Dominion 1 - Chapter 1 Dominion
My name is Caden Wolf. I’m 28 years old with a job at the police station in the City of Robeen. I work as an officer in the field to hunt down criminals who cause lots of trouble and are very difficult to catch.
Today, after making an arrest, I was returning home. As I was walking down the street back to my house, I saw the sewer lid sitting to the side of the dark and damp sewer. I was getting closer to the hole to inspect and assess the situation to make sure nothing dangerous was down in it. While bending over to look down the sewer, I felt a push from behind. Unable to hold my balance and brace myself, I fell into the hole. I was able to turn around in midair to see the person who most likely committed the act.
The perpetrator wore a bandana around his face so it would be difficult to identify them. l did catch a quick glimpse of a symbol on the bandana, which I remembered from other arrests to be associated with the criminal gang, NIGHTMARE. Even though I could not directly recognize the individual, the person was similar in height to myself with a skinny frame and a hunched-over stature.
While falling down the sewer, I was so concerned about remembering the individual’s traits standing there overlooking the hole that I forgot to worry about bracing myself for impact. When I hit the ground, it hurt like someone took a lead pipe and whacked me directly in my rib cage. It felt as if multiple ribs were broken. Thankfully, my body hit the cement before my head. As I was managing the pain, I noticed a light down the tunnel of the sewer. Not thinking about the pain, I slowly pushed my aching body up in order to get on my feet and follow-up the shiny light. I could never seem to quite reach the light. Every time I thought I was at the light’s source, it went farther away. When I finally approached the brightness and stuck out my hand into it, I passed out from all the pain of my injuries.
When I regained consciousness, I was lying on the sidewalk on the street next to the sewer. When I looked over, the sewer was covered, which confused me, as now I was not sure if everything that just happened was real or an illusion. The last thing I remembered before passing out was looking at my hand as it disappeared through the light, like it almost went invisible for a moment. Not clear on what just happened, I decided to head home.
On my way home, I was walking past an intersection where the pedestrian sign showed that I had the right-of-way. Out of nowhere, a dark blue convertible sped down the street headed right towards me as though the driver did not see the red light. By the time I realized the vehicle was not going to slow down, I thought I was going to die right there at that moment. Then I realized that my thoughts and body movements were synchronized as one, almost an immediate reaction like I have never experienced before. A second later, the vehicle sped right by me as it kept ongoing. I was trying to understand how it was possible for me to get out of the way so quickly and avoid being hit. I was thinking that it is impossible for any human being to react in such a manner, and wondering if I was still imagining everything. Shaken from the near-death experience, I continued to walk home. With all the odd events that seemed to be happening, I became very aware and cautious of my surroundings with each step. After finally reaching my house, I grabbed a cold drink from the refrigerator as I sat down on the couch to contemplate the events that just occurred. Was this a dream? Or was this real? I could not easily answer the question.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Robeen, a young adult in his early 20s was walking into his house. This young man, James White, had a traumatized past. His entire family was gone. James’ mother and father were killed in a vehicle accident ten years prior, and his older sister died from a drug overdose a few years later. He was a loner with no friends. As an orphan during his later childhood years, he was used to having to defend himself and not being able to rely on anyone else.
James was returning home after being on the other side of town where he committed a criminal act. He knocked down a police officer. In his mind, he was exacting vengeance on those that were unable to perform their jobs of protecting and serving the people of the city, which included his family. James felt no remorse for his actions.
for visiting.
As James went to bed, he decided to devote all of himself to the Nightmare gang, giving them 100% of his focus. The gang had offered him superpowers via a computerized implant in exchange for his dedication and willingness to destroy their rivals. He agreed to this as his desire for revenge had consumed him ever since his sister died. The emotional scars ran so deep that he was willing to do anything to destroy those that hurt him. With the super bionic strength that he would receive, James would be able to take on almost anyone.
James started to walk to the laboratory of the doctor who worked for Nightmare. Thirty minutes later, he arrived at Dr. Brett’s office. The doctor confirmed that he wanted to go through with the procedure, as it was irreversible once completed. James responded in the affirmative with “I am sure.” Two days later, the surgery was complete and James was walking out of recovery. Dr. Brett warned him the powers would take time to take effect. It could be as much as 3-5 days. As he headed back home to rest, he kept muttering to himself, “I will get my revenge against everyone who has tormented me and I will make them feel the pain I feel every day.”
It was a typical morning for Caden: he woke up, took a shower, ate breakfast, and, 20 minutes later, started walking to the police office. Upon arriving at the building, he greeted the person at the front desk and his fellow officers. As the other policemen were chatting to him about their cases, Caden could only think about the criminal who pushed him and that he had been unable to catch him so far. As he returned to reality, he realized the other officers were asking about his case. Caden told them, “I have yet to catch him, but I am hot on his trail.” He started walking to his desk, when he quickly turned his head back around and said, “Next time you see me, I will have caught my criminal.”
Upon entering my office and looking at my desk, I noticed a red folder on my desk, which was not there the night before. I looked around to see if I could figure out who left it there for me. When I opened up the folder, I was in shock as the picture was of the person I remember seeing when I was pushed into the sewer. The profile was for a James White who had suffered the person I thought I saw in my dream, and I started to read about the tragic loss of his family. Unfortunately, he seemed to spiral downwards after those events and joined the largest gangster group in the city, Nightmare. His anger consumed him, and he started committing crimes. Each crime seemed to get bigger than the prior crime. James committed a heist at a national bank where over $50,000 was stolen. He took a famous painting in the city’s largest museum. After the last heist one year ago, the trail for James went cold. There was no indication as to where he resided, with whom he hung out, or what he did for a job other than committing thefts. I was getting frustrated as there were no more leads. As I was about to sit down with my head in my hands out of despair, a call came in over the hand radio about a robbery in progress on Todoroki Road at the Governor’s house. I thought to myself, This could be him; I have to get to the site quickly.
