Hmm, this will take a lot of work. I think I'll submit my story near the end...
Maybe I'll edit in some brainstorming.
Well, I've been working on that school idea, it's pretty cool... but that would scratch out sci-fi for genre, the school is more realistic fiction/fantasy. That'll force either mystery or romance. Writing romance stories normally means "chick flick", or something similar, so if I go with romance I'll probably write that in as things go on. If I'm going to keep romance available, I guess I'll leave all my characters asexual to start, and assign some character traits later as I go on. That means I'll have to give all the characters a name later... screw that! I'll just wing the whole romance thing.
As far as mystery goes, that'll require forethought. And a LOT of it. A mystery at school would mean a lot of harry potter esque... I guess I could go with that. It's a bit overdone and cliche, I'm not writing for Nickelodeon...
Screw the school idea. Let's shake things up and go with sci-fi. The sci-fi story I always wanted to write was a James Bond story with a space magnifying glass, but I'm not sure how outerspace fits with elements.... oh my god. I've got it. Ray Bradbury, thank you for being awesome. Story starts now...
The discovery of Elements
Tom's suit beeped rhythmically, reminding him he was alive. Not much else did. The emptiness of space was daunting, and where he was, there were no stars.
There were no stars!
Tom flipped around, grabbing his stabilization tether for support. Just where was he that there were no stars? It was like all matter was concentrated on this solar system, and nothing else existed. And staring into the abyss, that feeling of being dead returned. There was no temperature, no feeling, no breeze like he was accustomed to on his barn back home in Tennessee. No gravity meant there was no down, and no stars meant there was no up.
No stars.
His suit beeped again bringing him back down to Earth. Well, not back down to Earth, he thought with a laugh, but it refocused him. He used his radio again.
"If there is anyone out there," he said, repeating his call for help, "anyone out there at all, I have exited the anomaly, I have arrived somewhere in space. Please respond, over." But it wasn't really a call for help. Not yet. It hadn't really sunk in just how far from home Tom really was. Only one thing was sinking in at this point.
No stars.
Tom whistled inside his helmet, creating a chord with it's rhythmic beat. "Well," he thought, "this has to go somewhere". He began climbing down the cable he was tethered to.
The climb was difficult at first, as the cable was twisted around his ankle, and he got caught more than once on the carbon nano-tube cord, who's physical properties were suddenly all over the map. It began to have a fractal-esque design, like thousands of carbon snowflakes had been stacked on top of each other, in beautiful spiraling patterns that made absolutely no sense. Running his fingers down the cable, Tom remembered that if his suit was punctured, he'd be dead, but somehow that didn't phase him. "No stars..." he thought, and his suit beeped as though sharing in his contemplation.
The faint pull of gravity began to take hold. Grasping on to his cable, Tom allowed his legs sling in front of him, so that it looked like he was straddling the cable and facing downward. The wrap around his ankle caught again, and Tom found himself entangled. He bent over himself, with his bottom half right-side up, but his body redoubled at his waist. This awkward position only lasted for a second, as he fell backwards, so that his upper half was now the one that was right side up, and his head was aligned with his knees. Moving as quickly as one can in such a clunky suit, Tom grabbed on to the rope again, inadvertently grabbing on to a section of the rope that was below his ankles, and leaving him thoroughly wrapped in the rope. Quickly fixing his ankle tangle, Tom realized he was sitting on the rope. The cable rose up from the planet in front of him, passed between his legs like he was sitting on it, and then rose up behind him. Lifting his left leg up and over the tether, he suddenly found himself right side up and sliding down the rope again.
Looking up at the top of the rope, he saw that the cable was still caught in the strange anomaly that had brought him here. He assumed that it was still connected to the other side. His suit beeped once more, perhaps angry he had called it clunky earlier, or perhaps agreeing with his idea, and Tom threw one of his flares through the anomaly. While it wouldn't light, it was a signal. It was the flare that gave off yellow flames. A tentative maybe.
To his surprise, the flare he received in return was a red flare. "What danger," Tom thought, "could be on the
safe side of the anomaly?" But Tom's thoughts were misguided, as the anomaly itself was the danger, and it quickly collapsed. The cable was no longer taught, and now that gravity was in effect, it would no longer prevent his free-fall. And fall he did.
