Copyright 2002 by Colin Brennan (Delton Wildfire) Cyberstrike2006 COLIN BRENNAN'S SECTION 32 The Coming of PowerCharge The first chapter of Section 32: Special Forces Unit, "The Coming of PowerCharge", seems disjointed, slow, and generally not like my writing. That was because this part of the story was originally an eighth grade composition I did for English class, it was never intended to be in with the actual stories, but more as a stand alone adventure for Lauren. The Coming of PowerCharge focuses on the use of the enigmatic silver watch that really doesn't have a history. The watch's functions range from use of transformations to just basic communication. The story also focuses on the metallic suits they wear, and basic transformations. I tried to use it to get a history for Lauren, and to show that not all crystal holders knew that such a powerful artifact struck them. The Coming of PowerCharge is also written from a first person perspective, as Lauren is telling her story directly to you. This was another format that I did use frequently at one point in my writing career, but then quickly dropped do to the limitations that I couldn't have in a topic such as this one. Some parts of it may not make sense in the newer version of Section 32. I had to update some places, and take some things out of this to make it make at least some sense in what is going on with the history. So please, sit back, relax, and listen to the poor girl. She actually does have a good short story to tell, and please don' t try to make it fit perfectly into the history of Section 32. It really doesn't fit anymore, but at least suppose that the encounter with the men actually happened. If I could really rewrite this today, I'd drop the whole watch sequence and just have some traumatic accident unlock her powers. But, I also want a golden toilet, and I can't have it, so you can't have a totally re-written essay. Eh, what the heck, take it as it comes, right? Enjoy Lauren's history. -Colin Brennan Hi. My name is Lauren, just Lauren. I really don't want to give out my last name, after what has happened to me. All I know is that my life is not going to be the same anymore, and I know that I am not considered normal by any standards anymore. Here, sit down, relax, and let me tell my story from the beginning. I was your everyday normal girl. I had friends, I chatted on the phone, I did my homework, I went to school, and all of those other normal things. My life was perfect, I had all I wanted, and I did well in school. Yet, inside of me there was some sort of a craving, a craving for adventure, and for justice. I didn't tell anyone about this craving, or those scary dreams I started having soon after I started my ninth grade year in the Pottsville Area High School. In my dreams I was the best law enforcement around. My aim was second to none, and I could do more than shoot a gun. I could run super fast and shoot energy beams from my hands. It was wonderful, yet it all went away when I woke up. I continued my days as though nothing was wrong in my life. But these dreams came more frequently until I had them almost every night. Then one day my friend Kristen came up to me after English class. She pulled me over to the corner of the classroom, and looked into my eyes. It seemed at that point everyone in the room started to talk louder and moved around me to shield my body from the teacher, Mr. Shishowski. Then Kristen started to speak in a low whisper. "Do you have any strange dreams at night Lauren?" she asked. "Yeah," I replied, "How did you..." "Trust me," she said, cutting me off in mid-sentence, "I know all about it. You're destined to be one of us, I know it. Here, take this device." She whispered and she gave me a little silver band. It was heavy for its small size, and it looked like there was more to it than meets the eye. "What the..." I started to say. It flew up out of my hand, and it snapped on to my wrist with a click. The extremely strange part was that now it weighed as though nothing was on my wrist. I looked it over again. It looked like a watch now, with a medium sized black screen on it. "If you ever get into some trouble, just say 'power fuse' what you get will help you out a lot. Once you use it, then come back to me for more information. By then you will be ready to make the decision to join out cause." She then whispered. Then she left me with a puzzled look on my face. I was about to go after here, just to make her tell me what this was all about, yet something stopped me, and I just stood there. 3:15 PM, Norwegian Street After school I started to walk to my friend's house alone. She had invited me over to hang out and call up boys. I was taking a relaxed walk down Norwegian Street on the west side of town while looking at the watch thing strapped to my wrist. Yet, the more I looked the more I could not find a line between it and my skin. If was as if it was not just strapped to me, but it was connected to me. I kept walking until I walked into someone, and fell down "Hey girlie, watch where you're going." The boy I walked into said. He looked to be about in tenth grade because he was really big, and even worse there were three other boys with him. "Sorry," I muttered, "I wasn't looking." Then I started to leave, until he grabbed my arm. "You're kinda cute, why don't you come with me." He said, and then he tugged me along. I broke free and punched him right in the mouth. The bad part was that he didn't even look dazed. "Oh so that's the way you want to play it girlie." He said angrily. He reached into his pocket, and the others did the same. Out of his pocket came a knife, and out of the other three's pockets came chains. Then they started to advance on me. My heart started to pound, I started to back up quickly. I could feel the sweat beading up onto my forehead. And words just came out of my mouth, "Power fuse!" I yelled. Then with it nothing happened. Except the boys looked a little dazed. "Nothing can save your sorry @!