On James’s Street, he was just eating lunch when police sirens could be heard heading to Todoroki Road where the governor lived. James wondered, “Who could be robbing the governor since I am not?” He ran out of his house and sprinted to Todoroki Road to find out what was happening.
Twelve minutes later, James arrived at Todoroki Road where he found the crime scene full of police. There was police tape everywhere, so he could not get in to see any evidence left to tell him who committed the crime. He was trying to find a way into the crime scene when he saw the police that he pushed into the sewers. He started to worry that the police may recognize him so he decided that he would try and follow the path that the thief left behind so he could find out who it was so he could try and work with this person or at least convince them to join the NIGHTMARE. He started to follow the trail that the person left behind by running past the apartments and houses that were full of chaos. When the person was escaping they were running on the roofs of people’s houses so he knew they went whichever way the chaos was. He noticed that when he followed on the roofs he sometimes left dents which meant his powers were starting to work.
James knew after following the trail for 30 to 40 minutes that the trail led to the outskirts of Zeka but he was surprised to see that the trail ended in the outskirts because none of the gangs that he knew of were based in that area or even were active in that area. He thought that maybe this was one person instead of an entire gang or this was a new gang that just got set up and that was not as powerful as the rest of the gangs.
When he got to the building (which was a barn) where the trail ended he decided to go in and see who was inside, when he went inside all he saw was a regular barn but when he went into the corner where all the hay was he found there was a secret passage to go underneath the barn. When he went into the passage, he saw that was like a house underneath there. There was a bedroom, there was a big kitchen, and there was a very big wreck room full of weapons and armor. Then, in the final room, there were pedestals with stolen treasure on them. They were all encased with glass and lasers around them and other high end technology.
I was on guard when I heard a muttering voice I immediately knew and I became aware of someone being in the area so I knew where to not go. I listened to what they were saying so I could figure out who they were then I realized there was more than one of them. I decided that I would go up and talk to them to try and convince them to work with me but I had no idea what would happen.
Back to the police, I was just looking around the crime scene and then I saw a quick blur running. I tried to follow it, but I got lost and I figured it was the person I’ve been looking for. Or maybe it was some other criminal, the person who caused this. I got all the way to Advion Street before I lost the person.
After that, I lost the trail, but I discovered something new. Every so often, I found a dent in the ground or in a building, which was very weird since no one can smash that in. So either someone could have done it to frame someone, or someone may have done it a different time, just by accident or someone may have made the hole.
I decided to head back to the police station to tell my friend another potential lead. I got back to the police station and I went to my friend and told him what I thought may have happened and afterward he spent a while thinking and finally said, “Those are all possible ideas, but what if the person you were following knew you were following them? What if they wanted to throw you off their trail by putting evidence that was not related to them?”
I said, “That is also possible but that is not what I think it is. I will leave it alone in case you are right.”
I went to the rooftops to see if I could see any evidence that could tell me about who committed this crime.
Back to James, He came around the corner and he went up to the people and said, “Who are you? You can’t hurt me if you tried, so don’t try!”
The people said, “We are the Crows we are very good at stealing and we will be one of the best gangs once we do our final heist. We still don’t know what it will be, but enough about that, Who are you and what do you want with us?”
“I am part of the gang NIGHTMARE and I have lots of power. I would be happy to help you do your massive heist because we, NIGHTMARE have been thinking about taking over, having full control, and we are going to do it soon ! So if you would like to help, the offer is on the table and we won’t destroy you guys for trying to destroy us!”
They said, “If we help you we get 50% percent of the items we steal and we will never be hurt by your gang, ok?”
James said, “I will be ok with that, but you get 25% and if you attack us we will kill you all, without hesitation, give me something to smash I will show you how strong I am.”
The people of the gang Crows threw him a piece of marble and he smashed it immediately and he said, “That is what will happen to you if you disobey.”
“Don’t make me do that!” He started to walk out and began to walk back to his house and talked to the leader of the NIGHTMARE to talk about the CROWS gang. Afterwards, at the end of the night, they decided they would take over in a few days and then after they would ditch the CROWS once they finished taking over.
On the apartment rooftops, I was looking at the dents and I realized that the dents were every 2-3 buildings. I found that weird, which means it was there to get me off track, or someone could jump an impossible distance. I thought, “What if this person has powers like I did in my dream? What if that wasn’t a dream though, maybe I have a special ability. I guess I should try and see if it was for real.” I decided I would try and run in front of another car to test it out. So I walked back down and I went to the same spot as last time. I ran in front of a car and I jumped back at the last moment without delay and I was unharmed again. Then I knew for sure that the power was real and everything that happened was real and not a dream. “This means I have superpowers, but what does being able to move out of a moving car’s way count as?” I thought. “I would catch one of the criminals I have been trying to catch for a while by using my power.” I ran to the police station and I told my friend to throw a tennis ball at me when my back was turned, and still I caught the ball. So I knew for sure that was my power, but what I needed to know was to what degree did my power work? Now I need to go find where he lives and then I can confront him and take him down with my power.
In James’s house, he is talking to his bosses and they told him he would raid the police station at 11 o’clock AM, when the office was full of other people so everyone would see their true strength and be afraid. It was 9 o’clock so he started to walk out and head for the police station, and 40 minutes later he got there and walked around to make sure everything was ready for his raid. At 10:50 he got into position for the raid. He was going to go in when the cops were right behind him and they said “Put your hands up!” and he wasn’t able to use his power because he was bound too tightly. He went with them peacefully but when people realized he got captured Plan B went into action.
