The Four Mirrors
Sequel to ‘Legacies’
By MMM/AJ
Chapter XI – NIII
Of all the places in the world, prison was one that Nolus had never expected to find himself in. He and the rest of his family had been thrown together into one big group cell, and now were being left to stew on their current situation. Nolus was sitting isolated on a hard plastic bench in the upper right corner of the cell, Shakara was pacing around the interior of the cell maddeningly, and Tanis was sitting with Cygnus and the sisters on a bench on the opposite end of the cell. Cygnus was hiding his face in his paws out of shame, and Tanis was patting him on the back reassuringly.
Nolus had never seen Shakara seething with so much fury before. She paced with an irregular speed around the cell, sometimes speeding up and sometimes even stopping to think. Nolus could see a brightly burning spark of fury in her gaze, repressed behind a façade of deep thought. Her tail was also raised straight up in the air in Shakara’s classic pose of anger, but it lost its deadly edge since the humans had forced her to wear plastic safety covers over all her blades. The end of her tail was entirely encased in this black plastic shell, as well as all the other blades on her body. Even her claws had little plastic caps attached to them. She picked at these caps like a nervous twitch as she walked, and said nothing as the minutes turned to hours in silence. A small holographic lens in the ceiling projected glowing red numbers of a digital clock above their heads; it ticked away in testament to the slow crawl of time.
The inside of the cell itself was soulless and bare, the walls made from polished plastic and steel with no tangible seams. The only furniture in the room consisted of the two hard plastic benches in the two opposite corners, a single small raised table in the center, and two bunk beds, one in each of the other corners. All the furniture was smooth plastic as well, and molded and integrated with the floor and walls so it couldn’t be picked up and used as weaponry. The only things in the room that weren’t plastic like this were the mattresses and sheets of the bunk beds, and these were even firmly attached to the plastic structure of the bed so that they couldn’t be used as weaponry either. The room was lit by smooth white fluorescent lights that were recessed in the ceiling and sealed behind a thick layer of transparent polyplexiglass. The door to the cell was located in the wall directly to Nolus’ right. The seams where it could slide back into the wall to open were too small for any prying device to fit, and the small window that the guards could look through was two inches of solid polyplexiglass, far too strong for any of them to break. There was no control panel or even a doorknob inside the cell for them to use. Worst of all, the entire building was soaked in one of the most powerful psionic disruption fields any of them had ever encountered. The humans had used a similar disruption field on them when they first shut down the party, and it had been enough to totally incapacitate any of them who had been using their powers when the field activated. The field they had used there could reflect all psychic energy used back into the brains of the user amplified to 150, so even using a tiny amount of energy such as the one used to create those psychic illusions was enough to completely scramble all of their senses for a period of time. The field employed here inside the prison however, was even more dangerous. The man who had lead them to their cell told them that it could reflect their energy back and amplify it by over 850, so that even a single joule of psychic energy could be returned with enough force to knock them unconscious instantly. If they tried to do something like form an energy sword or teleport, the reflective feedback from the field would kill them instantly.
“I’m sorry.” Cygnus said, finally breaking the silence.
Shakara paused from her pacing and turned to face him, and everyone else turned to look as well. Cygnus looked around at them all, the shame still wearing heavily upon his facial expression. Nolus felt a deep sense of pity and sympathy for him, and stood up to walk over there and comfort him. Shakara spoke before he could take a single step.
“Sorry? Is that all? Just sorry for getting all of us incarcerated for god knows how long, and quite possibly destroying all my credibility in the Protectorate Council?” Shakara growled menacingly, managing not to raise her voice.
“Shakara, calm down.” Tanis said, staring at her with a tentative but firm expression. Cygnus remained silent.
“Calm down? How can I? Do you realize the consequences of all this? The human governments are going to discredit me entirely. The Protectorate may even be dismantled, and it’s all because Cygnus here couldn’t keep it in his Swiss-cheese brain that we’re not allowed to use any of our powers inside the city limits!” Shakara ranted, her voice now rising considerably. She pointed an accusing finger at Cygnus.
