Through the Vortex

Bane's Desire

Part 2 - The Anomaly

It took seven minutes for us to make the trip across town, flying over city buildings and jammed-up roadways. As we drew near our destination, the scene of the bomb blast and disturbance became more clear.

"What the hell is that?" I yelled over the loud sound the chopper's rotors made, my eyes widening at the odd phenomenon before us. Not only was the building we were approaching half gone, presumably destroyed by the explosion we'd felt earlier, but there was also some kind of swirling cloud hovering over the site of the destruction.

"Land this bucket of bolts and I'll be able to find out," Wufei shouted over the din, sounding as grumpy as he usually did on stressful assignments. At a glance I could see he was as apprehensive as I was about getting close to that... thing, swirling like an albino tornado in front of us. The bottom tip of it hovered over the point where the roof had once been, and from there it widened as it rose up into the sky and disappeared into the upper atmosphere. We both knew it was going be up to us to get as close as possible to that thing because investigating shit like this was a part of our job description.

Landing the helicopter while trying to keep it level was more difficult than I had anticipated, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. The surprisingly strong wind, that I figured could only have come from the whirling cloud, buffeted the chopper and had us tilting dangerously several times before I got the runners flat on the heliport belonging to Leavesly Laboratory. I cut the power and hopped out of the cockpit and immediately the hair over my forehead began flying wildly around my face from the strong wind that wasn't entirely caused by the slowing rotors. I grabbed up my whipping braid and ran after Wufei who was making a dash for the main building, roughly a hundred yards from the landing pad.

Once we reached the front doors of the nearly-destroyed building, we paused to look at each other, silently expressing that we had each other's backs, no matter what. We'd been partners for the two years I'd been at Preventers, and frankly, Wufei was the best part of the job. It meant everything to me to know that I wasn't alone when I jumped into a dangerous situation, and sometimes not even knowing what I was getting into... just like that day.

We entered the building only to find the wind was blowing as wildly inside as it had been around the helicopter, and there was a definite pull, like a suction towards the right hallway. I took a quick glance at the few employees that ran past us and out of the building, carrying boxes that appeared to be filled with computer discs and files. I scanned the large foyer to see a small, tightly-clustered group of older men dressed in rumpled white lab coats, their clothing and hair flapping violently against their bodies. They appeared to be having a heated exchange with their arms gesturing wildly as they struggled to make their point and stay in place as the wind whipped around them, turning the interior of the partially destroyed building into a wind tunnel. Together my partner and I approached them, and as a group they turned to us with grim expressions shadowing their faces.

"What's happened here?" I shouted above the high-pitched whistling noise the wind made as it rushed through the halls and made speaking difficult.

One of the men extended his hand to me, and upon taking it, he pulled me close to his face so I could hear him speak. "I'm Dr. Robert Granger," he shouted. His gray hair was beating wildly around his rather large forehead while his eyes were covered and protected by his thick-rimmed glasses, which he held on his substantial nose with his other hand. "We were testing a newly-developed prototype of an energy renewal device that employs nuclear isotopes within a circulating coil converter to build, store and regenerate energy, at least in theory. Today was our first trial run. There was an unexpected power loop that occurred during the first five minutes of the test and it caused an explosion. We lost three researchers in the blast."

"And the white cloud?" I shouted, knowing Wufei was plastered against my side taking in all that the man was saying as the wind continued to pull at us, our dress shoes slipping on the linoleum floor.

"The explosion created an energized vortex," he shouted back. "It's powered by the converter and is currently sucking everything into it that isn't bolted down, and its pull seems to be increasing in strength. We have to stop it before it becomes even more destructive."

"Any ideas?" Wufei shouted in my ear, though his question was directed to the scientist. By the tone of his voice, I could tell he was as irritated as I was with trying to keep my balance, hear the man over the rush of wind and think of a solution.

"There's an emergency cut-off switch on the wall of the room in which the test took place. It will shut off the converter and hopefully eliminate the vortex. Three of our men tried to get to it and were injured. We barely got them out of the room before the vortex's pull almost sucked them in."

