Potential Story

Eliza plays with a puzzle device, which she has to decipher a code until it opens. She finishes it and puts it beside a few similar devices, which she has already deciphered.

She looks over at her sleeping brother on the bed beside hers.

She hears some noises outside and rushes to her window.

Eliza watches from her room through binoculars as her father goes into a tower in the backyard.

Eliza jumps on John’s bed waking him up.

They sneak down into the garden of their large house under John’s protest

Eliza tells John about their father’s lair. John says that their father is just a boring professor. Eliza says that he couldn’t be more wrong.

They arrive at a tower like structure. This is an old house. John says that their father told them specifically not to go in there. Eliza: Don’t you want to know what our father does there? Their curiosity gets the better of them and they walk in.

Inside there is a spiral of stairs going. There is a door on each level but the stairs don’t have any railing.

They go up and through a crack on the door they see their father working in an old office. It’s consistent in two levels. The books line up the room:

There is a contrast between the old room and some of the advanced equipment; Computers and holographic projections of a city.

Storm is working on a computer and he projects an image of an ugly monster. That scares young John who backs up, and trips off the stairs. Eliza notices in time and grabs a hold of him, but she can’t pull him up. She screams for help from her dad.

Her dad helps them.

Storm is upset with his kids and Eliza takes the entire blame. Storm is happy with her and says something to the effect that he can’t blame her for being adventurous.

John asks what that monster is. The hologram is still running.

Storm says that it’s a long story. Eliza begs him to tell them what it is.

“Oh, alright, but you’re still grounded. What you kids don’t know about me, is that I’ve been around. In one of my excavations I found this. It tells a legend hard to believe. Kids I hope you enjoy the show.”

Storm taps a few buttons on his computer and the whole room changes to show the story as he tells it with the kids in the middle.

A millennia ago a fearsome and terrible monster ascended from the depths of the earth; the like of which was never seen before in Strongland. It’s terrible countenance and awesome strength struck terror into the hearts of the inhabitants of land. The monster compelled them to do all sorts of terrible things, destroy and murder each other. The more men obeyed it the stronger it became until it ruled over all of Strongland. Under its rule the once peace loving and virtuous inhabitants became savage and practiced abominable traditions. They obeyed it even to the point of offering the most innocent among them, their children, as sacrifices to appease its terror. Hopelessness spread among all the people. They had become slaves to the monster. Until a man arose from among the Stronglandians. A man who preferred death than to offer the children of his people as a sacrifice to Evil incarnate. His name was Storm. He bade the people to unit and to reject the rule of the monster over their hearts. Slowly many Stronglandians put away their abominable actions. The actions which spread anguish and despair in the land. Actions which gave the Monster its power. Storm built an army and fought the monster. The terrible war took many lives, but the Stronglandians prevailed and culled the monster’s heart of stone out of its chest, but it would not die. It was immortal. With the heart in their possession Storm and his troops were able to control the monster. They drove it back into the depths of the Earth to its everlasting prison. Storm ground the heart into powder and formed a signet which he wore on a necklace. And as long as he had the signet the Monster would not dare cross the boundary of his prison. Before Storm slept with his father, he warned his people about the return of the Monster if they ever go back to their evil way. Even the signet will not be able to hold him back. Upon Storm’s death, the signet went to his descendants. From generation to generation the monster and the signet that controlled it faded into legend. But there are people who still believe whoever comes to possess the signet can summon the monster and control its power. Many have tried to find it, but all failed. Until now.

When he’s done telling the story the holograph dissipates.

“That can’t be true. It’s a fairy tale.” Eliza says, but John looks like he’s scared. He hugged his older sister several times.

“You’re right kiddo… It’s just a legend. Now let’s go back to the house.”

They walk out and Storm activates another hologram to make the room look abandoned. Eliza: “Whoa”

As they exit the house they hear a helicopter approaching fast. Storm hurries his kids inside the house and tells them to hide. Storm gives Eliza a device and tells her to keep it safe.

Storms walks out and meets the coming helicopter. From the point of view of the kids we see an argument that we can’t hear between Chaos and Storm. Chaos uses his technological advances to hurt Storm and take him on the helicopter.

