The Force Part 2: The Guardian's Sanctuary

Tanner, Overton and the two recruits they were training, Lisa Malley and Thomas Gardens were standing in the middle of an abandoned warehouse, looking for any signs of danger.

“Remember to be ready for anything guys…” Tanner whispered.

They nodded and kept a look out for anything suspicious. All of a sudden, Malley pointed towards something down near the far end of the warehouse.

“Over there Thomas!”

They both looked and saw someone staring at them. He quickly disappeared, but not before the two of them could get a good idea of where he was.

“What do we do?” Gardens asked.

“Go and flush him out,” Overton said.

They nodded in response and decided to spread out; Malley took the far left hand corner, while Gardens took the right.

Tanner and Overton however stood in the same spot, as they were only to guide them and give them hints; they were not allowed to use their powers to help them in any way, unless they were in serious trouble.

Malley decided to sneak around a crane, while making sure she wouldn’t be seen by her enemy. She looked at Gardens, and saw that he too was stealthily sneaking up on the enemy. She poked her head around the corner and saw that the man was just standing there, although he was looking in both directions of where Malley and Gardens were hiding. She brought her head back behind the crane. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. Her heart was beating so fast, she could actually feel it against her chest. This would be her first battle ever since she joined the academy.

Taking another deep breath, she ran out from her hiding place and said in a loud voice, “Freeze! This is the Force! Surrender yourself at once!”

At the same time, Gardens also ran out of his hiding spot, his face full of determination. Predictably, the man did not surrender, but instead fired an energy missile at Malley. Thinking quickly, she though of a brick wall and raised her hand in one swift motion.

Malley was a thought conjurer: she was able to create anything she wanted by just thinking about it. This was a rare, but powerful ability and was extremely useful. Only a few people had this ability.

The energy missile exploded upon impact with Malley’s conjured wall, and she had to turn away from the blast, so she wouldn’t get hit by anything in the face. The wall she conjured worked, but left a gaping hole the size of a 4WD tyre. She ran around the wall and saw Gardens get hit by one of his opponent’s energy missiles. Gardens got up and created a beam of ice from his hands.

Gardens was able to control the weather at will and manipulate it into an offensive force. He called it Meteokinesis, and was able to create anything from lightning, tornados and tidal waves.

The ice beam was easily cut through by the enemy’s attack, but during that slight moment of distraction, Malley took her chance. She threw her hand towards him, and what seemed to be like an invisible sphere of energy flew towards him. Halfway towards the enemy, it materialised into a bright red fireball and it hit him squarely in the back with such force that he hit the warehouse wall. Gardens ran over to Malley and asked,

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah, thanks. Are you?”

He nodded.

“Good. Well, I think it’s time we took him out, don’t you?”

Gardens nodded once again, and turned towards his enemy. He was just getting up, when Gardens concentrated on the air around him. It gradually got stronger, until a mini-tornado appeared. Malley actually gasped and took a step backwards, but Gardens seemed to be concentrating too hard on his tornado to notice. He guided the tornado towards the enemy who was powerless against it. He got sucked into the vortex, and was spun around like a rag doll in a washing machine.

After a few minutes, Gardens stopped the tornado and let his opponent fall to the ground. As he fell, Gardens shot out a stream of water at him, pushing him further away from them. The man pushed himself up, coughing up water that had gotten into his system. Malley then got an idea of what she could do, and concentrating hard, she threw her hands out towards her enemy. Once again, an invisible beam of energy shot from her hands and headed towards the enemy. When it was about halfway towards the man, a streak of blue and white lightning materialised out of thin air and headed towards the man. He keeled over backwards when the lightning struck him in the chest. As the lightning seared through his body, he started to buck around on the floor as if he was having a major seizure. His eyes rolled up into his head, showing only the white fleshy bits of his eyes.

After a few more seconds, he finally stopped moving. Gardens and Malley tentatively walked towards their enemy. A strong smell of burnt flesh and singed clothing entered their nostrils. Malley let out a gasp of disgust as they got closer. Gardens, while covering his face with his shirt, bent down and checked out their suspect.

“He’s dead” said Gardens, stating the obvious. “Wow Lisa, I reckon you overdid yourself with the whole electrocution thing.”

“Excuse me? I wasn’t the one who fired a stream of water into his body system.”

“Come on now guys” Tanner said, walking up behind them, “You did great.”

“We weren’t supposed to kill were we?” Malley asked.

“Don’t worry” Overton said soothingly, “he didn’t leave you much choice. If you ever come into a situation like that, don’t hesitate to use your powers.”

“You mean that we’ll always have to use our powers to kill?” Gardens asked nervously.

“Not necessarily Gardens. You only use your powers when the time calls for it. You see, when Malley ran out and asked for the enemy to surrender himself, he had two choices: one, to give himself up or two, not to give himself and to go down fighting. He chose the latter, so it’s only natural for you to defend yourself. He didn’t give up either, so it either had to be one way or the other,” Tanner reassured them.

They nodded and all of a sudden, their whole environment around them, including the enemy they had just killed, slowly disappeared into the air. A large, white, circular room appeared around them while a young, female voice echoed throughout the room.

“Practical exam simulation complete,” it said.

A large, white door appeared opposite them and Tanner and Overton led their new recruits to the door. Tanner turned towards them and started to brief them on what was going to happen next.

“Alright Malley and Gardens, this was your final exam. Lieutenant Basdadi is waiting in his office and is ready to give you your results. You did well, and both Overton and myself are pleased with your work. Hopefully, you’ll be able to work with us one day.”

Malley and Gardens smiled with pride and gladly shook hands with their future partners. They left the simulation room and headed towards Basdadi’s office. Gardens knocked on the door.

“Come in,” he answered gruffly.

