevor recounted last story]

Keith trips a wire. A dozen sharpened dart sized sticks launch at Keith. He stops them in mid-air. He looks at him and they drop to the ground.

Keith - “This is your big plan?!”

Karl and Leuce face each other.

Karl - “Beat it kid, this is grown-up stuff. You might live long enough to understand.”

Leuce - “It’s Renn to you.”

Karl frowns and his left arm extend toward Leuce and shoves him into the dirt. Karl has the power of plasticity.

Karl - “Then you’re dumber than you look, Renn.”

Leuce “Maybe I like people to think that way.”

[Renn’s HSG Bio]

Karl scoffs and shapes his hands into hammers and is about to pound into Leuce. Leuce just stands there. Zoom in on him smiling. Zoom out. Karl is frozen in place. Leuce was altering Karl’s molecular state the whole time.

In the forest somewhere, Azuteor is walking fast, almost teleporting. The camera zooms in from his point of view, things start to slow down. A leaf slowly drops to the ground. Azuteor is using time dilation to survey the area for his opponent. He sees an odd streak. Azuteor passes his hands through it and it makes a chime. Azuteor follows the streak with his eyes. The leaf touches the ground finally. He turns and sees Matthew running at normal speed at him. He tackles Azuteor and his time dilation field is disrupted. They plow into the ground hard because Matthew’s Enhanced Speed returned. Dust is kicked up. The dust settles. Matthew is in mid-air, stuck in place. Azuteor is several inches above the ground. A crater is self-contained with dust frozen in place underneath him. Azuteor stands up slowly. Matthew grunts. Azuteor thinks to himself for a while. The gravity around Matthew intensifies and compresses to the point that he passes out from the strain.

Azuteor - “Checkmate.”

[Azuteor’s HSG Bio]

Kevin has his fists covered in granite and is trying to land a hit on Whitman. Whitman dodges every punch. Every miss creates craters in the ground.

Kevin - “Stay still so I can hit you!!”

Whitman - “Oh, is that what you’re doing?”

Whitman stops and waits for Kevin. Kevin is dumbfounded then jabs at him. Whitman holds out his palm and catches Kevin’s fist and doesn’t move. Kevin grunts. Whitman squeezes Kevin’s fist. The granite crumbles. Whitman drop kicks Kevin. He goes flying into a tree then bounces into another and another. Kevin managed to morph part of his skull into rock but is woozy getting up. He looks up and Whitman is racing toward him and socks Kevin. Whitman runs forward and catches Kevin, who is unconscious.

Keith is walking toward Trevor.

Keith - “So, you knew we were coming? Nothing gets past you, Trevor. Maybe I was wrong about you.”

Keith falls into a hole. He drops in up to his forehead is visible. He telekinetically pushes himself out, not looking too pleased.

Keith - “Cute.”

Future Trevor jumps from a bush with a knife. Keith sees him at the last minute and freezes Future Trevor. The knife is just an inch from his heart. Keith squirms and telekinetically throws Future Trevor into a tree. Trevor is just watching and is smirking.

Keith - “Only you would find some humor in this.”

John Bishop has a shield raised on him. Stan screams and a sonic burst rumbles toward Bishop. The field vibrates and dissipates. Bishop draws up another and Stan tears it down again.

Stan - “How long can you keep this up? Face it. All you do is put up shields, you can’t retaliate against me. Once I find the right tune, you’re dead.”

Bishop - “Try me.”

Stan is annoyed and is about to let out another burst. A thin force field envelopes Stan. The sound burst and field shatter, Stan goes flying.

Lane pats some dirt off his shoulder. Johnston waits for him.

Lane - “Nice trick. But stopping us won’t save your boy. Keith will kill him.”

Johnston - “The thing about Trevor is he’s a walking curve ball. Just when you settle into predicting what he’s going to do, he goes and does the unexpected, right out of left field.”

Lane - “Well, Keith’s the bat that’s going to score the home run.”

Johnston releases arc electricity and prepares to shoot Lane. Lane waives his hand and a sphere of water encapsulates Johnston. Johnston screams in pain. He is faint, can barely stand, and is smoking.

Lane - “It’s a bit humid today. Lots of moisture for me to toy with. Looks like you picked the wrong playmate, bub.”

Johnston - “I’m right where I need to be. A few drops of rain won’t put me out.”

Lane forms surrounding moisture into a tidal wave and nails Johnston. When the water washes away. He is lying flat on the ground. He staggers up.

Johnston turns into pure electricity.

Lane - “What you can do, I can do.”

Lane turns into pure water and gushes toward Johnston. Johnston shoots through him and the electricity shorts throughout the liquefied Lane. Lane screams in agony. Lane erratically wails around trying to shake off Johnston. The electricity increases. Lane stops moving and twitches in place. He turns back to normal and faints. Johnston jumps out of him and turns back to normal.

Johnston - “Water is an excellent conductor.”

Keith is looking at Future Trevor.

