To the readers

I appreciate any comments on the story.

Notes

[] are used to indicate stage directions

All dialogue follows a "Speaker: dialogue" format

{} are used for author comments.

CONTINUE

[Cut to computer lab in the school. Rows of monitors next to desktop computers. All the screens suddenly turn on and a symbol appears on all of them. A red eye made of two circles and a dot in the center. From the outer circle, a lines radiated outward acting as the eye's lashes. One long one from the top and 3 short from the bottom. Then the screens shatter and the plasma pours out and piles up in one spot to form a humanoid figure. Its torso was a made of a dark blue metal with a dish in the top. It supported a floating egg-shaped head. Its face was composed of a strange second symbol, a blue circle with two arcs on either side, forming a kind of sideways eye. It had a single dot in the center. When the creature looked around, its head bobs up and down and the dot in the center of the symbol moved, giving the impression its face was one giant eye. It's had pointed shoulder armor, metal along outside of its legs, and feet all made of the dark blue metal as well. The rest of its arms and legs were made of bright flickering blue plasma. Its arms ended as the flickering blue plasma elongated into thick fingers. On the back of its hands it has the same blue eye symbol. It turns to look out the window.

Down below the cliff the school is on, sat a stadium near the beach entrance to the inlet. It's a large field with a 6-lane track oval around a grass field with heavy lights on poles around the perimeter. There are bleachers along each long side of the track. The seats on the side closest to the main school complex are built into a building that houses locker rooms, and the broadcasting station for the announcers.]

[On the soccer field inside the school stadium ]

Korey: He's not gonna make all three.

Hainer: And because you said that, he's going to do it just to spite you.

[Ethan is preparing to kick a soccer ball through some football targets on stands, a second ball against a series of cones and a third against a suspended hoop in the air above a soccer goal with a chute into the goal if the ball falls straight down.

Ethan bounces 1 ball on knee, hits it up high, scoops up a second with his toe, and hits the last upward with his heel. He kicks three times in a row: the first kick, flips and hits second, lands, jumps and flip kicks the third. The first bounces off football drill dummies (noticeably in the head), the second blasts through all the cones, & the third swishes through basketball hoop.]

Ethan: Trip [first ball hits the goal] da [second ball hits the goal] KILL! [third ball slams into the goal]

Coach Zama: Mr. Townley! Glad you could come to practice for once.

Ethan: Not my name. Say it right. I just came here for the easy extra credit.

Coach Zama: No such thing. Come on and join everyone else.

[Ethan glares at the other two.]

Hainer: Coach said it was the only way to get you to practice. Did you actually think they would give out points for this?

Zama: [commanding] Townley. You ready to run some drills?

Ethan: Drills? I win every game by myself.

Zama: And that would be great if you would come to games AND practices. And since last I checked, you were ranked near the bottom of the board. So, if you don't want to fail-

Ethan: Fine. [menacing. Turns to look at the other two boys.] But everyone has to take a turn at goalie today.

Korey & Hainer: Uh oh.

[Jackal puts a hand to her earpiece.]

Jackal: We've got something.

Lone Elite: The signal became more focused?

Jackal: No, not at all. We've picked up an activated tower.

The Boss: [Turns to her assistant] Maggie, get our servers to track its location on the network. Jackal can you use the tower encryption to decode the signal?

Jackal: Yes. Clearing up the signal, getting its direction and distance and it's … not even within our search area.

Lone Elite: [groans] An entire morning wasted on a decoy.

The Boss: Everyone move out.

[Off in another part of the woodland, Inès and Mabel see the MIB move out.]

Mabel: They're moving. And there's more of them than before.

Inès: [nervous] The people with guns are all moving to one place. And you want to follow them?

Mabel: Don't you want to know what the Men in Black are all looking for?

Inès: No, if we follow them, they're gonna find us.

Mabel: What's the worst they could do?

Inès: Shoot us, lock us up, wipe our memories with neutralizers.

Mabel: Exactly, nothing we're afraid of.

Inès: You're not even listening to me.

Mabel: Moving out. [grabs Inès's hand and leads her along.]

[The supercomputer door reopens. Axel walks back upstairs to the terminal. The circular platform is now lit up and the staircase that allows access to it is now steadily making rotations around the room. Axel jumps on and makes his way up. When he reaches the top, he sees the computer is turned on now. Axel looks at the terminal. A login box is in the only thing on the screen. He tries the "Annex" password for redundancy's sake. It fails.]

Axel: Password? I don't need a password.

