Chapter 3: The Prism

Monday, 6 May, 10:53 am 

The group glances around at each other with eyes glazed in fear, wordlessly sharing their apprehensions as no one dares willingly make the first leap into the jaws of the Prism. Ghazal carefully calculates the social rewards versus physical risks of being a willing sacrifice, but it was beyond even his overwhelming confidence. 

"Disappointing, Brannon-Brook! You are soldiers. Where is your bravery and pride, ha? Bah! If you cannot decide amongst yourself, we will let the chaos decide your fate." The doctor scowls. "GAIA, give me the names of the Brannon-Brook graduates. Randomize the order!"

"Affirmative." GAIA trills out across the room, its voice coming in and from all directions, somehow seeming to quieten every other electronic sound. "First assessment candidate. Jocelyn Webber."

Jocelyn's stomach pangs at the sound of her name, but she steels her nerves and steps forward with conviction and certainty. "Yes, sir!" she answers boldly, but her blushed cheeks betray her show of confidence. With a slight quiver in her step, she moves through the group, sharing a worried glance with Reyn and Ghazal who reassures her with calm-faced nods. Ravinok meets her at the Prism entrance where she slips through a small retractable opening and positions herself in the chamber's center.

"Good, good. Stay right there." The doctor instructs as Jocelyn looks on with growing anxiety hidden behind her tempered eyes. "The Prism will take good care of you. Don't move a muscle, ok. The process is… technically painless. You might have a little headache when it's done, maybe mild amnesia… paralysis…" Jocelyn's eyes widen and intensify as the doctor's vision locks with hers and for a brief moment he suddenly feels as if the cold death-stare of a reaper had beset him. "I joke. A joke, Ms. Webber. Relax!" He quickly assures her, wiping trickles of sweat from his brow. 

He moves closer to the Prism, his face shifting to sincerity as he meets Jocelyn's eyes with his. "Now, listen to me carefully Ms. Webber, and this goes for all of you, Brannon-Brook. This experience is painless, but by no means is it a pleasant one. Do not fight it. Let the aether search your mind, let it find what it is looking for and rebuild it anew, molded as a key that unlocks the powers you will wield. So relax, and do not worry child, we will keep you safe." He finishes with a warm smile and thumbs up. "Now then, we can get started. GAIA, release the APS."

The Prism rumbles to life once more as the crown-like helmet apparatus slowly descends upon Jocelyn's head and she quickly straps it into place with help of Ravinok's instruction. 2 more straps descend, flanking Jocelyn, and Ravinok instructs her to hook in each arm. As she does, the straps pull taught and she is lifted into a firm standing position, her feet barely needing to touch the ground.

"Good. Ready Ms. Webber?"

Jocelyn answers with a succinct nod and the doctor yells at GAIA to start the procedure. The whole room watches on as every part of the contraption seems to spring to life. A hyper-powered laser begins the procedure, shooting its beams directly into the glass-like cover surrounding the Prism, the vibration of aetherite and finely-tuned pulses of concentrated light activates the aetheric energies within and for a brief moment it radiates candescent light, almost blinding the rooms occupants, before dimming once more to transparency, but now pervaded by a brilliant shimmering of melting colors.

Inside the chamber, the next step of the process begins. With the light-shield in place, the chamber is quickly filled with highly-concentrated aether. The sub-plank filaments flitter through the air as physics-fluctuating energies allow their movement in any direction or dimension, completely unimpeded by physical barriers or limitations. Occasionally they release their energies as visible light, which the eyes watching see as a star-like shimmer. As the concentration of aether in the chamber increases, it starts to gather in and around the atoms pressing against Jocelyn's body and starts filtering through her flesh and into her bloodstream. The APS unit attached to her skull works furiously to filter out the otherworldly toxin and prevent it from overwhelming her mind. But as the aether concentration in the chamber reaches critical levels, Jocelyn's begins to feel heavy, weighed down by every cell within here being pushed and pulled in different directions. Eventually, the aether concentration level hits critical levels and the final step of the procedure begins.

