Vibrant green assaults the shinning blue eyes beneath a crimson swath of punk cut shoulder length hair. This same scenery has been on repeat for two hours with brief intermissions of jaunts down many small town America main streets. A drive way or two break up the wall of pine and oak trees bordering the backroads of Nebraska. The other occupant of said car singing along with a orchestral piece of classical Japanese music while twirling a strand of her own straight, long, fire engine red hair. She reaches down and blindly stabs at the radio to switch the track to a defining screech. The opening notes of Pennywise's Violence Never Ending resounds throughout their baby blue echo chamber of a car.
The older women's eyes roll in their sockets as she grips one side of her head, "Nicole, what did I say about loading your music on the road trip discs?!" The woman takes the hand covering her ear to turn the volume down to a manageable level. After the panicked fumbling of dials succeeds in turning it down, she lets out a sigh and reclines into the comfort of the custom driving seat.
"Don't do it without telling you; Mom," She states back in a monotone voice. The young woman crosses her arms while still bobbing her head along with the new heavy beat and base line.
Nicole's mother snaps her fingers along as well almost in rythim, "You're lucky I've come to stand some of the music you've come to enjoy." The short track ends and switches over to more a mellow jazz number. "Any more surprises?"
"Well, I mean. There is a Fugazi song at the two-and-a-half-hour mark, Terms of Psychic Warfare followed by Knife Edge at the 45 after that." She closes her eyes while rubbing her temple with two fingers, "Aaaaand I think Give Me Fire at three hours and twenty-two minutes."
"That all dear?" A hint of playful teasing can be heard in the question. "Not too bad but I still don't get your appeal of these genres but it sure gets the blood pumping at least." She shifts the car over to the turning lane and signals off the paved road, gently easing into the curve of the gravel and dirt path.
The navigation app chimes in, "Rerouting. Turn left in two miles, expected time of arrival is 1743 in twenty-two minutes."
Nicole's mother scoffs, "Ha, let's make that in fifteen. Hold on honey and don't freak out." Her mother steadily but firmly increases the pressure on the gas pedal. There is a reddish gold glint forming behind the normally brown eyes and a chill creeps up their spines. The engine cries out and the vehicle lurches forward into the next curve.
The car goes near in the ditch as she man handles the wheels sideways and guns the accelerator into the turn. It stabilizes and a pale blue glow stretches out over the dashboard. The car regains it's footing with another slight readjustment, "Mitsuru, you still got it." She reaches a hand over and grips her daughter's shoulder and a golden light washes over Nicole slowly, "But just to be safe." Nicole's body feels airy and light in the chair, the movement now only causing her stomach to toss and turn with each drift her mother is taking well over a safe speed.
A wide smile forms on Mitsuru's face with teeth bared while checking the clock, "Not fast enough. We'll be a minute late!" The vehicle screams at the strain and then roars forward on the next straight away right into another turn. The roadway is too narrow and the far wheels dip off the edge. Her shoulders stiffen a bit but overall her stoic face does not waver as a line of ice forms beneath the wheels into a path spiraling up and back onto the road. She guides the wheels along as if they were stuck to the frozen bridge with unseen ethereal glue. Finally, they whip back onto gravel with only minor bout of fishtailing and onto the next section.
"That was close, eh Nicole?" Mitsuru lets out a little chuckle. "Thankfully no one is on this road up until Rolling Oaks." Her brows furrow and the blaze behind the brown eyes grows. Her pupils dilate and dart back and forth searching for the next victim for her rubber to tear up. Her glare solidifies straight ahead as she white knuckles the wheel, "Yeah, we can make that Artemisia."
Another straight away comes up and of course the throttle is stomped down once more. Her capsule of metal and plastic rockets forward. The needle is edging toward the far limits of the speedometer. "And now a little nudge Arti," Mitsuru smacks the dashboard and the entire car is coated in a green-blue film and the road ahead is covered by blue clear snow. A pulse of green waves out as the vehicle is shunted forward as if being hit by a giant golfer and they're the ball. At the edge of the next turn the car's front end tilts upward and shoots up and out of earth's ground floor.
Nicole looks back at the snow melting and a twenty-meter-long ramp dissolving into air. Returning to the view out of their windshield, Nicole could reach out and touch the treetops on all sides if she wanted as the car continues to climb up. Now soaring well over the forest, she looks on at Mitsuru's mouth agape and eyes wide with glee. Her mother lets out a yawp of satisfaction and looks over at her daughter as they reach the arch and the car is awash with another bout of sickening green and blues.
