-BY CHARVELLE VORE
What does normal even mean…It’s all relative isn’t it?
I was never what you might call “normal”, being so tall for my age. I was six-five at age 16 and I’m six-eight now.
So I was always the center of the family, as the oldest of seven, taking up so much room, and then being a basketball star, I got a lot more attention.
Things were relatively normal for our family in Niles Michigan. Or so I thought.
I was finishing high school and looking to remain in athletics in some form. I had flourished in high school, averaging over 30 points a game and one state title. I was being actively recruited by colleges – every one of them. But I couldn’t afford it. Sure they’d pay for my tuition, room and board and plenty of glamorous travel, but I needed to work. My parents were both Walco associates and their pay drops dramatically if all family members aren’t “pulling their weight” by working full time. Walco restructured pay-scale schedules in reaction to the great Divestiture of 2097, more commonly called “Bluexit”, when 17 “maker” states broke away to demonstrate how many red states were “taker” states.
So at age 17 in 2213, I applied to compete in the 2216 Olympics, including submitting a blood sample to the committee. That’s when the markers were found. We still don’t know who had access to my bloodwork but the first abduction attempt started just about two weeks after.
The offer to play overseas was more income than either of my parents had ever seen and right away led to some resentment, particularly for Andro. He’s my father but I prefer to call him Andro.
We don’t get along.
So the drama really began to escalate then, in the form of an invitation to play in the Hungarian basketball league with a $900,000 signing bonus. My family had never seen money like that before. That was one reason why we didn’t look into the agent or do much research before I got on a plane with my mother and three of my sisters.
Basketball in the states had been falling apart for a long time. The WNBA had been phased out around 2149 after so many American males boycotted the league. It limped along for another two years in resistance states, but they no longer had a viable league.
The 2100s saw conflicts arising as states struggled to regulate human-bot relations. By now robotics manufacturing was booming but there was a steep divide in robot ownership between rich and poor.
Like a lot of college athletes, I received offers to sign with wrestling leagues — this wasn’t a legitimate sport it was just “narrative entertainment” as it has been for centuries, and had devolved steadily since as performance-enhancing drugs had moved into new categories. Wrestlers did far more infomercials and product and campaign endorsements than matches, so pro wrestling looked like an awful option, scary for a young athlete and, taking away more and more attention were the underground pit fights had been gaining popularity all over the continent.
I was resigned to get a day job and just be the tall girl in some air-conditioned office when the call came in from Pitra Petravitc, a former college star at Michigan State. Or so I thought. I learned later it was actually the AI-manipulated voice of Beonqe Maroder.
My mother insisted she do the talking, as my “manager”, she took a skeptical tone at first, but was eventually persuaded and you could almost see the dollar signs in her eyes. She spoke again over the next few days and arranged a flight to Budapest, convinced there was a huge payday coming. We booked seats for me, mother and my three younger sisters because leaving them alone with Andro was not an option. The flight was four hours in, my visor phone buzzed, changing the course of my life forever.
First I was confused that there would even be reception, but when I answered, I couldn’t believe I was talking to Esotera. I even started feeling funny, like my muscles were tightening, hardening…it’s hard to explain. Of course we were skeptical, asking if it were some kind of AI prank, but Esotera was dead serious and convinced us forthwith by making my phone float in the air. She had my attention.
With shock and horror, she told us the trip was actually arranged by Bruno and Beonqe Maroder who wanted to abduct me because of DNA markers found in my blood. She said the rest of the family was in immediate danger as “expendable” but that I was facing a torturous existence as a “broodmare” for experimental breeding. She said she had been tracking the Maroders for over two years following the disappearance of dozens of young women.
Esotera calmly answered all my questions and gave me explicit instructions – we needed to disappear as soon as the plane landed and hide, waiting for her arrival at the airport. She told us to prepare for physical attack and to secure sharp objects that could be used to kill someone by slicing the jugular vein or skewering the brain stem through the optic nerve with a powerful thrust.
Mom and the girls were hearing all this. Kaela and Daena started sobbing softly and Kyrie just went silent.
