Welcome to The Initiative

FOUR HUNTERS of the Tabby Family had eyes on Kian Kona leaving the office of the Chrome District’s doctor and the recent winner of the 25th Biennial Promotion Festival, Dr. Rallus. He’d arrived in casual attire, no sunglasses. He exited wearing sunglasses. There were no other patients, the office was closed today.

Kian Kona was reasonably suspicious.

“What are your orders, sir?”

A short silence passed over the line as Director Rusa Tabby sat and thought. He thought about the boy’s interactions with Druce Elliot over the past two days. After the mall incident in which Miss Elliot helped Mr. Kona and the other girl, Emi Dawson, beat a couple of independent hunters nearly to death, the trio went around behaving like total adventuring teenagers. These moments flashed through the director’s head like images—of late-night trips to the market, random travel, and picture strips taken in glass photo booths on the side of the road.

With his friends, Kian Kona appeared normal.

“Orders, sir?” The hunter with the video phone prompted.

But he was not normal. Director Rusa was convinced of that.

“Take him.” He said. “He’s our guy.”

As the call ended, the leader of this makeshift group looked to her team and gave two orders. “J and V, head-on; L and I, from behind. Go.” With a short nod from the other members, the group dispersed.

Tirella Tabby—the only daughter of Director Rusa Tabby and the leader of this mission—and her partner, Lyelle Emmet, stayed behind. Careful to speak nothing aloud, the women met one another’s eyes with the understanding that their true mission began now.

Without further hesitation, Tirella jumped upward from her crouched position and took off in a quiet sprint up the glass sidewalk toward Kian Kona who seemed to remain unaware. Lyelle followed close behind, her chest low and her right hand reaching for the fabric pack she wore around her waist. From it, she retrieved the special-issue, blue hunter’s firearm that Tirella also pulled from a similar waist pack. On Lyelle’s lefthand side, her forearm mechanically shifted open and a vibrant blade shining of light purples protruded from her elbow, a tribute to her birthplace of Orchid Plate.

The two ran forward with great speed, closing the gap between themselves and Kian with a practiced swiftness. And just when they were within twenty feet of him, J and V revealed themselves to their target, jumping forward from the shadows to strike. Really, their attack was a diversion. After what they’d seen of Kian’s skills, they knew he had the ability to thwart such a blatant face-frontal attack; so, Tirella and Lyelle were to finish the attack from behind.

The attempt was not so easy. Kian dropped to the ground with hardly a hint of time between the male hunters’ attack and his own maneuver. He windmilled back to a crouching position, his shoes skidding against the glass as his body came to face the women approaching from behind. Lyelle was surprised to see Kian’s own right hand had transformed itself into a pistol-like object which he was pointing at J—Jamar—one of the male hunters who had attacked him from the front.

Kian shot before Jamar had a chance to dodge, and it was V—Vorian—who crashed the butt of his handgun against Kian’s head. The blow knocked Kian off balance, but didn’t incapacitate him, as no one had expected it would. The finishing blows were to be dealt by the women on this mission.

Though, that wasn’t in the women’s plans.

Instead, Tirella leapt right over where Kian was scrambling back to his feet, the right of his temple leaking blood, and brought her whole weight down on Jamar who was also attempting to stand despite the gunshot wound to his stomach. She pressed the tip of her gun against his forehead and glowered when he cried, “Miss Tirella?! What in God’s name are you do—”

The crack of Tirella’s bullet silenced his words. Choosing not to dwell on the moment, she looked back to ensure the safety of Kian Kona.

Meanwhile, she found Lyelle’s blade gleaming red hot at the sharp end as it sliced the air just centimeters from Vorian’s neck. At the last second, the man dipped his body backward, away from the assailing woman. Using this momentum, he let his bottom and lower back roll against the floor until his feet kicked over his head in a backward roll. Back peddling once on his feet, he quickly created a distance between himself and Lyelle.

This allowed him time to draw his own weapon. It appeared in the form of a small laser pointer, only the laser didn’t point, it shot. Eight quick balls of golden laser light sped through the air toward Lyelle who moved swift and quick around each of them. She advanced on Vorian like a starved animal, and he responded in kind. The two of them engaged in a fierce battle while Kian only half watched from nearby. He had hobbled over to the side, confused and alert and on edge.

He flinched when Tirella came near, reaching a hand toward him. “Who the hell are you?” He asked, “What is this?!”

Tirella didn’t manage to fill the silence with an answer. Instead, they heard Lyelle finishing her former partner off with the steaming end of her blade. She was bleeding from an almost miniscule hole in her shoulder where the male hunter must have landed a shot, and she wiped more red from the corner of her lips as she trudged over to Kian and Tirella.

