Charlie was a man who was never really happy, he was an orphan for as long as he could remember and still had no idea where he came from. He was average height, around five foot seven and had dark blue eyes and blonde hair that went down to his shoulders. He was 22 years of age and was stuck as a satellite tech engineer, which is a pretty good job for someone of his status.
When the orphanage finally asked Charlie for a second name, he explained that he never had one. The orphanage insisted that he would give himself a surname but in the end he ended up getting angry, grabbing the closest writing appliance, a purple colouring pencil, and scribbled all over the page. Since then he has been given the last name purple, a pretty strange name but he was a strange person. He always had repetitive dreams that never changed and when he was younger he would mumble words describing the dream such as, corridor, circle and dead. Since then he's struggled with a form of depression and what the doctors think is PTSD, but he kept working and trying to reach higher goals, eventually he managed to get a job at Jaden as a satellite tech engineer.
Charlie woke up in a cold sweat, breathing heavily and his bed sheets only covering his legs and lower torso, he closed his eyes again for a second and steadied his breathing. As he began to sit up he realised what today was, A week before the earths new year or as Jaden refers to it as 'Testing day'. People used the new year around the solar system as everyone had always had, so to use something different would complicate some things. When he looked around he also remembered where he was, on a couch inside a space ship orbiting Earth, currently above Europe. looking around more he could see said best friend, also known as Alex, at his old fashion oven making breakfast.
"Same dream?" Alex asked before turning around.
"Yeah, gets me every time." Charlie replied.
Alex was a bit taller than Charlie and had wood crown eyes, his baby face made it hard to tell that he was 23 but his deep red badge that proved his position in work confirmed it. Alex was always successful as a child and looked to archive big things, however that was before he discovered his abilities. Alex possesses a power that no one else in the system has even thought of, he can fizzle all the atoms in his body and split them while maintaining his humanity. The particles appeared to be a sand like dust, completely black in colour and can travel high speeds. This gave Alex the code name Ghost, that and his surname being Ghost.
"Ghost orb thing?" Alex asked with his higher pitched voice.
"Yep," replied Charlie in his deep morning voice, "and the people in the bed too."
"Think they were dead?"
"I'm not sure, I still don't understand it."
"By the sounds of it they are."
"I can't assume anything Alex, I've had repetitive dreams in the past."
"I know but not like..."
"And it's not like dreams actually mean anything, there just made up stories in your head."
"I guess so but it's having such a huge affect on you, your not the same. You rarely sleep, eat or want to see anybody, and you sit behind your desk all day. I'm gonna have to reintroduce you to the world if this goes on much longer."
"What do you mean by that?" Said Charlie while putting on his space suit.
"Have you even heard what they did to the Meteor impact site?" Alex asked while also putting on his suit.
As Charlie and Alex tethered to the ship and headed out into space there conversation continued.
"The one that happened in 2965?" asked Charlie.
"That's the one," Alex replieed, "they've turned the whole thing into a city."
Charlie went wide eyed, "Wow, I had no idea."
"Exactly why I need to get you out, I mean have you ever even been to a nightclub?"
"You know I don't mix well with loads of people."
"Not with that attitude, whatever your doing it's not healthy."
They both began to approach a gigantic metal structure, at about 20 kilometres in length 50 metres in width and 10 in depth, the structure has large holes with a diameter of around 2 metres that lead into a chamber and are evenly spaced about 10 metres apart.
"All this for a celebration." Alex quietly said to himself in a comedic tone.
Charlie grabbed a small handheld remote clipped to his suit, the remote had the same grey metallic look as the structure with 2 red buttons on the top. As he pressed the lower button with a piece of tape stuck to it labelled 'Test', he winced.
"Crap, something's not working." Charlie stated.
"Want me to check inside?" Asked Alex.
"Go for it, need me to lift your helmet?"
"Yeah I think the company's got something coming for this problem."
"Alright go on, turn then."
After he said that Alex closed his eyes, he began to grit his teeth as his space suit started to go limp, almost as there was no body Inside of it. Alexs's face turned black then dissolved into what seemed like millions of black particles.
"All good?" Charlie asked.
A small Symbol that represents a thumbs up formed out of the black particles inside his suit, at this point the suit looked as if a smoke bomb had gone off inside. Charlie unclipped the helmet and the mist depleted from inside, it was almost impossible to see in the void of space but there was a slight Glisten indicating where the mist was.
The mist began to seep into the cracks and holes of the gargantuan structure occasionally showing itself for a split second as it passed along the metal. After a while a smaller portion of the mist flew back last Charlie and seeped into the metal plates making the ship they had came from, the airlock opened and the mist came back out in 2 parts. One part looked to be holding something long about 20 big and the other almost in a perfect ball shape about a metre in diameter, the 2 clumps then flew back towards where they came from which looked to be about half way across the rectangular structure. After 30 minutes or so the mist returned and flew back in to the empty space suit and began to congeal until it formed back into the shape and colour of Alex.
"The 65th projectors lens was cracked." Said Alex as he struggled to catch his breath.
"And you managed to replace it?" Asked Charlie
"Yep it should be good to go." Alex said confidently, now with a screwdriver in his hand.
"Alright here goes nothing."
As Charlie pressed the 'test' button a second time the structure began to emit a low humming noise, suddenly all the round holes began to light up into a holographic display, the display was roughly 100 kilometres long and 10 high. From where Charlie and Alex were they couldn't see even a tenth of the light but they knew that from Earth the entirety of Europe could see the number 3000 with fireworks surrounding it.
Charlie shouted in pain before a black visor covered his face through his suit and he said "I forgot how bright this thing is from here."
Alex laughed and with his visor already activated said "don't worry about it, I did the exact same thing last year and it forced me into my Ghost form."
"Yeah I remember," Charlie pressed a small button on his helmet "command, how does it look?"
A voice spoke out from the earpieces they both had.
"This is command, the light show looks great and we're all excited to see the new display next week at night. Good job boys you can return to Jaden now."
Alex and Charlie both pressed a button on there backs next to where the tether was holding them to the ship and they began to reel in. Once back inside they change from there suits back into the brown jacket and jeans Charlie was wearing and the tank top with black Adidas jogging shorts Alex had on.
Alex turned to Charlie and said "seriously all I've seen you do the past 4 years is work, you need come come out with us."
"Our job is too important for that." Charlie replied bluntly.
"Oh come on you really can't expect..."
"Alex you can turn into a ghost and go anywhere you want whenever you want, I'm not like you or the others."
"Well at least you don't have to leave changes of clothes for your self everywhere, don't forget when I come out of it I'm completely naked."
"I know that, I've seen you too many times at my apartment to know you do. Let's just go back to Jaden."
"Fine," Alexs's left hand dissolved and engulfed a locket placed on the desk then started to float to the roof of the ship, "but I'm taking this until you agree to come out with me."
"Alex put that down! you know how important that is to me."
"Say you'll come out with us tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Please man, were worried about you and want you to come have fun with us."
Charlie sighed, "Fine but I've got a few things I need to do first."
"Promise?"
He sighed again and opened his hand "yes just please give that back now!"
The ball of black floated over to Charlie's open hand, a small circular locket with no string or chain attached fell out into his palm, he had just noticed how each of the individual particles that made up Alex's hand had a perfect cube shape, while his wrist had a black cover protecting the inside of his arm.
"Thank you." Charlie finally said.
"Don't forget you promised." Alex said in a smug tone as he walked to the cockpit of the ship and reformed his hand.
