Chapter 11 Welcome to Chrysalis

Max

April 15th, 2014

9:15 AM

25 Miles From Arcadia Bay

Quantum Prospekt

I'm locked in my cell sitting on my bed watching the news on the television set displayed on the corner ceiling of my cell. The news speaks more about last night's incident at the Prescott Estate and the protest in Arcadia Bay. I had no doubt Rachel and Chloe started the incident considering what Chloe told me what they were going to do to get me out of this mess. Never imagined Victoria would have the woman power to start an uprising on Blackwell grounds against Chrysalis. Talk about the chain of events I've set in motion up until now. Ironic how the death of a punk girl could've easily prevented all this catastrophe. Let alone a tornado storm build up to more catastrophe. With great power, comes great consequences.

Two prison guards walked into my cell and stood guard by the door. Then Crosby walked in my cell with the guards as his escort. I was relieved to see the sight of Crosby's presence in my cell just for being my wannabe Daddy figure. I assumed he had been here for my prisoner transfer. Crosby walked over to where I sat and spoke to me.

"I take it I've been pardoned?" I ask.

"Yes you have and no you haven't," he answered. "But we both know what today is, Max. Today we transfer you over to Chrysalis headquarters. Where we examine your powers and provide you with another cell. Trust me, you'll be amazed to see what's there."

"What's to like over there opposed to what's here?"

"We can save it for when we get there. Just don't get to comfortable once we're there. We don't allow prisoners to go anywhere without my authorization."

A guard puts cuffs on my wrists again and walks me out of my cell with Crosby. The guards escort me over to the helipad outside the prison where Crosby's helicopter is docked. I've never ridden a helicopter before, but I sure have blew up one with an RPG. There goes irony again.

"Why are we taking a helicopter?" I ask Crosby.

"HQ is in Portland. It's a two hour drive from here. Unless we fly, we'll get there in less than half an hour."

Me and Crosby hop inside the back seat of the chopper and buckle up with my cuffs still on my wrists. I was going to be wearing these cuffs for quite some time. Wasn't sure when Crosby would let me take them off, but I didn't care. I couldn't put my seat belt on with my cuffs on. So the pilot kindly put them on for me. People were going to have to pick up a finger for me for as long as my cuffs stayed on. The pilot started the engines and the propellers began to spin around above us. Then we were slowly levitating off the ground and were eventually high enough to fly away from the prison and off to Portland we go.

We flew at least five thousand feet into the air. I could see the highway and the Tillamook Forest from my window on the chopper. We had been flying for at least twenty minutes now. We would be arriving in Portland shortly.

"So Mr. Crosby, do mind telling me more about the protest in Arcadia Bay? Maybe that incident at the Prescott Estate? Heard it all on the news."

"I am aware of the protest in Arcadia Bay and it was quite predictable from the get go. Considering Prescott's unlimited power in Arcadia that made him declare martial law as well as the manhunt for you and Rachel, it's been a major predicament for the town and even Blackwell, especially. I was there during the shootout at the Prescott Estate and Sean Prescott wasn't pleased. Once the shooting died down, he forced me to leave. He's been little too skeptical lately about our partnership. He's just as stubborn as his late son ever was."

"Nathan was no different from Sean. He was always extremely stubborn and narcissistic as his own father is now before he died. It was a little more than the negative influence his Father prolonged on him that destroyed him however. For the most part, it's complicated story between him and my former art teacher Mr. Jefferson. A story I don't even like talking about myself."

"Prescott always told me about Jefferson. And I will agree about how complicated the story is and how it ended in a tragic gesture. I alone wouldn't blame Nathan's own Father for what happened. Some things in life are just not preventable."

"Do you really think it was Rachel Amber that started that massacre at the Prescott's like they're saying?"

"I don't think was Rachel Amber. I know it was Rachel Amber."

It was pretty much a question I knew the answer to. Regardless why Rachel would believe it was worth making Chloe risk her life in such a place, I knew they would be doing the right thing for me. I was more worried if Rachel was able to keep Chloe alive at the same time.

"How's Chloe by the way? Is she safe? Is she okay?"

