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Heroes of Vigil [PG-16/Chaper II: Illusions]

Aesirson

By Aesirson
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[spoiler=Prologue]
”Come on Aaron!” The boys standing around Aaron was cheering and chanting. ”Touch him, or are you a wuss?”

How'd Aaron get into his situation? The mummified human in front of him lied silently in his sarcophagus. On his head sat that mysterious crown... And that seducing jewel...

Two hours earlier...
The bus to Vigil City arrived at Wakeville Junior High. The sun was awfully shiny today, and Aaron Ward was wearing his sunglasses to guard his eyes from the strong sunlight. Aaron considered himself one of the cooler kids in Wakeville, even if he usually hanged with Lester Olsen, the archetype of the ”bullied kid”. Lester was fat, weak and smart, although he wasn't quick-minded. Lester considered Aaron his best friend, and even though Aaron knew that being friends with Lester made him less cool among the other kids it remained that way.

As they stepped onto the bus Lester suddenly stopped.

”Aaron, I forgot my lunch!” He quickly turned away and ran off before Aaron got the chance to say anything, but before he disappeared he shouted to Aaron ”Hold a seat, 'k?”

Aaron sighed. Lester could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he was a good boy. Now! Where to sit? The bus had already been packed by students, but there was one empty two-seater left. Aaron took off his sunglasses and sat down next to the window, looking out at the countryside that was Wakeville, awaiting Lester's return.

”Can I sit here?” A girl's voice asked. Aaron recognized it at once. It was Clair Crystal, the “girl to be with” of Wakeville Junior High. He turned to her and looked troubled. Clair was very beautiful, with her long, silver-blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes...

“No, I'm sorry.” Aaron answered. “It's reserved.” Bros before hoes, right?

Claire looked annoyed and turned around, and Aaron saw her heading towards the place where the football team sat. Of course.

“Hey dude!” Lester placed himself next to Aaron, with his packed lunch in his knee. Sandwich with boiled eggs and caviar, as usual. Lester noticed that Aaron had looked after Claire and also turned to look at her as she sat down next to the football team's captain. He then turned to Aaron and smiled. “You won't get her, man!” He laughed heartily. “It'll just be you and me for the rest of our lives.” Aaron reconsidered punching Lester in the face, but didn't.

The bus started rolling, and an eventless journey towards Vigil City began. Aaron tried to get Claire off his mind while also trying to ignore Lester's endless talking. Aaron said almost nothing during the entire trip, but once they arrived outside at the VMOA (Vigil Museum of Artifacts) he opened his mouth once again.

“Why are we going to look dead, old people and their belongings again?” He said, rather loudly and Lester looked at him with disappointment in his eyes.

“This stuff is interesting, Aaron!” He said, and then proceeded to tell Aaron about old Egypt and its rulers, the pharaohs. Aaron ignored most of it and followed the rest of the class inside the building, trying to keep himself as close to Claire as possible while also being between her and the football players, to keep them away from each other.

The was currently holding an Egyptian exhibition with the newly dug up grave of an as of yet unidentified Egyptian pharaoh. Most of the stuff, in Aaron's opinion, was very boring, but Lester seemed to be very fascinated by the mummy of the pharaoh.

“If you just act it cool he may even follow you home tonight.” Aaron said jokingly to Lester, who didn't find it funny.

The pharaoh was strapped with linen cloth, but the face had been uncovered and Aaron had an unfunny feeling about the mummy's empty eye sockets. Even if the eyes had since long been gone it felt as if the dead man was staring straight into Aaron's soul. But the weirdest feature of the mummy was the golden crown it was wearing. It was bejeweled with a lot of jewels, but the central one, a big, blue stone, was almost perfectly preserved, unlike the other ones. Aaron felt as if the blue stones beauty sucked him in, but the mummy was behind glass, and so was the stone.

“Let's move on!” The guide expressed, and most of the class followed him as he walked out of the room, but when Aaron tried to follow someone grabbed his shoulder. He quickly turned, catching himself thinking that the mummy had awakened from it's thousand-years sleep. But what he saw was Fredrick Fergus, the captain of the football team.

