by Dave Nesbit
“I hope you don't mind your current situation, but frankly we need a test subject.” The man said as Cathy floated into my field of vision. “Our friend here determined you would be a likely candidate for us to see if we could determine any major physiological changes in the body of a ‘Touched’. We've had luck with examining the corpses of others but we wanted a live subject for these tests.”
I tried to reach out with my power to feel anything, no dice. I was shut down and in shit-shape. This was not going well at all. It dawned on me that I was still naked and that if the people who had me had any sense they likely dumped my glasses, pad and anything else that might have a GPS chip in it.
I couldn't move my mouth to talk and could only just work up the energy to breathe with the drugs they had given me. So I was forced to listen as the nice man in the scrubs continued talking. Cathy looked over his shoulder.
“I would say what is going to happen to you is unfortunate, and for you it is, but with our need for information you are kind of a gold mine. Congratulations Mr. Larkin you'll likely be the key to help us purify the human race again.”
The Doctor selected a scalpel and I tried even harder to move or to find the senses which had left me. As the Doctor took his time examining the blade, Cathy walked past him and to me. “Sorry about this, but please be aware it will all work out well in the end.” She reached down with her hand and patted the inside of my thigh. I felt something sticky and warm on my leg and she walked off.
Now I was wondering what it might feel like to go through the things this head-case clearly had planned for me. Which is one of the downsides of having a vivid imagination. The man brought the scalpel down in a long line along my bicep, drawing deep and causing me to bleed intensely.
I felt the pain and then all of a sudden I felt something else.
I could feel the scalpel in his hands. Then I felt the metal in the straps. My dear friend the Doctor was too busy cutting into my arm to notice that I was smiling now. I didn't have much control over my muscles, but now I could feel all the pieces of metal in the room.
The man in the doctor scrubs dug the scalpel further into my arm almost reaching under the muscle to hit the nerve plexus under it.
I tried to scream but I didn't have enough muscle control back. But what I did have now was my power. I reached out with it and felt the metal buckles on the leather straps that held me down. With a violent thought they went flying across the room striking two of the guys in the darkness.
The Doctor was so busy with his work that he didn't notice what had happened. Imagine his surprise when the scalpel he was going to use to vivisect me leapt from his hand and buried itself in his stomach.
He pitched back as I felt the metal around me and began to sit up. Guys started reaching for weapons, and others ran to the door of the place. Focusing my mind I crashed the door closed then felt the pistols the guys were pulling.
For all the stress I had been in, my powers had never felt as sharp or attuned. Pistols and shotguns stacked themselves in the corner of the room and I stood on legs that were wobbly. I was bleeding like a stuck pig from my arm, but right then I felt amazing.
“Gentleman, why don't you all get on your knees and put your hands behind your head.” I announced.
“I don't take orders from...” I'm sure the next word was going to be freaks; right now I didn't need to hear it. Reaching out with my mind, I felt the air in the room and blasted the guy with a powerful burst. He stumbled back, groaned then collapsed.
Everyone else except the Doctor all went to the floor and put their hands over their heads. I looked at the Doc who was staring at the scalpel buried in his gut.
“Now, bandage up my arm, and do it quickly. Any tricks and I'll leave your guts on the floor.” I said quietly, gathering my strength.
“You can barely stand.” The Doctor said with a sneer.
With a harsh look, I jerked the blade up an inch. He gasped in pain and if I were to be honest it was hard not to enjoy the look on his face. “Less disrespect please, your negotiating position is poor at best.”
He looked me over with a look of pure anger, then grabbed a roll of gauze and got to work. I alternated between watching him and the rest of the people in the room. I felt a little bit better by the time he was done.
I spotted a guy who was about my size and pointed to him. “You!” He jerked in fear. “Give me your clothes.”
The guy looked like he wanted to protest, then decided that maybe this was not his best option. He stripped off his shirt and pants and left them on the floor.
“Now all you clowns go stand in the corner.” I moved back and let them pass as they walked by then pulled the operating table from the floor with my mind and wrapped it around them tightly. Stretching and deforming it as I did.
“You're all bright guys, I'm sure you'll figure a way out of there pretty quickly. Personally I hope you do, because if you're out on the street and not in jail I get to hunt every last one of you clowns down.” I smiled. “Think about it.”
With that I walked up the steps, and out of the backdoor to the place, which turned out to be the basement of a disused store in... Where the fuck was I?
There was an old trashed out car in the parking lot. With a thought I braced it against the door. Then I found the building number and cross street. My hands felt in the pockets of newly acquired pants, there were a few bills in there.
I walked out onto the street, got the street name and saw a large gentleman in a dark hoody walking down the street. I held up a $20. “Let me use your phone and this is yours.”
“Ya gonna give it back?” He murmured looking me over noting the bandage on my arm, I pulled the jacket I had taken from the guy in the basement on to cover it.
“Yeah.” He nodded reached into his pocket and handed it to me.
I dialed Hamilton's number from memory. The line rang once and he picked up. “Hello?”
“It's Ryan.”
