Arc 2: Curse of the Chandeliers, Part 1

Notes: This happens in November 2049. Thanks to Detective Gemini for the character William, as he wasn`t originally part of it, but can have a good use.

A biplane landed near a pyramid. As soon as the plane stopped moving, the door opened, revealing a scientist in the usual outfit, the white vest with buttons, the black pants and the shoes without shoelaces. He had a small scar on the left cheek. He looked young; he was certainly below thirty years old.

The man pulled a map from his overfilled backpack, and looked at it. He thought for some time, folded the map back and put it in his backpack. That pyramid hid something important in the chamber. The scientist knew it. Actually, it was the exact reason why he came here. Reports of explorers who entered this place but never came back had been numerous. Very few of them were able to come back, and they told stories of advanced mechanisms, powerful forces and devilish traps. It was a miracle if they were still alive.

Whatever was in the pyramid, the scientist was ready: intense physical and mental training to avoid panicking and face many dangers that would require the body. If it was not enough, his backpack would contain something that would help him – or he hoped so.

He solved the simple riddle that was supposedly locking up the door, and entered. Inside, a simple hallway was waiting for him since five thousand years. However, as soon as the door closed behind him, he turned on a flashlight, which would let him see in the dark. He walked in the hallway until he walked on a brick in the floor and a mechanism was turned on.

It was a simple of design yet ingeniously dangerous trap: blocs fell from the ceiling and hit the floor before rising back to the ceiling with the same speed. The scientist had read somewhere that this trap was tricky as only a slight opening of five blocks was free from harm. And at the speed it was going, he had to run as soon as the first block was back on the ceiling. The first block fell down, so the scientist got ready to sprint. And as the block rose back, he started running. His thought were limited to "don`t turn back". He ran at the right speed, the blocks in front of him were rising at the same speed and the blocks behind were falling on the same beat. He finally reached the end, and he was astonished by the complexity of this trap; the Egyptians who designed it must have been geniuses. Behind him, the blocs kept falling and rising for a minute and stopped.

The scientist went through many passageways without letting any trap get him, and he reached the final trap; this one was permanently on, and the scientist was surprised to see how imaginative it was. It reminded him of that television game show forty years ago, when players had to pass through walls in which were holes forming shapes. However here there was no wall; only javelins coming out of the walls, the ceiling and the floor to form shapes. Johnny jumped through a series of javelins that formed first a square, then a circle, then an upside-down triangle, a lozenge, and finally, it was a star that popped up. It was extremely dangerous as Johnny heard some of those javelins` blades had been covered with a poisonous fluid.

Finally he passed through the star-shaped hole, and reached the room where the Pharaoh rested. The long chest the decomposed body slept in was surrounded by two strange objects of a gold color bearing the Horus eye. Those objects were the reason the scientist went through all that. He had emptied his bag from a multitude of tools as he was going through the many traps. He put one of the items in his now empty bag and held the other one in his arms. He knew there had to be some kind of way to open a secret passageway here and he finally found it. He pushed the brick, which triggered a series of rumblings and opened a door to a passage.

The scientist followed the path, hoping it was going to send him out of the pyramid; however the exit was locked, and the secret door had closed behind him as well. However he knew there might be such a trap at the end, which is why he had brought a few artisanal bombs. He put one near the exit. A series of scientific calculations could let him predict the impact of the bomb at different places and so he could decide of the least damaging spot. He triggered the bomb, went a few steps back and waited. He knew the shaking from the bomb could cause some things to collapse, so to avoid getting stuck again, he ran out just before the new exit was closed again by a small mountain of boulders.

The scientist ran to his biplane, carefully placed the items near him, and piloted the plane to who knows where.

***

"Welcome to my world, guys!" Batara said. "Welcome to the E.A.S.E. Island." Batara is a member of the E.A.S.E., the Earthly Association of Scientific Experts.

"That`s it?" Michael said, astonished. "That`s awesome."

Kevin yawned. "It`s not worth those evil scientist castle or those supervillains headquarters," he said with irony. "Really, there`s nothing too interesting here." This offended Batara, who turned to his friend.