Esotera said we’d need to fend for ourselves for at least an hour after we touched down, and not to trust anyone, particularly the police or airport staff. She told us to make sure our earbuds were fully charged and then put on She-bot Kromita, her assistant who she said would stay with us every step of the way. For the next two hours Kromita patiently coached me on what was going to happen, sharing a schematic of the airport, rehearsing and memorizing the path we would take to escape into a cargo hold.
There were several other steps preparing for the escape. After we landed, we taxied towards the terminal. The moment we came to a stop, the lights went out and the auxiliary lights were also disabled with a slurring sound. In complete darkness, we bum-rushed the nearest emergency hatch, dropping down about eight feet to the tarmac and dove onto a luggage intake conveyor which activated on cue. The girls and I were all athletic, but we had to push and pull mother who was slower, not very spry, and already panicking.
Not a soul saw us jump off the belt and scramble down a long catwalk to the rear of the cargo processing facility. From there we darted into a maintenance hangar and out the back, into another utility structure, down a row of lockers and into a windowless staff bathroom which unlocked for us. We hung the ‘out of order’ sign we’d pre-made on the handle and locked ourselves in, exhaling at last a sigh of relief. We weren’t sure if anyone had seen us but surely security cameras had.
Mom was hyperventilating, veins popping and wide-eyed. Kromita told us they were about 70 minutes out, and to look for anything that could be converted into a weapon. She told me to smash the mirror and wrap paper towels around a long shard of glass, secured with string or wiring.
The next 60 minutes were uneventful. We knew it couldn’t last. Then there was a knock on the door. We fell silent, the girls suppressing whimpers. I quietly herded everyone into the last stall and closed the door. We heard keys jangling trying to unlock the door. Muffled voices were clearly agitated. Kromita told me she had remotely frozen the locks and to expect a loud noise any second as they blasted the door off its hinges…
SIX-PAGER: The Casualties vs. The Maroders
It’s 2213 in dystopian North America – most civil functions are privatized by the DeHubertons corporations – government institutions are still limping along but many aspects of life are in decline as drones, robots and hi-tech weapons technology have changed society, forcing people to either move to a corporate-controlled area or live in a resistance zone.
PAGE ONE
TITLE BANNER: Enter…The Casualties!
1. CHARVELLE is not yet 18, a 6 foot 8 inch tall teenager in athletic clothes, holding a bloody makeshift knife made of broken glass and rags in an airport bathroom. Sprawled out on the floor quivering in death throes is a hired mercenary bleeding out. Charvelle recoils, realizing she just killed someone. To the left more hired mercenaries point hi-tech weapons. Behind Charvelle to the right, her mom and three sisters cower in terror at the violence unfolding.
NARRATOR: We were trapped in the airport bathroom, cornered like rats. I wasn’t sure how…I just struck out, surprising myself as much as anyone.
MERCENARY 1: He’s dead!
MERCENARY 2: You’ll pay for this, freak!
CHARVELLE’S SISTERS: Sob, Sniff
2. Emerging through the doorway is DR. BRUNO MORODER, dramatically displaying a magical fiery swirl above his outstretched palm. Behind him we see BEONQE MORODER lurking, looking sinister and behind her we see the hanging door has been blown off it’s hinges.
DR. BRUNO: She must not be harmed!
MERCENARY (OFF CAMERA): Dr. Moroder!
DR. BRUNO: Yes, underlings I have arrived to at last claim my newest possession!
3. Small panel. Moroder’s telekinetic fireball forces Charvelle to drop her weapon.
SOUND FX: FOOF!
CHARVELLE: But how?
4. Dr. Bruno firmly embraces the much taller Charvelle, his face an inch from hers. Behind is a tile wall.
DR. BRUNO: Impressed by my powers, are we my dear?
DR. BRUNO: So shall you fancy the powers of our children.
CHARVELLE: Uh…I…
DR. BRUNO: From now on, nothing will come between us…
PAGE TWO
1. A gigantic fiery claw busts through the tile wall, knocking tiles in every direction. Dr. Bruno is thrown back to the left while Charvelle falls to the right, hand protecting her face.
SOUND FX: K’ZAAAM
DR. BRUNO: What in…
2. Splash panel shows Hellclaw stepping from the tarmac into the bathroom through the hole in the wall. Her hand is gnarled, surrounded by a gigantic fiery fireclaw. Approaching the hole behind her is Kromita the She-Bot, one hand visible which is converted into hi-tech rifle turrets. In the distance we can see Esotera levitating in the sky. On the floor flaming debris lies about.
