Silent Storm
Chapter 2 - Smells Like Dark Magic

A heavily tinted Vehicle pulls up to a large metal gate.

At the center of the gate are two circles, in the inner circle is an intertwining ‘SS’ symbol, while the outer circle contains 13 cryptic Witch’s Runes.

Ghost and Striker ride up behind the vehicle on their Storm Cycles.

The inner circle at the center of the gate begins to glow, then expels a red beam which scans the vehicles.

Within seconds the outer circle rotates counterclockwise, and the gate opens, allowing the vehicles to enter a massive compound.

Directly ahead of them sits a lengthy rectangular fountain, with driveways on either side leading to and from a large, lightly colored stone building, several stories high: The Silent Storm Academy.

Not too far away, to the left of the Academy building is an even larger and more impressive structure, The Student’s Mansion, where all the students of the academy reside.

Most of the estate is covered in beautiful green lawn, with hand crafted hedges serving as decorations.

Naveen, the meticulous Academy gardener, walks the estate, sheers in hand, ready to correct any flaw detected in his territory.

The lead vehicle pulls up to the front of the Academy and Marie and Vanessa exit.

The windows wind down to reveal an impeccably dressed elderly gentlemen, Lewis ‘Lou’ Florence behind the wheel.

“Thanks Lou, that will be all,” says Marie.

“Very well Madam,” responds the ever-polite Lou, as he drives off toward the garage in the student’s mansion.

Ghost and Striker head in the same direction, after receiving a nod from Marie and Vanessa.

A young boy with jet black hair speeds toward Vanessa, focusing more on something behind him than where he is going, eventually crashing into her and falling on his behind.

“Mikey, what are you doing out here?” asks Vanessa as she towers over the young boy. “Don’t you have a class with Professor Ivan right now?” she continues.

“Class was cut short today,” says a voice from behind Marie.

Marie turns around to see another copy of Mikey, “Cut short, why?” she asks.

“Ivan wasn’t feeling too well Lady M,” says a third copy of Mikey, “You can ask him yourself, look, he’s coming over,” he continues, pointing to a very tall and untidy looking blond man walking toward them.

“Hello there, nice weather we’re having,” the man says.

“Oh cut the crap JJ, I can tell it’s you,” says Vanessa, who then pokes the ‘Ivan Lookalike’ with her finger, giving him a minor electric shock, causing him to shift to his natural form.

“Ouch, that really hurt Lady V,” says the little blond boy. “How do you always know? I’ve been practicing non-stop,” he continues, forcing a rare smile from Vanessa.

“It’s not just about the outward appearance kid, you have to learn to shift your Aethereal signature as well; I could sense it was you,” she responds.

Marie chuckles, “All that leaves is miss hide and seek, now where could she be?” She says, as she walks around with her hands on her hips. “Come on out Miranda,” she continues.

She walks around some more, pretending to be clueless. “Alright, have it your way Missy.”

Marie stretches one hand towards the fountain, causing a small body of water to rise, then directs her hand from the fountain and stretches it out next to her.

The water moves as she commands, and rushes toward what seems like nothing—but the water does connect with something. A little girl with smooth chocolate skin and short dark hair materializes as she gets squirted in the face by the fountain water. “Was that really necessary Lady M?” she asks, as Mikey and JJ begin to laugh at her.

“Nice one Lady M,” says Mikey.

“Don’t the three of you ever tire of getting yourselves into trouble,” asks Vanessa.

“No, not really,” JJ responds, causing Mikey to elbow him in the ribs to shut him up.

Vanessa gives JJ a ghastly stare, causing him to jump back in fear.

“How about you guys go to the library and do something constructive before V fries you all,” says Marie.

“Mikey wasn’t lying about Professor Ivan, he really wasn’t feeling well,” says Miranda.

“We believe you Miranda, now run along,” Marie responds, shooing the three troublemakers toward the library inside the Academy building.

“I swear to Gaia, those little monsters are gonna be the end of me,” says Vanessa.

Marie giggles, “Their progress is remarkable though, I can’t believe they’re only in Nimbus III,” she says.

Vanessa nods in agreement. “But that Ivan, he was probably too hung-over as usual. We really need to have a talk with him.”

They both sigh and head inside the Academy Building.

Inside the Academy, several portraits are hung up on the walls.

To the left are portraits of the past principals and vice principals of the academy.

