Breaking the Mold [Redux]

Larry was not a happy man. Here he was trying to coast on by, mind his own business when that fat bitch of museum curator Stacy decided to call a meeting. He already didn’t like her at the best of times and wasn’t dumb enough to not know that any “sales meetings” just meant more work.

He wondered why he, a janitor, had to attend these damn things when he can go back to doing more important things like hiding out in the backrooms doing fuck-all. After all, he just cleaned the toilets, why the fuck does he need to know about how sales are going? Dumb bitch, no wonder why there wasn’t enough money for the company Christmas party.

Regardless, he was right. As he sat in a meeting room with broken AC, he listened to Stacy speak in that high-pitched voice that seemed to drone on and on. He didn’t pay attention to any of it but he could still remember her going on about how kids do not care about Assyrian relics. ‘No shit lady, why the hell would kids get excited over broken pots and crude drawings?’ Then she shifted to how there would be more budget cuts because of yadda yadda and bladdy blah. He didn’t care as long as he got his union-guaranteed $22/hr. Finally, she got to what he already expected, more work.

In hopes of bringing in more kids, she is bringing in an entirely new exhibit of ancient Chinese culture. She excitedly talked on and on about paintings, weaponry, and even how she was bringing in 12 Terracotta Warriors. He had to resist the urge to sigh knowing that he and Jim would be the ones moving all this shit. Each of those “warriors” probably weighed a couple of hundred pounds at least. She finished off by talking about some incredibly valuable gem some emperor had. Was supposed to grant eternal life or something but Larry didn’t quite believe that since, well, the dude is dead. For all he cared, it was just some rock people wasted millions on. In any case, “The Emperor’s Jewel” was going to be the lightest thing, so there’s that.

3 Days Later…

2 out-of-shaped middle-aged men grunted in effort as they pushed and pulled on a pallet cart loaded down with several stone warriors. This laborious task was made all the harder now that one of the wheels buckled under the sheer weight of the statues. As both men were blaming each other an unnoticed pair of eyes watched them from his stony prison.


‘What's this, more relics?’ Regis tried to get a better view but when you can’t move your head or even your eyes, it is a task much easier said than done. ‘Looks old, Mesopotamian? No, doesn’t seem right. Looks eastern though…I wonder…'

He tried to activate his ancient power and focused intensely on the statues before him. He willed himself to swap places with the unknown statues before him but felt nothing. If he could sigh he would.

‘Figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Not like I could’ve done that even outside my prison.’ He lamented.

By now the 2 janitors had managed to fix the buckled wheel and faded out of sight leaving Regis alone as he had been the last few thousand years.

Thanks to a nice evening and a little rest Executive Gerald White was able to take a break from the office and hoped to spend some time golfing and going over a few discriminate reports he had at his home back in Pennsylvania. However there was a change in plans when his son rushed in hopping on his fathers lap. "Dad, mom said we are going to the museum today." He winced but made sure to let it not be shown. He continued his straight face then put on a good enough smile. "Of course we are. How could i forget you got first in your grade." A bluff and only that. He just needed to look good around the house and in public. He rose up and instructed everyone to get ready.

In the car they coasted down the highway slightly above the speed limit just slow enough to not get pulled over. It was a taxing process to convince the law enforcement now days to look past something he could have taken care of.  They continued their trip into Washington D.C. turning corners and cruising roads until they chased signs reading The Smithsonian. "We are almost there" His son excitedly jumped in the seats in the limo. Sure is nice to be young and full of wonder.

They pulled in to the parking of the museum and had their driver move the car after they were dropped off at the front door.  "Eustis, we will be back no later than an hour. I don't want to stay too long." He said forcibly as if he wanted HIs driver to remain close to pick them up at a moments notice. They would wonder into the building and his son would immediately click onto the huge dino's and the large statues. Everything was big and looked so amazing to a kids eye. He would hurry towards a section that had more statues forcing his parents to keep pace. However low and behold the presence that was tagging along behind them keeping his face out of sight.

Coronel did not know if the man knew his face or just paid blindly into his testing but he did not want to give him a chance to run even  though he could flatten the building. However that would be too much effort to kill one of many people.

He continued to follow them until they made an interaction with another man. "Who could this be" he wondered as he would slowly blend in to his surroundings to listen in. He motioned his wife and kid to carry on while he talked to a work friend. The wife a bit upset understood and took the boys hand. They would go on to talk about the projects success rating and that they were slowly gathering an army that could be controlled. They talked about using the new experiments to gain a foot hold in another country for more funding. It was a lot of info but he at least got the name of the guy, Senator John. Another target and one higher on the chain. He could be squeezed properly later.

As they talked for almost 15 minutes they moved on and Mr. White proceeded to find his family. He began to walk towards where they had been seen moving to. In the midst of walking he could feel his steps getting heavier and almost to a point he could not lift his own body. He started to feel fear as he tried turning but then the feeling escaped as he peered off behind him. "What was that? Strange as hell" he said as he turned back around seeing Coronel with his arm extended towards him.