"Relax, Max. Chloe's still safe in Arcadia Bay. I got to speak with her Step-Father, David and he approved her help."

"Oh, good. David's usually not the greatest person to allow strangers to withhold Chloe's accountability. Frankly, he has been doing his best to be a better Father to her. He won't regret his approval. If you don't mind me asking, what's first thing we do once we get there."

"I figured I'd give you a quick tour of HQ before we take you to your room. You just might be amazed what we do there."

"I thought this was a prisoner transfer. Not a field trip."

"On my authority, Max, consider it to be both. You deserve to know more about what it's like serving Chrysalis."

"Well how nice of you. This is starting to feel like the beginning of new relationship between a quantum criminal and a CEO. If I'm somehow found not guilty during my trial, maybe you and I could make good partners in time. How does that sound?"

Crosby chuckled.

"I thought you already had a partner in time?"

"There's always room for one more in my circus of time travel. It wouldn't be fair if Chloe had to be the only one."

Crosby smiled.

From a distance, we were approaching our destination. We finally arrived at Portland seeing the sight of buildings and skyscrapers overshadowing the view from the helicopter. I could see the infamous Portland, Oregon sign with a deer displayed on it from above. We hover over a bunch more building before approaching Chrysalis HQ. When we do approach HQ, Crosby points out the location.

"There it is. Chrysalis HQ," he said pointing out the direction. "We'll be landing on the helipad on top of the building once we get close enough."

The view of the headquarters was amazing. The place had been a very tall building with a rod set on top of it. There had also been a huge sign and a logo displayed on the building as well titled:

CHRYSALIS

THERE AND BACK AGAIN

"Wowser," I say to myself.

Somehow I felt like I've seen this building before. I remember six months back when me Chloe were in Seattle to visit my parents having those visions far more foreboding than the ones related to the storm in Arcadia. I had seen this building in my visions. This was the building that showed a big maelstrom in the sky hovering over it and where the shadow figure proclaimed it to be the end of time. It was all coming back to me again, but perhaps I would have better thoughts taking a tour inside the building than flying around it reliving my visions again. It was a start.

The chopper lands on the helipad and the propellers slower stop spinning once we get out of the helicopter. There were two guards waiting for us outside near the helipad. They were there to escort me around the compound while Crosby was going to give me the tour.

"Gentlemen, escort Ms. Caulfield around the compound," Crosby ordered. "Make sure the cuffs stay on until I say they can come off."

"Yes, sir," replied the guard.

I follow Crosby to the elevator inside the building while the guards escort me from behind. Once we get in the elevator, we take it down to the lobby on the lowest floor of the building. As the elevator lowers itself down to the lobby, I get a view of the front lobby from the glass window on the elevator. What I see is a beautiful visual of the hugest lobby I've ever seen. There had been a huge holographic logo projected as a centerpiece down in the lobby. The place was also crowded with people employed to Chrysalis. It was crowded with scientist, co-workers, managers, even guards patrolling the place, you name it. My eyes widen and smile in amazement.

"Max Caulfield, welcome to Chrysalis," said Crosby. "There and back again."

The tagline "There and Back Again" had been the company's slogan. It sounded like a week slogan. Unless you can come up with anything else that's fancier, I say it's simple enough to remember. I had no problem with it.

The elevator comes to a stop and we walk down the crowded lobby. I supposed this was the beginning of the tour. I great start for a tour at that. The place had decorated with fake trees and grass to make the area look nicer and prettier. I could see balconies built for the higher floors surrounding the area from top to bottom. There was also a glass ceiling with a chandelier built above the higher floors as well as electronic ads and propaganda signs displayed on the walls and balconies. The structure of the vicinity I was touring through was a masterpiece.

"Wowser, Mr. Crosby. This is quite the circus you going on. This is amazing. What is this place anyways?"

"This Ms. Caulfield is the Central Intelligence Hub. Also known as the lobby. Over here at this panel is where it gives you a brief history of this Corporation."

The panel was located where the logo was projected in the center of the hub. Crosby activated the panel and the logo transitioned to a video projection about Chrysalis's histoy. There were loud speakers in the area for everyone to hear the video's audio. The video had shown images and stock footage of Chrysalis history as it played.