“Hey Ward, I have an offer for you.” He said and smiled victoriously. “What would you say if I had a cure for your... 'little' problem over there.” Fergus nodded towards the group. Aaron knew that he was referring to Lester. “If you dare to touch that old fella, you can hang with us instead of that loser Olsen.”

“Lester's my friend, 'k?” Aaron said, annoyed. Although the offer was tempting. At this age having the best friends could prove useful for the future, but... “Besides, he's behind glass, I can't...”

He interrupted himself when he saw that the glass around the mummy was dragged into the roof, leaving the mummy without any kind of defense against thieves.

“How'd you-” Aaron started, but Fergus hushed him.

“Stone's father works as the chief of security here. Stone stole his card and got access to the security!” Fergus smiled as two boys wearing Wakeville Junior High's football team's jackets entered the room. One of them was Geoffrey Stone, an African-American boy and actually one year older than both Aaron and Fredrick, but he had to go through fifth grade a second time.

“It was easy.” He said and smiled. “Come on Aaron, touch him!”

Fergus pushed Aaron towards the mummy, and the three boys placed themselves around Aaron, preventing him from escaping.

“I shouldn't really do this...” Aaron said, but the three others started chanting.

“Come on Aaron! Are you a wuss?”

Aaron looked around in the room. The room was especially reserved for the mummy, and the four of them were the only ones there.

“Okay!” Aaron said loudly. “I'll do it!”

The three football players cheered as Aaron stretched his hand towards the mummy's face, and even though he was aiming for the corpses chest his hand seemed to want to go towards the blue stone. He lightly touched it, but at the very moment he did everything went black, and Aaron felt a shock go through his body. He felt how someone grabbed his shirt and could hear the breathing of whoever held him.

“What did you do!?” Stone shouted, the voice coming from just in front of Aaron's face.

But Aaron heard someone else, someone yelling inside his head. Yelling in a language that he did not know. And then he lost consciousness.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter I: Fire]”Oh God!” Aaron said to himself, running towards West Vigil High. He was late for his art class, as usual. One could say that he and Mr Heartworth was not the best of friends, especially since Aaron was never in time for Heartworth's lessons and usually interrupted one of the teacher's boring speeches about famous artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo upon arrival.

6 years had passed since the accident at the museum, Aaron was now 18 years of age and since then he and his mother had moved to Vigil City after that Mrs. Ward and Mr. Ward divorced, but he occasionally, mostly on weekends, visited his father at their old home in Wakeville. There got a chance to meet his old friend Lester Olsen and eventually is old love Claire Crystal. Aaron never got Claire, but he had yet hope for something to happen, despite the negative comments from Lester. Fergus eventually moved to Europe, but before that Aaron had asked him what happened with their deal, to which Fergus replied “You didn't touch him, you touched his jewelry!”

The voice he had heard just before he went unconscious that time still haunted him, and he was troubled by the fact that he still heard it occasionally. Most of the times he tried to tell himself that it was merely memories haunting, but the voice rarely said the same things. Aaron could tell, even if he didn't understand what it was saying. The power outage that had happened just before Aaron fainted had been worldwide, but it had only lasted for a few seconds. However, people had started to develop minor, super-natural abilities ever since, and some people connected this to the blackout, while others thought it was cheap tricks.

“And all I got was this voice that just won't let go.”

Aaron hadn't told anyone about the voice since he feared hey would throw him into a mental hospital, where most of the people with abilities went. Those with abilities either called themselves
gifted or cursed. There were also those who had been granted greater powers, but all of them had gone insane, and there was yet no cure.

The cloudy sky above Aaron finally gave up and let the first rain fall, and Aaron was still a bit away from he school building.

“With some luck I might just get there before the storm breaks loose!” Aaron said hopefully to himself.

