Dawn Of Power

Gripping the microphone tightly between his hands, Doctor Stevens speaks softly, hearing his voice testing the mic in the auditorium. “Testing, Testing, Stevens on the mic.” Once satisfied with the volume of his voice in the large room, he began his speech. “Welcome, everyone, to my wonderful lecture on these specimens that have entered our world.” He continued, his dark red lips spreading thinly on his face, baring his pearly whites to the crowd of investors. “As you all know, my name is Doctor Stevens. I am the director of the P.W.P. or, as most of you know us, People With Powers.”
Steven’s audience was filled with potential investors—men and women from all over, dressed in the fanciest clothing of the finest fabrics. One woman in the third row before the stage was wearing a bright red dress, sparkling when the spotlight shone upon her, causing her to light the room in spectacular red dots. “Doctor Stevens?” She asked, just loud enough for the Doctor to pause his speech.
“Yes”- Stevens squinted his eyes, examining her features. “Flora?”
Flora pulled out her phone, heading to her notes app before continuing, “Doctor, these ‘people,’” she began, drawing out the word with distaste on her tongue. “Are they out for us?”
Stevens laughed, slipping his tongue gently on his dry lips.
“Undoubtedly.” The audience broke into many murmurs, concern and fear plastering onto their faces. “In my many years of study, I have found that most have a passion for global domination. End of humanity. Beginning a new era. One where we humans are not in.” Taking a deep breath and being careful with his words, he glided across the stage closer to his audience; his tight black jeans and leather coat gave people the image of him as a man no one should be messing with. “On top of that, there is the rare case of one or two of these people who wish death upon their kind.”
With his crowd now ultimately lured into his lies, he was closer to his goal—closer to accomplishing the real reason he had invited the wealthiest people in the world into his facility.
“Do you have a plan to get rid of these people?” The woman continued, her interest peaking.
She wasn’t expecting the Doctor to laugh. He pulled the mic away so as not to disturb the people. Once he regained his composure, he gripped the edge of the stage firmly, his knuckles whitening under his hold.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to call them people, Flora. They don’t see themselves as people, so why should we?” Stevens hopped onto the ground, making eye contact with his curious guest. “They are nothing more than a virus. For they do live and breathe with the goal of destruction. Now, as for my plan to get rid of these viruses, I do have a plan. You see, I have been working on these viruses for some time now, learning as much as I can about them, how they tick, think, and what even gives them their virus in the first place. The only thing I have yet to obtain is why they are here… I hope my experiments will be coming in handy.”
To Stevens’s left, a man in a golden tuxedo stood 6.5 feet high with bright blue eyes. The spotlight that had once been on Flora now shone on him, showing him and his golden boy features.
“Doctor, what do you mean your experiments?” He began, hands in his coat pocket, cheeks flushed from the cold outside.
Stevens walked up between the aisles, stopping at the end of the man’s row, 5th from the stage. “Experiments. Is the word not in your vocabulary, or must I explain it in detail, Israel?”
The crowd softened their posture into a soft chuckle, lightening the mood in the room. Israel opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the Doctors words. “If I don’t experiment on them, then who will? The government hides its information from us. Keeping us citizens in the dark in our country matters. They may not know of my experiments yet, but with further experimentation and signs of my project’s success, I will introduce what I am introducing here tonight.”
“What are you going to show us?”
“The answer to all our problems.” Stevens turned from the man, allowing the spotlight to guide him back to the stage. With one quick leap, Stevens took his position on center stage, pointing to a projector behind him. “A cure, or some form of control over these viruses. Something to give humans a shot at coming out on top for once and for all.”
The blackened brick wall behind Stevens parted, going off stage right and left, in the center stood a boy, around the age of 17 by the looks to the audience. He wore a white prison-style jumpsuit covered in dirt, and his blond hair spiked randomly. You could see the pain and torture in the boy’s face. A nasty bruise lay bare on his left cheek; blood dripped from his left eye.
Flora was among the first to gasp at the sight of the boy. His pain imprinted on the eyes of his viewers.
“Allow me to introduce Taylor Peterson to you all. 17-year-old boy found in south Missouri with the virus.” Taylor stepped towards the crowd, placing his tanned hand onto the glass wall, preventing him from escaping. “Taylor, here, was among the first to join my experimentation nearly five years ago, in 2019. His curse, you ask?”
A man in business attire stepped out before the glass cage, waving his gloved hands at the crowd. His brown hair was combed back tightly, and his smile and eyes grinned darkly at Taylor.
