#The Evocalypse

[revolutionwhoop]

(R)Evolution 04: The Old Tuck and Roll

Dahlia groaned as she climbed from beneath the rubble. It smelled horrible! What in the world had happened, here? She was in pain, but looking around, she wasn’t sure why she was even alive! But, then again… That guy SHOT her! She checked herself for signs of the shooting, and there wasn’t even a scar there. She heard something and looked over to see a drone fly by her head. She didn’t know who was in control of it, but she wanted to get out of it’s way.

After a moment, soldiers were coming in her direction. She began to run, her breasts and buttocks bouncing around as she tried to get over the piles of stone and broken glass. “You, stop!” They might as well had said run faster, because that was what she did. Someone fired at her and she winced when she was hit by a dart? Tranquilizer, she guessed. The dart shot out of her flesh and the tranquilizer didn’t seem to do a damn thing. Either it was defective, her adrenaline was pumping too much, or something else altogether that she didn’t have the time to think about. Now, she wasn’t particularly fast, but the soldiers were briefly taken aback by her resistance to the dart, so they gave chase a little late. Someone grabbed her and she yelped, but they covered her mouth. “Where the hell did she go?” a soldier asked and they ran right past her and whoever had grabbed her.

When they were out of sight, the woman unhanded her mouth and said, “You should leave with us.” She turned to see a beautiful woman wearing a shash and garbasaar, accompanied by a few other people. “I am Bishaaro. What is your name?”

“Dahlia,” Dahlia answered. The soldiers came back and she almost took off running, but Bishaaro and her friends joined hands and grabbed her too, and the soldiers passed them again. Bishaaro placed her finger over her mouth at Dahlia, and led the way, walking opposite of the soldiers, nobody breaking contact with her.

They got off of the site, and into a nearby abandoned building. Dahlia wondered, “What the hell is going on? One minute, I was being told that I have a condition that’s like a second period, the next, I’m being shot, and then I wake up buried under I don’t even know how many feet of just a whole ass crumbled building? And why the soldiers couldn’t see us?”

Bishaaro reached for one of her friends’ hands, and the two vanished, then they reappeared. “It is my blessing. If I don’t want them to, people can’t see me. If I touch you, the same becomes true for you. Those men meant you harm. You were wise to run from them. The missing people, all over the city? They are actually being taken from all over the world, not just here.” She opened her phone and showed Dahlia a photo of Niyilolawa Uchechukwu. “Did you see her, while you were inside?”

“The girl who’s been in the news? No! Should I have? Was she in there? Is she sick, too?”

Bishaaro smiled sadly, “No, she isn’t sick and neither are you. You have no idea what we are. We are glorious, Sister. We are magical. We are evolved.”

“Look, I love me some black pride too, but I’ve been miserable. I’ve been extremely ill,” Dahlia argued.

Bishaaro thought for a moment, then said, “Whenever my evolution began to process, I would literally vanish at times, sometimes, only a little - They said that I looked like a ghost, like you could see right through me… Maybe what you are capable of has to do with health. You told me that you were shot. What happened with that?”

Dahli checked for the shot wound again, even though she knew it wasn’t there. “Well, I maybe had a bad dream, because I thought I was shot right here, but there’s nothing there, you know?”

“Perhaps you can regenerate. I have a friend who is capable of this. He does get hurt and it does make a temporary effect, but then he heals completely. This must be your blessing, as well.”

“Shut up! You think… I can’t be killed?” Dahlia wondered. She had just seen an invisible woman, so, hell, maybe.

“I can’t be sure. It could be something else, but whatever it is that you can do - you aren’t sick…”

One of the men with her said, “She hasn’t seen Niyilolawa. We need to report back to the King of Spades.”

“King of Spades?” Dahlia repeated, “Princess of Spades! I heard that name whenever I was in there. They put me in some kind of chamber. They would knock us out, but I would always wake up, and sometimes overhear stuff. The Princess of Spades was being taken out before they…” She covered her mouth, “Before they destroyed the building. It wasn’t an accident! They meant to blow up the building, with us in it, but they said that they were taking her away.”

“Should we bring Dahlia back with us? Papa Diamond might want to check her out and see if there’s anything in there that we can use to help us find Lola,” one of the other women asked.

Bishaaro smiled at Dahlia and wondered, “Do you consent to coming with us, so that one of our leaders might search your mind for information?”

Dahlia put both of her hands over her chest, “That sounds scary, but being here seems scary, too. I have no idea what has happened to my life. All because I was worried about losing some hair and some weight…” They were waiting on her answer. “Oh, yes… I’ll consent to that. Though, the last time I consented to something, I ended up getting abducted, shot and blew up…” They had all joined hands again and within moments, were vanishing again - but this was different. It was scary. It was quick, and it moved, instantaneously. They ended up somewhere else and while everyone else seemed fine and returned just how they vanished; she landed on her butt, then she vomited. “Oh, Lord…”

The crabby guy said, “Sorry. Didn’t have much time to prepare you for long distance teleportation. But, I anticipated this.”

The woman who suggested that they bring her offered, “This ought to be easier.” She opened her arms wide and a hole opened in the sky, which led to a room. The others stepped through, so Dahlia followed.

“Y’all got some good blessings!” As quickly as she commented, the others were gone. She didn’t know if she should take a seat or remain standing, but there was a chair, so she sat down. Moments later, what she mistook for a wall opened like an elevator and a completely different group of people stepped out of it. She jumped, startled, and stood up.