Gardens opened the door and walked in with Malley right behind him. They stood in front of his desk, looking at him expectantly. Basdadi surveyed them, looking at them intently.

“Thomas Gardens, Lisa Malley” Basdadi said, “You have just finished your practical exam, did you not?”

They nodded in agreement.

“With both Officer Tanner and Overton?”

They nodded again. Basdadi nodded to himself and started to look through his papers.

“Well, I’ve got both of your exam results here… and I was also watching you during your prac, so I have also marked you on that as well. Would you like to hear your results?”

“Yes please Lieutenant,” they replied in unison. Basdadi nodded and looked at the exam papers.

“Okay….. Now Gardens. Going through your exam papers, I see that you have received a good mark from your examination teacher of 91% I see.”

Gardens smiled sheepishly.

“Yes, well congratulations Gardens. That mark is more than enough to pass you. Now, Malley…”

He searched through his documents until he pulled out a folder with the name ‘Lisa Malley’ written on the top of it.

“Malley” Basdadi said, producing a piece of paper from within. “Let’s see…. Well I’m afraid to say that your examination teacher didn’t think you did well enough, and I’m afraid to say, but only gave you a mark of 39%.”

Malley’s face was overcome with surprise and shock.

“You- you mean, I… I failed?”

Basdadi merely nodded. Malley’s shoulders slumped down.

“But, as I was watching you do your practical exam just before, I noticed how well you were doing with your powers and how you also offered himself to give up (even that’ll never happen) before you attacked. That shows skill in negotiation, considering the fact that hardly any Force member actually does that. So with that performance, I can alter your fail mark into a pass.”

Malley’s head snapped back up.

“You mean…. I passed?” she asked in disbelief.

“Just barely. Besides, with that unique power you have Malley, I can say that it’s going to really help us in the long run.”

Malley beamed at Basdadi.

“Thank you so much sir,” she said breathlessly.

Basdadi waved it off, while a faint tinge of pink was appearing in his cheeks.

“It’s nothing. Anyway, you will receive your badges in a ceremony sometime this week and after that, you will be able to go on assignments either by yourself or with an assigned partner. Well, that’s it, do you have any questions?” he asked.

They shook their heads.

“Alright then, you can go.”

They opened the door and left his office. As they headed towards the locker room, they ran into Tanner.

“Hey guys, how did everything go?”




Aeros and Karakas made their way through the darkening streets of the small village. This was where the guardian of the second amulet resided. Cybele only told them that the person who lived there had it, but couldn’t find out anything else about the guardian.

They walked up the dark path leading towards the guardian’s home. They opened the door and started to walk through the house openly, not worrying about what would happen. Both of them knew that as long as Karakas was here, nothing could go wrong.

All of a sudden, they heard shuffling noises coming from the next room. They walked down the hallway and entered the room. They seemed to be in a study room of some sort, as there were a lot of bookshelves around the room. A desk in the corner had some papers on it with lots of writing on it. A fire was crackling in the fireplace and there stood a man in his late 40s.

He had dark brown hair, with streaks of grey in it. His tired face was lined with wrinkles and they seemed to deepen when he showed emotion.

“Who are you?” he asked roughly.

“Hello Mr. Lake. Nice evening isn’t it?”

His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Who are you?” he asked again. Karakas merely smiled and continued to watch the man as he slowly came to realise who he was talking to.

“Karakas?” he barely whispered.

“I’m honoured that you know who I am Mr. Lake. Now I haven’t come all this way just to chat to you, no, no,” he laughed. “No, I’m here to collect that fantastic amulet you have in your possession.”

Mr. Lake’s eyes widened at the word ‘amulet’.

“The amulet?” he repeated.

“Yes Mr. Lake, the amulet. I believe you have it here somewhere?”

Mr. Lake didn’t respond.

“Very well Mr. Lake, if you won’t willingly show us where it is, I guess I’ll just have to make you show us. Search his house,” Karakas whispered to Aeros.

“Certainly,” he replied and swiftly walked out of the room.

“You’re not going to find it!” Mr. Lake cried out to Aeros. Karakas merely smirked at his weak attempts to stop them from searching his house. Mr. Lake turned back towards Karakas and stared at him. Karakas started intently back, trying to search his mind for the power he used.

He came up empty handed. He decided to search again, this time more thoroughly. He came up with nothing; it was as if he kept on hitting a solid wall that prevented him from entering his victim’s mind.

“So” Karakas said, after giving up his search on Mr. Lake’s mind, “you can prevent me from entering your mind hmm? A useful ability, but it lacks… power,”

This time, Mr. Lake was the one to smirk.

“That’s just one of our powers Karakas,” he said. “Our ancestor gave us that power for all of the guardians to make sure that your power never entered our minds.”

Karakas glared at him. Taking this moment as a chance to strike, he concentrated on the fire behind him and manipulated it to form a flamethrower and aimed it at Karakas. He didn’t even flinch when he realised what was happening, but merely raised his hand and concentrated on the fire. The flamethrower divided into two and spread out to either side of Karakas, not harming him. Mr. Lake stopped the attack and this time concentrated on the air around him. Gathering as much power as he could, without doing serious damage to his house, he threw out both of his hands and directed them at Karakas. A strong gust of wind flew past him, and just as Karakas recovered from the last attack, he was thrown backwards and collided with the wall.

“Ah, so you’re an Elementalist?” Karakas said as he got back up to his feet. “I’ve dealt with one before… you’ll be no match for me,” and with that, he threw back his right hand, and created a shining ball of white energy. He hurled it towards his opponent. Karakas knew that he got a clean shot at him, but was shocked to see that he just cut through his attack.

“Wrong Karakas! I’m a manipulator, which means that I’m able to manipulate anything I want into an offensive force!” And this time he created a similar attack just like Karakas. He threw the ball of energy at him, but Karakas deflected it. This time, Karakas concentrated on his opponent and flicked his hand out. Mr. Lake was thrown into the bookshelves and a deluge of books fell on top of him. Karakas smirked at this, just as Aeros returned.

