by Dawn Jansen
After a few seconds of tense silence, I hear heavy gears moving beneath us, and soon four floor panels slide open about fifty feet in front of me.
“Head’s up,” I say. All the guys turn in my direction.
We’ve dealt with lasers, turrets, test robots, and moving platforms, but now we’re face to face with something we’ve never encountered in a simulation before: other EMPs.
Upon each one of the four panels that ascended is a person, and even I recognize them for what they are instantly: Unstables. They look confused and they squint their eyes at the bright lights of the test chamber—evidently, they’ve been down in Epsilon for a very long time. Each of them has their wrists locked into a large metallic contraption connected to the floor panel they rose up on.
I instantly feel the tenseness among the four of us increase, and I know I’m not just imagining it. Ever since our bond, I can feel the others’ emotions much more clearly.
“Illusions?” asks Damion?
“No,” says Tristan. “If they were illusions, they’d send something else at us while we’re distracted by them. This is the real deal. This is our test.”
I recognize Parasite right away; he’s the one that freaked me out when we broke into Epsilon. He must have already been a big guy to start with, but he seems to have this massive tumor on his back that adds even more to his size. I guess that’s where his parasite lives inside him. He looks unkempt and unwashed, and he only has a sparse shock of messy brown hair atop his pale head.
I recognize two of the others too: there’s Specter, the acid-user, who stands out because of the green ooze dripping from his mouth that sizzles and pops when it hits the ground. He’s small and thin, and is always trembling, which makes him look totally unhinged. Next to him is Flux, who looks the most normal out of the whole bunch, but I recall he can create autonomous copies of himself that explode.
“Who’s that on the right?” I ask the guys, hoping either Paul or Tristan knows. She’s a woman with short-cropped black hair who looks like some kind of super soldier. She has easily twice my own muscle mass and shoulders nearly as broad as Tristans, but there’s nothing about her appearance that might reveal what her power is.
“Widowmaker...” Tristan says.
“She has an aura around her that negates all EMP powers,” Paul says. Evidently, they’ve both heard of her. “Keep her away from you at all costs.”
“Leave her to me then,” I say, trying to sound confident even though this female Terminator kinda freaks me out. “My powers work best from a distance.”
The three of them nod.
This whole time, the Unstables have been growing impatient. They’re now trying to tear away at their wrist restraints, and Widowmaker is so strong that the bolts on her restraint device are visibly starting to give.
“That’s them, lads!” Parasite says in a thick English accent, nodding to us. “That bitch said if we kill these kids, we get our freedom!”
“Freedom...” Specter says in a raspy voice, acid flowing down his chin like he’s salivating at the thought of killing us.
“They look weak,” says Flux.
“We need to work together,” Damion says suddenly. “That’s our advantage. They don’t share a bond like we do.”
Before any of us can respond, all four of their metal restraint devices unlatch with a tremendous and sudden clacking sound. They massage their wrists that are red with the mark of their restraints and stretch their arms.
“Come ‘ere, kiddies,” Parasite says. He’s the first to start lumbering toward us, and I swear I can feel the ground shake with each of his steps.
The other three Unstables move into action too, and with that, so do we.
I am immediately reminded of the last time we fought with other EMPS—MacCready and his goons—back at Epsilon. What happens now is like a night-and-day difference compared to back then.
We weren’t uncoordinated then, but we didn’t have any sort of plan or even tactical guidelines to go off now. Now, however, with the connection I’ve built with my men, I know intuitively exactly what each of them is going to do.
Paul heads straight for Parasite. He’s the biggest of the four Unstables, and Paul loves the challenge of trying to knock down the biggest guy in the room. Tristan moves toward Flux; Flux is definitely going to be tricky with his exploding doppelgangers, but Tristan can be even trickier with his ability to weave in and out of the shadows—especially now that he can manipulate them. Damion, meanwhile, squares off with Specter; Damion is fast, and if he can evade Specter’s acid long enough to establish a link with him, it’s game over for Specter.
I don’t know if Widowmaker heard me say I’d deal with her or if it’s just because we’re the only two women of the bunch, but she starts walking straight for me. If I thought she looked like the Terminator before, I could swear she’s consciously trying to resemble him now. Her hands are balled into fists and she walks robotically toward me with long, powerful strides.
As the sounds of battle erupt around me, I quickly look around for objects to use against her. Although I have learned to manipulate people’s bodies since we all bonded in the shadow realm, it takes a lot out of me, and I have much more training with actual objects.
There are a few flayed robot corpses on the ground from the previous four rounds, and I immediately single them out as good candidates for projectiles to launch at Widowmaker. She’s about twenty feet away from me when I use my power to effortlessly bring the robot parts up into the air, positioning them at random distances so that they will all strike Widowmaker at unpredictable angles.
To my dismay, when I launch them at her with all my power, she ducks to the ground with inhuman speed. The robot parts smash into each other above her head as she crouches forward in cat-like fashion, barely losing her momentum.
