Aqua & Ion by Mark O. Burson

An hour north of River City, miles from the nearest civilization, lay the expansive Greenbridge Nuclear facility. The monstrous power plant supplied electricity to the entire region, including River City and the surrounding communities. Eric Daniels six foot, four inch frame was easily spotable from below as he walked along the narrow catwalk. The easy going attitude and broad smile as he spoke to the laborers always brought a smile to their faces or an extended hand in friendship. His job as the head of Quality Control was usually appointed to one of the company suck ups, but Eric had proven himself for fourteen years to be a man of integrity and loyalty to the company. Since his promotion to his current position, Quality Control had risen seven percent and the workers were striving harder to make sure that one of their own got the praise he deserved. In the Research department, surrounded by files and secret developmental tapes and information, Jeanne Barbas typed intel into her main server. Her light blonde hair and Aesarian features were offset by the dark, thick glasses she wore high on the bridge of her nose. Edward Jacobs, Jeanne’s immediate supervisor and mentor in the field of Ionic Regeneration opened the door quickly and stepped inside, hurriedly shutting the door behind him. “Jeanne,” he started. “We’ve got a situation. This whole project is supposed to be hush, hush. But the big brass is starting to ask questions. I know the D.N.R.D. ( Developmental Nuclear Research Division,) is monitoring everything we do and touch, but if they find the intel on IX7 we’re shut down! We’ll lose everything we’ve worked for the last six years on.:“First of all, you need to calm down and pretend you have a backbone.” Jeanne said without ever raising her face from the monitor she was watching as she typed. Pushing her chair back from the desk and looking up into her colleague’s eyes, she continued. “Second of all, we have done nothing wrong. At this point, the D.N.R.D.’s involvement was inevitable. I just completed the sequence of calculations I’ve been working on since the rest of our colleagues were chugging beer at the frat house.” Taken aback by his co workers comments, the slightly balding middle aged man straightened his white lab coat and started to speak, when the facilities alarm klaxon sounded. Within seconds the entire plant was a mass of rushing bodies. People were running to get out of the building, since that particular alarm only sounded when there is an imminent disaster. Edward Jacobs flashed his young, headstrong co worker a look of “I told you so”.“Now look what we’ve done! Jeanne, we have to help get the workers out of the complex, and we have to get out of here ourselves! This place is going to be a smoking crater in a matter of minutes.” With a wide eyed look on her face, Jeanne immediately reached for the flash drives lying beside her computer terminal and jammed one into the port on the front of the computer tower. “Go on Edward, I’m right behind you! I have to download this intel. We can’t lose years of work to an explosion.” The older man stared at her for a moment, “What can I do to help? We have to get out of here now Jeanne!” “I’ve got this under control, go on ,get out of here, I’m right behind you old friend.” She said while removing the first flash drive and stuffing another into the port to continue the download process. As the old man turned to run from the room the first explosion sounded. It wasn’t a large explosion, just big enough to shake the building and cause dust to fall from the rafters. Apparently, one of the cooling units had just gone up. “GO!” Jeanne shouted. Edward Jacobs ran from the room and down the stairs toward the crowd rushing for the exit, as the lovely young woman continued to work frantically.On the catwalk overhead of the main facility, Eric Daniels was knocked to his knees by the force of the nearby explosion. Below and to the left, close to the IX7 storage tanks, he could see someone was trapped below a mass of fallen debris. Climbing quickly to his feet, he ran to the nearest catwalk brace. Climbed over the side of the railing and slid agilely down the support pole to land amid the debris on the factory floor. The smoke lay thick, and seared his lungs as he ran in the direction he had seen the trapped worker. Pushing his way through the wreckage and avoiding the burning masses of twisted metal, he called out to the worker. The alarm klaxon, still ringing loudly, drowned out his voice as he finally made his way to the fallen mans side. “I can’t get this damned thing off me Eric! It’s got both legs pinned!” the man sputtered at him and was immediately