“Well?” he asked impatiently.

“It’s not here Karakas,” Aeros replied.

“WHAT?!” he exclaimed. “It must be here! Cybele said so!”

“Maybe she was wrong Karakas” Aeros said quietly.

Karakas glared at him for a few moments and then turned to look at Mr. Lake.

“Deal with him. I’m going to look for that amulet myself,” and with that, Karakas left the room. Aeros just stood there watching his enemy stirring. He wondered how he could take him out, when an idea came to his head. Concentrating on the air around Mr. Lake, he started to draw it away from him, thus suffocating him. He started to gasp and he reached at his throat as if wondering where all the air had gone.

Aeros narrowed his eyes at him, and started to draw away the air from inside of his body. Mr. Lake flailed around, kicking his legs and waving his arms around aimlessly. After three more seconds of this, he just collapsed back against the bookcase, not moving or breathing. Aeros smiled to himself at what he just did and left the room in search of Karakas.





Tanner walked out of the Captain’s office with some important papers he was supposed to give to Lieutenant Basdadi. He walked up the stairs and headed towards Basdadi’s office. He knocked on the door, but heard no answer. He knocked again. Nothing. Confused, Tanner tried the door handle and was surprised to see it was unlocked. He peeked around the door and saw that the office was deserted. He opened the door cautiously just in case Basdadi was lurking out of sight. He saw no one and walked towards his desk and placed them over some of the papers littering Basdadi’s desk.

A newspaper cutting caught Tanner’s eye and he picked it up and started to read.

A man was murdered in his home last night. 48 year old Geoffrey Lake was suffocated in his holiday cottage in Naples, Italy. He was found slumped against the bookshelves, but strangely, with no signs of strangulation.

“He has definitely been suffocated” said a police spokesperson, “but he shows no obvious sign of strangulation. We believe this may be the work of supernatural forces, and that is why we have called in the Force to deal with this case,”

The Force is the supernatural counterpart of regular police. They deal in special cases and fight against other supernatural forces. No one knows where their headquarters are, but it is suspected they are located somewhere either in America or possibly in Australia.

Tanner put the article back down onto the desk and figured that Basdadi must be at the scene.

‘But he deals with offensive cases… not murders…’ Tanner thought to himself. He stood there for a second and then shook his head. He probably was just helping them or something. He exited Basdadi’s office and headed towards his own desk. He just sat down and was about to fill in some papers he had received, when an officer appeared in front of his desk.

“Officer Tanner? Sergeant Thompson wants to see you in his office.”

Tanner looked up and asked, “Now?”

He nodded.

“Ok, thanks Officer,” Tanner replied and the officer left.

Tanner sighed, got up from his desk and started to walk towards Sergeant Thompson’s office.

Sergeant Thompson was an extremely strict officer, but he knew Tanner well. Tanner’s father and Thompson were good friends when they were young kids and when Tanner was born, Thompson treated him like a second son. When Tanner’s father died, it shook him up rather badly, but he got on with his life and still treats Tanner like his own son.

Tanner knocked on Thompson’s door.

“Yeah?” he called out.

Tanner entered the office and looked at Thompson.

“You wanted to see me sir?” he asked. Thompson smiled at him and replied,

“Yes, I did. Come in, take a seat.”

Tanner closed the door behind him and sat down in front of Thompson’s desk. Thompson looked at him and said,

“I’ve got an assignment for you, Tanner. We have received reports that person/s unknown have unrightfully entered a dwelling while the occupants were away,”

“What does that have to do with us? We don’t deal with break and enters, the police do,” Tanner asked.

“True, but the person who made the call to us said that they saw someone blast the door open with some sort of attack… not by shooting it or bashing it down,”

Tanner nodded.

“Anyway, we need you and Officer Jackson to check out the house-”

“Wait, Jackson?! I’m being paired with him?!” Tanner exclaimed in disbelief.

Officer Jackson was another officer that worked in Tanner’s department. He was able to manipulate light particles and use them offensively against an opponent, but he wasn’t able to create anything else, only beams of light.

When Tanner and Jackson enrolled into the Force Academy, they were pitted against each other in a fighting drill to determine their strength and ability. Although winning or losing the battle never made a difference, it was advisable to try their hardest, as the Lieutenants, Sergeants and the Captain were all watching. For recruits who had a non offensive power, they were put in different classes and were trained in that specific area they were good at.

Tanner and Jackson were evenly matched; however it was Jackson who won, after Tanner carelessly used up most of his power early on in the battle. Ever since that day, Jackson has been taunting Tanner about his lack in power.

Sergeant Thompson looked at Tanner sternly and replied curtly,

“Jackson is a fairly powerful officer, just like you Tanner, and I believe that by working with him, you are almost an unstoppable force,”

Tanner looked at Thompson in disbelief, but then got a brainwave.

“Sarge, can I bring along the new recruits? Just so they know what its like to be working on the field you know?”

Thompson pondered the request, and replied, “Fine, but they are YOUR responsibility, ok Tanner? Also, take Officer Collins with you; he hasn’t been on a field assignment since that last one with you Tanner, ok?

Tanner nodded.

“Good. Alright Tanner, I want you to investigate this report immediately; you have at least ten minutes to get your recruits into order. I’ve already informed Officer Jackson about this assignment, so he should be waiting for you. You are dismissed.”

Tanner nodded again and exited Sergeant Thompson’s office. Figuring that Gardens and Malley would be in the locker rooms getting changed, he headed towards their first. Within entering the male’s locker rooms, he found Gardens putting away his stuff.

“Gardens, put your uniform back on. You’re coming with me,”

Gardens turned towards me and looked at me surprised.

