Isolation

by Kevin Hardman

  “Maybe,” I muttered unconvincingly, “but I should have trusted you. All my instincts told me that you’d never do what they were accusing you of without a reason, but I pretty much let them convince me.”

  “Again, you can’t blame yourself for any of that. I mean, you had the rest of the League telling you I’d gone rogue and offering proof of it. And of course, I wasn’t telling you anything – at least not directly.”

  “It’s just weird to think that they put on that entire dog-and-pony show just to convince me that you had to be stopped.”

  “Well, they desperately needed to get you on their side.”

  “Why? Just to hunt you down?”

  “That’s part of it,” Mouse admitted. “But the primary reason is because they know that, with you helping me, they might as well just march themselves back into that prison.”

  Chapter 58

  “The people who built the Construct always assumed that the Busuigno might escape one day,” Mouse said, “so they prepared for it.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Any Busuigno who leaves the Construct is marked with an interdimensional tag.”

  “Don’t you mean a mid-dimensional tag?”

  “No, professor,” Mouse shot back, “because it tracks them even if they move across dimensions.”

  “Oh – kind of like a cosmic ankle bracelet.”

  “It’s even better, because it can be used to pull them back into the Construct.”

  “So it’ll just claw them back like a giant magnet?” I muttered incredulously. “That’s great!”

  “It would be, but the ‘magnet,’ as you put it, seems to be offline.”

  “Can’t you fix it?” I asked.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to do,” Mouse insisted. “Every time you’ve seen me battling the League the past few days, it’s because I was trying to get components to repair that system.”

  “Wait a minute,” I blurted out. “They told me you were taking pieces of a doomsday device to take over the world.”

  “And you believed them?”

  “I had no reason not to,” I admitted. “But if you were only taking parts to fix the Construct, why’d you attack them in the Combat Arena?”

  Mouse gave me an odd look. “Excuse me?”

  “You attacked a couple of League members, including Luna, in the Combat Arena.”

  “Not me,” Mouse said, shaking his head.

  “Yeah, you,” I countered. “Luna said you…” I trailed off, suddenly feeling foolish. “They lied, didn’t they?”

  Rather than answer directly, Mouse said, “Are you sure you’re not under the Busuigno’s control? Because you seem to buy everything they’re selling.”

  Ignoring his jape, I sighed and stated, “Again, it seems like a lot of effort to go through just for me.”

  “They needed to convince you I was an enemy – make you wary in case I approached you. Faking an attack is as good a method as any.”

  “Still, I can’t believe I fell for that.”

  “Okay, before you start getting down on yourself, let’s just put it out there: the Busuigno are good at this stuff. They’ve probably had eons to practice how to manipulate others. That being the case, even I was wary when I met you in the lab, because I thought it could be a trick.”

  “Until my ignorance in saying you were infected revealed that I was the real Jim. Or at least showed I wasn’t being controlled.”

  Mouse chuckled. “Why don’t we just focus on the task at hand?”

  “Fine by me,” I replied.

  “Good,” Mouse said. “Here’s the plan…”

  ***

  Mouse’s plan for bringing the Busuigno Magnet (as I called it) back online was fairly simple.

  “I’ve got three of the requisite components,” he stated. “There are another four we need, but it should be a piece of cake for you.”

  “How do you figure?” I asked.

  “You can teleport in and out in a flash, and with your phasing ability, you won’t have to waste time fighting anyone.”

  “That raises a point I meant to bring up earlier,” I said. “When you zoomed away from the helipad and I took off after you, you hit me with some kind of weapon. What was it?”

  Mouse looked uncomfortable for a second, like this was a subject he didn’t care for.

  “Just to be clear,” he began, “I haven’t made a habit of studying you or trying to figure out your weaknesses. This was something I did based on pure speculation.”

  “Okay,” I intoned. “What was it?”

  Mouse appeared to reflect for a moment before speaking. “Since you’ve been with the League’s teen affiliate, you’ve gotten into a couple of scrapes that led to you requiring medical attention. Of course, any medical information about you is confidential, but as leader of the League, I’ve seen it.”

  “Okay,” I said with a nod, “but I assume you’ve looked at everybody’s.”

  “True, but – as has been stated numerous times – your physiology is unique. That being the case, I noticed from your records that you have several unknown organs, one of which – among other things – seems to store an extra quantity of air aside from your lungs. From all appearances, that organ gets a good workout when you phase, because it can siphon air directly as opposed to you breathing it in.”

  “Let me guess,” I chimed in. “You sucker-punched that organ.”

  “Technically, I irritated the air going into that organ and it reacted – much like throwing black pepper into someone’s face will make then sneeze.”

  “Which is also something you did.”

  “That actually wasn’t pepper,” Mouse corrected. “I hit Alpha Prime with something more potent, but yeah – same reaction.”

  “Well, the point I was trying to get to was asking whether the League has that weapon, since to effectuate your plan, I have to phase.”

  “Absolutely not,” Mouse assured me. “No one has it but me, and I wasn’t even sure it would work.”

  “What about when we were in the Vault? I tried using my teleportation power on you but it didn’t work.”

