CHAPTER 4

LIGHT OBSERVING

Matt, Bruce and Gloria they are all standing at the Bolder Hill Garage, and they see one of their vehicles entering. It's a classic vintage car a 1957 Chevrolet hot rod, which is turquoise colored and has flame design on most of the front of the car. The vehicle stops and then someone gets out and it's a young man who is wearing a blue militaristic uniform, black cape, but instead of a mask has a black veil on. Matt comes to him and the black veiled individual does the same and both hug each other and then come apart.

Matt says, "Darrien long time, no see, really missed you."

Darrien, he nods and says, "Same here Matt, but you know I'll always come when you call for my help."

Darrien then comes to Bruce, and both shake hands along with Gloria and him. Darrien then says, "Now, what do you need my help on."

Darrien, he gets up to date as he looks on a computer terminal a couple of the online news articles on a forest fire and the convention crash both with sightings of a Metal man. Darrien then looks at Matt and says, "I know what this is, the Metal Man."

Matt says, "A Metal Man."

Darrien says, "Well according to one of the volumes in my "Strange Sightings" book series, this was in Falkville, Arkansas in 1973 where a local policeman one night spotted some figure that was made entirely of metal."

Matt says, "Did anyone find out what it was."

"No, it's never been determined as that was one of the only sightings recorded in the area; UFO investigators have theorized it could possibly be a robot sent by the aliens."

Bruce says, "That would make sense."

Gloria a little lost in the whole conversation looks to Bruce and says, "Wait, what do you mean."

Bruce says, "Think about our drone technology, may 'be that Metal Man could be the extraterrestrials version of a drone."

Darrien says, "You might be right Bruce, according to this online article, it says that most of the terminals are completely dry, as in the aftermath users discovered a big blank on the screen."

Matt says, "The terminals were never empty until those strands got a hold of them."

"You communicated to me that you had samples of this Metal Man; let's find out what they are."

Matt, Bruce, Gloria, and Darrien all go to the science lab. They all go to a metal counter and on that counter, there is a red towel and on top there is one of the metal strands from yesterday, neatly placed. Matt has his mask on and then emits the Spectrum beam onto the metal strand, doing come calculations. After Matt does the calculations, Spectrum turns off and he takes his helmet off. He comes to one of the computer terminals and takes out some wires, hooks up to the helmet right to the computer. The visor of the mask then glows yellow, as that happens data gets downloaded.

Gloria then says, "Matt what is it?"

Matt looks at Gloria and says, 'I'm not sure, this creature and material is nothing I've ever seen before."

Darrien then says, "Neither have I, though in the work I do, strange is part of the business."

Matt looks at Bruce and says, "Bruce, did you have much luck on the physical metal analysis."

Bruce says, "Not much, the metal is a substance I've never seen before, it has an extraordinary flexibility, it behaves almost like mercury, a solid but at the same time a liquid."

Matt then says, "My Spectrum program was only able to gather a couple of things as this strand appears to be a circuit board."

Gloria says, "But how can that be possible."

Matt says, "It's not, at least not now anyway."

Matt then clicks on the computer and brings up one of the windows."

The window displays and scrolls down, and they all see a busy network of circuit paths, parts, and microchips."

Matt says, 'Looks like any other circuit board except for several features. Matt scrolls down more and they see there are micros ships but each of them is of different shapes, circles, triangles, hexagons. But then there are small circle patterns which are each strange and are also act as circuit board paths.

Gloria then looks toward Candy and Darrien and says, "You have any idea what those are?"

Darrien says, "They look a lot like the crop circles, each in different configurations, though their meaning still eludes me; if anyone manages to catch an alien please ask them."

Gloria she is a little stunned by this revelation but then shakes her head and says, "Normally I was a non-believer but after what happened today and some the strange things I've seen in this business, I don't dismiss that possibility anymore."

Gloria says to Matt, "What do you think the functions of those circuits are?"

Matt says, "In my times of technological science you always make new discoveries, but certain principles always remain the same."