“Everyone, this is my assistant, Professor James Martin, a man with many awards through NASA and many more to come.” Martin placed his hands onto the glass cage, awaiting Stevens’ approval.
With a nod of his head.
Martin scraped his hand on the glass, the leather against the glass causing an awful screech throughout the room and the cage. Taylor fell to his knees, his hands plastering on the side of his face as his scream broke through the glass.
Stevens and Martin merely smiled, watching the audience shake in distress at the sound, getting a kick out of Taylor’s pain.
Taylor’s face began to drop and swirl within itself like mixing two colors of play dough into each other to come up with a new color. As the screeching and screaming continued, his body began to fade slowly, vanishing in the clear cage until nothing apart of him was left.
Mouths fell agape. Everyone wasn’t sure what to do or what had happened. Concern began spreading throughout the room.
They had just witnessed what was supposed to be impossible to do.
He had turned invisible.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen.” Doctor Stevens yelled, stretching his arms over to the seemingly empty cage. “this is just one of many of these powered of monstrosity’s powers. Now, before you all begin to worry that Taylor here is gone, the fact is that he is still in this cage, merely blending in with his surroundings as if he has become invisible to the naked eye.
“Now, as you may be wondering, you are here to help with the newest project we are launching here at P.W.P. This project will be revolutionary to our culture and even the world. Our funds here have run low, and to proceed with these experiments, we need your financial gift to help hire more scientists and doctors of all sorts. Soon, our time will come when we can reveal our projects to the government and the world, alongside a solution for handling them and their overpopulating species. We will hide in the dark and work at night under local law enforcement’s protection. We will need about 100 million to begin work; advancing our technology to mass produce these chips, we can use to obtain control over these viruses.”
Stevens turned to Taylor, clicking a button in his pocket to project an image of a microchip onto the screen above.
“Now Taylor here has a prototype chip implanted in his brain. The chip is only in its experimental stage but hasn’t let us down thus far. Allowing us to command him to perform for us or to shut down his ability to activate his power by disrupting his neurons from passing from one point to the next. Much like disrupting a radio program from transmitting the stations from the towers to our radios.” The screen became a Q.R. code linked directly to the Doctor’s account. “Now on screen is a Q.R. code which will send you to a secure website where you will invest a minimum of 5 million dollars to our program.”
“This is preposterous!” A woman from behind cried out, heading to the door to leave. Doctor Stevens looked over at her, preparing himself for his final move in case such a scenario were to occur, and in this case, it has.
“If you refuse to donate, you will not like the outcome of your decision.” He states as the rest of his audience follows the leading girl to the door. No one turned around, not even to give the Doctor a look. “Very well. Professor, if you would.”
“My honor.” Professor Martin said as he clicked a few buttons on a keypad attached to Taylor’s cage, opening the door. The investors turned around at the sound of air released from the lock, and Taylor’s door stood open, with nothing stopping Taylor from leaving. “Taylor, if you would be so kind as to show these people the consequences of their actions.”
Taylor, still invisible, takes his signal. The crowd turned back, horror plastered to their faces as the door to the cage opened. Silence fell throughout the crowd, leading them to have nothing to do but wait for his reappearance. Suddenly a scream was launched from the exit as the lady who stood first, fell to the ground, leaving a trail of blood as her head rolled beneath everyone’s feet.
“Poor thing,” Stevens whined, pushing his lips forward like a toddler begging for candy. “That is what happens if you choose to leave and deny my job… Now, if anyone wants to join Joyce in that gruesome demise, please feel free to leave.” He brought the mic closer to his lips, whispering the next part like a dare. “If you wish.”
Flora and Israel were quick to open their phones. When the cameras were raised to the screen on stage, the light in the auditorium lit up just enough to see everyone scramble to their phones. They all followed Flora and Israel’s example, pulling up their phones and following the instructions.
About a minute passed before Flora and Israel’s phones chimed, their emotions changing from the relief of survival to anger.
“What is the”—everyone else’s phones rang, and people scrambled to answer.
“What is the meaning of this, Stevens?!” Israel yelled, storming over to the stage. “I will have you and your company sued!” He didn’t make it, but 10 feet before, his head fell to the ground, making him death number two.
“Pity.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, having you all attend was truly an honor.” Announced Martin, escorting Steven’s off stage. “But we must get going now. Lots to do and a world to save.”
The second they were off stage, more screams rang out in reaction to more bodies dropping onto the floor.