To the right are portraits of the founders of the Silent Storm, the Original Five. They each have symbols on their clothes depicting their respective elements, a water droplet, a lightning bolt, a flame, a gust of wind and a leaf within a stone.

Standing in front of the five are the Oracles, Cordelia and Aurelia, identical twins, with beautiful dark skin, and gorgeous bushy curls. A stark contrast to Cordelia’s current gloomy appearance.

A mesmerizing chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

Maylene Wiley, a petit red head in a nurse’s uniform appears from the top of the stairs with a distraught look on her face. “Lady Terrell, Lady Stanislaus, you need to come to the infirmary,” she says.

“In a minute nurse May, we just need to check up on our sons and the others,” Marie responds.

“That’s exactly why you should come to the infirmary,” Nurse May insists.

“Oh no, what now?” responds a worried Marie, as they rush up the stairs and toward the infirmary.

* * *

Several beds are lined up next to each other in the spotless Infirmary.

Marie and Vanessa scan the room and see Muscle and Brain standing and fidgeting, while Gale sits on a bed with her legs folded underneath her, with minor bruises on her face.

Jason is also sitting on a bed but quickly tries to stand when he sees his mother, but the pain causes him to stumble back onto the bed.

Riley is lying unconscious with bandages covering parts of his body.

“So, I guess this means you lost the new awakening,” says a seemingly unsympathetic Vanessa.

Marie rushes frantically to Jason and showers him with hugs and kisses, then turns her attention to Riley and does the same. “Riley, my poor baby, please Gaia, let my boy be ok,” she sobs.

“He’s going to be alright Lady Stanislaus,” Nurse May reassures, “He should be waking up anytime now. His wounds weren’t healing as they normally do; and judging from how difficult it was trying to heal him myself, I’d say he was exposed to dark magic.”

Brain interjects, “It was Cordelia, she did something to him. She just stretched her arm out and he started screaming.”

Marie and Vanessa are startled by this. “Cordelia? You brats are lucky to even be alive,” says Vanessa.

“This doesn’t make any sense, she’s been off the grid all these years, why show herself now?” Marie ponders.

Jason attempts to stand once again but fails, “It didn’t look like she was expecting to see us. She showed up with three other guys and they made light work of us, then took the girl, the new awakening,” he says, as he winces due to the pain.

Why would Cordelia take her?” asks Vanessa.

“I don’t know man, but those guys looked around our age, they were really strong, something about them just didn’t feel natural,” says Muscle.

“That bitch must have corrupted them with her dark magic to enhance their abilities,” says Vanessa.

Marie thinks to herself for a few seconds, “You say they were around your age?” she asks.

“Yea dude, I mean mam, yes mam,” responds Muscle.

“Brain, can you pull up all the Awakenings that went missing from between 10-15 years ago?” asks Marie.

“Sure, no problem,” Brain responds. He then uses his wrist pad to produce virtual images in the middle of the room showing the names and faces of several missing kids.

“Now can you age those pictures to show what they would look like now?” asks Marie.

“Certainly, with my facial recognition algorithm I can easily find correspondences between--”

“Just do it Brain,” Vanessa interrupts, startling Brain.

Brain uses the facial recognition software on the wrist pad and the images on the hologram begin to visibly age. “There you go,” he says.

“Do any of those images look anything close to the guys you fought?” asks Marie.

Everyone stares at the images.

Gale climbs off the bed and moves toward the hologram and points at three of the images. “This guy, Christian Wells, that’s the one I fought, I’m sure of it. The other two, Ronald Vargas and Silo Smith look like the ones Jason and Riley fought. But I can’t be certain, there’s only a slight resemblance,” she says.

“Well, it’s not 100% accurate Gale,” Brain responds in his defense.

“Gaia help us,” groans Marie.

Vanessa moves closer to Marie. “You’re thinking Cordelia’s behind all the kidnappings over the years aren’t you? But to what end?” she asks.

“All these cases have involved only Category 3 and above Awakenings. It could be that she’s trying to build an army, we can’t rule anything out,” Marie responds.

“That could explain why all the families claimed they didn’t see anything when we questioned them. They were all probably subjected to an illusion,” Vanessa adds.

Riley begins to wake up and starts calling out in agony for Nurse May, causing everyone to look in his direction.

Nurse May rushes to Riley’s side. “Riley, what’s the matter?” she asks.

