by Alana Melos
“Caprice,” a voice from outside the cell called softly, reverberating through me. I looked up and saw Adira, dressed in a lab coat complete with glasses and her long wavy hair up in a bun.
“What? How?” Stunned by so many revelations in a short time, I simply couldn’t work out how she was here.
“Later,” she said, practical as always. She held a clipboard in one hand and in the other an ident card. The card she placed against the reader just outside the open doorway of the small cell. Nothing happened. Her face darkened as she frowned and tried again. Still nothing.
“Whoever you hijacked might not have the clearance,” I said, then added, “and the agent who put me in here used her hand. It might be a gene or print scanner.”
At that, Adira scowled. “I hate technology,” she said, sounding so much like me and my hatred of magic. “It never stands still.”
“They’ve got surveillance here,” I said as I climbed to my feet. “They might even have audio.” I looked down at the bottle in my hand. Thoughts of my mother chased from me by the siren song of self-preservation, I took a deep breath and let it out, focused on the matter at hand once more. “We have to get out of here now, before they arrive. There’s no way we can take on one much less a squad of guardians.”
She’d heard my story of when Rebekah and I had rescued Gerard and nodded, though doubt shone in her dark red eyes. “I will find someone,” she said, and turned to leave.
“No, wait,” I told her, and shook one of the pills out into my hand. They might not work. They might be too old. It might not be enough. After a moment's consideration, I shook out another one. “It's worth a shot.”
“It's not wise,” she said quickly, understanding my intent. “I will hide, and find someone else.”
Both of us heard voices from not far away. She looked to me and shook her head again before shadowstepping into darkness.
“I was going to anyway,” I muttered and downed the pills. The far door opened and a security team burst in, complete with two of the black suited guardians along with three armed uniformed men. The guardians fanned out, moving down the hall silently as security took their time, checking each cell and doing a head count.
I wondered how long it would take the Clarity to take effect. The guardians moved past me, looking for the intruder. Whatever hid her kept her safe from whatever extra sight they possessed. Or perhaps she had already left the corridor and had taken refuge someplace else. Without my telepathy, I had no way of knowing for sure. If I had a watch, I would have checked the time. How long would it take to kick in?
When it hit me, there was no mistaking it. As much of a difference from coming to Prime to Origin had been, this was far more intense. Everything stood out in crystal clear detail, and my mind cleared. The pain in my body faded, including the headache which plagued me so for months on end. I was aware of myself in a way I never had been before, feeling every section of my body at once, knowing what had been done to me, and what my capabilities were, and how they had increased. I had no trouble putting away my fears and worries to concentrate on the matter at hand. The bracelet had to come off first. I looked at the smooth metal band with no apparent seam, but there was one. It was small and easy to overlook, but it was there. To get it open manually, I needed a tool and some time, and I had neither. All that had to be done was to separate the two parts and it would open. I focused all of my attention on the bracelet, drawing on my enhanced telekinesis.
It snapped open, just like that. Whatever suppressor was present in the thin band couldn’t handle the enhanced powers I now possessed. When it fell away, I let it drop to the ground. Likely, there was a GPS tracker in there as well, so there was no sense taking it with me. I reached behind me to the welt on the back of my neck. Though I couldn’t see it, I felt it in my body and knew exactly where the foreign item lay. A quick pull, and it came free into my hand, causing the wound to bleed all over again. The pain was inconsequential. I dropped the tracker and looked into the hallway. Power rushed through me, in a stilted gait. The cells had suppressors built into the walls, like they did in the prisons on Prime, but those were toys compared to what was now at my fingertips. The guards passed me. Having seen I was still imprisoned, they continued on, secure in the knowledge that I couldn’t escape.
Oh, how wrong they were.
Focusing, I spread the energy shield like a waterfall and stepped through. Now free of all suppressors, my telepathy bloomed into life. Colors burst from the people I looked at as I read them at a glance. Tears stung my eyes as I had the solution in my grasp. The guards hadn’t noticed, but the guardians both turned to face me, having sensed the disturbance. Their emotions were blank, but they did have minds. That was good to know. The security team drew up short at their motion and turned, taking batons from their belts. The air crackled around me as I gathered my teke, making a shield and readying my attack. I could have taken them by surprise, but I wanted them to see it coming.
