PART FOUR:
THE DUEL
The Challenge: The Real Beginning
Lena wakes to the sound of a siren.
Her head throbbing, she sits up groggily. Her body aches as if she's just ran a marathon, or did some great labor the night before — which she did not, considering her only activity for yesterday was being unfortunately involved in a series of unthinkable events.
When her eyes focus, she scrutinises at her hands. A thin screen of light shines through the gap of her window drapes.
Reluctantly, she pushes herself from the comfortable bed and begins making her way across the room where the window is situated. Lena curses as she knocks her bare foot onto something large and hard. Worse, as she is trying desperately to shake off the pain, she accidentally stumbles over something else and falls, ending up on the wooden floor entirely.
The drapes are pretty thick, blocking off all sunlight except for the little opening from which Lena hastily and clumsily pulled the drapes incompletely closed the night before. She's rather grateful for that, because she might just sleep through the afternoon sun with such heavy drapes.
Pulling herself together as she blames all the items on the floor for causing her pain, Lena pulls the drapes open. The other side of the window is already bustling with activity at this early hour.
The siren that woke her is fading into the distance now, but still she wonders what triggered it, and what it meant. Certainly it's not the police — there's no such force here. There is only the Catalysts, and at the lowest level, the patrol robots.
The entire city is of a purple and blue hue, the sky painted a shade of purple in the early morning, with all the buildings and skyscrapers encased in a layer of either blue or purple or a similar shade in between. The colours of these tall structures would've definitely stand out on the other side of the world, from where Lena comes from. Here, it simply blends into the different sky, the one created from the layer of atmosphere surrounding the City of Leatia. The buildings and skyscrapers are built on a special technology that allow them to mend itself: a layer of special chromium. The material is strong enough to withstand damage, but since strange destructions occur frequently in this city, these structures are coated with special chemical substance linked with the latest gadgets to fix themselves when required.
It does feel artificial, but similarly surreal in a breathtaking way. The lack of diversity in colour is surprisingly not dull; instead, its monotonous nature gives a calming sensation. It's like looking at a classic vintage painting.
Lena still has to get accustomed to the cars zipping past the horizon. You don't exactly wake to this sight everyday. The Aerotrain is already functioning and gracing over the flying cars, faster than the eyes can catch. She wonders why the train was even capable of being attacked with that speed.
The enormous screen carried on a blimp drifts in the sky, broadcasting the current time, the day's temperature, weather, and finally some headlines. Her eyes only very briefly scan the news topics.
Some include:
INVESTIGATION CONTINUES: ANDROMEDA SECTOR REMAINS QUARANTINED
CATALYST FOUND DEAD. INQUISITION ON MYSTERIOUS 'SHADOW SYNDICATE' ELEVATES AS CITIZENS' CONCERNS INTENSIFY
CITY OF LEATIA'S STRONGEST FORCE STRUGGLES WITH PERILOUS DEMON BREACH, TAKING BATTLE TO THE SKIES
I.S.C.D.R. STRONGHOLD DAMAGED, S-RANK CATALYSTS TO BLAME
The second one catches her eye. Catalyst dead? Lena believes them to be invincible. Anyhow, this is her first day reading headlines regarding the City of Leatia, so she wouldn't know if this is a special case, or that it happens often and is reported simply because the Catalysts are such celebrities that the death of one of them bring such unfortunate news to be mourned by all of the citizens.
YOU ARE READING
GLASS || The Catalysts Series, #1
Science Fiction‹ ‹ Featured in Wattpad Superhero! › › Lena can see little visions through glass surfaces - but she is not the only one of her kind. In the City of Leatia, humans and demons coexist, cars fly, buildings break as easily as they are rebuilt, and Catal...