"Then just leave, the boat is there. We scientists have worked all our youth to be able to enter this place. We sacrificed parties, relationships, and anything cool to be part of this! We had to prove we could make discoveries that would change a lot!"

Kevin "pfft"ed. "So you are all some kind of old, ugly nerds, right?"

A gorgeous blonde woman passed near them. "Hello kids. Hello Batara," she said, and left. She was holding blueprints under her left arm and had a wrench in her scientist blouse`s pocket. Kevin and Michael were surprised by her beauty.

"Veronica Valentine, French scientist, twenty-four years old. What were you saying about nerds already, Kevin?"

"Uh… I forgot," the teenager, red like a tomato, babbled.

"Thought so," the small scientist replied. "We worked all our life to enter this place but we had no idea it existed until we were. It`s one of the UN`s most secret locations. Here we all meet up once a year to show our most important discovery – and we come here whenever we feel like it to make experiment or ask for the help of other scientists. It`s cool, isn`t it?"

"It sure is!" Michael said happily.

"There`s nothing great here, where`s the action? The weird machines?" Kevin asked.

Batara frowned. "Kevin, you are getting on my nerves. Be careful what you wish for or else I will send you in the maximum security monster prison, and you will get scarred for life."

Batara brought them near the tower. It was an immense tower, it was over a hundred meters tall, and it was very large. On an island in the very middle of the South Pacific Ocean, such a tower should be seen easily. Michael asked the question to the scientist.

"Well, you are right on this, Michael. However, one of the very first creations from the Elders was some sort of machine that hid completely the island from view. Did I mention it is not even a true island?"

"You`re kidding, Batara," Kevin said.

"No, I`m serious here," the scientist replied. "Listen, this "island" is called a remote island because it is not a real one. It has all been built in the UN headquarters around the nineties, and sent here. The tower was at first a small place; it grew to a tall tower with time."

Michael was impressed by everything. The total IQ of the humans here would have totaled ten thousand if one was to count. Kevin also was slowly getting impressed by everything here. But he was stuck at the mention of a maximum security prison. Something like that, on an island full of scientists? Impossible, at least in his opinion.

"Batara, you mentioned a prison here?" he asked his friend.

The scientist smirked. "We are scientists, we are brilliant, but we are humans, we make mistakes…and some of our mistakes revolve around laboratory creation of monsters of any kind; robotic, mutant, cell degeneration, etcetera. Those past three months, you haven`t seen Despair or his brothers Sorrow, Anger and Revenge in my laboratory – I called the E.A.S.E. guardian William to come, get them, and send them in a protection cell down there."

"That`s cool!" Kevin said. "Is there any way to go and visit this… security prison?"

Batara sighed. "If only – horror fans would be on cloud nine! But those creatures are extremely scary and some of them are powerful, should I add dangerous, with abilities that would scare a normal adventurer. William is the only person here who can go there and not even be scared at all. He went back and forth in this place so often that he`s not scared by anything anymore," the scientist ended. "You`d arrive in his back silently and yell "Boo!" or comically put a hand on his shoulder, and he would not react."

Batara stopped near a pitch-black door. The door was solidly closed by a lock, and nothing could be heard from it. Batara yelled at William, who arrived immediately without any surprise. William unlocked the door, leaving a pale light enter the room. All Kevin could see was a set of stairs, leading to a small hallway, and nothing beyond this. However the thunder of roars, of monstrous screams and robotic clicks rose to them. William closed the door as if he had heard nothing.

"You see? That`s why we never let anyone visit this place. Unless you`re deaf and blind, you`ll be scared out of your skin," William explained. He locked the door again, and let the shocked teenagers and the terrorized scientist catch their breath, as they had been scared. "Heh. It always does that to everyone," he said, smirking. "You better get used to this; a new boarder arrives in this prison each year, if not two or three." On this, William left, with the key to this monster prison in his pocket.

"What else can be found here, Batara?" Kevin asked, still shocked by the combined yell of a hundred errors of science.

"Well, farther there we can find a small battle coliseum, where rival scientists can fight with battle robots. A good way to stop a feud and decide who`s the winner as you must carefully pick your robot in the many choices and defend against your opponent`s strategy. Other than that, there are some sport fields and a nature spot for the scientists who need to test something out of a laboratory or the tower. There is a hangar for our airborne and waterborne creations, and we also hide some battleships there. I almost forgot, there`s a park."