For a single, brief moment, the APS unit deactivates. The highly concentrated aether pervading her body immediately seeks balance with the low-concentration zone inside her head. In a barely measurable moment of time the aether bursts forth from every atom inside her and shoots to her skull in an instant, exploding into every brain cell and neuron. The spark of infinities ignites in her mind and her consciousness is overwhelmed by the sudden understanding of all that is and could be. With her mind split and memories bleeding into themselves, the aether dissolves through the barriers of her physical body, reaching her subconscious, the essence of her metaphysical existence, finding within a pure singularity of being that lies at the very root of her true self. Her sentience and soul.

The aether surrounds it, pressing and crushing at it to find its own balance within. Her soul is defenseless against the assault of unnatural energy and eventually erupts in an implosion of possibilities resulting in her meta-physical rebirth. With her sentience reborn and aetheric balance enforced across her body, the aether quickly rebuilds what has been broken and forges within her a new form of being. One separate from the universe yet connected to it's every atom, it's every possibility baked into her blood and bones. Her mind is restored with a new sense of clarity and understanding and connection to the aether that vibrates within her. 

But the aether does not stop there. It exists as a fluctuation of physical reality, a constant catalyst of cosmic evolution, unbounded by any physical or mental limitations.

A sudden fluctuation of the aetheric flow, that has become part of her body, corrupts its own balance. The aether reacts by forcing a change in its environments, molding it to maximise balance in a new form. Forcing a meta-physical evolution through random fluctuations of base physical interactions. The reactions in her body attempt to merge all aspects of her mind with the potential energies of the aether inside her and she finds her consciousness falling towards a maelstrom of infinite possibilities that has slowly overtaken her subconscious. As her sentience is about to be ripped apart by the churning torrents, a familiar voice suddenly snaps her back to reality as the aether inside instant evaporates.

"Woo! Pretty crazy, right?' Ravinok smiles as he welcomes her back with a thumbs up. "Just relax, the purge is complete. Your body will be back to normal in no time."

Jocelyn flutters her eyes to find their focus as her brain struggles to make sense of itself. But as the aether was removed from the chamber and flushed from her body she finds clarity and the vague memories of her assessment experience quickly fades into mental obscurity.

"GAIA. May we please have the result of Ms. Webber's resonance assessment?" 

"Affirmative. Data analysis complete. Resonance potential: 68.2%"

Ravinok immediately gasps at the sight of the numbers on the screens around him, a resonance above 50 has not been seen in a new recruit in almost 2 years. The revelation nearly brings tears to Ravinok's eyes as his mind tries to make sense of the assessment results and how it was achieved. "Sixty eight point two!" he yells out while staring purposely at the executives and higher-ups that occupied the audience chamber in the room's upper corner. Though they shared a soundproof room, Reyn could sense the clamor of intense discussion and planning that was happening between the room's occupants. The results of the Brannon-Brook initiative start to speak for themselves and Ravinok excitedly explains the significance of Jocelyn's results to the rest of the graduate group.

"This is it! This is what we have worked so hard towards, my beauties of Brannon-Brock! If these results persist among you, the Brannon-Brook initiative may just have given us a way to win this war!" Ravinok says, barely able to contain his excitement as his ragged breath scratches at his throat between sentences. "Marvelous, Ms. Webber. You have proven you have the potential to become a powerful weapon in Earth's defence. Stand proud young lady!"

Jocelyn glows with accomplishment at the doctor's praise, but an inkling of confusion still lurks within her as the effects of her mental transitioning settles into place. She questions the doctor for clarity. "Um… Doctor Ravinok, sir. What happened to me? My head feels…"

"Aether Induced Meta-Psychosis Syndrome" The doctor quickly interrupts, swinging his hand up to his chin. "We don't fully understand how the aether interacts with the higher thought functions, but, the aether, it seems to infect our minds. Fleeting thoughts become fixations. We lose all cognition and understanding and our minds become lost within itself, drowning in the maelstrom of aether that feeds it endless possibilities to process. If the aether is not quickly purged from the body, the consciousness is quickly destroyed and only an empty shell remains, all intelligence and reasoning lost forever."