John tries to leave but Eliza stops him. He’s able to escape from her and run towards the helicopter. When Choas sees him, he takes him with them. The helicopter flies away.

Eliza drops the device in a crevice and runs and enters the tower and goes to the window, to see the helicopter fly over the sea. But then John falls out.

“John…”

We meet an older police office Eliza as she’s involved in a car chase. Another car intercepts the thief’s car. It’s Danny, Eliza’s partner.

They reach a dead end and the thief abandons the car and runs into a truck warehouse.

The criminal shoots at them. They trap him in a truck warehouse and try to convince him to give up. He talks about his boss will save him.

Eliza indicates to Danny to lay cover fire as she climbs up over one of the trucks and then attacks the guy from above. Danny insists that he should do that. Eliza says it was her idea. Danny says that he’s the senior officer. Eliza surprises Danny by taking the initiative and climbs the truck.

Danny is forced to lay cover fire.

Eliza surprises the thief and they struggle. The guy reaches for some device and presses it. “You’re in trouble now.”

Eliza hand cuffs him. No you’re in trouble.

Suddenly the side of the warehouse explodes and Chaos with his bionic arm, leg and half his face bursts in.

Eliza retreats in fear as she comes face to face with her life long nemesis.

Chaos points his hand weapon at her, but Danny tackles him.

Chaos flings Danny off.

By this time Eliza is able to grab her gun and fire at Chaos. But Chaos activates a shield he uses to protect himself. The bullets ricochet off dangerously.

Chaos goes to the guy and takes the thing (signet) that he stole and kills the thief in cold blood. “Can’t have you spilling the beans)

Chaos retreats to his aircraft.

Eliza chases after him, but he’s starting to lift off. He smiles at her and waves goodbye. Eliza fires the remaining rounds in her pistol at the aircraft with no effect. Chaos’ aircraft had landed on Eliza’s car and destroyed Eliza: You killed my family. I’m gonna get you.

Danny catches up with her and they watch Chaos disappear on the horizon.

Eliza complains about her car.

Danny drops off Eliza in her large fancy house. “Next time you listen to me. I’m the senior officer. Just cause your parents pulled some strings to get you into the police academy…” Eliza: “I got where I’m at through my hard work.” Eliza not happy and leaves the car.

Eliza’s mother comes out and smothers Eliza. “Where is your car?” “I had a little accident.” Danny: “A little accident?” Eliza silences him with a look. Her mother clearly doesn’t know what Eliza really does. Mother says that she shouldn’t worry about the car. We’ll just get you another one. She asks about her “nice friend” Danny. “Oh he’s not my friend. He’s my training officer.” Mother insists that he comes in for dinner. Eliza says that he has things to do, but Danny agrees. Eliza isn’t happy. Danny smiles.

Danny asks why Eliza is being secretive. Eliza explains that her parents think she has a desk job. They worry too much.

As they walk into the house Eliza’s watch beeps and she excuses herself saying that she needs to change.

Mother excuses her daughter saying that she’s not the greatest host. Danny says it’s okay. He’ll see her tomorrow. Mother says that she’s sorry. Eliza likes to be alone a lot.

Danny leaves and starts to drive out. A motor cycle goes buzzing in front of him. He thinks that’s Eliza and he follows her.

He loses her, but sees her motorcycle in front of a restaurant. He enters and sees her talking with someone suspicious, will turn out to be John. Danny approaches her. Once the guy sees him, still dressed as a cop he knocks over the table and starts running.

Eliza runs after him, followed by Danny.

An on foot chase between Eliza and Danny and John ensues. Danny calls in reinforcement. The quality to shoot for would be like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_xbmpcPx0 Note that there are hardly any people there unlike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARRh0asQqJM (TBD - the details of the chase needs to be worked out based on the geometry of the scene)

The chase ends up with them on a roof top that has no other roof tops after it, essentially trapping John.

Eliza is faster than Danny and tries to talk him down. She assures him that she didn’t betray him.

Danny comes in with his gun ready. Eliza tells him to not shoot, it’s her brother.

John is startled and trips over the side of the building.

