Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Paranormal Unit: Chapter One

Second post


Three months earlier

Almost five years ago a group of rogue vampires, those not binding themselves to the vampire counsel, decided that they were tired of living in the dark, fugitively speaking. They wanted fame, power, and most importantly to finally be able to live without fear.

They wanted the humans to be in fear.

So those vampires went public on national television and exposed all vampire kind. Governments tried to counter this display as a hoax but when the very public attacks on humans began there was no denying the truth.

The vampire counsel, the ultimate vampire authority, tried to do strong public relations by showing to the world that their kind was not all evil. Whether this was true or not was not the point. Having humans openly fearful of them was bad for the vampire way of life. However, no matter how many good works the vampires committed; community service, saving lives; the humans simply were not convinced.

Instead the police, the military and the vigilantes were all seeking out vampires and killing them. They would leave suspected vampires out in the sun to burn or burst into flames if they were really young, and sprinkle holy water or shine crosses on them.

In addition to killing the captured vampires, open experiments were conducted. Those in the government that already knew of their existence had already completed vampire testing but now they could do so without secrecy.

The vampires, seeing that their efforts to put forward a good face were futile, decided that if they were going to suffer they weren’t going to do it alone. So, as the head of the supernatural food chain, they exposed all supernatural beings such as ghosts and preternatural creatures. Just about anything formed to scare audiences and children came to the forefront.

And so a war began between the Paranormals and humans. Although the humans outnumbered these super entities, the creatures of the night had more strength. Crime took on a whole new form for the police. A whole new type of training had to be done.

However the humans weren’t left to fight alone. While the vampires were exposed so were the hunters: super humans from across the globe that chose to fight against paranormal bad guys. They always existed and were, in recent years, financially backed by governments as they protected the world against the evil of the night.

They had a hunter union composed of some of the top paranormal hunters from all over the world. It was the hunters that were left in charge of training the police forces and military when it came to fighting the superbeings.

There were those in the hunter union who supported the mission of joining both “good” paranormals and hunters, which was why Tyson Rollins and Nona Weinstein found themselves at the home of Alex Chan.

The handsome man looked at Alex with calm dark eyes. He was muscular and wide with a well trimmed goatee framing his lips and chin. He wore a tailored dark navy blue suit and looked no older than thirty five but Alex was sure he was much much older than that. He was a superhuman and they tended to age incredibly slowly, with an average life span of three hundred years, the same lifespan of most vampires. Only a small percentage of vampires could preserve or protect themselves well enough to live beyond a few hundred years.

“Do you know why we’re here Mr. Chan?” Tyson asked, sitting forward on the tan suede couch.

Alex shrugged. “Dude, I have no idea why you‘re here. But when someone from the hunter union gives you a ring, you don’t ignore it either.”

“Your kind isn’t exactly jumping at our calls, Alex,” said the smiling brunette with thick, frizzy curls. She had on a tan skirt suit and matching kitten heeled loafers. She was in her late twenties and pretty, in a girl-next-door kind of way. She wore no make up and only a small gold locket around her neck. Her light brown eyes were neutral but the way she chewed the corner of her bottom lip showed him she was uncomfortable or simply nervous. His kind was rare after all.

“Well I was curious, what can I say?” Alex replied, placing his arms behind his head as he leaned against the back of his brown leather arm chair. His lean physique was covered in a green t-shirt with a white long sleeved shirt underneath and jeans. His almost shoulder length black hair was back in a ponytail.

“Well then let’s get right to it,” Tyson stated. “A section of the hunter union has decided to begin a new type of paranormal hunting unit. They are opening a testing team here in Baltimore. The team’s goal is to look into any cases that are supernatural or paranormal related. The Baltimore/D.C./Northern Virginia area has one of the highest rates for these forms of crimes, even higher than New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, and having a team that focuses solely on supernatural crime would be ideal.”

Alex straightened up in his seat. “I don’t get it. You already have trained police to take care of that stuff.”

Nona leaned in. “They aren’t fully equipped for this fight. Not to mention all the regular crime they have on their hands.”

“What about the hunter team already in place here? Don’t you have hunter teams in every section of the world and like a billion in the states?”

Tyson smiled and shook his head. “There are 10 hunter forces in the United States. The closest team is located in D.C. and this unit would be an extension of that hunter team as well as the police force. Both could use the extra help and expertise.”

Alex frowned. “What are saying? You want me to join a hunter team?”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“And in a larger shell?”

Tyson raised an eyebrow. “There are those of us who believe that this war on paranormal evil would be better fought if we had a team that encompassed many types of hunters. Was more diverse.”

