Genesis: Anger

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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

Ashley shook her head to try to clear the ringing. She was lying on the ground, and there was rubble all around her, small little fires on the ground and wreckage of various S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles. The bodies of S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers were on the ground around her as well, some in various stages of injury, some getting up, and some who would need funeral arrangements. Struggling to get up, she winced as a soldier ran over to her, shouting out something that she could barely hear, her hearing so impaired by the explosion.

“What?” She asked.

“Reports of a green….thing, ma’am.” He said. “We don’t know what to do, the soldiers are opening fire on it.” He added, reaching down and helping her up to her feet.

“Show me.” Ashley said, moving towards a jeep that hadn’t been destroyed or overturned in the blast. Getting in, the soldier drove with her, and as the ringing in her ears started to subside, she could hear the sounds of gunfire and rocket fire that much more clearly. But there was something else that she could hear as well.

It was something unearthly, something that she could feel in her bones. A deep, guttural scream that was louder than anything that she had ever heard in her life. As they came around a bend, Ashley’s eyes widened as she took in the scene, and took in the carnage.

There were indeed S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers firing on something. They were opening up with everything that they had brought with them to Lucas’ laboratory. All of it, from the small nine millimeter rounds of pistols to the large one hundred and twenty millimeter rounds of the tanks were directed at a huge, hulking, green…beast. That was the only way for her to properly explain it. She couldn’t make out any facial features, due to the cloud of gun smoke, but the overall appearance was that of a man. Ashley shook her head, knowing that whatever was going on, she was in charge and had to figure out what to do next.

Grabbing a radio, she brought it up to her face.

“This is Director Vasquez. Sit rep, now.” She said.

“Director, the…thing is attack everyone.” One of the soldiers said over the radio. “Nothing we’re doing is penetrating it’s skin. We don’t know who it is and they refuse to stand down.” They said continuing.

Ashley closed her eyes for a moment and stopped to think. She had to keep cool, and she had to keep calm. This was what they trained for, for moments like this when they were called upon to take down big threats to public safety. It just hadn’t been expected that the threat would come from inside the base like this.

“Someone get the Caged Angels, and get them here, now.” She barked into the radio. “And someone, anyone, find me Nuke.”

Last she’d known, Nuke had been inside of the laboratory, with Dr. Ming. They had received no reports on what had happened to the soldiers that had been inside of the laboratory either. For all she knew the thing in front of her could be one of them. It could be Lucas, for all she knew.

God, she hoped Lucas was okay. She couldn’t think about that at the moment.

“Get me the Angels and Nuke, NOW!”
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

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Nuke crawled out from underneath a piece of the ceiling that had fallen on him. The pain was tremendous and parts of his body were spasming with the pain. His eyes were partially closed and he grimaced as he tried to keep moving. Barely able to feel his legs, he knew that he would not die here, in Gates' detonated laboratory. It was not where he was planning to die, not in some backwards part of Australia, anyway. His weapon was on the ground, near him, and he reached for it, fingers grasping the buttstock. Dragging it back towards his body, he tried to use it to prop himself up. As he did, he took stock of what was around him. There were little fires all over the place. Smoke and haze filled parts of his vision, and he was damn sure that there had to be some form of Gamma radiation throughout the area.

While he wasn't sure what had happened to Dr. Ming, he couldn't see the other man anywhere, which wasn't a good sign. The last thing he wanted to do was lose two of these science geeks in one shot, which reminded him that he didn't know where the hell Gates was either, or what condition he was in. Reaching into one of the pouches on his body, Nuke pulled out more of his pills and dry swallowed, just as his radio started to pick up some conversations on the net. They were radioing for him. Gritting his teeth, he made sure that he was standing at his full height, and that his legs were somewhat functional. The pills kicked in, raising his adrenaline levels once more and he felt the rush of the pain starting to leave him, the adrenaline taking over. With a smile, he checked his weapon, and started moving forward.

“This is Nuke.” He said, over the radio. “What’s the situation?” He asked.

“We’ve got a mutated green…thing, sir. It’s attacking everyone and it won’t stop for shit. Nothing we're hitting it with is taking it down.” One of the S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers said.

“How big?” He asked, as he started to look for an exit to the laboratory.

“It’s gotta be over seven feet tall.” The soldier said, and Nuke could hear gunfire and rocket fire in the background. There were also screams.

He smiled. This was perfect. This was what he had been waiting for. A real war to fight. Life without war was far too boring and this was at least going to be a good diversion.

“I’ll be right there. Make sure the Caged Angels are enroute.” He said, as he kicked open a door and stepped outside.

