Project X

Chapter 1

"No! That's impossible!" My ears perked up at the sound of my father's frantic whispers ringing down the corridor. My brother and I were crouched behind the crisis relief station, trying not to get caught. Townhall was supposed to be closed for "government reasons", but when dad had suspiciously slipped out of the house, Brie and I just had to find out what he was doing.

"Maybe we should leave..." My twin trailed off nervously, his elbow-length hair floating, as he hopped from one foot to the other  in the corridor, he was always such a wimp. You would think that because we were born in the same year, on the same month, on the same day and within the same hour, we would be or even look anything alike. We are polar opposites, nothing alike.

Brie Manti is the epitome of your average too-good-to-be-true boy next door, or if you're on our side of the reef, 'Boy the next 20 klicks over'. The point is, my brother doesn't have one immoral bone in his body, he volunteers at the Marine help and rescue shelter every Wednesday, tutor's at the library, still keeps good grades and never breaks a rule ever. I, on the other hand, break every rule that can be broken...at least twice a week.

I just rolled my eyes and smirked at him, I wasn't going anywhere. "Come on Kale, we came, we listened, we found nothing" Then his left brow twitched, ever so slightly, like it always does when he's about to tell a big fat lie.  "I'm...bored..." More like scared out of your wits "Can we just go, now... please!?" He whisper-shouted slash begged.

"You can go if you want to, but things just got interesting," I murmured, which was true. All my senses are tingling and on edge, and when my brother gets nervous that means things are getting really good.

Brie shifted uncomfortably, his long black hair subtly swaying with the movement of the synthetic currents. Even after reading about underwater gravity, I'm still intrigued by how it works. Long ago, in the twenty-second century, the Third World War was pretty bad, so some of the best scientists, engineers and architects all over the world got together and created underwater safe places in the Caribbean sea. it wasn't until later on that they began building out into the Atlantic and eventually the Pacific ocean.

These safe spaces were constructed to withstand violent explosions and underwater storms, not to mention the water pressure, seeing as we live on the ocean floor. The gravity down here is less than that of Terra maximum, and the buildings down here adjust to that, mimicking the movement of a calm ocean current. "We might hear something that we shouldn't-"

"That's the best way of gathering information my dear brother! I'm staying." Brie combed his hand through his flowing locks in exasperation, "You are the single most annoyingly nosy girl in this municipality." Tucking long bluish-black hair behind my ear I smirked, "That's why you love me." My brother rolled his eyes, then vanished into the shadows, not before murmuring "It's your death wish". During this lovely conversation, I hadn't realized that the people were gone, disappearing behind a corner and inside the conference hall. Great! Getting up from my spot, I hid in the shadows while listening for any voices, since footsteps cant be heard on the collision absorbent material that all our floors were made of.

Eventually, I found the right room, which had a cacophony of voices coming from behind the doors. "...NASA has no say in this!" The mayor was shouting. Curious, I peeked through the crack in the doorway. There were fifty people in there, at least 88.8% of them were scientists among other government nerds, and politicians, And that was not counting the people on holo-call, who kept freezing in and out due to the horrible reception this close to the ocean floor. "We the people of Corral Bay govern our own problems--" My father chipped in.

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, Mr.  Morales." I recognized that voice, I would have to be stupid not to. Julian Dodgson, face of the organization. " The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is responsible for the earth's safety, this has everything to do with us, when the worlds safety is in question we govern your Coral Bay, or did you forget Anaebolian Treaty?"