"You move or shout I will kill your family and then rip your skin off your body." He starred at a pissed Coronel. "Thanks to your chat earlier i got a lot of info. You should really have those kind of talks indoors. Don't know who could be listening." "So why did you pay into it?" Coronel asked but the man was too terrified to try and speak. "Fine then. Have it your way." Without a second thought Coronel pierced his chest with a sharp telekinetic wave then pushed his body away from him causing him to fly and crash into a few exhibits. The body flew away from him and landed near a jewel then had int the museum. He turned around slowly and began walking trying to be discrete about what he did.
"Guess that is my cue to leave"

Consciousness slowly returned as the various crowds of excitable children, underpaid workers, and parents filed into the museum. It was a strange thing sort of trance he found himself able to do after the first few years trapped in his prison. It wasn't so much as sleeping, more of his mind entering a figure state as time passed by him. He found he could drift along for several days at a time but feared going longer in case he'd overdo it and never wake up again.

"Fake." Said an older kid.

"So obviously fake." Said another.

"What? Why is it fake?" A younger boy asked them.

"Looks nothing like Pompei, way too detailed." The group of kids nodded.

"I don't know...It looks real." The younger boy looked up at the statue with questioning eyes. He reached out his hand to touch it when--

"Come on let's go see the dinos. No one cares about a stupid statue."

The young boy gave one last look to the statue before securing off to catch up to the other boys.

Regis watched as the crowds of people wandered about with their faces buried in pamphlets and pictures being taken in flashes. He was glad to see people still had an interest in learning and that he could at least spark some sort of imagination in the kids. For as awful of as his state he was content in knowing that even after thousands of years, mankind was still fine. Weird marvels of technology but fine nonetheless.

The day meandered on much like the crowds of people, only a few were unique enough to draw Regis' attention. Currently, he was watching a well-dressed man looking like he was being mugged. He tried to listen in on what was being said but only got fragments of it outside of "shout...kill... family....rip...body". Ominous words made more serious when the mugger seemed to stab the guy and throw him down the hall toward the new exhibit.

Regis stared in silence as the murderer walked away and the crowd's only reaction to the loud crash of the thrown man hitting something outside his view. There was a shattering sound then everything seemed to go to hell.

The museum shook as baleful gales of greenish-red light raced passed the now panicking crowd, bouncing off of walls, and colliding with various old relics and objects. There was chaos all throughout the museum as exhibits came to life. Ghastly animated suits of armor from the medieval section creaked and groaned as they lumbered towards visitors, dinosaur bones rattled as green hellfire passed them, and swarms of exotic insects broke free from their glass casings and took to the air.

Regis was overtaken with surprise as the light rammed into him and he found his frozen form moving for the first time in millennia...Only it was of his own will. Whatever was causing this madness only animated the unliving. It had affected him, but only the prison he was trapped inside. The statue started moving toward a group of schoolchildren, leveling the point of its spear with ill intentions.

He strained, pushed, and shoved as much as he could inside the statue, He hardly had any leverage against its movements but his struggling bore results as the statue stumbled mid-stride and collapsed to the ground, small pieces chipping off leaving an exposed opening. A small one, barely the size of a time, but large enough for him to wield is long forgotten magic and appear outside the statue, free once more.

Bringing his foot down he caved in the head of the statue that held him prisoner for ages. It crumbled like an eggshell as Regis scanned the room, preparing himself for whatever else came at him.

Coronel retracted his arm into his pocket and watched as the man was lifted and send flying. He traced a hall parallel and dropped in to slide and collide with a artsy looking column meant to hold some large looking green gem. "Ooops, my bad" he thought. The gem came falling off hitting the guy's corpse. Coronel took this opportunity to turn away and pull his hoodie closer to his face.

It was a good time to leave, but also the thought of finding the senator was weighting on his mind since he could take away two birds in a day. He causally walked away trying to avoid suspicion by glancing around at the environment in the museum and keeping his head down and thoughts to himself. He glanced around quite a bit trying to find the senator but it seemed in vain as there were no signs. he managed to get a bout 15 maybe 20 steps before hearing people around where the guy was sent flying.

He turned around and lifted his head and seen a few people moving in to see what was going on to cause such a large crash. Other people also moved in because where a group of people were would cause more wonder.

Soon a weird green looking animated fire started bursting out from beyond the crowd of people and made its way through out the building. People immediately started running away as if to fear the large whirling flame. They mistaken the flame to be harmful and proceeded to move away from the source that had caused it, but not everyone would move since a few could keep their composure in the face of a bit of weird fire.

The light started colliding with any and all structures in the museum that resembled some sort of creature or mammal. The clay soldiers started moving and marching together as they spread out and a stone man started stepping to attack a group. The metallic armor also gained new life as they would stand up and start unifying with other things to corral the people.