When they moved forward, I let loose with a wave of telekinetic force unimaginable to me in power. It shredded the guards, turning them into a fine red mist which splattered the walls. Drunk on power, I pushed on to the guardians. They leapt forward as one, unintelligible language spewing across their helmets in a frenzy. I knew they couldn’t be touched directly by my power, so I grabbed the metal and stone from the cells, walls, and floor. The hallway exploded as the materials twisted around them, piercing their suits and flesh, and drawing them back in, sucking them into the building and burying them deep, trapped where no one would be able to free them, if they still lived. It was all so simple, like breathing.
A soft exhalation from behind me caused me to smile. Adira stepped out of the shadows and stared at the remnants of the carnage. “That’s what that does?” she asked.
“That’s what it does for me,” I said. Even my voice sounded better, clearer, more confident. Reaching out with my telepathy, I saw her thoughts stained with worry and a thread of fear. “You don’t have to be afraid.”
“We should leave,” she said, her face showing none of her emotional turmoil. “Who knows how long until it wears off?”
That was a good idea. I strode down the hall, towards the opposite door from where the security team had entered. It opened and another team stepped out. The guards hesitated seeing the blood, but the guardians surged forth, unwavering in their loyalty to Nox. One blasted light green energy in a steady stream from the face of its helmet as it charged. I maintained my shield, focusing all my attention on defense. The green energy dissipated as it touched the telekinetic energy, spreading into a thousand smaller beams which harmlessly hit the walls. The other moved in a sleek black blur. It leaped through my shield as if it didn’t exist. Its hardened fingers ripped into my chest armor. I ripped up a chunk of the floor and slammed it into the guardian. Adira shadowstepped, disappearing from view. As the guardian tore at the kevlar to get at me, I bent the rebar in the floor chunk around it, forcing it back. It withdrew as the metal closed around its body, then smashed the segment with a fist. The floor chunk exploded into shards. When the swing completed, the other blasted as the pair worked together in harmony.
Sick knowledge hit me. These guardians were the results of their “projects”. They were metahumans made to serve Nox, in whatever capacity… but there weren’t any psychic ones. Not a single one. Mother had seen to it. If I didn’t submit, they’d fit me for one of those sleek black suits. I reached out not to rip the room asunder, but to see if I could read their minds.
Information flooded me, washing over my thoughts. It didn’t matter what it said. If I could touch it, I could affect it. “Sleep,” I told them. Both of them simply fell to the ground. I laughed, delighted at the outcome.
“That’s impossible,” one of the guards said, lowering his flimsy looking rifle. “They’re psi-immune… that’s impossible!” Adira appeared behind him from a cloud of darkness and broke his neck. She grabbed the second and bit deep into his neck. The third fled, s
houting into a radio about a level nine alert.
Adira let the body fall to the floor and wiped her bloody mouth. “Let’s go,” she said, her words wavering on the edge of being a command. She couldn’t help it; she was afraid. This place felt strange to her, smelled strange, and everything in it was too sterile. It wasn’t messy. It reminded her of the Reich, and she understood too well what fanatics were like.
“Yes,” I said, suffused with power and ecstasy. This was better than sex, better than any drug or drink I’d ever tasted. I followed her, my skin tingling and my head buzzing in a pleasant way. It occurred to me that I was high. I’d been intoxicated before, and had done my share of experimenting with drugs, but I hadn’t like losing the even the slightest bit of control. This high wasn’t like that at all. I felt powerful and in charge. My mind whirled with possibilities, of how I could use this power to crush my enemies, to take what I wanted… and I wanted a lot.
