Old Memories
E
mily woke up, she grabbed one of her dad’s journal and climbed down to the dining room downstairs. She walked through the vast dining room and walked into the kitchen. She pulled the computerized refrigerator open and she pulled out an average gallon of milk. She opened another compartment of the refrigerator and brought out a pack of cereal. She poured very little into a beautiful white bowl and poured some milk and crunched them together. She pulled out a kitchen chair by the counter and sat. She opened the journal and was reading it as she ate. It was some poetry her dad wrote.
Where Many Fail, one is Enough to Prevail:
Where the least wind blows
Where the rays of the sun fail to shine
Where the ocean tides flee
Where the rainbow blurs
That place of desolation and loneliness
In the mist of that… hope, love and faith will blossom and grow.
Where the weapons of defense are defeated
Where the shield of justice is broken
Where the voice of the voiceless is silenced
Where the innocent wail, without helping hands
Even in the mist of that, hope, love and faith will blossom and grow.
Even in lands too barren for termites
Even in tight spaces, too tiny for the scale of justice
Even in the face of war and betrayal
Even in the lonely depth of the ocean
Even in the mist of all this, take with you hope, love and faith… it will blossom.
All is never lost, until the hopefully embraces hopelessness
All is never lost, until the loving and kind hearted, embraces hate and prejudice
All is never lost, until the faith of the faith-full is stolen.
All is indeed never lost, if just one chooses to be hopefully, faithfully and loving.
Who will be that one?
Who will be the one in a world of ignorance and evil?
Will you be that one?
Emilia pondered if she wanted to be that one in this unjust world. She slammed the journal closed. Took the book upstairs to her room and rushed down to her gym and training center. She entered, putting on her training gear. She exercised and trained for about an hour and then she made her way to the swimming pool. She swims for about an hour and then returned to her room and entered the bath tub and relapsed. She closed her eyes and meditated for a while.
Her phone rang and she instructed her home bot. To pick the call. It was Ivy on the other end of the phone.
“Rose Cyanide, hope you are getting ready to come pick me up? I miss you already.” The phone beeped and it was dead.
Emilia smiled; Ivy had always wanted a sibling. Born to a young single mother. Her mother was fund of going overseas and she would often drop the energetic Ivy with them just before travelling. Emilia’s dad would take she, ivy and Lesner for play dates. Ivy’s mom never told her anything about her dad, she said that it was too painful to remember. Her mom was very friendly and always boasted that she was the most awesome mom in Zextron. Ivy felt that way, but hardly encouraged her mom's boastful claims. So, in a way, yes, they were sister’s: Ivy was precious to her, she was the only one she could relate to about the pains of not having a dad around. She is her heir, one to inherit all that her father left her.
Emilia got out of her bathtub, dried and styled her now white curly hair. She wore a beautiful short white gown. And a white short underneath it. Even she knew that she looked elegant and beautiful in this dress. She put on a white lipstick and white eye shadows. She had even dyed her eye brow white too.
When she was done making up, she slid into a beautiful white high-heel and she entered a lift down to her garage. She searched for the electronic keys to her new pure white Armadulion Vendata. She spent a minute or two admiring the war machine and spot car. She had lost her black colored model, but was enough to have had a spare white one she had never driven. The car was a beauty and she loved the car. She decided to call the car, Rachel, after her mystery mom that she just knew about just a few days ago.
She pressed the key and car driver’s door lifted up and she entered and slot in the electronic key and the car roared to life. She knew that Ivy would love this car…it had a white tire. She zoomed of towards the Exit and in about fifteen minutes she was in Ivy’s place. She honked loudly and Ivy rushed out with her Chrystal tablet computer and a bag filled with devices.
“Oh my God!! This car is beautiful and expensive”
“Yes, it is...Erimly Cyanide.”
“Ha! Ha! you don’t have to be so formal,”
“Yeah, just trying to get into character” she winked.
“Okay Rose Cyanide”
“belt up, it’s going to be a very fast ride”
Emilia sped off, screeching off on the glass roads patterned with tiny lines of asphalt. The most beautiful thing about the white tire was that it left no marks or traces. This made it perfect for crime. Ivy was intoxicated with adrenaline; this was the first time she would be close to a field mission. Emilia couldn’t tell her that she dressed too serious for the part. She was on all black leather jump suit: from her shoe up to her hat. She didn’t want to laugh at Ivy.