His eyes widened as he looked at the huge, menacing green beast in the distance. Whatever it was, it was mowing through tanks and vehicles like they were nothing. There was a guttural yell that shook the earth, and the thing started to look around, for a new target. A S.H.I.E.LD. tank moved into position and fired, a huge 120mm tank round impacting against the green thing’s back. It knocked him forward a few steps, but showed no actual damage. With another yell that shook the earth again, even though Nuke was easily two hundred yards away, the beast turned and glared at the tank.

Reaching down, it picked up the shattered remains of a Humvee and leapt into the air, coming down onto the tank and slamming the Humvee into the tank, over and over again, until the Humvee was in pieces and he was just using his hands to bash the tank into oblivion.

Nuke loaded his M320 underslung launcher and started running.
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

He wasn't sure what was wrong. All he knew was that he was in pain. But instead of the intense pain being crippling or debilitating, it was invigorating. He was feeding off of it. He was becoming free because of it. Because of the anger, the deep seated anger that was inside of him that was finally finding an outlet, a place to be released. Everyone looked so small below to him, and he wasn't sure why they were firing weapons at him or attacking him. But he did know that nothing they did was hurting him. Nothing they tried to hit him with could inflict any pain. He was indestructible.

With a wave of his arm, the puny things that would do him harm went flying through the air, soaring up as he turned without a care. The wreckage of a tank became a battering ram, descending upon another tank that didn't have a chance. He didn't understand why his arms were green, but everything felt like a weird, psychotic dream. Maybe it was nothing more than games in his head, because he would never truly want all these people dead.

Would he?

The green giant's musings were interrupted by an explosion on the right side of his head. Turning, he saw a man that he recognized, vaguely, running towards him, reloading some kind of weapon in his hands. As he wracked his memory trying to figure out just who this was, the tiny man finished reloading and fired, another well aimed shot. Definitely, he was a better shot than any of the others trying to hurt him. Then he remembered.

"Nu...Nu...ke."

“You know who I am!” The man yelled up at him, with a smile on his face. “That’s good. Do you know what I’m going to do to you?” Nuke asked.

He gave no reply and Nuke hefted the gun again. But this time, before Nuke could fire, he reached out and hit him. Hard.

Nuke went flying and slammed into the side of a tank, crumpling to the ground and going unconscious.

He chuckled as he looked down at the guy who was now unconscious and in a heap.

”No more Nuke.”

Turning, he heard a noise coming towards him, and saw that it was a series of helicopters, all bearing the markings of SARD-Alice Springs. They opened up on him with rockets and he brought his arms up to protect his face. The rockets exploded against his arms, and fire wrapped around him. Emerging unscathed, he gave an unearthly roar and leapt forward, moving through one of the helicopters. As they all descended to the ground, he reached out and grabbed one of the falling broken helicopter rotors. He held it as a sword in front of him.

Around the corner of a building, he saw that the soldiers were setting up some kind of perimeter, something that counterparts were doing all around him. He was being cornered, caged in, and he didn’t like it.

Not one bit.
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

They’d hit him with everything that they had. Ashley wiped blood from her mouth, a gift from a particularly vicious explosion that had thrown a lot of them to the ground. She had just gotten off the horn with Fury, giving him an update of everything that had happened, and he wasn’t pleased at all. His orders had been simple. Contain or kill whatever it was that was tearing a hole through the multimillion dollar S.H.I.E.L.D. base. It seemed easier than it was, especially since she wasn’t sure what was going to be enough to take down this thing. She didn’t even know who this person was, and she could only hope that they could stop it before it got away from the base and started causing serious damage. They were lucky in that they were far from normal civilization, in the middle of the Australian Outback.

But that didn’t mean that this thing couldn’t quickly get to Melbourne or Sydney and start causing some real damage.

“Are the Caged Angels in place?” She asked.

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Well, damnit, uncage them. This is what they’ve been training for. Has anyone seen Nuke?” She asked.

“Not since that thing hit him.” Another soldier said.

“Damn.” Ashley said, and looked up as the four members of the Caged Angels flew up and into the fight.

All four of them were telepaths and telekinetics. They were nowhere near the level of power and skill possessed by Michelle Crawford. Crawford had been a ten, even before the incident, and she had died. The Caged Angels probably ranged somewhere on a four or five at that scale. But what made them good at their jobs was their ability to work as a team. They trained together, ate together, lived together, she was pretty sure some of them were intimate together. It didn’t give them a hive mind, which would have just been creepy. But it did allow them to work on a level that sometimes defied logic. Hopefully that would help in a day that seemed to defy all kinds of logic.

They moved in and the green thing started to swat at them, shaking his head as he did.