**BOOM**
The missile of a car streaks straight ahead, leaving a long trail of emerald light behind it accompanied by snowflakes raining down. Their descent brings them crashing down onto another icicle ramp spawned out on the next section of gravel road. Mitsuru is jostled violently back into her chair but readjusts into her domination of the sedan's handling. Nicole; unlike her mother, is brought down to earth as if surrounded by velvet cushions into the comfort of the chair.
"Everything okay dear?" Mitsuru glances over to make sure her daughter hasn't spontaneously combusted inside of her layer of protection.
Nicole puffs a lock of hair out of her face, "Just peachy, kinda hard to be not okay with a shield that can stop falling steel girders."
The car makes one last turn before a T intersection is visible at the end of the gravel road. Mitsuru pumps the breaks and slows down to a speed that a Kirijo family head is expected to be driving at. "Okay, just making sure. . .Could you text Nia that we're going to be there in two minutes?"
"No prob mom," Nicole grabs a small black and red purse and digs around until pulling out an old and worn blackberry. "Password still – "
"Your birthday? Yes," Mitsuru states back almost curtly.
"Thanks. Mom." She types out a text responding to Nia trying to sound like a formal and well brought up Mitsuru Kirijo who definitely knows what the word 'revascularization' is, and that she was excited to hear more in person. At the end she tacked on that they'd be arriving in mere moments and to expect both of them at the front entrance.
As Nicole hits send the first buildings come into view of Rolling Oaks, Nebraska. Sleepy roadways were near barren of trucks and cars at the moment as they went down blocks lined with one and two story Victorian style houses. Citizens walked up and down the main street wearing sweaters and sweatshirts of various colors. Most presenting their uncovered rosy cheeks and nose tips while keeping hands in pockets. Some greeters adorned with bright smiles saw the car and wave to Mitsuru and Nicole. An old woman holds up a sign with "Help wanted" written on it to nail into her front mailbox. A group of young kids were running around in the small but well-kept town park playing some form of tag.
Their dust and grime covered sedan turns into then drives up the parking lot of the only building that breaks the three floor threshold in Rolling Oaks. Nebraska State Medical Center is monogrammed across the top right corner of the building in large red font with a smaller Kirijo Group written bellow in bold. Mitsuru rolls into a reserved parking spot a stone's throw from the entrance. She turns the keys and then pulls the visor down inspecting her face in the cracked morror. "Nicole, please hand me my stick."
Nicole rummages around in the purse still on her lap and hands the tube of lipstick over to her mother. She takes it and smears it over a smudge in the only make-up allowed on her face and turns to her daughter, "Okay, maybe I over did it with the jump a little." She laughs a little and gently turns Nicole's head over to look at her. She scans up and down looking for any scratches or imperfections to the limited make-up Nicole liked to wear.
"Everything looking good, but-" Mitsuru licks her thumb and rubs a dab of what seems to be sauce from Nicole's cheek off despite her minor protesting twitch to avoid the prodding finger. "There, good as new. Now shall we?"
Nicole exhales finally, her shoulders loosen up and gaze softens, "Sure I guess." Both women exit the vehicle; Nicole slams the door in a rush while Mitsuru gracefully shuts it with a satisfying click. Nicole trudges up to the main entrance while pulling a set of earbuds out. She drowns out the left side of her world with a remix of a popular pop song as her mother begins to chat with the receptionist.
"The director is top floor, intensive care and coma ward." The man behind the counter turns back to the slim monitor for the CCTV system and a reflection of a newly released cartoon flashes in his owl eyed bi-focals. After the main foyer, the mom-daughter duo traverses the maze of a hospital and climb three flights of stairs into the coma treatment section. The waving red hair a torch lighting the path to their target, Dr. Niassal Hind.
Door after door, Mitsuru flings them open dramatically yet still elegantly. These flourishes were accompanied by rooms void of said doctor. After nine different attempts, a small plump woman strides up behind Mitsuru with an uneasy silence about her to poke Nicole's mother in the small of the back.
Mitsuru jumps, "Geeze! You know I hate when you do that." Her entire body trembles and she shakes out her left leg, "Sends damn shivers up and down every time after. Now, about the new prototypes," She motions out with an exaggerated wave forward, "Lead the way doctor."