When Aaron entered the school-building his short, brown hair was soaking wet. So was his school uniform. He cursed and threw a quick glance at his watch. 08:11. He was eleven minutes late! He considered skipping class, but then decided that it would be safer to be late than to not show up at all. He quickly found himself outside the door to his art class and could hear Heartworth's voice from inside. He was talking about someone uninteresting and Aaron decided to open the door as slowly and quietly as humanly possible.

Mr. Heartworth's classroom was full of different kind of art. There was paintings that covered most of the walls and different kind of “sculptures” made out of mud. Most of them were made by students, and quite frankly only a few of them were well-made.

Aaron tried to sneak to his seat and hoped hat Mr Heartworth wouldn't interrupt his own speech just to give Aaron a barking.

“Ward!” Aaron felt how everyone looked at him. He slowly turned to look at Heartworth, who's face was burning red.

“Yes sir?” Aaron stood frozen, staring at his unmistakeably angry teacher.

“Where have you been?”

Aaron searched his mind for an explanation and finally came up with smething.

“I was at the WC.” Aaron said confidentially, making it sound as if he really were.

“Then why is your hair wet?”

An hour later, Aaron sat with a big ball of mud in front of him. He was lonely in the classroom, except for Mr Heartworth.

“Now, Mr Ward.” Heartworth smiled victoriously. “Your task is to turn that mud into a replica of a historical building or place!”

Aaron glared at his old teacher. Harry Heartworth was old. He was balding, had brown eyes and always wore a suit. Harry looked like the generic chubby, happy old man with glasses and a bushy mustache. If you asked anyone other than Aaron about Heartworth they would say that he was their favorite teacher. Aaron thought Heartworth was unfair and way too strict.

“Done.” Aaron then said and smiled. He had yet to touch the mud. “I've created an exact replica of the pile of mud Alexander the Great stepped into during his conquest of Egypt.” Aaron placed his feet on the table next to his mud and is grin grew larger. “Will you let me go now?”

Heartworth's face turned into a faked smile and he chuckled.

“Yea. NO!” He hit the bench just next to Aaron's feet, and the boy quickly got them down to the floor again. “I'm going to get me a cup of coffee, and when I come back I want you to have started making something!”

With those words Heartworth turned and walked out of the room with steady steps. Aaron looked after him until the door closed behind the teacher. He then looked at the mud again. He poked it, it was wet and soft, but when he did he heard the hoarse voice in his head again. Even if he didn't understand what the voice said, he somehow understood what it wanted him to do at this point. He quickly got up from his chair and searched the room for a suitable knife.

Coffee was Heartworth's greatest passion next to art. He mumbled something about Aaron and expelling as he opened the door and found Aaron cutting the mud into a perfectly shaped sphinx.

“That is perfect, Mr Ward!” Heartworth surprised himself by saying that.

“Eh... I know.” Aaron said with doubt in his voice. “Thanks. May I leave now?”

Heartworth nodded and sat down next to Aaron, who quickly got out of the classroom. He stopped outside and threw another glance a his watch. His next lesson had yet to start. He looked up and saw the crowded hallway. [i]If I hurry I might just make it.[/i] He darted towards the classroom, but before long he heard the voice again, this time screaming, and a great shock streamed through his body, followed by a great headache. He stopped, fell on his knees, held his head but let go when he realized his hands were burning hot. The people around him watched, and a short girl with curly, red hair asked him if he was okay.

“Y-yes.” Aaron said looking up at the girl. He slowly raised t his standing position and lightly smiled at her. “But I should go to the school nurse. Thanks for asking.”

He walked slowly and wobbly towards the nurses room on the bottom floor of the building. He knocked the door once, but no one answered. He knocked it once again and it opened. In the hole stood a tall man clothed in a business suit. He was bald, and his angry eyes stared at Aaron. Aaron looked at him, and his headache suddenly didn't feel all that bad.

