The teleporter simply twisted her wrist, reality spinning into a vortex around them, their forms taking shape in the street in front of Nadine’s safehouse.
Nadine was already running out the door by this point, well-dressed Oscar close behind her, an annoyed look on his face likely because they would have to move safehouses after this.
“What the hell happened?” Nadine asked, and when Roman didn’t respond she turned the question to Coma.
“He just showed up like this. We need to get him inside!”
“We need Eli!” Casper shouted, jumping up and down again as the teleporter disappeared.
“Get them in now,” Oscar hissed, ushering everyone in his direction. “Everyone, inside.”
As soon as Roman was inside he fell on the floor, the material he’d used to keep his body erect turning him over and moving away, eventually forming an odd pile of construction mess.
Still wheezing, Roman started looking around the room. Everything was going black, his heart fluttering, stars appearing above him, the twilight meadow, the shadows around him…
The sensation of falling.
He felt a horrendous strain in his chest as something shifted, his organs moving, growing in size, filling with… life.
Roman gasped, his eyes coming open.
Eli knelt over him, the young boy with blond hair healing Roman with a terrified look on his face.
“I hope you’re okay, Mister,” he said, choking back a sob.
“I think…” Roman gasped again, finally able to clear his breath, the oxygen reaching every part of his previously pierced lungs.
It was the best breath he had ever taken.
It was life incarnate, as if the breath were made out of stardust, a rejuvenating breath that calmed his beating heart and allowed him to get his thoughts together, to see clearly again.
He saw Coma standing with Celia thrown over her shoulder; Nadine reaching out to him, the look of utter fear on her face; Casper on the table jumping up and down in celebration; Oscar the handler looking out the window, confirming that no one had seen what had transpired.
“I’m better,” Roman said, looking down now at his bloodstained clothing, remembering in that instant everything that had happened.
“Who attacked you?” Nadine asked, reaching him, her hands coming to his cheeks.
“It’s… it’s a long story.”
And it was a story Roman gladly told them in the minutes that followed, Celia now alive and sitting with Eli, who still seemed a bit distraught to see Roman covered in blood.
Roman’s explanation of Hazrat eventually piqued Lisa Painstake’s interest. The woman with the Soul Speed power was also staying at the safehouse, and she’d been upstairs asleep when Roman had first appeared on the street outside.
Of course, with as much commotion as Roman had caused, she was definitely awake by the time he was brought back from the brink of death, and once he mentioned the shadow user, Lisa’s eye twitched.
“That’s the same one that was broken out of prison,” she said, interrupting him. “The shadow guy.”
“What do you mean?” Roman asked. If he had heard the story before, he didn’t quite remember it.
“When they separated my Soul Speed form from my real body, it was at Prison South,” Lisa explained. “Remember, I was pretty much stuck in a cell, and I wasn’t able to pass through anything because of the cuffs they’d put on me. But there was a breakout; a woman in a hood rescued a shadow user. She was also with a big red man, a creepy-looking guy. I was able to get out of the prison because of the wall they brought down.”
“Come again?” Roman asked, remembering the last big red man he’d known.
Lisa nodded. “I met her in the courtyard, as she was escaping with the shadow user and the red man. She wanted to take me with her and she tried, but once she broke my cuffs off, she couldn’t contain me.”
“Let’s come back to that first part. Did you say a big red man?” Roman asked.
“Yes. He had, like, these spikes jutting out of his body.”
“Ian Turlock?”
Nadine looked from Roman to Oscar. “That was the name of the guy who went around with Paris, the guy who took me from my apartment.”
“But I killed him,” Roman said, his brow furrowed.
“If he’s the same guy, he’s still alive,” said Lisa.
“And do you remember what this woman did, this woman with the hood. What kind of power did she have?”
“Come to think of it…” Lisa raised an eyebrow at him. “She kind of had your power.”
“My power?” Roman shook his head. “How could you tell?”
“She seemed to be able to do anything she wanted with inanimate objects, including the cuffs that were preventing me from turning transparent.”
“And she was with Ian Turlock…” Roman pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, reeling from Lisa’s revelation. “There’s something you all should know about my power, something I haven’t really utilized in front of you.”
“What’s that?” Oscar asked, suddenly interested.
“I haven’t really experimented with it, but I have the power to animate inanimate objects, as you all know. A dead person or animal is an inanimate object.”
“And you’ve tested this?” Oscar asked.
“A little, yes. And Ian was definitely dead. I used his own protrusions to pierce his vital organs. Then I buried him under concrete. The only type of person who would be able to get him out of there would be someone who could remove the concrete and reanimate him.”
“So whoever’s after you definitely has the same power as you,” said Nadine. “And they apparently have your wife as well.”
Roman started pacing. “I don’t think I can return home for a while.”
“No, you most definitely cannot,” said Nadine. “Oscar, do we have a place we can give him?”
“You know, we aren’t running a hotel service here…” Oscar started to say. The well-dressed man, currently in a three-piece yellow suit, smoothed his hands over the front of his jacket. “But yes, I’m sure we can conjure up something.”