"A park? Here?" Michael wondered out loud.

"Yes, Michael. However I heard it was not only used for getting fresh air. It has a way to defend in case all Hell breaks loose here, but I have not seen it yet. Enough about the outside for now. Come inside."

Batara and his friends walked to the main door, a solid metallic door the could only be unlocked from a scientist`s fingerprints. Batara walked to the lock, put his right hand`s small fingers in the five small holes, and the door opened. The teenagers couldn`t believe it. It was huge! And it was only the ground floor`s room. It contained one stand for every country, and all the countries had between one and ten scientists – hence the small size of some and the size of some bigger ones like the United States stand, which contained place for eight scientists. They walked to the France stand, which had three seats. For now, of course.

"New members of the E.A.S.E. must have discovered something of importance. That`s how they become part of the association. One of the newest members, a resident from France named Johnny Jones – I`ll let you guess where he was from before moving to France – entered the association some time ago. I don`t remember what he discovered, it was just okay for him to come in the gang, but borderline. Sort of."

The Germany stand was just in front of the France one. They had only two seats.

"It`s funny because Veronica Valentine, the woman you have seen when you arrived, and Hyeronimus Hetmann, a true German, are the same age. I think there`s good chemistry between them. I have even seen him hand her a small paper where it was written "Ich liebe dich" one day." (Search for it on a translator… *small laugh*)

Kevin and Michael really thought this place was cool now. Kevin more doubted on it. When Michael asked what was on the higher floors, Batara smirked.

"Well, I can`t tell you everything because we scientists can access only a few select spots. There is a large projection room, where a scientist can explain how his machine works thanks to a super powerful computer in which we can download plans and any type of media from a USB key or something similar. We also have a big conference room where the Elders and some scientists can join and talk about serious matters. Incoming threats, funerals for dead scientists, the decision on the ones that can become scientists… As for the rest, I don`t know much. Pretty much anything can be found."

Batara paused. "Also, the five underground floors are high-tech laboratories so the scientists here can make experiments and complete their creation, maybe ameliorate them if needs be. It`s like a tiny country for scientists. Awesome, isn`t it?"

"There`s just one thing I need to know, Batara," Michael began. "You mentioned Elders… who are they?"

"Well, the five oldest members of the E.A.S.E. form some sort of council where they regularly meet up and take the most important decisions for the whole island. Should we ameliorate the defense system? Should we add one more level to the tower? The oldest for now, named Miyaru Shigemoto, is the only one remaining from the five Great Elders, the founders of the E.A.S.E. in 1989. Apparently, the Eldest, who is the oldest member obviously, knows all of the E.A.S.E.`s deepest secrets. They are some really scary secrets, and usually we are not allowed to know about them. The Elders also decide, for the growth of humanity, which discoveries can be shared with the world without any danger or long-term aftereffects. Oranic`s youth serum is part of what can`t be shared yet. Imagine all the people who would kill for this type of product!"

On this, Batara decided they had seen enough of this place; non-scientists could not visit more of the tower than the main room on the ground floor, at best the cafeteria, and the restrooms if needed. However, they were about to leave when Veronica Valentine entered the main room and sat on her chair, in the France stand. She had a strange look on the face. Batara approached her. Kevin and Michael blushed at her beauty. She was always gorgeous.

"What`s going on?" He asked to Veronica.

"Well, two things… first, the blueprints apparently have a few mistakes and I have to re-do them so it works, and two: that stupid newcomer, Johnny Jones, the most recent French scientist, well he is gone who knows where and he forgot new scientists have to let us know where they go. He`s acting like a teenager."

"Don`t be angry at him, he`s just beginning. And so are you. You entered the E.A.S.E. at twenty. You just escaped the youth duty. By the way, sorry to break the subject, but… how is it doing with Hyeronimus?"

"Well, he swore he would soon be with me in a nice French restaurant, but as of now all I have seen from him is schnitzels. I hope he`ll like the food of my country. Anyway yeah, that Johnny`s acting childish. If you see him, remind him the rules, okay?"

