The Lost Supernaturalist - HALF ON HOLD

Chapter One- The Edge of Glory

Sorry for the lame-o title, any other title ideas would be great, I have ideas for future titles just not evidently this chapter. The personal challenge for myself in this story is to write in first person but not really which is a favourite style of Eoin Colfer. This means I won't be jumping around with different P.O.V.s which is a new idea for me. Also, I'm really really trying to make longer chapters. Thanks so much for reading! And any ideas for a good summary caption thing would be great thanks!

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Cassandra leaned forward against the Faustino NuSun with anticipation and excitement flowing through her veins. The last three years of work had finally paid off. All the research and development and begging Mayor Ray Shine for grants had finally paid off. Un-spec four swirled languishly within the nuclear reactor's depths. Her mother would have been so proud, if only she could see her now. Heading one of the world's greatest energy projects, enabling what could have seemed impossible only last week.

Ellen Faustino's heels were heard in the hallway before a frustrated door slam signified her entrance. Cassandra turned to face her aunt/colleague, without which the NuSun would never have been finished on schedule. Being in research and development gave strings and friends that could be useful. "I'm so glad we're done dealing with those kids," Ellie sighed, kneading her forhead with one hand. Cassandra didn't ask who, it's not that she didn't care, it's just that it didn't matter. "We're ready to test it, I was just waiting for you," Cassandra handed her the touch-sensitive screen that sent all the running data from their generator. "Thanks for getting Un-spec four, Ellen, we couldn't do it without you," Cassandra spoke as she walked up the stairs to the viewing platform above the see-through generator. "I know," Ellen said simply, looking down at her from the metal platform, before starting up the machine. 

In the bowels of the reactor, the nuclear reactor contained millions of bodies of Un-spec four which were invisible to the majority of the people who lived in Satellite City. These creatures sucked the life out of people, taking years off their life, beneath everyone's notice. And until now, there had been nothing they could do about it. Coated in hydro-gell, the nuclear reactor made a perfect prison. The species couldn't stand water. The species made the perfect super-conducter that would maintain all the energy without any contamination. As the reactor began to warm up, a rush of relief filled Cassandra. It had worked. Of course it worked, half of her thought. But the other half could hardly belive that fiction could be reality. They had done it, and nothing could stop them now.

The door had opened and two people walked in. Strange, the guards weren't aloud inside the lab and there was no one else in the building. Cassandra backed up into the shadows, not knowing how to alert Ellen without also alerting the intruders. A little boy, probably about six, was the first to enter, carrying a phone. Alarm bells rang in Cassandra's head. Phone, publicity, not good. She would have taken him but she didn't know what kind of concealed weapons they had. Ellen had always told her to manage her impulsivity and observe first, attack second. But when the older boy drew a knife and started heading towards the reactor, she had seen enough. 

The boy's obvious rage at the machine scared her but all her life, Cassandra had been scared. Scared of not working hard enough. Scared at failing and what that would mean and even scared at what would happen if she succeeded. Now was not the time to think, now was the time for action. The tall boy pulled his knife back and she grabbed it, thrust his hand down (pulling him off balance) and wrenched the knife from his grasp. A tiny 'No!' escaped his lips before he fell to the ground, his center of balance leaving him at an angle he could not correct. Cassandra was now glad for Ellen's paranoia and insitance on placing a hit-man that would soon get rid of this threat. 

The threat refused to die there. Not intimidated in the least, the boy shoved Cassandra back. There was little she could do to stop him, she was easily a few years younger and at least a few tens of pounds lighter. The boy had lived a tough life, that much could be told from the haunted look in his eyes and ease at which he moved. Seeing Cassandra, he paused, hesitating but when she moved to do something with the knife she still clenched, he was back in action. She tried one of Ellen's arm bars but the boy saw it coming and used the motion against her. Cassandra's wrist bent painfully back and the pressure increased until he stopped and bent down to grab something. The knife. She hadn't even realized that she'd dropped it but now it was at her throat.

The boy roughly pulled Cassandra to her feet and dragged her towards the reactor. Cassandra held her breath, she didn't know how durable the glass would be, she hadn't anticipated someone wanting to destroy their work. "Hello Stefan," Ellen Faustino was a small woman but made up for it with a ferocious attitude and commitment to whatever she did, "I see you've cheated death. Yet again". The boy holding Cassandra, Stefan, nodded, "No thanks to you." "Yet you insist on putting yourself in dangerous situations, a Bashk-" she stopped mid-sentance with a glance at Cassandra. A red dot flickered along the wall, following the path of the younger boy, who was edging his way towards Stefan. "You've lost," Cassandra whispered when the dot reached his foot but suddenly it disappeared. Two flashes of light followed by two bangs signified two shots. Cassandra let out a sigh of relief but Stefan's grip didn't falter. In fact it tightenned in anticipation. If the sniper didn't shoot the boys, who did it shoot?

Ellen Faustino and her bodyguard teetered backwards over the railing and fell to the ground. The bodyguard was dead. "ELLEN!" Cassandra screamed, fighting Stefan's grip. Her aunt. The one who had saved, protected and provided for her when her mother had gone forever. The woman who had done everything for her. It was almost like losing a second mother. Stefan nodded at the six-year-old. "Don't touch her though," Stefan warned, "Don't give her a single painless moment." His eyes dropped, "Not after what she's done."

Cassandra watched with horror. "How do we stop it? Are there more?" the boy interrogated the dying Ellen with hidden anger, anger that threatened to consume him, as much as he tried to control it.  "She knows, I just collected the parasites," Faustino pointed at Cassandra. The little boy's hands curled into fists and the red dot returned. Another shot ended the life of the greatest person Cassandra had ever known. "NO! No. No. no," her anger gave her strength and she almost freed herself from Stefan's binding grip. Two more ran in, a girl and...well she guessed he would have been a boy, underneath an artificial knee and a robotics plate in his head. "Can't we just kill her too?" the girl whispered. "No, we need her," Stefan spoke which was the last thing she heard before there was a sharp pain in her neck and Cassandra's world turned to darkness.