Difference between revisions of "Atlantis Rising: Chapter 4"
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Homepage: [[Atlantis]] | Homepage: [[Atlantis]] | ||
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Revision as of 15:01, 16 July 2009
Previous Chapter: Phoenix Rising: Chapter 3
Homepage: Atlantis
Also see: Reaper's First Drop
12:00 Hours, January 1, 9400 BCE (Military Calendar), Inner Ring, Atlantis
The Siren bell blasted out from the town center.
The bell was only sounded in times of public danger or disaster and called for all citizens to stop whatever they were doing and return to their homes. Jason paused in the act of filling out the schematics for the new temple he was planning and looked up. Everything paused for a moment, and then workers began filing out of the building, orderly for such chaos. Jason jogged out into the public square in front of his office building and looked around wildly before sprinting off for his house.
"What's going on!" Jason yelled as he entered the atrium. His mother, father, and two brothers were already there.
"I'll tell you in the cellar!" Daedalus shouted as he ran. Jason and the rest of the family quickly followed suit as Daedalus led them into the family's storage cellar. It was chilly down here, full of ice chests, grain, figs, and everything else the family needed to keep cool.
"Meteor." Daedalus said as soon as they all had gathered in one corner. "Actually, technically a comet. The twin of the one that hit 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs."
"Where is it going to hit?" Jason's mother asked.
"Right off our coast. But don't worry, the comet won't kill us. It's the chain reaction and fallout from the comet that will eventually destroy all civilization." Daedalus said with sarcastic cheeriness.
"When?" Jason asked gruffly.
"In about..." Daedalus consulted his watch. "Thirty seconds."
Jason stared with mounting horror, then without a word dashed up the stone steps back into the atrium, through the kitchen, and out the back door. In the streets, columns of soldiers marched up and down, ensuring that everyone was as safe as they could be. One tried to stop Jason, but he shrugged the soldier off and jumped out of the way, fist raised. They both paused mid-blow, though, as the comet came into view.
It was beautiful, in a strange, twisted way. A shield of red, yellow, and white fire ran across the front of the great rock, and a tail of ionized particles trailed from the back, a beautiful shade of rinsed blue. It arced through the air and shed a golden glow along both sides, its interior a seething mass of blue flame. Just as quickly as it arrived, the comet fell through the sky and out of sight, distantly beyond the continent's shore. Even at this distance, Jason felt as the comet arrived, plowing into the Earth and casting giant tsunamis across entire lands, a mile high and scores long. Jason stumbled and fell to the ground, enormous shockwaves rocking the high seas. The storm shield was up, but it would do no good.
And then almost simultaneously with the tremors, Mt. Heliotropos, supposedly dormant, erupted. Jason caught a glimpse of a ring of figures around the volcano, suspended impossibly hundreds of feet up, and then a cool, ice blue mist distorted the air, and a liquid barrier enveloped the crater mouth. The lava poured into the barrier, which seemed to be semi-physical. The shield did not waver, but instead absorbed all the force the volcano was throwing at it, and the liquid became a super-charged gold.
Suddenly, a bolt of light shot into the sky.
Jason looked skyward in time to see a second liquid barrier extending in all directions out from the light, again a cool icy liquid blue. This one was much larger and thicker, and seemed more physical. The shield flew out towards the ends of the continent and enveloped all of Atlantis under its icy glare. Jason heard something speak in his mind, and suddenly all was darkness.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
