Then electricity bursts forth from the equipment racks and arcs from your pod among the three of you. The surrounding glass shines with an otherworldly light; then you lose consciousness.
* * *
You slowly open your eyes, hesitant, expecting pain or weariness. You don’t have a scratch on you. Did you imagine the explosion?
As you look around, you find that the laboratory exists no more; there’s only rubble. The entire building came down overhead, but there’s a miraculous three-foot circle around you with no debris or damage. The glass pod and lid are mysteriously absent, but the base upon which you are lying is intact.
When you stand up, you see that the other two pods have a similar ring of safety around them. Your fellow test subjects lie on their own pod bases, curled like fetuses, unmoving. It’s impossible to tell from here if they’re alive or dead.
The distant wail of police sirens draws your attention to the horizon. It isn’t just the lab that’s gone; it’s an area the size of a city block. The Mercury University campus is decimated. Beyond, smoldering rock dots the green quad as if after a meteor shower.
The world appears to you in new ways, whispering its secrets. When you see a particularly large concrete slab fifteen feet away, you instantly know the velocity that sent it flying. The moments and angles tell you the source of the explosion—shockingly, it was all three pods. There wasn’t an exterior source; the pods were the source. Three equal explosions—but why are you left unharmed?
The other two testees stir. You give them a moment to gather themselves.
“Everyone okay?” you ask.
Nick nods. “Where’s the scientist?”
Catherine starts to walk away.
“Where are you going?” you ask.
“My son—I need to pick up my son from school.”
Everyone deals with trauma differently, you think. “I haven’t seen any sign of the experiment proctor,” you say.
Nick simply nods. You both watch Catherine walk away.
• “I’ve got this nagging feeling that this is no ordinary experiment. I mean, will anyone believe we survived without a scratch? It’s probably best if we’re not here when the cops show up.”
• “I’d like to stay and tell the police what happened. See if I can’t learn more.”
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Pawn
Nick sets up your meeting with Agent Droakam at a public park across the street from the Mercury City FBI headquarters building. At the back of the park, there’s a pay phone where you’ll call Nick once the job’s done.
You wait on a bench, cattycorner from an elderly woman feeding pigeons who flutter around her each time she tosses out a handful of seed. When they suddenly fly away, you look up.
Agent Droakam’s trench coat flows in the breeze as he approaches. His hard face is unreadable beneath the black sunglasses. You stand up to meet him.
“That’s far enough,” you say.
He stops and waits to see if you’ll say something. You keep an eye on his hands, mentally picturing his gun holster. You’ve got your DinoSkin on, but your head is vulnerable.
At length, he says, “Why did you have to blow up the lab?”
You pause and think for a moment. “Self-preservation.”
Droakam shakes his head. “We could’ve made something together. A Brave New World.”
“Not exactly the sacrifice for my country I’d envisioned.”
“There’s always sacrifice,” he says.
You say nothing in response. After a moment, you use your telekinesis to float the thumb drive over to the agent.
“You’ve got what you want. Now will you leave us alone?”
He nods. “If that’s how you want it.”
Agent Droakam turns and walks back through the park to the headquarters building. You watch until the agent is gone, then make your way to the pay phone and call Nick.
“It’s done,” you say after he picks up.
“Good. Hold the line a few minutes. I’m tracking remotely to see if they’ve uploaded.”
You wait, watching a jogger pass through the park. Five minutes go by, then ten. You try your best to be patient, as you can imagine it might take a while before Agent Droakam uploads the files.
“Nick? Still there?”
“Ah! There it is! Droakam has opened the file. I now have full access to the FBI’s mainframe. Sorry for the deceit, but the true reason I had you give the agent that thumb drive was to deliver a Trojan program allowing me remote control of the secure government networks. I can now do what I did at the warehouse computer terminal, but from anywhere in the world.”
“I don’t get it,” you say. “Why wouldn’t you just tell me that in the first place?”
“Well, to answer that, I must first apologize.”
“Okay…for what?”
“For all the lies and deception. After all, if I told you I had full control over the government system, complete with administrative privileges, you might start putting the pieces together. You might—for example—guess that I had sent that dissection memo from Droakam’s account.”
Your heart falls into the pit of your stomach.
“Why?” It’s all you can say.
“The Supersoldier Program was too dangerous. I had to drive a wedge between you and Agent Droakam. You were willing to do anything he said. I had hoped to use you in other ways, but Christ—how spineless can a superhuman be? Even when I made Droakam your enemy, it was ‘Oh, let’s run away!’ ‘No, I don’t want to fight.’ ‘Let’s hide.’ It was hard to put up with, really.”
“You’ll never get away with this, Nick. I’ll go tell Droakam right now.”
“Ah, no. See, that’s the other reason I made you wait on the line. I took video with my smart phone of your meeting with Agent Droakam and just sent it to Catherine. She was furious when I told her you stole the plans and were selling off the secret of our powers to a shadowy government agent. She’s on her way now, and after she takes care of you, she and I are going to take on the FBI—you know, to stop them from creating a race of superhumans. After that, it’s only a small step to get her on board with the idea of ruling the nation. Maybe the world, I’m not sure yet.”
