Meta 2: The Second Wave

by Tom Reynolds

  "What is your purpose for entry?" I'm asked. I've never been asked this before.

  "I need to speak with Halpern," I reply. There's a long silence.

  "Teleportation coordinates are available only to metas transporting potential prisoners. All other inquiries must be made through ..." the voice on the other end says.

  "To hell with your other inquiries. I need to talk to him!" I scream into my receiver.

  "I'm sorry. Access has been denied," the voice on the other end says without emotion.

  "Goddammit, half the people in there right now are there because I brought them in! You're seriously going to tell me that I can't come in there without a prisoner?" I scream again.

  There's no response on the other end.

  For a moment, I consider the idea of finding a new prisoner. The night is young, and there certainly must be some meta out there in the city causing problems. If I can find them and bring them in, I'd have reason to enter Silver Island. Certainly, they wouldn't refuse a known “good” meta bringing in a bad one. But even still, it's a long shot. I don't even know if Halpern is there; let alone Sarah. I cruised over their house briefly on my way to Silver Island, but I didn't see either of them inside. I felt like a bit of a creeper even doing that. No, if I'm going to confront Sarah about my suspicion that she's actually Iris, I want to do it in person, and I want to ask her directly. I'm not sure why, but the idea of hearing the admission from her directly is more important to me than catching her in the act.

  But right now, Silver Island is no use. The facility is purposefully impenetrable. There are ways in, of course, for a meta there's almost always a way in, but no way that wouldn't trigger a full military response and possibly cause the deaths of many of the metas there who have yet to receive a fair trial.

  Silver Island learned from the first wave of metas that when it comes to super-powered beings, the idea of “fair” is subjective. There were a lot of metas sprung from prisons during the First Wave a decade ago, when security was lax. Well, not lax, but not built to the specifications that imprisoning metas requires. Between the First and Second Waves, many of the organizations subcontracted by the government in the case of a Second Wave spent the majority of their time and resources coming up with ways to imprison metas, if ever the need should arise again.

  Beyond the idea of just imprisoning metas, many brilliant men and women thought of ways to shut down the prisons entirely in an emergency, even if all of the elaborate perimeters had been breached.

  There's a crackle over my earpiece, and a new voice comes on. It's Halpern.

  "Omni, I'm clearing you for arrival. Coordinates G-13. Come see me when you're in."

  I haven’t given much thought as to what I’m going to say to Halpern when I confront him. “I know your daughter is a meta?” What if he doesn't know himself? How is it my place to blow someone's identity? No one has done that to me, at least not yet. So suddenly, I'm having a crisis of faith over what I should do. I watched Iris kill. Is this really a conversation I want to have with someone about his daughter? I rushed in here full of anger and concern, but now that I'm here, finding the right words is much harder than I assumed it would be.

  After teleporting into Silver Island, I quickly find Halpern; he's already waiting for me outside the Processing area of the facility.

  "So you've heard?" he asks me.

  For a second, I'm about to blurt out that I know the truth about Sarah, but I question why he’s asked if I’ve heard. I didn't hear it from anyone; I saw it for myself. In this situation, it's always best to play dumb. Except when it's best to play smart. I decide to go somewhere in-between.

  "I've heard a little. Why don't you start from the top," I say, very proud of myself for figuring out such a clever way of getting the information I need without Halpern thinking I'm not in the loop.

  "You haven't heard, have you?" Halpern asks. Guess that didn't work as well as I thought. "Why are you here then?" he asks.

  By this time, we're walking down the hallway together toward his office, and I can tell by the buzz of people coming in and out of different offices, all looking like they're in a hurry, that obviously something is going on. I decide to pull that thread.

  "Well, it's obvious something's happening," I say. This seems to satisfy Halpern's curiosity about why I'm here, at least for the time being.

  "Desmond Keane is being granted a release pending his trial," Halpern tells me.

  "What? Why? How?"

  "You forgot where and when. He's rich and powerful, even without metabands. Keane hired the best lawyers in the world, and they’ve compelled the court to question whether his metabands are even real."

  "But they are; I saw them appear!"

  "Which would be great if we could use your testimony in court, but it's not going to be admissible as evidence if you're not sworn in under your real identity. They don't like the idea of someone sitting up on the stand in tights and a mask."

  "They're not ti—"

  "I know, I know. The bottom line is that Keane is getting released. People don't get released from Silver Island, in case you hadn't noticed."

  "I had."

  It was hard not to notice that there is a whole wing of Silver Island that isn't accessible, or isn't accessible to me, at least. According to Derrick, the east wing is where all the prisoners from the first wave of metas are kept. Both those that forfeited their metabands and the ones who didn't are buried deep under the facility. When metas first started appearing, people were amazed, but frightened. When the first ones started committing criminal acts, laws were passed quickly to ensure life sentences for any metas determined to have used their abilities for harm. No possibility of parole, no trial, nothing. If The Agency said you did something bad, and they caught you, well that was it.

  "As you’ve probably guessed, while we've figured out a pretty good way to get prisoners into Silver Island, we've never had to deal with getting them out, safely at least," Halpern says. "We were hoping you could help with that."

