Technocracy: AETHER, Part 5

Terry felt that he was sliding through a tunnel, wet,

Like something inside the body, like a birth canal.

He wondered if this was what he’d felt so long ago

When his mother birthed him—then his thoughts angrily spiked

Because now he realized his birth mother was a lie,

Just another lie told to him by the Technocrats.

Sliming, oozing, he was pulled til he emerged within

Another chamber, another blackened metal dome.

Brother Crick was there already, with more Technocrats,

Already manipulating the red holographs,

Floating holographic screens of hellish neon red,

Which displayed the data—HIS data, Terry realized.

Chills ran up his spine as he now to the ceiling looked,

Saw arms floating, twitching, moving, ready to come down,

Arms bearing all sorts of fingers, feelers, tentacles,

And he realized all of them for him intended were.

Terry glanced down then to get the terror from his mind.

He saw the Technocracy members milling about.

Some of them were speaking in soft voices, quiet, low.

But others did no talking at all, and as he watched,

The red lines of neon that upon their temples swooped

Pulsed and glowed with light as their mouths firmly remained shut.

Were they talking with their minds? Were they all telepaths?

Was that one thing that the swooping neon lines could do?

Terry wondered—so many questions he could have asked,

But he knew none of them cared enough to answer him.

“What shall we do first?” a voice came. It was Brother Crick,

Standing in the middle of the gathered Technocrats.

“I say,” said a Technocrat with pale skin and white hair,

“That the mental modifications should be made first.

That will make him more accepting, and more docile, too,

So the physical adaptations will proceed

With less struggle from him. And we can keep him awake

During them, which I know that you said you would prefer.”

“Yes,” said Crick, “it’s better if he’s conscious through all this.

His metaphysics will respond better if he is

Awake through all of this,” and the Technocrats agreed,

Agreeing with cold, cruel nods and showings of their eyes.

Terry realized that he’d be experimented on,

Turned into some specimen, a rat inside a lab.

Use—that was how Arius had talked of all of them.

Only useful, only tools, only means to an end.

To the Technocracy they were not as people seen,

Not as human beings—they were creatures, constructs, things.

“NO!” he shouted, writhing up against his blackened bonds,

Desperately struggling ‘gainst his soft, yet cold restraints.

“Please!” he shouted, and he gazed up at the ceiling now,

Staring hard up at the ceiling, the black metal dome,

Lit with the cold neon red lights. “Please help me!” he cried.

He cried, hopeless, tears finally ran down both his cheeks.

“Please, I beg you!” Terry screamed into the blackened void,

Screamed up at the metal ceiling, looming high above.

“Please, please, help me! Help me!” Terry begged. “Please help me! Please!”

“Please, I beg you! Help me!” he cried. “Have mercy on me!”

Creak

Tears ran down his cheeks, but the sound pierced the black abyss.

Terry heard it, and he perked his pale face upwards towards

His restraints, the bonds that held him coldly in his place.

And now it rose LOUDER, a sharp sound upon the air:

Creak, creak, creak—the restraints creaked, a heavy, rusty sound.

One of the Technocrats heard it too, and said out loud:

“Can someone check the hydraulic feed-ins for this room?

I worry these restraints don’t have good viscosity.

It sounds like they’re not getting their proper fluid set.

All this metal gets stiff, if it’s not kept wet enough.”

Terry gasped. A wonder and an awe bloomed in his chest.

And for the first time since he’d awakened in this place,

That OTHER part of him, which had woken weeks ago,

That part of him, that thing that was kept from him so long,

That second nature of his: the Element of Earth!

It bloomed in him now and it was fully part of him.

Fully Earth and fully human, Arius had said.

So he felt, and stretched himself out—and felt with a shock

That he was surrounded fully by his element.

“Metal,” he said, and a smile curved his long, pale face.

“Metal!” he shouted aloud, and all the Technocrats

Turned upwards to see him. “It’s all metal!” he exclaimed.

“What is he talking about?” a Technocrat then asked

Brother Crick, who said in turn, “I do not know at all.”