Keith - “I don’t get it. That shapeshifter a fanboy of yours?”

Future Trevor gets up and throws his knife at Keith’s head. He stops it, aims it at Future Trevor and shoves it at him. Future Trevor tosses his leather coat to block it and he rolls away. He runs toward Keith. Keith backs up and stops Future Trevor. Keith summons the knife.

Keith - “Now, what do you really look like? Guess I’ll just have to peel you like a banana.”

The knife zig zags around Future Trevor. A second log flies toward Keith. He stops it. He turns to Trevor in anger.

Keith - “Do I look stupid?!...But you gave me an idea.”

Keith summons the log to him but it stops in mid-air. The rope is stuck and won’t let the log move anymore. Keith smirks.

Keith - “Among factions, you stick out too much Trevor. You know what happens to the nail that sticks out? It gets hammered down.”

[Phrase used in Japanese culture]

Trevor - “There’s always an exception.”

Keith has had enough and telekinetically clips the rope holding the log. The rope pulls back. A row of wooden spears rises up below Keith and impales him offscreen. The camera zooms on the lower half of his body. It is stiff and blood starts to trickle down. Trevor and Future Trevor land on their feet. An illusion is lifted. The row of spears becomes more visible along with the rope that was holding the log. It was connected to a counterweight setup with the spears. A bush suddenly turns into Athena Leuce. She was hiding the trap and messing with Keith’s senses until he came to stand over the final trap.

Whitman, Renn, Azuteor, Johnston, and Bishop gather around Keith. They toss their opponents into the center. Leuce walks over to her brother, Renn. James Kelly appears and shakes his head.

Kelly - “You timed that too well, Trevor.”

Trevor - “Take them to a prison somewhere. How about Gitmo?”

[Guantanamo Bay and HSG bio- James often teleports criminals into prisons.]

Kelly - “Why not?”

Kelly teleports away with them and reappears alone.

Kelly - “What now? This place is compromised. Probably Kaua’i, too.”

[9th Wonders - Undaunted]

Trevor turns to Future Trevor. Future Trevor shrugs.

Future Trevor - “This never happened to me, remember?”

Future Trevor fades away for a few seconds. Everyone is startled. Future Trevor looks at his hands.

Future Trevor - “The timelines across the multiverse are shifting. This is the prime.”

Bishop - “Meaning?”

Johnston - “He was never here.”

Future Trevor becomes transparent. The blood and wounds from the fight disappear. The missing eye heals to normal. Future Trevor touches that part of his face in amazement. Then the missing arm returns. His clothes change. No one notices, but a ring appears on Future Trevor’s ring finger. He becomes further and further transparent.

Future Trevor - “Thank you. Everyone.”

Trevor - “You’re welcome, Steve.”

Future Trevor - “…It feels right.”

[Previous chapter - Seal and Trevor]

Future Trevor fades away for good.

Trevor - “We’ll just start over again. Find another home. Find everyone again. We will persevere.”

Everyone nods. Everyone huddles around Kelly and place their hands on his shoulders and arms. They teleport away.

They appear somewhere else. Seal, Marc, Tanner, Orbit, Clara, Luna, and others are waiting and greet them. Hugs. Hand shaking. High Fives.

We always will.

We are different from each other. Yet we are the same.

That Mysterious Duality.

END OF SPECIAL THREE

SPECIAL FOUR

INFLUENCE

DECEMBER 22, 2004

HONOLULU, HAWAI’I

HR Lady - “Okay, Trevor. Where do you see yourself three years from now?”

Trevor - “I like to think, I’ll be off traveling the world and making a difference.”

HR Lady - “That’s a rather bold declaration, isn’t it?”

Trevor and his team kick in the door to find the database stolen and missing.

[From Phase Three]

Trevor - “It is. But it’s what I want. To change the world for the better.”

Fushimi Inari Shrine; Trevor gives his key to the wild animal.

[From Phase Three]

HR Lady - “How do you plan on doing that?”

Trevor - “One person at a time if I have to.”

Trevor talking face to face with the last duplicate sent to kill Undaunted on Thanksgiving.

[From the Beginning of the End]

HR Lady - “We could use someone like you on our team.”

The crack team gathering in the Nevada desert for an operation.

[From Phase Three]

Trevor - “When may I start?”

Leona Mills hands a red file to Trevor in Washington DC.

[From “Spook” in first arc]

HR Lady - “How about next week Thursday?”

The HR Lady stands up to conclude the appointment. Trevor stands up. The camera zooms in on them shake. The screen fades to white.

[From Trevor’s Primatech Assignment Tracker or HSG page. Worked for a Credit Union in Hawaii.]

HR Lady - “This is the beginning of the rest of your life, Trevor.”

It’s another time and place. The lower half of a person fills the camera. It shifts to the left. He holds out his hand with a wedding ring. It is Future Trevor. A woman’s hand reaches out to hold his hand. The camera shifts to the right. A child is holding his other hand.

Trevor - “I’ll keep an open mind.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

JANUARY 2010