DGT: The Last Lesson

Contents

7. The Inversion Plane

Bruce stands beside Chester as they look down at the once beautiful main area of the school. Completely destroyed by Bruce and all the fighting. Bruce pats Chester on the back, “Time to get you powers. True powers… you'll be unstoppable!” Bruce says excitedly. Chester turns to him with a wide grin on his face, Bruce super jumps into the air and points himself directly to the centre of the school. He begins descending at a rapid rate, as he descends he holds the gauntlet out in front of him, the stones begin to glow extremely bright alongside his damaged iris. On the ground, tentacles erupt underneath Bruce, they seem to be following his every move. Bruce charges up a punch from his gauntleted hand before he hits the ground, the stones light up extremely bright and as the punch connects with the tentacles a gigantic sonic boom pops out. A massive flash of light and a lot of dust. Chester looks to where Bruce landed, only to see a weird puddle of liquid and tentacles instead of Bruce. Suddenly a hand sticks out of the hole and beckons Chester in, Chester a little confused descends off the building and climbs into the hole. It's slimy and disgusting in there, he slides through it and falls onto the ground on the other side, he looks around to see a destroyed landscape with what appeared to be human souls dotting across the land.

Chester looks around extremely disorientated, Bruce points into the distance at a glowing bright light. He begins walking and Chester follows, “Where are we?” asks Chester, “The inversion plane… it's a realm I created to store all of my- well- my… ‘borrowed’ powers” says Bruce, stuttering on a few words. Chester nods and points at the ghost of a man standing near him, “Are they what keeps the powers? The souls of the people” he asks. Bruce nods and continues trudging through the land to the glowing point.

Cooper and Luke watch through the window of the B block break out space as this happens, they throw their hands up in shock and confusion, “That was our chance! And he did… that!?” yells Cooper unable to comprehend the situation. Jake looks angrily out through the window before rushing through and busting the door open. He runs towards the hole and the others chase after him, he stands by the edge looking into the hole. He sees thousands of tendrils wrapping around themselves and mysterious black goop lining a seemingly endless pit. Jake turns around and appears to be beginning to walk away, before spreading his arms wide and falling backward into the hole. Cooper and Luke jump after him, Sam panics and jumps in too. They descend into the hole and see a similar tunnel to what Chester saw, they get thrown out onto the other side onto the hard stoney ground. The group stands up and slaps Jake, “What were you thinking?” yells Cooper angrily. Jake looks at Cooper with a deadpan expression, “Trying to make the worst final decision of my life” says Jake. The others look at each other before patting Jake on the shoulder. They begin looking around at the area, they observe the human-like spirits dotting the area. Jake approaches one of these spirits and holds his hand out in front of him, the spirit turns to look at him. It slowly reaches its wispy hand towards him, it seems as if it's laced with reluctance. The others gather around the two and watch as the spirit finally touches Jake's hand, the moment it makes contact the spirit completely wisps into Jake's hand. Jake stumbles backward onto the ground out of shock, he attempts to shake his hand to release the spirit but it does nothing. Other spirits begin to approach the group, “Run!” yells Sam as he turns and runs through the portal, the others follow as the other spirits draw closer. The group are thrown out onto the otherside, Jake looks to his hand in confusion and shock. The others gather around him and look at it as well. It didn’t seem to have any noticeable effect on him, everyone looked very confused before hearing footsteps coming from behind them. They see Connor running after them waving his arms in the air, they all stand there in momentary shock before approaching him. “You're… alive?” says Cooper confused, Connor nods and fist bumps Cooper, “You know it” he replies.

Connor looks back at Jake who is standing away from the group, his hand outstretched towards the ground outside B block. “Jake?” asks Luke wearily Jake doesn’t respond and just continues rotating his hand slightly while looking at the ground. “Do you- Do you feel that?” he asks as he finally turns to the others, the others look at him but shake their heads, he turns back to the ground and looks at it more intently, he closes his grasp and cracks start to form on the ground where his hand is pointing to, slowly, sharp electrical beams float up from the ground and towards him. His eyes begin to glow a yellow-ish colour as the electricity reaches his hand, the power wraps around his palm and he inspects it. “Electric powers? Interesting…” Jake says before grasping onto the electricity and snapping it back towards the split in the ground. The others look on in shock at Jake's new abilities, Jake grins at them, “Something new? Finally giving my character more development!” Jake says while looking into seemingly nothingness. The others look at him as if he's crazy, “Who are you talking to?” asks Connor confused. Jake turns to them and looks puzzled, “Wha- What? Who do you think? The readers!... Oh nevermind…” says Jake as he processes that the others are unable to sense that they are part of but a mere story, he holds back his words so as to not break their perception of reality.