“I mean it Shakara, calm down! You’re going to make this worse!” Tanis said firmly now, an angry frown painted across his face.
Shakara ignored Tanis entirely this time and walked up to Cygnus to him straight in the eye. “I hope you’re proud of what you’ve done, you buffoon. We may be stuck in here for years if the humans decide to trump up the charges against us, and it’s all because you didn’t have the common sense, or even the memory of an average human to retain the vital fact that you’re not supposed to teleport inside a city!”
Tanis finally had enough; he stood up and put himself directly between Shakara and Cygnus. “Don’t you dare talk to my son that way! I understand he’s made a mistake and needs punishment, but you’re not the one to administer it. We agreed a long time ago when we decided to each have our own children that we would leave the parenting of them to each other. I wouldn’t interfere with the parenting of your daughters and you wouldn’t interfere with the parenting of my sons.” Tanis said with the fury of a protective parent.
“Well I’m sorry to break it to you, but when your son got me and my daughters arrested, he pretty much shattered that agreement, didn’t he?” Shakara yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Oh, so after one screw up, you’re entitled to throw our agreement to the wind and go batshit insane at my side of the family with impunity? How would you like it if I went over and threw a fit at Tamista or Melicia for not noticing that our carrying case had a hole in it that would eventually drop the lyrics?” Tanis yelled back.
“Try it, I dare you.” Shakara said venomously.
At that moment, the holographic clock above them shimmered and morphed into the image of the human warden. At first his expression looked almost amused, but he seemed to quickly correct himself and change it to look of stern anger. His words interrupted Tanis and Shakara’s argument abruptly, much to Nolus’ relief.
“We gave you a group cell on the condition that you wouldn’t cause a disturbance. This will be your only warning before you’re all separated and put in individual solitary confinement.” He said, and then paused to look over them. “And now, if you’ll calm down, one of the New Saffron District Attorney’s men wishes to speak with you. He’ll arrive at your cell in five to ten minutes. Remember, if you try any funny stuff during his visit, you know what the disruption field here can do to you.”
The hologram of the warden then shimmered and transformed back into the digital clock, and the room fell back into silence. Shakara shot Tanis one more poisonous look before turning back to her pacing in silence. Tanis shook his head in silence and sat back down next to Cygnus, who had returned to his previous pose with his face buried in his paws. Tamista, Satoria, and Melicia, who had been looking on in horror, all gave each other frightened looks and turned away to stare in silence. The plastic caps on Shakara’s toe claws clicked noisily on the floor as she continued her pacing.
The five minutes passed agonizingly slowly as Shakara’s ranting hung in the air. Nolus was mortified; he couldn’t remember ever seeing his aunt this angry before… until his memory flashed a replay of his childhood for him. He remembered peering around the corner and seeing Tanis and Shakara yelling this once before, right after the incident when Venius was attacked by humans so many years ago. He hadn’t been able to remember what that argument had been about before, at least not until now. He remembered that Shakara had accused his father of being negligent of the children and too trusting of humans, and Tanis had been returning fire that she was allowing her own prejudices against humans to cloud her perceptions of them. It was just an isolated incident, his father had said. Nolus remembered the terrible auras of anger he had seen emanating from them. Right now the psionic disruptors were suppressing all of Nolus’ senses, but he knew that if he could turn on his aura-seeing ability now he would see that exact same aura permeating the room. Even without his psychic sensitivity he could almost taste it on the air, and a pit of anxiety began churning in his stomach in response to such strain between his family members.
Eventually, a silent swish to Nolus’ right signaled the DA’s man had arrived, and Nolus turned to get a good look at him as he walked in. He was a middle aged-man in his 40’s wearing a dark navy blue suit and a tie with a red checkerboard pattern. His face was slightly chubby and his hair was blonde and cut in a traditional military buzz-cut. He had dull hazel eyes, and a series of pins stuck in his jacket. One was a UN flag; several were unrecognizable honors of some sorts, and one particular odd one that Nolus couldn’t recognize. It was a small purple eye with a sword stuck in its pupil, and what appeared to be a tear of blood crying from it.