“Please. Remain seated,” one of the men said.

“That girl that’s missing… She a real princess, huh? Y’all like some African dignitaries, here to get your princess back and because I came out the building, I’m about to be tortured for information!” Dahlia panicked.

Two of the men slightly chuckled. The other two What’s her name’s parents were very grave in appearance. Everyone looked well off. The first man, a dark brown with a bald head and a mustache told her, “I’ll clarify for you. One could say that she’s a princess. We tend to refer to her as a queen, however. And we are dignitaries, in our own right. But, nobody is going to torture you Dahlia. You have already consented and this will not hurt, though you may feel overwhelmed and dizzy at certain points. I’m basically going to take a journey into your mind and only sift through the moments spent inside of that facility.”

“How do you do that?” She wondered.

“It’s quite simple for you. I do all the work, and I’m very good at what I do. First, I search for your earliest memory of the facility, and you do me the favor, just from me mentioning it, of thinking of it for me. Then, I take a glance around, cataloging what I see, and scanning it, like software, to find anything related to Niyilolawa, Princess, or “that girl.” Then, I meet you back here, at this very spot where we first met.”

“Okay. Okay, that sounds simple. Let’s do it.”

“It’s done. Thank you for your time.” The four of them left and she frowned. “We’ll have Bishaaro’s search team take you back to wherever you desire.” As the four vanished through the camouflaged elevator, she heard him say, “She knows less than we do, but I did see the face of the man in charge of the place.” The elevator closed, then opened and the same four people who found her and brought her here came out of it this time.

“Okay, look… I can’t tell if this is some kind of weird laboratory simulation, a drug induced nightmare, or real life. Make this more real for me. Who are y’all?” Dahlia insisted.

Bishaaro gave her a warm, small smile. “We are friends of the woman that you recognized from the news. She is missing, and we are a search team, trying to find her. We brought you here because you survived the destruction of the lab. Not all of us did, and some who were there may have seen something that can help us to know where they took our friend. We’ll bring you outside of the danger zone. There is a quarantine. We have several friends trapped inside, trying to find each other and touch base with one another, so that they can be retracted when ready.”

“Has… The world ended?” Dahlia asked.

“Maybe. Maybe the world has only begun…” She placed a hand on her cheek, and the others touched, up through where the teleportation guy did his thing and they wound up right outside of Dahlia’s apartment. “There are soldiers here,” Bishaaro observed. “Stay in this spot, I will take her inside, to look around.” The other three nodded. As they entered, Bishaaro reminded her, “I can only affect them not seeing us. Be very quiet.”

Dahlia opened her front door and had to immediately cover her mouth with both hands to hide a gasp. Her things were thrown all over the place.

Bishaaro had hold of her pocket and they slowly went through the place. She whispered, “It’s empty, but there might be cameras. If you need to pack anything, move slowly, in case they’re watching from outside in a van or something.”

Dahlia whispered in fear, “I have no idea what they could be looking for or would have wanted!”

Bishaaro cupped her cheeks, “Please keep calm… They probably wanted to check with your friends and family to see who they may be able to use to find you. It will not be safe for you to return to anyone that you know. If you’d like, I am willing to offer you refuge at our compound.”

“I… Can’t. If they’re going to be visiting or watching my loved ones, I can’t just hide and let them go after them to get to me. They don’t have healing skin. They won’t be able to protect themselves from these crazy people!”

“That is very brave of you. I’ll stay until you’ve packed a bag, and we’ll see you to some drop off spot. But, if you do need an extraction, or even just a sit down with our leader, use this.”  She handed her a playing card - the 2 of diamonds. “You remember what Tonya did, when she spread her arms and opened the air?”

“She created a portal,” Dahlia confirmed.

“Yes. She also created these for us. I am the Deuce of Diamonds. Whenever you lift this to the sky and open your arms, you will open the sky and the portal will lead you to me.”

“What if… You in a shoot out or something?”

“Well, then, hopefully neither of us dies. I can’t just leave you without a means to return to safety.” She hugged her. “Let’s finish gathering your things.”

.

Everywhere they teleported to, there were guards or had been guards. Ife, the teleporter, grew weary. “We will have to leave her,” he said. Bishaaro wanted to argue with him, but Dahlia could see that she knew he was right. They were on a mission, and they had gone off mission to help her and were taking a lot out of him to do so.

“Yeah, this is fine. I’ll be alright,” she said. “Thank y’all for everything, even you Ife. You are so fine, but you need to lighten up, Bruh.”

“Our friend may be being tortured right now, Dahlia. And she doesn’t heal. So, perhaps I’m under pressure!” He fussed.

“Sorry. Thank you. I hope that you find her unharmed,” Dahlia said, and just like that, they were gone. She covered herself in her hoodie, to hide and went along. They had taken her to withdraw all of her money from an ATM, then teleport away from it, in case her card was being monitored. So, she had a little cash, but only so much as to survive a little while, if extremely frugal. She went into the library to check on the stories about the lab and saw a list of people who had died there. She saw the name Folami Adebowale. She wasn’t sure why that looked familiar, but for some reason, it jumped out at her. She checked social media, to double check it and saw the lady that she met whenever she first signed in. “Oh no!” She said, upon seeing her face. She seemed alright. Dahlia had a feeling that she wasn’t a part of whatever they were doing to people in there.

