Chapter 4: Too good to be True.

People are walking down the street going about their daily routines, men in suits drudging on emotionless. Suddenly a loud humming is heard, a few people stop and look around. The humming grows louder and louder and the air and ground start to vibrate with the humming as it reaches a deafening pitch before a massive bang cracks through the air and a black tear is ripped in the air. Black lightning shoots out of it disintegrating those who stopped to watch, all electrical systems short out and overload causing tiny electrical fires to burst out in a 2-mile radius as the black tear closes revealing a short woman. Her arms and legs are abnormally straight and rather long in comparison to her torso. She wears a strange grey and white uniform, and her silver hair is thrown wildly about from the massive gusts of wind swirling around her. She rises to her feat brushing her hair out of her face and dusting herself off and then looks around and snorts dissatisfied, "Why would he ever want to come to a place like this?"

Seth looks at the blue haired woman as she leads him down the hall with Seishero and Cory on either side of him and sighs. The woman glances back, "Is something the matter?"

Seth snorts and glares at the woman annoyed, "Of course something's the matter, I'd call being kidnapped and dragged away to some secret organisation a problem."

The woman laughs, "I wouldn't call this kidnapping so much as I would temporarily relocating. If you choose to leave you'll be free to go; not that anyone's ever wanted to. Feel free to ask any questions you must have."

Cory looks at the many blank doors in the long white hall they are walking along, "Who are in all these rooms?"

The woman looks at Cory and shrugs sighing, "Those rooms are used to hold the prisoners. All criminals we've captured that wouldn't be confined by a normal prison cell."

Seth snorts, "Criminals, I'm sure. What are they really, people like me who decided they didn't like this little organisation? Or is it where you lock up all your-"

Seishero cuts Seth off mid sentence and get right in the woman's face with a very disgruntled look and grumbles, "Chibi Miloe wants to know your name."

The woman backs away from Seishero quickly and looks at her confused and disoriented almost falling over, "Chibi Miloe... wha." She locks her eyes on the small cat plushie that Seishero is holding and stares at it dumbfounded, "You mean that plushie? Could it be..." The woman tries to grab the cat but Seishero jumps back screeching and hides behind Seth.

The woman sighs again, "Ah, why do they always make me escort the children, can't they find ANYONE else to do the job, I am known as Celestia Divine, but you can call me Celest."

Cory lifts his head and asks calmly, "Who exactly are the Solars?"

Celest regains a straight posture and smiles. "Now that's a good question. This answer is really simplified but we are an international organisation that devotes ourselves to keeping the world safe by tracking down those with potentially threatening powers," She looks directly at Cory and Seishero, "and protecting those with dangerous powers from the rest of the world."

Seth laughs sarcastically, "Aren't you all just a bunch of saints. I suppose you're going to wow us with some stories of all the people you've saved now."

Celest snorts at Seth and a look of anger flashes across her face. "I don't like your attitude, if you don't trust us that's your business, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't treat us like the scum of the universe. Especially considering the situation you're in."

Cory gets a concerned look on his face, "What do you mean by that?"

Celest smiles, "You don't know? HA! You really don't know? I have to say I'm amazed you lasted as long as you did in the open. Dimenstra-Tek Corporation is not to be taken lightly; their forces rival even ours. It is a horribly secretive organisation appearing to be a perfectly friendly research corporation developing new treatments for diseases, new fuel sources, and other "environmentally friendly means to enhance people's lives" when really, all they do is steal ideas from others. They spend most of their resources developing a super army, and they are dead set on capturing all three of you."

The group goes quiet for several seconds as they walk down the hall when finally Celest stops and opens a door. The strong fragrance of incense wafts from the room, as the air is thick with its smoke as they enter. An old woman is sitting behind a table meditating. Her wrinkly grey skin seemed to be an extension of the room's smoke making her hard to spot at first. Her colourful clothing, some chaotic designers descent into insanity, cling tightly to her skin seeming to be most. Without opening her eyes she speaks, "Close the door behind you, It takes 12 minutes to fill this room with incense and your letting it waft out."