“Where the fuck are you?” He shouted. That right there spoke volumes to me. Hamilton cursed very rarely.
“Good question, I'm on the corner of 25th and Anderson but I have no clue where I am aside from that.”
He paused and said a few words to someone I couldn't make out; a few seconds later he said. “You're in Gary, Indiana.” He answered.
“Of course they took me to the asshole of Chicago.” I said with a sigh. “Look, it’s gonna take a bit of explaining but there’s a crowd of guys in a basement at 735 North 25th St. here. They kidnapped me and were warming up some experiments, think you can spare some guys to round them up so I can press charges?”
“I'll call the Gary field office.” He said. “We need you in action asap. We have a problem.”
“Define a problem.” I said checking out my arm.
“Humans for Humanity decided to pick a fight at the federal court house. We've got two teams there, but apparently someone has been supplying our friends with exciting new weapons.” Hamilton said.
I could hear sirens heading my way in the distance. This sounded promising and terrible all at once.
“What kind of exciting new weapons?”
“Rocket launchers, those glass bullets, power armor.”
“You're kidding me.”
“Wish I was. Now get to work. It's getting ugly over there.” He said.
“Give me the address. I'm on my way.”
I handed the phone back to the guy. “Thanks. You might wanna back up.” I said. He took a few steps back with a look that practically screamed WTF.
The look on his face was epic when I summoned up my power and launched into the afternoon sky.
Chapter 40
I was still feeling weak from the drug they gave me, wearing someone else's clothes, bleeding from my arm and was fighting between being furiously angry and heartbroken over what happened with Cathy.
Long story short, I was really in the mood to kick someone’s ass. Now the big downside of this is I would be entering
the fight blind. No clue as to who was where and doing what, but I was going to make the broad assumption that anyone not showing powers or carrying a badge and in possession of a weapon was likely a target.
I flew in as fast as I could without slamming myself through the sound barrier, this whole mess began with a ton of broken and flying glass courtesy of an object moving way faster than the speed of sound and frankly I didn't want to be responsible for any more destruction than I needed to.
Maybe I shouldn't have worried about that. As I got closer, the battle site was pretty obvious to spot. The smoke rising from the center of the city made it pretty easy to find. As I flew closer, the muted pops of gunfire and booms of explosions rang out, making it more than obvious that there was a firefight in progress.
I took up a hovering position to get an idea of what I was getting into, and I stuck my head out from behind the corner of a building and looked down on the scene.
Hamilton had not been kidding and had not understated the problem. A group of people were firing at the courthouse with automatic weapons and missile launchers. Their flanks were guarded by four people in sets of powered assault armor. They seemed to have rotary barrel weapons built into their arms.
I reached out and felt their suits with my mind, finding the metal in them hard to feel. It was like to my mind they were covered in static. I would try to pull and it was like trying to grab a broom handle covered in grease.
Mind you nothing around them had that same jamming field.
I grinned and flew down into the mess. At first they didn't see me but a second later one of the guys in the power armor looked up and aimed his weapon in my direction.
Reaching out with my senses, I felt the car thirty feet behind him. I violently yanked it with my mind and it slammed into him, knocking him across the square like a bowling pin. Part of me hoped his armor would absorb most of the impact, but then part of me hoped the next time I saw him he'd be in traction.
Of course that meant I now had the undivided attention of people with auto weapons, rockets and armor. I flew off behind a building as tracers and missiles flew toward me. Creating a trail of broken glass and a line of brickbats chewed out of the side of the building.
What the people with the guns had forgotten was now that meant that the members of our teams weren't pinned down by their fire, and neither were the cops.
As I turned around the far edge of the building, I made out Rachel and Ramon laying down a covering fire for the police. Rachel was using her power to project any solid object at the shooters and Ramon was literally causing pools of fire to erupt in the street to keep them from getting a good line of sight on their targets.
They moved forward and took position behind cars parked on the streets. As they did, two of the powered armor suits came forward aiming their cannons at the vehicles.
‘That is not gonna happen.’ I thought as I picked up speed and flew at the two suits. At the same time, I reached out and felt two cars behind them. Which was good as I now had their undivided attention. Pulling hard with my mind the two cars came flying into both suits from behind. Smashing them toward me as I pulled up hard and out of the way of the rounds they had fired.
The cars slammed them into buildings with authority and between the two impacts I was pleasantly surprised to see neither suit moving. I pulled high over the top of the plaza, made a looping turn, then swooped down to see what other trouble I could cause.
It began to dawn on the people who had started this whole mess that things were heading south for them. As I came lower I could see several of them pile into a van and a few more attempting to slide into an SUV. Too bad for them Rachel, Ramon, Shawn and the Chicago PD had others ideas.
The last suit of power armor got wrapped up in a Chevy Malibu that Rachel summoned and warped to her needs using her ability, and as the vehicles carrying the bad guys tried to drive off all their tires caught fire.
The cars came to a rolling halt, just as the cops, FBI ATF and a host of other people surrounded them with weapons drawn.
I settled down to the ground on a wave of magnetic force and tried to walk over to where Rachel was.
