Vignette #1: 

Jack is released from the biology classroom and in the crowded hallways full of noise and stumbling people bumping into each other. It smells like sweaty kids and carelessness. Finally he is through the gauntlet of bacteria breeding grounds and out in front of his school that is his personal hell. It’s cold outside as the air hits his face and the gray clouds cover the sun. 

He is looking for either his sister or his friend. He is slightly tired from sleeping through class. Knowing that he is too smart for the class and taking into account its significance, compared to all of the other things happening in his life, he thinks that sleep is the tactical move for overall success. He has an internship at Hyperion, the largest tech company on the planet, so big that it sent a giant interstellar space station shaped like a giant H into space. He looks around and sees his sister who runs up to him and greets him with a hug. 

“Hay J!” she says excitedly in a soft high pitched voice.

“Hi Marcela” he says back in a mutual fashion. Marcela is a bit shorter than Jack with much of the same facial features. She is wearing an oversized hoodie and sweatpants, not too different from what the other girls are wearing. “How was school today?” he asks.

“It was hard as usual. I did manage to maintain a B in Mrs Tannis’s class.”

“You’re lying to me aren’t you? I’m guessing that you didn’t attend again,”

“It is just so stressful, and how my life is going right now…” he cuts her off mid sentence.

“I know, I know, but problems at home shouldn’t make you act out, you’re smarter than that and I know it.”

“Thanks J, I just..”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out together.”

“Okay, love you!” she said with a smile and a head tweak.

“Love you too” He says back before glancing over at Cassandra who had just walked up behind her. 

“See you at home, I have to go to Hyperion tonight, it’s just a short meeting and apparently is supposed to be ‘very good for my apprenticeship’,” he uses finger quotes at the end of his sentence. Marcella smiles and walks off skipping joyfully. Cassandra’s brown skin and informal clothes with jeans and a leather jacket make her stand out from the crowd. She has always been considered attractive by Jack, but he never sought interest in her. She approaches him with a slight smirk on her face and looks at him. 

“So, what were you up to?” she asks him. 

“Nothing, what do you mean?”

“Geez relax,” Cassandra says air gesturing, “I meant you were all lovey doevy with that girl”

“That’s my sister,” Jack says in disgust. 

“Oh, I couldn’t recognize her in that hoody, I just thought that ‘Handsome Jack’ finally started to get out there”

“Shut up,” he says in a playful way.

“On a serious note, I had another… episode.”

“Oh no, did anyone see?”

“No, but I think they are getting worse,” she pulls up a sleeve so he can see part of a complex tattoo pulsating with glowing purplish light.

“What should we do?” he asks with concern.

“I don’t know, but I do have a hunch about this vault Hyperion is trying to keep secret. It’s rumored to have tons of eridium and maybe more”

“And you want…?”

“I don’t know what,” she says to him walking away from the crowd at a brisk pace, “But I do know that there will be a massive bounty on my head if word gets out, and if i can get my hands on that eridium, I won’t have to fear anymore”

“I thought that this was one of your crazy rants you like to go on, or one of your ‘wouldn’t it be crazy if we did this’ ideas”

“It used to be, but your home situation mixed with my slow crawl to getting hooked up to some crazy machine used to power…who knows what, is better reason than ever”

“Ok Ok, let’s talk about something else, and in the morning we will discuss this crazy hairbrained plan of yours that is never ever going to happen in a million years.”

Vignette #2:

Jack has spent a long day coming from school back to back with his internship at Hyperion. It was a grueling day with lots of work and an overload of information coming at him. He is still grateful everyday that someone from his social and financial class got the chance at an early internship at Hyperion. 