“I just wanted your beautiful face to be the first thing I saw when I woke up,” he responds, sitting up with a proud smirk on his face.

“Foolish boy! Do you think now is a good time for your shenanigans?!” exclaims a furious Vanessa.

“Jeez Aunt V, I’m sorry.”

“Did you hear anything we were discussing?” asks Vanessa.

Riley nods in the affirmative.

Vanessa stares at him, “Have anything to contribute?” she asks.

“I do actually. Before I blacked out, that crazy witch was spouting nonsense about me and Jason meeting our father.”

“What?” asks a confused but intrigued Jason.

Marie and Vanessa exchange worrying looks with each other.

“That’s impossible, your father is dead,” says Vanessa, trying to convince both herself and the boys.

“V’s right”, Cordelia is a liar, that’s how she operates, she messes with people’s heads,” adds Marie.

“Ok, so what are we going to do about her then?” asks Brain.

“We’ll have to arrange a meeting immediately after classes to bring the other faculty members up to speed so we can formulate a plan of action. Get the word out as quickly as possible Brain,” commands Vanessa.

“Right away Lady V,” he says, as he sends out an alert using his wrist pad.

“You guys get some rest,” urges Marie.

“Don’t worry, I’ll release Gale and Jason later today, but I want to keep Riley overnight just to be safe,” says Nurse May.

Marie and Vanessa acknowledge and leave the infirmary.

They see Miranda, Mikey and JJ standing suspiciously behind the door as they make their way out.

Vanessa gives them an annoyed look, “You little brats, didn’t we tell you to go to the libra—Oh just forget it, we don’t have time for this,” she says, as she and Marie walk away.

Miranda, Mikey and JJ look at each other curiously then bolt inside the infirmary.

Jason is alerted by their arrival, “Does it even make sense asking why you three aren’t in class?” he asks.

“We’re supposed to have a class with Professor Ivan but—”

Jason interrupts before JJ can finish, “Yea I can pretty much guess what happened. That guy will never change, jeez.”

“So, what are you runts doing here?” asks Gale.

“We heard you got your butts kicked pretty badly, so we came to see how you were doing.” Says Mikey.

Miranda walks over to Riley. “Gosh Riley, you look terrible,” she says.

“Thanks,” he responds.

“Does it hurt when I do this?” asks Miranda, as she gives Riley a slight jab to the ribs, causing him to screech in pain.

Miranda giggles, “Guess it does.”

“So is it true? There’s a chance your dad might still be alive? Asks Mikey.

“You guys heard all that? Man, you three just can’t keep still,” Riley responds.

Miranda looks at Riley with a gleeful smile, “We learned from the best,” she says, triggering a proud smile from Riley.

“You have to promise you won’t tell anyone else about this until the faculty decides what to do,” he says.

Miranda, Mikey and JJ all agree.

“But what exactly happened to your dad?” Mikey asks Jason and Riley.

An awkward silence envelops the room.

“He went crazy from the strain of using all the elements and killed a lot of people,” Gale responds.

“Is the same thing gonna happen to Jason and Riley?” asks JJ in the saddest of tones.

“There’s no definitive answer to that,” says Brain, causing Jason and Riley to look nervously at each other. “But they say every Nonpareil before Dorian suffered psychotic breaks and died as their bodies deteriorated on a molecular level. It got so bad that it eventually led to the Prohibition—”

“Take it easy there Brainiac, we don’t want a history lesson,” Riley interrupts. “We already know this stuff.”

“Do you, Mr. ‘Rain Man’”, Brain responds. “When was the last time you read a book or paid attention to anything in class?”

“Probably around the same time Gale paid any real attention to you.” Riley counters, striking the intended nerve.

Gale glances at Riley with disgust, “You really are good for nothing aren’t you?” she says.

Miranda, sensing the tension, tries to bring the conversation back on track, “But how is it that both Jason and Riley can control multiple elements when every book in the library says there can only be one Nonpareil?”

An annoyed Jason, more at himself for not being able to answer Miranda’s question, ushers the kids out of the infirmary.

“Man, why do you have to be so serious all the time, why can’t you be more like your brother?” asks JJ, much to Jason’s anger.

“Out, now, run along. These folks need some rest,” says Nurse May.

JJ, Mikey and Miranda let out a collective sigh of disappointment and leave the infirmary.

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