Shakara halted her pacing to stand and look him in the eye, and everyone else turned to stare at him as well. He didn’t greet them with any kind of formality or politeness, but rather strode around the room and visually scrutinized them agonizingly slowly. Nolus squirmed a bit under his gaze when it was his turn to be scrutinized, but he didn’t turn away or break eye contact with him. When he was done, the man walked to the table in the center of the cell, pulled a small digital pad out of his pocket, and pressed a few buttons on it. The holographic clock above them morphed into a full sized holo-computer screen. The man continued typing on his pad until the screen displayed a readout of recorded sensor data to fill the center of the room so that they could all see it.
“Today, 8 hours ago in the 7th district of New Saffron, our internal sensor network detected a pulse of unauthorized psionic energy, originating from the rear parking lot of North 7’th Holoball dome where you were holding your concert. Our sensors identified the pulse as a teleport, and upon further analysis we discovered that the target was somewhere just outside the city limits. This means that whichever one of you performed this teleport was most likely attempting to smuggle illegal goods into the city from outside.” The detective said.
“I was only trying to retrieve a digital pad with some lyrics stored on it!” Cygnus protested.
The detective ignored Cygnus and continued. “We dispatched a swat team to apprehend you and began further analysis of the data. I’m only talk to you now because we have finished analyzing the sensor data and searching the holoball dome in question. We have determined that you were attempting to smuggle several portable psionic amplification devices into the city, as well as multiple laser rifles and explosive. Most likely you were planning on using to use the amplifiers to defeat our psionic disruption fields during whatever terrorist attack you had planned inside the city. We found the actual devices stored inside the holoball dome in question. Therefore the city will be charging you with one count of felony smuggling, one count of conspiracy to commit arson, one count of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, and one count of treason against the UN.”
“Show me these weapons you found.” Shakara said, trying to keep her facial expression neutral.
“What kind of fool do you take me for?” The detective replied.
“Unless you can provide the evidence directly to me, then there is no reason for me to even consider these charges as legitimate. I will call upon the Protectorate Council to file charges against New Saffron city for false arresting me and my family, as well as tampering with sensor evidence and defamation of character for the inevitable media firestorm this will cause.”
“I’ve already spoken on the phone to three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, and they agree with me that the Protectorate’s authority should be superseded in cases of potential terrorism like this. Either one of you confesses for your crime, or you will all stand trial and eventually face lifetimes in this prison.”
Nolus was stunned; the prospect of spending his entire life in such a bare, soulless hellhole away from the beautiful greens of nature was horrifying. He saw similar expressions on the faces of his father, brother, and cousins, but Shakara had a stubborn look of defiance on her face.
“You think you can warp justice like this? You think you can wipe out my family with a few pieces of planted evidence? And do you really think I’d let it pass when I control so many warships in orbit?” Shakara said with poisonous delight on the last sentence.
“Go ahead and call them. But after ordering your ships to attack and break you free, you’ll never hold political sway over any government again.” The detective said frankly.
Uncontrollable rage began to creep back over Shakara’s expression. “Go ahead, do this then. Throw me in prison. But know this, you and your leaders will have sunk just as low as my father, and I hope that fact stimulates whatever conscience you might have to slowly eat you alive from the inside out!”
This time, the detective’s face contorted with anger. “It would be so easy for me to kill all of you right now, you know. I could just walk out of this room, push a button, and this cell would flood with chlorine gas, bringing you swift, painful deaths!”
Shakara realized she had just struck a nerve and grinned maliciously. “Then who’d be the one who would never hold political sway again eh?”
“Shut up! I don’t care what you think. You’re the evil ones here, you’re just like Ares and the world will be better off when you’re gone!” The detective said, getting progressively angrier.
