ALTERNIVERSE: Chapter nine

At River Industries main building in Orlando Florida, Rocklind walks down the hallway to his office on the top floor. With him are two female secretaries both with tablets in their hands as they pass other employees going about their busy day in preparation for River Industries latest project. 

"So to remind you, you have a three o'clock cyber meeting with the board of directors from Testaryx. Afterwards you have a scheduled lunch with the mayor of the city as per PR reasons." Says the secretary to his left.

"Good to know. Anything else I should know about?" Rocklind asks just as they reach the door to his office. 

"Yes, you have two visitors from Lumer city waiting for you in your office." The other secretary responds. 

"I see, that'll be all for now. Tell no one to disturb us until they leave my office." The two secretaries nod before taking their leave walking off down another hallway. The CEO takes a deep breath placing his hand on the doorknob. Rocklind twists the doorknob and enters his office to see Everchange and Madam Vogue making themselves at home. Everchange watching TV on his hundred inch plasma screen and Madam Vogue helping herself to the bar for a drink. "Ladies, it's a pleasure to have you here. I'd would say make yourselves comfortable but I can already see you did. To what do I owe the honor?"

"Transmuter assigned us to watch over you incase you need any extra hands on deck." Vogue explains before taking a long sip of vodka. 

"I see, well isn't that quite considerate of him to do that." Rocklind looks over at Everchange who has her hand up. "Do you wish to ask me something?"

"Yeah. Just what is this big project you have planned. I've been curious about it since I joined up with you guys."

Rocklind walks over to the bar with Vogue for a drink. "Why ask me when you can just read my mind. You do have telepathy." 

"True but trying to read the minds of intelligent people tends to be very difficult for me… that and Transmuter wanted me on my best behavior."

"I see, well since you working under me I suppose I can show you my final project. Computer, isolate office room. Code 010." The room they're in suddenly goes dim as the windows of the office grows a tint of black on them enough to just barely see outside. 

CODE 010 ESTABLISHED - ROOM SECURED

"Good, now pull up the schematics for project Domination." Light blue holographic structures begin to form in the middle of the room. The holograms form depictions of five towers with the one in the middle looking to be slightly taller than the rest and having a multi-dish antenna at the top.

Everchange looks closely at the holographic towers before. "So you gonna give everyone free satellite TV?"

"No, you buffoon. Project Domination is more than that. Right now the public thinks that this project is to promote healthy renewable energy as we plan to connect the towers to the power grids in which they're being built. In actuality these are just corresponding amplifier towers that will expand the reach of the broadcast."

Vogue finishes her vodka and smacks the shot glass on the bar. "What kind of broadcast are we talking about here?"

Rocklind smiles, hearing her question. "The dark matter incident that happened all those years ago forever changed humanity, for better and for worse. What if I told you that it was a possibility to control the outcome for generations to come." He reaches up and zooms in with his fingers at the middle tower. "After dark matter covered the world thus creating the meta-humans we have now, I went on to do my research on them and discovered something amazing. All humans who have manifested their powers have grown a cerebral abnormality which is harmless to them. The tower was made by my personal calculations and design. Once operational this tower will emit a signal that taps into that abnormality in every meta-human in its range and then when I connect my consciousness into the tower's broadcasting system every meta-human will be an extension of my will. The main tower will have enough power to cover the entire continent; the other four towers will amplify the range to reach the rest of the world. And when all things are done I will control the entire planet's population of super powered beings. No country will stand a chance against me."

"What if someone else tries to use the machine instead of you?" Vogue asks.

"Impossible, I took measures to make it so that it'll only work with my brain wavelengths." Rocklind says with a smug look on his face. 

Everchange runs her hands through the holograms repeatedly. "Ok but how are you going to power such a machine? Something like that would require a massive amount of power."

"I already took care of that. I had my subordinates steal back an experimental power cell that the board deemed too dangerous. After redesigning it and working out the kinks, I turned it into a high kinetic energy power cell. That power cell alone could easily sustain New York city for ten years. If it was used on one machine it could last at least five times that long."