Eliza runs to his rescue. She reaches for him as she remembers the time when she tried to help him when they were young and climbed up in their father’s tower.

Danny comes in and helps her pull him up.

By this time other police officers are there and they arrest him.

Eliza is angry with Danny and they exchange a heated conversation about how he didn’t have the right to follow her, and he tells her that he’s her partner. They should be honest with each other. Eliza wouldn’t have any of it and she tells him that she’ll apply to get another partner. And that he should stay away from her. Danny says that he was trying to protect her. But Eliza doesn’t hear him as she walks away.

A couple of other officers take John away.

Danny interrogates John. He asks if Eliza is his sister. John says he only knew her a couple of weeks ago. What’s the kind of relationship you have with Eliza? John is sarcastic and says, why are you attracted to her? Danny continues asking: Why did you run? What are you hiding?

John explodes and talks about how broken the system is and how it needs an overhaul.

Danny is sarcastic and accuses John of being crazy and promises he’ll have him committed in the loony bin.

Suddenly the alarms go off and the room is plunged in darkness. The red emergency lights go on. Danny looks around and then walks out of the room.

Soon after Eliza walks in and throws a jacket and a hat on the table. She uncuffs John and tells him to come with her. After a moment’s hesitation he agrees.

They exit and walk past a few officers. They go into a stair well, and are blocked by Danny. Danny is taken a back and tells her that if she goes through with this, she’ll be throwing away her career and committing a felony.

Eliza takes out her gun and says this is something she must do. She asks him to turn around and then knocks him unconscious.

Eliza drives away speedily.

John thanks her for breaking him out.

Eliza tells him that she knows he’s a good person. After all her brother wouldn’t work for Chaos.

John tells her that for the hundredth time, he’s not her brother.

Eliza is disappointed and says irregardless we can’t give Chaos what he wants. He’s an evil man. Now where did you hide half of the signet?

John asks how can she help him now that she’s a fugitive as well. Eliza explains that if he helps her to apprehend Chaos then everything will be ok.

John tells her to take a right.

They go to John’s house which is old and isolated on the water. They go in, and John’s Dad comes out to meet them. He looks very sick. He asks where John has been. John tells him not to worry, just trying to make ends meet. Dad says that he worries about John. John says that he doesn’t need to worry about him. Dad says that he used to be a nice boy. John says what has nice gotten us? You’re sick. We can’t afford your medicine. I’m doing what needs to be done dad. Dad: At the expense of what? Your soul? Dad get sick and John supports him to the chair and apologizes for his outburst. He says that everything will be ok. My friend here is going to help me make everything alright. Now I have to go get something. Dad: Are you leaving again? John: Just for a little bit. But I’ll be back before you know it.

John excuses himself leaving Eliza and dad together.

Dad will you help him. Eliza: I’ll do my best. Eliza hesitates wanting to ask about how the man got to know John.

Dad says that both of you look so much alike. It’s like you’re his sister.

The expression on Eliza’s face says it all. She’s his sister. The dad realizes it. He says that he found John adrift in the ocean and when he retrieved him he had lost all his memory. He has raised him as his own, but is sorry that he couldn’t provide as much as he could’ve being poor.

Eliza comforts him saying that you did a great job. Thank you for saving my brother.

John comes back. Dad tells them to take care of each other. And moreover tells Eliza to protect John. Always will, she says.

They exit the house and Eliza asks to see the signet. It’s only half of the signet. Eliza says that we must destroy it. John leads her to a factory he says has machinery to grind it.

Once they are far enough Chaos’ aircraft decloacks and Chaos surprises them. John gives him the signet. Chaos is condescending towards John, “Nice doggy.” Eliza asks why? John tells her the world is messed up. We can’t get medicine to his dad. They lost everything because of the so called Law and Order. Chaos will fix all that.

Eliza tries to escape but Chaos traps her in an energy field and takes her with him in the aircraft.

Eliza meets her dad, Storm.

He confesses that he took money from Chaos, but he’s been trying to mislead him. Storm tells her about he forbidden city and that it’s real. The monster is real. Chaos already has the first half of the signet and if he gets the second half, he’ll be able to summon the power of the monster and control him.