“We need to go.” Tirella Tabby said as Lyelle joined the group. The two women looked at Kian, taking in his disheveled, bloody appearance.

He appeared fierce and determined, his eyes those of a cornered predator as he sized up the two female hunters before him. “I’m not going anywhere with the likes of you.” He snarled, distrust in his eyes and hate dripping from his lips. “Filth.”

Tirella wanted to huff and force him to comply. She wanted to drag him by the collar toward Headquarters and away from this street with hundreds of unseen eyes. But her orders were explicit: “Convince Kian Kona to join the cause. Bring him to Headquarters before day’s end.” She must not force him. Joining needed to be his choice.

“Mr. Kian Kona,” Tirella began. Kian mumbled, “Ew” at the sound of this formality, and Tirella continued over the interruption, “It is imperative that you join us.”

“You filthy fiends? You hunters?!” Kian cried, “Don’t bullshit me!”

Lyelle shook her head, “The Plaid Initiative. We’re a growing group of individuals who oppose the current government, the hunters, and all they stand for.”

“Our objective is to make the world plaid,” Tirella added in.

“Plaid…” Kian was skeptical. “Sounds idiotic. I can’t trust anything you hunters say.”

“You’re honest.”

“To a fault.”

“I like it.” Tirella said.

“Please don’t.” Kian responded and made a face that the women laughed at. “Explain what you mean so I can understand.”

Tirella lowered her voice before beginning. “The Plaid Initiative is the idea of intermingling. As we are right now, citizens of the Glass Tower are confined to their Plates. Vermillion peoples must never meet a Rosewood, and a Rosewood may never meet an Orchid, while the Cerulean rule over to tower like privileged kings and queens, indifferent to the sufferings of those below them. Plaid is about inclusion, equality, freedom.

“We’re going to make the Plates a thing of the past. After we’re done, this hierarchy won’t exist anymore.”

Kian was nodding, his interest piqued, though his eyes were taking on a glaze that told Tirella and Lyelle that he was about ready to pass out. “I like the sound of that.” He said, “But I can’t trust you.”

The women didn’t know it, but Kian’s mind was drifting back to his past. His thoughts were floating to the white high-top sneakers the crazed man who attacked Nari was wearing. For a long time, he hadn’t paid any attention to what the man had been wearing on his feet. It had never occurred to him that they were important. But Druce…

Druce had those same shoes. And these women and those men, their partners.

Why were they all wearing the same shoes?

It was obvious to Kian that they were hunter shoes.

“I can’t trust you.” Kian repeated, thinking of Druce, and Tirella met his eyes with a look of her own that made him wonder. She appeared annoyed, like she’d been distrusted her whole life and she was done with being misunderstood. It showed on his face that Kian Kona didn’t give a damn.

“Fine.” Tirella answered, a little curtly. “But we need to go.”

Kian shook his aching head in refusal and moved away from the two hunters, continuing in the same direction as earlier. Lyelle huffed at his back as he walked away and said, “You’re the Hunter Killer.”

Kian’s footsteps were forced to a stop. He turned his body just a little to look back over his shoulder at Lyelle. “You looking for a confession?”

Lyelle rolled her eyes and glanced a bit at Tirella, who nodded. “Your family… How much do you care about them?”

Kian wheeled around in a second, explosive. “What the hell do you get at mentioning my family?!” He rushed back to Lyelle and fisted her collar, pulling her close to his face. “What’re you planning to do to my family, huh?!” He reduced his voice to a growl, “You’re gonna have to kill me first, and it won’t be easy.”

“She won’t have to,” Tirella chimed in, grasping Kian’s wrist in an unsuccessful attempt to pry his knuckles away from Lyelle’s throat, “The Tabby Family will get to you first. And them. If you care about them…” Tirella leaned into Kian’s personal space, “…you’ll get on board.”

This not exactly obeyed the mandates of her mission, but Tirella was pleased when Kian twisted up his lips and glared vehemently at both her and Lyelle. He released his hold on Lyelle who coughed a little and rubbed her neck. “Where to?” Kian asked, obviously not wanting to go along with this.

“We can’t say,” Lyelle said.

And Tirella added, “You’ll know when we get there.”

“Oh, stop fucking kidding me. How can this be your so-called ‘Headquarters.’ This is my house!”

Kian was loud. Too loud. And a sharp kick in the ass from Lyelle’s white high-top hunter sneaker was enough to let him know it. He yowled. “Can’t you shut up!” She whisper-cried while Tirella ignored their antics and walked forward toward the one, extra-large house in all of Mid-East Vermillion.

