Time: Unknown.
I was suddenly awoken to a painful electric stinging in my chest. "Ack!" My heart was under fire. I fought for breath. "Huff, huff, huff!" I calmed myself into remembering how to concentrate and soon I was at a steady rate. "Huff... Huff... Huff."
My sudden heart pain disappeared. Now for sure would I take more serious caution about my electrical energy. I looked up from staring at a white floor to take in my situation. I was chained to a wall in a big empty room of four white walls.
Huh? Where am I? Is this... somewhere within the... mansion I saw? I tried to focus my energy. I need to bust out of this and find Daina. I can feel in my very being that she is in here somewhere. Is it possible that I can sense the presence of others? This must be what that feeling means. Light Boost, Level Two!" Absolutely nothing happened. Huh!? That's never happened before. I should try again. I focused harder. "Uh, Light Boost, pretty please?" My muscles tensed this time, but the effect was weak. I'll take what I can get. I pulled and struggled but my chains refused to break. "AARGH! Why... Why am I so weak all of a sudden!?"
"So, you finally realize your situation, huh?"
I gasped. That voice! It can't be! I watched as a hole opened in the ceiling and a figure jumped down, leaving me in awe. Taking a good look at the man, I knew that my eyes were not being deceived. Standing there before me in the center of the room, in all-black attire with the insignia of a white sun on the shirt, was my step teacher for History. "Mr. Diego! What are you doing here? What is the meaning of this!?"
"Relax, relax, child," Santiago replied in that same condescending manner as his sister. "Firstly, you may refer to me as Mr. Water." I growled silently, still confused out of my skull as to what was going on.
"Okay, Mr. Water... Why did you bring me here? I'm sure that you are the one who knocked me out."
"And you would be right!" He shot me a fake smile. "Now, for the main event. Please, observe." I finally took notice of the control device he had in hand. He pushed a button on it and I watched as a large trapdoor opened in the floor near the left wall of the perfectly square room. The next thing I saw made the color drain from my skin.
My amazing vision took in every excruciating detail as a platform with a mounted seat was raised up. In that seat was an unconscious, tied up, beaten and abused Daina Scotland. Shock multiplied on my face. Her wounds told me that she had been fighting for her life and lost.
"No..." If my vision had not been the way it was, I would have been in denial. But a great sorrow was what overtook me instead. "No way..." I whispered, my voice breaking. It... can't be... My tears were then flowing in buckets. How... could... anyone... be... so... cruel? Who would... do this... to a woman? I felt genuine despair and sadness such as never before in my young life.
"There it is! The look I was waiting to see. If only Angelina were here!" exclaimed Santiago. Unable to watch any longer, I turned my face. "Don't look away, Billy!" He began his psychological warfare. "Take in this beautiful sight! Take it all in! The pain, the confusion, the disillusionment, the ANGUISH! These were the things that my sister felt. They have been dealt back ten-fold!" My eyes were shut tight. I had seen too much. My heart was aching again, but this time not from electrocution. "Come on! Stop being a stubborn child. Look-look-look!" He said the next part in a sing-song voice. "You-know-you-want-to!"
My eyes flew open. "SHUT UP!!" I felt my burning heart pulsing by seven times the healthy speed. Untold rage flowed through me. "JUST SHUT UP, YOU CONNIVING SNAKE!!" I blazed the most hateful glare I could muster at the obvious culprit of this most heinous crime. Much to my indignation, he was now standing near her. "Hey... What are you doing?" He smiled perversely as he reached a hand towards her hair. Suddenly, my insides grew hot. "If you lay even one finger on her, I will..."
"Haven't you hit puberty yet?" His hand deviated towards her bosom.
"Stop right there! You will hurt her no further!!" I felt my muscles, all of them, bulk up, to the point that my clothes were beginning to tear apart. With a burst of strength the tight clips at my wrists and ankles were shattered, allowing me to drop to the floor. I sank into it as soon as my feet touched down, as if I was suddenly heavier. My Force-Manipulation must have been out of control. A faint blue glow was outlining my body, meaning that I was the in third level of Light Boost. "YOU COWARD! YOU FOOL!! YOU DARE TO INTERFERE WITH SOMEONE SO DEAR TO ME!? YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!!!"