“Another take on equal employment opportunity. Very nice but I thought to you hunters, all paranormal guys were bad, why would you want me on the team?” Alex smiled back.

“We know that’s not true. And it’s unfortunate that some of us and many humans seem to believe otherwise. Having a diverse team would be a good PR move. It would show to the world that not every superbeing is to be feared. That some are our friends.”

“And what’s in it for you?” Alex smirked.

Tyson sighed as he sat back, crossing an ankle over his knee. “Your power, expertise. Simply fighting fire with fire.”

Alex lost his grin. “You want me to fight my own kind?”

Nona quickly shook her head. “No, we want you to fight the bad guys. The ones who are giving us a bad reputation.”

Alex looked at her and frowned. “Us?”

Nona nodded. “I’m a cognitive.”

“Oh, yeah? How much do you charge an hour?”

She frowned, then got it and giggled. “No. Seriously, I can see the past by touching an object, communicate with ghost, get a certain feeling for things, like if someone‘s good or bad. “

“Never failed an exam, huh? You’re like a psychic to the 10th degree. “

Nona shrugged modestly. “Yeah, and people are scared of me because of it. By joining a group like this we can also make it a focus not to just protect humans from super bad guys but the innocent paranormal community as well.”

“We’d investigate paranormal on paranormal crime as well,” Tyson responded. “If we build allies here we have a better shot at this fight and the paranormal community might get a better shot at getting more governmental protection and rights.”

Alex nodded slowly. “So this group is a game of politics.”

“We’d have a lot to prove here,” Nona nodded and folded her hands. “But it makes good sense. It would help those in congress and those in power all around the world who are trying to push for our acceptance and ability to be judged individually.”

“We already got people like us doing good work all over already and it hasn’t done any good. What’s this going to do?” Alex asked, looking unmoved.

Nona leaned towards him. “This is just a test group. If we fail we disband, but if we do good work who knows how the world could change.”

Alex shrugged. “So,” Alex looked to both of them, “Morpheus, Trinity, I guess the real question then is, why am I the one?”

Nona stifled a laugh.

Tyson tilted his head. “You come from an amazing family.”

“That’s my family, not me. They hate me enough as it is without me joining this group. Really, The Matrix, references aside, why do the box tops in hunter world think that I am a good candidate for this test group? My assumption is that they want the best of the best and in all honesty, you‘ve picked the wrong sibling in my family.” Alex leaned back in his chair, folding his hands.

“You’re smart, you can’t have lived almost 200 years and not be, you come from a strong dragon family, the reds are the best dragon fighters, and I know they’ve trained you. You blend with humanity well. I mean, you’ve made a living as a technology expert with a respectable IT firm and seem comfortable in human form. Not much of your family would be eager to work with humans. And although there are some red dragons who are suspect, your immediate family has never done anything to raise our attention and in fact has a great history in China of being supreme warriors and supporters of the empire.”

Alex nodded slowly. “Okay, I guess it makes sense. But why do you need a dragon?”

Tyson sighed. “This could go on all night.”

Alex looked away and nodded. “Yes, that’s possible. But what you’re asking me to do is big. I might be the enemy of all dragons with this.”

“They could either hate you more or love you for changing the world’s attitude of dragons,” Nona stated.

“Fine, we need members of the paranormal community that represent the four major groups, “Tyson began. “The magic society, which includes wiccas, witches, wizards, mages, guardians. The lycanthropes and skin walkers. The undead, such as the vampires, zombies, ghouls, goblins, incubus, ghosts and so forth. Needless to say that group is very limited on who we can pick from. And the mythics, such as the dragons, fairies, trolls, hobbits. You get the picture.”

Alex scrunched his face and scratched his neck. “Yeah, yeah, not too sure I agree with how you guys lump these groups together but I’ll let it slide for now.”

“Good, so are you in?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“The pay is great and so are the benefits and the vacation package,” Tyson added in a monotone voice.

Alex looked unmoved.

Tyson took out a card from his pocket and a pen and wrote down the starting salary. “And this doesn’t include bonuses.”

Alex looked down at the card.

“Let me finish up some assignments and I’m all yours,” Alex replied with a straight face.

2 comments:

Christina McCullouch said...

Now I have to wait.. Just as it was getting good.. Girl, from what I have seen you are Great and this is your True Calling.. Now get your Books Published already.. This one would be a Complete hit especially with all the Twilight Fans.. Can you imagine?? You are a Wonderful Writer..

Much Love, Christina

CC Solomon said...

This story has changed so much since I posted this...