Chapter 2 – 2033
~~~~18 Years Later~~~~
The world has changed.
The world we once knew was destroyed by a plague nearly 15 years ago. It was called the EuJennens Virus. It targeted humans specifically; a global epidemic spreading to all four corners of the earth, annihilating anything in its path except for the Abnormals.
Humans demanded a cure as the death rate spiked into the thousands. Pharmaceutical companies failed one by one to produce it. Families, countries and continents fell. Except for the Abnormals.
That's when the government decided to reign in its last defense for humanity; The Sanctuary Network. Headed up by the infamous John Druitt who had taken over after the death of his predecessor, the Network's original founder, Helen Magnus. The last living member of a group called The Five still attached to the Sanctuary.
On March 28, 2023, he provided "The Cure."
With the help of this miraculous substance humans were saved, it turned their genetics making them Abnormals providing them the secret immunity to the EuJennens virus. Thus became the last remaining bits of humanity's reliance on John Druitt and The NSN (New Sanctuary Network). They became a powerhouse, growing a monopoly as the world's major drug and Health Company. No other company had the resources to help with the surplus of strange and new abilities. But this help didn't come without a price.
A binding contract.
The clauses of this contract were almost Faustian in nature; binding them whole-heartedly into the service or loyalty of NSN in exchange they were given medication, training, and Internet access to learn to control their new abilities.
On September 12 of 2025 the New Congress voted Yea on the bill, the Druitt's Act, the right for the NSN to remove the abilities of anyone who did not meet the terms of the contract they signed, by force if necessary, fully and unchallenging legal only to the power of the NSN.
The process was called "Stripping," and thus "The Rippers" were born. Mysterious men who crawled like foreboding shadows through the night, they removed your powers in a sheer wave of pain then killed you to save you from suffering as you would die from the EuJennens without your abilities to protect you. These men were said to have long sharp claws and snarling fangs, and they never killed the same way twice. The nights were haunted by these dark figures.
Now, the world in the year 2033, every last corner of civilization moved to one continent under the rule of John Druitt and the NSN. Past the city gates were nothing but death.
John Druitt was our savior, our light in the darkness and he was revered as so and we flocked beneath his protective wing.
His team, the NSN family became our rock stars. Will Zimmerman, his second-in-command. He was adored by women, fueled by rage, and mad with power; not a man you'd want on your bad side. His ability of super-strength and telepathy made him the world's foremost expert of abnormal psychiatry, and in control of New City's police force.
Kate Freelander, the exotic and beautiful woman had the control of the marketing of the companies new wonder drug, Liquid Lightning, a control medication that kicked Diazepam on it's ass. It was said she possessed cat-like agility, and other feline traits though she never showed them in public.
Henry the heartthrob playboy werewolf; despite his deformed face due to an electrical accident leaving the left side horribly scarred that he covered with a mask. He was the world's technology master, creating an advanced communications device that connected the whole world together, as well as other things.
These four control the world, or at least, what was left of it.
Their greatest weapon, though, were "The Rippers," and they kept the world in their hands through these clawed creatures. And we let them, the fear of the EuJennens making us desperate to keep on our savior's good side.
Except for the rogue Abnormals not bound by contract to NSN. They ran black market operations providing a cheaper version of Liquid Lightning to anyone who was low enough to take it.
The world had fallen directly in John Druitt's lap.
~~~~New City, 2033 – Druitt Tower~~~~
A large screen flashed over the city.
"Get the new Liquid Lightning and feel better faster and longer," came the voice over the loud speakers to anyone listening down below.
"Come to the Magnetic Opera, New City's biggest stage to hear Mermaid Sally sing her final song!" the screen flashed again.
"Hello, I am Sally, before I could never share my songs with the world and with the help of John Druitt and NSN I can, and I have been for the last 15 years, what have they done for you?"
John Druitt watched through his large window, his hands held behind his back.
"Sir?" came a voice behind him.
"Yes," he didn't turn to face whoever was behind him.
"We have the results back, sir," said the lab-coated man.
"And?" he prodded.
"There's nothing we can do, your blood is rejecting the serum, it's immune, your body is decaying rapidly," said the man, placing the data on the large desk. "I'm sorry Mr. Druitt."
John turned and looked at the file on his desk, then over to the two bodyguards standing on either side of the desk, advanced guns held in their hands.
