Persona Triple-A Chronicles 3
by ~Andyus
A suffocating darkness that no one saw...
A scaled arm hidden under the sea...
An armored justicar whose sword pierces evil...
This and many other things were the ones that marked my life in an outstanding way...
Someone once said "Time is given once, and never again." I realized sometime ago that he was wrong. In the night, time lies hidden… available only to those gifted to hunt, cursed to be hunted… This is the story of three persons, two chosen to have a dire fate, one made to have it…
Part III: Shadow Boxing
As i saw it, i knew it was time...
Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 22nd, 2007
02:26 am
Miss Larrondo got up the chair, and turned back to an old cabin that was past her. She started looking for something.
- In the year 1999, a large technology corporation from Japan contacted the twenty largest companies in the world, and summoned them to a meeting in United States. As you can imagine, this company was among them. On the record, during the meeting the representatives of each corporation discussed the creation of international laws capable of stating worldwide limits to night labor. Nonetheless, the meeting was done on closed doors, and to discuss a much more important matter. This company and all the others were summoned... to be warned.
- Warned? of what?
- Of things that could happen in our headquarters. Things that could happen, more specifically, at 12:00 every night.
- What things?
- Any kind. But they would always be strange things: equipment that would get damaged by itself, things that would dissappear right in front of our eyes... and personnel whose minds could be damaged in less than a second. All because of what they called "The Dark Hour".
I couldn't help myself to scare when i heard the name... normally, someone saying something like that is expected to be crazy, or joking. But her expression was entirely serious. Even if nothing had happened to me at 12:00 that day, i would still have thought that she was telling the truth.
- For some time, i just thought it was all a big joke, and didn't believe a word of it. But four years ago... things started to happen. A power cable suddenly turned up half-chewed. All the testing devices from an entire division dissappeared right in front of the cameras. And i'm sure you know about the "braindead" cases...
I did know about them. A year ago, people had started to leave the company because of weird cases of employees that entered a state of total aphaty. I had always thought that it was totally weird that all cases happened exactly at 12:00...
- So i started to believe they could be right, and contacted them to get some more information. Supposedly, the Dark Hour is an hour that happens everyday between 12:00 'o clock, and the very milisecond after. Normal people are not aware of that moment, but on some descriptions we have gathered so far, we know that nothing that is electric works, and that all surfaces get covered with blood.
- There was blood on the elevator... and the lights went out... and i tried to call for help, and nobody answered... And my cell wouldn't turn on...
- You didn't have any nightmare. You are one of the rare individuals that can be aware of the Dark Hour.
I felt somehow better, knowing i wasn't crazy. or at least, if I was, miss Larrondo was as crazy as i was.
- Hold on a second... You said most people are not aware of the Dark Hour. How come all these things happen if no one does anything during it?
Miss Larrondo's face turned even more serious.
- Because there is something else that lurks during the Dark Hour. Something that preys on those who are aware during it. Something that you already met... while it was cleaving the elevator hatch. Something called "The Shadows".
I remembered it... the points of light that stared at me... the horrible sound of its opening claw...
- The Shadows are the ones responsile for the "Braindead" series. Every known case is a person who became aware to the Dark Hour and got their minds devoured by Shadows. Andy... if you hadn't been in that elevator when you became aware, there is a high chance that you wouldn't be having this conversation right now. But tomorrow, and every day after it from now on, you will experience the Dark Hour. And the shadows will come after you... if you're a normal person.
- Then... then i will face them as many times as i need to... hey, hold on... a normal person? what do you mean by that?
Larrondo didn't say anything for some time. She turned around and sat again in her chair. Then she finally talked.
- The japanese corporation stated that everyone who had experienced the dark hour forget everything about it when it finishes. Except, those who have "The Potential"...
- The potential to what?
- To fight the Shadows. To awake their hidden power, using these.
Larrondo then showed what she had in her left arm, and what she had been searching in her cabin. It was a pistol, but the weirdest one i had ever seen. (My uncle was a gunsmith, so i had seen plenty already) Its cannon was square, and it didn't have any magazine slot that i could see. On its grip, there some kind of carving with a blue-ish shine on each side, like if the pistol used a shiny blue battery instead of bullets. And in the cannon there was some decorative engraving around the words "Kirijo Group".