As he walks home, it is a gloomy day in Opportunity with the heavy stench of the city lingering in the air. He is hesitant to return home knowing that his grandmother is still aggravated that he had stopped giving her money after he found out what it was being used for. He fears more for his sister for she had stayed the night at a boys house without telling his grandmother. She doesn’t like Marcela wasn’t home to do things around the house, especially when she didn’t give her any warning. She is a little young, but Jack thinks that she is mature enough to make her own decisions. He knows his grandmother as a hateful woman that gives nothing but grief. His sister is a sweet girl who isn’t willing to give up on her grandmother. 

As he walks he leaves the potent noisy city and heads into his own neighborhood. The smell of cigarettes and other burning drugs he doesn’t recognize fill the air. He approaches the little house near many other seemingly haphazardly scattered houses that look identical to his own. He starts hearing his grandma and his sister bickering. Knowing his sister doesn’t know any better than to argue, he comes into the house and tries to intervene. “Give me back my pills!” his grandma screams at Marcela. She is standing ten feet away from her hiding a small orange bottle of pills with the label ripped off. Her small stature and recoiled demeanor emphasizes the power difference in the situation. “How dare you treat me like this in my house! The house that I pay for! The house that I let you sleep in! You don’t deserve me!” She pauses and walks to the back wall. She grabs her Jakobs shotgun off the wall and loads it’s two bareles with shells from her pocket. “Give me them!” She yells and points the two barrels at Marcela. They both are stunned and terrified at the same time. She has never gone over the rails so much in her life. Marcella takes a deep breath and shudders. 

“No!” She says in a shuddering but commanding voice. “You need to stop taking these. They are making you angry and actually worsening your condition” she says, holding the bottle near her chest in trembling hands with tears in her eyes. 

“Marcella you don’t need to do this” Jack’s voice quavering with worry.

“She’s sick in the head,” Marcela replies. The smooth barrels of the gun hold steady. The gold engravings on the stock against his grandma’s shoulder glimmer in the light.

“I’ll give you to the count of three,” His grandmother says through clenched teeth.

“Marcela please!”

“One,” Marcela stood there looking back and forth between the two.

“Just give her the bottle!”

“Two,” Marcella starts to run out of the door. Bang! Her body falls next to Jack. He can hear her breathing weakly. His grandma looks terrified. “What have I done? I killed my baby!” Jack turns her over and looks into her eyes. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” he says frantically. Marcela emits a soft horse

“I love you.”

“I love you too!” Jack says through a flood of tears. His grandma grabs the pills off the ground and downs the entire bottle. She turns to Jack. 

“This is your fault!” she says with a glaring eye. “Get out!” she yells at Jack turning the gun on him. “And never come back!”

Vignette #3: 

Jack and Cassandra are at the end of the Hyperion warehouse. The place is packed with guards and other giant projects that Hyperion is working on. Illuminated by the light, he could see the entrance to a cargo space shuttle that would be ready for take off to Hyperion headquarters in a few hours. There are two guards dressed in black bodysuits with helmets and hyperion weapons at their chests. They are standing at the entrance to this large metal garage door, and multiple large robots carrying containers entering and exiting the ship in what seemed to be in waves. The robots stand at around 9 ft tall and have large claws that can grip and carry containers out with ease. They don’t seem to have any sentience but are still very intimidating. She looks at him and attempts to mouth “what do we do?”

“What?” he mouths back.

“What do we do?”

He shuffles around in his bag and pulls out his uniform from his internship. She shakes her head and mouths “No!” He Just nods his head. He walks up sub-confidently and shows his ID to the guard. The guard takes one look at it. 

“So you’re an intern, and you want to get onto the cargo ship?” the guard asks him. Jack looks at him and says,

“Yes, I am here to inspect the ship for any issues that could go awry. Mr. Tassiter sent me if you want to ask him.” The guard gets on his radio and Jack pointes in the distance behind them. “Look, an intruder!” he shouts as he motions for Cassandra to get on the ship. She runs for it and they both run in. They hear the guards yelling and chasing after them. They both find a hiding space in between two crates. Cassandra starts breathing heavily and the tattoos on her arms start to glow. 