Terry heard them, and he smiled, grinned down at them all,

He smiled, he laughed at them! He laughed, tears on his cheeks.

“If all of it’s metal,” he said, “all of it is MINE!”

Then his eyes shone brightly, with a brilliant neon glow,

Neon copper brown with neon flecks flying out from

His eyes, like sparks flying up from metal as it’s worked.

And the whole entire room SHOOK, and the dome walls GROANED.

“What on earth is that?” a Technocrat loudly exclaimed.

Terry flexed his fingers and his arm restraints burst off!

He his feet apart spread and the leg binds burst away!

He fell and he made a crater in the metal floor.

His eyes gleamed that blazing, shining neon copper brown.

“Oh my God!” a Technocrat cried, and then Terry turned

To him and he twitched his hand and huge dark metal spikes

Sprang up and the Technocrat was nearly torn apart.

“No, that isn’t possible,” said Brother Crick as he

Watched Terry attack. “He shouldn’t be strong enough yet!”

Terry heard the voice and turned, and narrowed his bright eyes,

Metallic brown eyebrows lowering on his pale face,

And the enti’re metal floor erupted, buckled, bent,

Throwing all the Technocrats off of their booted feet.

Terry threw his right arm upwards, and then, high above,

The ceiling caved inward, sending metal raining down

In sharp spikes and chunks that nearly impaled many of

The Technocrats, and they scrambled to avoid their deaths.

The collapse of the ceiling above made Terry pause,

For something beyond it now caused his senses to prick.

He raised up a hand with open fingers, stretched his palm

Upwards towards the ceiling, and he felt and then he sensed.

“Underground,” said Terry, and his eyebrows both rose up.

“We are underground,” he said. And then he barked a laugh!

“It’s too easy,” Terry said, and then his neon eyes

Opened wide, and suddenly everything ‘round them SHOOK.

Everything, the whole entire world around them quaked!

Everything around them SHOOK as all the Earth did rock.

Terry swung his hand downwards and caved the ceiling in,

Huge pillars of heavy dark stone falling, raining down

Down, laced with great heavy chunks of sharpened darkened iron!

They came smashing through the black domed ceiling from above

And the Technocrats went scrambling, running for their lives.

Many of them vanished as they passed right through the walls,

Brother Crick included, who went scrambling out of sight.

Terry, eyes still glowing neon copper, then turned to

Two big dark black doors, lined with the cold red neon light.

But they still were metal, so he glanced upon them now.

He bent his will on them and they crumpled like tin foil,

Crumpling, they burst outward, and smashed against the walls

Of the hallway that lay out there, out beyond the doors.

Terry ran for it, out of the room, into the hall.

“I have to find the others!” he cried, and he ran off.

Saera in a separate chamber breathed, and heaved, and gasped.

Her long, thin, pale, naked form was breathing in and out.

Tears were flowing down her cheeks out of her silver eyes,

And she gently sobbed from time to time, as she looked down,

Looked down at the floor where gathered were the Technocrats,

Talking, working on computers, going to and fro.

“Right,” a voice rose up then. It was Sister Faraday.

“Father Arius wants us to promptly do this all,

So let us begin already with the procedures.”

“Mental, first, or physical?” another Technocrat

Asked her. “Mental, I should think,” said Faraday in turn.

“That way she will be more docile, eas’ier to control,

So she’ll struggle less when the physical procedures

Are applied to her.” and she looked up at Saera then,

Breathing in and out, and crying, as her tears dripped down

All the way onto the floor far under her pale face.

And the ghost of something like compassion rose upon

Faraday’s dark face. “Perhaps we should give her something,

Something that will calm her nerves.” “A sedative?” one of

The other Technocrats asked. “No, that would interfere

With the procedures. Maybe an anesthesia dose?”

Saera started crying harder as she heard them talk.

She was nothing to them but a testing animal.

Suddenly Faraday’s head perked up. “Hmm?” she said next.