Her page had a photo of her with four other women who were basically identical in looks, to her, and she sent one of them a message. Hi, Faith. I wanted to say that I’m sorry for what happened to your sister. She seemed very nice, and I’m positive that whatever you might hear, she didn’t have nothing to do with the mess that was going down in that place.

Faith: Hi. Who is this, might I ask?

Dahlia: People may be looking for me, so I don’t want to get you into any trouble.

Faith: My sister knew what was happening. She was going to try to stop it. We were going to try to help… Please, tell me who you are!

Dahlia: My name is Dahlia Henderson.

Faith: Dahlia! Bloom! It’s me, Folami. We have to meet. I’m not dead, but it’s a long story. You’re the first person that I know of, besides me to have survived.

Dahlia: That’s a long story, too… Are you… You know?

Faith/Folami: Special? Lol. Look… Let’s meet some place neutral. I need a friend. I’m so glad that you made it out. Where can we meet?

[neshatriumphs]

(R)Evolution 02: Banging on Plots and Plans

A five woman plan seemed small for a facility of this size and the capabilities that she presumed that it had, but she was willing to try anything to help that other woman. “The Princess” was what she thought of her as. She felt like she was literally on a quest to rescue a princess in distress. Something about that thought made her feel conflicted. On the one hand - the “damsel in distress” trope was played out, even if this was real life. On the other… The damsel was usually some white Mary Sue whose minority friends laid down their lives for her, despite the fact that no less than three handsome leads were willing to do it for her…

“GIRL. We do not live in the CW. Focus, here,” she heard her voice say. She halfway focused. This damsel was a BAP. More accurately, an African American Princess. Folami looked up her family and found that she was not only the daughter of a Nigerian-British politician with dual citizenship in America and strong ties with American Black communities for diaspora unity outreach and elevation… Her mother, a Black Latina feminist icon was the daughter of freedom fighters in South America. This Niyilolawa was literally a Black melting pot of liberation and greatness. It made her think that this was some type of political plot. But, why would whoever “they” was in this situation hold her here, in a lab for pharmaceuticals?

♡

“Dahlia, thank you for meeting with me today. We’ve seen great progress in your potential,” the scientist said. She felt uncomfortable around him. He usually had on some type of mask, like he was going through surgery or something, and often had on gloves. She had seen way too many movies for that not to alarm her.

“Okay, but can we fix it?” She asked.

“Fix it?” He repeated. “There’s nothing broken. Whatever is happening to you is natural. It is the way that your body was meant to evolve.”

She sighed, “That sounds all fine and good, but whenever I’m brushing my hair, and clumps of it fall out, or whenever I’m trying to take care of my plants and I’m allergic to everything that I’ve been living with for most of my life…”

“Your hormones are changing,” he said.

“Really. Like whenever I started my period? Oh my God, PLEASE do not tell me that there’s some kinda new period that my body might go through, because I could barely take the other one! Mess started when I was ten. It was excruciating.”

“I’m gonna level with you, Dahlia. This IS like having another period, for you. I’ve observed the changes in other women before, but each case is a little bit different. They all change biologically and naturally, but it manifests differently in their bodily chemistry. Your symptoms - allergic reactions, loss of hair, losing teeth, weight fluctuations, food aversions - I have never seen those with the others.”

“So, I have a special case new period.” She slumped in the chair, then said, “Thank you for your time, Doctor. I think I’ll just sign out of the program and get my affairs in order. This has got to kill me, right? I don’t know how much time I hve left, but I’d like to try to make it count.”

He chuckled, beneath the mask and shook his head, “Oh, no, Ms. Henderson. This change isn’t going to kill you, and I can’t let you leave the program. In fact, I must insist that we quarantine you and perform more invasive tests.”

Her face wrinkled and she shook her head, “No, thank you. I don’t want invasive testing, and how can you quarantine me, if you already said yourself that this is natural and nobody else’s case is like this? That means I can’t be contagious, right?” But, there were already guards in the room, to bring her into quarantine. She got up and made a dash past them.

“Be careful. She’s dangerous and contagious,” the scientist said. She tried to push her way through the door but was pricked in the neck with some type of needle. Her face changed, her hair grew, her adrenaline pumped and for a moment, she felt stronger and healthier, but the scientist removed a gun from his desk and shot her in the back. She screamed, fell to her knees and stopped fighting. “Hurry up and take her to containment. We’ll have to get her restrained before she gathers her vitality back.” The guards dragged Dahlia along the floor by her arms, making a path of her blood to containment. The scientist called in a team to collect samples of the DNA.

♡

Weeks of planning went by. Folami tried to pretend that she was fine and carry on with life as usual. The Uchechukwu family announced that they found their daughter, but declined further comment and asked the public for privacy. Conspiracy theories about where she might be were all over the place. Folami could have sworn that she saw her around the lab, at times, like an apparition, appearing first in all white, ethereal and glowing. But, each vision of her, she became duller, like she was fading. Her attire became dirty, until it was filthy. The voice “Do what you know is right,” was fading into a whisper…

Still, she followed it. It led her to this open area, with signs that read not to go beyond that point. However, the door opened when she made her way towards it. This was not according to plan and she could possibly get into a lot of trouble, but she couldn’t help it. She went forward and covered her mouth with both hands.

