02x33: Deceptive Reality

Austin, depressed from what he learned earlier, discovers some horrifying truths.

DECEPTIVE REALITY

 

     Saturday was not the usual relaxing day Austin very well remembered it to be. He just couldn’t believe that after everything they’ve been through, Joel would do that. Granted, he never showed him that much attention but he was the closest to a brother he can be to Joel for the year aside from Ernst.

    

That night, Kyle knocked on his door. Austin, of course, answered it.

     “Hey, Kyle…”

     “Why the long face?”

     “Oh nothing, Joel just gave Janella a rose.”

     “S**t.”

     Austin staggered back to the inside of the room as Kyle closed the door and followed him. Austin sat on the bed and his face was emotionless.

     “What happened?”

     “He told me he had a crush on her a week ago. He told her earlier. Last Friday, we had to go to an MTAP competition.”

     “Go on…”

     “And after that, I told him about my silver medal. He replied by telling me about his red rose.”

     “Holy sh�" this is not good.”

     “You’re talking like me. What do I need to do in this situation?”

     “Just calm down. Does Janella like Joel?”

     “As a friend, sure.”

     “But how about you? She likes you right? You two are ‘MU’?”

     “Yeah, I guess. I’m such an idiot when it comes to these things.”

     “Well, just trust her. Part of a relationship is being faithful to your partner. The counterpart of this is trust.”

     “I trusted Joel with my life, now it’s in ashes. I’m pretty sure she’s more trustworthy.”

     “There you have it. Look, if that’s really how she feels, then you’ll be her guy at the end of time.”

     “But still, I can’t believe Joel would do that.”

     “Me neither, considering what you told me about him.”

     Austin was still not feeling well. He stood up.

     “I need some fresh air.”

     Austin went to the balcony and switched the Band to psychic.

     “Where are you going?”

     “Just somewhere.”

     Austin flew off and headed for the school.

 

He landed on the fourth floor in front of the TLE labs and just stared out of the balconies. He looked at the two flagpoles on each side of the stage. For some reason, he just stared at these two flagpoles for quite some time before realizing what he was doing and diverting his attention elsewhere.

     He looked at the sky this time. It was dark and cloudy. The moon was blocked by the clouds. He couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to let this anger out.

     He switched the Black Band to Pyrokinesis and just charged a giant fireball and fired it over the balcony. After this, he heard someone moving from behind him. He turned around to face the hallways behind him.

     “Who’s there?” a familiar voice said from the hallway.

     “Who are you?” he said in a defensive tone.

     Soon, he saw the figure of Sir Rommel emerging from the hallway.

     “Sr. Rommel?”

     “Oh, Austin…”

     “I know I’m not supposed to be here. I’ll go now.”

     “Wait, it’s okay.”

     “It is?”

     “Why are you here?”

     “I don’t know. I just wanted to distance myself from my problems. When I have problems, I look over a balcony and shoot stuff off it but I can’t do that in the same building as my problem.”

     “I see.”

     “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not really in the mood to tell you. I mean, I know you’re not asking but just in case you might I would just like to apologize in adva�"“

     “Austin, calm down. If you don’t want to tell me, it’s none of my business.”

     Austin looked at Sr. Rommel’s face and saw an expression that subtly said “secrets”. He could really care less for images interpreted by his mind so he resumed looking over the balcony.

     “Austin?”

     “Yes, sir?”

     “I can’t keep secrets from you while you’re like this.”

     “What do you mean, sir?”

     “Wait here.”

     Sr. Rommel went back in the hallways. After a few seconds, he was back out wearing a white and green Seton jacket.

     “Let’s take the alternative route.”

     They went to the far side of the Mindanao Building and went down the flight of stairs there, all the way to the first floor. They took a right turn to the bottom of the final flight of stairs where a curious little opening existed.

     “Have you ever wondered what was in there? Janitor’s closet or sinister conspiracy?”

     “Not really.”

     Sr. Rommel went inside the opening and there was a panel with a LCD screen and a keypad. Below the keypad was a circular opening with a thin bar, with a diameter of about one inch, extending inside it horizontally.

     “Dr. Suarez would fire me for telling you this but you should know this eventually. I think now’s the best time.”

     Sr. Rommel input a code. It was 142-708-121-705. The circular opening and the horizontal bar glowed a bright blue.

     “Dr. Suarez changed the power code already. Since Sr. Leo’s in charge at the moment, you’ll have to use the power sap spoke. Just activate the power while holding on to the bar while�"“ he said before reaching into the pockets of his jacket and taking out a small, green, diamond-shaped, rock. “�" inserting this into the diamond-shaped cavity at the back. Fairly simple.”

     So Sr. Leo’s power was Power Sap. That’s why it couldn’t be identified at all. It wasn’t a glitch or Dr. Suarez’s intervention but rather his own.

