The Fallen Star

In the dead of the night, a lone ranger waded through the sea of trees. His body grew weary and his eyelids heavy.

Dawn is almost breaking. I should be going.

He found it soothing; the sound of rustling leaves brushing against the wind, of crickets and frogs chirping in natural rhythm. It was the song of the forest, the familiar symphony that continued to keep him awake to this day. In total darkness, he had only the light of the moon and stars to guide him. But tonight a new light emerged, one brighter than all.

Some say one cannot control an outcome; that everything is a result, a consequence of actions beyond one's scope. The ranger would go about his life just like in any other day, until he too would meet with such consequence. The light shone with majestic brilliance, ever-growing in size as it plummeted towards the forest.

The impact shattered the earth as a wave of force surged through the woods. Trees bent and snapped, animals squealed and ran for their lives. The forest's song silenced by the fallen star. He did not know what to do. Nobody prepared him for this. How could he protect the forest from such cosmic catastrophes? The least he could do was go and see it with his own eyes.

"What the hell..." he murmured, making his way through the wooden remains.

A large crater cradled the celestial object, not much larger than a person. It was a perfectly round sphere of molten rock. Suddenly, it cracked open like an egg, two symmetrical halves hitting the ground in sync. Not even once had its shine faded, still brimming with that otherworldly light.

The man squinted his eyes. Inside the light... a figure of a woman inched slowly towards him. The brilliance condensed around her form and he could see her clearly.

"Hello?" he called out, his voice overcome by fear.

Why am I still here? Why haven't I left yet?

Despite the overwhelming sense of danger, the ranger stood still. He questioned himself, but the answer lied deep beyond rational thought. Curiosity, the driving force of mankind, a force that blinded many a thrill seeker such as himself. There he stood, watching as the woman advanced.

Her entire body was covered in a golden layer that shimmered with the glow of the star. Like a statuette given to others as in the form of rewards, perhaps this was his reward for such an act of courage.

"C-can you hear me?" a cracked voice emerged from his dry throat.

The figure stopped and looked straight at him. His heart stopped in kind, if only for a moment. He did not see eyes, but two golden beads of a hollow, haunting figure. She heard him alright. A wish made upon a fallen star came true. But now he had another wish: get away, get away as far as he can without looking back.

And so the ranger ran, much like the wild animals before him. He ran and ran, until he felt his lungs bursting in flames. And in the darkness of the night, he disappeared beyond the wooden sign of his own making that pointed north. On it was written the name of possibly the only place he would want to be in right now...

<-- Sanctuary

Surrounded by the waves of the ocean, a tiny island full of trees and all sorts of tall vegetation was home to a place not seen by many and known by even less. So very close to the mainland, one could easily gloss over it as just a part of the archipelago that wasn't yet given the tourist treatment.

Deep under the island, on a gray corridor littered with doors, two men walked side by side. They both wore the standard laboratory white coat along with transparent gloves. Easygoing and carefree, they both headed for one specific door, whose sign from above read: "Cafeteria".

"… and no matter what I say, she always refuses." a scientist's pitiable voice echoed through the corridor.

"Hey, man, it's what I always said: Your girlfriend's a psycho."

"I tried being subtle about it, to extend the foreplay as much as possible." he said, wiping his glasses with a piece of cloth. "But no, she just wants to jump straight into the action. What should I do?"

His companion got closer to him and lowered his voice. "You know, there's always the dolls. Heard business is going great. You might catch a discount."

"What? That's fucked up. Aren't they, like, alive?"

"Nah, man. It's fine. They aren't sentient. I don't know who makes them, myself, but people love them over where I live."

Suddenly, one of their colleagues met their path, having entered through one of many doors.

"Very classy, guys." a female voice greeted them. It belonged to a short brunette dressed exactly like them. She, too, was wearing a pair of glasses. "Chief called, he wants us in the vault."

"Well, good morning to you too, Lynn." the man with glasses replied.

"What? Come on, we were just about to get lunch! What gives?" his friend added.

"What gives is an emergency. Now move before Chief boots your ass off this island." the woman answered, slightly nervous herself.

She led the way through a different section of the facility, one with multiple chambers being sealed off by metallic, automated doors.  Many of those had text displayed above them: a letter, following a series of numbers. Two digits, most starting with a zero.

It was always tense, passing through that hallway. The dark, cold, multilayered steel doors created an air of oppression to all who would walk by. Sometimes people claimed they heard noises from beyond; others simply couldn't take it and retired. But they were fine, after all, they worked on the upper floors. Their feeling would not last, it always ended in relief that whatever was behind those doors, stayed behind those doors.

"Chief." the woman announced their presence.

The room they were in was every bit like what came before. 'The Vault' they called it, a circular room, itself filled with doors meant to hold things inside. In the center, a holographic terminal displayed a location much like this one. Next to it was an older man wearing a black suit.

Looking rather impatient, the man spoke, keeping an aura of class about him. "There you are. You must have seen that your IDs now possess maximum clearance."

"Sir… was there an emergency?" she said what they all thought of.

"Indeed, Rhodes. Come take a look." the man beckoned towards the terminal, pointing at a would-be prison chamber colored red. "There has been a breach in 103. The sample we recovered from the meteorite: T-04."

"You dubbed that a Theta?"

"Due to the nature of its 'transportation', yes. Though I suppose an Alpha designation would categorize it better, if it was still there, that is."

Lynn's mind rewound to a few words earlier. The newly acquired 04, but that's where…

"Now that you see in what kind of situation we find ourselves in, I would like to, aside from expressing my disappointment, remind you that what we are dealing with here is not to be taken lightly. Due to the unfortunate event of Facility 103, we will be relocating the remaining experimental objects inside this room until further investigation of the security measures."

"You can’t be serious about this." the man with glasses grimaced.

"Chief… what happened to her?"

"This is not the time or the place to discuss that, Rhodes. I want you to-"

"Oh, no, I think it's the perfect time." her voice started to crack, anger building up inside her. "Now you're going to tell me what the hell happened to my sister!"

Her colleagues tried to hold her down, subtly implying that she should not be doing this. The Chief, surprisingly, answered pretty straightforward.

"T-04 had been recorded to change shape and evolve when fed with organic matter. It had been moved to a specialized cell as precaution. However, it would appear that T-04 absorbed the electric field itself, powering down the entire chamber.

"Your sister was recovered as well and hospitalized. The diagnosis tells that her body was drained as well. She is currently in a coma and as for signs of recovery, you would have to ask the medical staff for that." he looked at Lynn, who was now trembling with shock. "Are you satisfied, Rhodes?"

Disobeying yet another order, the woman ran out of the room the second she heard everything. The Chief sighed, knowing full well this might happen. The wisecrack scientist took a few steps towards the door as well. "Excuse me as well, Chief." he said, running after his colleague.

"Williams, did you have any questions?" the suited man asked.

"Uh, where is T-04 headed?"

"The only way outside of our influence. The way where all manners of unpredictable outcomes to illogical actions occur."

"You mean where the magic is?"

Their superior let out another long sigh. He could not believe those people were working in this department. "Yes, where the... magic is."

"What do we do?"

"You are to remain here and continue studying the incoming experimental objects. Do brief the others, Williams. Dismissed."

With that, the meeting was over. There was nothing they could do about it. That which was known as T-04 had successfully escaped imprisonment… and nothing good could ever come out of that.