Hi everyone! Thanks so much for taking a leap and looking into this new style of story. I have plenty more chapters to come so please be sure to read, review, and most importantly enjoy!
Prologue: Powerful Energies Discovered.
The desert sun beat down on them as they paced through the work site. The many workers dressed in head scarves or towels were stationed in pits armed with shovels and trowels digging through the sand, frantically searching for anything that Doctor Neutorium could use as evidence for his study. Doctor Neutorium wandered through the paths connecting the different excavation sites and was accompanied by the lead coordinator. In fear that his funding was going to dry up, Dr. Neutorium let out a groan as they passed yet another empty dig site.
"If I don't find anything soon I'm going to be an embarrassment to the Anthropology Department. They gave me all this money and I've found nothing," he sighed. He thought back to all of the teasing he faced back at the University. He remembered being made fun of by his faculty colleagues and even getting made fun of by the museum curator in a neighbouring city.
"You worry too much, just enjoy your vacation away from home. Enjoy these foreign lands, the time out in the sun, a break from your wife!" The man joked and tried to lighten the mood. Instead, Dr. Neutorium just sighed. He once again began pacing around the dig sites with the lead excavator. As he passed each empty site he began to feel more and more hopeless, truly believing that both his career and his life were over.
All of this changed when he walked past a medium sized plot. Inside buried in the sand was a metallic shine. Without hesitation Dr. Neutorium dove into the pit and began digging with his hands. With each scoop of sand he cheered and celebrated. He believed that he had finally found items that showed early modern humans occupied these lands. His loud cheering attracted the attention of almost everyone in the camp. People began gathering around the edge of the pit eager to see what Dr. Neutorium had found. As he lifted the artifact out of the sand he let out a loud cheer holding it above his head. Everyone watching began jumping for joy and hugging one another. After spending nearly a month in the hot desert sun they had finally found something. Dr. Neutorium began to inspect the item and take notice to its features. The artifact he held above his head was a metal pendant with what appeared to be a worn out leather strip looped through it and tied at the back. His enthusiasm however, seemed to halt upon further inspection of the pendant. On the back side he found engraving. The engraving was in a foreign language, but all hope of it being ancient disappeared when the engraving was followed up by a date, from 1972. As he stopped cheering all of the other people around the pit slowly stopped cheering as well. He was in utter disbelief that he was holding something from only 40 years ago. He snapped back into reality after one of the workers walked up and plucked it out of his hand. "That's where I left my Father's necklace," he celebrated and broke the silence. He quickly ran out of the hole when he met the glare of Dr. Neutorium.
"Tough break boss! You really had me going there," the lead excavator exclaimed.
"Shut up and just help me out of this hole," Dr. Neutorium snapped. The lead excavator extended him a hand and helped pull him out of pit. "Way to go, because of you everyone thinks I'm a joke!"
"You haven't found anything in a month! People already don't believe in you," The excavator responded.
The two squabbled as the entire camp watched. Just as the argument reached it's peak, the high noon sun began to fade out and the wind started to pick up. The two men looked up and watched as dark clouds began to move in over the camp site. Over the horizon the the sand was rushing over the dunes and the hills as giant dust clouds began to form."Get inside! Save all the equipment you can," Dr. Neutorium yelled over the wind as he tried to make his way back to his trailer. The lead excavator echoed the Doctor's orders as he helped the workers at the campsite grab the equipment before making his way back to his trailer.
Dr. Neutorium cowered in the bathroom of his trailer while the storm raged on. He looked out the window and all he saw was a sea of dust swirling in every direction. With each roaring gust of wind the trailer shook back and forth. With each tremor getting more and more violent the Doctor began to wonder if he was ever going to leave this trailer on his own two legs. Sitting on the floor with his head in between his legs, he covered his head sitting and waiting for something to decide his fate. The wind picked up once again and the trailer began to shake. The Doctor covered his ears and closed his eyes as the storm raged on and on.
All of the sudden there was nothing. Dr. Neutorium removed his hands from his ears and listened. He couldn't hear a single sound. He thought he couldn't see anything either until he realized he was just holding his eyes shut. He stood up and finally opened his eyes seeing the interior of his trailer. At the very least he knew he was still alive. Looking out the window he saw the desert light shining brightly again. He slowly walked toward the door of his trailer, placed his hand on the handle, and opened it revealing the excavation camp.
