Chapter 6: The Revealing

It is July 28, 2025, 2 days have passed since Emely passed out and moments from finding a place to rest up and meet a new threat. Eric is patching up Emely's wounds, Gabriela sitting next to her, Mason then give's Eric alcohol to clean the wound Emely grunts in pain and said "even when I was against for everything you still help me Eric, but why" Eric responds "just think of it as a friend helping a friend" Emely chuckles in pain. Eric puts a bandage over the wound, then the van sudden stopped, Eric asked "Elsie why did we stop" she replies "Mason has to go" Eric said "can't he wait" she replies "when you got to go, you got to go" Mason got out of the van and went to the nearest bush to do his business, mason finished and was walking back to the van until he heard something behind a boulder, he walked slowly towards the rock pulling out his knife and looked behind it and saw a ginger cat, Mason felt relieved that it was a cat, so Mason put away his knife and got down to pet it and said "what are you doing out here all by yourself little guy, you lost" then sees a collar and saw his name "looks like your name is Genny, well I guess Genny looks like you're coming with us" then mason picks up Genny and go's back in the van. Then as soon as Mason got into the car, Elsie asked Mason "what took you so Lon…" then looks at Genny and said, "Mason where did you get that cat" Mason responded "I found him and his name is Genny" Elsie sighs and said, "Mason put it back, who knows who that cat belongs to, and do you remember the last time you brought a pet" Mason responded "No" Elsie replied "well to jog your memory we all got so intertwined with the cute thing that we didn't even notice we had rabies" Mason pulled out his puppy eyes and lifted up Genny, then they both look at Elsie with pleading faces ,Elsie looks away at them only to then look back at the adorable look on Genny's face, and then she sighed and said "Fine, but this is the last pet that you will take in got it" Mason nodded and celebrated. Then the van drove up to the open abandoned observatory gate and looked around at the burnt-up cars, trucks, and walls. Then Richard said in Eric's head "this is the work of humans fiddling with things they shouldn't fiddle with" Eric gulped and then the van stopped at the entrance of the building and Eric, Mason and Elsie got out of the van, Eric walked to the back of the van to get Emely as Elsie and Mason scouted the place with Genny. Vanessa opened the back door of the van opened and she had Emely in a stretcher giving Eric one side while she got the other. They carried Emely into the building while Elsie and Mason scouted the place for danger. Eric and Vanessa set Emely on a table, then out of the sudden Emely started to bleed out the bandages and cough out blood, Eric ran to Emely to examine the problem, then Richard said, "the shard's effect is getting worse we need to get it out now" Eric responded "agreed." Eric ordered Vanessa to put pressure on the wound Emely until Eric rushed around the hallways looking for the medical bay. Eric looked left and right, until finally he found it, Eric bolted through the door and looked for surgery equipment to take out the crystal shard. Emely could barely stand up and as she got weaker. Eric ran through hallway after hallway looking for the cafeteria. Mason and Elsie were in the left wing of the building looking for a place to sleep, Mason looked around for Genny and said "hey where is Genny" Elsie responded "I don't know, but I'm sure he is just exploring somewhere he'll be back" Mason nodded and then both of them slowly moved from hallway after hallway until they came across a control room with monitors, Mason investigated While Elsie looked for the power switch. Then at the desk Mason found a semi-intact paper that had the good man Genetics logo on it, Mason started to read the paper until he figured out what they were working on in this place, it was called (PROJECT PHOENIXS) a Project that gave humans the power of the Elements. Then Elsie saw the power room and went inside to see the power switch covered in vines, Elsie took out her knife and started to cut, vine after vine she cut, until then she finally got through and flipped it, but as she did so a mysterious figure came behind Elsie and stabbed her with a sleeping syringe and dragged her sleeping body out of the room. The power came on and Mason got on the computer to check the camera footage, clip after clip the experiments got worse, the painful screams of the test subjects echoed in Masons head, Mason was about to shut it off, but then he heard a man say to a man standing in a large room "test subject 0-36 state your full name, age, and wife and children age, and names " 0-36 responded "My name is Mateo Gonzales, I am 29 years, and my Wife Isabel is 28, and my Daughter Rachel is 5" the man responds "alright Mateo we are going to need you to sign this paper" then a table with a paper and pen rose from the floor and Mateo put his signature on the paper and stood there as the table went back down. Then suddenly all the lights went up and the sound of a platform could be heard rising from the floor, until lights turned on that led a path to an orange orb. Mateo was commanded to walk up to the orb and pick it up, so Mateo walked up to the orb and picked it up, but as soon as the orb was picked up it was absorbed by Mateo. Then Mateo collapsed and the last thing that could be seen was Mateo standing up and blasting a wave of fire that destroyed the camera. Mason took out his USB and downloaded the file, then Mason got out of the room and started to look for Elsie, but hallway after hallway she was nowhere