There were containment chambers in the room, holding bodies. She recognized the labels: Category 6, Nine E. Leaven… She rushed to the one called Bloom and saw Dahlia, unconscious, comatose, with dried blood on her clothes. “Dahlia,” she whispered, about to cry, but she heard someone whisper to her Hide. They’re coming… She rushed to find a hiding place and the tech from before entered with the scientist, having a crescending conversation.

“The virus would cause all of the evolveds’ powers to uncontrollably react. It gets into their systems, airborne, and when it reaches their bloodstream their condition snaps into action, as their immune systems naturally try to defend their bodies against this invasive assailant. What we haven’t been able to figure out is how the response time is determined. For instance, when we release the virus in this facility, we don’t know how long it would take for it to reach Bloom’s system as opposed to Evo-Lyn. If Category 6 reacts first, and this place is leveled by one of his storms, what we can’t be sure of is if Bloom could react quickly enough to survive or if Nine. E. Leaven explodes, if she’ll burn everyone before the virus enters their system to defend them.”

“Release it anyway. I believe that I have enough samples from everyone here to continue our work in the next facility. Prepare Princess of Spades for transport, evacuate essential personnel and begin the countdown to the release of the virus.” They casually passed through the laboratory as they said these things.

The whisper told her They will kill you if they find you. Save yourself. Live to fight another day. “Who are you?” she whispered back. I will be okay. Trust me… We all will be fine. Leave us. Save yourself… \

Folami crawled away, trying to make a move for the exit when she heard, softly, the same scary gentle call from the tech, “Analyst Adebowale.” She turned to see him in a hazard suit, reaching out for her. He shook his head and he lifted her up and she struggled with him to get away, calling out for help. “It’s unfortunate that we must do this to you. You were an interesting study. I wanted more time to be able to look into you, more.” He strapped her to a chamber and closed it around her.

“I have a team. My sisters will look for me!” She warned.

“That’s fine. You’ll be dead, by then. This building will be gone.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You’ll be buried and this place will be a wasteland. Nobody will come near it, for fear of radiation poisoning.”

“You’re going to activate a nuclear reaction?!?”

“No. But, whenever we release the terminal virus, Princess Toadstool will. For good measure, I let you bunk right next to her.” He patted the containment chamber of an unconscious woman to her right, then he left the room and turned off the lights. She gasped for air, having an anxiety attack as she cried.

“Four… Can you hear me? Something terrible is happening at the lab… Don’t come anywhere near it. Just… let me die, okay?” She said, sobbing.

♡

“If you ask me, something hella crazy is going on out there,” the woman on the other line of Miranda’s phone. “You’re in a big city - that’s where everything crazy always happens.”

“In the movies, Mom. In real life, everything crazy happens everywhere. We walk around calling it ‘life.’ I’m gonna stop giving you these courtesy calls if you keep spending them telling me to leave the city. This is where my life is. I’m not leaving the city. Did you get your check this month?”

“Yeah, I got that questionably large check.”

“It’s only questionable if you question it. Just accept the help, Mom. You and Keenan are always waiting on God to make a way. How can you know that I’m not the way that He made?”

“For one thing - you don’t even believe. Why would he use an unbeliever to deliver His blessings?”

“Well, if that money doesn’t get spent, I’m gonna spend it on sex toys, so pick a virtue, Mom…” Her mother cackled on the other end of the phone and she jumped. “I’m wearing an earpiece!”

“Sorry, Randi… Oh! Oh…”

“Are you waiting on me to ask you what?”

“No. Girl, I’m watching the TV and first of all, they got this black man on the news show talking about he was born white and all his life he was white and he been living white, but one day woke up black and since then everybody been racist to him. Chile… I don’t know what is going on with these people…” Miranda recalled that story, immediately. She remembered what the guy was talking about. She remembered him being a white man. A terrible white man, who himself was racist and rude. Whenever he first “came out,” she recognized his name. She could even compare in her mind his white face with the black face that he now had. She couldn’t explain why that would be stored away in her memory, so instead of questioning it, she guessed that she had to have had some kind of weird dream. “OH LAWD!” Her mother cried out, “Now… on the news show, they showed this commercial for a death pill. A DEATH PILL??? It’s fresh on the market, but no pharmacist or scientist can tell you where it came from or how it works, aside from everybody that has taken it DOES die. What world are we living in, Randi?”

“The same one we’ve been living in, Mom. Hey, Lady… I’ve made it home. I’m unlocking the door and I am now inside. Good night?”

“Good night. Lock them doors after you. This world has gone completely crazy.” She locked the door, disconnected her call and set her things down.

It’s BEEN crazy… She heard a loud explosion and she jumped and rushed to the window to see a mushroom cloud forming miles away. “Motherfuuu…” Then, there were rains, lightning, storms, fire, something that she could only describe as maybe a forcefield, encasing the place and all of that chaotic scenery was trapped inside of it. “Okay… So… The world’s gotten crazier,” She commented as the sounds of sirens, yelling, and other noise grew, all over the city.