[Pulling out a charging cable from a waterproof case in his jacket, he hooks his phone into a USB jack. He taps a lockpick widget on his phone. The computer password is cracked and he has access.]

Axel: Really? Immediately?... Okay. Weird that a place like this has such light security.

[A chat window appears on the main screen]

"Who's there?"

Axel approaches the keyboard.

[Axel types] "I'm... [thinks "Not my real name"] Sherlock. Who are you?"

"I don't know."

Axel: [out loud] Amnesiac. Cliché and not helpful.

"What is this place?"

"I don't know."

"What do you know?"

"That I woke up two minutes ago when you turned on the supercomputer."

"Why?"

"Because the world only started to exist when you turned it on, duh."

[Axel is interested.]

"You don't mean Earth, do you?"

"What's an Earth?"

"Where I am. Where are you?"

"The supercomputer. Here, The…"

"Annex."

"Right. The Annex. It's a world inside the supercomputer."

Axel: [Rambling to himself] I.n.t.e.r.e.s.t.i.n.g. No way. How could this. Now of all. A VR world just sitting here. Now it just lands on my lap.

Axel: [types] "Is the Annex have mod capability? What kind of engine is built from?" [looks around at the lab around him.] "When was it built? How big is it? What systems are in place? Is this the only access point? Am I the only one with access?"

"I don't know any specifics, but I know you won't have it all to yourself for much longer."

[Axel looks worried] "Why?"

[The MIB find the facility. They emerge from the woodland father down the coast than Axel did; near the mouth of the inlet.]

The Boss: [To her lieutenants] Jackal, have your teams spread out and secure all entrances. L.E. breaching team, Jäger set perimeter and patrols. [Jackal, Lone Elite, and Jäger nod and spread out in different directions]

[Inès and Mabel see an entrance with MIB agents inspecting it.]

Inès: [relieved] Well, there's no way we're getting in there.

Mabel: We can and so we shall.

Inès: Even if we do the "throw a thing, run the other direction" they would always have someone on the entrance.

[Mabel looks up at a chute connecting two buildings on the second floor.]

Mabel: Why would we ever use the front door when a more fun route is available. Do the thing. That's why I brought you along. For your [jazz hands] skills.

Inès: I don't even have any equipment.

[Mabel hands her a deck of playing cards instantly.]

Inès: What if I Austin Power's it and we get caught?

Mabel: You're not gonna Austin Powers it. Now do the thing.

[Inès winds up, then whips out her arm. The card she threw hits some scrap metal against the side of the building. A patrolling guard turns to investigate the noise. Mabel and Inès parkour up the side of a building. Mabel provides a springboard to have Inès flip up onto the roof, then she pulls Mabel up.]

Mabel: [Whispers] See. Have more confidence in yourself.

"Something here was sent to your world. It's nearby."

Axel: What?

[Just then, he hears a faint noise. There is running coming from hallway, the pounding of feet on the ground. A second later, sparks from a cutting torch seep through the locked door.]

Axel: [types] "I need a way out."

"You could always come here."

"Clarify. You mean physically travel to another world?"

"Yes. Look for a cabin or closed box nearby."

Axel: [talking to himself. Deliberating] Can I trust them? Probably not. What about, about what's outside. Even less.

[The scanner on the lowest part of the room powers on.]

Axel: Would have preferred a test subject first, but...

[He walks down to the center circle of the room with the 3 columns. One split open as twin sliding panels rotated around the column revealing its hollow center. He enters it and the doors slide behind him.]

[Text appears on the screen.]

"Transfer, scanner…"

[Mabel and Inès are walking through a hallway of the warehouse. Mabel is looking at the boxes on the shelves & taking photos with her camera. {Not her phone. A digital camera with flash attached.}]

Mabel: What were they doing here? I've got circuit boards in one box and high temperature detection sensors in another.

Inès: Wow, you really know your stuff.

Mabel: Well actually… [shuts herself up] Yes, yes I do. [walks away revealing the labels on the boxes.]

[Inès looks down one isle and sees a girl with a cracked mirror wall behind her.]

Girl: You were right not to tell us. If you had, we never would have let you in. At least you got to pretend everything was okay, even if one of us would get hurt.

Inès: I I I didn't mean to.

Mabel: Inès, who are you talking to?

Girl: So just enjoy yourself while you deceive everyone.

Inès: Just stop. I'm fine now.

Mabel: [Gets in front of Inès] Inès, it's fine. Find your tell. It's okay.

Girl: This is always going to happen. You're going to hurt her too.

