The Search for Artemis - By P. D. Griffith Page 0,133

at Landon in fear. As Celia, he was still standing with his tray clasped in front of him. The orange and yellow flames rose high into the air as the wood of the table splintered and cracked under the intense heat. He wanted to run away to safety, but his body was frozen in place. Just like Landon’s apocratusis, Celia was overtaken by her abilities. She had no control over what was happening.

Then the table to Landon’s left caught fire. At this the students in the cafeteria all ran for their lives, leaving Landon alone in the aisle as walls of flame reached up toward the sky.

Anyways, Celia interjected. The memory faded away into nothingness. From then on, I went through training. I did fine in all the subjects they taught—Tactometry, Telekinetics, Thought Reception, the usual—but I also had some abilities they had never seen before.

Rather than full memories, images of Celia’s life flashed through Landon’s mind as a slideshow. Like stills of her life, he watched as she worked tirelessly to perfect her abilities in the training sessions she had at the Academy. Before she began to speak again, an image of her passing through a wall lingered in his mind.

For some reason, I’m able to manipulate things on an atomic level. Celia paused for a moment. I haven’t been able to set things on fire since my debut, she added offhandedly. But that’s the reason I can walk through things.

The scientists at the Academy did all sorts of tests and experiments to try and figure out what was odd about me, but they never could figure out why I was different. The best explanation they came up with, though, was that I am able to excite the atoms that make up an object, as well as those within my own body, to the point where I can pass right through them. There are some issues with denser stuff, but for the most part, I can go through anything.

The images faded away and through white light, Landon found himself sitting in a chair in an office somewhere. With nothing but a glass desk in an expansive room, the place exuded power and strength. Sitting at the desk was a woman in a black skirt suit. She had a powerful demeanor as she sat poised in her high-back chair with her head raised. On her desk was a nameplate with “Ainsley Ross-Harper” etched into the metal.

“Celia, welcome to Metis Labs,” Mrs. Ross-Harper began. Her voice was warmer than Landon expected it would be. “I’ve heard a lot about you and am very pleased to meet you.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Landon could hear the nervous energy in Celia’s voice.

“Please, call me Ainsley,” she replied. “I have a proposal for you Celia, but first I want to ask you a question. How much do you know about the Olympia Corporation?”

Celia looked at Ainsley for an extended moment before replying. “I know that it was founded in 1958, and that you and your husband ran it while you worked on Project Prometheus. I know that they created the Prometheus gene that gives all of us our abilities. And if I am remembering correctly, the Olympia Corporation was disbanded in 1996 after Congress decided the projects were . . . ‘ethically deplorable,’ I think was the term they used in orientation.

“We were told that you and your husband were given amnesty because the projects were initially sanctioned by the government, and after that you decided to create Metis Labs and the Academy.”

“Yes, all of this is true,” Ainsley said. “When Congress presented us with our transgressions, it was the first time I realized what I had done. Ever since, I’ve been using my resources to help mankind and correct the mistakes I made out of blind ambition. That’s why I created Metis Labs and the Academy. . . . I was ashamed, and I needed to make up for the part I’d played. My estranged husband, however, did not feel the same remorse.

“So when the Olympia Corporation was destroyed, he left me, taking his capital, and went off to fund a new venture, the Pallas Corporation. This company was very much like the Olympia Corporation, but with more noble intentions. It was to fund the scientific advancement of the United States and bring technology into a new age.

“On the surface, my husband stayed true to his intentions, but what no one realized was that his scientific breakthroughs and technological advancements were not of his own