Telepathy was a powerful thing. Ashley didn’t understand how it worked, how the Caged Angels were able to get into someone’s head, and figure out how to get them to do things, but she was sure as shit happy that she had it on her side at the moment.

“Ma’am, we’re getting reports that Nuke is conscious and moving around.”

Even better.

“Get the next rounds ready. I want the missile launchers ready to go. If the Angels can distract this guy long enough, then we have to be ready as soon as possible.” She said.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

She watched as one of the Angels got too close to the large, green thing, and one of the swats was able to connect. The Angel in question, who looked like the leader, Emily Mortimer, tumbled from the sky, knocked unconscious. Then she watched as the thing lifted it’s foot and brought it down.

Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her phone. They were going to need more firepower.
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

Ashley wiped at the blood on her face. It was starting to dry, and maybe it was an indication that the day was finally over. She surveyed the damage that had been done by the green…thing. They weren’t sure what to call it; they weren’t even sure what had happened. All they knew was there had been a swath of destruction and havoc wrecked by this monstrosity and many S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers had lost their lives. Shortly after it had taken out one of the Caged Angels, the anomaly had destroyed the perimeter, breaking through what defenses SARD-Alice Springs had been able to muster. From there, the anomaly had simply leapt up into the air and had disappeared, traveling at speeds faster than they had been able to track. Ashley was still getting reports on the damage and the casualties. All of this was going to go into a report to Nick Fury, but another headache was that Fury was coming here, to personally see what had happened.

And she still had no idea where her boyfriend was.

Picking through the wreckage of Lucas Gates’ lab, the teams had been able to recover the unconscious body of Dr. Huang Ming. He had been dosed with a large amount of gamma radiation, but the vibranium titanium walls surrounding him had been able to keep a large portion of it out. It wasn’t a deadly dosage, and he was already being treated for it. Soldiers had been able to get into the main laboratory, but there hadn’t been much to find.

She watched as Lincoln stepped into her field office, a small tent set up just beyond the safety perimeter around Lucas’ lab. They shared a glance, before Ashley went back to the reports on her desk. His face looked pretty beat up but she chalked that up to everything that had happened with the green monster.

“What’s the damage looking like?” Lincoln asked, stopping in front of the desk.

“Not good.” Ashley replied. Vasquez held up one of the papers. “We’ve lost almost forty percent of our fighting force. Seventy percent of the tanks, forty-two percent of the aircraft. Luckily we’re not at war, otherwise we’d be sitting ducks out here.”

“You don’t think we’re at war?” Lincoln asked. “Whatever that green thing was, we have to stop it.”

“We don’t even know what it is. Or who it is, for that matter.” She said. “We don’t have the means to track it yet. Satellites don’t have anything. So we don’t even know if this thing, whatever it is, is even still in Australia at this point.” Vasquez sighed. “What do you want Lincoln? I’m very busy.”

“I want to know what Fury wants us to do.” He said.

“Fury wants you to find a way to track this thing.” A man’s voice said from behind them.

Ashley looked over Lincoln’s shoulder, as McCray turned around. She winced at the site of the one eyed king, dressed in his customary black suit with black dress shirt and black tie. “Directory Fury, we –“

“Don’t ‘Director Fury’ me, Vasquez.” He said, his hands in his pockets. “You had one job. Keep Gates even keeled. That man is a genius and when applied in the right direction, he’s a God damned good genius.” Fury said. He pointed a finger. “I told you I wasn’t comfortable with the two of you working together considering your relationship, but you promised me it wouldn’t be a problem. Now…this.” He said, gesturing behind him. “You’ve lost control of this situation.” He said.

Lincoln set his shoulders back. “Director Fury, that might be a bit harsh. We don’t know what happened with Gates to-“

“I know damn well what happened with Gates, Lincoln.” Fury growled. “I have eyewitness reports of what happened between the two of you in that bar.”

Confusion came over Ashley’s face as she walked around the desk. “What bar? What happened?” She asked.

“Your ex-boyfriend here found Gates in a bar and proceeded to antagonize him until they got into a fight. I’m amazed you got out of it with your face looking the way it does. Gates can be scrappy when he wants to.” Fury said, as Ashley’s eyes widened in surprise and anger. He pulled a hand out of his pockets to point at Lincoln’s face. “Oh, you thought his face looks like this because of what happened out there?” He asked and shook his head. “No, no. Gates used Lincoln’s face like a punching bag.”

