Power Outage

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Quick Inquiry

            “It should be somewhere around here,” said a confused Marvin, looking around an area outside of the Arcade, “You guys find anything?”

            “How are we supposed to find this thing if we don’t even know how it’s hidden?” Carol complained in another area, “What powers do you guys have? Maybe that’ll help.”

            “Well, I’m a linguist, so that’s no help, at least not yet anyway,” answered Allen the area next to Marvin.

            “Electric-Eyes, no good in searching, but saves money on the electric bill,” replied Marvin.

            “And you Alex, or are you just an Immune?” demanded Carol. An Immune is the 1 in 10 chance of the person not getting the virus that gives powers, fortunately for the Immunes, they are unaffected by Power-Users and have a lifespan that triples the average of 60 years to 180 years.

            “A, Actually, I have x-ray vision…” Alex mumbled close by to Carol.

            “Well, why don’t you use it?”

            “The thing is I don’t have control yet…”

            “What are the conditions for your powers to activate?”

            “She has to think of something perverted!” hollered Allen. Alex makes a glare at him.

            Something perverted… alright just this once. Carol had an idea. When Alex wasn’t looking, Carol takes the form of Damian and embraces Alex.

            “Eh!?!? What are you doing!?!?” Alex asked, really flustered.

            “Something perverted,” answer Carol, even the voice is extremely close to Damian’s, albeit a little higher, “So anything?”

            “No! I’m not that kind of person!” Alex struggled, but secretly liked the attention.

            Gotta kick it up a notch... Carol proceeds to necking Alex, but before it can escalate any further Carol is hit with a newspaper (amazing they’re still around) and goes back to her previous form.

            “You are gonna get an ear full later today.”

            “Mmkay… can I at least keep going? We need her x-ray vision to help the search.”

            “NO!!!” answered Alex and Damian at the same time, plus an additional hit by the newspaper. This time Carol was hit hard enough to hit the floor and make a large crack in it. “Is she going to be ok?” asked Alex concerned. So he has super-strength, eh? Gotta remember that…

            “She has Self-Reconstruction, she’ll be fine,” answered Damian.

            “Ugh, what the hell!?!?” yelled Carol, upon getting up looks perfectly fine, the floor itself also in pristine condition after it regenerates as well, “Where the hell did the newspaper come from? I thought they were discontinued in the United States since 2153.”

            “They were, but I still order from Gabon, which re-established the newspaper to pass untraceable messages to the resistance in 2184 during World War III.” (Please note that the choice in country was arbitrary and was selected randomly [i.e. Map of the world and a dart] and does not reflect any personal views).

            Carol groaned, “Your family just had to move there to aid the resistance, damn that was hell…”

            Then came another hit from the newspaper. “Don’t talk badly about Mom and Dad.”

            Carol, in tears, managed to grab the newspaper and takes it away from Damian, “You don’t think I know that!?!? I understood what they did! I just wished that the circumstances were different!”

            “Listen, I went too far, I’m sorry,” Damian said while giving Carol a hug, “which reminds me, why were you harassing Alex?”

            “Oh, umm, that’s because,” Carol’s voice lowers itself to a whisper, “Apparently her power only works when she thinks of something perverted. Kinda fitting.” Hehe~ I get a hug~

            “P,p,perverted?” stammered Damian, “A, and d, did any of your attempts do anything?” If it’s Carol, she could probably start something.

            “Umm… they did…” Alex answered, avoiding eye-contact with everyone, “Also… in the alleyway that has a lot of trash, there’s a door that wasn’t there earlier…”

            “Is that so? Let’s go check it out.”

            Alex goes ahead of them to make sure the door isn’t from the other side of the wall. When she puts her hand on the knob of the door, a circuitry pattern appears on the door. Alex feels as though she is going through something as she does this. She walks up as close to door as possible, with the feeling of going through something being stronger. Ok, think of something grotesque. When she did, Alex vomited in a nearby trash bin. She looked up from the trash bin and discovered that in a few inches from the front of the door, there is a one way wall with a Security-Grade Bypass-Wall, which is a wall that only lets people with the owner’s programmed conditions to go through (i.e. age, height, gender, etc.). So in this case, it’s only people with the Virus. Alex sees everyone down the alleyway trying to find her. She considers pulling a prank on whoever gets close to the wall, but decides not to since everyone will probably seriously harm her if she does. Instead, she sticks her head out the Bypass-Wall and calls them over.

            The group is in the room with the door, each person with their own thoughts on the room:

            Allen: And I thought the alley looked crappy…

            Carol: Good idea making this place look terrible so no one would want to be near it.

            Marvin: This place better be worth it.

            Damian: Whose idea was it to use a Bypass-Wall?

            Alex: I’m so excited~

            Marvin opens the door slowly. The door reveals another door, this time to an elevator. The elevator door opens and everyone goes inside. “There’s no buttons…”

            Both doors quickly close, before anyone can react. Just as quickly as they closed,  the doors open again, but with no one inside…