"I`ll do that. I`ll leave with my friends now. Goodbye, Vero."

"See you later, Batara," the woman scientist answered. Batara walked to the exit, followed by his friends (who were hiding their blushes), and let them exit first. They got in Batara`s private jet which rested in a hangar, and left for Three-Rivers.

***

This had been a short trip, yet in Three-Rivers, it was very late. They arrived around midnight. Luckily Kevin and Michael`s parents knew they would arrive late. Luckily the following day was a Sunday. Michael planned to go to the city library to get some books to read.

The teenagers left on their bicycles and drove directly to the library, where they locked their bicycle on racks and entered. It was a nice library, not as big as the ones in the US but still with enough pages to let a human have enough reading for his whole life. Michael asked where the section on legends was. He got an answer and walked directly to the place where those books were held.

"Why do you like books so much, Michael? In our time, they should all be virtual books, right?" Kevin asked.

"Many are virtual books, yes, but many of the best books just can`t be found virtually. If I want a good read, I must come here and pick through the selection."

They arrived on the place where books about legends were carefully placed. Quebec legends, Asia`s mysteries, creatures of the world, religions and facts about ancient civilizations… Michael always loved coming to the library, but this was one of the best spots ever. Michael zoomed through the collection of books, and he finally found a brick, big enough to be a dictionary, which was titled "Legends of Yesterday`s Cultures". It was very old, as if it dated from 1950. If the library wasn`t regularly cleaned up, it would have been very dusty. No recent edition could be found.

Kevin wondered why such an old book was kept here. Uninterested, he looked around and saw a cute, brown-haired girl with a ponytail. He was about to go to her and say hello, when Michael reminded him about the fact that they were in a library, not a chatroom.

Michael went to the counter to take the book home, showed his library card, and left with the book in his backpack. He left with Kevin towards Batara`s laboratory.

They arrived at the small scientist`s small house, and knocked. Fastos opened the door and greeted them inside. Batara was in the living room, watching his big satellite television. He saw his friends.

"Oh, hi guys, what`s up?"

Michael sat on the sofa and pulled the big book from his bag. He started reading it, carefully flipping the pages.

"Nothing much," Kevin answered. "And you?"

"Well…" He zapped to the international news on his television. The anchorman was announcing that a tiny tornado had hit Berlin.

"That`s where Hyeronimus was doing some research when we were visiting the E.A.S.E. I wonder how Veronica is taking the news. He escaped in time, but he`s psychologically stressed now."

He flipped to another channel. An earthquake had caused many damages to a small portion of an African village. Strangely, the epicenter was a research center planning on purifying the water of Africa.

"One of the American scientists was there. The E.A.S.E. reported that about ten scientists have been attacked by natural disasters. And the number is slowly rising. I fear there`s some kind of conspiracy behind all that. It scares me, as I am always afraid something is going to happen to me." Batara jumped on the sofa. "That`s why, tomorrow evening, as I`ll be testing something at the city`s downtown docks, I`ll bring you two with me."

"What?" Michael said, lifting the eyes off his book.

"Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow?" Batara said. "I have no crystal ball."

Kevin sighed. "Ah, come on, Batara! We`ll probably have homework to do!"

"I`m gonna help you then. I will contact your parents and omit the part about the danger. I`ll just say I need two more people for the experiment. Come on, guys, you gotta help me on that one."

Kevin and Michael sighed. "Okay…" they said. Michael remembered Kevin still had not seen the docks.

"Kevin, you`ll see, Three-Rivers` docks are really cool. You can access the Old Three-Rivers by there and see everything at kilometers around. There`s also many cool restaurants." Michael kept reading the book once more. It will take him a whole month to read that book the size of a dictionary! Batara noticed the old book.

"What is this, Michael?" Batara asked. Michael explained what it was, showed the title to Batara, and kept reading. "Wow, it really looks interesting…" Batara noted.

"Well… it`s just so great. I read in the few first pages that cavemen invented the concept of gods when they tried to understand how everything around them could exist or could happen. A good part of this encyclopedia is about the Greek, Egyptian, Roman and Norse mythologies. It`s extremely interesting."