HELLCLAW: For christ’s sakes, could this pervo be any more clichéd?
CHARVELLE (off camera): HELLCLAW! KROMITA! ESOTERA!
HELLCLAW: Sorry we came before the action started kid, but we’re here to mop up the filth.
KROMITA: High-powered munitions detected. To all armed subjects, lay down weapons to avoid immediate termination!
3. Laying on his back amid smoking debris, Dr. Bruno angrily spits orders, pointing at Hellclaw.
DR. BRUNO: On the contrary, it is you who is headed for the scrap heap – DESTROY THEM!
4. Shot of Beonqe, arm in the air as she flings a dozen hi-tech explosive projectile darts towards camera.
NARRATOR: Just then, Beonqe unleashed a hail of deathspikes. I was sure that was that, but then…
PAGE THREE
1. Action panel of Hellclaw, hand gnarled as the giant fireclaw expands to detonate the darts harmlessly midair in little puffs of smoke and shrapnel. Behind her, Kromita approaches in silhouette but for her glowing defiant eyes.
NARRATOR: …it was time for THE HELL CLAW to strike back!
SOUND FX: PAF! PAF! PAF!
2. Giant splash of Kromita lunging into action, her hands turned into multi-turret blasters firing away. In foreground, the mercenaries are reduced to Swiss cheese, riddled with bullets. In top right, we see Charvelle protecting the three little girls and her crazy mom hysterical in the back of the stall.
NARRATOR: Followed up by KROMITA, raining photonic blaster fire with deadly precision!
KROMITA: Criminal abductors – prepare to meet your end!
MERCENARIES: URK! UGH! AGGHH!
PAGE FOUR
1. Dr. Bruno, red-faced and filled with rage, is helped up by the devoted Beonqe as he points at Charvelle’s mom.
DR. BRUNO: Idiots! This was all arranged by her mother! Ask her!
2. Close on Charvelle’s mom, like a deer in headlights, shocked at the accusation. Towering above her looms Charvelle, skeptical.
CHARVELLE: Mom? Is this…
CHARVELLE’S MOM: No, it’s not like that! I…I thought the league contract was real!
3. Tall panel shows ESOTERA levitating into the bathroom, hovering above a cloud of quantum particles.
NARRATOR: Suddenly at this moment of heightened tension, who approached me in a swirl of colorful photooptic q-particles but…
CHARVELLE: ESOTERA!
ESOTERA: It is time…
ESOTERA: Come closer child…
ESOTERA: To embrace your destiny
4. Esotera’s hand casts a shadow as she reaches down to touch the face of Charvelle who looks up to her with wonder. The hand is surrounded by shimmering particles and quantum artifacts.
ESOTERA: Allow me to touch you…
CHARVELLE: It is really you – just like in the dream!
PAGE FIVE
1. Trippy wide panel with Esotera’s hand super close up in foreground, a cosmic eye design in the center. Behind the hand we see her face and eyes, glowing brightly with swirling q-particle designs all about.
ESOTERA: With this, I give you new eyes…
ESOTERA: To reveal that which is inside and out.
2. Tall panel showing Charvelle standing tall, her head and torso enveloped in glowing, shimmering q-particles as Esotera, floating above, lays her hand across Charvelle’s face. Charvelle is being energized, experiencing an awakening.
CHARVELLE: I see…I see so much! I see…
CHARVELLE: I…I see danger!
3. Splash panel of a giant Kirby-esque robot, many stories tall, smashing in the roof with one wrecking ball hand and the other hand shaped like an armed bucket which Bruno is climbing into. Debris flying everywhere as Hellclaw and Kromita are scattered about.
SOUND FX: KRUMBLE!
DR. BRUNO: Fools! Enough meaningless imbecility!
DR. BRUNO: I take my leave of this place…many other broodmares await my seed.
4. Dr. Bruno is ranting madly in the bucket pointing a huge mounted energy gun at the heroines. The gun is powering up with crackling energy.
DR. BRUNO: For it is I who shall create the Q-Essentia, the ultimate beings of hyperdimensional ascension!
