The Opera Garnier

“Do you hear it?” one deep voice echoed in the halls of the opera house. ”A weeping. Maybe one of them got in” the same voice continued.

Oscar’s ears reacted to the sound, making him turn his head towards it.

He stopped crying as if on cue, took a deep breath and stood up.

‘There are people around here. This is good.’ he thought to himself as he walked up the stairs towards the sound, trying to be quiet so as to not alert the Relentless he just ran away from.

“What sound?” another voice replied with a strong French accent.

“It came from there! it just stopped. Give me the gun” the first replied.

Oscar wanted to scream in joy. ‘Oh god! I thought I would not meet another human ever again. I am so glad’ Oscar wanted to scream.

He wandered forward towards the sound, thinking on how to start the interaction.

‘Hi, I am a firefighter. I am here to help’

‘No! No! They will know I am a firefighter,’ a reply came to him as he looked at his own Mech and black and blue uniform.

‘Maybe something like-; Hi! Its so good to finally see a friendly face. Yup! That’s the one!’ the man concluded as he arrived at the door to one balconies onlooking the stage.

When he opened the door, he saw the almost untouched beauty of the building he was in.

While most of the outside looked like a warzone the inside of the building was in pristine condition.

Gold and crimson all over the walls with dramatic paintings on the ceilings.

The place looked better then he thought it would.

‘The pictures absolutely did not do this place justice!’ he concluded as he approached the balcony.

The first thing Oscar noticed was the intricately designed rails of the balconies made of marble and gold, his eyes moved around only to see how ridiculously huge the place was. Shifting his gaze, he saw the giant marble pillars that his mind refused to believe for a moment humanity built without Mech suits.

“It’s coming! Shoot the thing!” a feminine voice said. From the main stage, in front of an enormous ad lavish curtain

“Ha-“ Oscar started to say as he got to the balcony, only to be stopped by the sound of a gunshot emanating from a group of three survivors huddled up on the main stage.

Oscar reflexively looked for bullet holes and was relieved to discover he was not hit.

“Shoot it again” one lady said to a dude holding a gun while standing in front of another muscular bald dude, who looked panicked.

They all stood, clumped together on the stage of the Opera house.

Oscar turned his eyes to the entrance of the lower floor sitting area.

His heartrate immediately shot up and he could feel every muscle in his body load up and want to run away.

A six-meter-tall monstrosity crawled its way into the main room, breaking the doors going in from its sheer size.

It had the same grey skin as every other Fallen, but it was covered in blue crystals instead of red.

The crystals covered the monsters arms and legs to the point of almost looking like armor.

The head was completely covered in a simmering blue crystalline structure resembling a crown. It grew over the entire top half of the skull, covering the eyes and ears completely as well as most of the nose.

The monster slouched forward and then stood up once it fully entered the enormous room.

Unlike most Fallen who wore what they did when they changed if it at all survived, this particular Fallen seemed to wear a toga he made himself out of a particularly fancy curtain.

He also held in his hand a streetlamp made of old and sturdy metal, even though the metal pole was bigger than Chestnut the humungous Fallen used it as a scepter.

His other hand was stretched forward with the bullet just fired at him floating in the air in front of him. Oscar felt frozen, as if the mere act of moving would spell his doom.

The enormous blue monstrosity looked at the three individuals and flicked his hand.

The gun that was held by one of the men flew into the wall as if it was hit by a bat.

In another quick flick the helpless people were pulled towards him by their watches and metal belt buckles.

The lady tried to remove all her jewelry to escape and even threw a pretty accurate heel into the nose of the Fallen, but it grabbed all three of them all the same.

It smiled for a moment, almost looking calm and civil.

It them proceeded to ramble for a moment in an unintelligible new dialect of gibberish before stabbing his scepter into the ground beside him.

His enormous hand covered in sharp spiked blue crystals of a mesmerizing pattern reached into his toga for a pocket he had apparently sown in.

‘He almost looks like he is giving a speech’ Oscar thought as his mind tried to force him to move. ‘ I can’t believe I am freezing like this’ he yelled at himself in his mind.

After the giant stopped speaking, he took out of his pocket a small rock.

It was gray and crumbly but looked a lot like a volcanic rock if not for its faint white glow in the absence of light.

‘SHIT! This is Compound Y2K!’ Oscar thought as he felt his legs managing to take a small silent step back, looking for a moment at the crack in his reinforced glass cover.

The monster took the stone to each of the foreheads of their struggling victims and put tom down gently as they stopped fighting immediately.

The first to be touched by the compound was the huge bald dude.

He was also the first to fall to his knees and claw at his own head .

He stared at the monster unblinking, shifting his gaze to his comrades with violent expressions. And though he did not seem to notice, his eyes popped, and purple crescent shaped crystals grew out of his eye sockets all the way to the top of his head.

The second dude, the one who fired the gun, just started laughing.

He laughed more and more until his throat started to bleed and his veins expanded all over.

Before long red crystals started to rend his flesh from within his ribs outwards causing him to fall on the floor as if someone was tickling him senselessly.

The lady on the other hand just stood there.

She started to look at the others, with an almost sane look in her eye as blue crystals started to grow from her crown. She seemed to slowly understand something.

But before she ever could the blue Fallen placed both hands around her head with speed Oscar did not expect.

Thunder boomed inside the Opera house as a bolt of lightning escaped one hand of the blue giant to the other, frying the Girls brain instantly before she awakened to her powers.