Saera then saw the glowing red neon lines upon

Her temples begin to pulse and flash, and Faraday

Turned her head off to the left, and said aloud, “This is

Faraday. What is it?” And the red lines pulsed again

In regular, rhythmic intervals, and Saera saw

Faraday’s face gradually grow more and more intense,

Saw her expression become one of worry and shock.

Finally Faraday shouted out, “What do you MEAN

That the Earth Elemental has BROKEN containment?!”

“Terry,” Saera whispered, and she gasped in wonderment,

And as she did so, around the chamber’s blackened dome,

There arose a breeze, a gentle flowing of the air,

That ruffled her short white hair a little as it blew

Round her. “The Earth Elemental is loose,” Faraday

Said, and gasps and shouts rose up from all the Technocrats.

“He’s broken containment and is roaming about free.”

She’d no sooner said this than the whole entire room

ROCKED hard to the side as if it had been struck by a

Massive blow. It threw the Technocrats off of their feet.

“Terry!” Saera shouted, and the wind was blowing now,

Fast and cool and soothing over her bare, naked form.

“Terry has escaped,” said Saera, wonder in her voice.

And her white eyebrows were lowered, and upon her face

There was set a firm and hard expression, and her eyes

Narrowed, as a newfound strength went flooding through her limbs.

“Terry has escaped. He has the power to escape,

And if he has power to escape, then so do I.”

Saera felt a new sensation rise up in her chest,

Something racing, something that filled her with brilliant light.

“Terry has escaped,” she said again. “And if he can

Escape, than I can escape as well. And so I shall.”

“We need to secure this chamber!” Faraday exclaimed.

We need to—” but suddenly she heard within her ears

A rising, billowing sound, and suddenly her hair

Began blowing round her, and she turned around to see

The arms hanging from the ceiling rocking to and fro

And she could almost SEE a great swirl of moving air

Blowing around Saera, whose eyes glowed bright neon white,

And the lines of moving air were gleaming neon white

As they passed out from her eyes. “Oh NO,” Faraday said.

Saera gazed at them, and suddenly three Technocrats

Were blown off their feet, and all were slammed into a wall!

And the air was howling, roaring, groaning from the speed

Of the winds, that whipped to gale force, hurricane force strength.

Saera bent the wind upon the black metal restraints

That hung loose, organically from the ceiling down,

And the wind like blades tore into the restraints, and they

Cracked and broke and shattered. Saera’s arms and legs were free

And she floated there, hovering there amid the midst

Of the windstorm she had conjured, and she twitched her hand

And a whole entire section of the pitch black wall

Smashed inward, as it was slammed into by a huge gust

Of hurricane-force wind, and the Technocrats around

Scattered, running for their lives. “Retreat!” Faraday cried.

“But what about the Air Elemental?” asked one of

The Technocrats. “What’s important is saving our lives!”

Faraday responded. “Everyone here, fall back NOW!”

With that they all scattered, many of them running to

The walls, which they passed through as if all of them were ghosts.

Saera hovered down and saw the blackened metal door

And she gave a shout and flung her left arm hard at it

And a punching, piledriver blast of mighty wind

Smashed into the doors and burst them open with a crash.

Saera flew out in a blast of howling, roaring wind,

Flew into the curving corridor, hovering up

Off the ground. “I have to find the others!” she exclaimed,

And she flew off down the hallway, swiftly as she could.

Ardo hung in a third chamber from the other two,

Glaring, growling downward, his mouth twisted in a snarl,

As angry tears ran down from his eyes of ruby red.

Murasaki said to the surrounding Technocrats,

“Let’s not delay. I want these procedures done at once.”

“Shall we do the mental ones first?” asked a Technocrat.

Murasaki glanced upwards at Ardo hanging there.

“No,” she said, and a cruel smile passed across her lips.

“I have never liked this one, it always was a chore

To watch him when I was monitor duty. He is

An annoying, tiresome creature. His temper’s sharp.

So I’ll take my vengeance on the trouble he caused me.

We’ll first do the physical procedures, and we will

Keep him awake through them—that’s what Father Arius

Said, yes?” and she smiled even crueler than before.

“I’ve no problem with that,” a male Technocrat replied.