The doctor helps Jocelyn out of the Prism as he continues to ramble on about the significance of the resonance potential data and its use to the organization. He quickly swirls over to a console on the far end of the room and his eager activities there bring to life a massive, digital screen affixed on one of the lab walls, it flickers to life showing a graph while various complex scientific language and symbols surround it. He directs the graduates attention to the visual demonstration and begins a short lecture as soon as his particles reform him next to the Prism. 

"You see, the resonance potential measurement is the culmination of a number of extremely complex measurements and calculations that determine various aspects of the user's physical biology and meta-psychology. The resulting potential percentage is measured on an exponential scale, zero to 100. The mathematics is simple. Most humans have potential ratings at the bottom end of the scale, lower than 15, their affinity with aether is insignificant and their minds easily overwhelmed by its presence. Whereas, ratings above 55 are considered very high. This is the domain of Strike Teams archaners, and the ultimate goal of the Brannon-Brook initiative. That is, to cultivate young ones like yourself to reach the maximum resonance potential the mind allows. So, Ms. Webber's rating of 68 percent well exceeds our goals. This is a momentous occasion!" the doctor proclaims as he starts to vigorously applaud the young women's assessment results. The rest of the graduates join him as Jocelyn makes her way back to the group, greeted with cheer and gentle strokes of adoration. Until a sudden question interrupts the festivities.

"Excuse me, Doctor, what are the highest recorded resonance potential ratings, if I may ask?" The question comes from Lucien Fontaine who stands at the edge of the group. He had refrained from joining in room's affirmations of Jocelyn's results. 

"Ah, good question, young man. I sense a little competitive spirit, yes. Always good for growth!" The doctor grins, "Well, currently Vera Vertaski claims the honor of highest resonance potential, I believe her rating stands at 78%, but the true honor belongs to Joseph Brannon. His rating was 80.7%, the highest we've ever recorded, and I think it should be clear to you now why he and Veiltear were capable of disrupting the very fabric of the universe. His influence over the aether was almost natural, as if his mind was born to wield it. His partner, the element queen, was not far by. Her rating was 77%" The doctor's face glows with pride as he discusses the great warriors that crossed his path, but his voice seems to droop and his face suddenly sours. "Then, there was also Yu-Jun Dok, I believe his rating was 78%."

The doctor finishes his sentence with a solemn sigh, and almost every person in the room seems to join him in a silent moment of melancholic remembrance as they lay their thoughts upon the tens of thousands of lives Dok took during his attack on Seoul.

"Bah! Look at the time. Too much talk and not enough assessment!" The doctor suddenly bellows as he slaps the Prism, sending a fleshy echo through the room. "Come, no more distractions. We have work to do! Who is next? GAIA!"

GAIA proceeds to read the next name and the process continues with each graduate loaded into the Prism to experience their own meta-physical rebirth and unlock their connection to the aether. Ghazal receives a resonance level of 70.2% resulting in him immediately bursting out in wild celebration before having a chance to be removed from the Prism harness. He tumbled among the machine's delicate apparatus, much to the dismay of all the GAARD personnel assisting in the assessment. Lucien Fontaine walked away with a resonance potential rating of 73.1%, the highest of the day. His ego would not let him mark the celebration without a prideful remark of his exceptionalism to the rest of the graduates. Each of the graduates entered the Prism with a feeling of trepidation but would leave with a new found clarity and aetheric connection, each sporting a resonance rating reserved for the most powerful archaners. As the procedures come to an end, the final assessment candidate is brought forward. It was Reyn's turn.

"Ah, and last but not least. Mr. Mitchells! Lunara's boy. This should be a good one!" The doctor says with a hoot as Reyn approaches the Prism.