"Welcome to Chrysalis. There and back again. In 1899, Dr. Ezra Miller Prescott, a meteorologist studying the Chaos Theory, was the first person to discover the supernatural power capable of manipulating time. Over the decades, the Prescott family kept the discovery top secret. Until 1994, co-founders of Chrysalis Derrick Crosby, Sean Prescott, and Sabian Sorenson came to the ambition of creating an organization made for the research and development of quantum control. In 1999, the Chrysalis corporation was founded. Today, Chrysalis is now building a better tomorrow for the future of quantum chemistry. We hope you enjoy your visit here at Chrysalis. Thank you."

Yet even more irony came to mind. A Prescott that lived in the eighteen hundreds become the first person on Earth to discover time travel powers and not a hundred years later does another Prescott help find an organization built to organize time control. Will the fun never end?

"So a Prescott from the eighteen hundreds discovers time travel and then one hundred years later another Prescott from the modern era finds an organization made for time travel," I say to myself. "Talk about irony."

"It gets more interesting from here on out, Max," said Crosby. It gets more interesting from here on out."

The next place we tour to is the Chrysalis labs. The labs were located on the upper levels. So we had to take the elevator again to get out next destination. We walk into the lab area to see something more interesting during the tour.

"What's this place?" I ask.

"This, Max Caulfield, is the science laboratory," replied Crosby. "Here is where the fun begins. This is where our best scientist in Chrysalis study quantum chemistry. Whether I'd be quantum physics, quantum exposure, quantum machinery, you name it."

I had seen scientist doing research on what Crosby mentioned they would research. There were some scientist working on quantum physics using experimental exhibits they made for themselves. One exhibit showcased a metal cube inside a chronon-proof glass container being broken into pieces and then being put back together again with use of some kind of regulator designed to reverse time. Another exhibit showcased a soda can being crushed to the center and using the same method to making can look untouched again.

There were also scientist using rats in one of the exhibits for quantum exposure. Looked interesting yet disturbing. They appeared to be injecting chronon serum into their bodies that would do some weird side effects to them. Talk about animal cruelty. So disturbing. So no cool. It looked creepy.

The next destination we stop at is the security center. The security center was underground below the compound. So we took the elevator below ground level. The security center was a huge place packed with military grade hardware and surplus. It looked more like garage or a hanger of some sort. And it was. There were soldiers and security officers marching around the place. The place had Chrysalis vehicles in store. Such as vans, trucks, tanks, etc.

"What you're seeing here is our own private military and security branch," said Crosby. "I'm pretty sure you've encountered all this back in Arcadia Bay when Prescott sent my men into Blackwell."

"This is some military you've got going on, Crosby. Anything more I should know?"

"At Chrysalis, we prepare the best of the best for the worst of the worst. We train our task force for every quantum terrorist attack there is. Our military grade equipment, hardware, and technology is designed to bring balance and order to the universe. Rankings go from standard security officer, to PMC, to striker enforcer, etc. To give you the shorter version, we're a super power for hire."

I had caught a glimpse of some strikers. Which appeared to be the same bozos that attacked me on the Blackwell courtyard. I already knew what the strikers had been trained to do when I had fought my first batch. Something else I hadn't encountered before caught my eye as well. There was a guy in some sort of heavily armored suit that was being assembled onto him.

"Mr. Crosby, who's that guy in the heavy armor?"

"That Ms. Caulfield, is one of our juggernaut enforcers wearing one of our heavy duty mech armor. AKA, our exo-suits. Made of bulletproof alloy and powered by chronon energy for time stutter encounters."

"Don't those striker guys or whatever have suits made for time stutters or whatever?"

"It's not their suits that give them the immunity to time stutter, it's their harnesses they wear as well as their chronon powered thrusters they wear on their backs. You however, have a chronon powered body giving you the immunity. The immunity that allowed you to save Kate Marsh from suicide and the will power to fight those strikers. It's best we get moving. My men don't like the sight of prisoners being here."