“The Eastern Province must have some task that would directly benefit from having my power around,” said Roman.
“Perhaps,” said Oscar. “But until we can get you housing, you will have to stay here, and there are no rooms left.”
“I can sleep on the floor. The dolls don’t require bedding,” he said, realizing how awkward this sounded. Casper didn’t comment on his statement, but Roman did feel her kick him with the back of her heel.
“You can sleep in my room,” said Nadine. “There are two beds in there.”
“I don’t want to impose…” Roman started to say.
“Nonsense. You aren’t imposing, and whoever’s after you may be an enemy to us as well. We just don’t know yet.”
“Also, I quit my job today,” Roman said, almost as an afterthought.
Nadine smiled. “It’s about goddamn time. Did you get paperwork for Eli?”
“Shit,” Roman said, “I knew I had forgotten something. If you can get me any type of forged document, or an expired Centralian passport or something, I’m sure I’ll be able to do something.”
“I’ve already begun the process,” Oscar said, “as a backup plan.”
“Thank you,” Roman told Nadine’s handler. “I won’t be so careless next time.”
“Let’s hope not.”
Chapter Eight: Paris
Margo appeared at the end of Harper’s street, Ian Turlock, Celia, and the power amplifier named Zelda with her.
Three corpses, and someone who was arguably dead inside.
“It seems there has been a disturbance,” she said, pulling the hood over her white hair and providing more shadows for her face, the skin tatted black beneath her nostrils. She approached casually, instructing the others to stay back as she met a Centralian police officer standing behind the police barrier.
“What ha
ppened?” she asked.
“You need to move along, ma’am,” he said.
The man’s hands came to his throat, his eyes starting to bulge out.
“One more chance,” Margo said. “If you call for backup, I will kill them too, and then I will take your body with me and discover who you are, and it is at that point that I will locate your immediate family members. After I’ve killed them, I will animate their corpses and have them rape each other. So, I will ask you again, what happened?”
“An attack…” the man said, struggling to breathe. “On the fourth and fifth floor of that building. Several people injured, one exemplar dead. He recently escaped from Prison South. I don’t know where they took his body, though.”
“His body would be helpful…”
“Do you trust me enough to let me send a mental message?” he asked, the street lamp near him flickering. “My buddy was with the group that removed the body.”
“Sure, but first I will take your identification.”
The man’s wallet lifted out of his pocket and fell to the ground, his ID coming out and slipping across the pavement to Margo.
“Evan,” she said, “Evan Mod. Good to know.”
Margo tucked the identification one of her pockets.
“You may now send your message.”
The man did as he said he would do, and the answer came a few moments later.
He told Margo where Hazrat was being held, and she thanked him, reminding him that if he mentioned what happened here, she would come for his family and he would not be able to hide them from her.
With that, Margo bid him farewell and walked back over to Celia, Ian and Zelda.
“It looks like we’re going to have to pay a direct visit to your husband,” she told Celia.
“Good, I look forward to it,” Celia said in her stilted way.
“As do I. Hazrat was supposed to bring him back alive, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t work. I wanted him to think he was getting revenge for his wife, so I guess this is my fault. And you are right, Ian—or was it you who said it, Zelda?” Margo looked between the two of them. “I suppose it doesn’t matter; I haven’t given either of you the ability to speak. Just Celia. Because I like her voice. It’s pretty.”
Margo reached her hand out and Celia took it, the dangerous exemplar from the Western Province ignoring how cold Celia’s hand was as she continued to speak.
“I had a feeling it would play out this way. And you’re right, I could have probably killed Hazrat and just taken his body that way, but I had already tricked him into working for me. So there was really no point.” Margo shrugged. “We can deal with him later, though. Let’s go to Roman’s.”
A teleporter appeared, the same one who usually worked for Margo and didn’t ask any questions. Energy rippling all around her, she teleported the four to Roman’s front door and flashed away almost immediately.
“Knock, knock, knock,” Margo said as she brought her hand up. Roman’s door handle melted away and the door swung open, allowing her to step inside.
“Ian, be careful, I don’t need you knocking things over,” she said as he barely fit into the space.
Once everyone was inside, she shut the door behind them, returning the handle to its original state. “Roman, I’m home,” Margo called out.
“I don’t think he’s here,” Celia said.
“You don’t think,” Margo reminded her.
“You are so clever, Margo,” said zombie Celia as she moved around the place, no indication whatsoever that she had any memories of living here.
Celia was dainty and girly, with light hair, and even if she was simply an animated corpse, the way she moved was different than the way Ian moved, or Zelda, for that matter. There was something unique about it, something Margo liked.
“It appears he left in a hurry.” Margo bent down and touched the floor, pressing her finger into just a little bit of blood. She brought it to her tongue and tasted it. “Well, he’s not a vampire; I know what their blood tastes like,” she said, and then she noticed something in the corner.
“It looks like he has something,” Celia said as she moved over to the object.