Kevin yawned. All he liked was action. Of course, all the talking was getting him bored.

"Well, nothing in this book can be very useful, but it is perfect for personal culture," Batara noted. "However, is there anything that is not known yet in this book? I mean, we all heard about the legend of the bewitched canoe, because it`s from Quebec, but what about more… ancient legends that we might have never heard of?"

"Well…" Michael began. "There`s a complete section further where legends created by people of the twentieth century are told, and there is also a section about legends that have never been proven or from which the author himself is unsure of."

"Well, it`s like a fantasy book…" Batara said. "If it is not science-fiction in which I can spot the impossible details or books about quantum physics or multiple sciences, I`m not interested. There is nothing to understand in fantasy books, only a story and impossible events."

Michael seemed offended at first until he remembered his friend was a scientist, and he closed the book. "Anyway, we will leave soon. We were just passing by."

"Well, see you tomorrow, then," Batara said. "Oh wait, don`t you have a free day tomorrow?"

Michael pulled his agenda from his backpack (Kevin momentarily wondered why he was traveling it around), and looked at the upcoming week. "Batara, you`re right! We don`t have school tomorrow… well, we will go help you earlier then."

"Well, goodbye, Batara," Kevin said, leaving. Michael followed. Batara told them goodbye from the doorway and Fastos, even though it was not part of his tasks, waved them goodbye.

***

On the way back, Kevin and Michael stopped by a small park. Kevin immediately noticed something.

"Hey, Michael, look at that! I think I have seen something good."

"What is it?" Michael asked until he looked in the same direction as Kevin. "Your Casanova side is popping up again, isn`t it?"

Kevin was talking about a brunette girl about the age of thirteen, just like them. She was sitting on a bench in the small park, reading a book… Mary Shelley`s Frankenstein.

"It`s the same girl I have seen at the library!" Kevin said. The teenager from Vermont looked at her once more. Her brown hair in a ponytail married perfectly her brown eyes. She had a wonderful face, and was faintly smiling as she was reading an excellent part of her book. Her long-sleeved shirt was more of a pink color. She also wore black jogging pants, as it was somewhat cold outside. It was only the first week of November after all; it was hot enough for that. And besides, the snow hadn`t begun yet falling.

"She`s not ugly, huh?" Kevin whispered to Michael.

"No, she`s not. She`s cute."

"It`s weird, I have the feeling that I have seen her before…" Kevin began.

"I think I have seen her as well, she`s also in Sainte-Esperance High School. I think I have seen her in a hallway."

"She`s really cute," Kevin began. "You think I should go see her?"

Michael comically pushed him toward her. She was at many meters of distance, and that push was only a way to tell him to go for it. Kevin approached the girl. "Um… hi."

She kept reading her book.

"How are you doing?"

She lifted the eyes off her book. "I`m doing well. Now excuse me, I am at a good part of the book where the monster explains how he learned everything by watching a family."

Kevin looked embarrassed. "Oh, sorry. Is it good?"

"Yes, it`s very good; I always liked science fiction, it`s my favorite type of book – but nothing beats when there`s romance added to it," she answered.

"So, do you live somewhere in Three-Rivers?" Kevin asked.

"Well, of course; how else would I come here by foot?" she asked rhetorically. "Now, if you excuse me, I would like to keep reading."

"Oh, sorry," Kevin said, blushing, and he left to Michael. Behind him, Kathy lifted the eyes off the text again and looked at him going away.

"Well, man, she sure was cute. Is that why your interior Casanova suddenly disappeared?" Michael asked.

"Shut up, will you? I`m just talking. I am actually a bit shy with girls. Besides, I know nothing of what she`s reading, so impossible to talk about it with her. Let`s go."

Kevin got on his bicycle, waited for Michael, and they both left the park.

To be continued…

Author`s notes: See? Romance is slowly appearing in this story. This chapter was a bit shorter, I hoped it would be easier to complete but actually it was more complicated. Anyway, keep reading because the second part of this arc will begin soon, and from that one I`m sure I will make a 6000-word chapter. But you`ll have to wait for it however. Read you soon!