Meta 2: The Second Wave

by Tom Reynolds

  His breathing is labored, and his eyes are wild. He's gasping for air and clinging to my outstretched arm even though I've got a tight enough grip on his neck to ensure that he's not going anywhere.

  "I can't swim!" he finally manages to scream out in between breaths.

  "What?" I ask.

  "I can't swim! I almost drowned!" he yells after taking a few more deep breaths.

  Looking down at the endless ocean below, I can see his copies thrashing in the otherwise completely placid water. One by one, they disappear below the waves and sink. Before they are completely out of view, they seem to slowly fade away and disappear from reality completely.

  "Are you freakin' serious?" I scream back.

  "Please. Please! I'm begging you. I can't swim. Don't let me go, please!" he sobs.

  I grab him tighter around the throat and shake him.

  "You killed an innocent man tonight and would have killed more if I hadn't stopped you, and for what? Money?" I yell into his face, causing his sobbing to intensify.

  "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Okay?" he yells back, terrified.

  "Why shouldn't I just let you go?" I ask.

  "If you let me go, you're no better than me," he replies.

  I think about this for a long while. I think about that man whose throat he slit. About his family. His friends. All of them watching that happen. I think about Sarah and what he was about to do to her. I don't realize it, but my grip has tightened even further around his neck. The Multiplier's face is beginning to lose color as my hand restricts the flow of oxygen and blood to his head.

  I can see a few remaining copies still flailing in the water. They’re panicking, pulling each other under, desperately trying to breathe. I’ve never felt so angry in my entire life. I think about my parents and how no one was there to save them. How a monster, like the one I’m holding by the throat, killed them.

  "Can you feel that?" I ask, gesturing down to the copies of The Multiplier that are drowning and disappearing below us.

  "Yes. Yes. Please, just stop. I'll power down my bands," he says and raises his shaking arms to bring his metabands together and deactivate them.

  I put my free hand in-between them and stop them from hitting each other.

  What am I doing? This isn’t me. I move my hand out of the way and allow The Multiplier to power down. An instant later, we’re both teleporting.

  For a minute there, I almost left my soul out in the ocean.

  Chapter 19

  The booking process at Silver Island is quick and easy. Halpern is there, but has to be physically restrained by his co-workers from trying to kill The Multiplier after what he almost did to Sarah. Other staff quickly takes the Multiplier away, for what I worry will be an even rougher booking than usual. This makes me feel even guiltier about the unnecessary pain I put him through before bringing him here. I’m better than that, or at least, I’m supposed to be.

  Halpern eventually composes himself and reassures his co-workers that he’s fine and can be let go. The other Agency employees release him and return to their various stations inside the control room. I need to get back to the arena and make sure Sarah is all right, but before I have a chance to dash off, Halpern approaches me.

  "Omni," he says to my back as I'm heading toward the teleportation grid, "wait up a minute."

  I stop in my tracks and turn to face him.

  He reaches out and puts a hand on my shoulder. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did tonight."

  "Just doing my job," I blurt out before I have time to think of anything else to say.

  "No, you're not," he says.

  "Excuse me?" I ask after a brief but uncomfortable silence.

  "You're not doing your job. No one gave you the job of watching out for other people and taking care of them," he says.

  I'm starting to get nervous.

  "You decided to do that on your own. No one is making or even asking you to do any of these things, but you do them anyway."

  "I don't know what else I would do."

  "It was my job tonight to make sure that my ... " Halpern begins before stopping himself, realizing that he was about to reveal that a family member was in the audience tonight, and committing a huge, huge breach of The Agency's draconian rules regarding the separation between work and private life.

  Revealing such a personal aspect about himself, even to a somewhat “trusted” meta like me, could result in all kinds of trouble for him. According to Derrick, Agency members whose identities are exposed are moved as far as possible from their posts. They and their families are uprooted, given new lives, and told to start all over again. This is especially hard on the families, considering they’re supposedly always kept in the dark about what it is their loved one actually does for a living. There are cameras, microphones, and sensors everywhere inside this building. A slip like that could easily lead to the Millers disappearing forever from Bay View City.

