The Gifted Chronicles: Power

Chapter 12: Tall Orders

A man in a light grey trench coat that fades into black as it reaches the bottom sits with his feet propped up on a desk in the middle of a whitewash room. "Soot, you are telling me the rest got away? What about the inquiring of the one called Ash?"

Soot sits formally in a chair directly across from his desk. "Sir, she is a tough one to catch, her powers match mine and might even surpass that of my abilities to manipulate my surroundings like her."

He pulls his feet off his desk to reveal a face covered with an eye patch and a baldhead with several scars across its top. "You're telling me you cannot match her powers?" Soot looks down at her hands, "What I'm saying Char, is it is risky to launch another attack against them, where ever they are. They will be expecting us."

The older man slams his fist down on his grey desk, "This will be your last time, any failure to your mission, Soot, will result in a spot open in your position." He points his fingerless gloved hand at the door, "Now get out! And don't forget to grab your AI unit next time."

Soot stands up, "Yes, Sir." She walks to the automatic door, "Oh and Soot Don't do anything stupid." Soot smiles at him, "How could I not?" she says while walking out backwards.

Soot makes her way past the prison cells where she stumbles across two sisters tied up and sleeping, the older one named Rheum and her younger counterpart, Nuri.

Soot thought these two were the best ones that ever came to the company. Their powers just completely astounded her. Rheum could manipulate materials such as dirt or concrete to create deadly dagger sharp fiber optic like crystals that shock people when they touch them. While Nuri could make any object magnetic by aligning the magnetic metals in the proper polarities. She could even magnetize organic life such as a person. Soot wondered why Ash does not have a power similar to theirs, as they are her older sisters.

Soot walks down the hallway to the room that they interrogate their prisoners for their powers; she shudders remembering when Rheum stuck her in the abdomen with one of her crystal shards. She keeps advancing towards the AI center where Soot opens the door to enter.

She walks into another whitewash room to see several technicians in lab coats busily working away in a corner not noticing she walked in. Soot always liked the way the room was covered end to end in gadgets and gizmos, and often when she was not on a mission, she would head here to tinker. She grabs a small Frisbee shaped object; one that she could attach to her back when not in her current use. She flips the disk over pressing a little blue glowing button.

Around the edges the disk began to glow green, a disembodied male voice replies, "Hello I am Effio, your personal AI unit, how may I help you today?" Soot smiles she already liked Effio, he seemed like a good AI unit, not like her last one that somehow got into the hands of the enemy. "Effio I was just checking to see if you work, I am Soot and I will be your personnel."

Soot noticed she sounded like a little girl talking to a Barbie doll and it reminded herself of when she was a kid. One of the men that was distracted in the corner walks towards Soot, "That is our newest AI unit Ms. Soot tests have been....Ambiguous." Soot sets Effio down on the table, "Are you saying Effio is not ready? Because the way I see it, he seems ready to go out into the field with me." The technician slowly moves his arm towards Effio to grab him away from Soot. She slams her hand down on his top, "Please don't hit me." She looks down at Effio. "You are not taking him." Soot makes herself stand taller, "why not?"

The tech pulls a chair over with his telekinesis power, "there is one more test this AI unit has to go through, if it passes, and then it's all yours." Effio flickers a light at both of them, "Might I have a word in this, my tests may have been what you say Mr. Cobalt then doesn't that mean I have already passed? After all I am only a month old." Soot raises her eyes, "A month old? A Month OLD! Why hasn't Effio been thrown out into the field?"

Mr. Cobalt pulls Soot out the door to talk to her, "Ms. Soot, Effio has been quite Erratic, his coding is more complex than any AI ever before him and probably the most complex for a while yet. His unit was designed after one who had the power to manipulate electricity, enter the power grid and mess with technology." Soot holds up a hand in front of his face while flicking some red and blue curls from her face, "Look I know he is supposed to get approved and I have to wait but a month has been long enough." Soot takes a deep breath to get her powers under control, from not bursting out and destroying the place. Mr. Cobalt rolls his eyes, "Fine Ms. Soot I'll get him approved, let me finish up some work."

Soot sits in the Artificial Intelligence room for about an hour, patiently waiting for Effio to be finished with his last test. Mr. Cobalt walks out of a small room in the floor, "Alright Ms. Soot your AI unit is ready to go out onto the field with you. You will find quite the surprises with this one." He hands Effio over to Soot, "Finally." Mr. Cobalt walks away towards the corner where the other two techs were. Soot spins Effio around in her hands. "Alright Effio let's get to work."

Soot walks down the hallway asking Effio questions. "So Effio, what kinds of abilities can you do?" Effio responds, "Well Soot, I can do many things, I can create a shield to protect you, I can also create a holographic weapon of any kind that you may use to your advantage." Soot smiles at this answer this would definitely come in handy, "So could you project me a spear right now?"

Effio beeps and out of a top, a small clear piece of glass appears projecting a long spear with a spindle on the top in Soot's right hand. "Here, this is the only rendition of a spear downloaded to my memory core." Soot twirls it in her left hand then she throws it at a nearby door. The spear sticks into the door halfway through creating a hole but disintegrating on contact. "Nice shot Madam!"

Soot spins Effio in her hands, "How about we go out for a little spin, we'll find Ash and the others." Soot heads to the parking garage grabbing a copper orange and black Ducati motorcycle. Soot puts on a pair of holo glasses that project a map of the entire city and lodges Effio on his port on her suit, "Effio, Map out the large abandoned places for me please all the places where entire underground facilities might be." Effio lights up her map with yellow dots, "consider it done Madam."