“You got him riled up and didn’t think to call me when you knew-“

Lincoln looked like he was ready to explode. “Knew what?!” Lincoln said angrily, folding his arms over his chest. “Knew what? I was supposed to know that he was going to come back to the base and start an experiment when he was three sheets into the wind drunk?” He asked. “Maybe you should have been more upfront with him about your past relationships, maybe then he wouldn’t have lost control of his emotions,” Lincoln said and turned and looked at Fury, “like a child.”

“Enough.” Fury said, silencing Vasquez as she was about to speak again. “Arguing about who is at fault at this point isn’t going to get us anywhere. I want to know everything we know about this attack, and Lincoln, you’re going to find me a way to track this thing, whatever it is, otherwise I’m going to show you who Gates learned to hit from.” He said, nodding his head at Ashley.
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

His head was pounding and the pain didn’t look like it was going to stop any time soon. Trying to lift his head, he found that this only aggravated the situation and didn’t look like an overall smart thing to do. The pain was tremendous and throbbing. He closed his eyes and rolled over onto his back, staring up into the sky. Lucas couldn’t remember anything that had happened after he had started the experiment. He’d just been so…angry, and that anger had clouded his judgment. That much was evident when he woke up now, realizing that he was definitely not in his lab and nowhere near it or even any recognizable part of SARD-Alice Springs. In the middle of a desert, Lucas had no clue of his bearings or how to get back anywhere. Also, he was barely clothed. What the hell had happened?

With a groan, Lucas tried to sit up, and found himself flat on his back once more. He closed his eyes and as he did, he saw flashes, pieces, memories. Destruction. Blood. Bodies everywhere. Vehicles everywhere. He could hear the screams in his mind and it all felt so real, as if it had actually happened. What else would have made sense? What worried him more, what scared him more was that everything he saw came from his own perspective, but from a much higher perspective. The vantage point was almost as if he had been standing on top of a building.

It looked so eerily familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. Clutching his head in his hands, Lucas forced himself to sit up, despite the fact that it turned his equilibrium into a boat on a roaring ocean. When he finally felt comfortable enough to open his eyes, he did, and his eyes widened as he struggled to understand the stimuli his sensory organs was processing.

Everything looked green, as if there was a green tint to the world. A filter had been placed over his eyes and he couldn’t see properly, he couldn’t tell what was going on. His depth perception was off too. As if he was looking through night vision googles, Lucas was sure that something was wrong. Simply another thing to add to the list of things that were wrong. He got to his feet, his toes digging into the sand of the desert that surrounded him for as far as he could see.

So he was in the Australian outback. At least that was one step in the right direction, knowing where he was. It answered one of the many questions that were pulsing through his head as Lucas tried to make sense of everything around him.

But he had no way of knowing where in the outback he was and the outback was a very large place to be.

As he kept blinking, the green tint started to fade away to more normal hue, and it was at this point that Lucas became acutely aware of the beating heat that surrounded him. He knew from his research when he had first accepted the job at SARD-Alice Springs, of the temperatures of the outback and the unforgiving climate. Definitely not somewhere that someone wanted to be in without food and water, it was even worse also without direction. To say he was lost was an understatement. The headache was still there, and he struggled to figure out where it was coming from. Maybe the heat? Lack of water? If so, was that the cause of the terrifying images he kept seeing flashing before his eyes? Were they hallucinations?

Or something far more sinister?

Lucas heard a noise that caused him to turn around and he saw a wild dingo running in the distance. He couldn’t afford to think about the problems at this moment. He couldn’t do that if he died. All he could now was try to figure out how to survive.
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

The dust was stinging, tough grit that rushed against him.

Lucas tried to shield his eyes, but it was almost pointless. He was wandering through what looked like the beginning of a sandstorm, and his mouth was dry. The red and yellow sand swirled around him, reducing his visibility. As he stumbled across the arid desert of the Australian Outback, Lucas kept remembering the water guidelines that had been in his informational packet when he had first arrived at SARD-Alice Springs. If there was one thing he was sure about at the moment, it was that he had woefully stepped outside of those guidelines.

It didn’t help that he was barefoot, and the sand’s temperature was starting to rise in temperature as he walked. Lucas grimaced, coughing. A strong gust of wind dropped him to the ground, face first into the sand. Struggling to rise, Lucas collapsed back down into the sands.

This couldn’t be it.

He couldn’t let himself die here. No. He had to find a way. Pushing down into the sand as best he could, he looked up and for a moment had the briefest glimmers of visibility. In that moment, he saw what looked like trees in the distance. Was it his mind playing tricks on him? He wasn’t even sure how the sand was this malleable to begin with. Everything he knew about the Outback, everything he’d experienced was much more hard packed sand and dirt. There were shrubs everywhere, trying to grow in the formidable environment. Why was this happening?