♡

The four of Folami’s sisters were sitting, anxiously as the noise outside thundered throughout the sky and smells of destruction fumed through the air.  Folami gasped and her eyes went wide as her dead body vaporized and re-entered her system. Her sisters turned to face her in the room and she shook her head, “I’m not okay. That was the most painful death that I could ever imagine. I’m so sorry, Faith.” She held her hand over her heart and shook her head, “We couldn’t save her. We couldn’t save any of them. All that planning… for nothing…”

“Shhhh. You need your rest. We’ll help you recover,” One of them said, before merging with Folami, then the next, and then the next. Whenever she was whole again, the pain of one of her multiples dying had subsided.

Now, she went to the window to see what was going on out there. The lab had exploded. The site was an incredible sight. “Freedom, Fairness, Funball, Faith… Do you see this?” Of course they did. They were HER, after all. “What the hell do we do, next?” she asked herself.

[revolutionwhoop]

(R)Evolution 03: The Ugly Truth About Darwinism

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.

♡

There was an explosion. There were storms. There were inexplicable things happening that night. The scientists were saying that the situation at the lab was the result of some type of attack on the facility. That biological warfare was used and that the building fortunately had protocols in place to create a force field to shield the place from leaking… unfortunately, an explosion disabled the force field and a virus was possible released.

Folami worried. She had overheard that whatever virus released there would affect their powers, and she knew that she couldn’t be the only person in the city with powers. There were people like her all over the world. She had even met a couple whenever she was in college (well, when certain versions of her were in college) and that was a small town. There definitely had to be some here. And if that virus got to them, what if their powers were activated immediately when they breathed it and someone else was there? If somebody who wasn’t evolved to the state that she and people like herself were saw some of the things that they could do - it would be like a worst case scenario in one of those shows about people with superpowers.

That was what she called them when she was little, or more accurately, what her eldest sister called them. She was the only one in the family like this, so she presumed that she probably got it from her dad’s side. She and her sisters had different fathers. Her mother was not one to be held down forever. Why was she thinking about this? She needed to be figuring out what the hell that she would do now? She was employed at the place before it blew up and the people in charge purposefully left her for dead! She figured that all she could do at this point was go online and see if any people in the city with evolved genetics had spoken about it.

♡

The military issued a contamination isolation that affected a big portion of the city… and they created a barrier to keep possibly affected people trapped within the area.

Likewise, travel was temporarily suspended in and out of the city.

Treya Cooper was at the front of the line where one of the barricade openings was, insisting to the soldier, “There’s no way that I ingested or breathed in anything from that laboratory site. Do you know how far away my hotel is from that place? I came to this city for a conference, Man. I was supposed to be back in Mississippi two days ago.”

“Fat chance, Lady. No flights out until the city is cleared. It could take weeks,” the soldier told her.

Her eyes widened, then she furrowed her eyebrows. “You must be joking,” she said.

“Wish I was. The people are becoming more aggravated everyday.”

“I can’t stay here for weeks! What am I gonna do for work? How will I eat? Are y’all providing for us while you trap us here?”

“Not to my knowledge, but you don’t have much of a choice, Chick. I suggest you go back to your hotel, speak with them and see if they’re doing anything charitable, considering that they’re all stuck in here, too…” Before she could refute, someone got through the barrier, and went running for their life. A few others appeared ready to follow, but a sniper delivered a kill shot to the runner’s heart and everyone screamed and began to rush away from the barrier. “Damn shame,” the soldier said, shaking his head as someone came out of a nearby van, dressed in hazmat suits and collected the body. Treya had her hand over her heart.

She had seen people killed online. There was a new trend of people posting the bodies of slain black people “for awareness” and she had accidentally seen several via autoplay, no matter how many times she disabled it. But, this… in real life, a few feet away, and in such a scary way. She couldn’t even tell where the sniper was, and couldn’t think of why the body would be retrieved in such a way.

“What is it that they think that we’ve been contaminated with?” she asked, through tears, when she finally came out of her shock.

“Something that they don’t expect any of us to live beyond,” he said. For the first time, he turned to her, set a hand on her shoulder and repeated, “Go back to the hotel. See what’s what. If they don’t help you out, come back and see me tomorrow and I’ll hopefully have more information.”

“Are you gonna be shooting people, if they get out of this enclosure?”

“If I have to,” he said, with a simple nod. She left. The people who were out and about were in a state of madness.

♡

The scientist woke his Princess of Spades up with an injection. She opened her eyes quickly, but couldn’t move. “Good morning, Princess. I want to explain some things to you, as I’m sure that you’re quite confused. First, you’ll noticed that you can’t move. You can’t touch me. You can’t use your ability against me. Second, the girl that you tried to woo into helping you has been killed.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “She was trying. I’m not sure what her plan was, but it didn’t come to pass, as you’re still in my possession and she’s dead. Third, obviously, I know what you can do. You control people.”

“No. You’re wrong,” she said, softly.

“Then, tell me.”

“I see inside of them. I know their hearts, their conscious cares and fears. I speak to their hearts. I speak to their morality. I only empower them to do what they know is right.”

“What a pathetic ability,” he mused.

“Only to a narcissistic psychopath. Most people want to do what’s right, but they’re either confused as to what that is or they’re too afraid to do it. My power doesn’t work on you, because you are filled with darkness. Even that small shred of light within you would take whatever power that I grant your morality and corrupt it. You are unsaveable.” She barely moved her pinky and sighed.

“Probably because I don’t want or need to be saved.”

