Blue Arc pt. 1

The man stumbled down the alleyway and stopped to lean against one of the walls. He huffed as he tried to catch his breath. His hands were shaking, his feet trembled as if in some kind of spasm.

He started forward again, his orange jumpsuit drenched in sweat. He tried to wipe his brow, but his hand was trembling so violently that he only succeeded in bashing himself in the head.

Up ahead in the street he could hear a police car and the sound of the radio. He sighed with relief. He ran forward as best he could, and nearly fell to the ground when the search light shone upon him.

"Stop where you are, put you hands behind you head. Stop it right there." Yelled one of the police officers. The other one came near to cuff him. "Down on the ground McCrady." the officer turned on his radio, "We have found the escapee, repeat, we have found the escapee."

McCrady knelt on the ground trembling still, trying his best to hold his hands on top of his head. He whispered in a scared and shaky voice, "Please, please, officer, you gotta take me to the h-h-h-hospit-t-t-tal. i-I n-need a d-d-doctor real b-bad-d-d-d-d"

"SHIT" said the officer trying to cuff him, the other one brought his gun up, "oh no, its nothing, man. Just he shocked me" he tried to cuff him again, this time he got them on before he brought his hand away again. "GOD DAMN IT. This sucker's lit up like a Christmas tree."

The prisoner started to stand, his whole body was shaking with an inhuman fury. Tears and sweat were flying from his face as it shook back and forth, up and down, in ways that it wasn't meant to.

"ON THE GROUND," yelled the officer, his gun in the air, "ON THE GROUND NOW OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE."

McCrady only stood all the taller, electricity arced from every part of his body to the ground or anything touching it. He let out a terrible howl of anguish and his hands became a blur of trembling fury.

Then they disappeared in a storm of arcing energy.

The cuffs fell to the ground and his hands came down to his sides. He tried to raise them in front of him in a gesture of peace, but they burst into electricity again. His body was a tempest of trembling flesh and violent energy. Wherever the electricity kissed him his jumpsuit tore and burned.

"OOOOHHH SHIT," yelled one of the officers as the man erupted into electricity, throwing them back. He stood up again to see the poor, trembling man kneeling on the ground, his face locked in a state of such anguish that the officer couldn't bear to watch. Both of them turned and ran from the man.

Dozens of passerby looked on in curiosity as the spasms became more violent, and the power of the bolts became greater, their range longer.

Everyone backed away from the screaming man. Arcs of electricity shot out and burst street lights. The man was moving impossibly fast now, his body was a total blur. Parts of him began to fade and even disappear completely as the electricity shot from him in a terrible storm of deadly power.

People ran, the storm of lighting encompased an entire city block now. The trebling was so violent, he body was so much taken by the energy, that only his head could be distinguished from the terrible jagged slashes of white hot fire. He through his head back as if to scream, but only thunder rolled out from his lips.

Finally, almost mercifully, a terrible clap of thunder, so great that the ground shook with all the fury that McCrady had, and lightning filled the street. Bystanders all around were thrown to the ground, and everyone ducked to avoid the deadly arcs.

All that remained after that was a smoking crater where McCrady had been.

*******

The scene on the screen at the end of the long table paused. The dozen men that sat there looked at it with concerned eyes. One of them through the remote toward the head of the table.

"And so, trial 6 failed to stabilize the electron reaction in the test subject," said the man in a purely business tone, "resulting in the catastrophic failure of the subjects electron cohesion, and the termination of test subject 6." He turned to the figure sitting at the head of the table. "The same results of the past 5 trials"

The figure raised its head from from its hands and looked at the screen. There was no face, no real features other than a manikin like vagueness. It was completely bald and black as shadow. The figure wore a business suit, like all the others, and straitened its tie before speaking in a deep, irritated voice.

"Well the, I guess you lot had better get to you jobs then. I assume you took samples of the area." It turned to face a meek looking man at the far end of the table.

"Yes, sir. the drone also was recording energy and magnetic levels, as well as taking scans in all detectable levels of the electro-magnetic spectrum. We are analyzing the data now." the man said with a fearful voice.

The dark figure turned to another man, "See that you compare  the data with simulation results for the current formula and find what the flaw was. I want it in front of me, on my desk, before I even get my morning coffee. Is that understood." the man nodded weakly.

He turned to another man, one who was larger, with a powerful build. The man stood up as the dark thing's gaze fell upon him.

"I need you to get me another test subject. I want HIM, or her, with my afternoon wine."

The large man nodded, but raised his hand to stop the figure from continuing. "We need to acquire more....volunteers. Whats more, the media is starting to take notice of the recent 'accidents'. It will not be as easy as it has been."

"We have been careful, we will continue to do so." said the figure as it got up and turned to  the wall behind it. The shadow's shoulders heaved as if taking a breath, the turned suddenly and violently towards the large man, slamming its hands on the table. Arcs of electricity danced across its fingers and face as it shouted, "DON'T MAKE EXCUSES, ALEXI, JUST DO IT." It stood up again and straitened its tie once more. "Besides, we can just buy off anyone who learns of our dirty little secret, can't we?"

Alexi scowled and looked into the empty face of the shadow. "The trouble is, we can't trust anyone who we can buy off, and even then we can't buy off all of them. We do have one alternative, to widen our search criteria. But that would mean a larger chance of error."

The figure turned again to the wall and grasped its hands behind its back. "I don't care how you do it, JUST DO IT."

*******

A man walked carefully down a dark alleyway, not far from the one in which McCrady had died. He stepped briskly up to the black car, and quickly stepped inside when the door opened for him.

"You really don't need to do that," said Alexi as he took of his sunglasses, "It only makes you look more suspicious."

"Yeah, well you ain't the one caryin the death of a half dozen people in you pocket, at least not yet." replied the man.

"Let me see them, then." said Alexi, and he held out his hand. The man passed him a small portfolio, and Alexi looked through the papers detailing 6 different people.

He tossed all but one of them behind him. He took the remaining one and looked at it more closely. "hmm," he said softly to himself, "This one looks good. James Dean, no known family, no friends, no connections whatsoever. Getting out of jail soon, ooh that a nice touch. And with a large number of gangbangers in his release group, that can be used to our advantage."

He handed the paper back to the man, "Hire enemies of the gangmembers in his release group to attack the bus. They can do what they want with everyone in there except him. He is to be given to you, unharmed, and you will deliver him to US, UNHARMED. Got it." The man nodded, "Good, now get out of here, I have work to do."

The man got out of the car hastily, and it sped off down the street.

Rain started to fall from the dark sky.....

And lightning arced across the clouds.