     Austin switched the Band to Power Sap and put the rock in his hand. He gripped the bar while moving the rock to match the cavity at the back of the bar. The wall to their left then opened up revealing a staircase leading downstairs.

     “Now be extra careful, the interior of this path is laden with warped gravity. You will have to follow my lead. One wrong move will set off an alarm.”

     They went down the stairs as the sides of the stairs slowly lit up at every step they took.

      Soon, they reached the end of the stairs and there were three different paths: To the left was a staircase leading leftwards, as if gravity was pulling left and it would be going down that way. In front was a staircase leading down and right, as if gravity was pulling up and it would be going down that way. Finally, to the right of them was a simple downward staircase.

     Sr. Rommel looked at the floor. The left staircase had a red glow, the middle had a green glow, and the right had a blue glow.

     “We go right. You just follow the color of the circular console awhile ago. It changes every time. When you input the code, it picks a random color and it realigns the entire security system. Just follow the blue diamonds and you should be fine. Put out your Power Sap. You might screw up the signals around here.”

     Austin did as told and switched to Defensive Powers.

 

“Now this is a trick staircase. You go up on it, not down. Watch.”

     Sr. Rommel stepped on the side of the staircase with his right foot and he did the same with his left foot. He was now standing sideways.

     “Follow me.”

     Austin did the same and he was soon sideways as well. He followed Sr. Rommel up the stairs.

 

At the top of the stairs was a short hallway. At the end, it turned downwards.

     “At the end of each segment will be a cube with the different colors. Just look for the color you’re following and that will be the angle opposite of the next gravitational pull.”

     They went to the edge of their segment and there was a cube as predicted. The blue diamond was on the right side which means they had to stand on the left side. Sr. Rommel went first and Austin followed. The cube at the end had blue on the right again so they were going left again.

     They reached the downward turn now an upward turn due to the two left turns. The blue diamond was on the left side so they had to go up on the right side.

     There was a similar hallway albeit with longer segments. They did four more segments, turning left-right-right-straight, before reaching the end of the hallway.

     “We’re right side up again,” Sir Rommel said as they reached the final door. It had three buttons, one red, one blue, one green.

     “This time, you push the other two colors at the same time.”

     Sr. Rommel pushed the red and green buttons at the same time and the door opened.

     It was a very simple security system but if you made a wrong move, you would fall on the wrong side of the hallway and the alarm would go off. Push the wrong button, alarm will go off. Step on the wrong staircase, alarm would go off.

     The room they entered was sort of like the War Room in Dr. Strangelove. The long table in the middle was replaced by a small console. The Big Board was still there only it covered the entire circumference of the room.

     “Welcome to the Elizabeth Seton School INvisible TELepathic Surveillance System or ESS-INTELSS. This room monitors every single cubic nanometer in the campus. Dr. Suarez chose to keep this secret for reasons she won’t tell.”

     Austin looked around the room. He hasn’t said a word since the entrance. He was too confused and mesmerized by what he witnessed.

     “I think it’s time we fired it up.”

     Sr. Rommel went to the central console and pushed the power switch. A Hologram of the school surfaced from the center and a white ball of light appeared in the center of the CWS.

     On the screens around them was exactly what the CWS would look like at this time. All they could hear was silence.

     “How does this thing work?” Austin said his first words since the opening.

     “Just move the white ball with your hands to anywhere in the campus.”

     Austin poked the white ball and moved it to third floor.

     “We can go back if you want.”

     Sr. Rommel input a time on the right side of where Austin was. He set the time ten minutes earlier.

     There he was, staring out at the balcony. He fired a fireball off the balcony.

     “We can go back by date.”

     Sr. Rommel input August 24, 2009, around noontime. The hologram lit up significantly as if it was daytime. The room did so likewise, the screens now showing daytime. Austin moved the white ball to the CWS. They were riding the Pirate Ship ride.

     “Oh, what a terrifying memory,” Sr. Rommel said.

     Sure enough, the spike came from behind the gym and hit the ride at its peak. It flew off. He could hear the sound echoing in the room.

     Austin entered October 29, 2009 at 8:30 PM. He watched as he relived the saddest night of his life. He saw her, looking beautiful as always, having the time of her life. He tried to find himself. He was all sad in the corner.

     “I think I’m starting to get your dilemma.”

     Austin pushed the button on the console marked “present time”. He put the white ball near the hallways from where they came from earlier.

     “Why only now? Why not before?”

     “I told you, Dr. Suarez gave no reason. I just couldn’t keep something like this from you anymore, especially at the state you were in.”

     Austin watched the hallways as he saw a man dragging a something across the floor.

     “Wait, what’s that?”