John paused and glared at the man.
"Shoot him," he ordered, sitting down at his desk and throwing the file in the trash.
They wordlessly lifted their guns and fired hitting the man square in the eyes.
They moved and dragged him out of the office just as quietly.
John sighed and leaned back in his chair, resting his hands together.
"What the hell, Druitt!" burst in Will, Kate and Henry trailing behind. "When were you going to tell us this? Sally's quitting the Opera! She can't do that! Where's she going to go?"
John looked calmly up at his compatriot.
"She's insisted upon it, my hands are tied," he shrugged.
"I can't believe this!" shouted Will; he punched the wall, shattering the dry wall.
"Shit, Druitt, did you think we weren't going to find out?" growled Kate, she lounged on the couch uninterested.
"Of course I did, I just didn't think you'd be so upset about it," said John casually.
"It's Sally!" said Henry.
"We discussed this already, anyone not loyal to us is a liability, we already lost the hairy one to those rogues and he causes enough damage as it happens, to remain in control you have to cut all loose ends, you know that," John said and Will exhaled.
"I just never thought…" started Will, scrubbing a hand through his hair.
"It is a shame, but we have to move on," said John.
"Get your results back, Johnny," sighed Kate.
"Yes, and it's no use, I am immune, I'll have to choose my successor," John sat up as he spoke.
"One of us?" asked Henry, adjusting his mask in the mirror.
"You'll know just as soon as I do," said John cryptically.
"Jeez Druitt, we're supposed to be a team," groaned Kate, swinging her legs off the couch.
"You'll know just as soon as I do," John looked her straight in the eye.
"I need 50 grand," she leaned on the desk.
"What for?" asked John with a sigh.
"Somebody has to pay these two-bit paparazzi freak shows off, and since we can't do it in free samples I need the cash," said Kate coolly.
"Fine, I'll have it for you in an hour, now leave me," John dismissed the three of them.
Kate dragged Henry out but Will stayed glaring at Druitt.
"I don't like this, Druitt," he snarled.
"You've made that clear, but as I said, my hands are tied, why not go beat up someone to make you feel better?" John smiled condescendingly and Will left in a huff.
The smile faded from John's face as soon as the door slammed behind the protégé.
He stood up and faced the window once again, looking out onto New City.
~~~~New City Cemetery~~~~
She kept the gasmask covered over her face as she moved through the catacombs connecting her home to the graveyard. Her mother's tomb was only one of a few in the cemetery, the rest were mainly mass graves or family burial plots.
She held on tightly to the strap of her bag that was slung over her shoulder.
The girl was no more than 18, tall and slender. Her feet stumbled over the broken, uneven ground of the catacombs, her gloved hands reached out to the walls to balance herself.
She pulled a key out of her pants pocket and unlocked the creaky wooden door at the end of the narrow passageway, sliding through the doorway into her mothers tomb, lighting a candle, making the atmosphere more gothique. Perfect for sitting and reading, she thought.
She pulled the gas mask over her head, her chocolate brown locks spilling out over her shoulders and down her back.
She had stunningly bright blue eyes and pale skin. A classic beauty…just like her.
She sat at the edge of the grave and looked down at it.
"Hello Mom," she said softly, pulling out a book from her bag and cracking it open. "I've been reading, Dad says it was one of your favorites, I like it better than the last one."
She gave a small smile to the name on the tomb.
"Course, Dad says you loved lots of books, but only a few he lets me read," she conversed lightly with the slab of marble.
She saw a speck of dirt on the name and she leaned over and brushed it off.
The name edged in the marble, so simple and delicate, like a white flower. It read HELEN TESLA. Nothing else. Just a name, a simple, empty name etched in stone.
It was beautiful, it wasn't hard to believe that the name belonged to someone who was just as beautiful as the name itself. And she had seen enough pictures in her home to know that she was right in her assumption. But it meant nothing to her, despite her wanting it to.
She sighed and went back to the book.
A sound outside the tomb stirred her from the pages of the old book to peer out the barred window of the tomb door.
She saw several dark figures wind through gravestones and stone angels.
Her breath hitched in her throat, a panic rising in her chest but was overpowered by curiosity as the figures made their way to a newly dug up grave.
"Guh guh! Remove the coffin," said a voice.
