Aberrant: Infinite Earth - Fiction - A Moment of Silence (Complete)

[Charlie Cole]

Date/Time: 11:34 PM, January 29, 2010.

Location: Charlie's Condo, Windhoek, Nambia

Charlie yanked the lid, covering and all off the beer can. The force used caused some of the amber liquid to splash onto his shirt, but he gave it no notice. His plush floor was littered with several beer cans, but the cleaning lady could take care of that. At the moment, his focus was on the high-definition television screen, and the N! special investigative report around the deceased Colombian nova and Terat El Guardián.

Charlie's body was limply spread out over the couch, and it was a sorry sight when considering he normally was an awe-striking elite. Sorrow and regret clouded his features and his mind was only partly present, spreading into the recent past when he had struck down El Guardián.

***************************

The bodies of the cartel soldiers were spread about the canopy and jungle floor when El Guardián appeared in flight, a bald but young Latin man, with a costume of what appeared to be exotic bird feathers descending into the canopy. Charlie grinning behind his Air Rat mask and costume, safely concealed in the foliage, of course knew that the Colombian's costume was made of eufiber. Like that would save him though.

Charlie tensed his body, then jumped down from the tall tree, landing feet first, in front of the shocked Terat. Let the target show some fear, because he's IN for it.

[Charlie Cole]

The chase through the air was getting boring, and El Guardián actually managed to land a hurting blow on Charlie as he pursued the Terat. As they broke through a clearing of trees, into wide-open landscape, people had gathered watching the show. Shouts and voices echoed upward, but Charlie was too high and too focused to hear them clearly. El Guardián came around in an arc for a direct heavy punch, but Air Rat had no intention of letting him get that close.

He merely waited for El Guardián to zoom up to maximum speed and once the Terat was firmly set in his course and unlikely to dodge, Charlie focused the air into a supremely sharp-pointed mass and thrust it forward. It was a more taxing move, but nowhere near impossible. El Guardián's chest split as if impaled by a spear, and his corpse fell downward.

Charlie followed down there for a few moments to see that the Terat was down and out, and now, he could make out the voices. There were screams and curses-- directed at him?

[Charlie Cole]

Date/Time: 10:34 AM, January 30, 2010

Location: The DeVries National Tactical Solutions Base, Windhoek, Namibia.

*Whump*

The punching back swung back as if hit by a hammer.

*Whump*

Charlie's fist launched out for another punch, as he tried to erase the continuing nightmare that was his murder of a good man.

*Whump*

El Guardián, it turned out, was loved by the people of his region. The Terat had a noblesse oblige attitude toward his baseline people, unlike most of his group, and protected them from the cartels, aided the sick, interceded with provincial authorities...

*Whump*

And the Colombian federal government decided to big-shot it with Utopia by sending in an elite to wipe him off the map. Which Charlie had done.

*Whump*

Rage and anger and self-hatred, and loathing all filled up in Charlie, and so did the quantum energies inside of him.

*Whump**Whump*

A crescendo, built by the facts of war and it's cost.

*Whump**Whump**Whump**Whump*

It peaked, and something unconciously burst in Charlie, his mind hardening and body tuning into something. And he felt stronger. The hatred boiled off into the recesses of his body and psyche, though a little stuck there.

And he managed to let the memories go at last... Peace... He stopped, and breathed.