     “Huh?” Sr. Rommel said as he examined the screens.

     “Let’s go!” Austin said as he switched the band to space manipulation and teleported them out of there.

 

They arrived at the hallways. Austin snuck around at the hallways and saw the man dragging a body up the stairs. He slowly followed the said man.

     He went up the stairs and Austin followed after him. The man continued to drag until he reached the closed gates of the library.

     He got out some keys from his pocket and unlocked the gates. He continued to drag the body inside.

     Austin followed and he saw the man drag him into the Audio Visual Equipment Room. Sr. Rommel was behind him.

     He followed in and switched the band to psychic powers.

     “Who’s in here? I got you!”

     There was no reply.

     “Austin, we have to be more careful,” Sr. Rommel said.

     “Wait… I hear him.”

     Austin knocked down the shelves on the right side using his psychic powers. No one came out.

     “Only one other row left. COME OUT!”

     He saw a hand come out from the last shelf on the left. The man slowly went out and Austin was struck with horror. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

     “Hello kiddo…” the man said.

     “No…”

     “It’s been a long time…”

     “No!”

     “I’ve been longing to talk to you again.”

     “NO!”

     Austin almost tripped up at this revelation.

     “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!”

     “Only, I’m not.” James Landers said.

     “Spike, he, he…”

     “Gave me a hug. Remember my superpower boy! I can change my shape at will. In fact, I don’t like this form anymore. I ought to shave a bit.”

     Landers morphed himself into a much more clean-shaven man.

     “What’s your problem? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

     “I don’t believe it! You’re not real!”

     “FACE THE REALITY, AUSTIN! I’VE BEEN WITH THE MASTERMIND SINCE THE BEGINNING!” he said. He took a deep breath and continued. “Let me assure you though that everything I told you was true except for the obviously false.”

     “This can’t be happening.”

     Landers came in and punched Austin across the face. He hit the ground.

     “WAKE UP ***D****T! WAKE UP! I’M RIGHT HERE! THIS IS REAL!”

     Austin saw the person he was dragging up the stairs in the corner. There was a bag over his head. He used his psychic powers to remove the bag. He couldn’t believe all of this was happening. It was Joel.

     So all of this, it was all just a big trap leading to this.

     The sudden revelation drove Austin mad. He stood up and charged at Landers. Sr. Rommel couldn’t do anything but watch.

     “YOU DAMN B*****D! HOW COULD YOU MAKE ME BELIEVE A LIE FOR NEARLY A YEAR?!”

      Austin continually punched him in the face. He didn’t laugh but he instantly repaired his face after every blow.

     Then it hit him, literally, in the leg. A pain all too familiar to him by now. It was a metal spike.

     Landers threw Austin off of him and into the fallen bookshelves. Austin looked at the doorframe and saw another horrifying sight, Spike Estaquilla.

     “Hello, Austin. You killed my father, disgraced my family, and overall dealt too much damage in my life. I think it’s about time you pay for your actions.”

     Austin couldn’t speak anymore. He couldn’t understand how these people were still alive.

     “I took your suggestion, Austin. I shot a spike straight through my heart. But your sadistic thoughts didn’t put an end my misery, they just augmented it. I bled but my metallic internal organs just healed. It was a pain I could not imagine. I laid on that rock for hours but it felt like years, the pain so intense while the metal in my bones and muscles fused together. Soon, the Mastermind found me and I had never been so afraid in my life. He forgave me though and even provided me protection so that no one would know I was still alive.”

     Austin was still speechless. Sr. Rommel couldn’t do anything.

     “I am here to finish my mission, Austin. Hold him down.”

     Austin didn’t think of any words. He just fired psychic orbs at them. Landers transformed into some random guy he didn’t know. It didn’t matter because he had dark powers and Austin couldn’t protect himself. Spike lunged for his left arm and wrapped his arms around the Black Band again.

     “This, time, I make sure you don’t get better.”

     Austin struggled all he can, even resorting to kneeing Spike in the crotch but it still had no effect.

     Everything seemed hopeless.

     “Sir Rommel, call for help.”

    

Back in the hotel. Kyle was still in Austin’s suite. It suddenly hit him, the vague psychic message but he knew what to do. He went out and into the elevator to call some other members. He pushed up and when it hit the tenth floor, no one else was waiting but Janella.

     “You sensed it too?” she asked.

     “Yeah. I think we can handle whatever crap he got himself into. Let’s go.”

     Kyle hit down on the elevator and it followed. It stopped at the second floor and Patrick was there.

     “Don’t ask, just go,” he said.

     They finally reached the ground floor. They rushed outside the hotel and flew straight to the second floor of the Mindanao Building.

 

They arrived just as Sr. Rommel was running out for help.

     “He’s in there.”

