Vanessa and Anthony Arlotta had lived fairly normal lives. They went to school. They did their homework. They had a good relationship with their parents. When they both got accepted into the same college, they decided to rent an apartment together with some financial help from the family. They both had part-time jobs: Vanessa worked at a coffee shop, and Anthony worked at a store that sold car parts. They were both smart; Vanessa, though, was the bookworm of the family. Her adventures in reading lead to an interest in the paranormal, and especially UFOs. Kevin knew this when he started dating the girl next door, but he had no idea just how far it would take them. Suddenly his fairly normal life turned into a series of ghost-hunts, spaceship watching, and sneaking into abandoned buildings. A part of him liked the excitement, but there was also a part of him that yearned for the comfort of home- and never more-so than right now.
When Kevin came to, he felt cold and disoriented. He was laying on his back, and he could feel water dripping onto his forehead, which he soon realized was leaking from an overhead pipe. With a groan, he sat up, immediately looking around him. Vanessa and Tony were there, huddled in the opposite corner and still unconscious. And so over he went in an attempt to rouse them.
"Nessa, Tony, wake up. " He set a hand on Vanessa's leg and shook it a little. "Come on, babe." Her eyes opened half-way and stared at him.
"Kevin..." She called out for him, and he scooped her up into his arms a bit, holding to her. It was Anthony who rose next.
"Guys, I had the weirdest dream..., there were flying cars, and robots, and this weird lady..."
"Look around us, Tony." Kevin spoke to him as he held his disoriented girlfriend. They were in a cell, lined with cast-iron bars. It was fairly small, and the rest of the hall was fairly dark- too dark to see anything. The only source of light was a dim bulb hanging from the ceiling above them, which gave off a blue-ish hue.
"Oh, man. This is heavy." Anthony slumped back against the wall as Vanessa began to stir.
"Okay, so, this place looks like earth. There was a moon, and people look human. I think..., we're probably in the future, or something." Vanessa pulled back just enough to look at Kevin as she spoke. "We have to be. We just need to find a way out of here- then maybe we can gather some information."
"That lady-..., Giera. She said that, 'God's Chosen,' live up in that tower..., thing. What do you think that means? Some sort of future church where all the priests live? Maybe Christianity has taken over the earth." Anthony nods matter-of-factly. "Would explain the, 'curfew.' Bunch of goodie-goodies, or something. And maybe the bracelet ID tag things are to mark who's been, 'saved,' and who hasn't."
"Somehow, I don't think that's it." Kevin shook his head, moving away from Vanessa and going up to look closely at the bars. They heard a noise, then. It sounded like a door opening or closing from down the hall. Then, there were footsteps. A hooded figure appeared, pressing some sort of switch near the bars that caused them to disappear for a minute, as if they were never truly there. It stood before them in the dark- they were unable to see its face at all.
"I am going to ask you a few questions." The voice that came forth was definitely a man's. "And you are going to answer them honestly. If you do this, perhaps a deal shall be made to release you back into the wild." The trio remained quiet, seeming both confused and intimidated. "You are from the outside. What do you know of The Eclipse?" After clearing his throat, Anthony responded.
"Uh. Well, see.., there was this light thing, and we went through it, and we ended up here. We're from earth-..., is this earth?"
"Where is The Eclipse?" His tone was firmer, that time.
"Sir, we don't know anything about any..., Eclipse. We're college students. We think we might be in the future, or another dimension, or something. Trust me, we don't get it either. We just want to go home-" Kevin was cut off by a loud bang. Suddenly, the figure before them gave a loud, guttural shriek, and looked like it was being electrocuted by bright, blue lightening. It collapsed, seeming to disappear right into its robes and leaving naught but a pile of fabric on the stone floor beneath them. An alarm sounded, giving loud, ear-splitting chimes as red lights flashed along the corridor.