  "Sir?" I ask Halpern, who is stunned at the fact that he almost dropped such a crucial piece of information.

  "Sorry. I'm just a little frazzled. That was a big fish you caught today for us, and those people in the arena tonight owe you a huge debt of gratitude. So do I ... on behalf of The Agency," he says as he puts out his hand for me to shake.

  "Of course. Just doing what I can," I say gripping his hand to shake it.

  "Well, thank you for that."

  After leaving Silver Island, my immediate concern is Sarah. Midnight has already reassured me via my earpiece that she got out of the arena safe and sound, despite the mass confusion and panic that set in amongst the audience. I forgot that to them, it looked like The Multiplier simply disappeared. I was moving too fast for the human eye to have possibly seen anything more than a blur right before I got up to speed, but even that's unlikely. They just saw The Multiplier disappear, followed by his copies disappearing less than a second later. In reality, they likely saw these two events happen simultaneously, considering the speed at which the connection between him and his clones was broken.

  Not wanting to risk teleporting to the arena and possibly end up colliding with what I'm sure are tons of helicopters circling the area, I opt to fly there instead. I'm close enough to get there quickly, and it gives me a better opportunity to find an isolated area to power down.

  I fly over the bay, only a few feet over the water, creating a small wake behind me. It occurs to me that the only way Midnight could know for sure that Sarah is safe would be that he's there. The cameras allowed the world to see what was going on inside the arena, but once The Multiplier disappeared, there must have been absolute mayhem as everyone ran as quickly as they could for the nearest exit.

  Midnight is likely hiding out on a nearby rooftop, binoculars in hand, watching Sarah. Though, I guess it's possible that he's actually on the ground. He's worn disguises before to blend in with crowds. Hell, he doesn't even have to wear a disguise, considering I don't even know what he looks like. Wherever he is, I owe him for keeping an eye on Sarah. If he’s hiding in plain sight, I owe it to him not to try and sniff him out. This isn't the time, and that's not a very nice “thank you” for someone who just helped me save my girlfriend's life.

  There's a small park opposite the arena that looks desolate from a few hundred feet above. I spot a wooded area that looks perfect and slowly bring myself down, trying not to attract any unnecessary attention. After landing and determining that there aren't any prying eyes nearby, I deactivate my metabands and my Omni suit retreats back into them before they fade away. Now that I'm Connor again, I'm running as fast as my regular human body will let me.

  It's only been about twenty minutes since I stopped the attack, but a lot has happened. That's always going to be the case when you're able to move as fast as I can, or at least as fast as Omni can. I need to find Sarah and make sure she's okay with my own eyes.

  There are ambulances and reporters everywhere. With them are more than a few metas. Some are here to genuinely help; others are opp
ortunistic and simply see a way to get on TV. Situations like this can quickly become dangerous since they have the potential to be a lightning rod for metas with bad intentions looking to take advantage of a chaotic situation. In the sky, I recognize a handful of metas that I've seen in online videos before. They're some of the “good guys,” and I feel better knowing that they’re here keeping an eye on everything from afar in case anything bad should happen.

  In the distance, I see Sarah. She's wrapped in a blanket and speaking with a meta wearing a bright blue and red suit. In fact, it's the uniform that catches my eye first. It's only after seeing him that I notice the person he's talking to is Sarah. I'm running toward them before I give it any further thought.

  Sarah doesn't see me until I'm practically a foot in front of her face.

  I grab her tight and hug her. "Thank goodness you're all right. I was so worried."

  There's no response from Sarah, she must still be in shock at what happened.

  "Is this guy bothering you?" The blue and red meta asks Sarah.

  I turn quickly and glare into his eyes. He's wearing the same style cowl I wear as Omni, but his does not cover the top of his head, allowing his thick, dirty blond hair to flow out over the top.