I say tried because I took a step and hooked my toes on the hem of the pants I was wearing, the guy I took them from had longer legs than me. As a result, I pitched forward and stumbled, caught myself on the arm that the Doctor had done such a great job of tortuously opening and promptly fell flat on my face.
Right in front of a host of news cameras, who were now coming up on the scene. Apparently my super powers were powered by any lack of dignity in using them.
I worked my way to my feet as Lynn came running out and grabbed me. “It's okay you're gonna be fine.” She said and laid her hands on my chest. Before I could tell her I was going to be fine...
The whole world fell away.
Imagine going from being cold, in pain and hurting on every level, then slowly sinking into a bath of warm water that washes away that pain as you sink into it. My whole body became a warm space with no sense of any injury as Lynn used her power on me. Even the sense of heartache from what Cathy had done to me shrank into a ball of manageable proportions.
The feeling of the muscles in my arm knitting back together was odd but pleasurable, the notion that they were returning to what they should be, powered their healing and soon I was relaxed and feeling better. Once I felt that, she let the world return and I could feel again.
“Thanks.” I said. Wondering how you thank someone appropriately for a moment like that.
“You're welcome.” Lynn replied, her eyes black with her powers transformation. She began to stand, when I heard a popping sound, at the same time a red hole appeared on her chest and something warm and wet hit my face.
Chapter 41
Let’s take a second to review shall we? I had been set up with a honey trap, drugged, tortured and taken part in a battle. With that in mind, I think I can be forgiven for not adding up the details of what happened very quickly.
The shot had passed through her chest, Lynn looked surprised, as her hand came down to feel the red wet spot there and blood leaked from her mouth. “It doesn't hurt,” she whispered, “it’s so weird.”
Then she fell onto me.
I rolled her over onto her front. “I need a medic here!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Looking up, I saw two cops and a paramedic headed my way. As they came toward us, I desperately tried to staunch the flow of blood from her chest with my hands.
“Come on Lynn, you're gonna be okay.” I said not knowing if she heard, maybe I was reassuring myself. The paramedics came up and pulled me off of her as I walked away, blood dripping from my hands and a new rage seething in my heart.
I heard a second pop and felt my arm jerk back. I saw a small divot taken from the flesh on my bicep, but I also saw where the muzzle flash of the weapon that had shot Lynn came from.
It was up in a courthouse window. With barely even a thought, I was flying up there. As I did, my brain coughed up a good idea and I crashed into the window of the office next door to where the shot came from.
With a thought and a mental flex of my power, I tossed a desk through the wall to make my entrance.
Standing there was the man who in effect had started all this, racist, child rapist and now at the very least attempted murderer. He saw me and froze. The rifle was still in his hands.
“Go ahead and point it at me. Let's see how it works out for you.” His face was a mix of pure terror and rage. “Come on! What, can't point a weapon at someone who will fight back?” I was egging him on trying to force him to give me an excuse to do what I wanted badly to do.
He was trembling now. I was too lost in the moment. My own sense of anger at the injustice of this overwhelmed me. Too far gone to even be able to think straight. As I moved closer and he still stood there frozen like a rabbit in the gaze of a snake.
My hand came up like a shot and slapped him. He rocked back against the wall and he spit up blood. “Y
ou've got a gun. Come on what are you waiting for!”
His hands trembled. He was shaking all over his body. I slapped him again. “I'm right here asshole! Throw down!”
There was a tear running out of his eye. That was it, my last straw. Don't ask me why, but suddenly I was past my emotional overloads. This day had been too much and now he was here, he’d shot my friend and wouldn’t even fight.
With a scream I jumped forward, grabbed him and threw him at a wall. He hit it like a sack of bricks and slid down. I pulled him up and punched him in the gut as hard as I could. He sank down and I hit him again.
Pulling him back up I lined up my fist with his face and was about to let go at full strength when someone grabbed my arm.
“He's not worth it.” Mr. Thomas said behind me.
“Fuck this guy!!” I yelled, incoherent, just wanting to rend him from limb to limb.
“Do what ya want. I won't say shit, hell I'll back any story you give, but tell me, are you really a murderer?”
Some words hit you hard. What is the difference between a soldier and killer, a cop and a criminal? Where was I?
I was so tired.
I let him fall and turned around. “Get out of my way.”
Mr. Thomas didn't say a word, he just moved. The adrenaline wore off by the time I hit the door and the world began moving in slow motion. A team of cops came running up the stairs, weapons drawn. They gave me a glance, but decided the teenage kid in the clothes that didn't fit likely wasn't a threat and ran past me.
I made my way out the front door just in time to see the EMTs load Lynn onto the ambulance, but they didn't seem to be working on her, and when they drove off there were no lights or sirens.
Hamilton and Watson stood there, heads down; and when I looked at them Watson raised his head and shook it. The message was obvious. There was a hint of tears at the corner of his eyes, I knew mine were leaking.
Turning to my left I saw the other members of the house milling around, wondering what to do next. The battle was over, our friend had been carried away and now... what?