But there was one thing that took over his mind, took over his being. He had to get to the tall trees. He just had to. With a yell, Lucas forced himself up and onto his feet. The wind buffeted him, but he pressed on. Stumbling over himself, he kept trekking, trying to make his next action putting another foot in front of the other. He would not die in this place, his body probably never found. He could not. He thought of Ashley, and how he wanted to apologize to her and tell her that he hadn’t meant to do the things he’d done and say the things he’d said.

There was only one way to make sure that happened, make sure she knew. There was only one way to make sure that the last thing she heard from him was not the words he had said to her.

That was to get to the trees.

Some steps later, he was reduced to his hands and his knees. But he pressed on anyway, persevering through the winds that looked like they were dying down. Finally, his fingers grasped vegetation, and he used the thick shrub to drag himself across the remaining inches to his destination.

When he did, his eyes widened.

He was staring at a mound spring, one of the many that dotted the Outback. Water welled up from the ground, from the artesian basin, he knew that it wasn’t always the safest to drink. However, he still plunged his whole head into the water and started gulping down as much as he could. With a splash, he ripped his head from the water, the need for oxygen outweighing the need for water.

And found himself staring straight into the eyes of an Aboriginal man.

The man’s face was painted in an ornate, intricate way, white paint across his features. He stared at Lucas, with wrinkles on his face that told the tale of a man who had walked these lands for some time and had seen a great many things.

Lucas’ eyes felt heavy once more.

“Dream, Lucas.” The man said, somehow in English. “Dream and Dream once more.”
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

There was a buzzing sound. A lazy buzzing sound that could only be made by an insect of some kind. With a start, Lucas’ eyes opened and shot up. He was still in Australia, still in the Outback, still in the desert. But he wasn’t where he had been better. The mound spring, unless it had magically turned into some kind of cave, was nowhere near him. But there was the crackle of a fire near where he lay at the mouth of the cave. Looking past the fire, Lucas saw the sun beginning to set in the distance. The clouds looked like molten gold wisps floating in the air, the blue and purple hues they were married with a weird cacophony. He leaned back against the rocks, and closed his eyes, rubbing a hand over his forehead. His eyes opened once more as the sound of something hitting dirt near him reached his ears. Lucas saw a metal canteen lying on the ground near his thighs. It was battered from many years of use. Taking it, Lucas opened it and drank.

When he was finished, he looked at the man who had given it to him. It was the Aboriginal man from before. The man sat down at the fire, and tended to the animal roasting above. “Drink.” He said with his eyes still on what was looking like dinner. “You need to stay hydrated.”

“How did you know my name?” He asked.

“I know many things, Lucas Gates.” The man said, still looking at the animal. Maybe it was now more as if he was looking into the fire itself. “I know who you are and what you are looking for.” He said.

“I’m looking for a way home.” Lucas said.

“No no.” The man said with a chuckle. “I do not think that is what you are looking for.” He said. “You seek something else, deeper, a deeper understanding of the self. You need to Dream.” He lifted the skewered animal off of the spit as Lucas shook his head.

“What are you talking about? I was just sleeping.”

The other man continued to smile, reaching into a bag and producing a pipe. He lit the pipe and began to smoke, looking up at the stars that were beginning to creep out into view. Night time was descending upon the Outback. “The Dreamtime is not something you experience while sleeping.” He said. “It is a state of mind, a state of being. It is how the world was created. The timeless time of formation. Everything is always being born and always being created. You are not the same man you were yesterday, that is a simple thing to say, an easy thing to say.” The Aboriginal man said, grinning at Lucas.

This was unbelievable. What the man was saying, none of it made any sense to Lucas. He had done a little bit of reading up on the Aboriginal mythologies and beliefs before he had come out to SARD-Alice Springs, but talking to an Aboriginal was something else that was quite different than reading a book or paper. It was not the best sort of conversation to be having when he was fairly hungry and thirsty and had been wandering through a desert for what had felt like hours.

“How can there be such a thing as a timeless time?” Lucas asked.

“That is what you are going to learn.” He said in reply, continuing to smoke at the pipe. “The Dreamtime is more than only a narrative of creation for the world. It also speaks to the creation of an area, of a place, of a person.” He said, his hand weaving through the air. He turned it to one side. “Of me.” Back over. “Of you.” He added, with a knowing smile. “When you are finished, then you will eat.” He said.