“Fuck you!” Ardo roared down at her, and his eyes flared up

Flickering bright neon red, and the entire room

Suddenly got warmer. “That’s another thing,” she said,

“THIS one’s element is the most dangerous of all.

I don’t want anyone here to wind up burned because

We got too close to him, so we should disable him,

Render him incapable of causing any harm,

As promptly as possible.” “You fucking BITCH!” he roared,

And he breathed a blast of fire from his open mouth.

Murasaki curled her lip and rolled her eyes at him.

“Come on, let’s begin,” she said, and started moving to

Activate the chamber’s arms—but suddenly the room

ROCKED hard, knocking all the standing Technocrats off of

Their feet. It was almost like the room had been attacked

By something against its side. “What?!” Murasaki cried.

“Terry!” Ardo cried. He knew what it was instantly.

Murasaki’s swooping, glowing lines of neon red

On her temples suddenly pulsed, flickered, flashed with light.

Murasaki bent her head and focused just a bit.

“Oh, GOD,” she groaned, sounded angry, and very annoyed.

“What is it?” a female Technocrat asked her. She said,

“The Earth Elemental has broken containment. He

Is loose in the canto. He is roaming round at will.”

“Ha ha HA!” roared Ardo in a barking, clapping laugh.

Murasaki glared at him. “Secure him more!” she cried,

And the organic metal bonds that held Ardo firm

Suddenly tightened their grips on him. But Ardo laughed.

“If Terry can escape, so can I!” he shouted out.

And the temperature of the chamber suddenly rose,

Sending flecks of sweat down the foreheads of all of the

Technocrats, and Ardo’s eyes erupted neon red,

Warm, bright neon red, so different from the neon red

Of the Technocrats themselves. Theirs was cold, his was hot.

Ardo’s neon red was vibrant, lovely, bright, and strong.

And, at the upper corners of both his glowing eyes,

Glowing neon red flames burned, in rising, fiery tongues.

“Go on and try, you little brat!” Murasaki snapped.

“That metal can’t just be burned or melted. It is more

Advanced than you can dream of. You can’t hurt it.” “Oh, YEAH?”

Ardo snarled at her. “Oh yeah? Just sit back, bitch, and WATCH!”

Suddenly there were huge bursts of white light from within

Those bonds, as they held Ardo’s hands, wrists, ankles, and feet,

And smoke rose from where they held him. Murasaki cried:

“Restrain him more!” And a Technocrat moved over to

A nearby control panel, but Ardo stared at her

And suddenly from his eyes there came blazing red lines

Of pure flame, pure fire that struck the Technocrat in

Her back. “AAHHH!!” she screamed as she erupted into flames.

“AAAHHH!! AHHH!! HELP ME!” she screamed as she was engulfed in fire.

Ardo stared at yet another Technocrat, and he

Also too burst into flames, erupting into fire.

“EEE!! AAAAAHHH!!” he screamed, he shrieked, a bone-chilling, awful sound.

,

And there rose upon the heated air an awful smell.

Something noxious, rotten, rose upon the boiling air.

Murasaki glanced upwards and her dark eyes went wide

As she saw that the restraints that held Ardo in place

Were MELTING, smoking, dripping in molten metal chunks.

Then, in huge eruptions of melted metal and smoke

Ardo’s arm and leg restraints were totally destroyed,

Bursting out in blazing blasts of flame and brilliant light.

Ardo fell down to the ground, and his flames broke his fall:

Almost like retro-rockets, they cushioned his descent.

And the flames on Ardo’s limbs were not of yellow hue.

They were not orange, or red, they were not even white.

The flames on Ardo were BLUE. His fire burned blue hot!

He flicked a great blast of blue fire at one of the

Technocrats and she simply combusted on the spot,

Vaporizing totally in a great fireball.

“Ahh!” screamed Murasaki, and she turned, and then she fled.

Ardo blasted a huge jet of fire at her as

She departed, but it missed her, and she reached the wall

And passed through it, as though her body were transparent.

“Run for your lives!” shouted out another Technocrat,

And at once they fled, as rats will flee a pouncing cat.