I turned to Wufei and we exchanged a knowing look. "I'll go in, you're my backup," I told him, shoving my braid down the back of my shirt while giving him a look that told him I would not be arguing with him about it. Wufei had Sally and a baby daughter to go home to, and as this was Thursday, I only had an empty apartment waiting for me, where doubts and fears would plague me while I waited the three hours for my lover to return from..., well, from who knew where. It was a no brainer that I should be the one to take the risk that day.

Looking back at Dr. Granger, I shouted above the whistling wind, "Show us the way."

The nod the older man gave me was somewhat reluctant, yet he turned and began moving as quickly as he could down the corridor the wind was rushing down, cautious that it and the unusual pull didn't sweep him off his feet as he led us down the hall toward the destroyed room.

By the time we reached the jagged opening in the wall, I'd concluded that the door had either been blasted off in the initial explosion or sucked into the room as the door frame and surrounding wall were missing completely, leaving a sharp, jagged edge in the metal-cored wall, a barrier that had obviously been built with the intention to protect the building's inhabitants from an experiment gone wrong. The pull of the wind was even stronger now, and we were grasping at the wall with our open hands, trying to maintain our positions.

My hands were sweaty on the wall's surface as I inched towards the edge of the wall opening. Once in place, I looked around the sharp metal edge and my eyes widened with disbelief at the sight before me. The opposite wall from where I stood was gone, completely. The commercial buildings in the distance were clearly visible. Pieces of debris were skittering across the floor, pulled into the room from other parts of the building and sucked up off the floor and into the swirling white cloud above. Having viewed it from outside and above the building, I decided that seeing the vortex from below was a whole different experience. Gazing up into the vortex was like looking into the eye of a cosmic hurricane; it seemed hollow and calm in the middle while the spinning wall of white cloud matter and emitted random and brilliant sparks of energy or maybe light that made it look like one of those pictures of a super nova in a distant galaxy. I found the unnatural whirlpool beautiful as well as terrifying to look upon.

Feeling a tug on my arm, I turned my head, with no little effort against the wind, to meet my partner's dark, concerned eyes. I forced myself to move back from the wall's opening to let Wufei take my place so that he could see for himself what I was now thinking of as a vortex of light. While he was getting an eyeful, I turned to shout at the doctor, close behind us and plastered against the wall. "Where's the switch?"

The man's eyes were wide and fearful as he struggled to keep the thick-rimmed bifocals on his face. "Back wall, right corner," he yelled back, then freed one finger off the wall to point in the direction he meant, which was behind me and inside the gaping hole in the wall.

"Shit!" I muttered, knowing no one could hear me. I inched closer to my partner, gripping the wall as hard as I could. After switching places with him again, I leaned my head into the room to glimpse the box I needed to reach. I judged it to be a good twenty feet from the other side of the wall's opening, probably thirty feet in all. Moving back, I pulled hair out of my eyes and mouth as I tried to think of a way to get to the damn thing without being sucked into that giant maw. Glancing over the doctor's shoulder, my eyes fixed on the regulation emergency fire box that was bolted to the wall across the hall, about fifteen feet behind us. I could see the fire hose coiled up inside the box and decided it was better than anything else around.

I left Wufei gawking at the churning apparition and ran to the box, pulled it open and unwrapped the hose. I estimated it might be about the right length and, taking the end with the nozzle, I wrapped it around my waist and tied it off. Knowing it was the best I could do with what I had at hand, I went back to my partner. Wufei turned around at my touch on his shoulder and his eyes widened almost comically when he took in the hose, its position on my body, and realized my intention.

"No!" he shouted decisively, his face sten with determination.

"We've got no choice," I yelled back. "Just watch this end and I'll be okay. I promise."