Lucas sighed. The sun had set and the stars were out. He was stuck in the middle of the Outback, with no idea how to get back to SARD-Alice Springs. He had no idea what was happening to him and what was wrong with him. To top all of it off, he had some obviously high Aboriginal man telling him that he needed to dream in order to find his way home. For a man who believed in science and craved routine and structure in his life, Lucas was at a total loss. He was from a family of people who had always had things changing around them. He had never been able to tell what his mother was going to do, whether she was going to think of herself as benevolent that day or whether she was going to raise her fist to him. The abuse had never stopped, and it had been impossible to determine when it was going to come from.

So Lucas craved control.

Now he had none.

“Fine. Let’s do this.”
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Re: Genesis: Anger

Post by Mir »

He'd never felt like this before. Words couldn't describe it. At least, not words that Lucas knew or had ever learned. With his background, he possessed an incredible vocabulary. But this...this was like nothing he had ever witnessed in his life. His consciousness was detached from his body and he felt physical and non-corporeal at the same time. Drifting through the ether. Lost in the echo. He was still skin to bone however. Lucas had never done any hard drug, was this what the feeling was like? None of this made sense, not to the rational mind of the scientist who wanted control and wanted to be on top of everything. Floating around, like a leaf on the surface of a river. Lucas was here and there, but everywhere.

Around him were the buildings of his past but imprinted on them the stars of the sky. The buildings were black and green. He could see his old house where he grew up. He could see the dorm building he'd lived in during his first year of college. Lucas could see everything that had helped him become who he was today, the locations of the memories. All around him on the ground level there were faces, featureless, attached to figures, shapeless. Wretches and kings, just waiting for the end. He could see the fire in the skies, the radiance of it all.

"This is the dream."

Ripples moved all around him as he turned, twisting, congealing and then expanding in the void he existed in. One of the shapes moved towards him. The features shifted until Lucas could recognize the person in front of him. It was the old Aboriginal man.

"This is the dream time?" He asked him.

"No, it is your dream time. It is unique to you. Mine is unique to me. All come together to form the whole of the dream time and from that there is creation."

It was a wonderment to behold. The Aboriginal man had still to explain to Lucas what it was exactly that was causing him to see all of these things. There was something about him that didn't want an explanation. Strange, considering how much he liked explanations and rational reasons. An explanation would have sapped some of the magic, taken some of the luster. Maybe that was what he needed right now in his life. A little bit more magic, a little bit more surprise.

A dosage of awe and wonder.

Lucas looked around. In the distance, the stars leapt off of the buildings and into the sky. The buildings themselves crumbled to the ground, becoming rubble. In the sky the stars were moving and shifting. The stars twinkled as they realigned into the face of his mother. To his other side, he saw the stars shift to resemble the face of his father and in the distance even further out, it was as though Ashley was looking down on him. He shook his head. "I don't understand."

"You have lived your life with so much anger." The old man said. "Anger at your mother for her abuse. It took the form of words and physicality. You held anger to your father for his apathy towards your plight and the ambivalence towards your mother. He only cared about himself." The man said. He reached up, pointing at the two. "And now, you hold anger towards a third person. She lied to you, she betrayed your trust. The one thing she knew you valued more than anything. You thought she was different, you thought she was special. She would be able to heal you and help you."

Lucas shook his head, the anger welling up inside of him. "She was like them. I don't know who my friends are anymore. Lincoln didn't help the situation."

"But look at what you did." The man said, lifting up his other hand. He had a long, worn length of wood in his hand. A branch that had fallen from a tree years ago. It had been worn down by time and usage. Bark was still visible in some places, but most of it had been removed. There were white painted dots in different places, in rings around the stick. The man tapped the sky, as if that were something that could be done. The stars began to move once more.

"How are you-" Lucas started, finally giving in to his desire to know, but the man shook his head, closing his eyes and bringing a finger to his lips.

Lucas turned back and saw a rough sketch of the outside of his lab. He watched as the stars shot outwards, erupting into the night sky.

An explosion.

"What I've done...I...I lost control." Lucas said, his eyes widening as he saw the devastation. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

The other man smiled, clapping a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "No. No. No. You did not lose control. You found the anger within you and let it consume you. You were always in control. Instead of acting with respect you acted with haste."

"How did I survive that?" Lucas asked.

"You were...changed." The man said. "You know of those things better than I, I'm afraid. But your aura, it is not the aura of a normal man. You have an emerald light that surrounds you." As the man spoke the lights, which had been bright and yellow exploded with green. "You feel the change though. You feel the strength. I know you do. You have to learn how to use what makes you different, Lucas." The man said.

"How?"