“girlie, do I look ok?” the perturbed Ivy asked.
“you look great; you will blend right in” Emilia responded. She knew that she dared not hurt her feelings, especially before a sensitive and dangerous operation just like this.
They pulled over opposite the bank. Ivy pulled out a flower ribbon and pegged it to Emilia’s hair.
“Ivy, what’s that?
“it’s just a chip to confuse the computer, while I hack it”
“Ok…I wish it was white though”
“Me too …but it adds color to you though” Ivy complimented. Emilia didn’t like the ribbon, it was wailing out geek, geek and geek. Emilia feigned a smile. “Erimly, are we ready to start operation?”
“Yes, make sure that your mouth piece is rightly positioned”
“Okay, stay safe for me, Ivy”
“You too. tell me if anything goes wrong” Ivy pleaded.
“I will, but Ivy, if anything goes wrong please flee”
“It won’t sister, and please be professional, call me Erimly.”
Both smiled. Emilia walked towards the entrance, there were two security men checking. She car walked with a perfect smile.
“Good morning. “one of them greeted her.
“Good morning…sir” she responded seductively.
“What brings you to this bank? “
“I have a security trust and savings with the bank to the tune of one billion units”
She responded. The man almost stumbled off in shock,
“you are filthy rich ma'am” he complimented.
“Yes, I am…if you don’t mind, I have serious business to attend to.”
“Okay ma, if I may ask, what’s your name?”
“Cyanide Rose.” she answered without any thought. She was shocked that she got it all mixed up but she loved it better. Cyanide Rose sounded better than Rose Cyanide. Ivy smiled in the car, she too liked it better, it was way cooler and more adventurous. Cyanide Rose, such a peculiar name, she thought.
All that Emilia had on her was her tiny pulse which had a few things. They allowed her in. She paid them a courteous compliment which left them blushing. Once again, she was back to the banking hall. The same banking hall where she had been few weeks back and had made headline all over the metropolis. She sat down, gently knowing that the security camera will try to identify her.
“Erimly, what’s your update?”
“About to ace it…just some couple of seconds left. “
“Okay”
She pulled an electronic newspaper sheet by the side of her chair. She opened it and she feigned to be engrossed reading it.
“set!” Ivy announced from the other end.
Now Emilia felt free to seat back and concentrate. She closed her eyes and tried to sense the same thing that reached out to her the last time she was there. She tried very hard but felt nothing. She sensed that whatever it was that reached out to her, it was gone. She stood up and was about to walk out when she felt a tap on her back and she looked back, it was the man who had forgotten the electronic newspaper sheet on that chair.
“Ms, it’s mine”
“Okay sir, you can have it” she handed over to the man.
She was walking towards the door when she stumbled into a person. She for a second exchanged glances with the young man and she moved on out to the entrance when she realized that it was it was Lesner. She prayed that he didn’t realize that it was her. She walked through the door and the door emergency alarm rang. She suspected that she had been made and she walked briskly, but she was stopped by the two security guards. Whom seemed to be busy communicating with someone over their tiny monitor mics. He nodded and flashed a smile and bade her farewell
“Ma’am thank you for banking with us”
“Thank you”
She rushed across the street and entered the car. Ivy seemed to monitor her for a few seconds.
“Where the ribbon?” Ivy asked.
“Oh! Shit, I knew it”
“If it is missing, that means that you were made, so why did they let you go?
“They don’t want to create a scene; they don’t want people to know that I am alive. And they want to deceive me and trail me to my abode and execute me”
“Oh my God…what will we do now?”
“Since they want to play the game, let’s play. We will visit as many financial institutions and vaults in Vellomn metropolis as we can today. I must find the three-mutant locket. They won’t arrest me in public.”
“Sounds great to me.”
“Ivy, one more thing. I suspect that Lesner saw me.”
“How do you mean?”
“He was the one I stumbled into and lost the ribbon to”
“This is getting complicated; do you think that he recognized you?”
