The Aether Project: Bryce

Bryce sat beside his backpack on the pew in the cold empty church with his head in his hands as he had for the past five hours, not bothered by the hard seat digging into his back or the cold air on his exposed arms. Nothing moved. Bryce's heavy breathing echoed loudly in the silence of the huge sanctuary. The only light came from the huge stained glass window above the alter, but the colored light fell far from the blond eighteen year old boy. A spider moved in the wooden rafters high above the gray stone floor.
The silence was broken as the heavy oak door to the sanctuary was opened and a small older man walked calmly into the vaulted room. He looked around until he spotted the young man seated off to the far left of the room. The boy hadn't looked up when the man had walked in, so the man walked to the boy and sat next to him.
“Bryce...”
“They killed her, Michael.” Bryce interrupted quietly.
Michael sighed.
“Yes, I heard. This should never have happened. I shouldn't have involved you.”
“No, you had no choice. All of those people would be dead if you hadn't.” said Bryce calmly, without looking up.
“Even so. The world of espionage and underground crime; this isn't your world. You should be graduating high school and getting ready for collage, not saving lives.” Michael spoke quietly, almost a whisper.
“Yet I am saving lives. I'm helping people. Who else will help if I don't? Who else can help if I don't?” Bryce said, finally looking up and starring intently at the older man.
“We have someone else who could take over where you left off. If you wanted to leave, we would let you go.” Michael spoke in a stronger voice. Bryce just continued to stare at him.
“Think about it. You could walk out of here right now and never hear about the AWAIT Initiative ever again.”
“Who would replace me?” asked Bryce, sitting up a little straighter.
“It doesn't matter. The less you know the better.”
Bryce stood, his black cargo pants rustling in the quiet. He lifted his pack to his shoulder and began to walk to the exit in the back of the church. Michael stood and followed him.
“I have one last piece of advice before you decide.” said Michael as he caught up to the boy. “Men are not defined by the choices they make. They are defined by why they make them. It doesn't matter what you choose, just make sure you choose for the right reasons.”
Bryce thought of the reason he was doing this. At first it had been to save the lives of those who couldn't save themselves. But now, after all that had happened. After what they had done to her...
“I have a mission to do, Michael. I have lives to save.”
Michael sighed and stopped walking, letting the young man leave him behind.