  "She's fine. I'm her boyfriend," I say.

  "Connor," Sarah finally says after taking a moment to take in the fact that it's actually me, "I thought you were..."

  It hadn't even occurred to me that she would be worried about me. I'm so used to being Omni and not having to worry about myself, that I forget the people who care about me and don't know my secret still worry. It's fine day to day, but in situations where death is present, it can be a little more than disconcerting for others.

  "I'm fine. I'm fine," I say as I pull back to look her in the eyes and reassure her. "Everything's fine. We're all set here, now. Thanks," I say to the meta next to her, making little attempt to hide my contempt.

  There's something about him I don’t like. Aside from the fact that there're thousands of shaken up people here, for some reason, this pretty boy meta decided to personally help out my upset and vulnerable girlfriend, who just happened to be on TV no less than half and hour ago.

  "All right then, I'll leave you to it. Have a good night, Sarah. I hope to run into you under better circumstances someday," he says as he turns to the sky and flies away.

  Sarah waits until he's out of earshot, or at least reasonable earshot for a normal human being.

  "Where were you?" she asks.

  "I was getting food when everything happened. Before I knew it, there was a guy in front of me holding a knife to my throat. I couldn't get back to you. I'm so, so sorry Sarah," I say.

  "I mean, where were you just now? How did you wind up so far away from everyone else?" she asks.

  Crap. I didn't have time to think all of this through.

  "I was looking for you," I say.

  "In the park?"

  "I couldn't find you anywhere. I panicked."

  "Are you sure you didn't run for cover?"

  "What? Yes. I'm sure I didn't run for cover. I was looking for you."

  "It just doesn't make sense, that's all. Why were you so mean to that meta just now? He was just trying to help."

  "Yeah, sure he was," I say, barely able to contain my frustration with this entire situation. "I'm sorry. I'm glad he was here. I wanted to be here; I just couldn't find you."

  "I think you should take me home. I'm tired and rattled. I think I just want to go to bed."

  The drive to Sarah's house is quiet. I try to start a conversation, but it's difficult. She doesn't want to talk about what happened, which I can completely understand, but talking about anything else seems completely trite and mundane on a night where she came within seconds of almost certain death. I'm so relieved that she's all right, but I'm startled and shaken myself. To Sarah, I went through only a fraction of the trauma she did tonight, but of course, that's not true. I stared death in the face as well and took one of the biggest risks I have ever taken. I risked the lives of thousands to save hers. I can justify it a million different ways. I can assure myself that I did it to stop any number of murders that could have happened if The Multiplier had gotten his way, or if the public had decided to negotiate with a terrorist on a macro scale, but deep down, I know the truth; I took that risk because I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if something ever happened to Sarah and I had done nothing to stop it.

  When we pull up to her house, her dad is running out the front door toward the car before I can even pull to a stop. He would have had to leave Silver Island immediately after I saw him to have gotten home so quickly, but I'm not completely surprised, considering it seemed like few people wanted him around after how emotional he was acting, regardless of whether or not it was justified. For the record, it was.

  "Sarah!" he yells out as she opens the door and meets him in a huge hug.

  They're holding each other tight. The way only a family who has lost someone and feared losing the only other person they have left does. I'm feeling slightly awkward being here, but it would be about a hundred times more awkward for me to just get in my car and drive off, so I just wait without saying a word.

  Finally, they pull apart and Halpern, err, Mr. Miller asks Sarah to go inside for a minute while he talks to me. This can't be good. I thought my adrenal gland had called it a night after having to take out The Multiplier, but I can still feel my nerves overreacting at the idea of my girlfriend's father wanting to speak with me ... alone.

  He walks over to me and looks back to Sarah. He waits until she’s entered the house and the screen door shuts behind her before he says anything.

  "Explain to me why I should ever let me daughter spend time with you again," he says.