$ now!" he growled at me. Then I felt different. Like I was being surrounded by strength. My vision blurred, and my muscles felt like they were getting more powerful all the time. My hair flew back, and turned a dark pink from its nice light brown. I could feel a force surrounding me, and I saw a pink grid of some sort of energy being drawn toward me. It soon covered me from head to toe, stayed for a couple seconds, and then it vanished bit by bit. The expressions of the boy's faces turned from angry to scared. I looked down at myself, and almost fainted. My school clothes were gone, it their place was a shiny metallic suit. On my hip was some sort of fancy laser gun, and under my hands were chutes of some sort. They served a purpose that I couldn't figure out. On my back was a jetpack, and over the jet pack something large and thin. I absent-mindedly put my hand behind my back to draw it. When my hand came back around, there was a thin crystal rapier in it. On my head was a band of metal, holding a piece of some sort plastic, or glass, colored pink over my one eye. I had gloves on my hands and metal boots on my feet. My chest plate and my armor were skin tight, yet extremely flexible. And all over I was bulked up. My arms felt like I could lift over 1000 pounds, and my stomach was as hard as steel. The chest plate ever showed that I had something equivalent to a six-pack for stomach muscles. Last, yet not least, my legs were also powerful, I didn't know how powerful, but I was about to find out. And there was some sort of symbol on my left shoulder of the chest plate; it was a letter "P" with some sort of bolt, or laser cutting through it. Then my mind wandered back to last week. I remembered laying on my couch and watching TV in my living room. I was channel surfing, and I turned to a channel with the news. The anchor came on and was covering some sort of hold out at a bank robbery. This is what I remember: "...robbers seem to still be holding out in that First Union bank in downtown Pottsville. Right now this stand off with the police and the robbers shows no signs stopping. Wait! A young girl has come on to the scene! She has bright green hair fanning out behind her, defying the laws of gravity! She is also wearing a dark silver metal suit with an accent mark of a green stripe in some spots! In her hand is some sort of gun, and she appears to be walking right past the police barricade to the dismay of the police. Now she has reached the bank doors, and will she do it folks? Yes! She has gone into the bank with the police looking totally baffled. Now, an officer is trying to follow this mystery girl into the bank. But he is thrown back by a blast of green light! I hear gunshots and shouting. And there seems to be a struggle going on inside, and there goes a green shot of light out of one of the windows. And now every window in the bank has a green trail of light flowing out of it. Everybody is covering his or her eyes! This is amazing! I wonder who won! Now the light is clearing, and someone is walking out of the door. It's the mystery girl! She has all of the hostages and she is carrying all 8 of the bandits in her arms! They seemed to be knocked out! Now she has hit a button on her arm, and she's...she's...she's gone! Amazing! I am going to get a report from one of the hostages now. Tell me sir, who was that amazing young girl?" "I don't know, all she said was that to 'Just call me CyberSlash.'" The hostage muttered. "Well," the reporter said, "we can owe this capture all to the girl named CyberSlash, who ever you are!" The boys still looked at me like they had seen a ghost. "Who...what are you?" one of the boys in the back stuttered. I looked at the pink piece of transparent plastic covering my eye. It said "PowerCharge boot up sequence complete." "The name's PowerCharge. Now, who wants a visit to the station?" I said proudly. Their response was to turn and run, but I put out my hand and a glowing yellow ball of light formed in it. Next thing I knew was that I threw it at the boys, and they were tied up in a glowing yellow net of energy. I picked the net with all of them in it up with my own hands, and I jumped and I turned on my jetpack. Soon they were at the police station for questioning, and I was at my friend's house, relaxing. That night I woke up suddenly. A dark figure was standing over my bed. It looked like an armored figure. "Well," the shadow spoke, "So you want to fight crime along side us?" "Yes," I replied, "Yes I do." "Very well then, welcome to the Section 32: Special Forces Unit, PowerCharge." It said, and then it gave me its hand. When it did, its face came into the thin trail of light in my room. Her face, now lit up in the darkness, was none other than Kristen. Wearing a suit of dark silver, with green stripes on some parts of the suit. As soon was we shook hands, she changed into a green wire frame, then she vanished.