  "How?"

  "We want you and another meta we trust to teleport Keane to his home. He's to remain there under house arrest until such time that a trial can be arranged. There are a lot of threats to his life coming in from all over the place. People aren't happy he's being released, so we can't exactly walk him out the front door."

  "And then what? Once he's out of here he'll magically be safe at his house?"

  "Probably not. That's why he's already hired a number of metas to guard him. We'll be providing additional security as well."

  "And what if I refuse?"

  "I can't make you do anything you don't want to do, Omni," Halpern says as he turns the corner and swipes his access card at a security gate, entering one of the many areas of Silver Island that I'm excluded from.

  "Excuse me," a voice calls as I am walking back through the Processing area to Arrivals so I can teleport out of here. "You're Omni, aren't you?"

  I turn and find Sarah sitting behind a computer terminal in the glass-enclosed workstation nearest the teleportation port. For a second, I'm at a complete loss for words. I want to confront her about everything. To find out if my suspicions are true that she’s Iris, and if she is, why she did that.

  But I don't. There are cameras and microphones everywhere. This is a beyond high security facility. Every physical being that can be recorded in here, is. To confront her now would reveal my own identity; there's no doubt about it.

  "Yeah, I'm Omni," I say, realizing that this is the first time I'm having a conversation with someone who knows Connor, but doesn't know we're the same person.

  "Sorry, I know you're probably sick of hearing this, and it might not be appropriate since I work here. Well, technically I'm just an intern, but anyway, my point was going to be that I'm a really big fan of yours," Sarah tells me as she blushes slightly.

  "Oh," I say, stalling for time to think of something to say since this is pretty high up there on the list of things I hadn’t exp
ected to come out of her mouth. "Thanks," I finally arrive at.

  Not exactly the most creative response to someone who just said something nice to you.

  "Also, I'm supposed to schedule you to come back here tomorrow? It doesn't say why. Apparently that's above my security clearance, but it says here," she says, gesturing to her computer screen, which is facing the opposite direction from where I'm standing, "to confirm a seven a.m. arrival with you. Is that okay?"

  "Yeah, that's fine," I say in return.

  "Great. Just call in beforehand and we'll give you teleportation coordinates. Jeez, what am I thinking, telling you that? You already know all this stuff."

  "Don't worry about it."

  "Okay, see you then, Omni!" Sarah says with a slight cheer in her voice.

  "See you then."

  The only place I can think to go to next is Midnight's water tower. I teleport in. Midnight doesn't like me coming in through the other entrances during the daytime. He says I'm not stealthy enough to make sure no one's following or watching. He's not here, but I'm not exactly surprised. So I wait. It isn't long before he arrives through the trapdoor in the ceiling disguised to look like a valve from the outside.

  "What are you doing here?" he asks.

  "What, don't like surprises?"

  "No. And it's hard to surprise someone who’s got his water tower covered in surveillance equipment."

  "It was a joke. I know you have this places decked out with cameras and lasers and ... more lasers or whatever. I figured I'd save myself the trouble of calling since you're more likely to show up if I just invite myself over."

  "This is about what happened at your school today, I assume?" Midnight asks.

  "Sarah is Iris," I say.

  There's a long silence before Midnight says anything back.

  "No, she isn't."

  "What? How do you know that?"

  "She just isn't."

  Midnight brushes past me and heads over to his computer terminal. He removes his cowl and sits down. He pulls up maps and security cameras from around the city and watches various metas fly through the city sky like fireflies on a summer night. He's trying his best to ignore me, thinking it will get me to drop it and just go away. A frequent tactic of his that never works on me.

  "Then who is Iris?"

  "It doesn't matter. She isn't Sarah, though."

  "So you do know who she is?"

  "That's not important."

  "How is that not important?" I begin to argue. "My school got destroyed today, people died, and Iris magically shows up and starts murdering bad guys. That's pretty important in my book."

  "And why did it get to that point? Why didn't you do something to stop it?"

  "What? Are you serious? Now this is my fault?" I ask.

  "What Iris does is her business. What you do is mine."

  "But what you know about Iris is none of my business? You know what? Forget this. I came here trying to find some answers or at the very least some sympathy, but I should have known by now how stupid it is to think I'd find either of those here."

  Before Midnight has a chance to respond, if he was even going to, I teleport out of there to the skies over Bay View City. It's almost night time now, and I can see glimpses of some of the metas who were just on Midnight's screen, darting around above the city, silhouetted by the setting sun. No doubt some of them are up to no good, but it's not my place to do anything about that. I can't be the savior of this entire city twenty-four hours a day. If anything has taught me that, it's today.

  Chapter 28

  It's early the next morning when I arrive at Silver Island for Desmond Keane's transport. Really early. Like, I didn't know this hour even existed early. I don't know if “luckily” is the appropriate word to use, but luckily I don't have school this morning due to everything that’s happened. Otherwise, I’m up so early that I wouldn’t even make it through homeroom without falling asleep. There’s already been too many calls home to Derrick because of me missing class, being late, or falling asleep. You name it. If he didn't already know I’m a meta, he would have figured it out within the first week of school starting

  Classes are canceled for the foreseeable future to allow everyone time to grieve, but also because the building isn't structurally sound anymore. They're not sure if they're going to try to fix it, or just tear the whole thing down and start over. In the meantime, it sounds like we're all going to get split up and sent to neighboring schools. Probably for the rest of the year at least if I had to guess. That's how bad the damage is.