“Wait if you have electric powers… and you don’t have a stone… How powerful are you?” asks Luke, Jake shrugs and smiles at them, “Wanna find out?” he asks excitedly. The group nod and begin scampering around the school looking for large batteries or sources of power. After around 20 minutes of searching they all return to the field holding anything from small AA batteries to large grunty car batteries. They align them in a circle around Jake and he closes his eyes, the electricity begins to release from the metallic points on the batteries, they slowly reach Jake. The second they reach him the electricity seemingly jolts him upwards, he goes flying up into the air with electricity exploding downwards from his palms. He struggles for control before regaining his balance and beginning to fly around the field. The others look on in astonishment and excitement, they had forgotten how much fun life was when they weren’t constantly worrying about Bruce. Jake flys back at lightning fast speeds and lands back within the confines of the battery circle. He strikes a hero pose as he lands before standing up and creating electrical armour around him, everyone begins clapping and Jake takes a bow. As he bows the electricity gets a bit too close to his shirt and begins to burn a hole through it, Jake shoots the electricity backward into the batteries and begins prancing around attempting to put the fire out. Somehow the fire seems to avoid Jake's hair completely. Luke opens a small vial of liquid and pours it onto Jake's burning spot, the fire lights larger and Jake begins to frantically scream, “The last of my beer and it didn’t put out the fire! What a waste” says Luke an amused. Jake jumps down and begins rolling in the muddy field, the fire dissipates. Jake stands up and looks at his ruined clothes, “I'm going to need… a super suit” Jake says confidently while striking a pose, the group looks at him before bursting into laughter, “Shut yo corny ass up jake” says Luke through laughter. Jake chuckles a bit too and they all enjoy a happy moment together.

William and Ella run past A block and enter their old English classroom, William pushes the desks aside to the walls and pulls out decaying candles from the shelves. He slams them onto the floor in a circle and swings his arm through the wicks, he rips his arm backwards at insane speeds and sparks fly. The candles ignite from the sparks. William reaches delicately into his pocket and pulls out a folded and almost ruined photo of Damien, he lays this in front of the candles. Ella retreats backwards to the wall of the room, William holds his hands to the air and begins uttering non-english phrases. As he says these phrases magical green runs begin to float around him, creating trails that begin to manipulate the room above him, William continues with his phrases louder and they soon become chants. More runs appear around him eventually beginning to tear the room apart, William pulls his phantom arm to his chest causing all the runes to fly inward before he releases it to the sky again. His arm begins to wobble and shake, it glows a bright green colour and the runes fly inside it, the arm becomes heavy and William drops to the ground unable to hold up its weight anymore. The hand claws against the ground against William's control, the arm pushes itself out of his body and begins to form a slimy human figure. The figure pulls itself out with no discernible features other than a missing arm. William's arm reforms from his shoulder and he points the phantom creature towards the photo of Damien, the creature walks over and picks up the photo of Damien and begins to mould into him. William watches him from before his body completely looks like Damien, except for being entirely made out of the goopy phantom arm liquid. Damien breathes a breath of life and walks towards William walks into Damien for a hug, he ends up just phasing through Damien but he feels the same amount of joy. “Idiot” says Damien to William jokingly before the three in the room burst out laughing.