“Come in!” A woman's vice came from behind the man, who moved away from the door revealing the nurse. She was casually clothed in a thick, green sweater and jeans. She had long, brown hair and a kind face with green eyes. Aaron sighed in relief. For a moment he thought the man was the nurse. He stumbled into the small room as the tall man left. Aaron took a seat on the other side of the table the nurse was sitting at and opened is mouth, but nothing came out of it. He couldn't find the words to say, but the voice in his head was certainly talkative.

“What's wrong?” The nurse asked, and smiled.

Aaron shook his head, making it hurt even more, but the voice disappeared.

“I have a terrible headache...” Aaron whispered, he couldn't speak louder.

“Let me see.” The nurse said and laid her palm on Aaron's forehead, but at the moment she touched him she pulled her hand away. “Oh. Hot.” She didn't seem troubled, instead, she once again placed her palm on his forehead, but this time she was prepared. Her cold skin felt very good, and Aaron already felt better. When she removed the hand the headache was almost completely gone.

“You should go home.” She said, and Aaron nodded in agreement.

He left the building. It was still raining, although not as much as when he had arrived. He had already told the principal that he would take he day off and started to slowly walk towards his mother's apartment. Today was Friday, he was supposed to go to his father's today, but he would probably have to blow it off. He took a shortcut through the Vigil Park, and noticed that the park was almost empty, except for himself and another man. But what was that man doing?

The man was clothed in a thick jacket and a hat. Aaron couldn't see his face, but he was kicking something into the bushes, a body. Aaron glanced around himself, but he was indeed all alone, so he decided to leg it, but it was too late.

“You there!” He heard the man shout. The man was coming closer.

“I saw you!” Aaron was too weak to run away, but he was still quick-minded. He quickly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and took a picture of the man, who was shocked by Aaron's action.

“Give me he phone.” The man asked gently. “Just give it to me and no one get's hurt.”

“What about that guy over there, did he get hurt!?” Aaron was starting to get scared. The man chuckled.

“He didn't give me what I wanted.” The man said and smiled. He lifted his hands, and Aaron could see sparks flying around them. “And if you don't give me that phone you will be...” He clapped, and when he did lightning shot out of his palms. “Be electrocuted.”

The voice returned, getting louder and louder while Aaron's headache got more intense for every word the voice said. Aaron dropped his phone and closed his fist, ready to punch the man.

“Don't come any closer. I swear I will...” Aaron was starting to get really sweaty, and the voice was almost screaming now. “I will hurt you...”

The man let out a laugh and leaped towards Aaron, his mad eyes aiming for Aaron's face. Aaron sent out his fist towards the mans face, and for a moment his fist seemed to be on fire. The two collided, Aaron hitting the man's face and the man grabbing Aaron's arm. Aaron screamed in pain as he felt the electricity streaming through his body, but the man did also get electrocuted. The man felt first, his face burned, by the looks of it, by Aaron's fist. Aaron then also fell next to him, facing the sky. The voice had disappeared, and the headache was also slowly fading away. He felt that his mind was floating away as a winged figure appeared on the sky, slowly flapping it's wings and coming closer and closer. When he winged figure landed next to him Aaron's vision was too blurred to make out any features on the winged man's face, and soon everything went dark.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter II: Illusions]”Ugh.” Aaron awoke with a groan. At first his vision was blurred, but it soon returned to normal. He tried to raise to a sitting position, but found himself strapped to the bed, or whatever he was laying on. He turned his head to look around the room. He was in a small, dark room, that looked like a lab. At first he thought that he was in a hospital, but then the pictures of the winged man returned to his mind. The sound of a door opening was heard from behind his head, but he could not see it.

“Who's there!?” His voice cracked. He was afraid.

“Don't worry, Aaron.” A dark voice answered. Aaron threw his head around, but couldn't see who was talking.

“Who are you?” He asked, but no answer came. Instead, the straps around the bed was released and he instinctively rose to a sitting position. He now saw who had spoken to him. A black man clothed in a lab coat. He was bald, and he was wearing shades.

“My name is Roger Stone.” The man answered.

Stone? As in Geoffrey Stone?

“Are you Geoffrey's father?” Aaron asked. He still wondered where he was and how he got there, but the question kind of jumped out of his mouth.