The night found Bryce standing in the shadows across the street from a large warehouse checking the contents of his bag. Out of it he pulled a 10mm Glock G20, which he hid in a holster covered by his jacket. He than hid two spar clips of ammunition in his pocket and pulled a GPS from the bag. He than activated the small device. Five hundred miles overhead an orbiting satellite transmitted infrared video to Bryce's hand held device. Bryce studied the small screen and counted out the moving hot spots inside. Twelve people inside. Probably all armed. Only one guard inside the entrance building.
Bryce double checked the handgun than sprinted from the shadows to the door. He than opened it and stepped calmly inside. The guard, who sat behind a desk ten feet away from where Bryce stood, looked up at Bryce.
“Hello, sir. Can I help you?” the guard spoke in a way that implied that helping Bryce was the last thing on his mind.
“Yes, I seem to be a little lost.” replied Bryce, approaching the desk.
“Yes you do. Where are you trying to go?” at that moment the phone on the desk rang.
“Excuse me for a moment.” The guard lifted the receiver to his ear.
“Front desk. Yes sir. No he's... what? Are you sure?” the guard nervously looked at Bryce and than back down at the desk.
“Yes. I'll take care of it.” the guard put the phone down in the cradle and stood, reaching under the desk as he did so. As soon as he saw this movement, Bryce began to focus. Time seemed to slow, leaving Bryce to move faster than the rest of the world. Much faster.
From the guards point of view Bryce became a blur of motion.. The boy who only seconds before had seemed unthreatening was suddenly speeding across the room faster than the guard thought possible.
Bryce saw the guard pull the gun from the desk in slow motion. By the time the guard had brought the gun to bare, Bryce was at the desk. He jumped, letting his momentum carry him through the air. He twisted mid jump to avoid the bullet that tore through the air inches from his face. Than he was within striking distance. Bryce struck the man in chest with his fist, the impact shattering the mans ribcage, sending splinters into the mans heart. The man fell to the floor, his blood staining the white tile. The kill had taken less than three seconds. But the shot the guard had fired would alert the others. Bryce's focus was broken and the world seemed to speed up again. The boy walked to the door that lead deeper into the office, carefully opened it and peered through. On the other side he saw a long white hallway, with two doors on the right and one at the other end.
Bryce ran for the last door, but before he had gone five feet, the door opened and two guards rushed through, weapons raised. Bryce dove for the first door, opened it and threw himself through the opening just as the guards began firing.
Bryce looked around the small office, than ran to a mahogany desk at the far wall. Sweeping the computer monitor that rested on it onto the floor, Bryce flipped the desk onto it's side and crouched behind it, peering over the top at the door.
The first guard ran through the entrance gun blazing. He managed to put three bullets into the thick wood before Bryce casually aimed and sent a burning piece of lead into the unfortunate man's scull, killing him instantly. The second guard was less aggressive, and used the door as cover as he sent a volley of buckshot right over Bryce's head. The guard was disabled with a bullet to the wrist, after which Bryce left the man unconscious and bleeding.
Bryce continued quickly down the hall and had just run past the second door when he was hit by a burning wave of electricity. His legs gave out from under him and he fell to the ground, unable to control the violent spasms that wracked his body. Fighting to keep his eyes from rolling back into his scull, Bryce saw a scared looking scientist standing over him holding a taser. Wires connected the weapon to contact needles buried in Bryce's back. The boy closed his eyes, clenched his teeth and focused all of his considerable willpower into reaching for the needles with his left hand. Finding them, he ripped them from his skin, the barbs tearing and shredding flesh as they were removed. By the time the effects of thirty thousand volts coursing up the spine had worn off the scientist was gone, probably hiding. Bryce grunted as he stood, than buried the pain deep into his subconsciousness.
The boy walked the final ten feet towards the door at the end of the hallway, leaving a trail of dark red splatters on the white tile behind him. He pushed at the heavy metal door, but it was locked tightly into place.
Bryce took a step back, closed his eyes and felt the world around him slow to a near stop. He opened his eyes and stepped towards the door, slamming both his palms into the metal at the same time. The door exploded away from his hands and into the room beyond. On the other side of the now empty doorway stood four scientists and four guards. The guards had formed a semicircle around the doorway and were pointing automatic weapons and Bryce's direction. Three of the scientists standing around tables covered in computer equipment looking scared. The other scientist was frantically working at a computer terminal on the other side of the room. Careful not to let his focus slip, Bryce waited for the guards to make a move. A nearly imperceptible tightening of one of the guards trigger fingers was all it took. To the guards, it looked as if their target disappeared.
The guards didn't have a chance. The guard on the far left fired a shot than seemed to explode into a cloud of red. Before the guard to his right had a chance to turn and see what had happened, his head was forcibly rotated three hundred and sixty degrees. A half second later the guard on the right flew straight up and hit the concrete ceiling at ninety miles per hour, instantly crushing his skull. The final guard panicked and sent a spray of bullets around the room, killing the scientist at the computer and hitting a pipe running along the ceiling. There was a hissing noise than the pipe exploded, engulfing the final guard in flames and shattering Bryce's concentration. The world sped back up to normal and sound filtered it's way back into Bryce's consciousness. The scientists screamed and ran for the doorway, but were crushed as part of the ceiling collapsed.
Bryce tried to regain his focus, but the building was wracked by another explosion, breaking Bryce's concentration and nearly knocking him to the ground. Bryce struggled to regain his balance and sprinted for the computer terminal. The boy was shocked to find a picture of himself along with his age, birth parents, hometown and other information. Near the bottom of the list was a line of text that read 'Aetheian Status: Confirmed genetic line through mother. Confirmed member of Aether Project'.
This stopped Bryce cold. The Aether Project was the most highly guarded secret of AWAIT. Not even Bryce knew exactly what it was. As far as he knew, it had something to do with the ancestral line that gave him his abilities. He was supposed to have been the only success.
Bryce clicked over to the next profile. It was a girl with dark skin and hair. She looked middle eastern. The screen only listed a first name, 'Mira'. Bryce looked to the bottom of the list. 'Aetheian status: unconfirmed genetic line through both parents. Suspected member of Aether Project'.
In a flash of understanding Bryce remembered Michaels words. We have someone else... There were more like him! Bryce scrolled to the next picture, but only had enough time to read the name before the ground five feet to his left exploded outwards, knocking him to the concrete floor. It only took a glance to see that the computer was destroyed, the terminal lay on it's side and the screen had shattered.
Bryce scrambled to his feet and ran for the door. He had no sooner gotten through it when the ceiling over the computer collapsed, followed quickly by the rest of the room. The white walls of the hallway were charred and burning. Bryce made a beeline for the end of the hall, but the pipes along the ceiling exploded, blocking the path between the first and second doors with debris. Brice ran through the first door and found himself in a office. No way out except for back into the inferno of the hallway. Unless... Bryce tried again to focus. The world slowed slightly, the noise dimmed. Flames burst into the room from the hallway, bathing Bryce in heat. Bryce felt himself losing his concentration, distracted by the heat. He focused harder and ignored them and went deeper into his mind, blocking all noise, all feeling. When he finally opened his eyes, the world was silent, still. Bryce's mind was completely empty of conscious thought. He walked slowly past frozen flames and to the wall. He didn't stop. When he reached the barrier Bryce calmly placed one hand on it's surface. It seemed to ripple, than explode into dust.
An emotion penetrated Bryce's conscious. Surprise. He had never done that before. With thought came feeling. Intense heat. Bryce felt the world start to move. He heard the muffled roar of the flames.
Bryce ran for the door, nearly tripping over the bullet riddled desk he had used as cover earlier. When he made it to the hall, it was like stepping through the gated of hell. Their was fire everywhere. Jets of flame shot from the pipes, scorching the walls. The world suddenly began to fade and Bryce felt himself running to the exit. He crashed through the door to the lobby. The color started to drain from the world around him. He jumped the desk and flew through the door out into the night air. Everything flashed white, than faded to black.

When Bryce awoke he found him self being carried on a stretcher. He caught fragments of convorsations.
"Increadable that... no major burns."
"Yeah, he should..."
"...gaping hole in... back"
"Wait, he... gun!"
Bryce ignored the voices. All he could think about was the last name he had seen on the computer.

Lluth