Santiago turned to me with a knowing smile. He withdrew his hand. "Interesting!" It was no longer just the feeling in my chest. My entire body was screaming "danger." I could now see that I was sensing the very Plasma Energy inside of him. I hovered my left hand over my Plasma Band. Santiago adopted a wicked smile, laced with veritable malice. "Go ahead, transform." I almost gasped, almost. How could he have known about my uniform? "There's no need to prolong this any further. Say goodbye to your precious "sister." This is the last time you'll ever see her again."
I glanced at Daina and my anger only grew, overshadowing my shock. "No, you're wrong! I'll defeat you and get us out of here. You'll see!" I slammed my band, yelling, "Plasma Force Transform!" There was a burst of blue light, and I was suited up in my uniform, expect my helmet for some odd reason. I pulled into a loose boxing stance. "Meet Zipzap of the Plasma Force! Welcome to your doom!"
"Humph!" Santiago pressed a button the controller and Daina was returned to the floor below and out of sight. "Let's get started."
I thought nothing of this because I could now fight without fear of her getting further involved. It was man-to-boy. "Can you keep up with me? Here I come!" I broke out into a full sprint towards him.
Immediately, I noticed something wrong. I felt strong for sure, but I was slower than I should have been. This was quickly made evident when Santiago easily ducked my opening right punch, side-stepped the follow up left hook, and slid under a roundhouse kick. His movements flowed gracefully like water in a calm stream. "I thought you were faster than this?" he taunted.
"HAAA!!" I screamed as I began throwing a storm of punches. He dodged and weaved around, no selling each and every one of them. "What!?"
"My turn. Jet Shot!" Santiago suddenly spat water at me in a similar fashion as Daina's Mercury Splash!
"Whaaaahh!!" I cried as I was sent flying from being hit in the chest. I landed hard on my back. "Owww!" I felt my chest to find a hole in my shirt! I looked at my chest and there was a healing wound. "Your attack just now… Can you punch through steel!?"
"Not with that move… But more importantly, get up. We're not done yet."
I got up. "Ugh, I'm already feeling tired. My last recorded max capacity was approximately two Giga Joules. I can't seem to control my Plasma Energy very well right now. I wonder why…?" I looked down at my belt buckle.
"Where are you looking!?" exclaimed Santiago, suddenly in front of me.
"WHOA!!" I jumped back just in the nick of time to avoid a ring of water that was about to ensnare me. "You did something to me… didn't you?"
Santiago gave me a knowing smile. "And what if I did?"
I said nothing as I made my characteristic two finger gun with my right hand, coated the glove in copper, and aimed at him. The special gloves made it so that I did not need to waste energy making the coating of tungsten, as my uniform protected my skin from self harm. "I may be slow right now, but let's see you dodge this!" Blue static gathered into a fuzzy ball on my fingertips. "Lightning Bolt!" Faster than a bullet, but still slower than real lightning, a stream of static shot out. Santiago took the attack head-on, but did not let out so much as a scream. I scowled as I quickly figured out why.
The 'Santiago' I was facing burst into a steaming puddle of water onto the floor. I had been ignoring it, but my reading ability was registering nothing the whole time he had been talking to me, just like with the fake Daina on the pier. "So you do have some fight in you!" called his voice. The ceiling door opened again and another Santiago dropped down, causing my scowl to grow ugly. My ability seemed to be working again, so this one was the real one. "Now there's a hard look! Here's a present just for you. No need to thank me." Santiago began to gush out a lot of water at the ground. When he was done, he waved his arms around gracefully. "Plasma Power: Water Apparitions!"
I beheld in awe as the water glowed as it rose up as pillars and transformed into veritable exact replicas of Santiago. Interestingly, the clones looked totally real and not made of water, just like the first I just defeated. I counted about thirty in all. "Great Scott!"
"Go! Attack!" ordered Santiago with a cheeky smile.
"With pleasure!" exclaimed thirty voices in unison as the clones charged at me.