Suddenly the holographic display of the sensor data flickered and faded out, replaced by the figure of the warden again. “Mr. Fredricks, will you clam it! Some jumped up wannabe from the University is here, and she-”
The warden was cut off and shoved off camera, and the transmission flickered out and ended. The detective glanced around the room at them, his anger suddenly melting into confusion. A few seconds later, the door to the cell swished open, and a procession of people entered. The group of people included Asha and Ashley, Opulous and Venius, a woman that Nolus recognized as Councilwoman Artha Tarell of the Protectorate, as well as three other protectorate council members and a few police officers.
“I bet you didn’t expect us to be so pushy, did you Mr. Fredericks?” Artha said, directing the police officers to surround him.
Nolus could see the symbol of the Protectorate emblazoned on the arms of their uniforms, as opposed to the Symbols of the Saffron Guard that had arrested all of them.
“I bet you were counting on the Protectorate to take at least a week to deliberate before responding to these arrests? You were also counting on your friend the Warden to keep whatever you said in here under wraps. Well guess what, I’ve already got everything you said recorded and ready to present to the boys down at the UN, and I think they’ll find it all quite interesting.”
“Artha?!” Shakara said, stuttering ever so slightly in disbelief.
“Yes Arch-council?” Artha said, still smirking in satisfaction. “Is something wrong or are you just unhappy to see my face again as usual?”
“I…well…let’s just say, you were the last person on the council I expected to come running to my rescue.” Shakara laughed.
“Well, don’t give me all the credit. None of us would have been able to organize this if it hadn’t been for your friend Ashley here.” Artha said, gesturing to Ashley who was now striding up to her and grinning.
Asha broke off from the group and ran up to Nolus to give him a big bear hug. “You alright bro?” she asked
“A little shaken up, but fine. How did you guys manage to pull this off?” Nolus replied.
“It’s a bit of a story, but I will say that we got in contact with the Governor of Kanto and several other higher-ups, and next thing we know we find ourselves neck deep in a conspiracy to have you guys locked up for good. When we reported the evidence, they authorized the lock the whole place down and get you guys out!” Asha said with a grin.
Nolus saw the protectorate officers slapping the cuffs onto the detective, and heard more of the same clicking sounds from the hallway as the guards that had stood in front of their cell were arrested as well. He grinned slightly.
Chapter XII – OIII
There was something unnerving about the waiting room where Opulous was sitting. It could have been the fact that he was about to be called as a witness in his brother’s trial, or it could have been due to the fact that the floor beneath him was completely transparent, making it seem he was standing in space miles above the Earth.
The waiting room he was sitting in was located on the lowest level of the human-controlled space station named ‘Paladin’, in synchronous orbit above Central Asia. Across the hallway to his left and four decks up was the Protectorate High Summit Hall, where his brother and the rest of his family were on trial at this very moment. The trial had been dragging on for 8 days now, and Opulous hadn’t been called up to testify until now. The most infuriating thing about it was the fact that he had been kept in the dark about the proceedings during those 8 days, so he didn’t have the foggiest idea what kind of situation he might be pulled into today. Shakara had asked for a silence order about the trial to keep the media from having a field day with it, but the consequence was that neither he nor Venius were allowed to know what was happening either. He had been told that they wanted him to testify on behalf of his brother, but that was all that he knew at this point.
“We’re about ready to call you now, please proceed to the elevator.” A female voice requested calmly over the PA.
Opulous stood and left the waiting room and the door slid open and shut for him automatically. He felt a slight tremble of nervousness in his stomach as he entered the elevator, but suppressed it deftly. He brushed it off as an adverse effect of the psionic disruption fields that permeated the station. He pondered the questions that the court might ask him as the elevator hummed to life and carried him up the four decks towards the Summit Hall. Another wave of nervousness gripped him, a bit harder to suppress this time. He felt a terrible insecurity in the back of his mind, it told him that he was going to say something idiotic and make a fool of himself any everyone else in the family. He crushed it with the logical side of his mind and frowned as the door of the elevator opened. There were four guards around the little side-door to the Summit Hall, all wearing the Protectorate Insignia on their shoulders. He walked up and nodded to the closest one on the left. The guard checked the readout on the little screen over his right eye, and then nodded and opened the door. Opulous thanked him and entered.