“Open,” Margo told the coffin, the wood shifting aside and revealing the sex doll Roman had purchased, activated, and then deactivated after she’d gone mad. The sex doll wore a cat-ear headband. She had long, dirty-blond hair that was at odds with the tight, black leathery outfit practically painted on her body.
“Ooo, a new toy.”
Zelda fell to the ground, dead to the world as Margo stroked her fingers to the air, dramatically casting life into Roman’s abandoned sex doll. Her eyes opened, a darkness spreading across them.
“Hello,” Margo said, “I’m glad you could join us.”
“I’m glad I could join you too,” said the doll, and she took a step forward, extending her hand to Margo.
“It feels so real,” Margo said as she shook the doll’s hand. “Do you have a name?”
“No.”
“Would you like me to give you one?”
“Please.”
“Well, your hair isn’t right, but there is something about you I like,” Margo told the doll, “something about you that reminds me of someone who was very close to me. Let’s call you Paris.”
Chapter Nine: The Shock of a Lifetime
“Just lie next to me and let me touch your hand,” Lisa Painstake instructed Roman. “And if no one is there now, we can periodically check your home just to see if there has been any activity.”
“And you’re sure no one can see you?”
Lisa glanced to Nadine. “I used to think no one could see or hear me, until I ran into the man made of light back at the prison. But he’s the only one who has ever seen me, so I’m going to operate under the assumption that we’ll be invisible.”
“Sounds reassuring…”
“We’ll be fine,” Nadine said.
Roman was lying on the floor now, on a rug.
His dolls sat on a bench against the wall, Casper on Coma’s lap, each of them lifeless. Nadine was already lying down on his other side, a space between them for Lisa. The woman with the power of Soul Speed was still sitting up, making sure the cloth she had wrapped around her wrists was tight.
“I really appreciate you doing this,” Roman said as she tied their wrists together.
Lisa smiled. “If it weren’t for you two, well, I really don’t know what would have happened with my life.”
“I’m just glad you are willing and able to use your power,” said Nadine. “I know it’s soon.”
They looked up to see Oscar peek his head into the room, telling them he’d be looking after Eli if they needed anything.
“The boy eats a lot,” Oscar grumbled. “Kind of reminds me of my little brother. He always ate more than he should have, always wanting some of our rations. We gladly gave it to him. He was later killed by…” Oscar looked to the distance, as if he were trying to stare across to the other side of a mist-covered valley. “Another story, for another day. Good luck, and if you see anything out of the ordinary, get out of there. We don’t need a repeat of what happened last time.”
“We will be extra cautious,” Nadine told him as he left the room.
“Here goes nothing,” Lisa said, tightening her grip on their hands.
Roman felt something moving in his body, a sensation he later equated to shedding one’s skin. Soon, he was floating in the air above his body, Lisa’s light-filled form next to him.
“You will be connected to your body through this cord,” Lisa said, plucking at the light-filled cord jutting out of her stomach.
“This is surreal.” Roman looked at his hand, and from there to the umbilical cord of light. He saw his body lying on the floor next to Lisa, with Nadine on the other side.
“It is,” Nadine said. “We will still be able to see each other, but as it stands, even if Oscar walked into the room, it would appear as if the three of us are just lying ther
e, holding hands with our wrists tied together.”
“It’s unsettling,” Roman finally told Nadine.
“I really do think it’s one of my favorite powers.”
“I can see why. It would be incredibly useful for a spy.”
“There’s one power I still wish I had, though,” Nadine said. “It was my ring. It canceled out all powers.”
“A power negator?”
“I called it my Zero Ring. I thought they were going to give me something like it back East, but…” Nadine nodded her head. “Well, I’m just glad they let me come back to my assignment. It is a wonder they kept me alive.”
“It’s very strange to hear you say that about your own government,” said Lisa as she stepped to the door. “But I get it, all the governments of our world operate in unusual ways—some good, some bad. What can we do? We can’t choose where we are born. We have no power to decide what type of world we want to be born in.”
“Amen to that,” Roman said as he turned away from his body, looking down as the umbilical cord of light swiveled so that it was now jutting out of his lower back, just above his tailbone.
“Are you ready?” Lisa asked.
“Yeah, I guess I am. I was actually going to ask about that. How do we fast travel?”
Reality came at Roman like a barrage of concentrated energy blasts. Suddenly he was standing in front of his apartment as if they’d been there all along. He saw the bodega he frequented, the one where he first learned he had won the Hero Lottery.
He almost told them, but kept his mouth shut as a stocky man walked in their direction, passing right through Nadine.
“That is very unsettling,” Roman finally said.
“You don’t know the half of it,” said Nadine as the man continued on his way. “Let’s just get up to your apartment.”
They entered the building and Lisa asked him which floor he was on. Once Roman told her, their forms began to rise, moving up through the hallways until they were in front of Roman’s door.
“Hold on a moment…” Roman said, looking down at the door handle. There was something different about it—it was shinier than normal, almost like it was brand new.
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