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

“That’s exactly what happened to me!” Helen shouted, her eyelids slowly collapsing.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Wing-San stood up and looked around, detecting nobody nearby. “I have a friend you can visit. His real name is Zac, but he’ll go by Guardian; he’s in the suburbs of Chicago. Run to him and he’ll help you out.” He said, handing her a piece of paper with an address on it. “Tell him that I, Wing-San, sent you.” He then turned towards the exit, an empty door frame, before stopping in his tracks. “He’s a good man, but he’s obsessed with protecting this world. Go to him and maybe he’ll train you to use your newfound power.” Wing-San remarked before leaving the warehouse, leaving Helen behind. Helen looked down and inspected the address, her memories slowly revealing themselves to her. With every new memory, Helen began piecing her past, but more sharp pains attacked her in the process. She tried to visit the memories, but they were short and bitter.

She then looked up at the hole in the wall. “Wait, why did he say my ‘newfound power?” She asked out loud. “He… doesn’t know… what’s going… on… right?”

***

“We love you… you know that right?”

“Who are you? My daughter?”

“I don’t know you.”

“We’re not friends. We were never friends.”

***

Helen awoke to the sounds of a blaring alarm. She had gone unconscious due to the pain, but was not awake. She looked around wildly and noticed two men in uniforms approaching her from the main entrance of the warehouse and not through the hole in the wall. Her palms began glowing as she rose to her feet, facing them.

The officers scanned the warehouse before detecting Helen, standing still with both palms pointed towards them. One of the officers motioned for the second officer to back down, taking a step towards Helen. Helen flinched and took a step backward. The officer, Grant Wishen, stepped forward. He was a handsome young man in his early twenties with dirty blond hair that he gelled into standing up, reached towards the heavens. He had no facial hair but did have scattered freckles on both cheeks. He stared at Helen with his dark blue eyes, reaching his hand out to Helen; “I’m not here to hurt you... I swear.” The other officer snickered at his Prince Charming-like behavior. “I’m a police officer,”

“P-P-Police off-officer?” She repeated, a cat catching her tongue.

“Yes, I’m a police officer. Follow me and we’ll take you to safety at the police station.” Grant said while slowly walking towards her. Helen took another step backward, but this step wasn’t as large as her previous one. “I’ll take you to safety,” He declared. Those words won over Helen as she took steps towards Grant, reaching out to grab his hand. However, she forgot that her powers were active, leading to Grant’s hand being close to scorching off. 

Fortunately, the other officer shouted out to Grant and attracted his attention. He lowered his hand and hovered it over his holster. “What’s wrong?”

“It looks like another wave of druggies,” The other officer, a short and plump man with whitish features remarked as a few, drugged out of their mind, individuals roamed around the warehouse. The individuals were teenagers that looked like normal people, except for the drugged look they had on display. “It must be some kids trying out drugs for the first time. Doesn’t look like it’s working for them.”

“That’s obvious,” Grant said before turning towards Helen. He extended his hand out, managing to connect their hands. She yelped, expecting Grant’s head to burn off his body, but was surprised to find him okay. Helen’s powers had deactivated now that she felt safe.

Grant led Helen to their police cruiser, putting her in the back. Meanwhile, the other officer, Dan Hale, rounded up the druggies and contacted the station for another cruiser to pick them up. Once the druggies were secured to a piece of chain link fence, Hale returned to their cruiser and slid into the driver seat, landing his foot onto the gas pedal and roaring the cruiser to life. The cruiser jerked into motion, throwing them an inch forward before launching them back into their chairs. The cruiser roared down the road, passing another cruiser headed for the drugged-out teenagers. 

***

The cruiser landed itself in the station’s parking lot. Helen and the others exited the cruiser and headed inside. Upon entering, the officers were scanned by a high-tech device known as the ‘Scanner’ which verifies one’s credentials and is used to prevent posers and frauds from accessing the station’s jail, armory, and intel room. 

With both officers scanned, they were allowed inside of the station’s main room, passing two officers that shot a scornful look at Grant and Hale. Grant brushed off the looks and led Helen into an interrogation room. Hale closed the door behind them while Grant motioned for Helen to sit down on the lone metal chair. Grant sat down, across from her, intertwining his fingers and laying them on the table. He stared into her strangely beautiful and memorizing black eyes. Her curly brown hair skidded to a stop at her waist, curling at the ends. She had pale skin that was slightly filthy from her stay in the abandoned warehouse. 

“Can you tell me what happened to you?”

Helen looked down and shook her head. “I… can’t remember.. much.” She said.

“Okay, what do you remember?”

“I-I-I… ” She stammered. She brought one of her palms to her throat as if she was choking herself. Grant stood up and rushed to her side, but she waved him away with the hand that she was previously choking herself with. “Sorry, it felt like I couldn’t talk for a second.”

“You couldn’t talk?” Grant asked, sitting back down on his chair. Hale handed him a notepad and he began scribbling onto it. 