The girl opened the tomb door quietly and snuck behind a stone, listening carefully.
"Never in my life did I think I'd be a graverobber," said an accented voice.
"Guhh, don't like getting dirt under you nails?" said the first voice.
"No, my mother just taught me to respect the dead, not dig 'em up and remove their leftover blood," said the other voice.
"You got any better ideas?" grunted the first voice again.
"Aside from getting the hell out of here?" laughed the second.
"Just work quickly," grunted the other voice and she heard a crack as the pine coffin's lid was pried open and a splurge as the body inside was dumped out of it.
She peeked her head out and she gasped at the sight of the decaying body, one of the men hunched over it with a strange device embedded into the neck.
The larger one looked up and made eye contact with her, she squealed and hunched down behind the gravestone again.
She hoped that what just happened was just her mind playing tricks with her, but a few moments later a large hairy hand grabbed her roughly and hoisted her off the ground.
"Ah! Please don't hurt me! I didn't see anything! I'm not supposed to be here!" she cried.
The big man-creature growled.
"What are you doing-" he trailed off, looking into her eyes, then sniffing her.
"P-please don't hurt me…" she pleaded.
"It's you…guh guh, but it can't be," he lowered her gently to the ground, his eyes never leaving hers.
The second man came beside him and looked at her.
"Who'd ya find?" he asked.
"Look at her, guh! What do you see?" grunted the man-beast.
"Wha? Oh my…it's not," said the second one, his lightly graying hair shifting ever so slightly in the wind.
"It is, I can smell it," grunted the other one.
"Please, I'm not supposed to be here, let me go," she pleaded with the two men before a loud siren broke the still peacefulness of the cemetery.
"Intruder Alert! Anyone caught in the graveyard without a permit will be arrested! Intruder Alert!" came an automated voice.
"That's our cue to blow this joint," said the accented man
The man-beast let her go and she rushed to the tombstone door.
"Commencing immediate cemetery lockdown," said the automated voice.
"No, no, no!" she cried, reaching the door a fraction too late.
"Come with us!" grunted the man-beast waving her over.
She panicked and followed, grasping his huge, hairy hand.
She had no idea why she was trusting these men, they were graverobbers, outlaws, rogues, they weren't generally trustworthy.
"Eh, Big Fella, does this remind you of Winter of 2018, in the sewers?" laughed the accented one.
"Guh, I rather not, Macrae," grunted the one called Big Fella.
"I need to get back into that tomb, I have to go home!" said the girl.
"Too dangerous!" grunted Big Fella.
"No, I am not supposed to be here, I'm sick, I have to go home!" she cried over the sirens as cops flooded the cemetery.
"Through here!" shouted Macrae.
They busted through the wall of a building on the cemetery ground only to find themselves amongst heaps of dead and decaying bodies.
"Well ain't this the ever-loving lulu of gold mines," muttered Macrae.
"Get as many as you can, I'll watch her," grunted Big Fella.
Macrae cackled and jumped into the piles of dead bodies, jabbing his little device into the nearest exposed neck he could find.
"Wha-what are you doing?" gasped the girl.
"Guh! Graverobbing," grunted Big Fella.
The young girl gulped and backed away.
"I have to go home, I have to go home…I shouldn't be here…" she stepped out of the building away from the dead, letting go of the hairy hand. In a moment she was swarmed by cops, her breathing became labored, and she clutched her chest, falling to the ground.
"Warning, blood pressure, medicate immediately," she looked at her wristband that beeped the message again, looking up at the cops helplessly.
~~~~Druitt Tower~~~~
"Sir, we have a visual on the culprit," John pressed the button on the comm. network.
"Bring it up," he ordered.
"Yes sir," the holo-screen flashed to life and the image of a young girl gasping slightly on the ground.
"It's her," he stood up and looked at the footage. "Bring her in, don't hurt her."
One of the cops onscreen nodded and signaled to the others.
"I have you now," John muttered, a hint of a smile cresting his face.
~~~~Cemetery~~~~
"Please…I didn't do anything," gasped the girl as the cops swarmed over her.
She fell on to her side and felt herself slowly slipping into unconsciousness.
She heard the message from her wristband again and saw a black figure push past the cops and kneel down in front of her.
"It's okay, Shae, I've got you," was the last thing she heard before she went unconscious.