"Look at you."
"In the same place you were before…"
"Powerless against those who wrong you."
Lexo opens his eyes to find himself in a strange state of existence.
Immediately, he noticed that everything was... White.
No structure, no noise, nothing for as far as he could see.
"... What is this?"
He asks, not knowing at all who spoke to him.
Maybe, he died and this is heaven.
He looks down, and notices he was still holding the costume his mom sewed for him when he was a child. He unravels it, allowing him to see the L symbol completely.
"It's a shame, really."
"You've got so much untapped potential."
A feminine voice echoes throughout the infinite white void.
"What do you mean?"
"You've always wanted to be a hero."
"But, you aren't exactly the most brave person I know."
"... Who even are you?"
He starts to get impatient, glancing around in frustration.
"What is this place!?"
"Don't you worry about that yet."
When Lex looks back towards his immediate front - he sees a small... Girl. Or, at least the outlined figure of a girl with a short haircut. Her physical appearance was an outlier from the void, distorting the air around her with presence alone.
"I'll give you two choices."
After a pause, Lex finally relaxes. Giving her, whatever she was, his full attention.
....
She speaks, in a low, calm whisper. Her words were inaudible, at least any distance further than Lexo.
But, he replies.
"... Yes."
A blinding flash of light encompasses the entire dimension. And after that,
Nothing.
– SYPHON INDUSTRIES –
The Syphon Corp scienctisy types in a code on the door with a low grunt, and readjusts the item in his hand. Gemini could now see it properly, and understand what exactly it was...
A branding device.
He steps inside, and approaches the small child.
"Make this quick."
A fiendish grin shows on his face, as he taps a button on the tool. Without an open flame, or a stove to warm it up - the branding device suddenly turns red hot. The logo of Syphon Industries glows with menacing intent.
Gemini's eyes widened. Absolutely not… Nothing could hold her back from acting now.
She copied the code into the door as fast as her shaking hands would move. As soon as she heard the click of the door she slammed it open. Gem slapped the man across the face and snatched the branding iron from him.
"The fuck!?"
The agent's face jerks to the side as he's met with a slap across the face. He turns back to look at Gemini with absolute hatred in his eyes... He pauses, placing a hand over where she had just hit him.
"You..."
He removes the hand, glancing down at it.
"You syphon corps are getting on my last nerve!"
Suddenly, he moves towards her. His tall, heavyweight build slows him down a bit, but he was fast enough to slam a tight grip on her throat! Picking her up and holding her dangling in the air afterwards.
His lab coat parts down the middle, giving Gemini a glimpse of his access card. Surprisingly, it didn't have the logo of the syphon industries...
Instead, the title logo had a label similar to that of a heavily stylized letter 'V'.
Her hand tightened around the branding device and, thinking on her feet, she managed to press it against the man's stomach.
The man's body jolts, as he loses his grip and drops the woman to the floor.
"Agh!"
He recoils in pain, gripping his gut.
The boy in the corner seems frantic, not knowing what was going on... It was clearly overwhelming him.
The scientist grips a walkie on his lab coat.
"Code Five! I repeat, Code Five!"
"Full lockdown, we've got a rogue agent!!"
Almost immediately, the alarms begin to blare. The white lighting that filled the lab facility shifts into blinking red urgency.
"Shit!"
She kneed the man's groin and approached the child while clicking the power button on her phone three times, sending a message to her emergency contacts.
"Hey, kiddo. I didn't mean to scare you…"
She took off the wig, freeing her ears.
"I don't have much time, but I promise, I promise, I will come back for you."
The child nodded his head gently, as she spoke to him. His tired eyes frantically glanced around the area.
Soon, however, Gemini could hear an army of footsteps rapidly approaching the room. Time was running out, and she not only had to escape the facility, but also reclaim the SD card she left downloading the files.
Heavily armed guards breach the containment cell, grouped up in at least ten, all wielding electric taser devices.
"I'm sorry, I have to go."
Gem ran at the wall and jumped at it, when her feet made contact with the surface she pushed off, sending her body flying over the guards. She grabbed the top of the doorframe in mid air and swung herself out of the room. When she landed she was already running, her little legs moving as fast as they could carry her.
The guards were bamboozled by her dexterity and acrobatics, left helplessly scrambled as she ditched them in the cell. They rush immediately behind her as she runs off, but by that time she'd already gotten a noticeable lead headed back towards the elevator.
She pressed the call button for the elevator frantically.
"Come on, come on!"
The elevator drops to her level, and through the glass doors she could see that two more armed guards were waiting. With a digital chime, the doors open and they raise their weapons at her.
"Surrender! You have been identified as a criminal, and are now under personal seizure by Syphon Industries!"
She stepped forward in a blurr and whacked the weapon from one of the men's hands with the brand while she kicked the back of the other's knees.
"I'm the criminal!? You're all fucking scum!"
For a private armed security service, they didn't seem to be trained well. They succumb easily to Gemini's efforts, allowing her a clear path into the elevator.
However, she has to move now. The rest of them were catching up quickly.
However, she has to move now. The rest of them were catching up quickly.
She jumped in the elevator and snatched the fallen weapon. She pointed it at the disarmed guards and they fled the elevator. She hit the button to take her back to the server room's floor and nervously pressed the close door button over and over.
The doors shut, and quickly the elevator rises to the floor she came from. The doors open, and… Nothing. The area was just as quiet as it was before she went down. And nobody could be seen in the immediate vicinity.
She smashed in the elevator keypad before running down the hall to the server room, met with an ominous figure…
Dr. Syphon himself was standing right there, SD card in hand. Someone had gotten to it first...
"Well, well, well."
He examines the tiny, unassuming card before glancing over at Gemini.
"Someone sticking their nose in affairs that doesn't concern them."
"It very much does concern me, you duplicitous piece of shit."
Gemini scowled at the man. Of course it couldn't be this easy.
"Is that so," he chuckles briefly,
"... You genetic failure."
His off hand begins to distort, an enigmatic yet incredibly dangerous force flowing through his hand. A blink, he's gone, and the next, he's in front of Gemini, preparing to eliminate her right then and there with a punch square in her face.
...
Glaring rays of sunlight breach the windows, as the sun looms directly over Syphon Industries tower. For some reason, it looked rather bright today. In fact... It was getting even brighter as the time passed.
Then, the entire tower rumbles, only for a brief moment.
In a flash of light, Brett completely vanishes, and in his place is a person sized hole in the floor... Gemini was left completely unscathed, as the SD card freely flings upward into the air.
But, she would then notice one more thing. The hole wasn't just on this floor, it was on every floor. Tech and infrastructure hangs limp, completely torn asunder by some unknown force... From the very tip of the tower, to unknown depths below – the gash continues in the same exact placement.
Gem snatched up the card and looked down at the crater in shock.
The hole in the ground extended far too deep for Gemini to be able to see what was going on at the bottom, but at this time there was nobody around her.
Gemini wastes no time getting the hell out of there. She takes the elevator back up to the corporate levels and runs from the building.