“If that’s true, then why have you taken so many of us? Those others in the lab - I’ve already looked inside of them. All of them were like me. They have powers. Your people took us to study us, yes… But, why? Why do most scientific studies exist? Because the scientist is looking for an answer to something. In your case - to evolution. You’re on a lower stage than we are and you can’t stand it. You want to be like this, and you’re not smart enough or powerful enough to be…” He injected her again and she passed back out.

“Rude,” he declared, before leaving her there, strapped to the chamber and closed it back.

♡

The city was on curfew, much of it shut down, trains weren’t running, cars weren’t allowed to go certain routes… Honestly - this was what she expected the end of the world to look like. Miranda texted her mother in the morning that she was fine, then ignored every single phone call from her afterwards. She already knew how those talks would go. Mrs. Browning would try to convince her to leave the city and say that the news proves that she was right all along, the big city was evil, and nowhere inside of it was safe. Miranda would then have to refute, letting her know that as a matter of fact, for her safety, much of the city was currently off limits and even if she wanted to leave that she couldn’t, because they were being so safe that folk couldn’t fly out, at the moment. Fortunately, classes were currently cancelled, so she didn’t have to focus on at least that one aspect of life, at the moment.

Instead, she curled up on the couch to watch TV and check the news several times. Usually, she hated the news. There were so many scare tactics and mass hysteria that she avoided it at all costs. Her memory was extremely good, flawless in fact. She would remember every single image and word that she saw or heard and decided at the mighty fine age of 12 that the news wasn’t where she wanted to find stuff to store in her mind for the rest of her foreseeable future. But, when something heavy happened - a natural disaster heading her way or something like whatever happened… She couldn’t help herself from being curious and concerned.

The fact that they seemed to only be speaking about the fallout, instead of explaining what happened was extremely concerning to her. First of all - no outlets seemed to be speaking with any normal people. Reporters weren’t taking it to the streets to see how the people possible affected felt, so she knew that meant that they must be trying to keep their distance.They were speaking with this professional and that specialist, this scholar and that leader. Not a single one of them explained what went down. Eventually, Bright White Light Industries released a list of all of the people who were inside of the building at the time of the attack and many began to mourn their lost loved ones or the loss of life, in general. At that point, Miranda checked out of the news. She now had 162 names and faces in her head of people who would never see their families again. It shouldn’t have happened, and she was curious to know why, but they weren’t going to tell anyone. She figured that out when the story changed from the horror of the attack to “justice for the fallen.” Yeah, but who attacked? Why that building? What is this virus that was mentioned, but not explained?

♡ At the Round Table, in the Dark

“The launch of the virus was a success. As predicted, whenever the virus was introduced into the system of the subjects, even subconsciously, their powers activated. They reacted, without even being awake and those who did wake up reflexively used their ability in self defense,” the scientist reported, showing a projection of the footage that he recorded of the inside of the facility during the launch. “Some of them had powers that ensured that they weren’t killed by the powers of the others, unless those powers only affect certain types. But, I have people retrieving any survivors found in the rubble,” he showed another projection of bodies being dug up, or snatched as they climbed out, injured. “We also have our soldiers in place to take the bodies of anyone who tries to escape the radius.”

“What will we do about these… What are we even calling them? Because, they aren’t human. They’re something else.”

“They are human,” the scientist corrected. They are humans who have naturally evolved beyond our current state. They’ve been called many things in various forms of lore. I believe that the most accurate would be to call them mutants, as they are already affected by the mutation that I believe will eventually be a part of human physiology. Some time in the future, humanity as we know it will be extinct, and those who are called human will be like these. Our main goal for the moment should be to get rid of all of those unworthy of this mutation and to figure out a way for those of us who are worthy to obtain it to do so and get ahead of the publicity.”

“And just where are you with figuring out how to make us like them?”

“I’ve created a way to grant abilities to the standard human, and the army of super soldiers that serve us are living proof of the possibility. We have not yet determined how to keep the condition.”

“So, they lose their powers, after a while?”

“They lose their lives. The ability doesn’t protect them in the same way that those who are born in that stage of evolution does. The ability does the opposite. It wears at them. It cuts their life expectancy in half.”

“So, at this current time, the only thing that you can do for us is to grant powers to us for less than forty years… and most of us are already that old.”

“That’s not exactly what I described, but sure. The formula is not yet complete. That’s why we have another facility in usage to further my work. If I’ve failed this assembly, kill me and find a scientist who is as good as me to finish what I’ve started.”

“Calm down,” another man at the table said. “We need to focus. Before we even knew that these people existed, we inherited the honor and responsibility of orchestrating and perpetuating systems to sift out the dodos. We’ll continue to ensure that undesirables are excluded from basic human rights and quality of life until we can achieve the level of evolution that it takes to openly wage war on the dregs with abilities. Increase the media coverage of the Big Guy in the White House and all of the plans he’s moving forward with, and in the meantime, mobilize our forces to exact higher levels of social injustices. Right now is a great time, in the city, because of the commotion of the attack. Many people are running wild and everybody outside the area are looking to blame someone. The police are our first line of defense. Select a few to offer a good, national newsworthy job in exchange for a transfer to a place of their choosing. If there’s nothing else?”

The scientist had more, “I want to try a mind controlling agent, for the event that the serum does not get perfected. I will need additional fund to work on this, as well.”

“You should always be working on mind control agents.”

“I will remember that.”

