Ultimate Primal Forces #02 - Blood Red Blues Pt .2

[Deleted]

Primal Forces #2

Blood Red Blues Pt. 2

Previously in Primal Forces: Buddy Baker, an agent of a government agency tasked with controlling out of control natural elements, is tasked with looking after a transfer agent from Mumbai. The pair are called to an officer down in an apartment block on the other side of town, one which harkens back to the source of Buddy's powers.

“Buddy? What is going on?” Chandi asked. She brushed some of her dark hair from her shoulders, “Is it an incursion?”

“Yeah,” Buddy said. Behind the wheel Buddy found it hard to resist the urge to stare in the rear-view constantly. He found it incredibly unnerving to drive a car. Ordinarily, he'd walk, but he needed to be the other side of Siegleville as quickly as possible.

“Two of the other Officers; Will, who's a good kid, but he's a bit dim,” Buddy said, snatching a glance at her. She was beautiful in a way he'd never appreciated in a woman before. Something about her agitated his senses and aroused him, “And our acting Captain, Nick went to a disturbance in an apartment block not far from here.”

“And something has incurred within this apartment block?” Chandi asked.

“Yeah, you could say that. Something's incurred and it's knocked Will out.”

“Oh,” Chandi said. She gripped the edges of her seat tightly with slender fingers. Her nails were painted bright yellow and her hands were decorated with what Buddy thought were henna tattoo's, although they had a faint glow to them, “I do not like it when people are endangered. We must get there.”

“Looks like the incursions somewhere between the Red and Green Zones,” Buddy said. He swallowed a dry mouth and looked over at her, “You have Zonation's in India right? I mean, you got TV and stuff. You've got to have Zonation.”

Chandi shook her head slowly.

“We do not have the diversity of natural symbolism that you do here, Buddy. Our own Elemental Battles occurred primarily with the Embers and Waves, my town was nearly washed away and burnt out. Very few other Elementals took to battle in our region. Until the Lights.”

Chandi looked down at her lap and closed her eyes for a moment. Buddy felt awkward, he knew there was something else going on with her but didn't want to out right ask. He'd known her for twenty minutes at best.

“You want to talk about it?” Buddy asked.

“I do not, Buddy. I do not ever want to talk about it.” Chandi opened her eyes widely, to take in the light of the day. She stared out the window, trying desperately to avoid Buddy's occasional gaze.

“Well, just in case anyone might accuse me of enjoying awkward silences...we'll talk about zonation's then. I kind of hoped it would have made the leap over the Oceans. Every other fucking this has...” Buddy paused, “The Zonation system is something I came up with, Look,” Buddy tapped the steering wheel of the car, “You ever had a bike Chandi?”

She stared at him through brown eyes, as though he were totally insane.

“I have rode and owned a bike, yes.”

“Right, yeah. Sorry. Bit patronising. Not everyone has ridden a bike, you know that? William's never been on a bike. That strikes me as weird,” Buddy shrugged, “Right, so imagine for this exercise Siegleville is circular.”

“I can imagine that for the purpose of this exercise. I assume this is an illustration in the perfect world?” Chandi allowed herself a slight smile. Buddy totally missed it.

“Tst. In a perfect world I'd get to spend the night at my house with my wife and I wouldn't have to deal with this shit, but yeah, perfect world or something.”

Chandi returned Buddy's previous awkward silence.

“There are more than one perfect world, Buddy,” Chandi said. She laced her fingers together, yellow fingernails digging into the gaps between her knuckles.

“Yeah,” he said. He turned his attention back to the car, “Yeah. So, we have a wheel and on that wheel we have spokes. The centre of the wheel and the spokes are uninterrupted elements of human life. Streets, shops, people being happy with their lives, etc.”

Buddy spun the wheel hard, avoiding a cyclist and swinging the back end of the car out. Chandi gripped the seat tightly and closed her eyes, her whole body tensing. Buddy smirked.

“The Zonation system is the gaps between the spokes. That empty space has been reclaimed by nature. Each element has a Zone, some of them a few. The Red zone is where the Red has basically replaced everything to do with humanity or nature not relating to itself with...well, itself. So, water is now blood, trees are made from vascular tissue and nerves. That sort of thing.”