Eliza still thinks it’s all a hoax.

Dad tells her not to reveal that she’s his daughter.

Chaos and John walk in.

Chaos starts off smiling, saying that he sent his best man, John to get the other half of the signet from the excavation site that John pointed them to and to his surprise it’s a fake.

Chaos says, John must have made a mistake and he should be punished. He hits John and then points his weapon arm at him.

Storm and Eliza scream no at the same time. Chaos is amused at their care for John. He’s being sneaky and says, it’s like you’re a family or something.

Chaos tells storm if he doesn’t tell him right now, he’ll kill John. Storm is struggling greatly.

Eliza tell Storm to give Chaos what he wants. Chaos says that she seems to care about John more than him. Chaos then turns to John and says, that Storm would rather let him die then reveal the location of a useless artifact.

John doesn’t understand why Storm would care. Chaos reveals that Storm is his real father. He abandoned him.

Chaos says to Storm it doesn’t matter anyway, after 10 years of Storm misleading him, he can’t trust him anymore. Then Chaos proceeds to press the trigger, when Eliza runs in front of John protecting him.

Eliza tells Chaos she knows where the signet is.

John stands up and smiles at Chaos saying that their trick worked.

Eliza is in disbelief that John played them.

Eliza looks at her father who seems broken.

Chaos attaches a bomb with a timer to Storm saying that if they are not back within four days, Storm will die.

Chaos sends John with Eliza to retrieve the second half of the signet..

Eliza and John go to her house to get the device to uncloak her dad’s lab. John has a weapon he’s threatening Eliza with.

Eliza’s mom is worried about her. She wonders who this guy is. Eliza says that he’s a friend. Eliza’s mother is struck with the resemblance.

John is impressed by the big house. You live here?

He goes on to say that’s why she doesn’t understand what poor people like him go through. She grew up having everything.

She tells him to quit feeling sorry for himself. He can’t justify helping an evil person like Chaos.

John speaks fondly of Chaos saying that he understood the struggles he faced because he faced them too. Chaos is going to destroy this system that’s keeping us all slaves.

As they go into the room he sees a picture of Eliza, her dad and himself. He’s confused and he has a quick flash of himself when he was a kid playing. He rejects the thought and says that she’s trying to trick him. And even if it’s true no one bothered to look for him. The end result is he was abandoned and had no opportunity while she lived in all this luxury. Eliza apologizes and says that she thought he was dead.

As they leave the house Danny is there and he calls the incident in. We know there are more officers to come.

They arrive at the castle. As they go up the stairs John starts recalling parts of his childhood. Eliza notices that he’s acting a bit weird, but he brushes it off, telling her to move.

Eliza uncloaks her father’s lab.

John calls his dad a weasel for hiding this all that time. Eliza reproves him saying that he’s your dad. John he’s no father of mine. You call Chaos bad. Storm is a traitor to our family. He chose this over us. And he got what he deserves

Eliza remembers what she saw that night when she spied on her father, and goes to the secret hiding spot. She unlocks a hidden safe and takes out a map and a device.

John plays with some equipment and a holograph is projected of the monster towering over ancient looking buildings. “That’s one ugly thing.” John discovers that the holograph is interactive and he has fun with it. Eliza takes the opportunity that he’s distracted and she encrypts the pad which has the map.

John zooms into a piece of the holographic map. He asks how did Storm create this? Eliza: I’m guessing he built it from the information he collected. What are these? John asks pointing to some fuzzy black formation that keep going in and out of the ancient buildings. But then the whole holograph fizzles away. John steps back surprised. “What happened”. We see the pad that Eliza holds and it shows that the data has been encrypted. Eliza: “Let’s go.”

Before they can leave a spotlight shines into the father’s office through the window. Danny on a loudspeaker asks them to surrender.

John starts firing at police below and they return fire.

Eliza protects John and she gets hit by a bullet.

She calls out that they surrender and they are coming down.

Eliza and John walk out arms up to the police.

Chaos’ ship decloaks and starts firing at the police cars destroying them. The police retreats.

Chaos lands and exits the craft searching for Eliza

Danny tries to face Chaos, but Chaos has a lot more fire power. He aims his arm weapon at Danny but Eliza saves Danny from certain death

Danny and Eliza hide behind a car.