Then without further discussion, I launched myself over my friend and into the destroyed laboratory. I was immediately assaulted by the fierce suction of the vortex's well. Using all my strength, I found myself leaning forward at a forty-five degree angle, fighting the vortex's pull as I began my struggle towards my goal. Concentrating on placing one foot in front of the other seemed to work at first. I imagined that moving against the forceful pull and wind of the vortex had to be similar to walking in a level four or five force hurricane... without the rain. My progress was painstakingly slow. I shifted my eyes over to a large box on the floor, thinking it was likely the cause of the trouble. It was silver, metal and about the size of a coffin. I remember making a face at that grim comparison. The box was lidless and the mouth of the vortex hovered about ten feet above its location on the floor. Thick power cords, secured to the floor by large metal clamps, ran around the edge of the room to an empty table, probably where the motor or whatever they were trying to power up had been placed. I could only guess it had been sucked up into the vortex. That table was also bolted to the floor and I figured I could head for it, rest a moment and then continue on to the not too distant shut-off switch on the wall.

I have no idea how much time had passed as I fought against the wind and constant pull to make it the fifteen feet from the wall's opening to the table. But when I finally clasped hold of the table's edge, I was covered in sweat and my legs were trembling from exhaustion. Thankfully, there were only five or six feet separating the top edge of the table from the box on the wall. I decided that after I shut the damn thing off I was going home to have a hot bath and a long nap.

My fingers struggled to keep hold of the metal table, grasping and losing their hold each time I thought them secure. As I continued to struggle, I heard a voice above the rush of the wind. I looked over my shoulder and through my wildly whipping hair to see Heero with Trowa peering over his shoulder, both of them watching me from the other side of the jagged opening in the wall. Heero was gesturing to the hose and motioning for me to return to safety.

I shook my head; I hadn't come this far for nothing. I was only a few feet away from my goal and I wasn't about to stop until I finished the job. I ignored everyone and set my sights on the metal rectangular box on the wall, focusing my full attention on that as my goal even as my fingers slipped once again.

I tried to move along the table only to be frustrated when I lost ground and slid back. The pull of the vortex seemed to become stronger and suddenly my feet slipped out from underneath me and were lifted from off the floor. I knew a moment of absolute fear as my hands became the only contact I had with something solid. I panicked further as they slipped down the table's edge. As a last attempt to save myself, I grasped the far-end leg of the table and wrapped my arms around it and held on for dear life. My muscles became strained and I closed my eyes as my shoes were sucked off my feet, followed by my socks. The pockets of my pants and shirt that had anything in them began to tear and were eventually sucked up into the maw along with the pockets' contents.

I knew at this point that there was no way I was going to make it to the cut-off switch. I could barely hang onto the table's leg and my fingers, hands and arms were growing weaker by the moment. I felt a tug at my waist and looked up to see Heero pulling at the other end of the hose with Wufei and Trowa at his back, bracing him. I cried out as my arms, then my hands and finally my fingers lost their purchase on the table and I was flung through the air, up towards the open vortex, greedy in its attempt to try and claim me. With my lover and friends holding the other end of the hose, I was literally flying at my end of it, just like a kite in a strong wind.

The wind caused by the vortex was so strong at this point that I could hardly catch my breath. Feeling frantic and fatalistic about my chances of survival, I used the last bit of energy I had to tilt my chin up and open my eyes to gaze at my lover and friends only to see the hose tethering me was being worn away by the sharp edges of the ruined metal wall. The expression on my would-be rescuers' faces showed pure determination and fear as they struggled valiantly at their end of the hose, but it was the look of absolute horror and grief on Heero's face that was embedded in my mind the moment the hose was rent apart.

Any problems Heero and I had been experiencing disappeared in an instant. For in that microscopic moment in time, before I was sucked into the greedy maw, I realized I was probably looking at him for the last time. "Love you," I yelled in gut-wrenching desperation, but I doubt he heard me as I was sucked up into the vortex, lost in the white cloud and howling wind with the hose snaking behind me and Heero's anguished cry following after.

TBC

Author's notes. To answer a few questions, yes, I will finish this story, it's already done - in rough-draft form. I'm guessing there are about 20 chapters, give or take a few. And Pia, this might start out a bit heavy, but it lightens up as Duo discovers how to survive in rather unusual circumstances. Thanks to Azreal.