Buddy pushed his foot down on the accelerator, hurtling down a straight street. They were nearly at their destination.

“I tell you, it totally ballsed up the grid system most American towns use, you know about that right?”

Chandi nodded, holding the dash tightly. Her tattoo’s seemed to glow brighter, along with the whites of her knuckles.

“Each zone backs onto a human spoke. So, Green and Red never directly touch, there's a gap of a street or two, to prevent them from constantly fighting each other.”

“Did you install the streets?” Chandi asked.

“Nah,” Buddy said, “If we could impose our will on the elements like that, we wouldn't need us or have had an elemental War.”

“I see,” Chandi shifted in her seat. The pair sat in silence while Buddy continued down the street.

“If you look out the window,” he said, “You can see the Waves from here.”

Buddy thumbed over his shoulder.

Chandi turned to look through the back window. Despite the speed in which they were travelling it was obvious to her that the Waves Zone was not only an impressive piece of nature, but it's size was deceptive. A literal wall of water hung over the street. Waves lapped at invisible edges, splashing surf occasionally onto the street below. It was uneven as well. As she looked up the waves almost appeared to create diagonal rooftops, sloping structures that matched nothing she had ever considered to be liquid before.

“Mal,” she said to herself quietly. Buddy smirked.

“Who's Mal?”

“Oh,” Chandi flushed with colour, “It is a Hindi word. It is not pleasant.”

He sped around the final corner, the building looming in the distance along with the shade cast over them by the huge forty feet Red Woods that grew from the Green Zone. Chandi's jaw dropped open.

“Yeah, it's kind of impressive. Shame I don't get beautiful sites like that in the Red Zone.”

“What do you get?”

Buddy stared down at his hands and felt the familiar tug of blood bursting in his veins to be free of his body.

“Nightmares.”

**PF**

The car skidded to a halt. Buddy got out quickly, while Chandi took a more leisurely pace. The building itself was situated within one of two streets that bordered the Green and Red Zones. While Chandi spent her time looking up at the Trees, Buddy powered towards Nick Kelly. His acting Captain.

“Nick, what's going on?” Buddy asked.

“I really wish one of you would call me Captain when we're in the field,” Nick said. He crossed his arms in irritation.

“While you're at it you should wish for a bigger dick, now isn't exactly the right time for us to get into this isn't it, Nick?” Buddy stared down at the slightly shorter man. Nick's glasses reflected some of the rising sunlight into Buddy's eyes. It seemingly made no difference.

“Captain Kelly,” he said. Buddy put a heavy hand on his acting Captain's shoulder and pushed him to the side.

“Don't have time. Where's Will?” Buddy drew his side arm from the back of his waistband and pushed through the front door, “Whatever.”

Chandi made moves to follow Buddy, but was stopped by Nick's arm barring her way.

“No go zone for you, Ms. Gupta,” Nick said quietly, “This is full time operatives only.”

Chandi put a delicate hand on his elbow and pushed it down.

“I am a full time operative, Acting Captain Kelly,” she said. He blinked a few times and tilted his head.

“Are you sassing me?”

“Absolutely not, Acting Captain Kelly,” she replied.

**PF**

Buddy slowly ascended the stairs of the apartment building. He took a deep breath, feeling his chest expand and his blood desperately try to burst free of his body. Ever since he took up arms against his Parliament, his powers had been working wrong.

He touched the door at the top of the stairs gently with his foot. It was slightly ajar anyway, but the slight pressure pushed it open further. He could see Will from where he stood, about seven or eight steps into the room, wrapped in a glowing electromagnetic cocoon. He sniffed the air. It was warm. Uncomfortably.

“Shit.”

Buddy realised, all too late, that it wasn't the scent of dead flesh that was permeating the air. The reactions of his blood should have clued him in sooner, but he wasn't thinking. His reaction to Decay was just as strong as Limbs. It was the smell of flesh, certainly, but not dead. The Red was very much alive within the room, it had just forgone the protection of skin and decided to grow organs and musculature without any grounding.

Buddy turned to yell down the stairs, but before he could get any words out, a tentacled arm stretched through the door. It wrapped itself around his arm, tightening immediately. The resultant yank threw him off his feet and onto his side, his firearm clattering on the floor.

“Shit!”