- This, is an Evoker. The Japanese Corporation provided one to each representative at the end of the meeting. They didn't tell us what did they do, though, because it doesn't work - She pointed it to the lamp and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. - They just told us to give it to any person that experienced the Dark Hour and remembered it. Andy... it is yours.
I took it. It didn't feel cold at all, but surprisingly warm to the touch. I could even feel some faint vibration coming from it.
- But... what good does it do if it doesn't shoot? do you think it will have some special effect during the Dark Hour?
- I suppose. Still, I don't advice that you carry only that tomorrow. Do you have any other weapons at your house?
- No, not real weapons... But i have the kite shield that my uncle gave me.
- Well, that would have to... huh? why did your uncle give you a shield?
- Oh, well, after they robbed me once on my way back home... he wanted to give me a gun for protection, but i'm too young to legally have one, so he gave me a shield instead.
For a second, i knew that Larrondo was about to say i had a weird family, but she changed her face back to normal in a second.
- Well, it's something that can pass trough security easily at least, and you can use your uncle's story as a reason to keep it with you. Bring it tomorrow. As for the Evoker, carry it on your backpack. If security says anything, say it's a toy gun.
- Can't you tell them to let it pass?
- No. Sorry, but as i said, this conversation cannot leave this room. I'm sorry, but you will have to keep working as normally as you can, before and after the Dark Hour. And during it, you will be on your own. Andy... I hope you can awaken whichever power you have soon enough. And i want to see you tomorrow in my office... at 12:01.
I stood up, put the Evoker in my backpack, and turned around. when i was about to open the door, i decided to ask one last thing:
- Am i the first one?
Mary looked down.
- Without counting this time, i have handed over that Evoker two times. It was recovered on the next day, lying around somewhere on the building. Its owners... were never seen again.
I showed my face to her, and smiled.
- Well, third time lucky, i suppose.
Capital Federal, Buenos Aires, Argentina
March 22nd, 2007
11:59 pm
I looked at my cellphone. 11:59. Another minute and it would start.
I had already forgotten how pretty my shield was. According to my uncle it was originally a real kite shield from around the year 1400. It was made of wood and leather but he had restored it and upgraded it with three inner layers, two of kevlar and one of some kind of polycarbonate. Its result was a shield as beautiful as those made in that time, with the ability to resist almost every blow. He had also painted a green dragon in it, as he said the Bordoni family shield had one. And it was also light enough to easily handle it. I almost regretted having stopped taking it with me to work, when the company included night transportation, since the only reason i used it was when i was going to be exposed to any kind of danger.
I knew i could look a bit strange, standing in the middle of the break room (Mary had recommeded it so i would have enough room if i needed to fight), wearing my backpack and wielding my shield on my left hand. But in that moment i didn't care about feeling ashamed.
I'm sure some of you would like to know if i was afraid. Of course i was! I was about to face a mind-eating monster that had broken a metal elevator hatch easily, with nothing more than my shield and a gun that didn't work. How would you feel?
Still, I was calm. Being nervous wasn't going to do any good. I took a deep breath and looked at my cellphone again, just to see when it showed 12:00.
Everything went dark again, but this time the large windows on the break room allowed me to get some light... enough to see the full picture.
There was blood pools all around the floor, and also in the wall and ceiling. Everything had taken a poison-green color that cam from the moonlight itself. The moon had aslo turned incredibly big, even in half phase. And in the same place where two of my colleagues were playing ping-pong, there were now two great coffins, completely still and in balance. So that's what happened to normal people during the Dark Hour. I remember telling myself that maybe being in the elevator hadn't been so bad after all.
"Come on." I thought. "Come and try to get me..."
And as responding to my taunt, there it was. Crawling quickly through the ground with its two claws, totally black except for a yellow mask with a black cross in it, with the groans of a hungry beast, but much smaller that what i had anticipated, and also less scary.
It happened quickly. It stretched one arm to the ground close to me, then shortened it back. that made its body build momentum. It used it for a punch with the other hand. I covered myself. It pushed me back into the room's food freezer, but the shield took the hit. "Maybe it's less scary than i thought, but it's definitely stronger" I thought. It was time to try something.
I took advantage on the distance, took out the Evoker that Mary had given to me, pointed it to the shadow, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. It looked like it wasn't going to be that easy.
The shadow was coming again but i didn't give it any time. With an amazing speed that surprised even myself, i got up, and stole the shadow's technique: I ran towards it to build momentum, them jumped directly over it, placing all my weight over the shield.