“Where do you think YOU’RE going?!” cried Ardo as his eyes

Shone a brilliant neon red with their neon red flames.

Ardo flung his wrist and set the Technocrat on fire.

One by one he lit them aflame, burning them alive.

Many of the Technocrats still managed to escape,

Passing through the walls—but suddenly one of them tripped!

He fell flat upon his face, and the blow stunned him, so

He could not escape before Ardo loomed right above

Him, with that blue fire, horrible, upon his hands

And his arms; the heat of it made the Technocrat sweat,

And it turned his face a sunburned red as he looked up

Seeing Ardo glare down at him with those neon eyes.

“Please!” he cried, he screamed, and he collapsed at Ardo’s feet.

“Please! I have a wife and children!” the Technocrat said.

Please don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!” And he cried and wept.

“Please! Have mercy on me!” And the man kissed Ardo’s feet,

Though it burned his lips, for Ardo’s skin was very hot.

Ardo stared down at him for a moment, as the man

Lay at his feet, weeping, crying, bawling like a child.

Then Ardo kicked with his leg—he kicked the man away.

“Go on. Get out of here,” Ardo firmly said to him.

And the man ran, screaming, and he passed right through the wall.

Ardo turned about, he glanced around, until he saw

The doors, and he swung his arm at them, and from his hand

Came a blast, a mighty jet, of blazing blue hot flame.

Like a cutting torch it soon made short work of the door,

Melting it apart until it oozed, and, molten, glowed.

Ardo stepped out through the molten hole. He did not mind

The heat of the metal—he did not mind it at all,

As he stepped into the corridor, where it became

Hot around him instantly—he raised the temperature.

“Gotta find the others,” Ardo said, and hurried off.

Marin hung in a fourth chamber. Broken. Empty. Void.

She felt like her heart was gone, and deep inside her chest

Only a hole, vast and empty, lay where it had been,

Lay where everything in her life that was bright and good

Had sunken, had fallen into a vast, dark abyss

From which no light came. In which there was full dark, no stars.

Tears leaked from her big round eyes, lovely sapphire blue.

She sagged low in her restraints—and she felt lower, still.

Below her the Technocrats were milling to and fro.

“Let’s begin,” said Sister Belladonna to them all.

“Father Arius expects us to finish promptly.

These procedures are just the beginning, after all,

Of our plans for all the Elementals.” “Which should we

Do first: the mental or the physical?” one of the

Technocrats asked. “I should say the mental should come first.

We can prep her mind and render her obedient

So we can perform the physical procedures, and

She will be more easily restrained. We will not need

To sedate her, which will serve our purposes quite well.

Since Arius, after all, forbade us sedatives.”

“I hate you.” The voice echoed amid the blackened dome

Of the chamber. Belladonna glanced up at the girl

Who was glaring down at her with red and teary eyes.

Belladonna rolled her eyes. “As I was saying, we—”

“I HATE YOU!” roared Marin, and her eyes began to flare,

Began flickering a neon blue. Belladonna

Whirled about. “You, Water Elemental, always were

Such a pain to deal with. You’ve always been such a brat!

Ever since you came out of my womb you’ve been a pain.

Always vain and greedy, used to getting your own way.

I knew you would take the news the worst of all the four.

And having put up with you for all these fifteen years,

I cannot deny,” said Belladonna, with a smirk,

“That it’s somewhat pleasing to see you brought down so low.”

Marin gasped, and in her heart the blackened hole grew more

Dark and deep and more intense, but then it almost felt

Like she hit the bottom of it, and at bottom there

Was something hard, sharp, and cold, as though the bottom of

The hole in her chest was a pit filled with spikes of ice.

Tears ran down her cheeks, but now they were not tears of pain,

No—her tears of sadness changed to tears of ugly wrath.

“I’m going to kill you,” Marin said, eyes narrowing.

“I’ll kill you some day. I promise,” and she bared her teeth.

Belladonna rolled her eyes again, and then began

Saying, “Now, prepare to—” but the entire room ROCKED

As though something huge and hard had slammed into it then.

