Mode Ryuu

Episode 1 : e v o l u t i o n

Chapter 1 – Digital Fire

"Nothing important happened today."

-written by King George III of England on July 4th, 1776, the day America declared its independence

The hospital stood practically in a giant lake. Rain had been falling in glittering sheets for the past week, pounding the grass in a constant effort to flatten the world, and oftentimes people's spirits. Inside the building, things were running like clockwork. Nurses and doctors ran around attending to the usual ailments, as well as an unusually full burn ward and it didn't stop there. Calls were continuously coming in with people requesting –and often times demanding- to add a family member to the list of those scored. At first, hospital personnel thought it a joke that so many were being brought in. But after seeing patients with third degree burns, and then the most recent fourth degree, the police were informed to investigate.

Unfortunately, witnesses were no help for by the time any sort of officer was at the scene, both witness and victim were dazed and took up to half an hour to actually acknowledge another person. Even then they could not recall a thing. Needless to say, doctors and officers were about ready to pull their hair out.

On this particular day a nurse by the name of Artemis was yet again on the phone dealing with whoever was having conniptions at the time. Frowning as she finished the conversation, Artemis hung up the phone and began muttering to herself as she walked to her next destination. "Rain brings out the worst in everyone. Think they'd get used to it by now…"

Rounding a corner, Artemis promptly bumped into someone walking the opposite direction. She gave a small yelp of surprise and pinwheeled her arms, falling backwards. But she didn't fall far, the newcomer snatched out a hand and Artemis was able to regain her balance.

"Sorry about that," Artemis apologized, "I didn't see you coming around the corner!"

Now Artemis was able to get a good look at who she had collided with. She was a tall woman –taller than most of the men working at the hospital- with green eyes and long dark brown hair that hung down her back with some of it gathered in a loose bun at the back of her head. There was a distinct sense of, well, oddness, for lack of a better word, around the woman. She wore black slacks, heels and vest, with a white shirt underneath, the cuffs rolled up past her elbows. On her left arm, extending from her wrist to just shy of her elbow was what looked like some sort of metal armband or –here Artemis searched through the part of her memory concerning science fiction- a wrist communicator.

"That's quite all right…" the woman smiled offhandedly and seemed to be looking everywhere at once.

Artemis blurted out the only question she could think of, "Are you a lawyer?"

The woman blinked and smiled. "I guess you could say that."

The hospital intercom sounded, nearly inaudible through its decaying system. Artemis cocked her head, listening for the summons she knew was coming. Two seconds into the announcement she grimaced as she heard her name.

Turning back to the woman, Artemis dipped her head slightly. "I need to go, but again I'm sorry about the whole-" she made motions with her hands, "collision thing."

"Don't worry about it."

With that said, Artemis turned around and made her way toward her next patient.

It was nearing the end of the day, and Artemis was ready to go home hours ago. Things had gotten relatively quiet and patients seemed to have taken that as their cue to start complaining about everything. She was about ready to start screaming.

IThe tall woman's still here…/Ishe thought, rounding the corner.

There was the "tall woman", staring intently straight ahead. Curiosity overcoming her, Artemis sidled up next to the woman to see what was so interesting.

Two swinging doors stood before them, which she immediately recognized as the hallway to the burn ward. Through the windows and cracks around the doors, Artemis saw a pulsing golden light shining through.

"What the-" she began.

The woman interrupted. "Actually I'd stay out of this if I were you."

Artemis shut her mouth and stared silently at the door, waiting.

"Ready…" The woman tensed up.

"For what?"

The two swinging doors burst open.

"For that!"

A stream of red light cut through the air, crashing through the door and heading straight for the two.

Artemis dodged, throwing herself toward the wall. The stream of light missed her, but grazed across the right arm of the woman, then passed and collided into the floor behind them sending up pieces of tile amid sparks of red and yellow. Artemis looked toward the woman and saw her on the floor gripping her right arm where she could see blood slowly seeping through her shirt and staining her hand.

"Are you alright? Artemis asked, rushing over.

"Just peachy." The reply came through gritted teeth.

Artemis turned to see what had attacked them.

There in the midst of the cracked tile, stood a small, reddish-orange animal that looked like a cross between a cat and a dog, but with larger ears that stood straight up.

She stood slowly, helping the woman do the same. "How cute!" Artemis took a careful step toward the creature.

"GET BACK!!"

The woman yelled and pushed Artemis back to the ground. "I said leave this to me!"

Artemis remained sitting on the ground as she watched the woman stand in front of her. Her right arm was still bleeding but seemed to be mobile.

The creature perked its ears. A masculine voice sounded from behind the swinging doors.

"Sam! Samantha!"

The woman suddenly looked irritated, she looked toward the doors keeping one eye on the creature.

"Aaryn!?" She yelled back, "What the hell are you doing in there?"