"I gotta say, I'm impressed." Vogue walks over with a drink for Rocklind. "You deserve this." 

Rocklind gladly takes the drink from her hand. "Why thank you, I do deserve this." As he goes to take his first sip Everchange comes up from behind and grasps his head the back.

The glass falls from his grip, shattering into pieces once it hits the ground. Vogue leans in closer to Rocklinds ear. "You honestly do have a great plan, but it'll be better if we changed a few things about it." 

…

A day has passed since the convoy transported B.A.Ds family to a safer location fifty miles north of Los Angeles. Zero and The Phonz are doing their scheduled survey of the area around a bunker compound while Electrified and Alpha Moon are keeping watch on the family in the bunker.

Zero and The Phonz continue their survey on the outskirts of the bunker site, Zero hovering instead of walking. "Hey Phonz."

"What's up, kid?" 

"You knew Electrified since he was a kid, right?"

"Yeah, we basically adopted him when we found him on the streets of Miami when he was twelve." 

Zero stops moving forward as he descends to his feet. "Miami? Like five years ago?" The Phonz just nods. "It wouldn't be sometime after that crazy storm?"

The Phonz looked at him curiously when Zero said that. "How did you know?"

"Now it makes sense why he seemed to know me from before. He was that other kid in the lightning storm."

"Oh, so you were there during that time too? What a coincidence that you two meet up again." The Phonz continues walking

Zero starts hovering again, following The Phonz. "Still doesn't explain why he has it out for me though. I didn't do anything to him." 

The Phonz shrugs his shoulders at Zero. "Maybe you should try asking him about it."

"The last time I ask if he had beef with me he wanted to hit me. Dude has some serious anger issues." 

The Phonz chuckles to himself after hearing Zero's truthful statement. "Oh you have no idea."

Meanwhile at the front gate entrance, the security guards stationed there see two individuals walking down the road to them. The two strangers were far enough down the road that they couldn't correctly see their physical characteristics.

One of the security guards in the booth that controls the gate turns on the speaker system. "Attention! This is a restricted area! Any non-authorized personnel on the property is strictly prohibited! Turn back now or face the consequences! This is your final warning!"

The two of them continue to walk down the road unaffected by the loud warning. The security guards at the front take their positions and aim their rifles at them. As they take aim the eyes of the person to the left begin to shine red, bright enough to be seen at that distance.

"Crap, FIRE AT WILL!" The security yells over the speaker system but was already to late as a blazing red laser beam rakes across the line of guards, completely disintegrating all but their lower legs and destroying the booth and front gate. The explosion of the front gate shakes the bunkers and the cloud of smoke alerts all the personnel not inside.

Zero and The Phonz stop in their tracks after hearing the explosion, the bunkers alarm now ringing loudly across the entire property.

"Shit! We need to go now!" The Phonz grabs hold of Zero as he teleports towards the front of the bunker.

Rift Storm looks at Osiris. "You can cut loose if you want to just remember to keep the family alive like Transmuter says."

"Awesome. What are you going to do?" Osiris asks, getting ready to run off. 

"I'll keep the majority of them busy while you retrieve our targets. Now go."

"Don't need to tell me twice." Osiris runs off to her left leaving Rift Storm by himself on the road.

"Now let's see what they got." The wind around Rift Storm becomes harsh, swirling around him, creating a congregation of wind in the appearance of a small tornado as he lifts himself up into the air. His body and eyes begin to surge with yellow lightning. The sky above starts to darken with storm clouds as Rift Storm raises his right arm. The armed forces of the bunker begin to mobilize with armored tanks and trucks. The onset of multiple lightning bolts strike down at Rift Storms hand. "Hmph… not the type of welcoming response I was hoping for but I'll take it. Now die." He brings down his arm as one large bolt comes crashing down in the middle of the security unit followed by multiple other smaller bolts of lightning that strike any stragglers.