“I don’t think so”
‘’We must visit all of them until we find or sense the lockets”
“Emilia, we can’t circumvent the whole metropolis in day, not even a week or a month. Vellomn metropolis is bigger than most countries in the Galaxy”
“I know, but what can we do?”
“Find out”
“How Ivy?”
“If they moved it, then there must be a trail”
“Jixor-Cult use science and technology to monitor their preys and subjects. They use it to execute plans and rule with an iron feast. If the three lockets were moved, it would have been the most guarded object, and so?”
“What ivy”
“CCTV's somewhere or somehow would have caught it on camera”
“I know, but they would not lead us to where it was kept.” Emilia replied.
“My guess is that in order for this item to be moved without a trace, a government official with already a tight security entourage will be used.”
“That’s true…but Ivy how will we go through hundreds of hours of feeds.”
“Emilia, we don’t. It is mandatory for the Mayor of Vellomn metropolis to visit the Vellomn metropolis bank and supervise the harm done to it and then give a press conference. The day after you made headline, he visited the scene but something strange happened.”
“What ivy? She asked in suspense.
“He came with three times his normal security detail. Claiming that with you at large, the mayor’s security was priority, but another shocking thing happened”
“what?”
“The next day, general Leagan Defdon withdrew the security, saying that the kind people of Vellomn Metropolis needed the security and not the mayor.”
“Ivy, you are a genius” Emilia hugged her excited.
“Yes, I am, Emi. All we have to do is to find one of the people who drove the mayor and knows the last destination of the mayor on that particular day. If we do, we find the three powerful mutant locket and in no time their holders will have no choice but to defend their Honor and reveal themselves to you.”
“Ivy, you are the smartest person I know. Now we have to lose them from our trail”.
Emilia roared her pure white Armadullion Vendata which also had white tinted glass. She sped towards the Vellomn Metropolis Shopping mall and within minutes she noticed two armored pod cars on her trail. She smiled and drove into the mall; she entered a gun store and purchased a load of it under her new name Cyanide Rose. She walked in front of the armored pod-cars and opened fire on them… people in mall scattered, panicking and scrambling for cover. She reversed and drifted into the aquarium and they followed suit, chasing her but didn’t open fire. She meandered through the broad aisles of the aquarium and she saw a huge elevator open and she drifted and reversed into the elevator. She came down from her car and punched the button for the top roof. And she entered back, Ivy was mesmerized and terrified at the same time.
Emilia drove out of the elevator and was now on top of the mall which was a man-made beach. The two pods chased after her, sped towards the huge fountain and suddenly came to a halt, but the pods which were in high speed couldn’t stop. The hit their brake too fast and were forward, summersaulting hard and they fell off the building. Emilia tapped a soft touch screen in her car, and a voice announced
“Drone feature activated”
She flew into open air and she knew that it was not over. They wanted to give her the impression that the two pods were all but she was not buying it. Emilia thought of what she could do to draw them out of their hiding place. She smiled and she turned towards the mayor’s office, as if she was going to create havoc. Suddenly they all came out of their hideouts. She switched on her armor and she lodged the instruction to car that weaponized it. She knew that this will be her biggest face off till date. Two robotic weaponized hands emerged on the sides of her drone-car.
“Ivy, brace yourself and don’t be scared”
Ivy nodded, clinging to her computer. “I have a plan and I am going to drop you off. I will contact you”.
Ivy nodded, clenching her fist and perspiring. Emilia swerved and spun in the air, shooting out laser missiles against her opposition which left many explosions in the air. She smiled.
“I came prepared.” she glided downward with many drones in pursuit, she swerved and maneuvered through the multiple skyscrapers, dodging all the shots fired at her. She glided down towards a dark ground train tunnel and she propelled in and struggled to keep an aerodynamic balance in the tunnel. She emerged from the other side of the tunnel and she swiveled up, rotating as she shot up like a rocket and they joined in pursuit, shooting laser explosive at her. She activated her invincibility camouflage, one of the drones behind her shot a stain bomb.
She dodged on time, she smiled.
