Prologue

1) All times are UTC 2) All characters are fictional. Any reference to a real person is purely co-incidental.

Prologue: Discord

April 3rd, 2027 

London, 2:34 AM:

Two men, dressed completely in black except for their masks, which were sparkling white, step into a decrepit, crumbling building which once served as an orphanage. The most peculiar thing about them, leaving the fact that they were in a decrepit building past midnight, were their masks, pearly white and patterned in red and blue.

The shorter man had a mask with small red flame-like patterns on the border and went by the alias Shard. The other had a blue flame-like pattern on his mask just below his mouth and above his eyelids. He went by the alias Shade.

“Are you sure it’s here?” Asked Shard. He was small and scrawny and spoke in a high-pitched drawl.

“Positive,” replied Shade. He was tall and stout but his voice was barely a whisper. It gave Shard chills every time he heard it. Although it was soft, it was surprisingly clear and always sounded like it was spoken just behind his ears.

“Here it is,” said Shade. He stopped in front of a pillar that was half eaten by termites. He raised his arm and in one sharp blow, reduced it to rubble. In the broken remains of the pillar, two black orbs with blue and red glowing lines shone like floodlights. Shard and Shade picked up their respective orbs.

They took the orbs and left as quietly as they had come.

April 4th, 2027

Sydney, 1:56 AM:

Shade and Shard had reached Sydney Port at midnight and were currently walking through Dock 3.

“You’ve messed up this time haven’t you?” Asked Shard.

“No. I’m dead sure it’s here,” said Shade.

“That’s what you’ve been saying for the last two hours.” muttered Shard. “You know what happens to people who miss it right?”

“You can’t even decode a binary digit, so you’d better shut your mouth before I throw you underwater.”

Shard gulped. He knew better than to challenge Shade. He could probably kill with a punch.

As they were walking past ship 141, Shard said, “Hey, do you smell that?”

Shade sniffed with an air of annoyance. If he hadn’t been wearing a mask, Shard would’ve seen his eyes widen in fear for the first time.

“Duck.” Said Shade.

“Wha-" said Shard before Shade’s strong arm brought itself down on his head. His knees buckled and he fell forward. He thought he felt blood flowing down his nose as he hit the ground face-first. Besides him, Shade lied low with his fingers up his ears.

Only minutes later Shard realized why. BOOOM. Ship 141 erupted in a fireball. A burst of red light blinded Shard. His eardrums would’ve burst without the protection of his mask. Shade lifted him up by the collar. It took him a few seconds to regain control of his body. Knees still shaking, he stood up straight. Only after 1 minute, 21 seconds did he regain his composure.

In the place of ship 141, a submarine stood with the hatch opened. Another man with a mask was standing inside. His mask was pattern-less.

“You didn’t have to be so rough, you know,” said Shard as he wiped the blood off of his nose.

“Be thankful you’re still alive.”

Shard threw him a dirty look. “So where is it this time?” Shard asked the white mask.

“Mariana Trench,” he said.

Chennai, five hours earlier:

Five masked people were sitting around a circular table. The room was dimly lit and all the walls were painted pitch black. It was almost impossible to know where the door was since it too, was pitch black.

The man sitting opposite the door called himself Chaos. His mask was patterned with a black spiral winding around his left eye. He had invited four other members " Talon, Dragon, Night and Titan.

Talon had an orange vertical eye-like pattern on his forehead. Dragon had a deep purple moustache pattern. Night had a fluorescent green slash mark. Titan had a grey circle on his right check and grey lines emerging from it.

“So why have you called an emergency meeting before the scheduled one Chaos?” asked Night. Her voice was high pitched and very clear.

“I would like to know as well,” said Titan.

“Very well then, I’ll ignore the pleasantries and move straight to the point. Everything I am going to say is of utmost importance. It can decide the fate of the company and perhaps the world.”

The atmosphere instantly became tense. The food was served but nobody ate a single bite. Everybody sat rigidly on their chairs.

“Listen well. As you very well know, our current leader, Dust, has added five new members to the organization. None of our researchers has had any success in perfecting the serum. Our sponsors are losing interest in us. The KGB and MI6 are threatening to cut funding unless we show results. These are tough times for us indeed,” said Chaos. Chaos was the vice-president of the ‘organization’. Talon, Night, Titan and Dragon were the members who were most loyal to him.