In desperation and instinctual over-ride, Buddy accessed the Red. The tentacle let go of him, sensing his connection to its own power source, but tore his shirt away from him. Buddy pushed himself to his feet, his eyes filling with blood. The familiar pattern on his chest began to form, track marks of torn out scabs and scars filled with blood. The vascular tree mapped itself against his body, branches like arteries reaching up into his neck and around, while veins dipped below his trousers, encircling his genitals and his thighs. He grunted in familiar pain.

“Vascular Tree, then,” Buddy said. He stared at what had become of the apartment. The Red's incursion had transposed itself over that of a Green. He could see clearly where a tree had taken root in the foundations of the building, and had been guided by the powers of the Parliament of Trees. It had torn through most of the bottom level, through the floors of the apartments above it, and was nestling comfortably through the broken roof of block, but not poking through.

Buddy put his hand on the tree itself. All traces of the Green had been expelled and within it he could feel fifteen hearts, pumping the thick blood through. The bark had transformed into strong arterial tissues, which contracted and expanded, and the twirling branches which had once held leaves now held organs, dangling, pumping and heaving.

Buddy felt his abilities attempt to take over him. He took a few steps back, grabbing hold of Will's legs and dragging him towards the doorway. If he let the Red take over him now, there would be not stopping him. He was operating on willpower alone.

Buddy closed his eyes and tried to take control of himself. He couldn't access animal abilities any more, his nickname of Animal Man was now a painful and ironic reminder of what he'd lost. Instead, his connection to the Red allowed him to see the connections in things biologically. While not useful in most settings, when dealing with the Parliaments, seeing all the connections was definitely a plus.

Aside from the original connection to the Red, there was another connection in the room. Spinning around, Buddy just managed to make out another shape in the steaming hot room. He smeared some blood from his eyes with the back of his hand and chased after it. The figure, seemingly spotting him, threw a ball of flesh embedded with spines. It caught Buddy in the arm, spinning him off balance as it connected, despite him trying to twist out of the way.

He hit the ground, splaying out to try to nullify his momentum. By the time he'd got up, the figure had already leapt out the window.

“Double shit.”

Buddy powered towards the window, hoping to catch some glimpse of the figure. Even with his connection to the Red he was simply staring out into the red tinted night.

Sighing heavily, he walked back through the room. Lifting Will up underneath his shoulders, he carried the young agent down the stairs and out onto the street.

“Get the door to the car will you, Chandi?”

The Indian woman obliged, opening the back of the car. All the while she stared at Buddy in amazement. The blood symbol on his chest has seeped through the remains of his shirt and left a trailing pattern on it.

“Nick, you need to get some people here to burn that. I don't think there's anything else we can do in there. Massive Red incursion built from a Green. Huge Vascular Tree growing. Just...burn the whole thing.”

Nick nodded slowly and reached out to touch Buddy's shoulder. The agent growled and turned away.

“Burn it, Nick. Don't fucking talk to me now, just burn it away.”

“Why am I doing it, Buddy?” Nick asked, “This is your scene now.”

“Being the Acting Captain's got to have some perks hasn't it?” Buddy glowered. He pushed passed Chandi and Nick and headed round the side of the car.

“Besides, Chandi and I are going to follow up a lead. I've got questions.”

Nick sighed.

“Going to run them passed me?”

“No,” Buddy said, slamming the door.

“Apologies, Acting Captain Kelly,” Chandi said. She offered a weak smile and got in the passenger side.

**PF**

“Do you want to talk about it?” Chandi asked, after a fifteen minute silent ride. Buddy looked straight ahead.

“Maybe I'll explain tomorrow,” he said. His voice was hoarse, “I don't have the patience to do it now.”

Chandi nodded, feeling her cheeks flush. She felt extremely awkward.

The car pulled up quietly outside an unassuming building. Chandi got out of the car first, feeling the cool air around her tug at her skin. She stared up at the huge building, as it seemingly grew before her. It's Gothic design jutting out into two large towers, one lit, one dark. She shivered at the sight of it.

Buddy draped his jacket over her shoulders, resting his hands on them.

'Weird looking place isn't it?' he asked, his entire demeanour seeming to change back. He appeared calmer, as though the silence had purged him of whatever rage was beneath.

She nodded slowly.

