RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Writer's Block Vanguard International [Issue 15] World of Darkness

Adaptation

Erasmus soared well above the treetops, but to Phil Smith they looked close enough to touch. He was 'listening' right now, placing himself in a passive state so he could pick up uncluttered information from the outside world.

"Anything yet?" Danny asked above the whistling winds.

Phil shook his head. "Noise. Too much of it. I'm passive and can't make anything out."

Danny mulled that over for a moment. "Can you go active?" he asked. "Maybe try and scan around like a radar or something? See if you can't lock onto her somehow?"

Phil frowned. "I don't know, Danny. There's an awful lot of clutter out there. Thousands, millions of voices, and I can't be sure I'll be able to process them all."

"We'll have found the girl anyway," Ed said sarcastically, "by the time he decides to try."

"You've done some pretty high-impact things before," Priest reminded him. "Antarctica, especially."

"This is different," Phil insisted. "This place, this world... it's alive somehow. It's as though there are voices in nature itself."

"Come on," Danny began to reply. "You can't be serious!"

Sam nodded. "It's true. This place has a will of its own. You can either struggle to defeat that will, or you can attempt to become allied with it, learn to let its power flow through your own."

"It's why my TK powers haven't been working," Phil said. "I'm struggling with something way bigger than me."

"Then maybe," Templar suggested, "you ought to try the other option, lad."

Sam nodded. "I think that's the only choice you have if you want to be able to function here."

Phil looked at Danny. "What do you think? Try and merge with all these currents? Or keep doing what we're doing?"

Danny's brow furrowed. "We don't have time for this," he said. "We've gotta find Bri, and we've gotta get back to the mission." He looked down. "Do it. I'm afraid Sam might be right on this one."

"I guess the council has spoken," Phil quipped. He closed his eyes and reached out to try and contact whatever sentience was out there.

<<Hello?>>

[GREETINGS.]

It was like trying to shower under Niagara Falls. Whirlwinds of thought whipped around Phil's mind, torrents of flowing sentience cascade through his consciousness.

<<Who are you?>> Phil managed to ask, fighting to keep from being crushed under the 'weight' of it all.

[WE ARE], it replied. [WHO ARE YOU?]

<<I am not your enemy>>, Phil managed. <<I wish to ally myself with you.>>

[AS YOU WISH], the voices replied with just a hint of amusement.

It was too much. Phil felt the raw power of it coursing through him, overloading his senses.

It was enough to destroy him.

Unless he let go.

<<This is going to cost me, isn't it?>>

[IT ALWAYS DOES]

Phil sighed. <<Very well.>>

He would have toppled from Erasmus' back had Priest not caught him and pulled him back up. "Careful!"

Phil didn't respond at first. His entire body twitched spasmodically for a moment. Finally he took a deep breath and attempted to regain his composure.

"You alright, mate?" Danny asked nervously.

Phil nodded. "I'm okay."

"Look at him," Templar stammered. "Gods."

"What?" Phil began to feel very apprehensive all of a sudden.

"Can't you tell?" Priest said. "You're lit up like a piece of Chernobyl!"

"Can you see it?" Danny asked.

"I can see," Phil insisted. His head turned back and forth erratically, his gaze wild-eyed. His hair looked like strands of platinum and gleamed even in the pale light. A faint sapphire-hued glow issued from his eyes.

"You're lying," Priest said as he waved a hand in front of Phil's face. He turned to Danny.

"Blind as a bat."

"Shit," Danny muttered. "We've gotta go back," he said.

"No," Phil protested.

"But you can't see!," Danny insisted.

"You're right," Phil agreed as he reached up toward his unseeing eyes. "From these... I have no sight." He looked around. "But here," he said, pointing to his head, "I can see."

"What can you see?" Sam asked.

Phil smiled.

"Everything."

A chill ran down Danny's spine. He looked at Sam. "Now what?"

"You're the leader," Sam reminded him. "But we don't have time to keep going back and forth with every new development."

"You're right," Danny agreed. He turned to Templar. "Let's keep going."