  “That’s because you tried to teleport a hologram – a decoy,” Mouse replied. “I was actually on the other side of the wall section, using a device that bent light waves around me.”

  “And if you can bend light waves around an object, you effectively make it invisible.”

  Mouse smiled. “I’m glad all those physics lessons didn’t go to waste.”

  “Again, is that something the League has, or is it Mouse-specific?”

  Mouse laughed. “I’m the only one who has it, but that’s immaterial since it never truly affected your teleportation power.”

  “Still, I have to ask,” I stated. “The two powers you’re saying I need to use are the very two you’ve seemingly been able to circumvent, so I need to make sure no one else can.”

  “Well, just so you know, I wasn’t specifically focused on you,” Mouse said. “I’m pretty isolated here, with limited resources, and I was going up against the entire League every time I showed my face, so I had to have a variety of tools on hand: flash bombs, frictionless grease, dimensional doors on the ground, dimensional doors in the air… I tried to stay unpredictable.”

  “And you’ve been doing all this by yourself?”

  “It’s not like I had a choice,” Mouse declared. “The Busuigno control almost everybody, and anyone they couldn’t control, they got rid of. Take Li for instance; he’s not human so he’s not susceptible to their control. Plus, he doesn’t see the way we do, which means there’s a possibility he could perceive them in some way. They sent him off on a bogus mission. Same thing with Esper – with her mental powers, she might have realized something was off, so they sent her on a snipe hunt as well. It’s the same with almost everybody else.”

  I frowned, concentrating on his words. “You said ‘almost’ everybody else. Who’s left?”

  “Vixen, but she’s safe – h
oled up in another dimensional room like this one. Basically, she’s the back-up plan if we fail.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I remarked sarcastically.

  Mouse laughed. “You don’t need a confidence booster. This will be a cakewalk for you.”

  “What about this thing attached to me?”

  Mouse gave me a curious look. “What about it?”

  “Won’t it tell the others what we’re up to?”

  “I guess I failed to explain how they communicate,” Mouse said. “In their own space, they can speak mind-to-mind, but when they attach to another being, they can typically only use the methods of communication available to their host.”

  “So basically, they can only communicate using speech,” I surmised.

  “Correct,” Mouse stated. “But that reminds me: some of them do have a low-level form of telepathy, but it typically requires them to be near one another.”

  “Well, how do we know the one attached to me isn’t one of the telepathic ones – even if it is dying?”

  “It didn’t warn Electra that you switched plates, did it?”

  “No,” I replied. “So I guess we’re safe on that front.”

  “Good,” Mouse said. “Now let’s get started locking these yahoos back up.”

  Chapter 59

  As Mouse had predicted, getting the remaining components was a piece of cake for me and required minimal preparation. First, he showed me images of each so that I wouldn’t have any trouble recognizing them. (They looked like metallic trinkets of various shapes, although each was no more than a few inches in size.) He also gave me a Y-shaped electronic device that was about six inches long and which served as a tracker, among other things. At that juncture, he turned me loose.

  Apparently, the Busuigno had garnered an idea of what Mouse was trying to do early on. However, their attempts to move some of the parts he needed by chopper and armored transport had obviously met with failure. Thus, for the last four items, they had resorted to a strategy of simply guarding the components.

  Mouse, of course, had already pinpointed their location. Two were still in the Vault, and it was easy enough to show up there, phased, via a dimensional door that my mentor opened, and simply teleport those guarding the components elsewhere. (To be specific, I dumped them – two teams led by Luna and Buzz, respectively – in the marina where Mouse kept his boat.) The tracker, which doubled as a skeleton key of sorts, opened the appropriate Vault sections – one in the floor and one in a wall – and led me to the items we needed.

  The third component was deep underground in a subterranean chamber below HQ that I never even knew existed. I had to fly down an elevator shaft to get there, but once I arrived, it was the same process: teleport those League members present to the marina and take the component. (In this instance, it was in something akin to a wall safe, which the tracker was able to unlock.)

  The last item was a little trickier to retrieve. It was in the personal possession of Alpha Prime, who was in his quarters at League HQ. Having been there before, I simply teleported inside. Much to my surprise, he was waiting for me.

  He was standing in the living room, dressed in his Alpha League uniform. My attention, however, was immediately drawn to the fact that he had his hands together, holding them in a manner that suggested he was using them to hide something from view. I didn’t need the tracker to tell me that what he held was the last component.

  “I know why you’re here,” he stated, “but I was hoping we could talk.”

  “There’s nothing for us to talk about,” I shot back, knowing it was a mistake to engage. This wasn’t my father I was talking to; it was some thing from another dimension or reality controlling him.

  “I think you’re wrong,” he replied. “I have an offer that might interest you.”

  I didn’t bother responding. Instead, I simply stared at his hands. Under normal circumstances, Alpha Prime’s position would have been unassailable. There was probably nothing on the planet capable of prying his hands open and forcibly taking what he held. Fortunately, the circumstances were anything but normal.