“In summation, the hot topics to currently stick with - patriotism, terrorism, immigration. We’ll bring vaccines back into rotation once we’ve figured out a way to undergo our evolution. When we get that power, those abilities, we submit the virus in vaccine form, and all those in the regular world will spontaneously activate. We make ourselves the invincible exceptions, prove that powers are fine, but ONLY within legal parameters, just like everything else. They’ll have to register, we’ll have the database and use who and what we might need accordingly. The terrified masses will likely handle the rest of them.”

[revolutionwhoop]

(R)Evolution 02: Banging on Plots and Plans

A five woman plan seemed small for a facility of this size and the capabilities that she presumed that it had, but she was willing to try anything to help that other woman. “The Princess” was what she thought of her as. She felt like she was literally on a quest to rescue a princess in distress. Something about that thought made her feel conflicted. On the one hand - the “damsel in distress” trope was played out, even if this was real life. On the other… The damsel was usually some white Mary Sue whose minority friends laid down their lives for her, despite the fact that no less than three handsome leads were willing to do it for her…

“GIRL. We do not live in the CW. Focus, here,” she heard her voice say. She halfway focused. This damsel was a BAP. More accurately, an African American Princess. Folami looked up her family and found that she was not only the daughter of a Nigerian-British politician with dual citizenship in America and strong ties with American Black communities for diaspora unity outreach and elevation… Her mother, a Black Latina feminist icon was the daughter of freedom fighters in South America. This Niyilolawa was literally a Black melting pot of liberation and greatness. It made her think that this was some type of political plot. But, why would whoever “they” was in this situation hold her here, in a lab for pharmaceuticals?

♡

“Dahlia, thank you for meeting with me today. We’ve seen great progress in your potential,” the scientist said. She felt uncomfortable around him. He usually had on some type of mask, like he was going through surgery or something, and often had on gloves. She had seen way too many movies for that not to alarm her.

“Okay, but can we fix it?” She asked.

“Fix it?” He repeated. “There’s nothing broken. Whatever is happening to you is natural. It is the way that your body was meant to evolve.”

She sighed, “That sounds all fine and good, but whenever I’m brushing my hair, and clumps of it fall out, or whenever I’m trying to take care of my plants and I’m allergic to everything that I’ve been living with for most of my life…”

“Your hormones are changing,” he said.

“Really. Like whenever I started my period? Oh my God, PLEASE do not tell me that there’s some kinda new period that my body might go through, because I could barely take the other one! Mess started when I was ten. It was excruciating.”

“I’m gonna level with you, Dahlia. This IS like having another period, for you. I’ve observed the changes in other women before, but each case is a little bit different. They all change biologically and naturally, but it manifests differently in their bodily chemistry. Your symptoms - allergic reactions, loss of hair, losing teeth, weight fluctuations, food aversions - I have never seen those with the others.”

“So, I have a special case new period.” She slumped in the chair, then said, “Thank you for your time, Doctor. I think I’ll just sign out of the program and get my affairs in order. This has got to kill me, right? I don’t know how much time I hve left, but I’d like to try to make it count.”

He chuckled, beneath the mask and shook his head, “Oh, no, Ms. Henderson. This change isn’t going to kill you, and I can’t let you leave the program. In fact, I must insist that we quarantine you and perform more invasive tests.”

Her face wrinkled and she shook her head, “No, thank you. I don’t want invasive testing, and how can you quarantine me, if you already said yourself that this is natural and nobody else’s case is like this? That means I can’t be contagious, right?” But, there were already guards in the room, to bring her into quarantine. She got up and made a dash past them.

“Be careful. She’s dangerous and contagious,” the scientist said. She tried to push her way through the door but was pricked in the neck with some type of needle. Her face changed, her hair grew, her adrenaline pumped and for a moment, she felt stronger and healthier, but the scientist removed a gun from his desk and shot her in the back. She screamed, fell to her knees and stopped fighting. “Hurry up and take her to containment. We’ll have to get her restrained before she gathers her vitality back.” The guards dragged Dahlia along the floor by her arms, making a path of her blood to containment. The scientist called in a team to collect samples of the DNA.

♡

Weeks of planning went by. Folami tried to pretend that she was fine and carry on with life as usual. The Uchechukwu family announced that they found their daughter, but declined further comment and asked the public for privacy. Conspiracy theories about where she might be were all over the place. Folami could have sworn that she saw her around the lab, at times, like an apparition, appearing first in all white, ethereal and glowing. But, each vision of her, she became duller, like she was fading. Her attire became dirty, until it was filthy. The voice “Do what you know is right,” was fading into a whisper…

Still, she followed it. It led her to this open area, with signs that read not to go beyond that point. However, the door opened when she made her way towards it. This was not according to plan and she could possibly get into a lot of trouble, but she couldn’t help it. She went forward and covered her mouth with both hands.

There were containment chambers in the room, holding bodies. She recognized the labels: Category 6, Nine E. Leaven… She rushed to the one called Bloom and saw Dahlia, unconscious, comatose, with dried blood on her clothes. “Dahlia,” she whispered, about to cry, but she heard someone whisper to her Hide. They’re coming… She rushed to find a hiding place and the tech from before entered with the scientist, having a crescending conversation.