“Nick…”
“Is she there yet? She should be there by now.”
The phone falls from your hand, dangling by its cord when you step away and turn around. There she is, in full costume, bearing down on you. The ground rumbles and your vision tunnels. It’s like watching a lion rush in, like you’re watching pre-recorded footage and there’s nothing you can do stop what’s about to happen.
“Catherine, wait—”
“You goddamned SON OF A BITCH!”
An unstoppable juggernaut, she lunges at you. There’s no time to reason, so you fling yourself into the air and hurtle toward the clouds as fast as your mind will take you. Up, up, higher and higher.
Just as you think you’re free, something constricts around your leg. Catherine’s hand. It’s like you’ve suddenly been anchored with an anvil. You start falling, fast.
This is the difference between a marathon runner and a sprinter. You could outpace her in the end, but her leap into the sky was much quicker than yours. You’re at least six stories into the air, but that doesn’t seem to bother her.
Now she throws you back toward the ground, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
“It’s Nick!” you desperately cry.
She hurls you down against the jogging path like a fly swatter against a countertop. There’s a sick slap and not a bone left unbroken in your body. Now that you’re out of the picture, there’s no one to foil Nick’s plans.
THE END
Perpetrated
When you arrive back at the warehouse, Nick is there to greet you.
“We…we got him,” you say, somewhat distant. “Droakam’s still finishing up at the scene.”
Nick gestures to the computer. “So I see. The Supersoldier Program has b
een reinstated, complete with a nice boost to funding. A team will be here tomorrow to help organize and install any equipment.”
You nod. It’s been a long day and you’re feeling the effects of an adrenaline crash. You run a weary hand down your face.
Nick notices and asks, “Coffee?”
“I’m gonna take a quick shower,” you announce.
The bathroom—there’s only one, as the facility was constructed during a pre-women-in-the-government era—is much like a gymnasium locker room. It feels enormous and open when you’re in there by yourself. Leaving the DinoSkin suit across one of the benches, you head in for a much-needed wash. When was your last shower? Before the accident?
You let the shampoo lather itself into your hair using telekinesis and give yourself a backrub with the power of mind. A full self-service spa experience. You try to manipulate the water coming from the showerhead, but you’re unable to affect the entire stream at once. You can make quite a splash, but you can’t, say, send all the water up to the ceiling and keep the floor dry. Droakam was right—your abilities work more like arms than like a solid force.
When you exit the shower, you find that the Dinoskin supersuit has been placed back up on a mannequin in the corner of the locker room. Your plain clothes are folded on the bench where you left the suit.
“Nick?” you call out.
An electric whirring draws your attention around the corner. The same robot that was earlier cataloging the crates waits for you, with a fresh towel held out by a mechanical arm.
“Uh, thanks.”
Once you’re dressed, you find Nick at the computer terminal. It’s like he’s glued to the thing. “Droakam back yet?” you ask, still rubbing the towel against your hair.
Nick hesitates a moment, staring at you with a profound sadness.
“What is it?” you ask.
“There’s something you should see. I found this while you were washing up—it’s the progress report the agent filed on us. You may want to sit down.”
He pulls up an email on the computer console, then offers the chair.
TO: ALCON, Pentagon
BODY: Initial results were promising, although subject Nick Dorian tells me he’s unable to recreate the experiment that gave them their powers. While I think I can control the Telekinetic, Dorian seems to have an ulterior agenda. As to what, I’m unable to ascertain.
FINDINGS: As a pair, they lack the military discipline expected of operatives. Therefore, in the interest of the project, it is the opinion of this agent that they could tell us more as cold resources than as warm bodies. Using Dorian’s models of the project, and the two subjects as finished products, we should be able to Reverse-Engineer the experiment.
RECOMMENDATION: Dissection.
SIGNED: Agent Brendan Droakam, FBI
Whoa, let that sink in….Having finished reading but unsure what to say, you look back to Nick.
“I set my system to intercept communications, and it’s a good thing I did. I mean—Jesus.”
“Recommendation: Dissection?” you say, still dumbfounded.
“I don’t know how much time we have. If his superiors approve, they could be coming for us tonight. I—I’m not sure what we should do, but we have to act, don’t you think?”
• “We fight back.”
• “We should run.”
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Placate
Nick shrugs. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but I don’t think there’s any other way. Once they have the key to superpowered creation, they shouldn’t want anything more from us.”
You nod, though it feels somewhat like defeat.
“Okay, I’ll get in touch with Agent Droakam to set up a meeting between you two. Somewhere public, but don’t be afraid to fly out if things go south. You’ll be going it alone—you can be in and out far easier without me slowing you down.”
• Get ready for your “drop.”
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Players’ Club
“I’ve just been getting lucky, I swear,” Nick says as the elevator doors open.
The college student stares at you with wide-eyed wonder. He then looks around the penthouse before his gaze comes to rest on your unassuming self.