Now plummeting rapidly, Tom found himself descending through the lone planet's atmosphere. Suddenly concerned with where the other end of the rope was, he had difficulty seeing as the air whipped past his visor. Squinting to see, Tom stared at the landscape below him. He was approaching a vast island in an apparently endless sea of water, and he could see glorious geography similar to the rock back home. Vast shoots of lava shot from volcanoes in violent geysers, streaming down the mountainside in such extreme amounts that the island had to be growing on one side at a visible rate. This volcanic activity had caused many mountains, and vast deserts stretched along the globe. Glancing in a haphazard manner, Tom noticed jungles, caverns, and a strange land of pink rock way off to one side where he could barely see it. He had just noticed a vast swamp when he fell through a cloud. Wiping his helmet clean, Tom saw the next row of clouds had buildings upon them, like a society living in the sky. Awestruck, Tom saw that the creatures there were staring at the end of his rope, and one of the children kicked it comically. But he didn't have much time to look as he zipped past, falling just to the side realizing that the whiplash from the tether would surely kill him, especially in it's new strangely thorny shape. Tom let go of his last remaining connection to the world he came from, and began to tumble in descent. Slowly flipping, he found himself with his back downward, and his limbs and head floating lazily behind it. It was in this position he hit the water. And with that extremely forceful collision, he blacked out. As they said it back home, he began to see stars.
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When Tom awoke, an angry wind blew across his face.
Wind blew across his face!
Tom sat up frantically, feeling his head. Where was his helmet?! He'd die without air! Where were his gloves?! His suit? His radio... his...... where was he?
The angry wind blew across his face again.
Looking around, he was on a small island, stranded. The natural foliage looked quite similar to the palm trees growing on the beaches back home, and Tom almost thought he was home, when he heard a voice.
Someone giggled.
The voice was carried on the angry wind, so Tom had no idea how far this strange giggling person was away. But after pausing to get a sample of the soil and water, before cataloguing the tree and taking a seed, Tom had forgotten about the strange giggle.
Until the wind blew again, angrier. And the giggle was carried on the wind again.
Concerned now, Tom looked about his tiny island. It was more like a sand bar caused by rocky terrain nearby, so the island was tiny. There was no seismic activity that could be detected. As far as Tom could tell, the island had been formed because the submerged mountains caused a quiet spot in the ocean where this island was, and though the mountains were long gone, somehow the sandbar stayed.
The wind furiously tried to destroy the island. Or was it trying to destroy Tom? And why was the wind giggling?
And that's when Tom saw her. Floating above the water not too far away from him was a beautiful woman, with streaming locks of hair that sparkled as the wind blew. But the wind didn't blow around her. No... she was causing the wind to blow! And with a grin filled with a double row of sharp teeth, the strange woman hissed at Tom ferociously before lighting a match.
The large explosion nearly killed him.
Now blown far into the water, Tom would have bled out if the fire had cauterized his wounds instantly. Still, he had severe burns on his stomach and arms, and several chunks of skin were missing from when his leg had hit the tree. And far away, by the island, the strange woman burst into hysterical bouts of laughter.
A joyful wind blew across Tom's face, and he could hear the sound of her laughter dying down. But Tom knew what the wind meant around here. And he was scared to death of it.
He painfully did the backstroke towards the woman, trying not to cause too much exertion, but she playfully flew away, annoyed he'd escaped her pocket of flammable air. Tricking her, he navigated so that the island was between the two of them. When she lit the match, the gas hadn't quite made it to Tom, and instead of blowing backward, both of them were sucked in by the undertow of air and water. Once cool air had replaced the warm air from the fire, and water had replaced the now combusted island, the floating woman found Tom right up close to her. And so, with great difficulty, he grabbed her ankle. She hissed and barred her teeth again, preparing to strike, but Tom was too quick for her, burying a needle into her leg.
The sedative worked wonders.
Examining the strange woman, he saw that she was humanoid except for her neck, which had extra holes for exhaling a strange chemical. Tom placed a teleportation pad on the small of her back where she wouldn't feel it or be able to reach it, and then looked for land once more. What he saw made him even happier.
His rope.