“Yes.” Roger simply answered. Aaron was about to say something, but suddenly they heard footsteps from outside and Roger pushed Aaron back to the laying position. “Lie still!”

The door opened, and Aaron tried to see what was going on, but to no success.

“How are the test subjects doing?” A man's voice said. “Is this the one with the fire powers?”

“Well, they are both dead.” Stone answered. “And this was the one with the fire powers, yes.”

Dead? If there was one thing that Aaron was not it was dead.

“A shame. Both of them were perfect samples.” The door closed and Aaron heard how the footsteps were now heading away from the room.

“Why did you tell him I was dead?” Aaron whispered, but Stone hushed him. After a few moments Roger spoke.

“I'm getting you out of here.” He answered. “You're in the SilverLine building.”

SilverLine? Wasn't that Claire's mother's corporation?

“What did the man mean with 'test subjects'?”

“You're supposed to be dead.” Stone said and strapped Aaron to the bed again. “Dead men aren't supposed to talk.” He laid a blanket over Aaron's body. “I will answer your questions once we're out of the building.”

Aaron heard how the door opened and felt that the bed started to move. He felt the slight bump as they left the room and turned. He kept rolling for about a minute until they stopped and he heard a card being slid.
“Another casualty?” A woman's voice said.

“Yes.” Stone answered. “But that's why we're here, isn't it? To stop this?”

The woman didn't say anything, but Aaron assumed that she had nodded and then walked away, because he could hear high heels walking away. The next moment he heard the door of an elevator opening. He felt how he was rolled into I and then heard Stone pressing a button.

[i]How is he supposed to get me out of here?[/i] Aaron thought to himself. [i]Wouldn't someone notice if someone were to go outside? It's not like if he could say “I'm just going to give the corpse some air!”[/i]

Aaron's thoughts were soon answered when the door to the elevator opened and he heard screams. Lots of screaming. Suddenly, his headache returned and the voice in his head said something. [i]Why won't you stop!?[/i]

He felt how Stone kept moving, and he heard people running around them, still screaming. After some time, Aaron heard another door open, and felt more bumping as the bed apparently was rolled down a stair. He heard the door closing, and the screaming was weakened. The blanket was dragged away, and Stone unstrapped him once again. Aaron quickly jumped out of the bed this time, and when he did he noticed that he was outside, behind the SkyLine building. They had left through he backdoor. The sky was clear, so presumably he had been asleep for a whole day. Stone threw something at him, and he instinctively caught it.

“My jacket.” Aaron put it on and looked at the building they had just left. It was a skyscraper with the word SilverLine barely visible at the top. “And now for my questions. Were you the hawkman?”

Stone nodded, understanding that Aaron was talking about the winged man.

“The wings were artificial.” Stone explained. “I created them and was testing them yesterday, when I found you and that other guy. I saw your powers and brought you here.”

“Why?”

“That's what we do here at SilverLine.” Stone answered. “We study those who have been given powers, trying to find a cure to free the world from their powers.”

“And why would Mrs. Silver be interested in finding a cure for he gifted... or cursed as some of them say?” Aaron asked.

“Her daughter.” Stone looked at Aaron. “We've been able to trace the source of he gifts and curses to a material that we simply call 'rocks'. The rocks look like normal jewelry, but during the blackout six years ago they radiated waves that caused any living creatures in contact with them to mutate into these gifted/cured people. That includes you.”

“Wait!” Aaron didn't really catch up. “You mean Claire? Does she also have these strange powers?”

“Yes. She was wearing a necklace on the day of the blackout and since then she has started to show signs of weird behavior.”

“Really? I've never noticed...” Aaron thought for a moment. For the five years after the accident that he went to school together with Claire he had never noticed her acting strangely or anything unusual happening around her. He then got back to the present. “And why did you want to get me out of there? And why did you bring me here in the first place?”

