by Chad Kunego
“But I feel fine and my powers are back to normal,” he said, impatience slowly creeping into his tone.
“But we are not!”
The sudden venom in Zarina’s voice caught him off guard.
“What do you—”
“We’re not going tonight. That’s final.”
Rick started to open his mouth, but the look on Kaitlyn’s face left him no doubt that the discussion was over. Looking back and forth between his two teammates, he finally threw his hands up in annoyance.
“Fine! Have it your way! Then I’m going out for a while!”
He angrily strode toward the door, snatching his equipment and strapping it on using only his powers. Lifting off the ground slightly, he mentally pulled on his socks and boots, tying them with a thought before settling back down to the ground.
Kaitlyn moved to intercept him, stepping in front of the door before he reached it. She reached out her hand in an attempt to stop him, but without slowing his pace, he slid her to the side with his powers instead. Snatching the door open, the metal squealed slightly from the force he used. Stepping out into the hall, he slammed the door behind him, rattling the frame. The resounding boom echoing down the hall after him. Quickly striding toward the exit, he heard the door open up behind him. Without slowing, he mentally pushed whoever it was back into the room and slammed the door again.
By the time they opened the door again, he was already stepping out of the building.
“Come back he—!”
The rest of statement cut off as the door closed behind him. Extending his senses outward, he checked to see if anyone was nearby while he strode to the center of the parking lot. In the back of his mind, he detected someone running down the hall after him. Extending his senses further, he noticed absently that he could not only detect everyone within a mile of his location, but he could even tell which direction they were facing, a level of refinement he wasn’t used to.
Satisfied nobody was in a position to spot him other than his approaching teammate, he extended his aura upward, forming a vertical column above him nearly a half-mile high. Shifting focus, he rapidly forced the air outward, leaving the interior of the column a complete vacuum. Just as the exit door slammed open, he crouched down, gathering energy around him. Casting a look back, he spotted an angry looking Kaitlyn rushing toward him.
“Wait a damn min—”
Without letting her finish, he launched himself skyward, accelerating away at nearly three times the speed of sound, using the airless column above him to eliminate the sonic boom as he vanished from sight.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
“—it! Damn it!”
One second Rick was in front of her, the next he was gone without a trace. If anyone had been watching, they would have thought he’d simply vanished, but she knew he’d just accelerated away at high speed. How he did it without creating a sonic boom, she wasn’t sure. That would have to wait for later… after she tore him a new one.
Storming back inside, she was greeted to several guests poking their heads out of their rooms again, trying to find the source of the second disturbance within the past few hours.
Goddammit! This is going to be a long night. Hopefully we don’t get kicked out. This whole mission has been one big textbook case of how NOT to run a covert op. How come he never follows orders? I’ve never been on a team where everyone didn’t follow orders? What the hell am I supposed to do with him?
Making her way back to the room quickly, she looked both ways down the hall before slipping back inside. She noticed the scent of black pepper now permeated the room for some reason.
“Guess you did not catch him?”
Kaitlyn ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a frustrated sigh in the process.
“No, I didn’t. The asshole took off before I could say anything. This was just supposed to be a simple training exercise, see how you fit on our team. Instead, it’s become a complete cluster fuck.”
Getting more annoyed, she started ticking off items on her fingers.
“First, we get on-site woefully unprepared for the mission since none of us know anything about weather phenomena. Then, because of lack of working with each other, you almost get killed because of his instinctive response of using his powers at the first sign of an issue.”
Kaitlyn started pacing back and forth in the small room, the muscles in her back and neck tightening while she continued ticking off more mistakes.
“Rick then incapacitates himself in an effort to heal you after nearly killing you. Now he’s risking compromising the integrity of this mission by using his powers to take off in broad daylight.”
She paused a moment, slamming her fist into her other hand in frustration.
“Oh, and I nearly forgot. We might have an extremely powerful mutant hanging around that, if true, has already killed several people and injured more.”
She looked over toward where Zarina was quietly sitting.
“Did I miss anything?”
“Da. You missed part where I got supercharged and now might be Rick junkie.”
The comment caught Kaitlyn by surprise, leaving her speechless. After a moment, she noticed a tiny smile tugging at the corner of Zarina mouth. The whole absurdity of the mess the mission had become finally caught up to her. After a second, she broke down laughing.
“Yeah, I guess I should add that to the list,” she said, wiping tears from the corner of her eyes, “ This is not going to look good on my file. Maybe they’ll cut me some slack since this is only the second mission I’ve ever personally led…”
After a few minutes, Zarina got a more serious expression on her face.
“So… Is he always,” she started, waving her hand around, “so impulsive?”
Kaitlyn sighed before sitting down on the corner of the bed.
“Honestly, I really don’t know.”
Kaitlyn noticed a look of surprise flash across the other woman’s face.
“Why would you not know? And what do you mean by this being only second mission?”