“Using the same trick twice is not wise.” she turned and spiraled down shooting laser missiles and blowing many of them up. They couldn’t see her and so she used it to her own advantage. She glided down and she flew towards the city park and zoo. She flew into one of the underground carnal and exited Ivy who hid behind one of the pillars. Emilia emerged from the other side of the tunnel and flew towards those pursuing her she deactivated her invincibility camouflaged and landed deadly shots at the enemy. She was about to turn for an escape when one of the enemy’s drone with the invincibility camouflage shot her with a laser bomb magnum. She dodged but not totally, it hit blew open her right wing. Her drone spiraled down in a devastating free fall, breaking apart bit by bit, leaving many debris. She knew that if she stayed back in the drone she would be killed for real. She reached for the back seat and pulled out a silver box. She pulled out an electronic device vest and slapped her chest with it and it covered her body, except for her eyes, mouth and nose. She jumped out of her flying drone. She dived in the air, as she watched her car-drone plummet to the ground.
She punched the chest and the whole vest became an electronic armored body suit. She jetted down towards the roof top of the Vellomn memorial hall. Many Mutant Ninja Cyborgs (M.N.C) jumped out of their drones, shooting deadly laser bullet at her, as they sky-dived towards her. Emilia swerved, dodging, before landing on the roof. Many of M.N. Cs landed running towards her and shooting at her. She evoked a shield from her hand, blocking their bullets. She summersaulting and evoked a long fiery sword from the other hand. Landing deadly and mortal cuts to her attackers. She ran and kicked one of them on the chest, he fell off the roof, smashing a drone.
Emilia jumped off the roof and grabbed the balcony of one the flats, it was a fifty-stores building filled with flats. She let her self-go and jumped to a lower balcony. Some M.N. Cs followed suit, jumping down. She frowned and dodged a laser bullet and even darts. She jumped down four floors and grabbed the balcony. She jumped into an apartment; it was a group of young gangsters. They pulled out guns and pointed at them.
“Calm down guys, I am not the enemy.” she said seductively. “I will pay you guys 40,000 units”
She ran across the wall and opened the door; a sudden wind scattered the room. She collected their account details.
“Shoot anyone who comes after me.” she instructed them.
They nodded. Shoot-out in that apartment could be heard across the whole building, she ran down the stair case. She ran towards, the first floor, she didn’t want to summon her eagles or create a big whirl wind, she couldn’t let anyone confirm that she was Emilia Lawkens. She was out in the street and they were still in pursuit of her, she saw the door to a dark abandoned theatre. One of the gifts that she had was that she could see perfectly well in the dark. She rushed into the theatre and she climbed the huge drapes and reached the ceiling and used its old conditional system and busted out into a dark alley. An Armadullion pulled over, she was frightened and she had evoked a fiery machete. The car door pulled up and it was the voice of Lesner.
“Emily, get in here!”
Only Lesner and her dad called her Emily. She rushed and entered the car and he zoomed off. There was an awkward silence. She could sense that Lesner was as angry as hell but didn’t want to say a word.
“You can drop me here.” she suggested
He ignored her and drove her to his family house.
“you will sleep here.” He said.
He ushered her into the room she and Ivy used to sleep in whenever they had a sleep over in his house as kids. She entered and Ivy was already there. Lesner left them and he shot the door behind him. She could still see that the Crawford’s had maintained the room in its original state: exactly the way it used to be when they were there last.
“hi.” Ivy greeted guiltily “am sorry Emi”
“Don’t be, you did nothing wrong…it’s all my fault. I just hope that Lesnie will be able to forgive me”
“Emi, he is just heartbroken, it will take some time to heal”
“I know; did you tell him that I was alive”
“No, he recognized you at the bank. But he didn’t want to create a scene and he felt you didn’t want to see him. So, he called me and I tracked your armored vest and he came to pick you up. For the first time in many years, I saw him cry out of a broken heart.”
“Ivy, let me talk to him.”
“I wouldn’t advise you to…give him till tomorrow. No matter how angry he is, it can’t compare to how glad he is that you are alive”
“Does Mr. Crawford know that I am…”
“No, he doesn’t, I told him that you wanted it secret.”
“Thanks….”
“Come here” she enveloped Emilia in her embrace “I almost lost you today…Emi, it will be alright”
Emilia nodded…. enjoying the comfort of her sister in purpose.