Opulous had never seen the inside of one of these human-controlled space stations before, let alone the inside of the High Summit Hall. He had imagined it being smooth and utilitarian with only a few insignias on the walls for decoration. He had been basically correct; the only difference was the abundance of flags. The room was a large oval, with polished steel walls and chrome highlights. The ceiling was a smooth low dome with soothing white recessed lighting. The place had been reconfigured to a standard courtroom, except for the lack of a jury box or audience seating. Instead of a single judge, there were two groups of three people, almost like a double triumvirate. The first group consisted of High Councilors Elvia Mitchells, Darren Meyer, and Kenara Desian of the Protectorate, and the second group consisted of three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, from the United States, China, and France, respectively. To his surprise and discomfort, Opulous suddenly realized that he couldn’t remember their names. He wondered if he really was nervous enough to blank out on something that important.
The eyes were upon Opulous the moment he stepped in; he could almost feel it all. He climbed into the witness booth quietly, now quashing his nervousness with determination as strong as iron. After he was sworn in, the lawyer for New Saffron approached his booth and began the cross-examination questions.
“Opulous, would you say that any of your family members are…intrinsically violent people?” The slick-haired lawyer asked
“No, not in the least.” Opulous replied stoically.
“I see. Do you think that any of them might harbor any anti-human sentiments? Even slight ones?”
“No.”
“Well, do any of them ever feel uncomfortable around humans? Even the smallest bit?”
“Well, Venius and Shakara sometimes get uncomfortable, yes. But I would hardly call that-”
“And do you think this quality would be beneficial for someone like your Aunt, who is in the very business of regulating human governments?” The lawyer asked, cutting Opulous off abruptly.
“No, but it’s hardly potent enough to affect her judgment in any way.” Opulous said sternly.
The lawyer nodded slightly before continuing. “Please tell the court everything you remember about the night in question when your family held the party in New Saffron.”
“Everyone had just recovered from a serious illness. Those who had been infected had just been released from quarantine, and Tanis and Shakara were preparing to take everyone besides Venius and myself to New Saffron for the rave. I stayed in the medical lab continuing my study of the virus that infected them after they left. I was down there for hours, only leaving when I got a video message from Ashley Ketchum telling me about the incident in question.” Opulous said.
“I see. What happened next?”
“I went to fetch my brother and he and I flew to New Saffron together to meet with Ashley and the others in front of City Hall. The flight took roughly an hour, and when we arrived Ashley was there with her daughter, as well as Councilwoman Artha and several other protectorate officers. We entered City Hall and asked for an emergency meeting with the mayor, but were denied.”
“What did you do next?”
“Artha decided to call an emergency video conference with any other protectorate members who might be available. She managed to contact 37 of the 50 permanent members, and we discussed the matter for nearly 20 minutes. During the course of the discussion, they also managed to contact 2 of the UN Security Council Members, who authorized us to search the prison and city hall.”
“Did the Protectorate council authorize this search as well?”
“Yes.”
“Despite the fact that there weren’t enough members present to achieve the standard 40 out of 50 majority for an intrusive search warrant of such magnitude?”
“Yes, but they based their decision on the fact that we had at least 4/5 majority of the members who were present.”
“I see. What happened next?”
“More protectorate officers were called in, and we proceeded to the prison complex where my family was held. We searched the locker where the supposedly smuggled weapons were supposed to have been stowed but found none. Next we downloaded their database and listened to the voice recordings in the main offices and uncovered the plot cooked up by the District Attorney and the Mayor to cook up falsified charges. It was sufficient evidence to arrest the DA and release my family.”
“You were witness to these events as well, correct?”
“That is correct”
“Did the Protectorate forces use violent or excessive force in any of these encounters?”
“No. As far as I can tell, standard procedure was followed.”
“Thank you, no further questions.” The lawyer said, and returned to the table with the 2 New Saffron Officials.
