3AN: Well, what do ya know! I actually got a review! Awesome! And, yes, the prologue is a bit of a tease…. I guess this isn't really a chapter, either, a lot more of a continuation of the prologue… xD Well, read on and tell em what you think!
With a few clicks and whirrs, the girl felt her body forcibly awoken. The tank shook and she felt gravity return its reign over her, the liquid draining slowly. Once all the liquid was gone, she spluttered as her lungs began to painfully restart themselves. The door slid open and she fell forward onto cold, hard ground. It was pretty dark, except for a few lights that were aimed at her. She blinked, coughing at the same time.
"Sir, there was a girl in the tank!" She heard voices exclaimed, as if they were behind masks. The girl looked up with squinting grey eyes.
She was surrounded by people in strange body armor; most with grey and black; helmets on some and others without. Still choking on water, she tried to scream as she backed up, only to run into the wall. Her mind was racing, heart beating wildly in her chest. A strange sensation like ice water trickling down filled the veins in her arms.
"Stay back!" she managed to choke out pathetically.
One of the weird men walked forward slowly, arms raised in a sign of peace. "Whoa, calm down ma'am, we're here to—"
"Don't get any closer!" she screeched. The sensation began to build at her fists as she cowered further towards the wall.
"…to help…." he continued forward.
"I said, STAY BACK!" the girl hissed, thrusting her hands forward as a meager attempt to keep them away. Except, the results, weren't so meager. A massive wave of sky-colored cloud swept through the room, knocking the strangers into the wall with bone-jamming force to say the least.
She used this to her benefit. Not even pausing to think about the marvel, she thanked whatever higher force there was for the miracle, looking at her glowing wrists as a fading blue flame licked at her hands. What did I do? She thought absent-mindedly.
"Grab her!"
She continued to scramble away, leaning heavily against the walls. What happened here? She thought, mind and heart racing. The girl recognized the hallway; it was the same one she had came down the day she went into the chamber… except, it looked aged, stained and earth-torn. The walls and floor had lost their cleanliness long ago, from the looks of them, and linoleum and dirt blended together at some points on the floor. The girl shook herself from staring at the floor when the thudding of boots suddenly seemed very close to her. Despite her efforts, she couldn't run, her legs were numb and her whole body felt tired. And why am I so tired…?
As the 19-year old staggered towards the end of the hall, the light streaking in through the two hospital windows on the doors, she found her body weakening further and further… The men were getting closer and closer, but she couldn't move any faster. In a final attempt to reach the doors, she lunged, her arm slipping just far enough to push the doors open…
And see what was outside.
"You," the strange man started, taking a puff from his cigarette, "my friend, are an interesting find…"
She glared looked at him with narrowed, grey eyes… They were filled with fear, uncertainty, and confusion. She looked at the hologram of the man in front of her. He was Tall, slightly handsome, and looked like he was in his forties. His hair had a super-man style to it and was brown with graying sideburns. He wore a suit of sorts with black and grey coloring. The girl was sitting in a chamber with the weird guards standing at the door, a captain of sorts standing next to her as he presented his find. She was restrained with weird hand-cuffs that hurt her wrists and so were her feet. The honey-red haired girl looked around nervously, her hair dry now but crusted with something weird, probably the strange substance the scientists had used on her.
"F-find?" she said quietly, hesitating. The normally rather confidant girl was severely shaken, the world had changed, she had seen flying cars, smooth strange looking buildings, grey, grey skies filled with smog…
"Yes, indeed," The Illusive Man smiled, "You see, you're two things…" he held up on hand and a finger, "You were found in an at least hundred-year-old, abandoned science facility, that was COMPLETELY unknown," he held a second finger up, "And you can use biotics." He leaned back in his chair, a smug smile on his face. "Humanity could use someone like you."
"What do you mean?" she burst out. "What is going on? Where am I?" her voice slowly began to rise and became strained and coarse. The captain of sorts behind her gave her a look. "You ARE in the audience of a very important man. This is the Illusive Man, helping Cerberus build a better future for humans in this alien-filled universe!" he seemed very passionate about what he was talking about.
The girl gave him a look of her own then stared at the middle-aged man's holograph. "Aliens?" she breathed, slowly beginning to shake her head. "You're crazy… or, maybe I'm crazy…" She slunk back on the rails that outlined the area. Her grey eyes closed tightly as she rubbed her temples. "I don't know if this is a terrible side effect of the Element Zero stuff or not, but I better get paid extra for this…"
"You really think this is a dream?" the Illusive Man chuckled.
"Hope is a better word," she said quietly, losing all of her nervousness as she began to also lose her reason to care. "If this is a dream, I'm just waiting to wake up."
The man shook his head as he took a drag from his cigarette. He leaned forward in his chair and looked at her with his strangely patterned eyes, from what the girl had no clue. "It is year 2183. Just as an update, that is a long time for you, no doubt. Aliens and humans attempt to coexist at the same time as Humans struggle to make a good name and to try to carve out our own influence into the Universe that has gotten so much bigger then we thought possible… Now, we can help you," the man said, like he was offering a hand to fallen traveler. "Those biotics you displayed have been developing, quite obviously for the time you were in that tank of yours. If you work for us, we can help you harness those skills and help you use them to get what you want, so long as it doesn't interfere with what we're doing. That would be nice, am I right?"
The girl looked at him, her eyes filled with uncertainty. Slowly, but with her instincts screaming in her head she nodded like a child.
He sat back satisfied. "Good, now, what is it that you want?"
"To find out what happened." She said quietly.
The graying man nodded, puffing on his cigarette again then blowing out relaxed. "That's a good start. If it isn't a bother to what you'll be doing, then it won't be a problem to us." He paused, face suddenly looking concerned then a little more of a laughing face. "By the way, I don't think any of us got your name?"
She blinked, grey eyes in a deep coma of thought, before replying almost silently, "Alra. My name is Alra."
AN: So, there it is…. Kinda boring and choppy, in my opinion… I finished it up during a slow period in the day because I wanted it to be finished and outta my head. xDDD Well, please review again~