“Even in these troubling circumstances, Dust keeps on adding new employees. We are going into a loss. If this keeps going on, we’ll be bankrupt within two years!”

Chaos paused. In the utter silence of the room, all the members sat with tight faces. The one advantage of masks was that no-one could tell what you were thinking from your face. Everyone already knew where this was going. They knew this time was going to come someday or the other.

“I think it’s time Dust retires. We will vote him out of the board of directors. Five people are quite enough to secure a majority.”

“Whoever’s with me raise your glasses,” said Chaos. The time had come. He would defeat Dust and take his place. The four people in front of him were loyal. They would definitely agree,

Talon, Dragon, Titan and Night raised their glasses. Chaos smiled.

“For Synapse,” said Chaos.

“For Synapse,” repeated the rest.

They drank from their glasses. Dust was going down.

Mariana Trench, 2:03 AM:

Roughly 11 kilometres under the sea, lays Challenger Deep, the lowest known point on the Earth’s crust. Directly above it lies one of the most advanced research facilities on this planet. Around one hundred and twenty scientists in black lab coats and white masks had assembled in the hall.

“As you all know,” said the scientist on stage. He had the blackest coat and the brightest mask. “My team has successfully developed a new version of the Serum. NB1.2 has now shown success in higher animals. Mice injected with NB1.2 have cleared most standard tests of intelligence much faster than normal mice. However, the most startling discovery was that they had formed groups among themselves.”

A few scientists gasped. The orator smiled. This was going exactly as planned.

“That’s right. This shows a significant improvement in intelligence. To be able to form groups and collectively solve complex tasks by getting help from others is a tremendous feat for a mouse. But even more shockingly, they are now able to cheat each other.”

“Looks like G won,” one of the scientists whispered to his colleague.

“We have not started human testing yet, but we will soon do so.”

The scientists left the hall.

“Let’s start,” G said to his teammate. They walked to the human containment area. The human containment area, as the name suggests, was used to contain the test subjects who suffered mental damage from earlier versions of NB. They were kept alive so that they could be restored to normalcy once NB was perfected.

G waited as his subordinates brought Subject 324 towards him. Subject 324 had lost muscle control due to nerve disconnection by NB0.4. G filled a syringe with NB1.2 and then released it into his blood.

Two minutes later, Subject 324 started having muscle spasms. He dropped down from his wheelchair and started writhing on the ground.

“CONSTRAIN HIM!” shouted T, the scientist in charge of the HCA.

“NO! Wait,” said G.

T waited. G was his superior and superiors’ orders were to be obeyed. That was the best and only way to survive at Synapse.

After three minutes, Subject 324 got up. He looked around, amazed at his ability to do so. He opened his mouth and mimed some words. After a few attempts, he spoke “Ru...dolph. I..... want.... Rudolph.”

G shed a silent tear. Subject 324 suffered from complete memory loss. The organization got people who were suffering from mental disorders and then did experiments on them in an attempt to one day perfect Drug NB. Rudolph was the name of subject 324’s son.

“It’s alright.... We’ll take you to Rudolph,” spoke G.

Subject 324 smiled and sat down on his wheelchair.

“Prepare a submarine. Take him to the groundbase and call his son.” T ordered some of the officials to do the same.

“Bring the others!” shouted G. Hopefully, this would end with them becoming normal and G becoming head scientist at Synapse.

Mariana Trench, 3:00 AM:

This room was black in colour as well, but unlike Chaos’ pitch black, this one was rich velvet black.

At the head of the black rectangular table sat Dust, the leader of the ‘organization’.  His mask, unlike his subordinates’ was as white as snow. There were no patterns.

Shard, Shade, Talon and Night sat on one side while Titan, Chaos, Dragon and another woman known as Wrath sat on the other. She had blood-red patterns in the form of extended mouth and eye edges. “Welcome,” Dust said. “To the 29^th annual meeting of Synapse.”

Reviews

[luvs2write]

This is really interesting! You had my attention from beginning to end. As for a title, don't worry about it. When you come up with the right one you'll know it. =) I think I caught a few typos, but I'm pretty sure you'll find them if you scan over it. I think this has good potential...I really liked it. Keep writing!!

[PreferToBeUnknown]

Thanks a lot :D That just goes to give me more confidence. :D