Draping the unconscious body on the trunk of the alien palm tree, Tom swam towards his rope to safety. Exhausted from his wounds, Tom grabbed onto the rope to start climbing. But he found he couldn't pull himself up and fell instantly. He tried again, tugging once more, but failed. He then tugged the rope twice, to check his handhold, when the rope started lifting itself. Tom climbed just high enough to wrap his legs around the cable, and waited to reach the city in the clouds. Below him, he heard the faint giggle of his lovely flying friend, before hearing a tremendous roar at his feet.
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Tom arrived at the city in the clouds after a half hour of floating. He'd been pulled up by thousands of airborne insects, about the size of his torso. They seemed to be receiving signals from their leader, who had a bioluminescent abdomen. Staring at the wonderful creatures, Tom realized that they
all had bioluminescent abdomens, but their leader's light was caused by a small flame inside them, instead of a strange chemical reaction. The creatures seemed to hesitate when the heard the roar from below, but they pulled anyway. Eventually they carried Tom to the top, where a humongous flying antlike being greeted him.
This new insect was about twice the size of Tom, looking far sturdier than anything he'd encountered so far. It clacked it's pincers rapidly, and Tom's rescuers flew away. To Tom's surprise, the ant being spoke.
"You are not the nymph!" it barked.
"I'm sorry?" Tom said.
"The nymph! The one sent to kill you"
"Well, I'm sorry to have disappointed you..." Tom said wryly, "but I'm afraid I'm still alive."
"Hmph!" snorted the firefly's supreme leader. "I can see that. This is no good! You may not stay here! You must go! Go! Back to where you come from! Up there! Go back! We do not want you here!"
"I'm afraid I don't know how to get back. This strange portal opened in the sky, and I fell..."
"My queen..." said the firebutt who'd carried Tom upward, "there are three theories about the intruders origin. Some believe he is a fallen angel, or perhaps a strange aetherian man who portaled out of confusion. It has been suggested he be sent to the aetherian temples to get this sorted out...."
"No good!" said the firefly queen. "Entropy!" And with that, strange flying beasts grabbed Tom by his arms and flung him off the cloud.
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Tumbling downward to his doom, Tom saw he was flung towards the pink rock he had seen from afar. And, to his horror, he saw he was going to be rescued. By another nymph.
Panicking, he saw the strange pink nymph grab him.
"There there ma boy," it said, "Mommy's here now." It then promptly kissed him.
Startled, Tom shoved her away.
"But Mommy!" said the nymph, "I want to PLAY!!!" She shrieked the last word, beginning to cry. But as quickly as the crying began, it ended, and the nymph dove towards the ground, pounding Tom into the surprisingly soft soil. But the nymph's mood swings struck again, when it shouted "Stay here, I'll protect you!" before kicking Tom in the groin and flying away oblivious to him.
Tom was very confused.
He was even more so when several large wolf creatures charged toward him. They were foaming at the mouth as though rabid, and they looked albino, like a thick layer of pink skin covered their whole body. And when they reached Tom, he heard a fierce shriek from his Nymph friend, and the wolves promptly began tending to his wounds. "Away with you!" shouted the first sane voice Tom had heard on this planet, and quickly the strange pink beings walked, or flew, away. A man dressed as a gladiator in cyan robes peered down at Tom, smiling.
Tom realized he was insane.
"No no!" said the warrior, "you aren't insane. Let's get you home." The warrior lifted Tom up and started sprinting towards the sound of buffeting wind, way in the distance.
It was a strange pink portal, occasionally closing and opening, causing the buffeting sound. The being set Tom by the portal, smiled once more, and handed Tom back the teleportation pad he had discretely placed upon the warrior's back. Not knowing what he was doing, Tom walked into the portal.
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"TOM!" cried his shipmates, running over and hugging him, for he was mysteriously back on the ship. "Are you okay?!" one asked.
"Errr, yea, I guess. That was the weirdest thing that ever happened to me."
"Did you get any data?" asked one of them, excited.
"Yea, loads, it's all right... here?" Tom felt his suit, which was now empty of his samples. The teleportation module said no pads were calibrated. In fact, he found all of his pads back in his suit.
"I... I guess not." Tom said, slipping his thumbs between his thighs and belt. "But I've got all kinds of things to tell you. And... you guys will think I'm crazy, but I've got the strangest idea for a card game..."
Fin.