  Turns out my nerves weren't overreacting after all.

  "Uhhh ..." I say instinctively to fill the dead air.

  "‘Uhhh’ isn't an answer, Connor. You took my little girl to a very, very dangerous place tonight, and as a result, she almost got killed," he says in a hushed, but deeply serious tone.

  "I didn't know any of that was going to happen," I blurt out. I want to tell him that it wasn’t even my idea, they were her tickets, but I don’t think that will help the situation.

  "Of course you didn't know any of that would happen," he says in a condescending tone. "Trust me, if I thought you knew anything even remotely close to what happened tonight was going to happen, if I thought you thought that there was even a chance of something like that happening, we'd be having a very different conversation right now. Your ignorance is the only thing keeping me from putting my foot up your ass."

  Yikes. Who is this guy? It's hard to look at someone through the same eyes and not have them see you as the same person. Less than an hour ago, this same man was shaking my hand and thanking me for saving his daughter. Now, he's threatening to beat the hell out of me for putting his daughter in danger. If I had any doubts that he suspected Omni and I are one and the same, they've surely been squelched now.

  "You're lucky she's fine," he says to me.

  "I'm sorry. I don't know what else I can say."

  He takes one last hard look at me, turns without saying a word, and walks back up to his house. The front door is slammed hard as if to put an exclamation point on what he just said to me.

  Mr. Miller hates Connor and Halpern can't thank Omni enough. It was confusing keeping my two identities straight.

  It's a long ride home by myself with plenty of time to think about everything that happened tonight. I hate it. The right thing was ultimately done, but at the cost of possibly ruining my relationship with Sarah and her dad. If I didn't have powers, tonight might have played out much differently, but at least it wouldn’t have seemed like I just ran away at the first sign of trouble. I’m suspicious that the reason emotions are running so high at their household tonight has something to do with whatever happened between Sarah's mom and the meta she’s with.

  For a minute, I con
sider calling Midnight. He's the only other person I can reach out to who has even a vague idea of what it's like to live two different lives. Except, I'm becoming less and less sure that he actually does lead two different lives. The more I get to know about him, the less there seems to be another side to him at all. Maybe there was at one point, but now only Midnight seems to exist. On top of that, the idea of calling Midnight to talk about my girl problems and not having that conversation end with him hanging up the phone on me seems far-fetched.

  The only other person who I can even remotely talk to about all of this is, of course, Derrick. It's late, even for Derrick, but considering everything that’s happened tonight, I can’t imagine that he’s already called it a day and headed home from the office, even if it is Friday night. There's a sense of relief when I pull up to our building and see the lights on all the way up on the top floor before pulling into the underground parking garage. Guess he decided to go home before the sun came up after all.

  The elevator goes right to the entryway of our apartment, as long as you have the key. I told you it was fancy. On the ride up, I feel a wave of exhaustion come over me. It's been a very long day, even for a superhero. I'm starting to question if I even want to get into all of this with Derrick tonight, or if I just want to cut my losses and head to bed. Maybe Sarah will feel differently about everything after having a night to sleep on it.

  The elevator doors open to the apartment, and I walk out. Most of the lights are off. Only one by the couch, in the sunken living room, is still on, and even that is turned down low. The remains of some half-eaten Chinese food are on the coffee table. It's not unusual for Derrick to leave a mess, but what is unusual is that the TV isn't on. If Derrick is home and awake, the TV is always on.

  Walking farther into the living room, I find more evidence that starts my heart beating just a little bit faster. On the counter is Derrick's phone. He is never ever without his phone. If he were asleep, which he wouldn't be this early anyway, the phone would be on the nightstand next to him. In fact, I'm not even sure if that's true. I suspect he might actually fall asleep with it in his hand. That's how glued to it he is. There's absolutely no way in hell he would have left the apartment without taking it with him. But it's the last thing I see that really geta my pulse racing: shattered glass all over the hardwood floor closest to the couch.