Two Page Shorts by Nick Venom (top reads .txt) 📕

The men nodded in response, sprinting off to gather bolt cutters. None of them realized that Gene had barricaded the doors, giving them another obstacle to push through.

Inside the warehouse, Gene and the girl had a stare-off, neither of them speaking. They carefully analyzed each other.

She just threw me into hell. They’ll break down the doors and claim me as an accomplice! Anger grew in him. He raised his knife, pointing it at her. She reacted by scooting away from him. Her back slammed into the piece of the wall under the window. 

“Please help me.” She whispered.

Gene shook his head. “You’re a Nine Order’s target, aren’t you?” He bluntly asked. She reluctantly nodded her head. Gene took a step back, his back brushing against a machine. “You need to leave now! You’re going to get me killed.”

She shook her head. “They’ll kill me if they catch me.” She cried.

“So? I’m going to die because of you.”

Her mouth fell open. “You’re going to throw me out? Where are your morals?” She asked him.

He laughed. “You can’t survive here with your morals. Now, go!” He regretted raising his voice immediately.

“There’s somebody in there!” Pudgy shouted from outside.

Gene’s eyes widened. He balled up his fingers into a fist and slammed it against the machine behind him out of anger. “Damn, now I’m dead because of you.”

“S-Sorry…” She cried.

Gene turned away from her.  He didn’t trust her, keeping an eye on her for as long as he could before he reached the first floor. He stood in the middle of the first floor, watching as the doors fought off men who threw their weight at them. They were being chipped at, but the chains kept them standing. However, without the chains, they would break with ease against the weight and melee weapons. 

Damn her, she just got me killed. Wait… can I escape? But wouldn’t I be leaving my home…? He bit his cheek, turning away from the doors and towards the stairs. Will this warehouse even matter if I’m dead? No. No, it won’t. They’ll take it over and Griff will make this new hideout. I’ll be dead. Why? Because of that girl!

He moved forward, going up the stairs and towards the girl---who was older than him by a year. He approached the girl with the knife planted firmly in his grip. What if I hand her over, will they leave me alone? No… they won’t. They’ll take her and then return for me. Damn!

The girl sobbed, backing away from him. She scooted as far back as she could, hitting another wall some distance away from the broken window.

Gene stopped his pursuit, turning away from her. He looked at the broken window, squinting below it. The leader remained outside, watching the window. Gene wouldn’t be able to escape easily without being sighted. The only way to escape is if he could turn invisible.

An idea shot through Gene. I could look through the wall and check for any of the men. Then I’ll phase through the wall and run. If I’m lucky, they won’t see me. A flawless plan! He grinned to himself, steadily moving towards the stairs. He stopped at the top, turning to face the girl.

“Good luck.” He said before turning around. He descended the stairs.

“Wait!” The girl screamed. “Don’t leave me!” 

“He’s trying to escape, surround the building!” The leader shouted. 

Gene stopped his descent, turning around. He faced the girl, his anger on full display. He gripped the knife tightly, his hands turning red. He breathed in and out quickly before stomping towards her. The girl shrieked as he approached her.

You just ruined my plan! Now I’m stuck in here with you! He screamed internally. I could’ve escaped death, but now I can’t. I’m dead.

The woman cringed as he was less than twenty feet from her. She glanced at him with fright. “Don’t hurt me.” She cried out.

Gene stopped, lowering his knife. He nearly allowed his anger to act. I already killed a person. I… I don’t want to kill another person. He turned around, headed back to the stairs. He sat on the top of the stairs, looking down at the last step. What can I do? Can I still escape…?

He went down the stairs, approaching the wall that had no men around the last time he checked. He squinted his eyes, noticing that a man was waiting on the other side for him. 

Yup, there goes that plan. Gene shook his head, going up the stairs and approaching the girl without his knife. “What’s your name and why did you drag them here?”

“M-My name…?”

“Yeah, you must have one. Even all of the street rats have some kind of name, be it a nickname or something.”

She nodded her head. “Luna Norton”

Gene’s eyes widened. He recognized the Norton family as the aristocrat family living in the only gated neighborhood in East Hell. The Norton family was known for their wealth and their businesses - owning several factories and banks in East Hell alone. Their assets in other towns greatly outnumbered their East Hell assets.

“What are you doing here? You’re a wealthy girl, so why are you in the slums? What? Bored of your life, so decided to come here?”

She shook her head. “My father owes somebody a lot of money. He went bankrupt and they began asking for the money. One of the men, somebody named Griff, noticed me and decided I was his property.” She explained.