“Believe it or not, we only found out about him less than two months ago. Before that, there was no indication that someone of his power level existed, let alone one that was in close proximity to us. His discovery is forcing us to change a lot of our assumptions of what’s actually possible.”
“Really? How did you find him?”
“Well, a cyborg named Reaper threatened to drop a hostage off the top of the Rapier building if someone named Newton didn’t show up.”
“What happened?”
“Rick showed up. Then the cyborg dropped the hostage. Rick caught her and confronted the cyborg. Oddly enough, if we’d only showed up five minutes later, everything that occurred after that probably wouldn’t have happened and we might never have recruited him. Then again, the city might have been destroyed. We’ll never know.”
Kaitlyn noticed the confused look on Zarina’s face.
“Yeah…,” she said, pausing to reflect on the mess she made of that mission as well, “so we showed up and interrupted Rick dealing with the cyborg, who we later found out was his brother. Because we interfered, we allowed Reaper the chance to self-destruct, blowing Rick off the top of the building and nearly killing my team if I hadn’t been able to redirect the blast upward. From there, we eventually joined forces and put an end to the threat.”
She paused, rubbing her temples to try and relieve some of the tension building up in her head.
“That was my first mission. Now Rick acts as an independent contractor for us. After seeing what he was capable of during that mission, we knew it’d be better to find a way to work together, keeping a close eye on him in the process rather than letting him disappear again.”
Kaitlyn paused a moment to grab something to drink.
“Honestly, other than knowing he’s an extremely powerful and dangerous mutant, all we really know about him is that he actually laid the groundwork for our entire organization and that he�
��d been in hiding for nearly twenty years before we discovered him. In other words, he’s spent a long time only needing to depend on himself, rather than being part of a team. So we’re giving him room to get used to working with us. We really can’t take the chance of someone else scooping him up.”
Zarina mulled the information over for a moment before responding.
“You said he has been in hiding for nearly two decades? He only looks like he is in twenties. How old is he, exactly?”
Kaitlyn started to open her mouth, but paused.
I never really thought about it. How old is he, actually? I never really bothered to ask him.
“You know, I really have no idea now that you’ve asked me. Never really came up. One of the things you haven’t been read in on yet is the full extent of what he can do. Most of it is above your current clearance level, which will change if you become part of our team.”
She paused to give Zarina a serious look.
“What I’m going to tell you goes no further than this room, or you’ll probably never see the light of day again. Rick had, among other things, one of the most impressive healing factors we’ve ever documented. When we first saw him, he appeared to be in his forties. Now, as you can see, he appears to be in his late twenties, early thirties. Realistically, for all we know, he could be functionally immortal.”
Kaitlyn paused to consider something.
That’s probably why he was so irritated. He’s definitely older than me and has had a lot more combat experience. Probably thinks I’m mothering him. Hell, now that I think of it, he doesn’t seem to need more than an hour or two of sleep based off what I’ve seen so far on this trip, so he probably was fully recovered as well. I’d probably be just as pissed if I was in his shoes.
“So,” Zarina said, interrupting Kaitlyn’s thoughts, “if I understand correctly, you have person with godlike powers, unknown age, is nearly unstoppable, and has impulse control issues?”
“Unfortunately, that sums it up nicely.”
And… now I’m worried. What do we really know about him, anyway?
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Rick punched through the upper level of clouds, coming to a stop at what he guessed was somewhere near forty thousand feet. He slowly rotated in place, turning to face the afternoon sun, soaking in its warmth. After a few minutes, he rocketed off, gliding across the tops of the clouds.
I feel fine! I don’t need someone babying me! There’s no reason why we couldn’t have gone to talk to the witness today.
Feeling his irritation and anger growing again, he pulled in more energy and surged away, pushing himself faster than he’d managed when coming back from the test site. The air around him started darkening as he pushed himself, reminding him to switch over to using his enhanced senses to navigate by.
See! I’m flying just as fast as before. Faster even! No drop in ability!
Continuing to accelerate, he noticed the front end of his protective envelope starting to glow and throw off sparks. Slowing down slightly, he noticed the effect disappear. Pushing his speed upward, he noticed the effect starting to happen again. Reaching out his senses, he felt the energetic impact of the air hitting the leading edge of his aura. With some concentration, he could sense the air actually getting compressed enough to start igniting, like what happens when the space shuttle enters the atmosphere during reentry.
He tried to pull energy from the leading edge. He felt another spike in his acceleration at the same time the glow vanished.
Nice to know. I can pull more energy from the air the faster I go. Might come in handy.
With a start, he realized he had no clue where he was. With effort, he shunted all his speed, coming to a stop almost instantly. The air around him flashed brightly, the effect of all the energy he discharged causing the air to catch fire for a split-second, lighting the clouds up like heat lightning.
That was amazing. I’ve never had that happen before. Then again, I’ve never had the power to move that fast before, either.