The family’s lawyer approached Opulous on the stand next. Opulous immediately recognized him as John Ketchum, Ashley’s husband. He was wearing his old military uniform, which was decorated with various medals and pins celebrating his combat service against Ares.
“Opulous, is it true that you and your family members are able to sense when there is a psionic disruptor field in place?” John asked
“Yes, we can all feel it clearly as a sort of physical discomfort.” Opulous replied.
“Is there a disruption field active in this courtroom right now?”
“Yes, without a doubt.”
John nodded and smiled. “The Saffron officials allege that your father and Aunt both used their telekinetic abilities to harass and injure several guards and the DA during the arrest. For this to be possible, the prison’s disruption field would had to have been inactive at the time. At the time of the arrests, were the psionic disruptors active?"
“Undoubtedly.”
“Therefore, the claims of abuse made by the Saffron DA must be false.”
“Yes.”
John paced a little bit before continuing his questions. “The Saffron DA has asserted that the search warrant issued by the Protectorate Council is invalid due to the fact that the minimum of 40 votes was not reached. What is your opinion on the validity of this claim?”
“I think that they are grasping at straws. I have read through the Protectorate Charter several times during my studies of governments and civics, and it clearly states that a ‘4/5 majority’ is necessary to pass an intrusive search warrant against a member state. The charter does not specifically number the amount of votes required to pass the measure, only the ratio of majority. Since this ratio was satisfied, it shouldn’t matter if members were missing or not. The New Saffron authorities are simply trying to have all of our testimonies thrown out in order to continue the pursuit of their false charges of weapons smuggling.”
“Very good. No further questions.” John replied.
Opulous was surprised at how short the questioning seemed, but he was grateful that it was over so quickly. He was thanked by the court and promptly escorted out of the courtroom, back to his waiting room.
Supposedly today was the last day of the trial, so Opulous was to sit in the waiting room until the proceedings ended, at which point he would either meet up with the family or be escorted out. He was put in the same room as before, so he got to contemplate the same cinematic view of the Earth as before. The station holds a geosynchronous orbit above central Asia, and now the sun was bathing the continent with a soft glow of light. Swaths of cloud were sweeping over the plains, ragged and thin like torn cloth.
Opulous felt tense and nervous after his stint in the courtroom, so he decided to try meditating again like his brother Nolus had taught him. He concentrated on lowering his respiratory and heart rates, and cleared his mind of idle thoughts. Besides the obvious acrophobic factor, having such a beautiful orbital view of the Earth was oddly serene. Such a commanding view of the planet lent a feeling of connectedness and Zen to the experience that was wholly unique for Opulous. He went from nervous and tense to relaxed and open within a handful of minutes, and time flew by much quicker than his first stay in the room. Before he realized it, the door swooshed open and his father appeared in the doorway.
“Hey Opulous, good news and bad news.” Tanis said.
Opulous sighed and opened his eyes. “Bad news first, as always.”
“The first bad news is that Cygnus was sentenced to six months for the illegal use of the teleport ability in the city. The good news that goes with it is that he and the rest of us were acquitted of the smuggling charges. But the second bit of bad news is that the Saffron DA and Mayor were freed as well.”
Opulous frowned. “And how did they manage that?”
“The court didn’t really explain it; they just released them and sent them back to their old jobs.” Shakara said from behind Tanis
“And the worst part is that they sent Cygnus back to the same prison that we were held in, under that same corrupt DA.” Tanis added.
“That’s scandalous!” Opulous said, now scowling. “What are we going to do?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Shakara said. “We were actually close to being convicted on those weapons smuggling charges! The US and French UN Security Council Members wanted to throw out our search. If it weren’t for the Protectorate councilors we had on the job, we’d all be getting hauled off to jail for 20 years or more!”
“I wish there was a way to help Cygnus out and to bring some real justice to those who did this to us, but right now we’re going to be lucky to even avoid press coverage at this point. All we can do is go home and hope for the best for Cygnus.” Tanis said.