The next area Crosby takes me is the surveillance area. Located on the upper floors of the compound. We walk by the surveillance room that watch over the entire compound, but Crosby didn't want to show me those rooms. Instead, he showed me a room far more impressive than anything I've seen in this building yet. We walk into a dark room where a small chair stand on a glowing platform.

"What is this place?" I ask.

"This is some place you'll be amazed of more than anything you've seen thus far. Better yet, the true question you should asking, how did I know so much about that week."

"That week?"

Crosby sat on the chair and activated a big computer screen projected a map of the globe. The screen had illuminated the room like a Christmas tree. With video files floating around the area like snow globes. My jaw had dropped completely. My eyes were given the adrenaline of something phenomenal.

"Say hello to the Time Broker," said Crosby introducing the computer. "Our state of the art surveillance system designed to track down all supernormal activity of quantum alteration across the globe. What your seeing here are archives of what Chrysalis has monitored globally."

"Wowser, Crosby. How did you come up with all this junk? This is hella incredible. As Chloe would say. I didn't know you kept track of the entire globe of time travel."

"This is an international corporation, Max. Of course we do."

Crosby had shown me examples of what the Time Broker had tracked down over the years via security footage. There were archives of other people with time powers fighting Chrysalis soldiers, quantum terrorist attacks, even footage people rewinding time to fix certain things they way I do.

"How is this video feed able to see the effects of rewinding time?" I ask.

"Our surveillance tech is chronon powered of course. As I've said before, anything powered by chronons is immune to the art of time bending. In fact, we even have footage of you with your powers."

Crosby pulled up some footage of me using my powers. What a surprise. I actually get to relive my crazy moments of time bending. In fact, I got to relive my crazy moments of time rewind that first week my life was sabotaged by chronon exposure via footage from the Time Broker.

The first piece of footage Crosby had pulled up was some moments dated on the seventh of October from a year earlier. From Nathan threatening Chloe at gunpoint, to Victoria getting showered by Samuel's paint bucket, to me and Chloe dancing in her bedroom, and so forth. Of course, the footage was able to take visual of me rewinding time fix every do-dad of the day of my reunion with Chloe. Then Crosby pulled up footage of the following day. From me and Chloe hanging out at Joyce's diner, to us shooting bottles at the junkyard, to me saving Chloe from the train, all the way until me saving Kate from the roof.

This was fucking crazy. All this time a time travel oriented organization had been stalking my every move under the radar. It was no wonder why Crosby had been so nonchalantly sentimental about me up until now. Him and his entire corporation alone had the complete audacity to understand what I had to go through that week. If not perhaps get their suspicions of me and Rachel secretly meeting each other back in Arcadia. And now all those moments of that week were now surveillance archives that now belong to Chrysalis.

Crosby basically skimmed through every memorable moment of mine from that week up until the day Arcadia Bay was ground zero. And of course, I just had to relive the most heart wrenching moment of my life between me and Chloe. The day that came when Chloe wouldn't if my ultimatum had revolted to the contrary. The lesser said, the better. There was no more footage left to see. I had seen enough.

"Hey, I'm sorry I made you relive that," Crosby apologized empathically. Turning his head over to me. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. This must explain why you would remorse for me this much if I'm right. You actually watched live through this. And you didn't want me to suffer more than I had to."

"That's right. There's one more thing I like to show you before we take you to your room. I suggest we get a move on."

Crosby shut down the computer and we all walked out of the room. Our next stop was Special Projects on the higher floors above the surveillance rooms. We take the elevator up three more floors to get there. Once we're there, we walk into yet another room darkened by blackness. But the room looks bigger than the Time Broker room. The room is so much bigger, we walk onto a balcony upon entry. The lights turn on revealing an enormous room built with generators and circuit breakers powering up some kind core contained in glass. It sort of reminded me of the Death Star's main reactor from Return of the Jedi.

"Here it is Max. I give you...Project Elysium. Our top ambitious project ever conducted here at Chrysalis."

As if there weren't enough surprises revealed already, if can't even think about how many time I'll say wowser for every reaction to every surprise. The more surprises, the more wowsers. I thought the Time Broker was superficial, this Project Elysium that Crosby called looked more overly ambitious the Mona Lisa. No kidding.