“It felt like somebody was choking me.” 

“Choking you? Like a pair of hands reached around your throat.” She nodded her head. “I have a question. Were you anywhere near the Spark building?” 

“I woke up there.”

“You woke up inside the Spark building? Can you describe to me your surroundings when you woke up?” 

“I woke up in some kind of capsule. It was a-” An explosion went off, attracting the entire station’s attention. Grant stood up and dashed to the door with Hale following after him.

“I’ll be back, stay here.” He ordered as he yanked the door open, dashing outside and closing it behind them. They rushed to the front of the station, watching in horror as the receptionists and people waiting in the front were ripped to shreds by mini-explosions. A man dressed in a red and blue jumpsuit raised his palms and pointed them at an officer, launching a blast of energy that exploded upon contact. 

The man charged through piles of officers, launching blasts of energy at them. The explosions were the size of two grenades going off simultaneously. 

Grant brandished his firearm and pointed it at the man, firing off a couple of bullets. The bullets made contact with the man but didn’t pierce him. They bounced off him, landing on the floor next to him; all of them being crushed to pieces. The man fired back, missing Grant by a few inches, and hit one of the two scornful officers that stood behind Grant and Hale - who brandished his pistol with the intent of using it against his fellow officers. The officer was thrown back a few feet, dying on impact. The other scornful officer’s jaw fell open before retreating through a back entrance. “I’m not dying over Spark’s project,” he declared before disappearing through the back.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the officers fought back against the man to no avail. Grant and Hale fired off shots into the man, but none of them were able to do damage. 

“Call for reinforcements!” He ordered Hale. Hale nodded, raising his radio to his mouth, contacting a nearby police station. Grant peeked his head around a wall and fired off a couple of bullets, bouncing off the man. The man locked his eyes on Grant and fired off a blast of energy that tore through the wall, pushing him to the ground as debris landed on top of him. Hale noticed Grant’s situation and rushed to his side, slowly dragging the debris away from Grant. 

The man turned his attention to Hale, facing his palm towards the officer. He charged a large blast of energy and nearly threw it at Hale. However, Helen dashed out of the interrogation room and charged towards the man. Her palms began glowing as she raced towards the man. His focus was on Hale and Grant that he didn’t notice her until she was too close for comfort. 

Helen connected her right hand to the man’s left arm, her fire-spewing out and consuming his arm. The man let out a girly scream as his energy blast, that he was building up to throw at Hale and Grant, malfunctioned. It blew him in his grip, the burst dispersing into a mist-like substance that threw everybody around. Grant flew in the air before slamming into the wall, being knocked out by the energy blasts while everybody else---Hale, Helen, and the man----were thrown into a wall, but still conscious. 

The attacking man’s body crumpled like a piece of paper, his insides now outside. His body was charred and he was missing an arm.

Helen, on the other hand, fared better. She had been singe by the explosion - hitting the wall had knocked her wind out of her lungs. She curled up, trying to convince herself to regain what strength she had. She pulled herself together, rising to her feet. She turned towards the man, noticing his bad state. He couldn’t be saved.

The remaining officers---a few men and women---were a safe distance away and able to rush to Grant and Hale’s aid. 

One of the officers approached the burnt body and attempted to inspect it before the shouts of a man alerted him.

“This is Trigger from the newly established Vault Security. I’m here to retrieve a… ” He started before looking down at a strip of paper. “... H-Helen Hollow.” Trigger, a muscular man with a scruffy green beard, wearing a military helmet with tinted shades and a plain green tank top, announced. A belt wrapped around his waist held countless bullets and a small collection of firearms. His skin was dark as night. 

The officers looked around wildly, searching for a ‘Helen Hollow’. Helen raised her hand, alerting Trigger to her presence. Trigger nodded and motioned for Helen to follow him. 

She hesitated to leave, glancing over her shoulder at the unconscious bodies of Grant. “You’re a special being that needs to be protected. Allow me to help you,” he exclaimed while extending his hand out to her. Do I trust him?... He did say he wants to help me.

Helen shot another glance at Grant before deciding to take Trigger’s hand as he led them out of the ruins of the police station. In the parking lot of the police station was a SWAT-like truck that had the words ‘Vault Security’ printed in bold letters. He motioned for her to enter the truck before him. She reluctantly entered the truck and noticed that two people were already in the truck. 

“These are my squad members; Frozenstar and Siren Eagle,” Trigger said. Frozenstar had whitish-blue hair that was styled in a hi-top fade, wearing a white and blue latex suit with a ninja star imprinted on the chest. His hands trembled slightly, but as Helen noticed them, Frozenstar hid them from her sight. Siren Eagle, a man who looked to be in his eighties with balding grey hair, nodded his head before turning away from her. He wielded a cane. His skin looked to be lacking in sunlight. 

“Where are you taking me to?” Helen asked Trigger.

Trigger looked at her. He let out a small sigh before answering her question.