“What’s going on?” Jack asks

“I don’t know.” They can hear the guards getting closer and closer and see Cassandra’s arms are glowing brighter and brighter. One of the guards peers behind the crate and sees them. Cassandra sticks out both of her arms towards the guard and lets forth a burst of energy. The guard’s head explodes in a gory mess painting the wall behind him. Jack uses this opportunity to grab the weapon laying on the floor. He turns to the second stunned guard who is now visible to him, and shoots him in the torso with a spray of bullets. The guard falls to the floor. Jack goes back to Cassandra and says nothing as he sits on the floor, leaning against the crate with his head in his hands. 

Vignette #4: 

Jack finds himself with his hands tightly bound behind his back. The place is dark, cold, and moist with the stench of mold wafting through the air. He finds he is next to Cassandra who is likewise bound in place. He can see a circular light above. It appears to be an opening wherever they are. By the looks of it they are either in a very large room without a roof, or underground. He can barely make out the silhouette of her messy hair. “Are you okay?” he asks her. She is unresponsive. All of a sudden, a ring of torches lights around them and he can see where they are. Dirty metal walls reflect the light of the fire in the distance. The ground is wet and glimmers with yellow and orange. Around them, there is a circle of figures who all have gas masks on. They all have a similar physique with long skinny limbs and hunched backs. They all are wearing skin tight suits that consist of hazmat, cloth, leather, and animal hide sewn together chaotically. They are all staring at Jack as he looks around terrified. “Rats” he thinks to himself. He then remembers all of the rumors about the rats that he heard on Opportunity. He remembers hearing that the rats are a brutal cult of cannibals that live underground. They intentionally mutate themselves with chemicals in an attempt to have superior genes than the humans above.

“Well what have we here?” the words are drawn out and in a hissing whispery tone. “We have been waiting for more guests to arrive, guess you woke up jusssst in time.” One of the rats steps forwards. It moves toward him with its torso moving up and down and its arms swinging limply by its sides. Its movement reminded him of a sad marionette. Hunched over, a blackened hand reaches out and caresses his face with a long fingernail. “You look like you’d be a tasty treat,” the creature says, tilting its head. The hand is cold and hard against his face. He recoils with a wince. Another rat crawls over to Cassandra and starts inspecting her. It flips her over and slides her sleeve up to reveal the marks on her arms. The rat hisses and jumps back. 

“Sssssss, thissss onesss a siren!” It screeches. The other rats all hiss. The lead rat comes over to examine her. He sees the marks and turns to him. 

“Who are you?” the rat asks. “Normal travelersss aren’t accompanied by sirenssss.” Jack thinks for a moment and turns to the rat. 

“I!” he says, surprising himself with how lowd and courageous he sounds. “Am A powerful being! You cannot even comprehend the power that I hold above this world of yours!” He feels nervousness in all of his limbs, but he can’t stop now. The words coming out of his mouth sound cliche and slightly stupid to him, but the rats all seem intrigued. He stands up for the crowd “I control masses upon masses, I have circled the galaxy, I have seen things that you can only dream of!” he can feel his ears pulsing with blood. With every word he gained confidence, the rats seemed to appreciate the act he was putting on for them. He remembers the times where he was scared to do a simple presentation in front of his classmates. Now he was faced with a bunch of cannibalistic maniacs, giving a speech for his life. “You all should tremble before me and the siren for we could end you with ease!” The rats look at eachother with what Jack thinks is concern. “I have traveled long and far and will be aggravated beyond comparison if I have to spend any more time with the likes of some stinky, repugnant, disgusting, bottom feeding, lowlife, underground scum such as yourselves! I demand that you untie us and let us go immediately!” Jack stops to breathe as the rats start conversing in their weird hissing and clicking language. The lead rat stops and turns to Jack.

“If you are as powerful as you say,” The rat says with an amused tone. “Then what is stopping you from breaking free of those ropes and getting out of here yourself?”