[Inès looks up and finds the red and green spiral on a box. The girl and the cracked mirror disappear from existence. Mabel hugs Inès.]

Mabel: It's okay. This is real.

[Both the girls take a second to relax. Inès calms down a little and smiles a bit. Mabel returns it.]

MIB 1: Freeze.

MIB 2: On the ground.

Inès: [moans] No. Nononooo.

"Virtualization."

[A torrent of air came up from the bottom of the column making his loose brown hair stand up straight and even lifting him off the ground. He shut his eyes as a flash of light appeared. When he landed, and opened his eyes, he saw a virtual world around him. He is standing on a smooth pale blue platform with sharp edges, as if it was constructed entirely out of square shapes. In front of him, the edge dropped off into a dark blue void that was almost black. Floating around him were structures like the one he was standing on. But every structure was orbiting around a bright blue sphere, like a small planet suspended in the void. He could tell things were virtual. The light coming off the blue planet did not quite cast correct shadows on the orbiting structures. He looked down at his shadow in front of him.]

[Something seemed wrong about it. Too big. The shadow moved. But he didn't.]

Axel: Seriously!? This time? [Turns around just in time to see a blue fist. His vision goes black.]

[Cut to outside to show that its evening time and a couple of hours has passed]

Coach Zama: Okay, that's a wrap. Points will be written up on all your accounts by the end of the day.

[As the students walk off the field to the locker rooms, an athlete walks slightly closer to Ethan.]

Jordan: Obelisk

Ethan: Yeah Big Green.

Jordan: You out?

Ethan: Oh, you have no idea how fast I go through this stuff.

Jordan: I know exactly how fast you go through. That's why we keep this up.

[Jordan walks into the locker room. Ethan is just about to enter when…]

Rook: Townley!

Ethan: Look, either say my full name or don't talk to me Rook. It's Ethan A-

Rook: I need you to call Axel.

Ethan: Why do you want Sherlo- OH RIGHT this morning. [fecal eating grin.] He owned you guys.

Rook: You going to call him?

Ethan: See here's the problem. Why should I help you?

Rook: If you help us find him and apologize for what you did to us, we'll drop everything. It's way less than you deserve, but we've got bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Ethan: So, you're finally getting tried of pretending that I've done something to you guys. No apology, though I will call him if you guys quit nuxing me.

Football 1: Just call him.

Ethan: Tell you what. If you promise to not hurt his fingers of thumbs, I'll call him. If he's not there to round out my Warfield team, he's no good to me.

Rook: Deal.

[Cut to Axel's phone ringing on the Annex lab terminal. It's a triumphant military styled Sci-Fi ringtone. A gloved hand picks it up. It's Lone Elite. He answers.]

Ethan: Hey Sherlock. I need something. Where you at?

Lone Elite: Who is this?

Ethan: What happened to Sherlock?

Lone Elite: Who is Sherlock?

Ethan: Yeah, if he isn't within 10 feet of his phone, the world is ending. Not telling you squat.

[Hangs up]

Lone Elite: Did you get all that?

Maggie: It's all been recorded.

The Boss: Jäger, Lone Elite. Find out who that was on the other end of the call.

Lone Elite: What are we going to do about them?

Jackal: Do you want us to "take care" of them?

Mabel: What?!

[Inès starts looks like she is about to cry.]

The Boss: [annoyed] Jackal, don't be obscene.

Mabel: Oh thank g—

The Boss: We have the "better solution". Secure them. [Lone Elite leads the two girls away out of the terminal room.] Maggie, have you managed to bypass security?

Maggie: Actually, I didn't even need to. The terminal was set up in advance to be easily accessed and owner of the phone already did it for us. I'll see what I can get.

[The MIB soldiers put the two girls in a storage room, lock the door and put a guard outside.]

Mabel: [caring] Inès...

[Inès doesn't hear her over her crying.]

Mabel: [louder] Inès!

Inès: [sniffles] What?

Mabel: Use your skills to get us an edge.

Inès: I can't.

Mabel: Yes. Yes you can. Your amazing. Think. What did they look like? Any details you noticed? Did you hear anything while we were in that room?

[Inès remembers a bunch of conversations happening in the room during Ethan's phone call. All of them are happening at once and overlapping each other. She focuses on one. It becomes isolated and clearer than the rest.]

Inès: They said something about "the signal increasing". It's something dangerous. They're unhappy, but they found the lab. The call of emotions…

Mabel: You're rambling again. Can you be clearer?