Chaos approaches them.

Some police officers try to take him down but he deals with them easily.

Eliza tries to go and face him. Danny stops her, but she tells him that she must help her brother.

She goes to meet Chaos. Chaos asks for the map. She gives him the tablet,but when he looks at it, it’s encrypted. She tells him that she’s the only one who can decrypt it.

Professor Chaos smiles and asks “Why do you think they call me professor? For my good looks?” Then he decrypts himself.

Chaos points his gun and is about to kill Eliza but John convinces him that until they find the signet, they should keep her alive.

Chaos takes Eliza and John in the aircraft, but as he starts to lift-off Danny runs and hangs on the aircraft.

He climbs up and hides in the aircraft’s wheel nook.

The aircraft flies into the horizon.

They are over the mountains and hover over a specific spot, but there is nothing their except endless land. Chaos says that he’s right over the coordinates on the map. He says it’s another one of Storm’s hoaxes. Storm will die for this.

Eliza: no wait. There must be something more. She takes out the puzzle she found with the map and solves it just as she did so many times before.

The puzzle generates energy and floats by itself. Electrical bolts strike everywhere. The aircraft starts to malfunction and goes into a tale-spin.

They hit the ground hard and everything goes black.

Eliza wakes up in one shot. She’s beside the damaged aircraft which is half buried in the sand and half of it is simply not there. She looks around and sees an ancient city in the distance. She hears Danny asking where they are.

Danny approaches her. She’s surprised that he’s here. He throws the rock in the air and then it simply disintegrates.

Danny asks where are we.

Eliza asks how he got here. Danny says that he was able to get into the landing gear space.

Eliza suddenly realizes that John is not around and asks about him.

She starts looking for the map and the device. Danny asks what is she looking for. She tells him that she had a map. He tells her that he saw Chaos and Danny take some stuff off of her and leave.

She says that they must got find John before Chaos hurts him.

Danny: hurts him? He’s working for Chaos. He’s his right hand man. Danny is incredulous that she still cares about John after he betrayed her repeatedly. Eliza accuses him of not understanding what it means to lose a brother and then get him back. He counters that he lost his brother back in the attack Chaos carried against them. Well if you had an opportunity to get him back, wouldn’t you do everything to save him? I have that opportunity now.

Danny tells her that they will need some supplies if they plan to walk in the heat of the desert.

They grab a backpack of supplies and head into the depth of the worn down ancient city.

Danny asks what is this place. Eliza: Dad called it the forbidden city. It was hidden from the world so no one can find the monster. I thought it was all a legend. I thought if we proved that if it was all just a hoax then Chaos would let John go, but it appears like there is some truth to that legend. Danny: So now that we’re here how can we get back. Eliza says that if the device got them here, it should get them back.

Out of the sand some black mist appears.

A montage of them treking in the heat of the desert. They slowly run out of water and food.

Danny sits on a rock, while Eliza walks up a small hill. Danny drinks some sips of water. In the background we see these dark ghosts appear and disappearing eerily.

Eliza notices then and she looks back to see Danny messing with her backpack (it’s all in her head). She accuses him of trying to steal something from her back. He doesn’t know what she’s going on about. She reaches for his back to see if he hid something. He prevents her. They struggle and the water bottle falls over and spills. Danny: Great, now we’re stuck in the middle of the desert and we don’t even have a sip of water left. She asks suspiciously why are you here? You never wanted anything but to falsely imprison my brother. Your brother is all guilty lady, and I’m planning to put him in prison myself. Eliza scrambles for her bag and takes out a gun. You can never understand what I went through after I saw my brother fall off a plan. You’re not going to take him away from me.

The black mist ghosts start to be more pronounced.

Danny feigns resignation, but then he knocks the gun out of her hand. They scramble for the gun. Eliza picks up a rock and is about to hit him over the head with it, but stops herself when she sees the ghost. He materializes and says “Do it. Kill him.” After an intense moment of her struggling with what she should do. She throws it aside and scrambles away.