Destroyed was the only adjective he could possibly think of when he stepped back into the desert sun. In front of him he found over turned tents and buried equipment and scanners. As he walked through the devastation he found that more and more people were coming out of their trailers to see if the storm had finally subsided. Each location that had once been a pit was now occupied by a short sand dune. The Doctor lost his mind. He began throwing whatever tools hadn't been buried in the sand around the campsite. He was yelling about how his life was over and how he knew that he'd never get funding ever again. While throwing his fit he tripped over a piece of buried equipment and fell face first in the sand.
Everyone's lives were about to be changed forever because of what happened next. As the Doctor lifted his head from the sand he found himself looking straight into what appeared to be a clay handle. Thinking it was just another piece of jewellery he pulled it out of the ground. As he lifted this pot from the sand he began to notice ancient hieroglyphs and markings all throughout the surface of the pot. "These markings…. They are hieroglyphs! There was an ancient civilization here! I knew it I knew it," he yelled as he returned to his knees and once again began digging with his hands. All of the workers began gathering around the Doctor murmuring to one another excitedly. Their hard work had finally paid off and they finally had something worthy of noting. "I want a twenty five metre radius set up here! Lets get moving people we just made the find of the Century!" Dr. Neutorium called out to the crew standing by. Each and every person began running to grab their tools and ran to set up the perimeter in order to excavate the find.
The crew had spent the rest of the day, most of the night, and the whole day excavating the established perimeter. The sun had finally set on the second night and all of the spotlights were dug out from the dust storm and were set up. The Doctor and the lead excavator were standing in front of the ancient artifacts that they had collected. The Doctor stood on the phone in a very heated argument, "Mr. Mayor it is very clear that ancient modern humans used to occupy these lands. Yes! We found ancient artifacts and pieces of architecture it suggests that they ate, cooked, and settled here… Mr. Mayor, what I'm telling you is, if you get us this exhibit in your museum you are going to be housing the discovery of the century! Thank you Mr. Mayor, you won't regret this!" Doctor Neutorium hung up the phone and walked over to the lead excavator, "Have your men work on getting these items packed up and ready to send back home. Make sure they're extremely careful!"
"Can do boss," the man replied. " Say what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to go back to the trailer with this piece and begin the note taking process." Doctor Neutorium exclaimed as he picked up a small artifact that looked as if a semi-spherical dome was placed on top of a rectangular box. "This one is just so… alluring." The Doctor returned to his trailer and sat at his desk. He placed the artifact on the desk under his lamp light and began to start taking notes. As he set the artifact down, the lamp began to dim and brighten very slowly. Starting to get annoyed with the light he goes to move the lamp when it begins to flicker on and off very quickly until he flips the switch and turns off the light. He returns to writing down his observations when he receives a panicked knock at the door. Out of frustration he walked over to the door and threw it open to find the face of a distraught worker.
"Doctor! All of the equipment is shot! It's all on the fritz!" The worker exclaimed. Without hesitation Doctor Neutorium ran past him out of the trailer and out to the artifacts.
The spotlights sitting above the artifacts were flickering on and off and the screens connected to the equipment were experiencing a lot of interference. As he approached the artifacts the lead excavator followed up behind him. "What is going on here?" The Doctor asked.
"I don't know boss…" he answered. From his pocket he began to hear a series of loud beeps. He then pulled out a short sensor device. With each step he took closer to the artifacts the sensor began to beep louder and more irregularly.
"Let me see that!" Doctor Neutorium barked. He looked at the screen on the sensor and noticed the line fluctuating up and down at a rapid pace. "It almost seems as if these artifacts are emitting some sort of… energy field thats interrupting the sensor, this makes this find even more incredible" he thought aloud.
The lead excavator turned to him and asked, "energy field? What do you know about them?"
"Almost nothing. But, I know someone who does! My cousin is the leading expert and researcher on energy waves and energy fields. I'll have to give him a call!" He boasted.
"You're cousins with the famous Professor Utonium?!"
"Professor Utonium… I haven't called him that in a while. But yes, I'm trying to remember where he worked out of again…. Townipality? Cityscape? That sounds right. I'll give him a call." Without hesitation The Doctor pulled out his phone and dialled up his cousin. "oh my dear cousin have I got a proposition for you… Listen, listen listen! Don't say no yet! I made the discovery of the Century and these items seem to be emitting some sort of energy… Ahh yes, I knew that would draw you in. Well guess what, these are going to be on a plane headed to Cityscape all for you to study…. What? Really? I swear that was it…. Fine, let my try again. These artifacts are going to be shipped out back home for you to study, all the way to New Townsville!"