“What did you say officer?” Gardens asked, looking as if he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Put your uniform back on” Tanner ordered. “You, Malley and Collins are coming with me and Jackson on a field assignment,”

Gardens looked at me and asked, “Are you for real?”

Tanner gave him a small smile and said, “Ten minutes, then go down to the basement.” And with that, he left the men’s locker room and headed towards the females when Malley exited from it and nearly bumped into Tanner.

“Oh, Officer Tanner! Sorry, I didn’t see you there,”

“No matter Malley, but I want you to get changed and meet me in the basement in ten minutes,”

“Why’s that?” she asked.

“We’re going on a field assignment. I asked Sergeant Thompson if I could take you with me, and he complied. So I want you down in the basement in ten minutes, ok?”

Malley nodded and hurried back into the locker room.

Satisfied that he got two of his recruits to join him, he walked off to find Officer Collins.





Cybele and Multiplicity observed the maximum high security prison from their hiding place a few metres back.

“So where’s Aufeis being held?” Multiplicity asked.

“Don’t know… all I know is, is that he’s being heavily guarded,” Cybele replied, keeping a close watch on the guards that surrounded the perimeter.

Multiplicity turned back towards the prison and studied it carefully.

Karakas had ordered Oceanus, Multiplicity and Cybele to gather up other ability users and persuade them into working for him. Oceanus was over in Australia, looking for new recruits. Cybele’s birds told her that Oceanus was looking for a person who was able to telekinetically switch around a solid object with any other desired object. Oceanus had been looking for her for some time, but with little success. Cybele and Multiplicity were looking for a man named Aufeis. Aufeis was a long time partner with Karakas. He was able to manipulate and create all forms of ice although he wasn’t able to generate any sort of cold from his body. Karakas and Aufeis had worked together in both finding new recruits to help them, and in searching for the three amulets that would help Draken escape. Aufeis was actually the one who found the guardian of the first amulet, although he was apprehended when he confronted the guardian by himself. He has been in the high maximum security prison for over seven months, until now. Karakas thought he would come in handy, and that’s where Cybele and Multiplicity came in.

“You ready?” Cybele asked Multiplicity.

He nodded.

Cybele turned back towards the prison and looked at the guards littered around the perimeter. Any normal person who came within contact with them would have died immediately, but Cybele wasn’t going to risk that. Instead, she summoned forth some vines which snaked forth along the ground towards the guards.

Considering it was in the middle of the night, the vines were unnoticed by the guards. If it was in the daytime however, the guards would have noticed it from a long way.

The vines reached the guards, but snuck around the back of them so they wouldn’t notice anything. The vines went into different directions towards each individual guard. It then started to grow higher and higher, until it was around the guard’s height. Then, without warning, the vines split into two and grabbed their head and snapped the neck, just like an assassin would. The guard fell to the ground, just as the other guards around him did the same. Cybele nodded to Multiplicity and he darted off towards the prison. The rest of the vines snaked along the ground and over the walls, bending the barbed wire in the process. Some of the vines twisted itself around the watch towers to get itself to the top. When it got to the top, it killed the guard in the towers in the same way it did with the guards. Multiplicity reached the prison walls, and started to climb it via the vines. When he got to the top, he jumped down. Looking around the inside of the prison, just to make sure there were no guards left, he ran towards the large double doors.

Multiplicity snuck a look through the glass panels on the door and saw that two heavily armed guards were guarding the door, with their backs to it. Multiplicity stepped back from the door and waited for Cybele’s vines to attack them. They slowly creeped up the door and when they reached the glass panels, the vines smashed it open, reached inside, and wrapped themselves around the throat of the two guards. Multiplicity heard them smash into the doors and by the strangled screams he could hear, he assumed that they were throttled to death. The door opened by itself and multiplicity walked in and stepped over the dead guard that was next to the door. The vine that had opened the door started to sneak back along the ground.

Multiplicity was now in a large reception like room, and at the far end of the corner was a bullet proof glass and behind it was a room that was filled with documents about the prisoners and such. The man behind it looked at Multiplicity with a surprised look on his face and then rushed out of the room with his gun aloft. The officer came barging out of the door and shouted at him,

“Freeze! Put your hands into the air!”

Multiplicity merely smiled and the vines that had been so stealthily sneaking towards the officer grabbed him around the ankles and tripped him up. The officer’s head came into contact with the corner of the counter and he instantly died. Multiplicity smiled to himself and walked over to the officer to check if he was dead. Turning him onto his side, he saw a trickle of blood coming from his right temple. He looked down at his belt and saw a security card for the office behind the glass window. Multiplicity unhooked it from the dead officer’s belt and headed towards the room.

He swiped the card across the security device, it made a beeping noise and the door to the room automatically slid open. The room was fairly small, and had only one desk and that was littered with security cameras that surveyed the other parts of the prison. The desk also contained lots of official looking papers, with some sort of important stamp at the bottom of it. Multiplicity looked around the office for some sort of map to the prison, but instead found a paper that listed all of the prisoners and where they were located in the prison. He searched the list for Aufeis’ name, and once he found it, he traced his finger along the line and found out that he was being held in cell 101 in the East Wing of the prison. Smiling to himself, Multiplicity put down the papers and walked out of the room. He snuck around the front of the reception again and saw that Cybele’s vines had already gone on without him; they were most likely flushing out the rest of the guards littered around the prison area. Deciding to follow the vines, he walked into a corridor with very dim lights. Walking very slowly this time, he wandered through the corridor and almost tripped over another dead guard.

“*bunny*,” Multiplicity cursed under his breath.

He kept on walking through the corridor when he came into contact with another door. Looking down, he saw that the vines had come this way, so he opened the door and found himself at a corridor intersection. The vines had split into three different ones and gone in separate directions. Thinking he should do the same, Multiplicity concentrated on himself, and out came two of him. They turned towards himself, and looked at him expectantly.