Vignette #5: 

Nearing the Hyperion mining operations, Jack and Cassandra take in the immense view of the haunting blackened mountains with tips scraping the equally dark clouds. The nip of the cold wind on bare skin makes them wince every crumbly step of the way. A giant hole in the mountains stares back at them, glowing with purple light. Purple crystals can be seen around the interior of the tunnel, and Cassandra’s arms begin to hum with energy. “I can feel it, the energy surging through me!” she says excitedly. Jack looks at her concerned. She has a ravenous look on her face as she stares into the depths of the mine. The place is bare with one machine in sight and no one manning it. The machine looks like a glass egg with metal reinforcements around it. It is on a platform with wheels and has tubes going into a large tankard. Mounted on top, a giant cannon-looking piece of machinery is pointed at the mountain side. “Wait” Jack says all of a sudden. 

“There is something wrong with this place.” He gestures to the surrounding area. “No robots, soldiers, or any sign of Hyperion whatsoever.” He looks back at Cassandra in fear. “I think this is a…” the woosh of two drones interrupts him in mid sentence and a stinging pain courses through both of their bodies as they fall to the ground. They look up and Hyperion soldiers surround them. 

“Well well well” they hear a voice say from the approaching soldiers. The voice sounds old, powerful, and familiar to him. “I didn’t think you would make it this far. I was hoping you would, but I had underestimated you and your siren.” Jack, cased in some sort of netting that limited his movements and he assumed to be electric. Managing to turn over and face the screen that showed Mr Harold Tassiter, CEO of Hyperion staring back at him. The screen is mounted on a Hyperion robot that is walking towards him. His pale skin with sharp features and glasses made him look like a wise hawk. His white hair is combed over in a wave shape that peaks at the end. A maniacal expression grips his face. The Hyperion soldiers remain motionless as he speaks. “You were so determined to find the vast amounts of eridium that was rumored to be held in the vaults. Whom did you think was leaking that to the public? Once I released it, I knew it would be a siren’s call to this location for any…siren, strong and smart enough to reach here. With your advanced knowledge and skulking around, you found my little clues revealing how the vault was able to be opened by harnessing the power of a being so powerful. I feel bad, but your metalling insubordination has deserved you to watch your friend suffer.” He gestures with his hand and two soldiers pick Cassandra up and throw her into the machine. They flip a switch and the machine starts with a mechanical grinding sound. The tubes attached to the machine start pumping liquid, the lights start to flicker, and a purple helix of light engulfs Cassandra. She starts screaming in agony. She is levitating in the center of the sphere, glowing so bright Jack has to look away. Two wings of light appear on her back as she is spinning with this double helix. “It will all be mine!” Harold Tassiter yells through the radio. “Do you hear it? The sound of my victory is approaching!” The drill shoots out a concentrated beam into the mountain, penetrating instantly. The ground starts to shake and the side of the mountain opens up down the middle in a splitting crack. Falling rocks and jarring crackles hit him and everyone around him. The drill finally ceases and a bit of silence envelops them. Then the sounds of a giant, coming from the depths begins to repeat. Closer and closer, the Hyperion soldiers all look at each other and start to run. “Now time to unleash… The Destroyer!” The dramatic words burst from Harold’s mouth as the ground ruptures in an explosion of rocks. He is now able to get free and sees Cassandra is lying limp on the floor of the machine. He scrambles past the serge of falling rock and debris. When he gets to the machine, he opens it and carries Cassandra as fast as he can run. 

“We need to get out of here!” He thinks to himself. As he runs, he turns to look back. There is a monstrous creature towering far beyond the conceptual scale of how large a lifeform should be, standing there in place of all the chaos. Its pink skin and tentacle limbs souring about the skies resemble something of a giant octopus. Its giant head perched on a writhing mass of snakelike tendrils turned to the machine and batted it right at them. He sees this and throws Cassandra’s body aside and ducks for cover. Everything goes black.