gripped by a paroxysm of coughing and gagging. As the gentle, young giant reached down to grasp the hot metal pinning the man, he said, “Don’t worry Abe, I’m not going to leave you here. We’re leaving this place together!” Eric gripped the metal and lifted with all of his strength. The metal came up a few inches and Abe Jenson managed to pull himself out from under the wreckage. Both of his legs were gashed just above the knees but he was trying to get to his feet as Eric dropped the heavy metal to clang on the floor. He helped Abe to his feet and they started for the exit when he saw the pressure valve on the experimental IX7 tanks. “Abe can you make it to the exit? I’ve got to try to reduce this pressure or no one else is going to get out of here!” He screamed over the ringing alarm. “No Boy! We’ve got to get out of here now. You come with me and let this place burn in hell.” The older man replied loudly.“I can’t Abe! Now keep moving toward the doors, I’ve got to get this pressure down!” He nudged the old man forward as he turned toward the tank. Abe Jenson stared at him as a second explosion from the other side of the plant rocked the foundations of the facility once more. Grabbing a nearby brace for support the old man screamed, “You’re a fool boy! Come on, we’ve got to go now!”“Damn it Abe, get out of here I said!” Eric screamed, pointing toward the exit. Abe Jenson looked into the younger mans eyes pleadingly, and saw that his resolve was firm. “You saved my life Son! I won’t ever forget that!” He turned to hobble as quickly as he could for the smoke filled exit doors.Up the stairs in the Research Department, Jeanne Barbas grabbed the last Flash Drive from her computer tower just as the second echoing explosion knocked her off of her feet. Rising groggily and wiping her forehead with the back of her lab coat sleeve, she realized she had a gash along her hairline and blood was flowing down the side of her head. She remembered hitting the desk on her way down, but hadn’t realized she had sustained an injury. She checked the pockets of her now dirty coat to make sure she still had the vital experimental information held on the flash drives safely tucked away and moved toward the doorway.As she started down the stairway toward the first floor and freedom from his smoky hell she had practically called home for the past several years, she glanced almost unconsciously toward the IX7 tanks. She saw Eric fiddling with the controls on the side of the tanks and ran down the stairs toward her project. The alarm klaxon suddenly stopped sounding and a feminine computerized voice resounded through the entire facility. “Containment has been stabilized and fire suppressants have been engaged to facilitate the restoration of minimal safety levels! Please move slowly and cautiously to the pre approved, designated areas outside the main facility, where members of management will take a head count, and members of the medical staff await any injured workers! There has been No Nuclear leakage! I repeat, there has been No Nuclear Leakage!” The message began to play again as Jeanne Barbas ran toward her life’s work. Eric was pushing buttons and turning dials in an effort to lower the pressure in the IX7 tanks as Jeanne ran up beside him. “Eric, what’s happened?” she asked frantically.Looking into his bleeding lovers eyes he shouted back, “We’re going to lose it if I can’t get this pressure down! You’re hurt! Get out of here and I’ll take care of this!” He hastily grabbed a valve and began turning it counter clockwise. The gauge directly in front of them, showed red line. It was going to breach. No matter what they did, it was going to breach now. Jeanne grabbed his forearm and shouted, “Let’s go! I’d rather start from scratch than lose you! Just then, the tank started to expand and they both knew that there was no time to get to safety. The giant young man grabbed his lovely fiancé in his arms and started running for the exit as the IX7 tank ruptured. Both he and Jeanne were bathed in the misty vapors rushing to escape from the large tank. He was knocked once more off of his feet and they lay on the floor of the facility. Every pore of their bodies soaking in the experimental mist. A week later, Eric Daniels woke in a hospital room. Dazed and confused, he tried to put together the last events he could recall. “Jeanne! He screamed. “Easy Handsome, I’m here.” Jeanne Barbas said from the bed to his right. Sitting up, he threw both legs over the side of the bed and quickly crossed to where she lay. Kissing her forehead, he asked, “Are you all right? How long have we been here? Is everyone safe?” “Yes, I’m fine. I just woke up this morning. It seems we’ve been out for almost a week. I don’t know about the plant except that it didn’t blow.” She replied calmly. “How do you feel?