Of course he was last, Reyn thinks to himself as he moves silently towards the Prism, mentally tensing each muscle as he moves in a vain attempt to quell his quivering legs. The doctor helps him into the chamber, their hands almost slipping past each other as Reyn's palms drown its skin in perspiration. The APS harness soon meets his head, tickling the little hairs on his neck that have been standing frighteningly erect since his name was called. He slips into his arms into cold metallic tethers and the icy touch sends rippling waves of goosebumps erupting across his skin. Each step of this preparation seems to slowly feed on his confidence, and by the time Reyn finds himself strapped in, his mind already started to drown itself in a cascade of probabilities. Unable to stop his mental self-assault, he starts mentally-mapping, considering and calculating the many possible outcomes of his self assessment.

"Ready, Mitchells?" Ravinok asks and Reyn replies with a quick and inattentive thumbs up. His body was now mostly on auto-pilot, his reasoning and cognition running on the minimum required power while the rest of his mind was in deep calculated contemplation and possibility processing. The infinite vistas of his subconscious painted in the impossible colors for every potential probability. Reyn had no control, it was the default state of his mental-being, his brain's natural reaction to the stimulation of sentient thought. It was his mind's way of trying to understand the universe around it, trying to answer the questions and choices presented to it through Reyn's interactions with his world. But one complication in its calculations would always constrain it, forbidding it from finding the perfect answer, the absolute truth. Reyn's mind's greatest adversary was Reyn himself. 

Ravinok yells into the air and GAIA captures his command, it starts the assessment process and while Reyn's mind excavates itself for answers to infinite questions, the aether invades him, infecting every atom in every molecule as it weaves its way through his body, waiting at the precipice of his mind as the APS fends it off fiercely. His body vibrates with possibilities and unknown energy as the aether battles to find balance for itself. Eventually, the process reaches its final step, the aether concentration in the chamber reaches maximum criticality and the APS is forced to abandon its valiant defense of its wearer's mental-wellbeing.

In less than an instant the aether erupts into every brain cell and sparks the meta-physical transition, digging into every neuron and nerve as it weaves its way deep and deeper into his mind, searching for the balance between it and every fibre of his being, but as it burns through the walls of is subconscious, the aether finds a new form of existence. An infinite ocean of possibilities hidden deep within Reyn's mind. Not bound to the universe but constantly feeding from it, growing in infinities with every moment of Reyn's existence.

The aether finds a new form of balance, deep within Reyn's subconscious. The possibilities that lie within breed violently with the new possibilities the aether brings from beyond the universe. The ocean of possibilities churns with new answers and new truths, powered by otherworldly energies and for a single sub-planck moment the universe quivers at the arrival of a new existence beyond its own understanding.

But, just as the balance reaches perfection, a powerful vibration begins to eminate within Reyn's mind, a rupturing oscillation of light and sound and movement rapidly increasing in frequency and influence. And as it reaches its climax, the aether in Reyn's mind seems to evaporate in a near instant. 

"The purge is complete! Quickly, we need to get him out, get him out, now! Come, help me with the APS! Carefully… Oh… wait… wait… look! The eyes! He's awake! Mitchells! Wake up! Look at me, boy! Mitchells…"

Reyn pinches his eyelids, trying to clear his vision. He instinctively wiggles his head as his body tries to free the remnants of aether from his mind. When his eyes finally find their focus, he looks around the room to find everybody staring at him intently, Ravinok stands beyond the Prism glass, his face twisted in concern as lab assistants scramble around in every direction shouting orders and scientific lingo. Reyn hesitates to respond to Ravinok's question, his mind barely recovered, has already cloaked itself in fear and apprehension, but eventually, he manages to peep out a question of his own. "What happened?"

Ravinok's eyes flash and a smile finds his face as he quickly melts away into the floor. "Ah, he speaks! Good good! Relax Mitchells. How do you feel? Any pain?" Ravinok says. He stands now before Reyn in the Prism chamber, seeming to consume most of its available space. "Your APS. It seems there was some kind of malfunction. The aether. The aether should have consumed your mind. You were exposed for almost 2 minutes, boy! This is… perplexing. It should be impossible. Yet, here you are."

