10.1
Three weeks later - 12/5/2009
Commander Wolf strode through the warehouse door in his dark camo uniform, the version designed for nighttime activity. In response to his arrival, dozens of workers looked up from their workstations to greet him.
This warehouse had been repurposed, and it now served as one of Russon's main facilities for military manufacturing. Here, as a part of Commander Wolf's new regimen, element-imbued parts were assembled into weapons, and element-imbued fabrics were sewn together to make tactical gear.
The previous step of the process, element imbuing, was accomplished using a technique Blackpool had discovered years earlier. First, they grew a colony of bacteria in a liquid solution containing an element, essentially assimilating the element's authority into the living colony. Those bacteria were then integrated into plastics, metals, and fabrics.
Because bacteria are such simple life forms, the user of a weapon created with this method is able to mentally access the authority within it and channel those powers, assuming they maintain physical contact. In this case, non-physical control is only possible for those who hold a certain authority.
The issue with this method was that it allowed the user to access only a small portion of the element's authority, and its strength tended to decrease over time. In response, Russon was actively researching alternative methods of elemental imbuing.
It was regarding this subject that Commander Wolf had business in the warehouse today.
He searched the massive, high-ceilinged room with his eyes. The white lights were so bright that he even had to squint a little–it was a dark, cloudy day outside.
"Commander Wolf," a dry, high-pitched voice greeted.
The commander turned to see a thin man with glasses and a comb over approaching him. He nodded his head in greeting.
"Hey, Stenlund. Have you learned anything interesting?"
Doctor Stenlund shook his head regretfully. "It's mostly the same, sir. Blake Stane appears unwilling to reveal anything. We've confirmed that his operations relating to elements are on an even larger scale than we had originally thought, but we can do no more than observe from a distance."
Commander Wolf nodded slowly. A cold look was in his eyes.
"What about those people Stane placed in other cities?"
The doctor hesitated this time, thinking his response through carefully.
"Nothing definite has happened, sir. There are still a total of four confirmed members, not including Blake Stane."
"And what about anything that isn't definite?" Commander Wolf replied immediately.
Doctor Stenlund took a deep breath.
"The new elemental power output detection technology we have been working on had a somewhat significant reading yesterday. It's still in its early stages, of course, so I'm very hesitant about attaching any meaning to this finding."
"Here?" Commander Wolf asked, leaning a little closer to the doctor. "In Russon?"
"Yes," Doctor Stenlund said with a quick nod, "Somewhere close to the northern border."
In the previous weeks, Russon's army had already begun advancing on the gang-ridden North Side. With the help of their new technologies, the city was soon to be under the military's complete jurisdiction. Of course, some portion of the gangs would still exist, but they would finally be forced to operate in secret and under fear of the law.
Many gang members held elemental authorities, so it was a given that during recent conflicts significant elemental outputs had been detected. But Commander Wolf could tell that Doctor Stenlund was referring to something outside of the ordinary.
"Do you have any idea about the type of authority that was detected?" he asked.
"Ah, well…" Again, the doctor hesitated. "Assuming the technology is accurate, it seems to have been an authority that is not currently registered."
Commander Wolf responded with a silent stare.
After an awkward moment, Doctor Stenlund averted his eyes and absentmindedly adjusted his glasses.
"What do you think?" Commander Wolf finally asked. "If you had to guess."
The doctor shifted his weight uncomfortably. Nothing was worse than uncertain guesses.
"Well, most likely," he began cautiously, "the reading was accurate. The most probable conclusion then would be that an especially powerful gang member with an unregistered authority was the cause. Another potential… ah, well…"
Doctor Stenlund rubbed his chin.
"It could have been an XI." Commander Wolf finished his sentence for him.
The doctor nodded shakily and mumbled, "that is one possible explanation."
Commander Wolf pondered this for a few moments. "Was it the highest reading you've had so far?"
"Yes."
"How high?"
"Around 130 units, sir."
The commander inhaled thoughtfully. "What do you think the most powerful gang members can output? Or have we already hit the max for them?"
"...well," the doctor replied, "gang members' maximum outputs and ranks seem to have a generally positive correlation. If we assume that a single person is in charge of the major remaining gang and that they are the most powerful, there's no way to put a limit on elemental output as we have yet to identify that individual."
Commander Wolf sighed through his teeth.
"I wonder if that guy even exists," he muttered. "Thanks, Stenlund. I hope you find some answers soon."
"Yes, sir," the doctor replied, bowing his head. "I will do my best."
With the doctor's departure, Commander Wolf was left standing alone in the warehouse. He surveyed the long rows of workers, stacks of gun parts, and mounds of uniforms.
His eyes navigated to the far wall, where he could just make out a row of finished guns racked in a tightly packed line.
He strode forward, curiously watching the soldiers at work on his left and his right. They all noticed his presence and doubled over, pouring every ounce of focus into their work.
Finally, he reached the back wall. There were hundreds of guns, sectioned based on type and element, racked barrel-side up.
With the faintest traces of a smile playing across his lips, he turned and walked the row, running his fingers across the surface of each gun as he went. These were just the first version, and a new technology was sure to replace them soon enough.
Progress was good.
– – – – –
In a cell twelve feet beneath the ground, Jelani sat with his back slouched against the damp concrete wall.
Commander Wolf hadn't lied; Jelani never saw the sun. It seemed unlikely he would ever see the sky again.
Every few days, soldiers came to strengthen his cell using new element technologies as they developed. Apart from that, there was never another human in his sight.
None of that mattered, though, because he didn't try to escape, and he never lifted his eyes off the ground.
In the three weeks he'd spent there, he'd hardly eaten and he only drank when he was on the brink of death from dehydration.
The one thing that was active was his mind.
During his first week of confinement, he was in a dark, dreamlike state, unable to distinguish between thoughts and reality.
But in the second week, everything became clearer. He began piecing together the events of his life in his mind, one by one. Over and over again, he replayed every single detail. Everything he could remember.
Why?
He sought to answer the question. Like a deaf man in the dark, he groped through the depths of his memory. The answer was hidden somewhere just out of reach.
It was always one step away. The epiphany that would explain everything.
But the epiphany never came.
In week three, he asked no questions.
Instead, he cried.
He curled up on the ground and wept silently, wishing he could extract the devastation from his heart and place the pain on his body instead.
It was hungry. Like a sponge, it devoured him from the inside out. His skin became a shell, no longer serving any purpose aside from defining the shape of his body.
Now, week four began.
The hollow cavity beneath his skin couldn't remain empty forever.
Natural flow goes down a gradient from high to low; that which is empty, at the very bottom, must be filled.
Otherwise, equilibrium can't be reached; a vacuum can only exist for so long.
Something had to fill it.