This will take a good chunk of my waning energy, but… I formed a White Blade in each hand, but I noticed a problem. My hand blades were vibrating so much that it hurt. What!? This red flag brought into focus that I was not alright and I was on a timer. "Flash Assault: Blade Rage!!" This time when I charged forth, I was able to bring out a good showing of speed. I went to each Clone, dodged whatever attack they attempted and delivered a powerful slash to counter. Only one slash was required to defeat each clone, as they would just explode back into water. Once the group was neutralized, I turned my sights on the real Santiago. I felt an irrational desire to slash him up with my blades, but I knew better, so I dispelled them. Also, I could no longer take the pain of maintaining them.
"Huh? What's this!? Are you some kind of coward? I thought you wanted to kill me or something for a moment there."
"Don't push me! I won't sink down to your level! But, keep talking and maybe I just might beat you to an inch of your life!" I clenched my right fist and coated it in chromium. I channeled a great deal of energy to it and it crackled violently with heavy blue static. "I've had enough! I'll defeat you right now!" I prepared to charge and Santiago got on the defensive. "Super Thunder Fist!!" I dashed forward at a speed of 40 meters per second.
"Heavy Water: Wall!" Santiago held his hands out in front of him as he spat out an incredibly clear water that formed into a wall. I tried to punch through the wall but it was no use; I slammed into it and came to a most painful full stop. The wall was strongly fortified with Santiago's Force-Manipulation. "Caught you! Aqua Constriction!" Santiago hugged himself.
"NO!" I cried as the water wall quickly surrounded and trapped me. "AAAHH!!" I screamed as the water tightened around me. It stopped compressing as soon as Light Boost dropped and my uniform changed back into my normal clothes. All of my strength was just gone, leaving me panting for breath. I felt a trickle of blood rolling down from the edge of my mouth.
Santiago settled into an easy stance as he smiled victoriously at me. "This was your first real battle, huh? I suppose this is about the amount of challenge I could have expected from a newbie. I just don't see why Leader is so interested in you."
"Leader?" I repeated. "Just… who are you? Why do you have APEH? How are you so skilled?"
"You really do have a lot of PE. Fine, I suppose I can humor you for a bit before you pass out." Santiago made a circle using his thumb and first finger. "I am Mr. Water, proud member of the Burning Solaris, heralds of the coming era of greatness and revolution."
I gasped. "THE BURNING SOLARIS!? You mean that arms dealer company that was disbanded years ago!? This is impossible!"
"Well, we still sell weapons on the black market to keep up costs, but that's not our real goal." He was not lying, at all. I calmed down. "As for why I have Plasma Power, as Leader calls it, it's simple. Two and a half years ago I was once at a very low point, fresh out of jail after spending some time in a hospital. I didn't care about trying to claw my way back into this world. I wasn't just zero, I was way minus. Then they appeared, like two beams of sunlight in a tunnel of darkness. They offered me this power, and even though I was informed that the process to receive it could kill me, I was like "why not?" I took the chance, and here I am now. Like them, I have transcended humanity!"
I would have growled at his hubris, but I did not have the energy to do even that. I could already feel myself going numb. My weakening energy was erratic and unresponsive. "Good… for… you…"
"I was encouraged to bring you alive, but not mandated. I think they can make do with your corpse. I'm not going to take any chances. For the complete realization of my sister's revenge, as well as the riddance of a possible thorn to my comrades... you must disappear now. Rest assured that your precious "sister" will follow you to heaven soon… But not before I've finished having my fun."
"Why… you…!" I managed.
"It really is too bad; I genuinely enjoyed talking with you." That was a blatant lie, and I knew it even without my reading ability working. "Now, it's time to wash out a stain."
My eyes were already closed by the time he balled his hands. I could only groan in pain as the water trap began to squeeze, exerting a frightening pressure as it covered my head this time. My body tried to fight it with a last pocket of Force-Manipulation defense, but it was futile. I was just too drained. Mom, Dad, Ameera… William, Julie, Arthur, Tanaka… Daina, I'm so sorry. I was powerless to do anything. I hope you can forgive me. With that thought, my world went dark.