“I’m afraid I can’t tell you.”
“As in don’t know, or can’t?”
“A bit of both, sadly,” Wizard said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he held up the key and datapad. “I’m a little busy here.”
Running down the street, just off the sidewalks, Celia wished there were a few more people around. As it was, anyone she came across would likely be a Stranger, but the same visibility would work against her as well as for her.
She was about half a mile from the Overlap when she sensed the first wave coming. There were five of them. She couldn’t see them yet, but they had half of the EMF device with them and already assembled. She gathered from their mental chatter that they were still waiting on the other pieces to come through.
Celia slowed to a walk and found a row of bushes to conceal herself as the agents came into view. They had the EMF device on a hover sled and were at a full out run. Celia sensed the urgency on each man’s mind.
She was about to make her move. “Wait!” she heard in her mind.
“Fuck, Dad! Could you give me a mental knock next time, before you come barging in? You scared the shit out of me!” she sent back. “What am I waiting for?”
“Let them past, they can’t do anything with just half of the device, and we need to make sure that this is the only one. Something doesn’t feel right, but I can’t say what it is.”
“Alright, I’ll get closer and see what’s going on.”
“Be careful,” Desmond sent.
“You too.”
Celia remained hidden, watching the group of agents run past. When she was sure they were far enough away, she broke cover and sprinted for the Overlap.
She was still thinking about how she was going to get inside without being noticed when she arrived.
There were nine agents that she could see, and more that she sensed, but couldn’t see. The ones she could see were arranged in a circle, facing out, with assault weapons in hand. In the middle of the circle was another device, nearly assembled. She saw no sign of the other half of the first device.
She took cover behind a dumpster as she reached out to Desmond. “Dad, there’s more than one device! You guys need to get out of there as soon as possible.”
“Show me what you’re seeing.”
Celia flashed him the images.
“Alright, we need to take out that device first, then we’ll worry about the second one,” Desmond sent. “I’m going to help you, are you ready?”
Celia took a deep breath before responding. “Ready.” She felt her father’s presence almost immediately as Desmond sent massive amounts of energy streaming into her. On her own, Celia was no where near powerful enough telekinetically to do what needed to be done.
She reached out, mentally taking hold of the dumpster she was hiding behind, and feeling the power surging through her, she hurled it at the circle of agents guarding the device.
Most of the agents were fast enough to get out of the way. All but one escaped the projectile as it slammed into the EMF device, crushing it and the unfortunate agent beneath it.
Suddenly aware of her lack of cover, Celia felt her father’s nudge to run.
The agents located her quickly now that she was out in the open. She turned and ran as the energy weapons flared to life all around her. While she had been focused on destroying the EMF device, the agents she hadn’t been able to see had circled around in front of where she was now headed.
Sensing it almost too late, Celia cut hard to the right, leading them off in the opposite direction from her father. As she ran, she could feel her father’s concern for her.
Using her abilities, she was twice as fast as any Stranger, which is why she was completely shocked when she felt the white hot pain of an energy weapon burn into her right shoulder.
She was thrown to the ground by the blast and was just rolling over when she saw the sniper on the roof behind her.
“Stay there!” a voice boomed out of the darkness.
The rest of the pursuing agents closed in as she made it to her feet. She wouldn’t have time to create the portal to take her home before they shot her down. And besides, she was still too close to the Overlap to jump. “Get out of here, Dad!” she sent as she raised her hands in the air.
“I’ll find you, Celia,” she heard her father say. Then she felt him jump away.
Relieved that her father and the others had escaped safely, she turned her focus to the agents closing in on her. “All you boys for little old me?” She smiled as the stun blast slammed into her, bringing darkness with it.
Ava stepped through the exit of The End and out into the Third Verse. It was a cool, summer night in this city. The air smelled of a recent rain, though the ground was dry. The slight breeze blowing felt good on her skin.
She followed Emery around the corner of the bar. He was a senior agent, and the Stranger in charge of her training. Ava had received more than her share of dirty looks in the past day from agents of all ranks. Most recruits had to go through weeks of basic training before being allowed in the field, but Ava had been assigned to a Stranger immediately—a fact that earned her few friends among the ranks. She had even been injected with the military grade nanites that were usually reserved for agents who had completed years of specialized training.
The nanites gave her abilities that she could only have dreamed of in New Britain. Increased strength, endurance, rapid healing of wounds, instant communications, no more need for the band. They were even able to act as body armor, hardening over the surface of her skin, giving it the appearance of liquid metal.
Ava viewed the scene outside the Overlap. A green dumpster sat on top of one of their EMF devices with an agent crushed in between the two. There were several agents standing around the scene, as if waiting for orders.
Emery gave those orders. “Get this thing off him and ready the body for transport home.” Turning to the nearest agent, he said, “What the hell happened here? Report.”
“There was a woman, a telly, she showed up and destroyed the device before we had a chance to take her down. We captured her and took her into custody.”
“What about the others?” Emery asked. “You were supposed to take all of them.”