Inès: [Reiterates] They found the lab, but they are unhappy. It must mean there is a problem. They said something about "the signal increasing". It's must be something dangerous. There was the call too. Someone they didn't expect got here before us. …And they are scared about that unknown.

Mabel: And all of that meeeeans?

Inès: They're keeping us here because they think we might know something.

Mabel: And when they realize we don't?

[Inès is silent.]

[cut to the Annex]

[Axel is running away from a virtual version of the same blue monster that appeared in reality. The virtual version is much more solid looking, the metal having more of a shine and the plasma interior of its body occasionally crackling and shifting. It ran after him with thundering footsteps. Axel reaches a dead end with nothing but empty space around him. The only other platforms were far in the distance.

[Turning back to show Axel, this is the first view of Axel's virtual avatar. The best way to describe him is a cyber knight. His upper torso was covered by a thick black chest plate. The front of which was decorated with an azure curved diamond that ended in a point. A dark black skin suit underneath that was visible on his upper arms and legs with an electric blue circuit pattern connecting all pieces of his equipment. His lower arms and legs were covered with gauntlets and greaves. The gauntlets were chrome steel with electric blue accents and his greaves had alternating electric blue and black metal. The electric blue design on his lower torso resembled a grinning face. His neck was surrounded by the thick top of the chest plate that encircled his shoulders forming a gorget. Under his eyes were two electric blue marks that traced under the interior corner of each eye to the other corner, and then down till they came to a hooked point on his cheeks.

Axel takes a deep breath. He turns around just in time to see the creature's arm turn into a hook blade, it's fingers sharpening into the spikes on the guard and the hard light blade erupting into a hooked point. Axel rolls under the slash. The creature charges at him again. Axel steps back from the slash, but the creature lunges out and grabs his arm with the hook. It easily lifts him off the ground and throws him toward the edge of the platform. With no room to roll, Axel lands on one foot just before the edge.]

Axel: [freaks out] NO!

[Axel fully regains his balance. He's inches away from the edge.]

Axel: Whew, okay. Not my real body. I thought I was past being this careless.

[The creature swings its sword. Axel instinctively raises his arms in a guard stance. Curved plates shoot out of his gauntlets and cover his hands in a metal spike. The creature's blade is blocked and bounces back.]

[Axel shuffles back. He opens his fists. The plates retract.]

Axel: How did …? [He tests by clenching and unclenching his fist. The pike extends and retracts. He clenches his hand into a fist again and the pike extends.]

Axel: Got it. Impact gauntlets.

[Axel launches a punch on the creature. It punches straight through its torso…

And keeps going.]

[Completely unhurt, the creature brings another attack down on him. Axel narrowly avoids another sword slash, wrenching out his arm from the creature's body and ducking back into another roll. Axel extends pikes on both arms and parries a double strike from the creature. He plays defensive and backs away again.]

Axel: It will just reform from light attacks. I need to finish it off in one hit.

[Cut to a luxurious office. One floor to ceiling window overlooks the central, and largest, courtyard below. Monitors lined the walls on each side of the door and behind the desk. In the center was a Mahogany desk with the plaque labeled "Principal Caroline" on it.

There were only two chairs in the room. One stretch fabric rolling arm chair that a woman who could only be the principal was using and the other a metal folding chair which Ethan was currently unpleasantly & uncomfortable residing in.

An imposing figure loamed over Ethan. The two MIB heads seemed to half sink in the shadows, as if to get out of her gaze. She is blond with her hair pulled back behind her head in a bun held in place by a complicated braid. The school faculty uniform made her figure even more stiff and unmoving.

Ethan is in the center of the three of them, looking bored.]

Principal Caroline: Mr. Townley, can you tell these men about your roommate?

Ethan: I can if you say my full name.

Principal Caroline: Just answer the question.

Jäger: This will be over faster if you cooperate.

Ethan: I just live in the same room & make him pick up my stuff.

Lone Elite: [whispers to Jäger] … I like him.

Ethan: [simply] Look, I just want to sit in my room all day and play video games while putting the fear of god in my enemies. You know… Teenage boy stuff.

[Ethan tries to leave.]

[Lone Elite blocks door.]

Lone Elite: We haven't finished talking yet.

Ethan: Well I've finished listening. There is only one thing you need to know. I do whatever it takes to do whatever I want, whenever I want it. And now… I want out.

[The interrogation ends when they hear screams from outside. Jäger and Lone Elite run out into the school's main courtyard to see the golem from the computer lab with its sword raised. It destroys part of the wall to the classrooms.]

Jäger: [To teachers and school staff] Establish a perimeter and begin evacuation procedure. We will handle the … anomaly.