Reyn cocks his head back in shock. The significance of this revelation was clear to him. A human exposed to concentrated aether would quickly lose their minds to the meta-psychosis syndrome it induces. In areas of low concentration this can happen in as little as an hour. In high concentration zones like an ACZ, the process only takes minutes. Within the Prism, it takes seconds.

"Reyn, look at me." The doctor scowls, moving his face within inches of Reyn's. He stares deeply into Reyn's eyes, flicking his vision between the two as if looking for an answer before a question was asked. "Are you still in there, Reyn Mitchells?"

Reyn nods consciously. The aether had not corrupted his mind, instead, it had opened it to new vistas of possibilities and the ability to answer every question they bring. The answers to all the questions that had plagued it for so long. A new found clarity is starting to envelop Reyn as his inner-mind finally finds a lasting calm within him.

"I-It's me Doctor Ravinok. Reyn Mitchells." Reyn start's his confusion starting to clear and clarity returns to his vision. "I think I'm fine. I-I feel ok." Reyn flickers his eyes some more and slowly, twists and tenses his muscles. His body feels normal enough and his mind feels clear. "That was weird, though. It felt… it felt…" Reyn's brow creases and his face sours as his memory refuses him the recollection of the experience he had just endured.

"Ha! Weird he says! Your damn mind should be lost to the ether, boy! Come, we must analyse this anomaly. Perhaps GAIA can tell us more." Ravinok says. He grips Reyn's arm firmly and quickly pushes and pokes him through the Prism hatch. Ravinok elects to traverse the distance in molecular form. "Mitchells, my heart! You almost killed this man." The doctor says with a laugh, though his face seems very serious. 

Outside the Prism, Ravinok slowly leads Reyn back to the rest of the graduate group. He grips Reyn firmly under his arm as he softly speaks to him, hiding the contents of his conversation from the rest of the room. "Thousands! Hundreds of thousands we have assessed. This is a first. This is… impossible. Such a strange reaction! You see, the aether, it seeks an equilibrium with everything that exists around it, everything it touches. It leaches into us and our body tries to resist, but this is futile. The aether has no limitations. But… but, your assessment. The aether. Your body. It was like the aether had suddenly met a vacuum. N-No, no, it's more like a gravitational singularity. A black hole, Mitchells. Your body didn't absorb the aether. It consumed it." The doctor's eyes are stretched and glazed, lost in deeper thought and calculation as he spoke to Reyn. "For now, you relax. We will investigate further." the doctor finishes with a confident smirk, slapping Reyn firmly on the chest. "GAIA, the assessment analysis, please!"

"Data Analysis of assessment candidate, Reyn Mitchell's, incomplete. I have detected an error in the bodily-aetheric concentration measurement calculations. Null value detected. I am investigating…" 

"What!" The doctor suddenly yells out, interrupting the A.I. "Impossible! The algorithm? No, no, no! We have perfected it. How can this be?" The doctor grips his brow tightly as he bows his head in thought. Reyn looks on, worried, as does the rest of the graduate group. The doctor's confusion and concern seems to infect every person watching the assessment. Thirty-one floors above them, in the GAARD Director's office, a man watches in silence. His sullen face moves closer to the monitor on his desk, his brow deepening in wild speculative thoughts as he witnesses the scene happening beside the Prism.

"Bwahaha! Science!" The doctor suddenly bellows, slapping his belly as he does. "Such is its nature, no. We discover. We learn. We perfect. Today we discover something new, thanks to Mr. Mitchells here. Now, we must learn what it means. This may take time, but we will come to understand what we do not know soon enough, and a new level of perfection we will reach, yes!" Ravinok's words lighten the mood and the room once again finds itself in a festive mood. The results of the Brannon-Brook assessment proved a vital success.