“We do not have this kind of structure in my town, Buddy,” Chandi said, “It was a simple town. We had all we needed and that was how we wanted to live.”

She looked up at him, and he nodded slowly.

“The west always wants us to live like them, with large TV screens and huge houses, but we know what we want. Our family, my family, founded that town. When it was just a village, we brought in the water. When it grew into a profitable town, we allowed those who wanted to live as the west did to do it – provided we could live the way we wanted.”

Buddy nodded, gently nudging her towards the building.

“If you didn't want to be part of the West, why did you become a scientist?” Buddy asked. The pair ascended the short flight to steps up to a secure gate. Buddy flashed his ID card over the detector.

“I did not do it for the west, Buddy. Science has always existed in some form or another, it is not an invention of America, despite what you may be told in your schooling system. Before it was science it was magic, before it was magic, it was survival. We have been learning to survive in Indian while you have been learning to grow fat. All I wanted to do was understand how nature works.”

Buddy let loose a little laugh, the gates swinging open with a groan.

“Yeah, how did that work out for you?”

“I will not lie,” she said, “Nature is not how it seems within the text books.”

“Practical experience is never what it looks like in the books, Chandi.”

“What is this place?”

“This is the Brown, it's where we hold particularly dangerous elemental people.”

Chandi shook her head and crossed her hands over her chest, hooking them over her shoulders.

“I feel strange,” she said.

Buddy cocked his head to the side. He wasn't aware that Chandi had any connections to Parliaments. Her tattoo's appeared to glow but that might have been an independent power set. If she had wanted to tell him, she would have, so he left her alone for the time being.

“Yeah, you will do. The Brown is basically made out of dead stuff – fossilized animals and plants. Ashes that have been purified and burned to the point of no return, even distilled water. Apparently that works.” Buddy gave a shrug as he pushed open the security door, holding it open for Chandi to walk through.

“Why?” Chandi asked simply.

“Because it negates our particular power sets. You'll feel really weird when we go inside, it's basically like an Earth wire in a plug – it prevents the power going into you, and redirects it back out into the atmosphere. You're disconnected from your Parliament in here.”

Chandi nodded slowly. The pair entered the building, the huge door slammed shut behind them. Chandi jumped, her lungs inflating full of stale, dirty air.

“So, you keep prisoners here to keep them away from their powers?”

“Pretty much. If they're here, then the Parliaments can't get to them. The downside is there's not really anywhere else like this on the planet, so, if they send someone after whoever is inside here, they know exactly where to go.”

The corridors were long and poorly lit. The floor felt as though it were concrete, but with every step the pair could feel their abilities ebbing away. Buddy felt the Parliament draw itself into the distance and finally, the scabs on his chest stopped itching. He took a deep breath of relief and paused for a moment, to savour the feeling.

“Are you okay?” Chandi asked. Her face was covered in a thin film of sweat.

“Yeah, I just forget out good it feels to be...out of the loop, you know?”

“I do not,” she said quietly, “But it appears as though it feels very good indeed.”

Buddy winked at her.

“Like sex.”

Chandi blushed and turned away.

“Why are we here, Buddy?” Chandi asked, “You ran away from your responsibility at the scene of the incursion.”

“Tst, it wasn't my responsibility. Nick was first on scene, I just mopped up his incompetence again. Besides, Chandi, I need to talk to someone who's in this building.”

Buddy paused and scratched his forehead.

“Someone we used to be close to but, well, their Parliament was less lenient on them. She did some bad stuff in their name, but her connection to the natural world is...” he paused again, “I just saw something in there, okay? Something that I think is a someone, and the person who's here will know.”

“Who is here?” Chandi asked, “Is it Pa...”

“You'll see when we get to here,” Buddy said.

“How many people are allowed within his building?” she asked.

“Probably only about six, I guess? The guards and maybe a visitor or two, from various science institutions over the world and so on. They want to do what you do.”

Chandi nodded.

“So, I believe those two are not scientists.”

Chandi pointed down the corridor. Buddy narrowed his eyes in the dim light. Apparently, Chandi had better natural eyesight. Two men tussled in the darkness. A blonde man with a large, unkempt beard was attempting to get away from the slightly more violent and uncontrolled advances of a tall, thick set black man.

“Oh, shit. It's Jeff.”