     They didn’t bother for words and just rushed in.

     “Let him go!” Kyle yelled.

     Landers reverted to his original form. Kyle was knocked back.

     “Kyle, so nice to see you again.”

     “But you’re supposed to be�"“

     “I KNOW HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD, HELP ME!” Austin said.

     Janella fired a fireball at Spike as Kyle pulled Landers towards him. Landers aimed a punch and transformed into another unknown person.

     “Let’s have a little fun, shall we?” Landers said as he grappled Kyle and charged for the balcony. He shattered the steel balcony and slammed Kyle straight to the ground.

 

“Get out of here!” Spike yelled. “This is between me and him!”

     “No, I’m not leaving him!” Janella said.

     “Me neither, so get yo a*s up and fight!” Patrick said.

     Spike cursed under his breath before shooting a spike at Austin’s right arm. He shot another one at his left and stood up to face Janella and Patrick.

     He cracked his neck left and right and charged towards them.

 

Landers morphed into Nica.

     “Let’s give you a sense of Déjà vu, Kyle.” He said in Nica’s voice as he aimed a shockwave ripple at Kyle. It knocked him back to the ground.

     “Don’t provoke me…” Kyle said angrily as he charged two psychic orbs in his hands.

     “**** that. I’m ripping you to shreds!” he said as he fired another ripple at Kyle. He turned around and fired his two orbs at the ripple. It shattered.

     Kyle continued firing at Landers.

     “I warned you, a*****e!”

     Kyle knocked Landers to the ground. This is what Kyle wished the fight last year would have looked like. He charged another orb and fired it.

     A split second before it hit, Landers transformed into Berna.

     “Ow. Ugh…” Landers said in Berna’s voice.

     “No.”

     Landers was faking out and fired a psychic orb at Kyle.

     “Sorry, Kyle. Today is not your day.”

     Kyle charged at Landers and dragged him to the ground and repeatedly fired psychic orbs at his face.

     “I’m not falling for that trick you s**t!”

     He stopped shooting psychic orbs and just charged his hands with psychic energy. He started punching Landers in the face hard. His face slowly reverted back to normal.

 

Janella and Patrick were firing fire at Spike from both sides and he was on the floor. He dropped down and fired a spike a Patrick’s feet. He dropped to the ground. He fired another one at Janella. She also fell. They healed their wounds by turning into fire and resumed their attack.

     “I have had enough of this!” Spike yelled as he charged towards Patrick’s fire and knocked him down to the ground. He extended spikes from his knuckles and punched him in the face repeatedly until he was knocked unconscious.

     Janella stopped firing at the shock of this sight. Patrick’s face was bloodied and bruised. Janella fired an ice beam at Spike and he froze. The giant ice cube started to shake.

     Austin was trying to remove the spikes from his arms but the pain was unbearable. He had no choice but to watch this horror.

     Spike broke out of the ice cube by shooting spikes all over the place. He charged for Janella and pinned her to the wall. He covered his fists with spikes as Janella closed her eyes in fear.

     “YOU�"" Spike shouted as he punched her across the face. Austin struggled to take out the wide spike in his arm.

     “�"STUPID�"“ Spike continued as he landed another punch. Janella was already half-conscious at this point. Austin tried to manually rip out the spikes but to no use.

     “�"B***H!” Spike said as he landed another punch, sending her to the ground. Austin didn’t think twice and pulled his hands out.

     He was bleeding profusely from both arms but he used his psychic powers to slow down the blood loss. He was supposed to feel weak but he didn’t care.

     “DO NOT CALL HER A B***H!” Austin said as he charged his fists with psychic powers and aimed a punch at Spike with his right fist in order to protect his Band.

     “You arrogant little prick,” Spike said as he grabbed Austin’s punch and twisted his arm. He screamed in pain, in agony as Spike thrust tiny metal spikes into his arm.

     “I will enjoy this!” Spike said as he grabbed Austin’s left arm and gripped it with his spike covered hands. He gripped tightly and dragged his hands across Austin’s wrist, slowly heading for the Band.

     He screamed in pain, this was pain to great to bear. This was the epitome of pain. Once Spike would reach the Band, he would be trapped again in his own subconscious, watching as he becomes a monster all over again, and yet he will be feeling this pain whilst locked in his own subconscious. He screamed louder than he ever had before.

     “NO!” Kyle yelled as he charged for Spike. He was already too late. Austin was already convulsing on the floor. “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” Kyle yelled with all his might. He was not going to go through another month of the ASG. This ends tonight.

     Austin stopped convulsing on the floor, he was calm. Kyle didn’t bother ask if he was still him. Spike simply jumped to the bottom floor and left the four teenagers in the hallway.

     Austin’s eyes opened; once again, his pupils were gone…