I closed my eyes, but i heard two noises: one like a breaking plate, and one like a huge splash. The shadow splattered all over the break room, it's mask crushed. Then as soon as i got up, it just vaporized into thin air. It was over.
I gave myself some congrats. It could have been difficult if that shadow's punch had reached me. But using its same technique was something that paid off quite good. I took one carton of orange juice that was on the broken freezer and drank a bit. With that shadow gone i could explore the place much better, maybe even figure out what was the gun for.
But those were my thoughts on one second. On the second later, i could think only in a breaking pain on my right side.
I looked at my right shoulder. I had a wound. It was a cut, but it wassn't bleeding. It had been cautherized, as if made by a burning blade.
Then i looked behind me, and saw who had made it.
I have to admit, i had been really, really stupid. How could i ever think that there was only one shadow? how could i think that it was too easy? That saying, "you don't appreciate something until you lose it" applied to this case... you don't appreciate a weak opponent until you find a strong one...
It was, of course, another shadow. Bigger than the other, scarier than the other, and as the pain in my shoulder stated, definitely stronger than the other. This one had two arms and legs, made completely of what i thought was the devices that had been stolen from storage over time. I could see the Controllers of the Wii, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 that had dissappeared from the break room. Instead of legs it had wheels, that i remembered, were actually stolen from a colleague's motorcycle. It had also a monitor instead of a head, which i suppose it had robbed from any of the computers. And it had many other parts, each one scarier than the other. I also could see electricity running everywhere trhough it, which explained why my wound didn't bleed. (I actually didn't know for sure, but i supposed that an electrical blade was the same than a burning blade, they both would inmediately burn the wound, stopping any bleeding.) And on its left hand, it had a yellow part that i didn't recognize, but that had two sharp, pointy edges.
Of course, i made this description a long time after my battle with it. In that very same moment, I only could think of the pain in my shoulder, and on how scared i was.
The shadow lunged towards me but i could dodge it in the last minute. Still, i accidentally touched it with my leg, and got shocked by the electricity that it had. I had to keep away from it, but he didn't. Two more times it launched itself against me. Two more times I dodged it. Two more times it got to touch me. It got my right arm and leg shocked.
I was really going to lose. The places where it had reached me were starting to get numb. Eventually i would be paralyzed, and that would be it.
"Calm down", I kept saying to myself. "look for an opening, a chance to hit, and hit it with everything"
But it didn't have an opening. I haven't had any chance to hit, not even with the shield. The shadow, besides its size, moved incredibly fast, and as soon as it attacked, it inmediately took distance, to charge again. On its monitor-head, it showed the emoticons of a happy face. It knew it was going to win.
Then the shadow started to twitch. As it groaned and growled, its right arm started to twitch within its body. It got closer to its par in the left, until they merged together in a mass of cables, metal and console controllers. In a second, it had transformed its right and left arms into one great fist. It started to prepare to dash.
I had no chance to dodge that with my body half paralyzed, so i curled behind my shield and prepared as much as i could to take the hit. I calculated that only around half the Dark Hour had passed. This time i wasn't going to be saved by the bell. I was alone...
- You cannot defeat it alone.
Something started to shine with a faint blue light, but this time i couldn't see what was it.
- Where are you? Who are you?
- The time has come. Stop hiding yourself. Try one last time. Call out for my power. The power that lies within. Call out... your power!
Everything turned slow. I looked at the Evoker, still being gripped by my numb right hand. I took it and held it with both hands, and guided it to my head. I finally had figured it out. I knew what did i have to use the evoker with. I knew who was the one that talked to me. I knew who was the one who encouraged me. I knew who was the one who shined with that faint blue light... It was me.
Though i was probably about to die, i smiled, and as i pulled the trigger, i muttered a word:
- Per... so... na.
The blue light shined greatly as blue flames wrapped me. Hundreds of pieces of shining glass started dancing into the air.
- You are I. You are my master, my desires, my passions, my light.
The pieces of glass started to merge together...
- I am you. I am your guardian, your strength, your eyes, your darkness.
It started to take form... I saw hair like mine, except that it was blond. I saw a bandage covering his eyes. I saw a blue gem in the bandage...
- From your soul i have come to fight...
I saw a shining armor, and a waving blue cape... It was him. It was my Persona.
- I am Ëargirith, the Calm Sea!
- End of chapter III -