First of Storm

It was the dead of night and a storm raged on without any sign of stopping.

"Bradley.

Bradley!

Bradley!!!!!"

"Whose there!", a young boy, who is apparently Bradley, exclaims as he jumps out of bed. He is answered by silence. As he searches around his room for the person who screamed his name, he finds nothing. Nothing is there.

Bradley then goes to turn on the lights, but as he does, he learns they are not working. He starts to panic. Then Bradley remembers the circuit breaker in the basement.

"I guess I will go flip the breaker", he says aloud. Bradley leaves his room and heads to the ground floor of his house. He checks all the lights along the way to find that they are all out.

He calls out to his parents, but receives no response. Bradley shrugs his shoulders and continues on the the kitchen. It is then when he hears the voice again.

"I see you Bradley."

After this, the lights flash on. Every light, even ones he knows he shut back off after testing. Bradley then runs back to his parents room and hides in the bed with them. It is then that the lights in this room go on and he sees something that will change him forever.

Bradley sees the charred remains of his parents. "Mom!! Dad!!", he cries out. He starts bawling and curls up into a ball.

The voice calls out, "Bradley, why are you crying, I am still with you". Bradley looks up to see a shimmering girl with lightning all around her. She reaches out to hug him, but Bradley jumps back.

"Stay away!", Bradley screams as he looks upon the one who killed his parents. And she coolly tries to placate him by saying, "Calm down everything will be okay." He yells back, "How can things be okay when you just killed my parents!", and then he runs out of the room.

The girl looks at Bradley's retreating figure with tears in her eyes and yells after him, "I am sorry! I didn't mean to hurt them!". However he keeps running. Bradley runs out of the house and into the storm.

As soon as Bradley runs out of the house, he realizes how bad the storm is. He cannot even see his own hand through the rain. Then lighting strikes. Bradley jumps back in fear. He then tries to get to his neighbor's house, but in the rain Bradley cannot find it.

"I'm so sorry, my name is Emmeryn. Let me help you, please.", says the girl whose name is apparently Emmeryn. Bradley thinks for a moment and with tears in his eyes asks, "Why? Why did you kill my parents?" Emmeryn, while sobbing, replies, "I was just trying to wake them up ... and touched them without thinking. When I realized I was hurting them, it was too late. They were in so much pain, so I ... I finished what I started."

After a pause, Bradley looks at Emmeryn. "So you did not mean to kill them, but did so accidentally", he chokes through tears. Emmeryn looks into his eyes filled with tears and starts crying harder. Through the tears, she stutters out, "I I ... am so so ... sorry."

It is then that Bradley realizes that she is telling the truth and his response is to say, after wiping the tears from his eyes, "You don't need to cry, after all you didn't hurt them on purpose and you killed them to prevent them from suffering." After saying this he wraps his arms around her thinking that he would rather join his parents, however nothing happens.

He looks up to see the lightning wrapping around him. Emmeryn goes to shove him away, but then realizes that Bradley is perfectly fine. It is as if the lightning is giving him a hug. Suddenly a light flashes and lightning strikes the two entwined.

When the light clears only Bradley remains. Around him is an aura of lightning, the same aura Emmeryn had. Emmeryn was gone.

"Emmeryn! Emmeryn!", Bradley shouts into the storm. He receives no response.

"Emmeryn!!! Where are you?!!", he shouts while starting to cry again. This time he receives a response.

"I am awake. I am awake. Hold your pants on. Geese the thanks I get for saving your life.", Emmeryn whines.

"What do you mean saved my life?", Bradley asks. She replies snidely, "When the lightning struck, I used my body to sheild you from it, but then you absorbed me and the rest of the lightning."

"It sounds to me as if you just got in the way, rather than saving me", Bradley points out. "Humph, you big meany", Emmeryn says sulking, "Could you have just let me have my moment." "Thank you", Bradley replies, while realizing they were still out in the storm.

Bradley, who can now see where he is going, starts walking towards his neighbor's house. As he is walking he realizes that he is no longer wet, nor is any rain hitting him. "Hey Emmeryn, why is the rain not hitting me?, he asks. "Because you have my aura now", she answers back.

As she says that three forms start appearing out of the storm. "Oh no", Emmeryn laments. As the approaching forms get closer, Bradley can clearly see the aura around what appears to be three large dogs. As soon as the dogs see Bradley they run towards him, and he turns to run from them.

"Why are you running from them dummy!", Emmeryn exclaims in confusion. She then asks, "You do know you are stronger than them right?"

"No I didn't", Bradley retorts as he stops and turns to face the dogs. Bradley starts to focus on his aura, and it starts condensing around his hand. He then throws a punch towards the trio. After releasing the punch, there is a flash of light. When the flash subsides, there is nothing left but a pile of ash.

"What was that?!", Emmeryn exclaims, "What in the world did you do?!" Bradley, who has finally one upped Emmeryn, replies snidely, "You didn't know you could condense your aura to make it stronger. How weak are you?"

"Sniff ... You big meanie, what did I ever do to you?", Emmeryn asks sadly. "Sorry, I was just joking. Please don't cry.", Bradley says, while trying to console her. "You mean that I fell for a joke. Hahaha... You really are interesting.", she replies filled with mirth.

"Let's go see what the city holds", Bradley says, as he starts walking further into the storm. Emmeryn replies, "Okay sure."

They make their way through the city running into the occasional wild spirit. It seems that if there are survivors, they have hid far underground. As they continue on, the storm gets stronger and Bradley's vision is again getting poor. The further in they go, the worse it gets.

"I can't see a thing...", Bradley starts to say, before being cut off by a massive stroke of lightning. He looks up to see a large cloud of lightning that seems to be absorbing the power of the city. As it floats overhead he can see it clearly. It is a massive cloud like structure, that seems to be the cause of both the storm and the power outage. This is the thing that created all the spirits. They both stand there terrified at what they see.

End Report

In a bunker not far from Cern City

"Report damage"

"This is a disaster!"

"Bunker integrity compromised sir!"

"HELP ME!!"

Through the noise and confusion two people dressed in suits walk through the halls calmly. One is a woman of immense stature and the other looks just like an average man.

"We need to go clean up the mess, huh", says the large woman. The man looks over at his partner and replies, "Of course, you can't expect them to do anything."

As the two step into a garage, the man chimes, "We should take the big one."

There is a long pause before the women bursts into tears and starts rolling on the floor laughing. The man starts towards the 'big one', which is a giant armored truck, and gets in to drive off completely ignoring the hysterical woman.

As he starts to drive off, the woman jumps up and climbs onto it as he passes her. Still laughing, she jokingly says, "Compensating for something."

The man just shakes his head and shouts out, "Hold on!", as he stomps all the way down on the accelerator. She wipes her eyes with one hand and yells back, "Off to Cern City!"

End Log