“You” he said, pointing to the one on the left, “Take the middle corridor. You,” pointing to the other one, “You take the right one.”

They nodded at once and left. Multiplicity took the left corridor and started to walk towards the east wing of the prison. Along the way, he came across numerous dead guards, most of them strangled, but some of them had a hole through their chest as if the vines had savagely forced their way through the guards.

Multiplicity came across an extremely large double door with the words, ‘East Wing’ high above it. He pushed his way through the door, and at once came under fire. The last group of guards left in the prison, had all gathered together and were relentlessly attacking him. It seemed they were prepared to guard the prisoner in the wing at any cost.

He immediately ducked, and headed out of the wing. He looked down and saw that the vines had not entered the East Wing, but had passed it and entered in a side door. Multiplicity ran towards the door, just as the guards burst out of the East Wing door. They saw him entering the door and started to go after him, but the vines along the ground split separately and rose up into the ceiling. They started to get immensely thick, until the whole doorway was completely covered in the overgrown vines. The guards weren’t able to get through and they started to shoot the vine barrier, but their efforts were in vain. Multiplicity smiled, and headed into the small corridor.

It seemed to be a janitor’s entrance to the wing. The corridor was littered with buckets, mops and there was a cart that had certain cleaning supplies on it. Ignoring the items, Multiplicity made his way through the small corridor, when all of a sudden, immense pain shot throguh his leg. Realising that one of his clones must have been shot in the leg, he sighed and continued on. As least he still had one of his clones out there. He turned left and found himself in the East Wing. It was quiet, but Multiplicity could still hear the guards trying to shoot down the vine barrier. Running along the East Wing corridor, he passed numerous cells, neither of which bore the number of Aufeis’ cell.

He finally came across the number ‘101’ and he instantly knew that Aufeis was housed in there. He looked through the small glass panel and saw that Aufeis was sitting in the corner, his long, brown hair hanging over his face. Multiplicity banged on the glass, anxious to get his attention. He looked up and when he saw Multiplicity looking at him in desperation, he returned a confused look.

“Open the door!!” Multiplicity cried out.

Aufeis ran to the door and tried to open it. It was locked obviously.

“I can’t open it!” he mouthed. “It’s electronically shut! You’re gonna have to open it from your end!”

Multiplicity checked around the doorframe, and saw an electronic card device which needed the card of a guard to open it. Thinking about the card he had left in the office back in the reception, and how it was useless to him now, he sighed and looked around for something he could use to open the door.

Spying a fire extinguisher, he ran over to get it. He smashed the window and reached in to grab it. He lifted it up and ran back towards Aufeis’ cell.

All of a sudden, an ear splitting alarm rang through his ears. Still clutching the fire extinguisher, he looked around and saw that the entire wing was being bathed in a bright, red light which was flashing continuously on and off.

‘Level five emergency’ echoed a female voice, throughout the wing.

Multiplicity looked around and saw that the entrances to the corridors were all being blocked by large metal doors. He looked at the entrance that was closer towards him and saw that the door slowly coming down, which would prevent him to escape.

With a look of determination on his face, Multiplicity rushed towards the door and rolled under it. He made it just in time, although he felt as if his body had just been stretched in two. Looking back, he caught a glimpse of himself on the other side of the door on the ground.

He realised that he had duplicated himself accidentally. Multiplicity usually did that when he was either under stress or he was panic-stricken.

Long before Travis (aka Multiplicity) had been recruited by Karakas, he just used to be a normal man, working for a home owned business called Tech Corp which dealt with all sorts of modern technology. One day, Travis had received word that one of his best business partners had cancelled their partnership and Travis was forced to sell half of his shop to pay for the debts he had, after his partner took his share in the income. After receiving more bills from the gas, electric and water companies and also receiving word that his house was to be repossessed, Travis was under a lot of stress.

When the Repo guys came, and took everything he had, Travis lost it.

Over a thousand duplicates of himself appeared out of nowhere and surrounded him. These copies were exactly like him in every way, except that each of his duplicates only represented one emotion. There were the usual ones, such as happy and angry, but there were also the emotions of lust and jealousy.

This was the first time his power he had used his power, so he wasn’t able to control it, nor was he able to understand what was happening. Travis panicked, and ran away from his house and his clones. Five years later, Karakas found him and persuaded him to join his cause.

Multiplicity stood up and tried to call to his duplicate through the 5” thick metal door that was blocking him.

“Hey, I want you to find a way out of here okay?” he called.

Even though Multiplicity knew that he could not be heard through something so thick, he and his clones had always shared this mutual connection. It was as if they were able to read each others minds and to send the exact same thoughts to each other. Multiplicity knew that this was not the case. The only reason they knew what the other duplicate was thinking, was because they were the exactly same person and they shared the same thoughts.

Multiplicity put his ear to the door and listened intently. Even through the loud, blearing noises of the alarm, Multiplicity distinctly heard his clone’s footsteps walking quickly away. He sighed and started to walk up and down the corridor, waiting until his other self would come back.

All of a sudden, he felt an intense pain in his chest. He clutched at it, and looked down. He didn’t see anything, but Multiplicity knew that his clone had been shot, and most likely, killed. Multiplicity looked up and swore as loud as he could. That last clone of his was his only chance out of this prison. He walked up to the one of the doors, and slammed his hand as hard as he could on the door out of frustration.

But Multiplicity had just realised something. Only ONE of his clones had been killed or injured. He had created three, including the one that he had duplicated by mistake. One of his clones had already been injured, so that left the other two duplicates, which meant that the new one had died, or the other one that was still roaming around the prison got killed too!

Multiplicity looked up again and smiled. He wasn’t going to be trapped inside here after all, as long as the last duplicate of him didn’t die as well.