Celest quickly closes the door and the woman nods her head and asks with a slight chuckle, "Celest what brings you here?"

Celest bows to the ancient woman, "I have brought 3 possible initiates."

The ancient woman laughs again, "No need to explain, I foresaw your arrival a few hours ago. Please have a seat." 4 chairs seem to appear out of nowhere and they all sit down, "Now, our guests are very interesting indeed. I can tell that they will be very important. Seishero Nanami, Cory Davis, and Seth Davis. You are all confused and unsure of the path you should choose in life. Cory, you have been contaminated by a very small amount of Gregin X, but it is growing and slowly destroying your body, do you really think you can survive without the help of this organisation?" Cory tries to speak but Celest motions for silence, "Seishero, your father is being held prisoner by Demenstra-Tek, do you want to rescue him, we can help. And finally Seth, oh Seth you are the most interesting soul I've seen in a long time, Forever cursed to spend eternity being dragged into other people's problems. A shame, you have no inherited abilities that will ever allow you to be more than average. You may leave now."

Celest pushes Seth, Cory, and Seishero out of the room. The ancient woman waits for the door to close and pulls a cell phone out of her pocket, "Two will not join of their own will."

Celest leads them around the building showing them various facilities including a training room, a massive library and computer users paradise before finally stopping in a waiting room. The three sit on an expensive couch while Celest sits in a comfortable chair and looks at them all, "So, I've taken you for the tour, and now it's time to ask, will you join us?" Cory and Seishero both look hesitantly at Seth.

Seth shakes his head, "As interesting as this place is, It's almost as bad as the Demenstra-Tek Corporation you're trying to protect us from. You all kidnapped us, you're a secret organisation, and you may try and justify why but you are building a super army as well. I don't see why you're any better than they are and would rather take my chances without your help. So if the offer to leave is still present, I think I'll take it, where is the door."

Celest frowns, "I see, and you two are going with him?" Seishero nods, standing and clinging to Seth, and Cory looks from Celest to Seth, and then nods his head after Seth gives him an angry glare.

Celest stands and sighs, "If you live long enough you'll be back. I'll send someone out to escort you away from here."

Celest leaves the room and Cory looks at Seth angrily, "I think you're being very inconsiderate here Seth. Just because you're a conspiracy nut doesn't mean you should treat all organisations like they are evil. You did say we needed to make allies."

Seth snaps his head at Cory, "If you want to join them go ahead, I'm not stopping you, but just know that you'll be on your own, Right Seishero?"

Seishero nods afraid, "Yes, Um Dubby Dub, Chibi Miloe is telling me we should run now. He says that they won't be very happy that we're not joining them."

Seth looks at Cory, "You don't think they'll...-"

Cory laughs annoyed, "After the way you treated them, I wouldn't be surprised. You have a horrid method of making friends."

Seth walks up to the door and attempts to open it and finds it locked, "Why would they lock the door without telling us if they were going to escort us out of here?"

Cory starts to pace about the room, "We need to get out of here now. Seishero, I don't suppose you can blow the door down with that mind blast of yours."

Seishero crawls into a ball in response to Cory's comment and Seth sighs, "Seishero, I know you're scared, but we really need your help on this. Can you control your... powers?"

Seishero whimpers and shakes her head. Cory puts his hand on his head, "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking, don't worry about it. There must be another way out of this room."

Seth glances around the room slowly, just the one door, no windows, really dull artless walls, a bookcase on one wall full of dusty books, a large vent with a couch beneath it, a clear glass table and a lazy boy chair. Seth walks up to the vent and looks at it. "It's really screwed on tightly but I think we could crawl through it if we got it open."

Cory jumps on the couch and looks at the vent smiling, says, "It doesn't look too sturdy though," before ramming his fist through the vent cutting it up pretty badly but it quickly heals. He then rips the vent wide open and crawls in, "Hurry up you two, we need to leave now." Seth helps Seishero into the vent and then follows after her.

Celest walks into an office, "Sir, I'm sorry to announce that they've decided to refuse membership. We should send someone to escort them home immediately."