The Kona residence was a three-story building wide enough to fit two four-person families on the bottom level. Outside, a set of steps led up to the front door which was tucked safely behind a porch deck several steps wide and more in length. Porches were rare to homes on the lowest Plate, as much as having a house of clean, polished glass. Kian’s family home was always well kept, both on the outside and the inside thanks to paid cleaning services dedicated specifically to the twelve governing families of all the tower’s four Plates. Still, compared to ‘higher’ homes on Rosewood, Orchid, and especially Cerulean Plate, the Konas’ home was nothing to pale over; but on Vermillion Plate, a house like this was noticeable for miles.

At the front door, Tirella leaned close enough to the home’s peephole to breathe on it. Her breath activated a light blue twitch of light to appear just under the peephole, and it was gone a second later, designed so it was virtually undetectable to the common eye. Careful not to speak more, she waved Kian and Lyelle over and started walking at a brisk pace around the corner of the house, heading for the back entrance.

As of right now, Tirella, Kian, and Lyelle could not be seen. With the help of the special Chameleons only available to the governors of The Glass Tower, their physical bodies could be heard but were invisible for the next minute and twenty seconds. Back when Kian was eleven, Chameleons only lasted up to forty-five seconds. Now, with better technological advancements, the top-secret covert devices sustained invisibility cloaking for over two minutes.

Near the rear end of the Kona residence, Tirella Tabby searched for the underground entrance to Governor Menaly Kona’s hidden facility. Small shrubs hugged large, lush trees near the home, almost creating a natural fence around the barrier of the house and yard. Tirella had to walk quickly, her head down and eyes peeled, as an internal timer clicked in her head.

After activating the “gate” at the front door of the Kona residence, the door to the underground headquarters opened and shut within a set time limit, just eighty seconds. Like the rumored “Governing Families’ Door” on the night of Selection, the door to this facility moved each time it was opened, never appearing in the same place twice. Therefore, when Tirella spotted it peeking between the leaves of a couple of large bushes, she couldn’t keep herself from announcing it.

“It’s over here!” She said in a whispered voice, hopefully loud enough for her companions to hear.

When Kian came near with Lyelle close behind, his eyes popped open wide at the huge hole opening up in the yard to his own home. “How could I have ever missed this?” He wondered aloud, and when Tirella answered that the location changes each time to protect its’ secrecy, he was mentally transported back to when his mother had told him the same thing that tragic Selection many years ago. Strange, he thought, how this was showing up again now.

“We need to go now or else it’ll close up and we won’t be able to find it again for another half hour.” Tirella said.

Kian nodded and was ushered down into the underground headquarters. To Kian’s surprise, the stairs to this place reminded him vividly of another place he had recently been. “This is just like—”

“Dr. Rallus’s secret labs?” Lyelle cut in.

There was a smile on her face as she watched Kian’s features morph into a look of pure shock and confusion. “How…?” He trailed off, eyes asking the rest of his question.

“Dr. Rallus is one of us, Kian. He started the design on this place after Governor Kona asked him to join up. Once construction began, several others added to the efforts and it ended up like this.”

Lyelle swept her arm forward to indicate the illuminated glass stairs which stretched downward for what seemed like forever. His mind was on the ‘Governor Kona’ Lyelle had slipped into her explanation, but he was soon distracted by what they saw next.

As they walked down, the walls surrounding the stairs eventually came to an end, and the sights opened up into an enormously spacious cavern. From left to right of the stairs, buildings and various other structures stuck out all around, its glass not one vivid red but an undesignated mixture of reds, pinks, purples, blues, and more. Headquarters was more like an underground city, and while everyone inside still sported the same Vermillion hair, Kian mumbled aloud that this place was, “Wow.”

“‘Wow’ is right,” Tirella agreed. “Coming down here never gets old.”

As they reached the bottom, Kian spotted his mother, Menaly Kona, directing a team of individuals in white lab coats as they tampered with something he couldn’t really make out behind a thick glass wall. She was on a platform connected to all others by long illuminated bridges which attached to other platforms. The underground was structured like an enormous spiderweb, and Menaly was at the center of it all.

“What the—Mom? What is this?” Kian said.

Menaly’s head snapped around at the sound of her son’s voice. “Ki Ki,” she sang, rushing over to her son with her arms outstretched. “You made it!”

Kian embraced his mother and blinked while she pressed two kisses on his cheeks. All the while, he waited for an answer that Menaly was eager to give. “But all of it will come in due time.” She said. “For right now, I’ll give you the mini rundown.