“I feel great. In fact, I’ve never felt this great in my life.” His left hand was resting on the bed rail as he bent over to stare into her eyes. He began to stand up straight and the bed rail he held firm in his left hand, screeched loose from the frame and he stood holding it in his hand. He stared at the twisted metal in disbelief and turned to look at her. “What the hell?” “ Me too.” she said, “Watch this.” She stared at the large glass of ice water sitting on her bedside tray. Immediately it turned to solid ice. She looked at him and said “Look there.” she pointed toward the toilet in the adjacent room. The water immediately turned to vapor and faded out in the evenly ventilated room. “It seems since our experience with the Ionic Expellant Gas, I can manipulate any form of moisture. I reached for my glass of water this morning and it had no ice. I just thought about how I wished it was cold, and it just happened. I’ve been practicing for hours while you were still out. Eric, we have to keep this a secret. If anyone finds out, they are never going to let us leave this hospital. They will be poking and prodding us for the rest of our lives.” “Well we’re awake and we’re fine, let’s get out of here now.” He said, as he walked over to the closet to find his clothing. Grasping the door handle in his right hand, it crushed beneath his touch. “I can’t even open a door, maybe we should stay here after all and make sure what the extent of the damage is that the gas did to us.” “No, you were right the first time, we need to get out of here. You can get a grip on it with some concentration. Just pretend your handling a basket full of eggs.” Jeanne smiled at him as she pulled her blouse over head and straightened it. The door opened and a well groomed, neatly dressed doctor entered the room. Pushing his glasses back on his nose he said, “What’s this? Mr. Daniels! I see your awake at last, but you shouldn’t be out of bed.” Seeing that they were in the process of getting dressed, the doctor quickly said, “Both of you, please return to your beds. I need to go over these results with you.” “So what do your results say Doc? Are we ok?” Eric asked as he walked over to stand beside Jeanne. “They say that your bodies have been changed at the molecular level. Clearly, whatever happened to you at the nuclear facility is changing you into something more than human. Your blood work has yielded some fantastic results. ”“Now hold it right there, Doctor…? Jeanne said reaching for the chart the doctor held in his hand.“Barton,” The doctor replied. “Dr. Walter Ellis Barton. But my colleagues call me “Web”. Now please sit down.” he said as he pulled the chart back a little bit so Jeanne couldn’t take it from his grasp. He pointed to the bed behind Jeanne and waited for them to sit as he stood staring at them.Slowly both Jeanne and Eric sat down and stared up at the doctor who was looking at their charts once again. “Tell me,” he said. “How you feel. Are either one of you experiencing any light headedness, nausea, or anything out of the ordinary?”“Look Doc.” Eric said rising once again from the bed. “We both feel fine and we want to go home. Now, you can sign the release papers yourself or, we can just walk out of here, but either way we’re leaving.” Dr. Barton looked up into the large young mans eyes and stated matter of factly. “You can’t leave. There are guards posted outside the door. The D.N.R.D. wants to talk to you both. They’re the ones who posted the guards. “I have nothing to hide from the D.N.R.D. but right now I just want to go home, soak in a hot tub and try to get my head around what’s happened.” Jeanne said, rising to stand beside her fiancé’. Now I assure you, we will cooperate with the department in a couple of days, but right now I am asking you to sign the release papers so we can leave.“I’m afraid that’s not going to happen today Ms. Barbas.” The voice of the man who entered the room made them all turn toward the open doorway. The man that entered was wearing a dark blue suit with a white and brown paisley tie. His shoes were polished to a fine shine that you could almost see yourself in. “I need you both to sit down and relax while I ask you a few questions.”His anger rising now, Eric Daniels normal good natured smile was gone. “Mr., I don’t know who you are, and I don’t give a damn. You’re going to get out of the way so we can walk out that door, or you’re going through the door head first. It’s your choice.” “Son, you’re not going anywhere until I tell you, you can.” The well dressed man said snidely. Moving much faster than one would expect from a man of his size, Eric grabbed the man by the jacket lapels and lifted his easily off of the floor. “I warned you.” he said, glaring into the mans eyes. “Officers, get in here now!” the man said loudly.As the door quickly opened again, Eric, with no effort whatsoever threw the man at the two officers who were rushing through the open doorway. As they landed in a heap in the hallway, Jeanne raised her hands and holding them forth in front of her, began to concentrate on the men. A split second later they all began to twitch and jerk on the floor where they lay. She dropped her hands and looked at the doctor who was staring with wide eyes and an open mouth.