The supplier of the voice –whom Artemis could only guess was Aaryn- poked his head out from behind one of the swinging doors. "I chased it out. What are you doing?"

Samantha stared back at him flatly.

Artemis glanced back and forth between Aaryn and the woman who she thought was Samantha. Samantha remained with a look of annoyance on her face. Aaryn smiled cheerfully and stepped out in front of the doors. He was considerably shorter than Samantha, with blonde hair and unusual golden eyes. Artemis noted that he wore a uniform similar to the woman's, a black suit. She took back her conjecture from before, definitely not lawyers.

A growl sounded from behind them. Artemis, Samantha, and Aaryn brought their attention back to the little creature. Samantha sighed and looked sidelong at Aaryn.

"So… How should we do this?"

Aaryn exchanged the glance. "You mean how should you do it?"

"More or less."

"Well, this is just my personal opinion, but I think killing it would be in good order."

"Right then."

With much gusto, Samantha swung her left arm up pointing straight to the ceiling. Before her a clear blue screen appeared.

"Like a holograph…" Artemis whispered.

Swinging her arm down Samantha pointed at the creature.

"TRI-ATTACK!!"

At those words three small points of light formed in different corners of the screen, red, blue, and yellow. The points of light moved inward and joined together in the center of the screen. At that moment, the screen pulsed and one beam of blinding white light leaped from its vantage point and drove toward the creature. The little animal's eyes went wide and its mouth went open in a silent snarl. The light connected and the world disappeared as Artemis shielded her eyes.

Lowering her arm from before her eyes Artemis saw the destruction from that one beam of light. The hall was crumbling around her, and Samantha and Aaryn were standing, both grinning, in the middle of it. "What did you-" she stood up, but the other two were busy caught up in their own handiwork.

"That was great!" Aaryn exclaimed happily.

Samantha shared the same exuberant attitude. "One of our best explosions to date!"

Samantha turned to the holographic screen. Putting her hands up as if to type on a keyboard, a similar screen appeared only this time horizontally instead of vertically like the first. There were no keys, just a solid sheet of blue, but her hands found purchase and were greeted with a darker blue flash where they hit. Moving her hands as if she were typing on a regular computer, she brought up a floor plan of the hospital and a blinking red light was shown moving toward them.

"Shakira's coming." She noted.

By this time, other hospital personnel had started gathering, watching this surreal spectacle unfold. Samantha and Aaryn looked at each other, then at the audience. Both looked quite embarrassed.

"Shakira!" Samantha's attention switched from the majority to a single woman that had parted her way through the crowd.

The woman had long wavy blonde hair to just past her shoulders, and the unusual golden eyes Artemis had seen Aaryn with. This woman however, was not wearing anything close to the black suits Samantha and Aaryn wore. She wore a green turtleneck with a long black skirt. Guessing by Samantha's familiarity with her, Artemis figured this was Shakira.

Shakira looked around the hall. "Taking in the destruction, you were successful?"

"You didn't have to put it that way," Samantha replied, "but, yes, one third class, limited fire demon eliminated!"

Shakira nodded her head. "Good." A look of alarm passed over her face as she looked at the holographic screen. "Sam…"

Samantha remembered her "computer" and turned just in time to see the two screens flicker and disappear. She stood with her mouth open for half a second. "WHAT HAPPENED!" Raising her left arm up to her chest, she began pressing randomly on the metal armband. She looked up.

"I can't bring it back up. The whole computer systems down."

"Doesn't Porygon run your system?" Aaryn questioned.

"Yeah… and if the system wont respond… something must've happened to Porygon…"

Artemis stepped in. "A Pokémon runs your system?" She asked with a tone of pessimism.

Samantha flinched. "Aaryn, perhaps we should finish up here and go see what the problem is."

Now it was Shakira's turn to flinch. "I'm sure we can solve the problem without returning to MIB headquarters-" She was cut off by a look from Samantha. "Fine. I refuse to stay there for long though."

Samantha smiled. "All right then! Aaryn, if you please."

Aaryn reached into his coat pocket and brought out a small metal cylinder. Pressing a button, a compartment on the top popped out, elongating it. "And our excuse this time is…" He left the question hanging.

"I dunno, make something up. As for you," Samantha turned to Artemis, "Are most of the hospital personnel here?"

"Yes, but-" Artemis answered tentatively.

Samantha smiled. "It's nothing you need to worry about."

"What's going on?"

"You wouldn't remember if I told you." The same sympathetic smile on her face. "Aaryn?"

Aaryn raised the metal cylinder in front of him. "Now if you all would please look directly at this little thing I like to call a neuralyzer, all your questions will be answered."

Aaryn, along with Samantha and Shakira quickly put on dark sunglasses. The neuralyzer flared. And it all returned to white.