But for Reyn, the result is a disappointment, not an abject failure, but still not the result he had worked so hard and waited for so long to achieve. He skulks back to the group, emotionally drained and dejected. Ghazal notices this and moves out to welcome him back with a firm arm around his neck. "Chin up, mate. Could have been worse, right! Like the doctor said, they'll figure out what this means. Don't worry about it!" Ghazal rubs his shoulder as he feeds Reyn words of encouragement. Reyn responds with a half-smile and woeful eyes. They move through the group, between whispers of encouragement and accusations of frailty, and Reyn feels his heart soaked in feelings of failure. An assurant brown-eyed glance and pink smile from Jocelyn would help to lift his spirits. He answers her with a playful eyeroll and shrug.

Doctor Ravinok concludes the assessments and leads the group back out of the Prism lab where Agent McCain is waiting for them, he is barely able to catch his breath as he loudly ponders what the future would hold for the soon-to-be archaners. "Soon, we will go to the Forge! Next step in your journey. Big step. Painful step! But Brannon-Brook has brought solid materials for the Forge. We will make great weapons of you!" The doctor announces with a hearty laugh before disappearing into a puddle of particles. But as the group leave the laboratory and move toward the agent waiting beyond its entrance, the doctor suddenly appears again and pulls Reyn aside.

"Listen, Mitchells." He says faintly as he pulls Reyn's ear to his mouth. "I do not fully understand what your assessment results mean. Not yet. But I know this, our algorithm was perfect. Perfect for its intended purposes. You possess within you, something, Reyn Mitchells. Something that we do not understand, perhaps a connection to the aether we have not yet seen. This is new and interesting, yes. But it is also dangerous, Mitchells. The unknown… it can answer questions we may not be ready to ask, present possibilities we may not be ready to accept. So, be careful, yes. Now go, we will meet again, at the Forge."

Reyn nods sternly and Ravinok promptly ruptures into a cloud of molecules that rain down all around Reyn, fusing into the floor. The doctor's words resonate within Reyn and he finds his anxiety and fears once again well fed. Yet, his mind was clear, the automated calculation of probabilities and prospects had not seized him since his experience in the Prism. Though his anxiety and fear remains, the new calm allows him to finally have some control over his higher mental faculties, and for the first time in years, he feels able to focus his thoughts and feelings clearly. He smiles at this new development and finds a small solace in the day's outcome as he quickly rejoins the graduate group on their way to the elevator. 

The graduates eventually return back to the building lobby after some more touring of the A.R.A.C with McCain. "From here you'll be taken on a short tour of the rest of the GAARD complex and briefed on the different facilities you'll be making use of during your time here at HQ." McCain explains as she debriefs the graduates. She points them in the direction of a block of apartments about 1500 meters from the HQ. "Afterwards, you'll be dropped off at your dormitories, located in the residential section, just west of Main Administration, that way." 

The quiet main street stretches off from east-to west, adjoined here and there by more roads that lined the facility. The occasional staff and personnel could be seen dotting the landscape. The facility is immaculate, as if every stone and blade of grass had been placed by hand. Effectively a small self-contained corporate town, GAARD spared little expense ensuring the HQ had everything the organization needed to fulfill its goals. 

"The dorms here have some pretty good accommodations and facilities. All your personal materials and affects have already been taken to your assigned rooms. There's a shared kitchen stocked with a decent selection too, feel free to grab some grub. Tomorrow we'll have a short day of orientations, a few lectures on the rules, regulations and duties expected of recruits and a general overview of GAARD's organization structures, management… you know. The boring stuff. You're scheduled for ARCH-unit augmentations on Wednesday, make sure you're well rested and mentally prepped. It can be… a lot. That'll be all graduates." The agent sees them with a smirk and subtle nod before she disappears back into the lobby. The graduates make their way to a waiting transport bus outside.

Reyn and Ghazal discuss the events of their first day at GAARD and the results of Reyn's assessment, speculating wildly on what it could mean for him, and what his resonance potential could truly be. Ghazal's crazy comments and crude statements spread unrepentant joy to Reyn and relieves him of his anxieties as the new clarity in his mind allows him to truly savor the moment of camaraderie and friendship with Ghazal.