  Continuing to look at Alpha Prime’s hands, I turned them invisible up to the elbow. This seemed to startle him for a moment, and also gave me my first look at the component he held – an ebon-colored little doodad shaped like a cube and about one square inch in size. I teleported it into my hand before making Alpha Prime’s hands visible again. Then I used the tracker to open a dimensional door and swiftly returned to Mouse’s little hideaway.

  Chapter 60

  Upon my return, I immediately handed over the doomsday components to Mouse.

  “Any problems?” he asked as he took the devices over to a nearby worktable.

  “None,” I replied, shaking my head as I thought about all the League members – Luna, Buzz, etcetera –who I’d dumped in the marina. “I mean, Alpha Prime tried to make me an offer, but I ignored him.”

  Mouse gave me an odd look. “What kind of offer?”

  I shrugged. “Don’t know. As I said, I ignored him.”

  “Hmmm,” Mouse droned, obviously thinking.

  A moment later, he seemingly put the thought aside and turned his attention to the doomsday components. In essence, he put on a pair of what I referred to as “mad scientist goggles” with telescopic lenses, and then began using various tools (including a miniature laser) to work on the items I had retrieved. I watched him in silence, openly curious.

  After a few minutes, Mouse – continuing to work without looking up – finally said, “Go ahead and ask.”

  “Ask what?” I responded.

  “Whatever’s on your mind. I can feel your curiosity building up like a volcano about to erupt.”

  “I’m just wondering what you’re doing.”

  “I’m making modifications to the devices you retrieved.”

  “I can see that,” I countered. “I’m just wondering why.”

  “What – did you think these components came magically designed to work with the Construct?” he asked rhetorically. “I have to adjust and tweak them so they’ll do what we need.”

  I let this sink in for a moment, then stated, “That raises another question: the Busuigno have been trying to keep you from getting these little doohickeys, so presumably they know what you’re up to.”

  “Probably,” Mouse agreed. “As I said before, they’re not stupid.”

  “Then why didn’t they just destroy the components? That would keep you from turning on the Construct Magnet and revoking their parole.”

  “I’m guessing they didn’t want to risk blowing themselves up.”

  “What?!” I uttered incredulously.

  Mouse continued to work without looking up. “These components come from doomsday devices, and a couple of them pack quite a punch – could leave all of HQ a smoking crater, in fact.”

  “I thought all that stuff was disarmed when it got put in the Vault.”

  “It was disassembled,” Mouse corrected. “There’s a difference.”

  “Apparently so,” I quipped.

  “Look, if it makes you nervous, just go in a corner and phase or something,” Mouse suggested.

  “Thanks,” I replied. “Maybe I will.”

  ***

  I didn’t phase, but I did step back and give Mouse room to work in peace. A short time later, he removed the goggles and set aside the equipment he’d been using.

  “Okay, I think we’re ready,” he announced.

  “Great,” I said. “I’m ready for this thing to be off me.”

  “I’m sure it’s eager to detach, seeing as how otherwise it’ll die,” Mouse noted. “Anyway, the next step is for you to simply attach the components to the Construct.”

  “Attach?” I queried, raising an eyebrow. “Do I need to glue them on or something?”

  “No – bad choice of words on my part,” he admitted. “They’ll adhere on their own, but you have to put each one in the right spot to kick-start the Construct
Magnet, as you call it.”

  “Well, where exactly do they go?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Mouse said with a smile before pulling up an image of the Construct. “Now, pay attention…”

  Chapter 61

  It took about ten minutes for Mouse to feel that I could properly recall where to place all seven doomsday components. In truth, I actually had it memorized well before then, but my mentor insisted on drilling it into me over and over. Given the stakes, I couldn’t say I blamed him. At some point, however, he pronounced me fit for service, which finally gave me a chance to ask some questions.

  “After I get all these contraptions on the Construct,” I began, “how long before the Busuigno are back where they belong?”

  “Should be just a few minutes,” Mouse said.

  “Any reason I can’t just teleport the Construct somewhere off the grid and do all this stuff with the doomsday components?”

  “Again, it’s not grounded in our reality. As a result, it’s sensitive to abnormal spatial distortions.”

  “Like teleportation,” I surmised.

  “Yeah,” Mouse said with a nod. “I think it views anything like that as a prison break. It will go into lockdown mode, and the Construct Magnet will be useless.”

  “Okay, no teleporting the mid-dimensional prison,” I noted. “Regardless, it’s nice to know this will all be over soon.”

  Mouse stared at me for a moment, plainly contemplating something.

  “Look, Jim,” he finally said, “I know it seems like we probably have this situation under control, but I need you to be just as careful and vigilant as always.”

  “I know,” I assured him. “What makes you think I wouldn’t be?”

  Mouse shrugged. “Sometimes people in your situation have a tendency to get ahead of themselves, and it creates problems.”

  “My situation?” I repeated. “Are you talking about the Busuigno attached to me?”

  “I’m talking about the future you,” Mouse explained. “Because you’ve met him, you may be thinking that somehow everything turns out okay. I need you to understand that that’s not necessarily true. The future isn’t set. It’s not fixed. It’s variable, and the decisions you make can easily change things – alter what you think is a set course.”