“The virus would cause all of the evolveds’ powers to uncontrollably react. It gets into their systems, airborne, and when it reaches their bloodstream their condition snaps into action, as their immune systems naturally try to defend their bodies against this invasive assailant. What we haven’t been able to figure out is how the response time is determined. For instance, when we release the virus in this facility, we don’t know how long it would take for it to reach Bloom’s system as opposed to Evo-Lyn. If Category 6 reacts first, and this place is leveled by one of his storms, what we can’t be sure of is if Bloom could react quickly enough to survive or if Nine. E. Leaven explodes, if she’ll burn everyone before the virus enters their system to defend them.”

“Release it anyway. I believe that I have enough samples from everyone here to continue our work in the next facility. Prepare Princess of Spades for transport, evacuate essential personnel and begin the countdown to the release of the virus.” They casually passed through the laboratory as they said these things.

The whisper told her They will kill you if they find you. Save yourself. Live to fight another day. “Who are you?” she whispered back. I will be okay. Trust me… We all will be fine. Leave us. Save yourself… \

Folami crawled away, trying to make a move for the exit when she heard, softly, the same scary gentle call from the tech, “Analyst Adebowale.” She turned to see him in a hazard suit, reaching out for her. He shook his head and he lifted her up and she struggled with him to get away, calling out for help. “It’s unfortunate that we must do this to you. You were an interesting study. I wanted more time to be able to look into you, more.” He strapped her to a chamber and closed it around her.

“I have a team. My sisters will look for me!” She warned.

“That’s fine. You’ll be dead, by then. This building will be gone.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You’ll be buried and this place will be a wasteland. Nobody will come near it, for fear of radiation poisoning.”

“You’re going to activate a nuclear reaction?!?”

“No. But, whenever we release the terminal virus, Princess Toadstool will. For good measure, I let you bunk right next to her.” He patted the containment chamber of an unconscious woman to her right, then he left the room and turned off the lights. She gasped for air, having an anxiety attack as she cried.

“Four… Can you hear me? Something terrible is happening at the lab… Don’t come anywhere near it. Just… let me die, okay?” She said, sobbing.

♡

“If you ask me, something hella crazy is going on out there,” the woman on the other line of Miranda’s phone. “You’re in a big city - that’s where everything crazy always happens.”

“In the movies, Mom. In real life, everything crazy happens everywhere. We walk around calling it ‘life.’ I’m gonna stop giving you these courtesy calls if you keep spending them telling me to leave the city. This is where my life is. I’m not leaving the city. Did you get your check this month?”

“Yeah, I got that questionably large check.”

“It’s only questionable if you question it. Just accept the help, Mom. You and Keenan are always waiting on God to make a way. How can you know that I’m not the way that He made?”

“For one thing - you don’t even believe. Why would he use an unbeliever to deliver His blessings?”

“Well, if that money doesn’t get spent, I’m gonna spend it on sex toys, so pick a virtue, Mom…” Her mother cackled on the other end of the phone and she jumped. “I’m wearing an earpiece!”

“Sorry, Randi… Oh! Oh…”

“Are you waiting on me to ask you what?”

“No. Girl, I’m watching the TV and first of all, they got this black man on the news show talking about he was born white and all his life he was white and he been living white, but one day woke up black and since then everybody been racist to him. Chile… I don’t know what is going on with these people…” Miranda recalled that story, immediately. She remembered what the guy was talking about. She remembered him being a white man. A terrible white man, who himself was racist and rude. Whenever he first “came out,” she recognized his name. She could even compare in her mind his white face with the black face that he now had. She couldn’t explain why that would be stored away in her memory, so instead of questioning it, she guessed that she had to have had some kind of weird dream. “OH LAWD!” Her mother cried out, “Now… on the news show, they showed this commercial for a death pill. A DEATH PILL??? It’s fresh on the market, but no pharmacist or scientist can tell you where it came from or how it works, aside from everybody that has taken it DOES die. What world are we living in, Randi?”

“The same one we’ve been living in, Mom. Hey, Lady… I’ve made it home. I’m unlocking the door and I am now inside. Good night?”

“Good night. Lock them doors after you. This world has gone completely crazy.” She locked the door, disconnected her call and set her things down.

It’s BEEN crazy… She heard a loud explosion and she jumped and rushed to the window to see a mushroom cloud forming miles away. “Motherfuuu…” Then, there were rains, lightning, storms, fire, something that she could only describe as maybe a forcefield, encasing the place and all of that chaotic scenery was trapped inside of it. “Okay… So… The world’s gotten crazier,” She commented as the sounds of sirens, yelling, and other noise grew, all over the city.

♡

The four of Folami’s sisters were sitting, anxiously as the noise outside thundered throughout the sky and smells of destruction fumed through the air.  Folami gasped and her eyes went wide as her dead body vaporized and re-entered her system. Her sisters turned to face her in the room and she shook her head, “I’m not okay. That was the most painful death that I could ever imagine. I’m so sorry, Faith.” She held her hand over her heart and shook her head, “We couldn’t save her. We couldn’t save any of them. All that planning… for nothing…”

“Shhhh. You need your rest. We’ll help you recover,” One of them said, before merging with Folami, then the next, and then the next. Whenever she was whole again, the pain of one of her multiples dying had subsided.

Now, she went to the window to see what was going on out there. The lab had exploded. The site was an incredible sight. “Freedom, Fairness, Funball, Faith… Do you see this?” Of course they did. They were HER, after all. “What the hell do we do, next?” she asked herself.