“What did you do to them?” he asked quietly. “I thought they needed to cool off a bit, so I lowered the temperature of their blood a little. Now Doctor, we are leaving and we will be glad to cooperate in a day or two just as I said we would. Right now however, we need to be alone so we can think this thing through.” The sounds of many feet running up the hallway toward their room coupled with the sounds of guns being cocked was all it took to convince Eric that enough was enough. He grabbed Jeanne in his arms and walked over to the window. “Cover your eyes,” he said. With that he raised his leg and kicked the window sending shards of glass flying in all directions. He stepped forward and looked down the three stories to the ground and said, “We’re going to find out how strong I am I guess.” Just as more police officers burst in to the room he leaped out of the window and landed easily on the pavement, cracking it. He put Jeanne down and they ran around the corner of the building out of sight. Regaining his feet, the man in the suit walked into the destroyed hospital room, his body still shivering from Jeanne’s attack. “ I want every man on this, Now!” He shouted, “ Find them and bring them in. Use whatever means necessary to detain them, but I don’t want them permanently injured. We still have a lot of talking to do.” EPILOGUE:The fishing cabin Eric had spent many summers in with his father held many memories. It had always been a place of refuge to him. A place to “Get away from it all.” Today it was a place of refuge form the police, the D.N.R.D., and the rest of the world. Jeanne sat at the small wooden table staring at the bucket of water in front of her. As her lover and best friend watched, she concentrated and the water began to move. Two small hands reached up to grab the rim of the bucket followed by the rest of a tiny water body. It slipped over the edge of the bucket and walked over to stand in front of her and bowed low. It then straightened itself up and began to dance across the table. Eric simply watched in amazement.He walked over to sit down beside her. He laid a 3 foot long piece of solid steel on the table. Reaching down with one hand, he squeezed his hand shut on the metal. He had literally crushed a piece of steel. “Come with me.” he said grinning at her. They rose together and walked outside to where his fathers old pickup sat, long unused, beside the cabin. He reached down with one hand and as though he were lifting a pillow, simply picked the old rusty truck up over his head then sat it back down. Eric appeared to be a little bigger than he had been previously. “You know I’ve been thinking.” He said. “The IX7 gas changed us, made us more than we were, better! I think we should talk to the authorities and offer to help them in some way. For some reason we have been given these powers. We’re like the comic book heroes I grew up with. This is every Childs dream come true.” He paused and looked into his beautiful fiancés eyes. “I guess we can’t stay here forever. And I need to get to a lab to run some tests. Plus I have to talk to Edward and let him know what happens when the IX& gas comes into contact with human flesh.” She smiled. “ but listen Mr. Superhero, don’t expect me to wear spandex and a cape, Okay?” “Fair enough.” He laughed. “You ready now?”“Yes, let’s get this over with. We’re going to have to deal with the mess at the hospital first and I have a feeling they are not going to be happy with our little vacation from detention.” She said meaningfully.“ Whatever that Suit wanted with us, I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.” he replied. “Come here.” With that he swept her up into his arms and with a huge grin said, “I saved this for last. It seems the energy that infused my body has granted me something besides strength.” He crouched down and leapt into the air. Holding her firmly in one arm and the other stretched out before them, they were flying toward River City and the questions and testing they knew lie ahead.