“I have feelings, Ward.” Stone replied. “Unlike many of the people inside there. They think that the goal justifies the means and that they are doing it for the greater good.” He looked back at the building. “I brought you here to treat your wounds. Had I brought you to the hospital SilverLine would have stolen you from there and treated you like they do with the other victims in here.”

“If it's so terrible why are you still here?”

“When the security was breached at the museum I was fired, obviously.” Stone looked back at Ward. “It was my own son who betrayed me. When I got a job here there was only one condition; Don't tell anyone. I can't quit or they kill me.”

Aaron was quiet. Why had he risked his life to get Aaron out of that madhouse. He swallowed and looked at the building. His view of SilverLine would never be the same.

“You're brave, Mr Stone.” He then said. Stone nodded.

“You should leave before anyone sees us.” Stone said and turned to the door. He started to walk towards it when Aaron stopped him.

“Wait! I have one more question!” Aaron held up his hand, as if he was trying to grab Stone and prevent him from leaving. “How did you know that they would panic at he bottom floor?”

“Because that is my specialty.” It was not Stone who spoke. Another figure had appeared in the door into the building. The figure was as tall as Aaron and was wearing plated, purple armor. It was also wearing a helmet with two big, blue, glowing eyes. The figure spoke with a dark, distorted voice. “Now, Mr Stone. Where is my payment?” The newcomer held out his hand. Stone searched his pocket and hen handed a bunch of money to the frightening man. “Than you. And now for job two!”

The man leaped onto Stone, he moved way faster than the armor seemed to allow. During the movement, Aaron was able to notice that a knife shot out of the man's hand, and was pushed into Stone's chest. When the man removed his hand from Stone's chest the knife was covered in blood, and Stone fell face-down onto the dirty ground.

“STONE!” Aaron screamed, running up to Stone's unconscious body. He looked up a he man with sweat running on is face and anger in his eyes. “What did you do that for!?”

“To earn my payment.” The man said and cleaned the blade with his free hand. “They call me Psychophobia.”

“I don't care what they call you! He payed you, so you ave no reason to kill him!”

“But what if someone payed me for killing him?” Psychophobia said and chuckled. “And by the way... No witnesses.”

Suddenly Aaron heard a scream and turned to see his mother, watching the scene in fright.

“Mom! Get out of here!” Aaron screamed, but the woman didn't move. Psychophobia took a leap and did the same with Ms Ward as he had done with Stone. The woman fell to the ground, and Aaron felt how a tear rolled down his cheek.

“No...” He whispered, not able to find the words. Stone must have contacted her and told her to come here and pick him up, and now both she and Stone were dead.

“And now it's your turn!” The psychopath turned to Aaron and slowly walked towards the boy.

“Aaron...” Aaron was shocked to hear Stone's voice. “Aaron... It's just an illusion...”

Aaron looked at Stone's body. [i]An illusion? So he creates illusions? He's another one of the gifted...[/i]

“Tell me... How can something that looks so real be an illusion?” Psychophobia asked and chuckled. “Now, get ready to die.”

“NEVER!” Aaron yelled, and he voice in his head once again screamed something, causing Aaron's hands to be set aflame. “You will not get away with this!”

He stood up, and the voice in his head kept chanting. He somehow knew what to do at this moment. He moved is arms back and the flames covering is hands grew larger. He then clapped, sending a giant flame towards Psychophobia's location. The firestorm kicked up a cloud of dust, and the man was too slow to react and was swallowed by the flame. Aaron coughed. How the hell did he do that? He looked at his mother's body, which had disappeared. He sighed in relief when the cloud of smoke cleared and the madman was gone.

“Stone!” He turned back to the dying man. “Are you okay?”

“No” Stone said, rolling over. He was smiling. “But I will be. You, however, need to get out of here!”

“But...”

“No buts!” Stone almost shouted. “Get home before they find us!”

Aaron hesitated, but then decided that it was the best hing to do. He turned and started to run towards his mother's apartment.[/spoiler]

Please leave a comment if you read. I'm sorry if there's some letters missing, my keyboards a bit weird.
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