Gene nodded, taking in the information. The Norton family went bankrupt? How did that happen? “Okay, then why are you here? You couldn’t hide in your gated neighborhood?”

“I was, but… my neighbors sold me out. They gave my hiding spot up to the debt collectors. They led them right to me. I had to run and… somehow, I found myself here. I’m not sure how it happened.”

Gene shook his head. “Well, you must be having a bad day… And you just made mine’s worse.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Enough with the sorries.” He turned away from her. “They won’t help me. I guess we’re dying here together.”

“I found a pair of bolt cutters!” Pudgy’s voice rang out.

“Get to work!” The leader remarked. Gene began hearing the sound of the bolt cutters being used. Sooner or later, they would break in and Gene would be the first to die. They wanted to keep Luna alive, but Gene was fine to kill. He knew this.

“You have a knife, you could take care of them,” Luna said. She purposely didn’t use the word “kill”.

Gene nodded, taking out his knife. He held it in his left hand while looking at his right hand. It was trembling at a slow speed. “I didn’t want to kill again, I can’t stomach it, but… I’m sorry Mom and Dad. I will no longer be your innocent baby. I’m not pure anymore.”

Hello All!

Thank you for reading Phaser. This installment is the origin story and reveals how Gene gets his powers. The second installment will continue off the cliffhanger of this installment and follow up on the story as it is now. The mysterious fire-man introduced at the beginning, Griff Bullock, and the Nine Order organization will be explored further in the second and third installments.

Phaser and its characters are part of the Extended Challenger Universe [Element S1: Becoming A Hero, Impossible Girl, Jarvis Light: Chapter One, and more] for Phase One. Gene and the other characters will crossover with the other characters later down the line. Currently, there aren’t any plans to crossover any of the characters, but that can change on a dime. 

Again, thank you for reading this short story. I had a lot of fun writing this series and can’t wait to write the sequel. Until next time, I bid you all a good day!

“You’ve done good today Skye, you can leave.” Skye’s boss told her. He was an older gentleman in his late sixties with a balding head and a deteriorating body. “I’ll clean and lock up.” Skye Rollins, a woman in her early twenties wearing a plaid uniform shirt and skirt, nodded. She turned to the backroom, heading into it and finding the changing area. She changed out of her work attire, putting on her casual clothes of a black tee-shirt, black leggings, and a pair of white sneakers. She slipped in her favorite blue wrapped pencil that she used for work into her leggings’ pockets.

She left the building, saying her byes to her boss, and headed towards her house. She lived in a middle-class community filled with a variety of ethnicities. Everybody from every ethnicity lived in the community of Ashfield.

Skye headed down several blocks until she was a few minutes from her house, deciding to go down a short alleyway that served as a shortcut to her house. She reached the shortcut alleyway at the same time a burly man sprinted out of the alleyway, passing by her. He dashed away from her, disappearing from her sight in mere moments. Who was that? She wondered to herself. The man was suspicious, but not enough for her to worry about him. She assumed it was a drug addict on several types of drugs, running around without care for himself. She ignored the man, pressing forward and entering the alleyway. As she passed through the short alleyway, a glittering object caught her attention. The object was in the dumpster of a restaurant, sitting on top of the old food. It looked like it had been nicely placed on the dumpster instead of being thrown into the pile.

Skye approached the dumpster, attracted for some unknown reason. She didn’t know why her body was pushing her forward, but it was. She reached the object, revealing it to be a large journal. The journal was made out of leather with a gold shell covering it. The shell was fractured, now only covering the outline of the journal and none of the middle - it was evident that the book had been completely covered by the gold shell at one point, but was now broken.

She grabbed the journal and dusted off the food particles and bits of garbage on the back of the journal, which wasn’t much. It didn’t appear to have been in the dumpster for long.

She opened the journal, finding it blank. She quickly sifted through the entire Journal, finding everything blank. To her surprise, there were no lines for writing. It was a drawing journal and not a writing one. 

“Well, this was a waste. I could’ve gifted this to my sister.” She tried to throw it back in the dumpster, but her hand didn’t comply with her order. She tried again to no avail. It felt like it was stuck to her hand with glue. 

“What is wrong with this book, is there glue on it? Oh, please tell me it’s glue and not gum or something worse.” She remarked, staring at the back of the journal. She scanned the back for whatever was sticking her to the journal but found no sticky substances. However, her eyes noticed something strange written on the back, reading it out loud. “Wait until the reset is ready before discarding.” She jerked her head back, staring at the words strangely. Reset? How does a journal reset? She shook her head, trying to hurl