Cythonia

Hidden in plain sight

CHAPTER 5
Snake in the shadows

After running for miles... Max finally arrived in front of the star light corporation building, with giant billboards advertising Neo's use in space travel and medical care. When Max gone inside he saw many advanced technology he has never seen, from short distance teleportation to using Neo as a new arm. Max walk up to the receptionist and ask where professor White is.

Receptionist: he is currently in the building, do you have a appointment?
Max: no but I have this (showing the receptionist his phone that shows Star light V.I.P on it .)
Receptionist:oh! well this way sir.

The receptionist took Max directly to professor White's private lab and told him she will call professor White that your here to meet him .

10 minutes later.....

"warp"

Prof white:Oh Max! it's good to see you! how long has it been? 2 years?
Max: 3 exactly.
Prof white: well it's good to see you, seems like you used the V.I.P token I gave you, what are doing here?
Max: I need your help with something.
Prof white: ok I'm listening.
Max: you heard about the "incident" I was in .
Prof white: the one where you and your friend entered a restricted building where it is infested with dangerous monster and both of you got injured and was asleep for three days, yeah, I heard.
Max:well something happened to me after I recovered .
Prof white: like what? did you develop some kind of mutation? "chuckle"
Max: kinda , do have anything with a low battery?
Prof white: ummm....here ,my phone, I was just about to charge.

In the moment Max touched the phone, a spark run through it , spooking both of them and dropping it.

Prof white: what just happened?(surprised and confused)
Max: that's what's recently happening (picking up the phone) and as you can see your phone is at full power and that's not all sometimes they just disappear.

Max started to touch random stuff till a beaker glowed blue and vanished.

Max: see!
Prof white: (he creepily grinned and said) quite peculiar, don't worry Max I'll help with your situation.
Max: really!?, thank you uncle white!(note: not his real uncle he only calls him that)
Prof white: now come we better get started.

"warp"

Both Max and Prof white teleported to a different lab that seems like it's located underground the building.

Max: woah! I haven't seen this place before!
Prof white: it's a secret lab, I use it when I want I bit more privacy and where we're going to conduct test on you, would mind laying down in the examination table.
Max: no problem.

Max layed down on the table and Prof white started to conduct multiple test, trying to figure out this strange power. The test lasted for hours and obtained minimal results.

Prof white: phew(said while wiping the sweat in his forehead) huh? it's already lunch!, time sure fly, how about take a break for now?
Max: sure, I was getting a little hungry.
Prof white: I'll get us something to eat, what do you want?
Max: an egg sandwich.
Prof white: sure, I'll be right back.

As Prof white left , Max started to look around and found that the lab is way bigger than he thought. While wandering, he stumbled on a room with multiple high-end computers and a massive tank filled with Neo in the very back of the room , Max got closer and was fascinated on how much power this tank is containing , Max touched the glass of the and then his power suddenly started to interact with each, the tank began overflow with energy,Max tried to back off from the tank but before he got a chance to run the tank exploded! hitting Max with the mixture of energies, knocking him out .

In Max's mind, we see him floating in a blank space, then blue and purple energy began to form a ring like structure, after forming light began to come out of it, temporarily blinding Max, after the light gone away he saw an image.....of his father? and Prof white? "but uncle looks way younger here , is this thing showing me the past" said Max, as we can see it is showing us the past where Allan Sterling and George White was creating the portal that was found in now abandoned and destroyed star light labs ,"seems like Dad and uncle were good friends back then", said Max.(Note: Max has only seen his father in old pictures and videos of him)

The image suddenly change to a different scene that shows the event where Allan Sterling was sucked in by the portal, "Daaaddd! nooooo!", said Max trying to reach out and save him but he just pass through the ring and then it vanished. Max floats in the abyss in his mind aimlessly, still trying to recover from what he just saw, the two energies came back and started to wrap around Max, he tried to squirm and push it back but it was too powerful, all he can do now is just scream and shout for help but there is no one there to help him, then the two energies finally covered Max and everything turned into black!

The mysterious energies took Max and vanished and only the darkness of the abyss in Max's mind was left but a single small bright star was shining and floating in this darkness as if it was left behind.