DR. BRUNO: As for this trashy beanpole…
PAGE SIX
1. In foreground Dr. Bruno points and fires the big gun at Charvelle, but Charvelle’s mom steps in the way at the last moment, taking the blast instead.
DR. BRUNO: …if I shan’t have her, no one shall!
SOUND FX: ZVEEETT!
CHARVELLE’S MOM: This is all my fault…
CHARVELLE: Mom, wait! No!
2. Dramatic shot of Charvelle’s mom, eyes dilated staring up blankly, hit fatally in the stomach, gasping with blood on her lips. Charvelle leans over in disbelief as the little sisters shriek in the background.
CHARVELLE’S MOM: This was all my fault…I caused this…
CHARVELLE: Mom, no, it wasn’t you…it was a much larger force…the Maroders…I see it all now!
NARRATION: It was at that moment, overcome with grief, my inner purpose was awakened…
3. Thin wide panel on Charvelle’s face, racked with shocked realization.
CHARVELLE: I can feel their all-consuming evil…I can feel it about to…
4. In the corner we can see the giant robot has taken flight and is shooting it’s cannon down into the room, blowing everything asunder. We see the edge-lit silhouette of Charvelle bracing to endure the explosion as Esotera and Hellclaw are sent sprawling among the debris.
DR. BRUNO: Loutish dolts! Taste now the unbridled might of my vaporizer cannon!
NARRATION: In that moment my fate was sealed. I knew a singular mission remained…at any cost, this matter would be RECTIFIED.
CAPTION: TO BE CONTINUED!
=-=-=- CHARVELLE TIMELINE NOTES =-=-=-=-=-=-
LATER IN CHARVELLE’S LIFE: The Story of the Reality Qleavr
As recalled by one of the “forest rascals”.
“I don’t know if it really happened or if it’s just a memory, I’d need to check with May who was there too.
Esso told us to gather atop the blue oak. She showed us something she called the vorpal fang. We asked where she got it, apparently it was from the labs but one of the adults hid it in the trees. That means they were hiding it from someone else among the adults.
Esso found it – sensed it, of course – its “potential” was ringing off the hook she said. She uncovered it, in parts, stashed in a hollow rung of an old ladder in a treehouse. She figured out how it goes together. She showed us and turned it on. It was like an airblade but instead this one changed quantum states, she said. We didn’t know then but the adults had called it a “reality cleaver”. They had disagreed on the ethics of creating a weapon from tech that was meant to improve lives, but they also had little understanding of what they had created. For example, it was difficult to predict or control what happened when it was activated, and it only worked for users with a rare q-DNA signature.
It worked for Esotera.
She had us stand back and powered it up. She waved it through the air where we could see it “changes the state of q-particles”. You could see the air around it warping. Esso placed a large rock on the treehouse deck and waved the cleaver through it. We saw it distort the rock, stretching it in the middle like pizza dough, but when the cleaver moved away, the rock solidified again into a long looped shape. It was amazing. Next we saw Esso touch it to a beebalm shrub which folded itself into an alien shape – she said more research was necessary in understanding how it affects living cells. She also realized this was not something to be fooling around with and powered it down.
We never saw it again, until we saw Charvelle with it many years later.
Esotera said she would discretely try to find out which of our parents hid it, but not long after this episode she was sent off to the boarding school.
2220 was considered a sacred year by the Twosdayers, the demonstrations were everywhere. They did everything in twos, rallies were held in dual locations. This was also the year Esotera would bestow the Qleavr on Charvelle. For the last several years Charvelle was in training and she used the cover of the crowded rallies to travel back and forth for mentoring by Esotera. Eventually she was told her q-DNA signature was screened for high levels of measurable q-entanglement potential and she would need protection and survival training.
She took well to the program and in later years became a founding first member of THE RECTIFIERS rapid response team. The Reality Qleaver was determined to be a weapon no one should have ever wielded but this was not known until Charvelle’s q-DNA signature unlocked it’s full capabilities. And few also knew that Charvele was the first to be enhanced by Esotera’s young daughter Elevena, a child genius, moving into human trials of biochemical q-enhancements first observed in mice, bats and rare species like electric eels.
A story on that upcoming, steeped in revenge and a race to scientific secrets, applied in the field in a race to control the keys to the enhancement of humans.