A man in a black suit with a cigar in his mouth smiles, "We are already aware of their refusal and they are being escorted from the building as we speak. Don't worry about them, our organisation will keep and eye on them and make sure they stay safe, now you've been out of action for a few days, I think you should head to training and make sure your skills are up to date. I heard you had a several second casting delay over your usual time in the fight before you came here."

Celest nods and walks away, "Understood sir. I'll get right on it." Celest walks out of the room and starts down the hall when she sees several men in black suits run past and almost knock her over. Celest dodges into a room and realises she's in the master security room.

A guard sees her and looks up as the monitor he's looking at is flashing red, "Hey Celest, what brings you here?"

Celest looks at the monitor, "What's going on there."

The guard shrugs, "Some prisoners are trying to escape through the ventilation system, the boss ordered me to send some guards to cut them off."

Celest looks at the monitors, "What do they look like?"

The guard hits a button on one of the monitors and Seth and the others are shown climbing through the vent. Celest shakes her head and screams, "That lying scumbag. He never intended to let them go." Celest runs out of the room and storming down the hall.

Cory quickly crawls through the vents with Seishero and Seth scrambling to keep up. Cory keeps on going looking around randomly with no idea where to turn, "It would help if we knew where we were going."

Seishero speaks really quietly, "Chibi-Miloe can find the way out."

Seth looks at Seishero and starts to say something stops and then speaks, "Well, I suppose it's better than scrambling around blindly, Cory, let her lead the way."

Seishero nods and passes Cory and starts leading the way. Cory looks at Seth and sighs, "I hope you're right about this."

The 4 of them continue on for a while before Seishero finally stops before a grating, and quickly starts pushing on it, "We have to go now. Chibi-Miloe says the guards will be here soon." Cory and Seth both start pushing with Seishero and the grate pops off onto the ground taking them with it just as a group of guards runs up.

The guards raise strange grey rifles and point them at the group and Seishero screams and visible ripples smash into the men sending them flying about like bowling pins. Cory looks behind them and sees light coming in from a door at the end of the hall and picks the others up and runs towards it with them as the guards resume their chase. Cory looks back and then stops, "Seth, take Seishero and run as far away from here as possible."

Seth looks at Cory, "You'll meet up with us later right?"

Cory shakes his head, "I'm not going back Seth." And turns to face the guards and gets ready to charge them.

Seth tries to run towards him but Seishero shrieks and starts tugging on his arm. He nods to her and runs towards the door and out into a hospital lobby and through the front doors into the street as Cory stares at the guards, "If you stay exactly where you are things won't get difficult."

One of the guards laughs, "We have explicit orders to capture you and your friends alive, surrender now."

Cory shakes his head, "I think you'll find capturing me difficult, and I won't let you capture the others."

The Sun is low in the sky as Seishero looks back at the building now fading in the distance as they finally slow down panting out of breath, "What's going to happen to Cory Dubby Dub? Where are we going to go next?"

Seth shakes his head, "I just don't know Seishero, but WE need to get as far away from this town as possible! My mother should still be at work so we should be able to grab a few supplies from my house and take off without anyone knowing. It's only about 12 blocks from here but we should hurry. Luckily they didn't take us to a facility out of town."

Seth quickly leads Seishero through the strangely deserted streets, all houselights are out and windows are covered as they finally come in sight of Seth's house. Everything is perfectly normal, except for the black car sitting in front of it and the two cars patrolling the road behind and in front of them. Seth quickly ducks into some bushes with Seishero and looks around panic setting in. "Damn it, they already found out where I live." Shouts can be heard as men in suits suddenly come running towards him from around a building, drawing pistols as they do. Seishero jumps up and starts running in the opposite direction, towards Seth's house.