As interesting as this was it really had nothing to do with Coronel if these people survived. However it seemed like he was also being targeted. The tyrannosaurs made its way to Coronel with other statues underneath it and in front of the old bone display. "I guess you are going to force me into this scenario even though attacking me will end everything for you all before ever getting much of a chance to do anything." He gripped his fist and then heard what sound like stone breaking apart and falling to the ground.

It sounded like the groups were fighting back until he glanced behind him. Something came out of the stone statue. What ever it was started searching for something. Maybe he was after people and he was really close to a bunch of school children. He didn't want to but he caved in and raised his hand flicking his fingers towards the freshly released man creating a wave of telekinetic energy to blow him away from the group.

"This one time ill keep the kids safe" he said to himself implanting a sort of justified reason to save other people he did not know. That should help them but before any more help the statues around him were a little annoying. He brought up another shield and forced it to pulse outwards causing only the close by statues to crumble. "They are actually weak. If I don't have to concentrate as hard I should be able to get many more with one attack" he thought as he raised his hand preparing another attack.

Regis would have basked in his newfound freedom if the situation hadn't been dire. He had to fight actively to keep himself standing as even just the feeling of the cold air-conditioned air was enough to almost overload his long unused senses. For thousands of years, he wondered what his freedom would look like and it seemed almost fitting that he found himself on a battlefield once again, protecting the innocent from the chaos of the world.

He could sense the magic in the air, that much was obvious to him. Whatever those beams of light were, they seemed to have animated the various relics of the past, and judging by how his prison focused in on the children...Violence was what they sought.

'If its violence these abominations want then they'll have it.  Save these people first then enjoy freed--'

His thoughts were interrupted as he saw some sort of wave coming at him. He tried to dodge but his legs faltered. It crashed into him like a wall and send him sprawling back until he slammed into a wall.

'I had forgotten about you...Right, new plan. Save people, stop the relics, and stop the murderer.'

Using the wall to prop himself up he stared at the murderer as he unleashed another attack around him turning statues to dust. Regis wasn't sure how their power worked but they could throw around waves of force and seemed to need to gesture with their hands to do so. He wasn't sure if these waves could be sharp but given how quickly that man died he would er on caution.

Channeling his power he raised a wall of stone around the kids who were still watching the chaos around them with wide eyes.

"Manete." He said before realizing that they probably had no idea what he said.

Creating a javelin, he lined up his shot at the murderer. Hopefully, they were distracted enough that he could end them in one attack. He did not have time to waste as ever more relics were being animated and would soon overrun the museum. Waiting for them to be in the middle of hand gesturing he threw.

The man was sent flying into a wall away from the children which was good enough for now until he was ready to move in and assist those weaker than him with a way of escape. The soldiers around him charged into action prodding Coronel with a spear, but missing as his telekinetic force the weapon off target. Like hitting a slanted unseen wall the shots would be curved away enough and he could dodge which mad it seemed like it was all in his reflexes. They would pull the spear back and the swords would lunge in with sharp swings. They would also meet the same force, but possibly get a better cut in as the swung horizontally going against the curve cause his barrier to be cut.

"Dont tell me you can see what is in front of me. If you can see my ability then we might have a bigger problem." Coronel squinted his eyes making comments only he and the soldiers could hear. They did not falter in their attacks as they immediately followed up with another jab. This time Coronel caught the spear in his hand and squeezing down the entire soldier imploded.

He paced forward and ran his fist through the sword soldier and it exploded outward laying dust and rock around him on the floor. "Another million dollars on the floor. Sure hope insurance covers this." He said making jokes to himself. Soon a wall jolted up from the floor and circled the people keeping them trapped inside. Now with that inconvenience he now has to do more work. He continued the attack as the T-rex stepped up and swung its tail. Coronel through up a hand and caught the swing with his telekinetic abilities. It look like his tail was encased in a light hue purple cloud. As he rotated his hand purple spikes appeared in the air pointed at many of the soldiers and the tyrannosaur. He continued to spin his hand more as they spun like bullets going through rifling and the with a flick shot from their hold in space.

The area ahead of him was pelted and turned to waste as his ability turned a clean hallway into shrapnel. All his enemies were also cleared out. He was about to turn around when a massive spear struck him in the side piercing his lower abdomen and forcing it was the the other side. He looked down and then off to the right where the spear originated from. "Ah so you are the boss... I SHouLD HaVE HiT yoU HaRDEr!!!" His tone change and his eyes expelled and dark purple energy. His stare was piercing and only focused on the one dude who stood against a wall. He held his hand up and twisted it counter clockwise and forced the spear to leave his body and float in mid air and his part that were pushed away started reversing into their original place.

As soon as his body was placed back to the way it was; a ghost like ooze seeped from his wounds and started to slowly mend the cuts and tears shut. He raised up his hand and with a throwing motion sent the spear hurling back at the guy aiming for his stomach as well.