Adira led the way. Having followed the team earlier and memorized the hallways, she walked with quick confidence. The vampire gave a couple of furtive glances hither and thither, but kept on the main path to portal room. We turned a corner and ran into someone dressed as a laboratory technician. I smiled, recognizing Emily’s doppleganger. With a thought, I snapped her neck, deriving great pleasure from seeing the shocked expression on her dumb face. Petty, true, but satisfying all the same. Adira smirked, then stepped over the body.
When we reached the next turn, a team of three rushed towards us from our destination. They weren’t trying to be quiet or subtle, but came at us full bore. I raised a shield as I studied them, trying to stave them off before they hit us in force. They weren’t dressed as security, nor as guardians. Their outfits were all different colors and patterns, looking so much like the heroes of Prime with one exception: they all had the same crest on their chests somewhere, a single tower standing tall. Delight filled me as I realized who they were.
My parents had been instrumental in forming the Blackguard, created specifically to oppose the Sentinels, the hero lapdog group of the United Nations. The “heroes” had ostensibly acted in people’s best interest, moving the world into a single unified government and lending aid and succor to all. In reality--so I had always been told--they’d been patsies for some other organization to conquer the world, a world filled with willing sheep. These costumed metahumans before us were Origin’s Sentinels.
With confidence, I knew I could hold them at bay. Thus, it was a great shock to me when the lead--a massive brute in red and black with gold trim--punched the telekinetic shield as if he could see it. The shield shattered, and I took a step back, shaken from the sudden snap of energy back into me. A familiar blue-haired woman stepped forward, looking as tall and powerful as the man in black: Bluecoat, my somewhat nemesis from Prime. Her costume was much skimpier and way less cop themed. She looked more like a really sexy bodybuilder. She and the pale man in black advanced upon us as we backed down the tunnel, using caution after the initial blow. I think they waited for me to strike, but I wasn’t sure how to proceed.
Another from behind them, a small, wiry guy, snuck to the side, studying me, frowning. He shook his head, his masked eyes wide. “It’s Malady, but that’s impossible,” he murmured. My eyes flicked to the man in black with the gold wreath around his head, and I saw the caution in his eyes intensify at my mother’s old handle. He knew her, and they feared her. If this was the Sentinels and he was the leader, then he had to be Ajax Major.
Adira grabbed my wrist and tugged me backwards. “We should run,” she said, her voice low. I longed to strike out at them. They were old enemies who needed to be put down.
Another heartbeat passed, and Ajax Major shook his head. The dark hair which spilled out from the top of his costume bobbed as he did. “It’s not her,” he announced in a deep voice. “Remember, capture is the priority.” His dark eyes glanced to Adira and said as if she were an afterthought, “Kill the mystic freak.”
“Running is good,” I said. I sent a wave of force down the hall which affected him and Bluecoat not at all, but the third man was pushed back. Ajax bounded forward, faster than my eye could follow. Out of instinct, I ducked. His fist smacked the wall, shattering it with tremendous force. If that was his idea of capture, I hated to see what he’d do if he was trying to kill me.
Bluecoat flanked me from the other side, but Adira stepped in, dodging out of the way of the Sentinel’s strike. Her capabilities I knew, and while she was fast, her main power was her strength and invulnerability. Adira struck at the larger woman, but it was mean to distract, not to hurt. Bluecoat stepped back, lashing out at Adira with a speed I didn’t remember. Her fist left a wispy blue trail behind. I flew backwards, and bumped into a body which hadn’t been there before. When I turned, I saw the third of their number, a young Asian man mostly in red who gave me a sheepish grin.
“Sorry,” he said. He raised his hands, palms towards me. They glowed… then the world turned around, inside out. Dimension and length lost all meaning for me. It was like I was stuck in a Picasso, all weird angles and flat edges. I reached out telekinetically, but he simply moved me in some way I didn’t understand, shifting the angles and distances so that no matter what I did, I missed.