Seth chases after Seishero and catches up to her as Agent Thomson steps around the corner and quickly grabs Seishero's arm. Seishero screams really loudly glows blue for a second and then a massive force sucks Seth and several fence pegs towards her before exploding outwards sending Seth flying towards his house and through the massive crack in the wall formed by the blast. Thomson holds tightly onto Seishero and seems unaffected and he quickly slaps her over the back of the head knocking her out and drops her to the ground. He then looks inside at Seth and steps through the hole in the wall as dust starts falling from many sections of the roof. Seth is lying on the kitchen floor with his head propped against a wall bleeding from the back and him moaning. Suddenly a piece of floor collapses under Thomson and he jumps back. He notices the collapsing structure and steps out of the crack laughing as a beam slams into the gas stove causing the gas to flow rapidly. The scraping metal creates a spark causing a small explosion, which is the final blow for the house, and it starts creaking violently as the explosion sets fire to the wall opposite Seth. Seth regains consciousness and slowly notices the wall of fire quickly spreading up the wall and then sees a beam crack loose from the ceiling to plummet towards him and closes his eyes expecting the worst.

He feels nothing and is wrenched to his feet a moment later to see Hiro Moto holding his hand in the air, his stones recharging and two cracked beams on either side of him. Hiro drags Seth out the back door jumping over weak sections of the floor and throws him to the ground as he watches the house collapse into itself burning the whole time.

Hiro looks down at Seth and shakes his head, "Pathetic, I can't believe I owed someone like you a life debt, well my debt is repaid. Whatever you do now, I'm going to stay as far away from it as possible. I'd suggest you get as far away from here as well unless you have some powerful friends." Hiro waits a few seconds for a reply and then storms off angrily as Seth just sits and watches the house burn and doesn't rise until darkness has fallen and the faint sound of fire sirens can be heard in the distance.

Seth walks around the house slowly and notices a small card laying on the ground, The Gregovich's school for gifted children logo shining in the moonlight. Seth picks the card up and a tear comes to his eye as he sees Seishero's picture on the opposite side. Seth puts the card in his pocket and walks down the street face stooped towards the ground and eyes barely open for several minutes not noticing the destruction around him, cars are upturned, windows are smashed, street lamps are bent around bodies. He finally stops when it starts pouring rain and turns to his left. He sees a bar with an open door and slowly walks in sighing. A voice meets his ears as he walks in, "So you've finally come, I was starting to worry you wouldn't."

Seth looks up to see a very strange silver haired woman wearing a grey and white uniform. He then notices the many corpses lying around the bar and attempts to back away. The woman looks towards him with a strange look on her face and then changes to an expression of shock as she sees him. "What the, you're not him, but you're the one I sensed."

Seth looks around to see if he can find a weapon to defend himself with but an unknown force grips him as the woman raises her hand is dragged towards her. She laughs, "I'm not letting you get away. Apparently, my dear friend Aren Comet's soul has been recycled after all this time and I want to get a better look at you. Look at you, nothing but a useless shell. If only your soul was not confined by such a useless body I might be able to finish the duel we started oh so long ago."

Seth looks at the woman extremely scared, "What are you talking about?"

The woman smiles. "I have a devilish idea." and passes her hand over Seth's face and a white light passes into him. Seth head suddenly fills with an intense pain as if someone had detonated a nuke inside of it and he instantly passes out.

The woman looks down at him as he rolls to the floor, "Oh dear, I guess it was a little too much for him to handle. I hope I didn't accidentally kill him." Seth's eyes slowly open and he looks up, "Ah. At least he's alive."

Seth looks at the woman, "Who are you?"

The woman attempts to speak as a strange orb hits her in the chest and explodes wrapping a net made of a strange plastic around her as a smoke bomb goes off in the centre of the room. A strong commanding voice rings out, "Evil doer beware, Science man is here." A strange, glasses wearing figure with an orange suit with a green test tube emblem on the chest and a belt full of hundreds of compartments around his waist.

The Woman bursts out laughing as soon as she lays eyes on him and she closes her eyes for a split second and the net around her melts, "My name is Orion Starshade, remember it well because I'll be back." Orion disappears as another orb flies past her.

Science Man runs over to Seth who is coughing on the smoke and looks at him, "Are you alright."

Seth looks around, "I'm not sure, where am I... in fact who am I?"