Aidan perches on the top of D block watching Jake use his powers intently, his body engulfed in crystal. He wishes to join but he doesn’t know what the others would think. He sighs and begins to climb down but suddenly the crystal on his infected arm turns a darker purple and begins to twitch weirdly. This weird twitching shifts into a grinding and scraping noise before suddenly a growth forms, this growth appears to be a grinning face. “You could end them all in an instant” the growth says through a sharp and evil voice. Aidan swipes at the growth with his other hand, pushing it down and forcing it away. He turns from his arm back to the field, he watches as the others retreat back into B block. “You know you could cause some serious damage if you just listened to me-” pipes the voice in again before Aidan compresses it, “Im not letting you, Mr Infection, ruin my time with this stone, be quiet” he sees in a grumpy voice. Aidan leaps from D block's roof to the library's roof, he stumbles around the massive hole left there by Bruce. The darker purple crystal pushes itself further around Aidans crystal shell, now covering his leg, “Let me control you!” screechs the growth, Aidan shakes his head in frustration, “I'm not going to let you control me!” yells Aidan as he super jumps to above A block and down onto the ground, he lands in front of William, Ella and the Phantom Damien. Before Aidan is able to retract his crystals William and Damien both shoot their arms towards him, though their attacks are futile as they just splash off the crystal. Ella pulls out her bow and shoots it into Aidans head, this actually does break through the crystal but doesn’t hit Aidan on the inside too badly, “Ow” Aidan says unnamused. Ella and William look at each other before Aidan retracts the crystal helmet, “Hey guys… Im back-” begins Aidan but is immediately interrupted by Ella hugging him, William and Damien then join in though Damien just splashes into them covering them all in a layer of goop. They all laugh, “Are you alright Aidan? Your face is… like really really fucked up” says William, Aidan retracts the crystals down to his waist revealing an entirely infected body, most of it is purple and shriveled but the parts that aren’t are completely black and dead looking. Except for Aidans face which has his left half still remaining human, showing that he has something left of himself within him. The others gasp at this reveal, they are horrified, Aidan quickly pulls the crystals back up to his neck. “I think the infection is going to take over me… like the zombie like creatures Bruce made all that time ago, according to Damon Im very strong to hold on for this long so who knows how horrible a fight with me is going to be” says Aidan in a sombre tone, they all look sorrowfully at Aidan before Williams expression switches suddenly, “Wait Damon's alive?” he says. Aidan chuckles a little and responds, “Alive and thriving! He was the main reason I’ve stayed going so long.” The group smile at each other before Ella snaps her fingers, “Let's go see the others!” she says excitedly as she begins her travel towards the others at the edge of B block.

Bruce continues walking with Chester towards the light, this time it's more discernible as to what it is, it appears to be a glowing soul. As they approach Bruce ushers Chester to go ahead of him, Chester continues walking and views the soul. Its glow is hard to look at but Chester manages and looks on in glee, Chester reaches out his hand towards the soul but Bruce intercepts and stops him, “Not so fast boy, you're going to have to prove your worthiness to me. Give me your stone.” says Bruce coldly, Chester doesn’t see an issue with his tone of voice and obliges, Bruce fits a light blue triangular stone into the bottom of his gauntlet, the power travels through the gauntlet and causes the stones to glow momentarily. Bruce chuckles in excitement and begins returning towards the portal, Chester looks confused and hurriedly follows him, “Wh-What? Where are you going?” Chester says confused, Bruce's eyes light up and he beckons Chester towards the soul. “My mistake Chester, got a little ahead of myself” he says, Chester nods and returns to the soul, he absorbs it and his body begins to glow, Chester strikes a hero pose, “I feel so much more powerful already sir” he says, Bruce smiles and they both return to the portal.

Aidan is sat with the others, watching over the portal. They had created a small lunch for themselves out of the finest foods they could find, they were having a reasonably fun afternoon rediscovering. William bites down on a hotdog and laughs at some joke. Aidan begins eating his sandwich but immediately feels queasy and excuses himself. Cooper and Connor joke about how their plates are the most full, being filled with every food at the lunch. Everyone laughs. Aidan turns the corner beside B block and begins arguing with the growth, it had by now taken over all bar a tiny piece of his body, “You will soon be my toy!” screeches the growth into Aidans ears. Aidan attempts to shake his head and body as he lowers himself to the ground, clutching his hands to his head, “Get out of my fucking head!” he screams over and over at the creature. Aidan's hands slowly release from his head as he screams, his screams also dissipate before eventually becoming nothing. He slumps over on the ground, the dark purpleness of the crystal finally absorbs the last bit of the light purple crystal Aidan had on his outer face. He lies there, motionless, for several minutes. Before he creakily pulled himself up, his legs and arms bent in non-human directions, it was clear that the infection had gotten to him. And Aidan was no more.

Chapter 7 INTERLUDE

Martin watches from outside the dome, looking on at the chaos he had been watching for days. He turns to his partner and shakes his hand, “Good to know the government got someone who has a good understanding of this instead” he says, Rian A returns the hand shakes and looks silently into the dome. “I’ve gathered all we can, we must get in… they are not safe” says Martin worryingly. A man walks up beside Martin and passes him a file, Martin takes it and opens it in his hand, and Rian looks into it. A full detailed list of the stones is seen. It explains each with great detail. There's the orange stone of growth, the red body manipulation stone, the yellowish gold hope stone, the light blue vigenere stone with a weirdly sharp point, the green phantom stone that had seemingly been split in two some years before and finally the purple triangular crystal stone. Martin stares at these without really paying attention but Rian sticks his hand into the folder and flips it open to another piece of paper. This paper has red text at the top saying ‘WORLD ENDER PROJECT: DO NOT USE’, below this is an image of a light blue triangular stone. Named the time stone, the most deadly stone of them all. Martin looks worryingly up, he had seen this stone before, held by the irresponsible and new ally of Bruce, Chester.