The sound of hammering made him look around. The doorway that leads to Aufeis’ cell as well as others was being severely dented from the other side. Multiplicity slowly walked towards it, looking at it in amazement as the door mysteriously kept on getting repeatedly hit by an unknown force from the other side.

After a few more hits, Multiplicity realised that the door was actually going to break. He walked backwards just as the final blow to the door was dealt. Looking at the door, he saw a figure make their way through the hole. His eyes widened in surprise as the outline of Aufeis stood up in front of him.

“Aufeis?!” Multiplicity cried out in shock. “What are you doing?”

Aufeis looked at him surprised, but rather elegantly.

“I am trying to escape from this prison. I had realised that all of the corridors had been barricaded, and I was trying to force my way through them, when I met… you” he said, putting emphasis on the last word. Multiplicity glared at him.

“And now I have a question for you,” Aufeis said, walking closer towards him. “Who sent you?”

Aufeis was now standing directly in front of Multiplicity now. Multiplicity forced himself to look into his eyes and he replied curtly,

“Karakas did.”

Aufeis narrowed his eyes at the mention of Karakas’ name.

“Karakas?” he repeated.

Multiplicity merely nodded.

“What does he want with me?” Aufeis asked.

“I don’t know. He asked me and Cybele to find you and bust you out of prison so we came all the way here and-”

“Cybele still works for him?”

Multiplicity nodded. “Yeah. So does Oceanus and Aeros.”

Aufeis continued to stare at him. Multiplicity returned his look and asked him, “How did you get out of your cell?”

Aufeis looked at him in surprise. “You don’t know?” he asked.

“No” Multiplicity replied.

He continued to look at him in surprise and said, “Well, after you had left I started to wait for you to come back and bust me out of there. You didn’t return and I was starting to wonder where on earth you had gotten to. Anyway, I was about to attack the door again, just to see if it would open, and it did. But I didn’t do anything… it opened by itself. I figured that you must have opened it somehow, but when I walked outside, you weren’t there. I also realised that the whole prison was under alert, so I figured that you must’ve went to great lengths to save me. But then I stumbled upon you in this corridor... and I knew that you couldn’t have released me if you’re trapped here”

Multiplicity smiled and replied, “But I did save you,”

Aufeis gave him a confused look. “What are you talking about?”

He continued to smile in a mischievous way and said simply, “I saved you. What more do you want? Now, considering that I released you from your cell, you have to come with me, back to Karakas.”

Aufeis glared at him, but proceeded to attack the door, enabling them to escape from the East Wing.





Sergeant Thompson knocked on Basdadi’s office door and entered. Basdadi was sitting at his desk, writing something on various sheets.

“Lieutenant Basdadi? I’ve got something for you.”

Basdadi looked up from his papers and smiled warmly at Thompson.

“Hello Sergeant Thompson. What do you have for me?”

Thompson walked up to his desk and placed a brown package on top of the papers he was writing on. Basdadi looked at it curiously and looked at the sender. As he started to read, his eyes widened in surprise.

“Who’s it from?” Thompson asked. Basdadi looked up at him and quickly placed the package into his drawer.

“Oh, it’s just from… a friend. So, how are Jackson and the rest of his team working on that assignment you gave them?”

“Oh they’re fine,” Thompson replied, waving his hand dismissively, “I’m sure they are. Tanner and Jackson are some of the most skilled officers working here in the Force, so nothing will happen to them.”

Just then, an officer barged into the room looking panic stricken.

“Sergeant Thompson and Lieutenant Basdadi? The Chief of Police wants you to attend an emergency meeting now”

Thompson looked at Basdadi.

“An emergency meeting?” Basdadi repeated. “What about?”

The officer shrugged. “I don’t know what he wants to see you for. He just says it’s urgent and you need to come immediately,”

“Tell him we’ll be there soon,”

The officer nodded and left the office. Thompson turned towards Basdadi and asked, “Well, are you coming?”

Basdadi nodded and said, “Yeah, just give me a minute. You can go, I’ll be there soon.”

Thompson nodded and left the room, but not before catching a glimpse of Basdadi taking the package he received from him out of the drawer and looking at it. Shaking his head, Thompson left the office and headed towards the conference room.






As Tanner followed the squad car down Jules Street, he picked up his two-way radio and spoke into it.

“Hey Jackson, number 101 is coming up on your left,” Tanner said.

“Thanks Tanner,” he replied.

Jackson did a u-turn and Tanner copied him. Jackson and Collins got out of the car and proceeded towards the house. Tanner looked in his rear view mirror and saw that even though Malley and Gardens looked nervous, they seemed determined to do well on their first field assignment. He got out of the car and Malley and Gardens followed suit. Tanner looked up at the two story building and saw that it was in the style of a Victorian house. As Tanner and the rest of his colleagues made their way up the cobblestone path, he looked up at the house and admired its beauty. An octagonal tower stood high on Tanner’s left. A porch surrounded the house, while bay windows were seen around the house as well. The garden had a perfectly manicured lawn and flowerbeds surrounded the perimeter. When Jackson reached the door, he reached and grabbed the brass knocker. He rapped three times on the door. No one replied, so Jackson tried once again. Still nothing. Jackson turned to look at Tanner and he nodded at him.

“Right, Collins, Malley go around the back door. See if the intruder left any evidence. Gardens, you’re coming with us.”

Malley and Collins nodded and left at once. When they went, Tanner nodded at Jackson and told Gardens to ‘get ready’. Gardens nodded and Jackson opened the door silently. Holding his gun out in front of him, Jackson entered the house, followed by Tanner and Gardens. They entered a rather furnished corridor, full with pictures and lounge chairs and a set of stairs leading to the second floor. Jackson surveyed the area and checked the room on his left. Gardens came out from behind me and checked the room on the right, both holding their guns aloft. Jackson turned back towards Tanner and said,

“There’s nothing here,”

“It’s clear here,” Gardens said, turning around as well.