  I don't get the luxury of time to grieve. I feel like I haven’t for my entire life. After Mom and Dad were killed in The Battle, I had to grow up quickly. Not as quickly as Derrick, though. Overnight, he went from being a college student to the legal guardian of a six year-old. There wasn't time for either of us to grieve. With no other family, we were immediately on our own. Derrick had to quickly prove that he was capable of taking care of me to child services so that I wasn't taken away and placed in a foster home. Again, I hate to use the word “luckily” here, but luckily, there were so many deaths that day and so much confusion in general, they barely had time to find homes for all the new orphans let alone follow up with the ones who had homes and family to go to, like me.

  After dragging my ass out of bed this morning, I felt a million times better once I turned on my metabands. It's like having a quadruple espresso but without the jitters. Nothing quite wakes you up like activating strange alien technology that gives you super powers. That being said, I feel like I need another few hours of sleep before dealing with the meta I find out I'm teamed up with.

  "Hey there, buddy. Name's Elastico," the meta wearing florescent orange and green says as he extends his hand for me to shake.

  I'm no expert on style, but even I can tell that this costume is butt ugly. If the metabands hadn't woken me up this morning, one look at this god-awful uniform would have. We're outside the Silver Island facility, just in front of a pair of large metal gates in what looks like a loading dock, likely for ships bringing supplies onto the island. It's a sunny day in the bay, and the seagulls are already up and squawking overhead.

  "Hi. Omni," I say, shaking his hand.

  "So, what's your deal?" he asks.

  "What do you mean? I'm here to transport Keane. Isn't that why you're here?"

  "Duh. I know that. I mean, what's your deal. What are your powers, bro?"

  Yup, it's way too early in the morning to be dealing with this. This guy doesn't know who I am? Seriously? I'm not trying to be vain or something, but I was kinda a big deal for a while there. Ugh. Everyone forgets so quickly, especially when you're no longer one of the only metas in the world.

  "I've got a little of everything," I say, trying to politely end the conversation so we can just wait here until they're ready to release Keane so we can teleport him out of here and I can go back to my nice comfy bed.

  "Pfft," Elastico replies.

  I really don't want to deal with this right now.

  "What is that supposed to mean?" I ask, against my better judgment.

  "Nothing. Just you guys with multiple powers think you're better than everyone else."

  "I didn't say that."

  "No, but I'm sure you think it."

  "Hey, listen. You don't know me, and I don't know you. We're both just here to do a job. Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?" I ask. I'm in no mood.

  "I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. I'm just making an observation."

  "Whatever. Let's just drop it then."

  "Well aren't you going to ask me what my powers are?"

  "I don't really care to be honest."

  Wow, maybe I do need a coffee after all.

  "See! There it is. That's exactly what I'm talking about. ‘I don't really care to be honest,’" Elastico says in a mocking tone.

  Why did I even say anything?

  "Okay, fine. What are your powers?" I ask.

  "You're not asking
like you really mean it. You don't care," he says. Really? This is how this morning is going to go? What a baby.

  "Sure I do. What are your powers?" I ask again.

  Elastico turns to me and smiles. I really just want this morning to be over. Without warning, he suddenly throws both hands into the air. I say he throws them into the air, because that's literally what he does. His arms extend what must be hundreds of feet in a matter of seconds as his hands reach higher and higher into the air.

  "You're a Changer," I say.

  Elastico just smiles back at me. While Changers aren't exactly the most impressive metas, they're some of the rarest you'll see. Their powers vary slightly from meta to meta, but basically, they're able to manipulate their own body in pretty crazy ways. Some, like Elastico here, are able to extend their body like it was made out of rubber. This can lead to all kinds of fun, if not exactly practical, abilities like using your limbs to tie up a bad guy or making yourself really flat to slide under doors or glide through the air.

  Other Changers have even more complex abilities. Some are able to transform their bodies into actual mechanical shapes. They can become complex machines. Others can change their bodies into animals, sometimes even animals that don't exist in the real world, like say, a flying giraffe. That’s a real example; he's all over the Internet.

  There are still other Changers who can control their size and mass, meaning they can shrink down to the molecular level or grow themselves to be the size of a building. The guys who can shrink are in ultra high demand in the medical field since they can go inside the human body and actually physically fight diseases and cancer. When the super rich get sick, they don't take medicine. They hire a meta that can shrink to the size of a molecule and go inside of them to physically fight alongside white blood cells to beat whatever ails them.

  The metas who can grow usually work in more blue-collar jobs, often in lumber or other natural resource gathering jobs. Companies would love to use them in building construction, but no city will issue the permits required since a Changer tripped over his own shoelaces and wound up taking out the skyscraper he was building during the First Wave. They've since been strictly forbidden from using their powers inside populated areas.