Matt points out the curved circuit pathways and microchips. "This I hypothesis is what creates the flexibility and extension of the strands."

Gloria says, but what about the absorption of energy, these strands take."

Bruce says, "Circuit boards always need lots of energy to operate.

Bruce points out the symbols and says, "See the glow of them."

Gloria looks ant says, "Yes, but what does it mean?"

Bruce says, "I hypothesis it's some sophisticated transformer."

Darrien says, "If that's true then that would be one of the greatest scientific achievements ever."

Darrien then leans down a little and points out the symbols more. "Same principles apply to these, see how their glowing."

They all look at the display screen.

Darien says, 'The glow is the electricity and data absorbed, they fluctuate and fade as the flow is changing."

Bruce says, 'Yes, these symbols are able to at a rapid rate as our technology can only do so much so fast."

Matt says, "This creature if it was sent by the aliens, it's main objective seems to be to collect data."

Matt looks at the display again, "But due to how big the circuits are they require a lot of energy to continue operation."

Gloria says, "If that's true then right now, it's going to need to go to a fueling station."

Darrien, he stands for a moment and then snaps his fingers. "I know I just remembered more of what that volume in the book says, in one of the other encounters with the creature or similar in nature, the metal man was near a power plant."

Matt says, "That will be where the creature will go next, in Edmonton's biggest power plant.

Back to the Present

Location: Bolder Hill (M.A.S.K. base)

Edmonton, Canada

Bruce, he comes to the main wardroom. Matt is sitting at the round table, and he is looking at the holographic display of the map of Gravity Falls, Oregon and he pushes some buttons from the holographic display to zoom into the forest, the very spot where they found the sphere. Matt looks at Bruce and says, "So what have both you and Alexander found?"

Bruce says, "We still only scratched the surface; that sphere is really something."

"You could study that for years and still not determine what it is for sure."

"What about what you've found out about it."

"For one thing the sphere it defies physics, not just does it never roll off the edge of a coffee table, but it does another thing."

Bruce then hands a digital tablet and it's a recorded video on one other the tests where both Bruce and Alexander take the table, and it has the sphere on the edge of the coffee table. Both hood up the coffee table on several chain hooks and then step back. They have the coffee table turned all the way upside down. The sphere is upside down on the table unmoving, in its same spot.

Then suddenly it starts to move to the other side of the coffee table and then as it comes straight toward the edge of the table it then rolls right off and coming up onto the opposite side of the table. The sphere rolls and then it comes to the edge and makes a full stop, at the very same spot and slides as when it was upside down.

Matt is astounded by the sphere and says, "How can this be possible?"

Bruce says, "That's a question I've been asking finding after finding, which leads to the next discovery.

Bruce takes the tablet and taps on another window and then shows Matt a graph which displays changing colors that surround the sphere. Matt looks at it with interest, Bruce then says, "All these colors represent different frequencies of energy coming all at once."

Matt says, "But for that to be possible, you'd have to have a whole power plant."

"Exactly in a way this sphere is a portable power plant."

"In a way this sphere could almost be the dream come true were looking for in our current energy crisis."

Matt sits back and looks at the sphere and says, "As much as I'd like to solve one of the world's problems, there is an even bigger question to answer."

Bruce, he sits down and says, "Yes, where is Darrien?"

Bruce breathes a sigh and says, 'Why does he always have to be so cryptic?"

Matt says, "My feelings exactly, but then again like any good mystery novel, where is the fun in having the answer immediately."

"Still why does he do this."

Matt says, "Hard to say, talking with him enough about his past, it's made him develop trust issues, this whole thing wasn't just for us to protect this sphere, but he wanted to trust us to do the right thing with it, to bring into him."

Matt takes a breath and says, "But that leads to another question, what does he want this Sphere for?"

Both Bruce and Matt just sit back and ponder for a while without talking to each other. Matt then looks at what is a display case in the war room and as Matt looks at it carefully, he then pops up out of the chair and stands up.

Bruce looks at Matt and says, "What is it?"

Matt says, 'I think I know where Darrien is."