“Ok, I’ll check upstairs,” Tanner told them and headed up the stairs.

Looking around the second floor, he found numerous other rooms and decided to check the one adjacent to him. He opened the door silently and looked inside. It appeared to be a study room, but it was badly damaged. Books were thrown on the ground, most of them were torn up, while pieces of marble and stone were littered all over the floor, indicating that someone had smashed a vase or a statue of some sort. Finding nothing else interesting, Tanner proceeded to the next room. Opening the door, he found a shocking sight. A dead woman’s body was lying in the middle of the room. Tanner immediately ran over to her and checked her pulse, but found nothing. Tanner’s eyes shifted upward and looked at her face. He noticed that her face was and her hair was all wet, as if it had been drenched in something. Peering closer, he felt the woman’s hair and realised that it was water. All of a sudden, Jackson’s voice echoed throughout the room.

“TANNER!! Get down here, quick!”

Tanner jumped and looked around quickly. He could hear the sounds of some scuffling and something else that seemed like water. Tanner bolted out of the room and was halfway down the stairs when he saw a mysterious man with blue hair shoot Gardens with what appeared to be a ball of liquid. Gardens, who wasn’t prepared for this attack, caught the ball in his stomach and was flown backwards into the other room.

The man turned towards Tanner and fired the same attack at him. He directed his hand back towards his enemy and the liquid ball headed back in the opposite direction. Caught unawares, the man was flown backwards just like Gardens and collided into the doorframe. Tanner ran down the stairs and into what appeared to be the living room. Gardens was lying on top of the remains of the coffee table that broke his fall. Tanner offered his hand to help him up. He dusted himself off and Tanner asked,

“Where’s Jackson?”

“He’s in the other room,” Gardens replied, pointing to the room opposite them. Tanner nodded and exited the room. He ran past the man, who was still apparently knocked out, and entered the room. He searched the room, and eventually found Jackson behind the sofa. Jackson looked fazed and confused, but he was able to stand up quite straight.

“Are you ok?” Tanner asked. Jackson nodded but then pointed at something behind Tanner.

“What…?”

Just as Tanner turned around, he was almost hit by a powerful jet of water. Within inches from his body, he managed to stop the stream of water telekinetically with his hands. Holding his hands out in front of him, the water harmlessly sprayed across his hands. All of a sudden the man was thrown forwards, which stopped his attack on Tanner. He looked up and saw that Gardens had both of his hands out, a determined look on his face.

“Nice work there Gardens,” Jackson said. Gardens smiled sheepishly. Tanner and Jackson started to walk towards the man, when he mysteriously disappeared and in the exact same place where his body was a second ago, was a wooden chair. Shocked, Tanner looked up and saw a female teenager with long black hair looking at him in a rather firm way.

“Who are you?”

She didn’t respond, but instead picked up a knife on the table threw it at Tanner. He raised his hand and directed the knife back at her, but she waved her hand, and the knife disappeared, and was replaced by a painting in mid air. In fell to the ground, but Gardens shouted, “Tanner!! Behind you!”

Tanner turned and saw that the knife he had directed back at his opponent had mysteriously appeared behind him. Heading fast towards him, it was suddenly diverted out of Tanner’s path by a lightning bolt. Tanner looked around and saw that Gardens had his arms raised.

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” Gardens replied. He looked over at the girl and saw that she was still looking at them, a look of loathing etched across her face. All of a sudden, she looked to her left and she was caught in the chest by a ball of water. She flew backwards and hit the wall. Tanner tensed himself and prepared himself for attack. Instead, Malley and Collins came into the room, slightly panting. Tanner breathed a sigh of relief and said,

“Hey guys. How are you?”

“We’re alright,” Collins replied, “We ran into that teenage girl, and we started to fight her, but then she ran off and we gave chase. We found her attacking you guys, so Malley here attacked her and now she’s out,”

Tanner smiled. “Nice one Malley,” he congratulated.

“Thanks Officer Tanner,” she replied.

“Listen, Malley and Gardens, I need you to check out upstairs for me ok? I saw a body up there and there might be more,”

They nodded and left at once. When Tanner turned back around, he saw the teenage girl dart behind the blue haired man and ran further into the house, most likely to head off Malley and Gardens.

“Officer Jackson, come with me. We need to find out who that girl is. Are you going to be ok Collins?”

He nodded.

“Good. Come on Jackson,” he said turning towards him, “Let’s go and find her. Collins make sure that man doesn’t- watch out!”

Three blasts of water issued from the now conscious man that was on the floor. Collins held out his hand, and started to emit sub zero cold from his hands. The water missiles froze up and fell to the floor.

“Go!” Collins called out to them and they left quickly in search of the girl. The blue haired man stood up quickly and crossed his hands out in front of him. A faint, blue light appeared above him and continued to shine even brighter, when all of a sudden, the man threw his hands out in front of him and a gush of water came out from the shining light. A huge wave of water started to form and headed towards Collins. He spread his legs and arms out into a star shape and just when the wall of water was about to hit him, it started to slowly freeze up. He leaned back a little, as the ice continued to spread along the water, making sharp edges along the way.

When the ice stopped spreading, Collins now had a natural barrier to protect him, while his opponent couldn’t see where he was. Ducking down, Collins ran to the left, when a blast of water cut through the ice, where he was just seconds before. Collins immediately pressed himself up to the ice barrier and shielded himself from the attack. Another attack blasted through the ice to Collins right. Knowing that the man knew where he was hiding, he had to get out of the way before he got attacked. He waited, and when he heard the sound of water speeding through the air, he dived to his right and in seconds, the small shield of ice Collins had been using was destroyed. He immediately got up, when he saw another ball of water heading towards him. He tried to freeze it, but the attack was coming in fast and Collins didn’t have enough time to turn it to solid ice. Instead, the attack hit him in the stomach and he flew backwards into the wall.