"If you want to get out of here, come with me." A woman dropped down from seemingly out of nowhere. A skin-tight, leather bodysuit clung to her lithe form, long, golden hair falling down across her curves. Her eyes looked like liquid gold, and seemed to be somewhat illuminated in the damp, dark corridor. Aside from those alien eyes, she looked to be human. Vanessa, Anthony, and Kevin stared at her for a moment, then exchanging glances between themselves and dashing to follow their mystery guide. They ran quickly down the hall, which seemed to go on forever, past more and more cells. The woman touched to an earpiece that was hidden behind her hair.
"Targets acquired. Heading to the roof." Upon reaching the end of the corridor, they made way to a staircase. The trio was in no place to question what was going on; they followed her quickly. Kevin panted, wishing desperately he had spent more time working out this last month. Abruptly, they encountered two android enforcers that had descended from an above floor.
"Freeze. Put your hands up." The golden-eyed woman swerved around and dealt a backwards kick to one of the two androids, the brute force apparently powerful enough to cause them both to tumble into each other. She then pulled some sort of gun from a harness strapped around her thigh and fired a single shot, sending a bolt of that same blue-electricity at the two. "System-...fa-fa-fail-failure." They shook for a moment and then appeared to shut down.
"Keep going." The woman urged them on, and they kept going until reaching roof. When they got there, however, it became apparent that they were surrounded. A sea of androids marched towards them, closing in on them in a broad circle. Those bright, human eyes stared at them- but the machines were not human. Those haunting, blue-metal skulls bore into their minds. The blonde touched to her earpiece again. "Hurry up." She looks to the three who were now huddled together. Anthony put up his fists, ready for a fight.
"Bring it on, robots! I can take you on!"
"Stay." She spoke to them as if they were dogs. The woman dashed forward, readying her gun- and pulling a second gun from a strap at her back.
"Identifying suspect. Identified as Eclipse agent. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy."
"Duck!" The golden-eyed woman yells, beginning to turn swiftly and fire off shots in all directions. Anthony grabs a screaming Vanessa and tackles her to the ground as Tony moves to stand behind a pole.
"Activating shields!" The electrified bullets seem to bounce right off of the androids and fall to the ground. The gun-woman throws her weapons aside, and runs straight for them. Aggressively, she punches a hole right through one of the androids, her glove-covered arm scooping it up and holding the now malfunctioning construct like a rag-doll.
"No way! She's not human!" Kevin watches the scene from behind the pillar, peaking out every so often from around it. The constructs fire their own guns at the golden-eyed woman, and she holds the broken android out in front of her, still wrapped around her arm. Its shield still activates, and she's able to use it to cover herself. A gust of wind seems to sweep over the rooftop, almost deafeningly loud.
"About time!" The mystery woman touched to her earpiece again. "We're in range!" All Vanessa, Anthony, and Kevin saw then was a flash. After what felt like several minutes, they realized that they were no longer on the rooftop, surrounded by androids. Rather, they were somewhere else, and there were several figures hovering above them, including one who looked not more than a young teenager.
"Hi there! We're so sorry, about all of this." The boy who couldn't have been more than sixteen spoke to them. There was a pair of high-tech looking goggles on his head, and he was wearing something that resembled, 'normal,' clothing- brown pants and a white shirt. "We have a lot to explain to you guys- my name's Sam." He points to a larger, muscular looking man with tanned skin and black, facial tattoos. "That's Jed." And then to a peculiar looking man: he was also wearing leather, skin-tight against his chest with slightly looser pants held with a couple belts and long, black boots. This man had long, jet-black hair, and piercing blue eyes that lacked pupils. "Draziel." He then gestures to the golden-eyed woman who had retrieved them, who was leaning against a nearby wall. "And that's Viper." She gives a slight wave, seeming uninterested in the series of introductions. "The rest of our crew is around and about, I'm sure you'll meet them."
"Who-..., who are you guys, then?" Vanessa asked somewhat nervously, taking Kevin's hand in hers and giving it a light squeeze.
"Us?" Sammy gives a broad grin as the lights turn on, revealing more of their surroundings. Through the sides of the structure, they could see the sky around them beyond massive windows. There were consoles and machines everywhere- it looked like they were on a massive ship; and so they were.
"We're The Eclipse."
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