"If you think the process will be easy or swift, then you are not the man I think you are. Come now, Lucas. Your feet must begin the journey and for that, you must wake from the Dream."
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

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Lucas’ eyes snapped open. Had he been asleep? Had he been awake? Everything had seemed so real. But now here he was, back in the Australian Outback, at the campfire. He shook his head, as the last vestiges of the Dreamworld left him. What was going on? He looked over at the man, who was serving the roasted meat on wooden plates. The pipe was still in his mouth and he was absentmindedly smoking away at it as he did his work. Lucas put a hand into the dry ground, to steady himself as he raised himself to his feet. The world around him swayed and circled, and he felt dizzy. Almost falling, he caught himself before he fully planted, sprawling onto all fours. Looking up, he saw the old man had stopped what he was doing and was gently chuckling at him.

“I was like you too, the first time I dreamed.” He said. “It will pass.” He added, offering the plate of food.

Rising back to his feet, Lucas stumbled over to the man and accepted the plate. He also took a canteen of water offered next. Returning to where he had been seated before, he looked at the meat on the plate. He couldn’t readily identify the animal, but he was a beggar at the moment, and a beggar couldn’t be a chooser. Taking a bite, he found the meat to be the most delicious thing he’d ever eaten in his entire life. Then again, Lucas chalked that up to more the condition of his body rather than the prepared fare. He gulped down some of the water.

“Who are you?” He asked.

“I am a wanderer like you. Searching for my place in the world.” The man replied.

“After all these years? I thought the Dream showed you your place.” Lucas replied, taking another bite of food.

The other man smiled, as if he had expected that response. “The Dream shows you possibilities, it shows you reality beyond the way you and I perceive it normally. But it does not show you the path you will take, only the paths you can take. The truth is that you make your own choices.”

“An informed choice is a better choice.” Lucas said and the other nodded. “Had I been able to dream before I spoke with Ashley, I wouldn’t have gone drinking.”

“Wouldn’t you have? You don’t know that.” The man said. “Troubling even still, is the one who makes a poor choice when that one knows the options. Ignorance can be bliss. What happened has happened, you cannot wish it away. You cannot remain trapped in the past, held fast in dirt turned to mud by a flash flood.” He stated. “You can only go forward.”

“Forward.” Lucas repeated and laughed. “Everything I have, everything I know is behind me.” He said.

“Then maybe going behind you will set you on the path to go forward.”
“Maybe it will.” Lucas said, looking off into the darkness.

But why did he have a sneaking feeling he couldn’t shake that it wouldn’t?
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Mir
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Re: Genesis: Anger

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Sorting through the debris had taken a long time. They still weren’t finished. But they had been able to get some information and something was better than nothing. Ashley held her head in her hands, looking at a recreation of the detonation. The explosion had been huge, emanating from Lucas’ laboratory. There wasn’t much wreckage to be found there. Whatever servers and computers were left had already been torn apart to see what could be salvaged. She pressed play on the holographic display, watching the recreation in slow motion.

What had he been doing? It was still too difficult to tell. The building detonated once more as Nick Fury walked into the ready room.

“You keep watching that we’re not going to get anywhere.” He said. He walked over to her and handed her a small flash drive. “This is the current analysis of everything we have left.” He said.

“We haven’t recovered his body.” Ashley replied. “I’m not giving up hope until we find him.” She added.

“Or pieces of him at least.” Nick said and when she looked up at him, he shrugged. “It’s a miracle we found Dr. Ming, and you know that. He’s still in critical care, he might not make it. I have a meeting with Lucas in a few minutes. He wants to talk about some Gamma related stuff. Might have found a way to track that thing.” He added and gestured to the door. “Do you want to come with?” He asked.

“No.” She said.

“I insist.” Nick said, indicating it hadn’t actually been a request.

She nodded and rose walking out of the room with him. They exited the main headquarters and entered Ashley’s car. The roads were cleared again, for the most part, and from the headquarters to Lincoln’s laboratory wasn’t a long drive. When they reached there, she parked the car. Lincoln was already outside and waiting for them.

“What’s the word, Lincoln?” Fury asked as they got to him.

“I found a way to track the Gamma radiation. It’ll be difficult, but we can track the signature. I’ve already got my computers running the algorithm to see what we can find.” He said.

Fury nodded. “How soon do you think you’ll have something?” He asked and Lincoln shrugged.

“Well, this isn’t my field, for starters. We don’t know what it is that caused that explosion and who or what that thing was that attacked the base. We also don’t know if whatever that…thing is, is even still near here, or even in Australia. It’s a big country, but still.”

Fury turned to Ashley. “We’re not going to be able to take this thing down and neutralize it conventionally. We’re going to have to talk about a team.”
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Re: Genesis: Anger

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They were all seated around a ready table. Ashley looked up at Fury, waiting for him to speak. The three remaining Caged Angels were seated around the table, along with Lincoln. Lincoln was fiddling with some kind of tablet, overseeing something remotely. Nick reached out and grabbed a small instrument, one that controlled the projectors.