The agent swallowed. “Yes, sir, we were unable to complete our mission before they escaped, sir.”
“Well if they escaped, of course you didn’t capture them, you dim-witted idiot! Get the hell out of my way!” Emery whirled around to meet the group of agents who were returning.
Ava followed, keeping a few feet’s distance. She hadn’t been around Emery long enough to know if he was angry or not, but she thought it best to play it safe. No good reason to kick a hornet’s nest, after all.
“Is this her?” Emery asked, in reference to the woman one of the agents was carrying over his shoulder.
“Yes, sir,” the agent in the lead said. “We stunned her after she was shot in the shoulder trying to escape.”
“Did you sedate her as well?” Emery asked.
“Yes, sir, everything was done according to protocol.”
“Very well, place her over by the door.” Emery opened a channel to Lady White. “The Shadows escaped with the informant and the key, no telling where to. We managed to capture one of the Shadows. A woman who destroyed the EMF device. Do you want me to kill her now, or bring her back for questioning?”
“Bring her back with you,” Lady White replied. “I want to speak with her.”
Emery turned to his new trainee. “Take the woman back to the Prime Minister. I’ll clean up here and meet you back at the Embassy.”
Ava nodded, keeping her expression neutral, but inwardly she loathed taking orders from a man. She wouldn’t be taking orders for long, however, not if she had anything to do about it.
She walked over to the unconscious woman, and picked her up effortlessly, putting her over her shoulder. These nanites are incredible, she thought. How did I ever get by without them?
Ava ma
de her way outside the dead zone around the Overlap and cued the nanites to run the jump program that would activate a gateway. When all was ready, the portal opened up. It was bright on the other side, but her vision adjusted quickly thanks to the nanites. She stepped through to the Seventh, prisoner in tow.
Back In The Seventh
Celia didn’t remember how she got in the bed she woke up in. She didn’t remember how she got into the restraints on that bed either. She felt groggy, her mind was fuzzy, like after a night of hard drinking. They must have drugged her, she decided. She could have been out for days. She could be anywhere in the MultiVerse by now.
Restraints held down her feet and hands. She could feel them around her ankles and wrists. Other restraints were holding her body down as well. Two around her legs, one around her waist, and another around her chest. Her head had been left unrestrained and she could lift it just high enough to see her toes.
She was in a sterile room of some sort, in a hospital or laboratory. There were medical monitors around her, displaying her vitals and other biological details.
Celia reached out with her mind, grasping for other lifeforms, but she found nothing. She tried to break the restraints holding her, a feat which should have been accomplished easily, but nothing happened. Either she was dreaming, or there was an EM field nearby.
Celia heard the door open, but didn’t raise her head to look. Instead she feigned sleep. Perhaps she could take whoever it was unawares. She heard the footsteps of several people walk into the room. The loud sounds of hard heeled dress shoes accompanied by the softer soles of boots.
“Raise her up,” a woman’s voice said with a strange accent. The bed Celia was on began tilting, moving her from a horizontal to a vertical position. The same voice went on, “We know you’re awake, Celia, you can stop pretending.”
Celia opened her eyes as the bed came to a halt in the vertical position. There was a platform beneath her feet that allowed her to stand and bear her own weight. Her body barely shifted in the transition, still quite restrained.
The woman Celia saw in front of her was young and beautiful. She had shoulder length light brown hair, straight as a wisp, and twice as long on the left side. Another woman stood off to the side at a control screen. A medical assistant, she assumed.
“You cut your hair,” Celia said with a smile.
The young woman was visibly shaken, but recovered quickly. “Yes, I thought it fitting, considering the circumstances.”
“New life, new hair cut?”
“Something like that,” the woman said. “My name is Ava, but then you probably already knew that.”
Celia nodded slightly, indicating that she did. Jack had shared his meeting with the woman and her companion with her. “I didn’t see you at the Overlap, did you and your master show up after all the fun was already over?”
“That man is not my master!” Ava’s face flushed red with anger.
“Oh, I’m sorry, that’s right, you come from a matriarchal world,” Celia mocked. “How is it, taking orders from a man?”
Ava closed the distance between them faster than Celia expected, and delivered a backhand almost too quickly to see. Celia instantly felt her lip split, the blood flying out. She twisted her head to see her assailants hand raised to strike again.
“That will be quite enough, Ava!” another woman’s voice shouted from behind Ava.
Ava backed off slowly, hatred still pouring from her eyes.
Celia addressed the new woman who had entered the room. “Hello, Mother, so good to see you again,” she said.
“Hello, Celia. Nice to see you haven’t lost your sarcasm. I like to think that I contributed to your upbringing in some way…” Lady Julia White said.
“Ha!” Celia said, “You could have contributed more, if you hadn’t run away to another universe.”
“Your father was too unreasonable. He wouldn’t listen, so I left for home, to find people who would listen. How is your father these days?”
Celia laughed. “As if you don’t know. I’m sure he’s recovering from you trying to kill him just fine, thanks for asking.”