“Your father and I were the originators of the Plaid Initiative.” She paused when Kian had a physical reaction to hearing mention of his father, Harmon Kona. A fire sparked in his eyes and his lips pressed into a thin line. Deciding to save talk of that later, Menaly continued, “Years ago, we had realized that something needed to be done about this broken world. We hated the obsession those in power had with ideals and appearances over concern for real people’s real problems. So, when I won governance over our shabby section of Vermillion Plate, we had already begun to move our plan into action. We as a people had gone through enough suffering to last several lifetimes, and Harmon and I wanted no more of it. Complacency was no longer an option.”

“How can you talk about him like he didn’t just leave you here to realize this dream all on your own? He didn’t die like Nari did, Mom. Nari had no choice! But Dad…” Kian’s voice wavered. He was furious, heartbroken. “Harmon… He made a choice to leave us here to suffer. He didn’t look back at us that night when he left for the last time. He pushed Lely away like she was nothing, but she was his only daughter. Me and Nari, we worshipped the ground that bastard walked on… How could there still be love in your voice when you talk about him, Mom?”

Menaly moved closer to her son, tears in her eyes as she rubbed her hand along Kian’s head, neck, and left shoulder. “Because there’s always more to the story, Kian. Your father didn’t leave to never come back. He left to find a way to bring the whole world with him as he made his way up the tower. Big things like that take time. It’s not safe and it’s not easy.”

Menaly paused to walked toward the railing to the center platform upon which she, Kian, Lyelle, Tirella, and the team of scientists stood. She looked over at the sprawling community around them and called over her shoulder what she wanted Kian to remember most. “Before your father left, he told me that we didn’t belong down here on Vermillion Plate, but that we belonged everywhere. Now you look, Kian.” She turned, ushered him forward with a hand, and when he came near, she asked, “Do you see? It’s true. We don’t belong down here. We don’t need to be red or Vermin or doomed to the abyss. We belong everywhere. We can be anything. That’s the real way to live.” She turned to look Kian in the eyes, “And that’s where your father is.”

Kian nodded his understanding and the two smiled softly at each other for a bit before Menaly redirected the conversation to Kian. “Again, I’m glad you joined, Ki Ki. What made you give your time to the initiative? I’m proud of you.”

Kian shrugged, “I was threatened. You know.”

“I don’t.” Menaly frowned, staring Tirella down with stern eyes. “So… you didn’t volunteer?”

“I didn’t… You sound hopeful.”

Menaly nodded, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit hopeful.”

This part always made Kian feel like a little less. “Mom, I’m not Nari.” He said, and he knew her answer before it even came, because it was always the same.

“I never said you should be.”

Except she didn’t have to. Kian already knew that she wanted him to be less selfish, less cold. More Nari. But there could never be another Nari. Not in Kian, anyway. Lucky for him, that was the end of that conversation.

Menaly guided Kian on a limited tour around the facility for upwards of ten minutes. The miles-long area had plenty of things to showcase without countless secrets up its sleeve. Kian could tell she was proud of their work, and even told him how Dr. Rallus had been mixed up in all this.

Then, she said, “Have you ever heard of the four Masterminds?”

Kian was instantly bored, having heard all about the Masterminds throughout his school years, but he nodded anyway. But by the time his mother was finished explaining a true history that he had never before heard in school, he was all ears.

“Dr. Sano figured out how to configure himself to the tower’s mainframe.” Menaly was saying. “The more people connected to the computer’s system, the more power is distributed throughout The Glass Tower. However, the less people connected—”

“The more power available—”

“—and the more power Dr. Sano can take for himself. You see, any and all things inputted into the supercomputer, Dr. Sano can feel himself. And what we want to do, he’ll surely feel. Which makes our mission doubly risky.”

“How so, exactly?” Kian asked.

“We want to reconfigure The Glass Tower, to make Vermillion Plate permanent, make the tower stop falling, stretch the land outward eternally the way it did on Earth so there’s no deep, dark abyss waiting at the ends of the Plates, and to bring the tower down into one flat slab of land. We want to end the history of the tower. No one ‘above’ another and no one ‘beneath’ anyone else. We’ll put an end to everything, including these incessant hair colors, until everything is stitched together like a world clad in plaid.”

Just after Menaly finished this speech, a messenger wearing common clothes came sprinting over to her. He was out of breath and appeared paled at the face with fear. Kian, along with Lyelle and Tirella who were still standing by, moved nearer to hear the news.

“The second team failed their mission.” The messenger said.

“Druce and Emi are gone.”

END PART 1 - TO BE CONTINUED