“You?” he finally lets out.
“Welcome to my casino.”
“Let me get this straight,” he says, shaking his head in disbelief. “You own a casino, yet you moonlight by participating in $500 experiments just for fun?”
Halifax and Stockton exchange a look.
“Leave us,” you say.
And with that, your staff is gone.
“Nice hat,” Nick says.
You walk over to the wet bar and pour a drink. “As of last night, I own a casino. Tell me, have you always been able to count cards, or did you find yourself…different after yesterday’s experiment?”
His eyes get wide once more.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” you say with a grin.
“Well, it’s not something I can show off, you know? Or explain. My mind is just…better now. I see patterns, the way things work. I think faster, more creatively, like my mind’s on overdrive. On my way up here, I calculated a 14 percent chance of getting thrown off the balcony. But compared with a 76 percent chance of getting roughed up—or killed—in the alley, I figured I’d better take it.”
“Interesting,” you say, pouring a second drink.
“What about you? Did you mastermind a takeover? Buy the whole place outright with your winnings?”
“Mine is a bit…different as well. Let me show you.”
With the power of mind, you float one of the cocktails across the room to Nick.
“Fantastic,” he says.
• “Look, I aim to run this town. If you need a favor, you come see me. If not, stay out of my way!”
• “Should we combine forces? With the casino’s resources at our disposal….”
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Plucked
Nick sighs. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t just let you steal my money. Knowing you’d win and all.”
“What?” you say, genuinely confused.
“Yeah, this is my casino as of last night. I didn’t want to tell you that before I gave you a chance to join up, but now that you don’t need little ol’ me, you can go take a hike.”
Nick steps away and looks behind you. You turn back—right into the full security team of the casino. Two dozen men, armed and ready to gun you down.
“That’s why you don’t steal from the Planet Mercury casino!” Nick yells for the benefit of the nearby gawkers. “No matter how slick you think you are, we see everything.”
“You little bastard!” you shout.
Without thinking, you grab Nick with the force of mind and fling him up toward the high-domed ceiling of the Planet Mercury casino. When he reaches the top, you release him and let gravity do its work. Nick screams as he falls 60 feet down to land atop the poker tables. He folds.
That’s when the security team guns you down. They shoot you in the back, making you just another loser left to die on the casino floor.
THE END
Poor Threat Assessment
You fly to the high, vaulted ceilings, flipping up and over the battle to land before the two men. Agent Droakam goes for the handgun at his hip, so you mentally shove the agent into the roaring fireplace. The Experi-mentor backs away in fear, that look on his face that so many mad scientists get when their creations turn on them.
“You like to play with fire?” a voice from behind calls out.
You turn just in time to be engulfed in flames by the firestarter agent. Fire? Again? Your skin sears, but you don’t lose consciousness, not yet. Nothing has ever hurt like this before. You blast psychic energy in all directions, fighting blindly. Possibly killing the man. It’s hard to tell.
“Agent Freeze!” the Experi-mentor calls out over your and Droakam’s screams of agony.
The Ex-man in questio
n blasts the fireplace with frost-ridden air, extinguishing his boss and possibly saving the man’s life. But he does nothing for you.
In panic, you fly into the air, soaring as fast as you can to starve the fire of oxygen. Like a brightly burning comet, you careen into the far wall at well over sixty miles per hour.
Why fight the soldiers when you can easily take out the officers? Because the soldiers are the ones with superpowers…duh.
THE END
Portal Combat
In response to your commands, the staff opens a gate to an alternate world. The purple jewel at the top matches a 10-by-6-foot purple portal that opens in the center of the room. Well, time to go say hello.
When you step through the portal, a woman is there to greet you. Amazingly, it’s Catherine Woodall, the woman from the experiment—or at least someone who looks exactly like her. This version wears zippered black leather from head to toe, covering everything except her head and her bare left arm with some kind of techno-gauntlet on the forearm. Her right shoulder has thick steel spikes protruding from it.
Fascinating. Perhaps you’ll rename The Staff as “Bizarro-maker.”
At Catherine’s side, this world’s Nick stands dumbfounded, still just a college student in plain clothes, and then you see…yourself. Your doppelganger is slightly taller, athletic and muscular. It’s what you’d look like if you were an Olympian in peak physical condition. You wave hello to yourself. The gemstone at the top of the staff glints and the portal blinks closed in response.
“Rock, Paper, or Scissors?” Catherine asks.
“I’m sorry?” you say.
“In this universe, I chose paper,” she replies.
“So did I. Incredible. That means it worked!”
Catherine-the-genius turns back to your doppelganger and Nick. In a huddle, they discuss something while you look around the reactor. It’s a makeshift lab in its own right. On the far corner, there’s a mobile/trailer home, but it’s been modified, and mechanical spider legs protrude from beneath. In the center of the room, there’s a futuristic-looking rifle on a tripod, plugged into the nuclear power station through several thick cables. Wonder what that’s for?
SUPERPOWERED: Are YOU a Superhero or Supervillain? (Click Your Poison Book 3) Page 30