“This woman is your daughter?” Ava asked Lady White, surprised by the turn of events.
“Yes, she is,” Lady White said. “At least she used to be my daughter. She’s more of her father’s daughter than anything else these days.” Turning to Celia she said, “Tell me, daughter dearest, what were you and your father doing in the Third?”
“You don’t know? After you left we joined the traveling circus. Our caravan had just arrived in the Third when you showed up and broke the Overlap Cease Fire Agreement.”
Lady White laughed patiently. “Oh, Silly… You always did tell the most wonderful stories as a little girl. Remember when you used to sit on my knee and—”
“Are you serious?” Celia interrupted. “You want to have story time right now? How about you let me out of this bed and I’ll tell you all the stories you want.”
The smile that had been on Lady White’s face left without a trace. “I was trying to be civil about this, but—”
“But what…? What!? What are you going to do?”
Lady White opened her mouth as if to speak and then closed it, pausing. “Well, do you remember what happened to your last boyfriend?” She smiled wickedly.
Celia’s jaw dropped, her eyes wide open. “You…? You killed Craig?” It wasn’t as much a question as it was a statement of a finally realized fact.
“I had to, I’m afraid. He was getting soft on me.” White talked nonchalantly, as if about the weather. “You see, he was starting to develop feelings for you.” She said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.
“What are you saying? Of course he had feelings for me, we were in love.”
Laughter shot forth out of Lady White. “Oh, you were in love, I’m quite sure of that, but he was my operative, planted to keep me up to date on what you and your father were up to.” White walked in a circle around her captive daughter like a cat playing with a mouse. Behind her, Ava watched with extreme enjoyment. “Don’t look so surprised and hurt, Celia. Anyway, I did you a favor getting rid of him.”
Celia spoke through gritted teeth, “When I get out of here, I’m going to make sure that I’m the one who squeezes the last breath out of you.”
“Tsk, tsk, Celia. You mustn’t let your feelings get the better of you. If there’s one thing I learned from my time with your father, it’s that feelings cloud the mind. They make one weak, unable to act reasonably.” She looked at Celia with what would have appeared to anyone else as motherly concern, but Celia knew better.
“What do you want from me?” Celia asked.
“An excellent question, my daughter, but I can see that I’ve upset you. It’s best not to discuss important matters when so upset.” With that she turned and walked out of the room, Ava following behind her, but not before shooting Celia another dirty look.
She was alone again. She wanted to scream, and she wanted to fight, but most of all she wanted to know what the hell her mother was up to, and what this business with the boy was all about. It had to be something big for her mother to go through all of this deception and manipulation. Whatever she was up to, Celia knew one thing about her mother that she could take to her grave—she couldn’t be trusted.
Celia closed her eyes and breathed deeply, finding her center. The center was a place where she could not be touched, and where nothing could exist without her willing it to be there. She needed no abilities to go there. She found her center and then thought her escape into existence.
The first hand would be the hardest, Celia knew. Once she got that free, the rest would be progressively easier, but the first hand, her right hand, she had decided, would be the hardest.
Grateful for all the long hours that her father had made her study EM fields, Celia began.
Electro-magnetic fields created a space in which any Shadow’s powers were dampened. The abilities were still there, b
ut they couldn’t be accessed due to the field’s interference. Celia found the experience a bit unsettling, like suddenly losing the sense of sight or sound. There was a part of her, that wasn’t there anymore, but she could still feel it, like a phantom limb.
Celia knew of only one way to use her powers in an EM field. She had to be unconscious. This meant sleep. In a sleep state, the EMF had a much weaker effect. Unfortunately, Celia’s abilities would be much weaker as well. She knew she couldn’t break all of the restraints, but if she could just break one than she could physically get the others off her.
Thankfully, they hadn’t sedated her again. Whether they had forgotten to or not, Celia didn’t care. She was only interested in exploiting the situation. Under sedation, she wouldn’t be able to access the dream state which would make her escape possible.
Sleeping while standing, however, was going to be difficult—but not impossible.
Celia spent the better part of an hour trying to fall asleep, sometimes getting just to the cusp before an automatic reflex would jolt her awake. After countless attempts, she slept.
She began to dream.
She was a little girl again, six maybe seven. She was playing down on the beach in the sand by the lake. It was her birthday, but she couldn’t remember what she got as presents.
She was walking down the hall in the lake house, going to her room, to see her gifts. The hallway was longer than she remembered. She walked for what seemed like miles, then just as she began to doubt where she was headed, she saw her door.
She reached out and grabbed hold of the door knob, seeing her small hand, but feeling the knob as she would as an adult. The door swung open and Celia looked into the room. It was her room.
There were drawings taped up on the walls that she had done. Scenes of trees, and rainbows, and horses, and flowers. Some were portraits of her family, her and her mom and dad. Stick figures floating above the ground.
Her old dresser stood up against the wall. Dark wooden drawers with gold handles on them. It seemed much larger and more imposing than she recalled.
Strangers and Shadows Page 15