to be found, but just when Mason assumed that she was with the others Mason saw a figure And shouted out "Elsie" he waited for a response, but then as he was about to run he was hit by a sleeping dart and was dragged away. Eric ran faster and faster to the cafeteria with the surgery equipment. Emely was near to bleeding out and Vanessa started to lose the strength she put into putting pressure on Emely's wound, but just when Gabriela was about to give up Eric came rushing in with the equipment and told Vanessa "Take off the bandages" and so she did. Then Eric set down the bag of surgery tools and started cutting open the wound blood started spewing out leaving blood everywhere, Eric kept on cutting deeper and deeper until final the shard was out, Eric started to stitch up the wound and the problem was avoided. Vanessa looked at Eric with a thankful face and hugged him, Eric was speechless. They hugged for seconds until a sleeping gas started flowing through the vents and into the cafeteria. Eric and Vanessa, still in the embrace did not notice the gas until it reached them. Then Eric started feeling a little tired and Vanessa started to collapse to the ground, then Eric noticed the gas and tried picking up Vanessa to run out the door, but he couldn't take it anymore and collapsed, Eric started to fall asleep, and the last thing Eric saw was a man with a gas mask entering the cafeteria then black. A couple hours later Eric woke up to the sound of Elsie's, Eric slowly opened his eyes and saw Emely in a buckled down stretcher and Mason, Elsie and Vanesa tied to pillars, then asked "what happened and where are we" and before Elsie could answer a man from the shadows said "Bueno eso depende de tu conocimiento de a donde te lleva la gente que te captura" Eric and Mason said at the same time "what" then vanessa said "Eric you are Cuban you out of everyone should know Spanish" Eric responded "yea, but I've never spoken or heard ever since the Porto Rico mission and why would I need to use Spanish in Greece" vanessa shook her head in disappointment. Then the man stepped out of the darkness and revealed his Identity, Mason recognized the man from the footage and said, "you're the man from the experiment Mateo" Mateo replied, "yes the one in only Mateo Gonzales." Eric looked at him and said "Mateo old buddy old pale what's up" Mateo responded "save it Eric you get no sympathy from me, you took everything from me and now I'm going to take everything from you, now who should I grab, hmm inni, mini, miny, the girl" then two men came out of the darkness and grabbed Gabriela, they dragged her to Mateo. Eric said "no Mateo please take me instead" Mateo then stepped towards Vanessa without responding to Eric, then stopped and lifted his hand. His hand burst into flames and then he swung, but then Richard came out he incinerated the ropes that tied him, Mason, Elsie, and vanessa to the pillar then charged at Mateo tackling him through the walls of the building until they were outside. Richard threw Mateo in the sky then flew up to him and punched him so hard to the ground that it collapsed the entire parking lot to the ground. Richard levitated to the ground and gave Eric control, then as Eric was walking back to the building the ground shook and the huge sinkhole busted in flames and out came Mateo and said, "my turn" Mateo charged at Eric, but Richard came out at the last second saving Eric. Richard went flying and landed in a nearby city destroying the road, then shortly after Mateo came in like a fire ball crashing in the ground sending a wave of fire that that turned the buildings into ash and the surrounding people into scorched atoms. Mateo stood up and every step he took burnt the ground, he walked through the ash with a grin in his face and said, "you're not the only one who has tricks Eric or should I say Richard" Richard replied "how do you know me" Mateo chuckled and said, "what your wife died Richard, but now you act as if she didn't have a family that had mourned her just like you did, that blame and hate for you and your family was passed down for generations, and your responsible for my great aunts death, she defended you and now you here you stand in your great descendant's body seeking redemption when there is none". Richard looked at Mateo and said, "I'm sorry It wasn't in my control" Mateo replied angrily " your sorry, oh if great grandmother Madelyn was here she would be sorry for you being this pathetic and a waste time you were, she was an idiot to let great aunt rose to marry you" Richard was new he was right but, the truth triggered Richard, his eyes turned purple and his hands were full of purple energy, then in a blink of eye Richard was gone, Mateo franticly looked around until he was frighted and started to fly away, but just when Mateo though he was safe Richard appeared in front of him, Mateo threw a punch that created a shockwave that sent the clouds so far away that it combined together and created a storm and cleared the rubble of the city. Richard was unfazed and then Richard lifted his hand then BOOM Richard flicked Mateo so hard that it sent Mateo flying miles away and shook the earth enough that the ground cracked and buildings that were miles away to shake and collapse. Richard cooled down and went back to the observatory. Eric gained back control and walked into the observatory, the destroyed walls of the observatory cracked and collapsed as Eric walked through. Then Eric heard the painful screaming of Mateo's men Echoing throughout the building and as Eric walked through a broken wall. Then he saw Elsie holding down one of Mateo's men shooting him and stood up to look at Eric to say, "we need to talk."