All the standing Technocrats were knocked off of their feet.

Even the few that were hovering were thrown about.

“What on earth was that?” a female Technocrat cried out.

Suddenly the swooping neon red lines that were drawn

Onto Belladonna’s temples pulsed with flares of light.

Belladonna paused to listen to what she received.

She listened and nodded—then she shouted out loud, “WHAT?!”

“What is it?” a male Technocrat asked. Belladonna

Said, “The Earth Elemental has broken containment!”

“Terry!” Marin cried out, and in her chest suddenly

The black hole erupted with a brilliant spark of light,

Lighting up the darkness, and she suddenly did not

Feel so empty and so hopeless, for she realized

That even if her own mother had been proven false,

Even if her whole life had been proved to be a lie…

She still had her friends. They were not fake! They all were real!

Because they were in the same position she was in.

They had not been part of the deception of her life.

They had been deceived too—Saera, Ardo, and Terry

All were in the same position that Marin was in.

Marin felt a joy, a happiness, as she realized

She was not as lonely as she’d thought, moments before.

“Ah! No!” Belladonna roared, her swooping neon lines

Still pulsing. “Now I’m told the Air Elemental has

Escaped too!” “Saera!” Marin cried out. And then she smiled.

She grinned, with a massive smile. And then Marin laughed.

And she said, “Well if EVERYONE ELSE is getting out…”

So her eyes blazed neon blue, a gleaming neon blue,

And down her cheeks, heavily, ran bright blue neon tears.

Marin yanked and struggled at her restraints, but then she

Had an idea. “Oh! Duh!” she said loudly to herself.

“What?” said Belladonna as she heard her daughter’s cry,

Turning to see Marin with those glowing neon eyes.

Belladonna saw her just a moment. But then she

Suddenly dissolved into a burst of water clear!

Marin’s body turned into a blast of water that

Was out of its restraints instantly—and it shot out

In a jet of whitewater that aimed itself right at

Belladonna! But she scrambled just out of the way

And some other poor Technocrat took the massive blast

Of whitewater. It flung him with force into a wall

Of black metal. Belladonna heard an awful CRUNCH.

Suddenly amid the middle of the chamber’s floor,

Marin rose up from the water that was sloshing there,

Body reforming, her eyes still gleaming neon blue.

“Didn’t I TELL you that I would KILL you?” she exclaimed.

Marin flung her arm at Belladonna, and she sent

A huge surge of water at her. Then the water turned

Into spikes of ice, clear, razor sharp, headed her way!

“Ah!” cried Belladonna, who the spikes dodged just in time,

Causing them to rip apart some other Technocrats,

And the icy spikes were coated with a bright red blood.

Belladonna cried “All Technocrats retreat!” and she

Headed for a wall. “Oh, no you don’t!” Marin cried out,

And she swung her arms and a huge blast of whitewater

Surged at Belladonna, and she only just in time

Reached the wall and passed through it. The whitewater then slammed

Into the wall and made in the metal a huge dent.

“AAGGH!” roared Marin, and out from her surged a churning foam,

Whitewater that boiled, smashing into the black walls

Of the chamber, like the ocean breaking on the cliffs.

“I’m going to KILL you, MOTHER!” Marin shouted out,

As the Technocrats in all directions round her fled.

“This isn’t the end!” said Marin, eyes glowing so blue.

“I WILL find you, and I WILL kill you, some day! I swear!”

Marin snarled—and then she sighed. Her anger faded, then.

“But I need to get out of here first,” she said aloud.

Turning round, her navy blue hair swirling round her head,

Marin quickly saw the door. “Oh, good!” she said, and then

Her body once more dissolved into water, clean, clear.

And the water slithered, oozing forward towards the doors,

And it reached them. The big doors were tightly, firmly sealed,

But that didn’t matter, because in the gap between

Them there was more than enough room for the water to

Slide and ooze out of the chamber. It quickly escaped

Out into the corridor that curved round just outside.

Marin’s body reformed, and she glanced both right and left.

“I need to find the others,” she said, and hurried off.