Suddenly, that mist materializes into an ugly monster which appears real. Eliza backs away frighting. Danny tells her to shoot him. She shoots round after round, but it doesn’t do anything to the monster. He roars at them. Eliza realizes that none of this is real. The monster is not leaving any foot prints. He attacks them and simply disappears into a mist. She realizes that his place is messing with their mind. That must be the power that Chaos is after. Imagine if he can just turn everyone against each other.

They continue their trek towards the city.

It has gotten dark. The only source of light is the moon and the stars. Eliza and Danny park it, saying that it’s getting too dark to move on. They wonder about the complete silence. No crickets, no animal sounds, nothing. Completely dead.

Eliza excuses herself to go pee.

As she finishes, she hears movement. She goes to check it out and is surprised to see John. In the dark she can hardly see him, but as he steps into the light of the moon Eliza notices that he’s wounded. She rushes to him and asks what happened. He pushes her away and accuses her that this is all her fault. Eliza says that she tried her best to find him. He says that if she only held him tighter and not let him run after Chaos, he wouldn’t die. Now his death is going to be on her head again. Eliza cries and pleads with him to live. She tries to help him again, but he pushes her away. He appears to be in great pain. If you have any decency, then end me now. He throws her a gun: Do it. I’m already dead. Or do you want me to suffer more. Eliza hesitates. John yells at her: do it, Please.

Eliza picks up the gun and points it at John, very conflicted. John repeats the request to kill him.

We cut to Danny’s point of view and we see Eliza pointing the gun at her own head. Danny yells at her, bringing her out of her vision. When Eliza looks back at John he smiles and evil smile and vanishes into a black mist. We see an unclear face of a monster in the mist before it dissipates.

Eliza’s gun arm drops and she breaks down. Danny goes and hugs her. She keeps repeating that it’s her fault. Danny: What did you see? Eliza: John, he was dying. It’s all my fault. Danny: No. It’s not. I’ve been thinking about this place. It’s amplifying all our negative feelings, suspicion, fear, guilt. It makes it so real to us. Eliza, you’re right we need to stop Chaos.

The next day they travel until they reach their destination; a Cathedral looking building. According to the map the second half of the signet is inside.

Eliza and Danny sneak inside. The only gun they have only has 3 bullets left. They walk through long corridors. The walls of the corridors have paintings of soldiers fighting a monster. One promenant man in the painting reaches inside the heart of the monster and pulls out its heart. The next drawing is of the man holding the signet up high and forcing the monster into the earth.

Eliza and Danny are careful not to make any noise until they come to an open area. In the middle there is a shrine. They can clearly see the signet in a box on the shrine. Erected on either side of the shrine are two suites of armor, with their Sword and Spear and shield. Problem is Chaos and John are there.

Chaos says at last he will have the power to change the world.

Eliza and Danny count down from 3 and surprise them. Chaos is distracted. He fires his weapon. Eliza fires back. Danny takes the opportunity to take the box with the signet. Chaos is outraged. A fight ensues. The suite of armor fall to the ground.

Chaos is able to overcome both Eliza and Danny, flinging them to the side, but doesn’t kill them because he wants them to see his power and how he will change the world.

He breaks the box and picks up the second half of the signet, he takes the first half off a necklace he’s wearing it around his neck. That’s when a spear penetrates his back and extrudes out of his chest. He looks down in disbelief before he falls dead. Behind him John looks at him in disdain, saying that Chaos never deserved the power. Eliza tries to dissuade him from use it. He says that his entire life he has been powerless at the mercy of people like Chaos. The world has given him the short end of the stick. Payback is a bitch. He takes both halves of the signet and joins him, even though Eliza protests against it.

The signet emits a strong flash of light. Black mist ghosts start to emerge from the ground and they spin around John like a whirlwind.

The monster forms around John until only the monster is there. It’s big and ugly and scary.

Danny picks up one of the spears and charges the monster. But the monster holds the spear and breaks it. He hits Danny sending him flying and hitting the wall.

The Monster charges Danny intending to kill him, but Eliza gets in the way and hold her hand up, fully expecting to die with Danny, but the monster stops. The monster and Eliza lock eyes before the monster jumps through a glass window and disappears.