“We don’t know our target.” He said, turning the projectors on. “We don’t know anything really about our target, other than it can absorb a lot of punishment and keep moving.” He said.

“So how do we take it down?” Anna asked. “Whatever it is, it killed Emily.” She said and looked over at Jennifer, who looked at Anthony. “Our powers were strong because we were linked together. Without Emily, we’re weaker.” She said.

Anthony nodded. “Anna is right. We weren’t even able to make a dent in that thing the last time. How are we supposed to stop it now?” He asked, looking over at Fury.

“We’re going to have help.” Fury said, and looked over at Lincoln. “Dr. McCray.” He said and Lincoln rose.

“I’ve been experimenting for some time with the Pym Particles.” He said. “Last week, I finished developing a better containment suit and a better, faster deployable version of the Particles.” He pressed a button on the controller after Fury tossed it to him.

A suit came up on the holographic display. It was a black and red suit. He looked over at the group, his eyes finally resting on Ashley. “I’ve rebuilt the Ant-Man suit. It’ll allow me to get into the field and help you.”

Jennifer laughed at this, shaking her head. “I don’t think getting smaller is going to help us.” She said. “Getting smaller is definitely not what we need.”

Lincoln rolled his eyes. “Getting smaller is not the only thing I’ll be able to do. I’ll be able to match that thing’s size.”

“I’ll be there as well.” A voice said, and the group turned to see a man walking into the room, with a cane. He was adorned with some kind of harness, a suit of some sort. “Dr. McCray, as you can see, the suit you developed worked.” He said. His voice was modulated through the apparatus that he was wearing.

“Dr. Ming.” Nick Fury said. “I’m glad you pulled through.” He said. “Dr. McCray told me that it was going to be difficult for you to make it.”

Ming nodded. “Yes, it was difficult. But I’m here now, and I am ready to help to put down whatever it was that did to me. I will be forced to wear this apparatus for the rest of my life. Better that no one else has to besides me.” He said.
Fury looked over at Ashley. “I guess this is going to have to be the team.” He said.
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Re: Genesis: Anger

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Lucas’ eyes snapped opened. It was morning and the sun was starting to beat down on him. The heat was already high and it was going to get unbearable soon. He rolled over in the dirt and looked over at where his Aboriginal friend was. The man was already up, but he was seated, his knees in the ground. His eyes were closed and he was breathing regularly. Maybe he was meditating maybe he was doing something else. Lucas had no idea. Lucas slowly sat up, shaking his head. He had to figure out where he was going to go next, what he was going to do next. The talk of the Dreamworld was great and all, but everything he’d seen had not given him anything concrete, anything actionable. He needed actionable if he was going to do something.

Lucas was a scientist and he couldn’t go off of his feelings. The Dream might have given him an indication of something, but for someone like him, he couldn’t be sure. He’d have to muddle his way through it all but maybe that was what the Dream had been telling him. That no matter what, he had to move forward. That was what the old man had said after all.

He got to his feet and he looked around. There was nothing but the Outback for miles and miles. They were in the middle of it all.

“I see you have risen, Lucas.”

He turned at the sound of the man’s voice. “Yeah.” He said and looked down at his feet. “Yeah.”

“Do you know what you are going to do next?”

That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it? Lucas shook his head. “No.” He admitted. “After everything I saw and everything we’ve talked about; I still don’t have a clue about what I have to do.” He looked back up into the sky. “But there’s one thing that’s for sure. I can’t stay here.” He said and laughed. “I mean, this…this really is the middle of nowhere.”

The aborigine smiled, agreeing with him. “Where will you go?” He asked.

“I’m not sure. I know I need to get to a lab of some kind so I can try to analyze what happened to me and figure it all out.” Lucas said and then shrugged. “I have no idea where I can get to a lab like that though.” He looked down at his hands. “Without that kind of information I have no way of knowing what happened. How I survived…and what’s….what’s inside….of me.” He said.

“There’s a lab at the University of Sydney.” The man said.

Lucas did a double take.

The man looked up at him. “What, you thought because I’m aborigine I don’t know anything about your world?” The man asked and laughed. “My granddaughter is a research student there. She may be able to help you find what you need.”

“I’m weirdly surprised.” Lucas said. “Well that solves one problem, but it doesn’t solve the problem of how I’m going to get there.”

“We’ll find a way.”

“And here I was hoping you had some magic teleportation thing.” Lucas replied.

The man stared.

Lucas shrugged. “Figured it was worth a shot.”
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