[Jäger takes out his gun and fires at the golem. It raises its non-sword arm, the bullets sinking uselessly into the plasma before it forms into an shield and just deflects the attacks.]

[Ethan pushes through the crowd. He tries to enter the courtyard. Andrew, one of the staff members in a school faculty uniform, stops him.]

Andrew: You can't go in there.

Ethan: Why not?

Andrew: There is a monster right there!

Ethan: But this is the shortest path to the dorms.

Andrew: It will attack you if you try to go through. You have to stay where its safe.

Ethan: [not considering the threat at all] …But my Xbox is in my room.

[Ethan ignores Andrew and sprints up the stairs onto the ramparts.]

Andrew: Hey!

[Rook is up there, hiding under the railing out of view of the golem. Ethan is sauntering along.]

Rook: Get down.

[Rook grabs Ethan.]

Ethan: Let go!

Rook: If that thing sees you if will kill you.

Ethan: Okay first, you don't know that and B, you grabbing me is causing more attention.

[The MIB ram an armored SUV through the front gate. The agents get out and attempt to open the back doors, trying to get something out. The golem turns its shield arm into a cannon, charges up and fires a blast of green plasma at the SUV. The MIB agents see the intensifying green light and run away as the vehicle explodes.]

[The golem turns toward Ethan and Rook who are making a considerable amount of noise.]

Jäger: [sees the boys] GET DOWN!

Ethan: [caring more about being correct than his own safety] See, told you it would notice.

[The golem fires at the boys. Rook kicks Ethan back toward the stairs and launches himself through the air. The blast hits the wall. It explodes and crumbles. Ethan makes it out of the initial blast and lands solid on his feet, but the rampart crumbles beneath him and he slides right down into the courtyard. The golem looms over him.]

[Axel's spiked punches are bouncing off the golem's shield. The second Axel stops to get his balance, the golem bashes him with the flat of its shield on its offhand. Axel instinctively leans back and kicks into the shield. Similar to his gauntlet, the bottom portion of the greave chambered down into the metal wall. Axel's leg and by extension, him, went flying back, while the golem only paused for a second. The greave reset itself into its normal position a second later.

Axel walks backward to get some range on the golem while never taking his eyes off it.]

Axel: Mechanical enhancements to help with martial arts. But they have to reset after each attack. [The golem changes its arm into a cannon and begins charging up.] Sok Sab? Kao Tone? No, too tall. Never reach the head. Don't know its base damage, so can't risk getting hit. It could one shot me for all I know. If I'm going to beat it in one attack … better go with Dead Leg Kick. CHAMBER! [He stomps down with his left foot and the greave's chamber sends him flying forward. The green plasma blasts whizzes past and explodes behind him. He lands on his left foot, pushes off with his right.

[The kick acts as a knife though the monster's plasma body. The slash separates its cannon arm from its body and slices the golem in two at the waist.]

Axel: [smiles] And that's ga-

[The golem's blade comes down on Axel's shoulder, slicing into his chest until it hit the chestplate.]

Axel LP: 100 - 75

[Axel fires his elbow back into the golem's face. It jerks back, wobbles for a moment, and snaps back into the center of its collar, like being drawn by a magnet. The golem's blade slips out and he takes off running.

He dared to look back. The golem had reformed instantly at its chest where his kick had passed through, though it had paused to pick up and reattach its cannon arm, the plasma reforming the arm the instant the metal of the cannon got close enough to the shoulder. Now it had changed its arm into a blaster, its fingers turning into barrels emitting green light, and it was running after him.]

[Back in the storage closet the girls are locked in, machines with dusty screens snap on. The screens glow blue, shimmer and then a substance leaks out from all of them, gathering on the floor and rising up into a figure.

Inès hearing a noise, looks around a shelf to investigate. Her head didn't even come up to its shoulders. She tilts her back to look at the monster's giant eyeball. Inès looks at it with interest.]

Inès: This one's not so bad. The tell isn't obvious though.

[She casually peers around it to try and find the "tell".]

Mabel: Inès, did you find OMG! GET DOWN!

[Mabel tackles Inès saving her from a punch from the golem. The golem turns its hands into blasters and fires a volley of lasers at the girls. Mabel kicks the oblivious Inès to the side and in the same motion rolls back. The golem sweeps the room with its arm and hits Mabel in the shoulder, catapulting her into the shelf which collapses on top of her. The golem stands over Inès who doesn't move, not understanding the situation. It turns its other hand into a hook sword and strikes.]

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