"Holy wowser, Crosby. Are you cereal? What kind of cutting edge dog crap is this?"

"This cutting edge dog crap, Max, is our special kind of project our top scientist at Chrysalis has worked on since day one of this corporation. Powered by Chrysalis's new software, Chronos."

"Chronos? That's the name of your software?"

"It's named after foreign mythology. Come on. I'll give you a closer look."

Crosby and the two guards walked me down stairs off the balcony to get a closer view. Crosby explained more about the Project as we walked down from the balcony.

"So why is this called Project Elysium anyways?" I ask.

"Well Max, first and foremost, it's a complicated question. Second, this project was designed to change the world."

"Change the world in what way?"

"Elysium is defined as a conception of the afterlife that developed and maintained by Greek mythology. Think of the project as entering through the gates of heaven. For fifteen years, our researchers wanted to believe this mythology to be true. And so we've spent the last decade developing this project to fulfill our ambiguity of Elysium."

"You said Elysium is interpreted as an afterlife. The world of heaven so to speak. Why would your researchers want to believe something mythical even exist?"

"The answer to that question is classified. I will tell you this though. What your seeing here for this project is the ESR. Elysium Server Regulator. AKA the countermeasure that powers the server's core. We call it a server because Project Elysium is not only the technology designed to enter the world of Elysium, it's also a future product we'll be unveiling publicly."

"A product? Define product."

"We're allowed to reveal to many detail about it just yet, Max. But here's the short version. Our product runs on the ESR. Once we release our product for retail, the consumers will able to enter Elysium via simulators we built for everyone that too runs on the Chronos software. Named after the God of Time from Greek mythology as well."

"And why would anyone want to visualize this Elysium you speak of using simulators?"

"Our product is being designed for depression therapy. Let's say if someone were to loose someone they loved so dearly to them and they find it harder and harder to cope with their losses. Elysium will allow them to enter the world itself so they may see the ones they lost again and will never have to suffer from their depression of their losses again."

"So...you're saying the people would go to heaven with this software? Just so they'll be able to see their loved one who died again? That's a bit awkward don't you think?"

Crosby chuckled.

"We get that a lot from our tourist. Though the idea may sound ridiculous to some, it would be the valuable future for others."

Everything I had learned thus far in this building was that Prescott had founded Chrysalis with Crosby, a Time Broker is used to track down quantum breaking activity, and now a special project is being developed for going to heaven. Powered by Chronos. A software named after a Greek God of Time. What a charade it has been since my arrival. This place might as well be run by Skynet from the Terminator franchise.

"I believe it's about time we escort you to your room Ms. Caulfield. I've shown you more than enough already. Right this way."

Crosby and the guards take me over to the detention area in the compound. When we get to my room, I'm rather surprised about the looks of it. It's nicer compared to my old cell. It was no fancy looking penthouse or what not, but at least it had a more decent looking bed and TV screen. As well as a sink to wash my hands and face with and a toilet I can use to hit the John.

"This will be your room for the next couple of days until your case in court comes to a consensus. As I've said before Max, don't get too comfortable. This wasn't just a tour. It was prisoner transfer. I'll be seeing you in a few hours for your first examination. In the meantime, tata."

The guards remove my cuffs and they all walk out the room locking me in. And now I was to become their lab rat in a few hours. The best I was able to do was to sit tight and relax until it was all over. When it would be all over, either I'm found guilty and sent back to prison for the rest of eternity or I'm found not guilty and get to reunite with my bluenette again. Whatever happens, at least Chloe and Rachel are doing something about this. In other words, it is what it is.

Note: I know I was less than able to post two chapter the previous week, but finals this time around is definitely getting the better of my. Bare with me folks, I should be able to post more chapters when Christmas break starts just so you know.

I hope this was a nice introduction to whole field of Chrysalis ladies and gents. I not only had finals to prepare for I had to spend some time developing both Max and Crosby's relationship as well as the lore of the Chrysalis community. That's what pretty much kept this chapter from being posted sooner. I only hope my writing wasn't too hokey and flakey.

Until next time, stay golden.