"Ya know I gotta get my kicks in while I can Maim." The shorter dark haired woman with streaks of grey lets out a hearty chuckle. "It's just around the bend on the corner, I think you'll like the progress we've gone through so far." They turn down the furthest most hallway that borders the western edge of rooms on the third floor. At the northwest corner a much larger double sided door stands locked with a number panel that glowed a deep pulsing blue. Dr. Hind stands in front and five monotone deep tones ring out before the door cracks open. "Here we go, young ladies first."
Mitsuru enters followed by the doctor while the rear is brought up by Nicole. Two large, mechanical, and computerized medical bays are attached to the wall and floor with multiple rivets and electrical cords. One empty and the other occupied. Large floor to ceiling windows line the north wall with a view similar to the one above the trees from their car ride in the skies. The doctor clears her throat, "The new prototype uses small electric pulses through very low charge micro diodes and tens units to stimulate brain activity to those who have gone brain dead . . ."
Nicole's mind wandered away from the technical and scientific words like 'assisted biological functions' and 'automated cardiopulmonary resuscitation' to the music playing through her one headphone. As the rythmic and off tune cords of a punk band blaired, her head suddenly felt light and empty, her legs made of air. Eyes began to fog up and she felt herself get groggy as if she just was rudely awoken from a nap. Fingers and toes went numb as her body slowly leaned forward and then crashed down earthward. As her face was millimeters from the chessboard tiling of hospital floor she snapped out of her trance.
Clarity overcame her as she found herself standing again. She felt like she put on the world's most advanced pair of corrective lenses turning the world unnaturally sharp and in focus. The same blue light from the door's keypad now shown throughout the room emanating from the lights. The windows that housed a beautiful nature vista now contained large gothic painted glass. The two medical bays now lie empty and unplugged in their same place. Other than Nicole, the room was void of life and sound. "What the," She jumps at the sound of her own voice. She slowly starts to rotate in place and calmly composes herself, "This has Dark hour written all over it. . . ."
She pulls out her smart phone, "No bars, check." She jumps up tenderly finding herself nearly hitting her head on the ceiling, "Lower gravity, check." She moves over to one set of the heavy machinery and attempts to rip off the metal door of a cabinet. It takes some struggling, but it tears off after the third good yank. "Enhanced bodily strength, check." Nicole does a small fist bump into the air and does a small two step in place, "Take that mom! 'Can't go into the Dark hour without proper training' my ass!" Her now spinning pirouette is cut short with the door making the whooshing pop of being unlocked.
Nicole freezes in her tracks, then immediately jumps to action by widening her stance and placing both arms in front of her with fists clenched tight. Her knuckles turn white as small streams of mist billow across the ground pooling at ankle height around her legs. A black blob stands in the center of the crack in the doors. Nicole begins rocking back and forth on her feet in anticipation, waiting for the looming shadow in the door way to make a move. She can feel the air entering and leaving her chest on each breath. Her supporting leg's calf tenses up, reading a sweeping kick for the potential foe. The shadow inches closer . . . and closer. . . The first clear details are forming as it breaches the entry way.
A slender abnormally pale arm snakes around the door and begins to pull it open like a sickly anaconda strangles a mammal. The door is flung open and the arm retreats into the smoke, and a heavy inhale is heard inside the cloud as the form crouches down to pounce, Nicole recoils back a step and readies a counter attack for the coming charge.
The form launches itself with unnatural speed and the cloud follows along, both crashing into and tackling Nicole to the floor into a new abyss of shadowy flailing limbs.
A second of silences passes.
Then,
All throughout the empty mirrored world of the Nebraska State Medical Center, her panicked screaming echoes.
\\\ Disclaimer, there is an ongoing theme and challange./
First this work is a slow burn, all the pieces will be layed out nice and slow like a real Persona game. Small clues and details will come inbetween one off mysteries and small arcs. Give it a few chapters, it'll keep building. Trust me.
And now for the Challenge:
Every Named OC character who can use a person is loosely based on a fictional character. You can enjoy this story as is and I hope to write a compelling narrative to enrich and entertain you.
BUT!
If you as a reader want to increase your engagement with the story, try and divine the identities of said specific characters that I based them off.
The two hints I'll give and the only hints I'll give are:
1) Every character is fictional and is not from history and almost all are taken from media put out in the past 50 years.
2) Every Character is cannonically dead in their respective stories.
Work together or alone, I'll let those who guess know if they are right or not.
I wish you all the best of luck and you enjoy this work. I'll Try to update every Monday and Thursday if work permits my time.
Thank you for giving this story; and me, a chance.
P.S. - There will be romance and ships when I think it would happen naturally. Have fun with that too.