Collins got up quickly and put his hand on the floor. Ice started to form and headed towards the man quickly. The ice started to form and it froze his leg in place, making him immobile. It continued up his leg and would continue to do so unless Collins stopped, and it seemed like he wasn’t about to do so. Instead, the man fired a powerful jet of water at him and it caught him off guard. He was slammed into the wall and he slid onto the floor. Collins got up and saw that the man had one hand on his frozen leg while the other arm vertically sliced the air in front of him, creating small, but extremely quick streams of water. Collins tried to freeze them, but they were too quick for him and instead hit him all over his body. They weren’t powerful, but they dealt sharp, annoying hits to his body. When they stopped, Collins looked up and realised that the man had disappeared. He ran into the corridor and saw the man he had just been battling earlier run past, pushing him out of the way, with the black haired girl in tow. He looked confused as Jackson ran after them, firing jets of light at them.

Tanner appeared and asked Collins,

“How are you? Did everything go ok?”

“Yeah,”

“Good,” he replied and he ran out of the house and looked at where Jackson was. He was still chasing after them, but when he fired a light missile that almost hit them, the blue haired man turned around and stared at him angrily. Holding his hands out in front of him, the man created a ball of water and fired it at Jackson but as it soared through the air, it formed into a larger ball of water, compared to what it originally was.

Staring determinedly at it, Jackson conjured a large, white shining ball of light and aimed it directly at the ball of water. They were about to collide, when Jackson’s attack mysteriously disappeared, only to be replaced by a single leaf. Confused, Jackson looked around to see where his attack went, and saw that it had just materialised near the roof. It crashed into it, creating a large, gaping hole in roof. Jackson looked back, only to be hit by the gigantic ball of water. He flew backwards and he hit the wall hard.

The blue-haired man smirked and he ran off with the girl. Tanner rushed outside and helped his partner up.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

“I’m fine…” Jackson muttered.

Tanner nodded, when all of a sudden, Gardens came rushing out of the house, with Collins close behind.

“Officer Tanner, Officer Jackson! We found something!”

“What is it?” Tanner asked sternly.

“I don’t know, but it seems like some sort of… chamber or something,”

Tanner nodded in response and replied, “Ok, lead me to it. Can you walk Jackson?”

He nodded, and Gardens led them back into the house. They walked through the house until they came into a large foyer like room. Columns were placed at certain intervals around the room, which happened to be a marble white. The rest of the room was also white, including the tiled floors. Gardens walked to the middle of the room and lifted up an individual tile. Underneath it was a wooden trapdoor with a rusty brass handle on it. Gardens pulled it open and descended down the stairs. Jackson looked at Tanner curiously, but Tanner nodded and followed Gardens while Collins and Jackson did the same.

They entered a rocky looking corridor, while torch brackets with the fires still burning were lined along the wall. Tanner looked around in amazement as he followed Gardens down the corridor. He could hear his fellow officers murmuring in amazement. When they neared the end of the corridor, he saw Malley standing in front of what appeared to be some sort of symbol. It was circular in shape with a smaller hole in the middle of it. Beneath the smaller hole was a rectangle which seemed to spread out at the bottom. The symbol was coloured black except for the rectangle, which was left white.

“Hey Officer Tanner,” said Malley.

“Hey Malley. How did you guys find this place?” he asked, looking around in amazement.

“Well, as we went of to search for some clues about those two mysterious characters, I almost tripped over something. I realised that it was a tile, except that it wasn’t properly put it. As I was pushing it in, when I realised that the tile was concealing a hidden trapdoor. I managed to destroy the lock and we pulled it open and found this chamber,” Malley explained.

“But there’s nothing here, except for that symbol. Neither me nor Malley have seen it before,” Gardens chimed in.

Tanner walked up to it and examined it. It was over 20m tall and Tanner could only manage to touch the lower part of it. He looked at it intently, and stood back to get a better view of it. He realised that the large hole in the middle seemed loose, so he telekinetically pushed it in. a large echoing noise rang throughout the corridor and a stone door slid open on the right of the symbol. Tanner cautiously approached the room. The room was dimly lit and that made it hard to see. He wandered in blindly, not caring about his safety. All of a sudden, he heard a faint sniffling noise. Tanner immediately turned towards the noise and raised his hands. He continued to listen to it, but when he realised what it was, he called for Jackson to come quickly. He entered the room and Tanner asked him for some light. He clicked his fingers and a ball of light illuminated the room. In the small room there was a boy, around 12 years old, sitting in the corner, his face wet with tears.

“Hey mate, how are you?”

He didn’t reply, but hid his face in his arms.

“Hey, I’m Jake Tanner, and this is my partner Zane Jackson… you don’t have to be afraid of us, we’re good people. What’s your name mate?”

The boy looked at us and gulped.

“Leo,” he whispered.

“What are you doing here?” Malley asked, as she and the rest of the officers entered the room. The boy continued to look at us, but he gulped again and replied,

“My mum told me to go down here… she never lets me, but today she did… as I was hiding, I heard my mum screaming and my dad yelling… and then it stopped… but I could still hear some movements above me, and I knew that I shouldn’t come out yet… so I stayed, until you found me…”

Tanner looked at him confused. He remembered that he saw that symbol before somewhere… but where exactly? Then it hit him: the amulet he failed to guard that night when he saw Karakas for the first time in ages… the Guardian’s amulet... that meant that the symbol out in the corridor was somehow linked to the Guardians! Tanner looked down at the young boy in front of him.

‘Then… then, that must mean that this boy is a Guardian!’ Tanner thought.