My mind sought his out. When I entered it--it seemed he had no psychic defenses or was busy keeping me busy--I saw the same weird shapes which flooded my senses. He simply saw the world in dimensions most people couldn’t comprehend. Yet, it was still a mind, and with it came the threads of his emotions. Silver confidence dominated, and I snapped it. Dirty and fast work, but it shook him. His power turned off and he backed up, now uncertain of why he was doing this. That was an interesting switch, but one I didn’t have time to consider. Ajax Major caught hold of me and wrenched my arm. Pain exploded through my wrist and raced up my forearm as he whipped me around. I withdrew from the stranger and invaded Ajax… who had no mental defenses whatsoever, other than a well trained mind. Enhanced by Clarity, I laughed as I severed threads and made a tapestry out of what was left, leaving havoc behind in my wake. It was all so easy. No wonder they feared her.
He reeled back from me and I sneered, only to be grabbed from behind by Bluecoat. She slammed me face first into the wall as Adira tried in vain to pull her off of me. I managed to cushion the blow with my teke, but a rib cracked and my breath was knocked out of me. Adira went flying in another direction with a backhanded blow. When she hit the far wall, it looked like she exploded in a puff of darkness as she stepped into the shadows right before she hit. Yeah, Bluecoat was that strong, even on Prime. She’d done a publicity stunt once where she’d lifted a semi-truck without that much effort. For the layman, that’s about forty tons, give or take. This version was stronger.
We could have tussled with them all night, but we didn’t have to. I reached out with my mind to Ajax and Bluecoat both. Fight each other! I commanded as I coughed and wheezed, trying to suck in air.
Bluecoat turned in an instant as Ajax reared his head up. These metas didn’t fuck around either. They really had been hitting me with their lightest blows. As the two clashed, they held nothing back. A terrific thunderclap sounded as their strikes landed, sending a wave of force which sent myself, Adira, and the other Sentinel sprawling. The walls cracked around them as blows were traded. The Asian guy shook his head and gave me a worried look before moving to intercept the two of them.
“Good luck,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. I scrambled to my feet, helped by Adira who grabbed the scruff of my trench and hauled me up. My wispy breath caught as I looked at her, her skin split down the center of her face and partially into her throat. Her nose had been crushed, obliterated with Bluecoat’s strike, but her body had begun healing the vicious wound. I blinked and stared, watching her nasal cavity build the cartilage of the bridge of her nose. The building shook, and the flimsy doors burst open from the shockwaves created as the two titans fought.
“We leave, now,” she said in a nasally voice because of her inju
ry. She tugged me along with her.
Halfway dazed from the blows I had taken, I let her lead the way. More thunderclaps sounded, heralding our escape. “It won’t last long,” I said. Power still flooded me, but I knew I’d gotten lucky. It was about time some luck was sent my way, even though it wasn’t something I wanted to rely on.
Since the entrance to the portal room had been destroyed and the area swarmed with lab attendants, guardians, and security, we went the other direction. The windowed hallway wasn’t far away, and it was a snap to break the glass to allow us exit. The night air was crisp and sweet, and I breathed deep. Something about it was just right. I stood there until Adira yanked me along, her scowl ugly with her half healed nose. We tromped over the grass and flowers, heading towards the beautifully twisted gate. There was a pattern there, just beyond the edge of reason, but there were gaps. It wasn’t meant to keep people out. It was just there to look pretty.
Out in the streets of Uptown I pointed. “There, to the edge of the shield.” We were several blocks from it. Cars stopped and people stared at us as we ran. Flashing blue and red lights told me they still had mundane cops, and I grabbed Adira with my teke and lifted us both into the air. The snippet of the crowd’s thoughts that I caught were curious rather than alarmed: there must have been an accident at Nox, and the Sentinels would take care of it. While the people gawked, they didn’t automatically think we were criminals. They were content to sit and wait, pulling over so the emergency vehicles could get through.
Shots of energy fired at us from the laboratories. I weaved as I flew, increasing speed to put distance between us and the other metahumans. More Sentinels were arriving, some to chase us, and others to break up the fight between Ajax and Bluecoat. The pearlescent shield loomed large before us. The energy swirled like the colors in a soap bubble. I supposed that was what it was really: a great big soap bubble meant to keep out the weather.