Looking down at his wrist, he realized with a start that he’d actually outpaced how fast the GPS system could track. Hovering in place while waiting for his location to update, he realized he no longer felt pissed. What he was left with was a question he didn’t have an answer for. Why had he gotten so upset in the first place? Floating aimlessly, he thought back on the conversation. Running the memory back and forth, he couldn’t discern any reason behind his outburst.
Was it due to me playing around with my aura?
In sudden comprehension, he realized that it was, but only indirectly.
She berated me for exploring my powers. It’s been a long time since somebody told me what to do like that. I’ve been doing my own thing for so long, I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be under someone else’s command. Which begs the question. Should I really be working for someone else again in this capacity? After all, I’ve had a lot of years to become set in my ways. Do I really want to change? More importantly, can I?
A ping on his awareness pulled his attention to something coming toward him. Focusing on the distant approaching object, he was surprised to sense an aircraft coming toward him. Looking around, he saw some clouds in the distance. With a thought, he flew over to them with the intention of using them for cover.
I’ve never actually had a plane fly by me before. This should be pretty cool.
As the aircraft got nearer, Rick noticed that it didn’t look like passenger jets he was used to. Focusing his attention, he started picking out differences. It was bigger than he was used to seeing, along with having more engines than the usual passenger jets he’d seen. Focusing tighter, it didn’t feel like it was carrying as many passengers. In shock, he realized it was an intercontinental flight.
Where the hell am I?
As the jet thundered past, he expanded his awareness out as far as he could reach. Beneath him, he could feel the surface roiling about, but try as he might, he couldn’t feel any stationary surface anywhere nearby. With concern, he glanced back at his GPS. He noted with some relief that it was finally starting to give the coordinates of his current location. When he finally read the readings, he stared at them in disbelief. He refreshed the readings to make sure. When the coordinates displayed again, he stared at them in shock.
How fast was I flying! If these readings are correct, I’m almost near Australia. Oh shit! Kaitlyn’s gonna kill me!
Making some calculations, he oriented himself back toward the mainland. Setting a timer on his watch, he gathered in all the energy around him. Pressing the start button, he shot off, heading back toward where the team was located. Gathering speed, he continued to push himself faster, trying to judge his velocity in an effort to not overshoot his destination.
Maybe Kaitlyn’s right. It IS dangerous for me to experiment without anyone around. And maybe I need to think about whether I should be part of her team until I get a handle on what I’m able to do, now that I don’t have any apparent limits. Last thing I need to be is a liability…
Chapter 11
Coming to a stop, he hovered over the landscape far below him while he checked his GPS again.
Damn it! Went to far again!
At least it wasn’t as bad as his first attempt. That time had put him nearly a thousand miles beyond his target. After several more attempts, he was now within forty miles of the hotel they were staying at.
Maybe going slower might be a better option…
Rotating a few degrees, he prepared to fly off again. In the distance, a rapidly developing thunderstorm was growing between him and his destination. Studying the storm for a minute, he debated what route to take.
Over would be smooth sailing, but as thick as those clouds look, I’d probably miss the damn hotel again. Then again, if I go low, someone might see me. That’s all I need. I can just hear Kat now. “You ruined the mission because you couldn’t figure out where the fuck you were going?”
Rick shuddered slightly, wincing at the t
hought of pissing her off even more than she already was, especially with him tearing out of there against her orders. He had to admit though, she did look kinda hot when she got mad. If other people’s lives weren’t in danger, it might just be worth it. Forcing his mind back to the task at hand, he finally came up with a compromise. Stick to the lower edge of the storm would allow him to stay hidden while still allowing him to see the ground. The only downside would be the increased risk of getting hit by lightning. While it wouldn’t kill him, or even injury him really, it wouldn’t be very pleasant, either.
Mind made up, he took off, staying just under the speed of sound. At his current pace, he’d probably reach the room in a half hour or so. Now all he had to do is figure out what he was going to say when he got there.
Approaching the storm, he extended his aura a bit further around him. Hopefully it’d be enough to lower the chances of triggering a lightning strike. Coasting along at an easy cruising pace, he drew closer to the clouds. He noticed the updrafts were quickly pushing the clouds higher.
This isn’t looking too good…
Punching through the leading edge of the storm, he checked his position on the GPS. Curving slightly, he sped up a bit. At the rate the storm was intensifying, he was going to be stuck in the cloud bank for most of the final leg of his flight. Extending his senses out further, he tried to determine how far the other edge of the storm was.
What the…?
The strange sensation he’d experienced at the diner washed over him an instant before the lightning bolt struck. Energy rippled around his expanded aura, almost like it was clawing to reach him. Some of the energy finally penetrated, arcing across his body. Sudden pain caused him to ricochet off in a random direction. Instinctively, he accelerated downward in an evasive pattern, trying to get out of the clouds. Another bolt blasted past him, super-heating the air around him. An explosion of thunder slammed into him, partially deafening and disoriented him again.