What the hell? Nobody told me she was that quick. I was hoping that move would at least give me some space, but not she’s a mere ten feet away from me. This isn’t good—I have to keep her away. I had wanted to save my ability to use my power on people as a last resort, but I guess this is my last resort. Besides, I don’t know just how large the power-dampening aura around Widowmaker is; if she gets any closer, I might be screwed.
I thrust my hands out and concentrate all my power on pushing Widowmaker’s body back, but I can already feel something’s off. That’s when I realize that the aura around her must be gradual, not absolute, and I’ve already entered her sphere of influence, which is making my powers weaker than they’d normally be. That means that the closer she gets, the weaker my powers will become.
Armed with this knowledge, I put all of my effort into pushing her back. Widowmaker has remained stone-faced throughout all of this, but now she grits her teeth and grimaces as she digs into the ground, fighting back against my power. At first, I push her back a few inches, but then she suddenly finds her footing and braces herself, dipping into a wide-legged stance and leaning into my force.
She gains ground inch by inch, but that’s all she needs. Not only am I becoming more exhausted the longer I try to push her back, but the closer she gets, the stronger her power-dampening aura feels. She’s giving it her all too, and now I see sweat dripping down her face in effort, but she must know that she has more physical stamina than I have energetic reserves.
When she’s about five feet from me, I can’t keep exerting my power anymore. I abruptly let my power down, hoping that the sudden change in momentum will throw her off. I saw how quick she was when she dodged those robot pieces, so I know my only chance in unarmed combat with her is to fight smart.
Finally free of the force I was exerting on her, Widowmaker screams and barrels toward me. I was hoping to sidestep her and try to land some shots, but her combat reflexes are amazing and she adjusts her course in mid-charge.
Now that I’m so close to her, I feel the full impact of her aura. It’s like my connection to my own power is just shut off; I can’t even feel that my power exists, basic
ally bringing me back to how it was before I joined the Academy. This was normal for me before, but after being so in touch with my powers for the last six months, it feels horrible to suddenly have them disappear.
Widowmaker and I get into a wild tussle. Both of us land a few punches on each other as we grapple for position, but it’s clear Widowmaker is physically stronger than me. Besides, I’m already pretty winded from trying to keep her away for so long just now. Widowmaker wins our grappling contest and gets a favorable position at my rear, which is definitely not a good place to be.
Her hard, wiry arms are now pressing down on my neck. We’ve done lots of grappling during training, but I’m finding it difficult to contend with Widowmaker’s sheer strength as I try to rip her forearm away from my neck. She’s trying to put me in a rear chokehold, and if she succeeds, we’ll be outnumbered three to four. I can’t let them happen.
As Widowmaker and I are now locked in a test of strength, I look out at how the guys are doing for the first time since the melee began, and what I see makes my heart sink. Parasite’s sick worm creature has wrapped itself around Paul’s legs and is gnawing at him as Parasite himself rains blows down on Paul from a standing position above. Tristan is trying to contend with Flux’s doppelgangers, but the charred explosion marks on Paul’s tattered clothes tell me he’s having a tough time of it. Damion, meanwhile, has apparently found Specter’s acid attacks too much to deal with; he’s held at bay behind a test chamber obstacle that is slowly being corroded by Specter’s acid spit.
Widowmaker growls as she finally gets her forearm in the right position to apply pressure to my windpipe. I tense my neck muscles like we were taught, which will give me a few more seconds of consciousness at best, but it’s all I can do now.
That’s when I realize that the link I share with Tristan, Paul, and Damion has been severed. Ever since we all bonded, I’ve felt intuitively connected to them, but now we’re cut off, and I feel something I hadn’t felt in a very long time: that darkness inside me.
I now understand what that darkness is; it’s the accumulation of all the pain I felt from having been abandoned throughout my life—from the time I was born and handed over to the Soviet program to the many times in foster care when I was emotionally and physically neglected—and it’s been reawakened. While Widowmaker’s dampening aura has cut off the rest of my power, that darkness is a part of me that I’ve never been able to hide from. It’s who I am, and it’s what first got me to ever use my powers in the first place.
I’d been running in fear of that darkness ever since I first felt it, but now I see that that darkness is me. I’m lightheaded and my vision is fading to black from the lack of oxygen to my brain, but I use the very last bit of strength I have to reach down into the darkness at my core. It’s the first time I’ve done so voluntarily, and the darkness reaches out to me in return. It wants to come out; it wants to be used.
I’ve been pulling down on Widowmaker’s steely forearm this whole time, but I know I don’t have to use my physical strength anymore. I imagine ripping her hand off of me and my darkness—that’s been waiting to be called upon for so long—heeds my will; Widowmaker’s forearm is suddenly flung away, tearing into ribbons of flesh, blood, and bone in the process.
Widowmaker cries out in pain behind me; a shrill, scared cry, very different from the intimidating demeanor she was giving off before. I gasp for air, taking in large gulps of precious oxygen. I don’t think she’ll be much of a threat to me with a flayed arm, but I don’t want to take any chances. On my knees now, I turn around and image rending every bone in Widowmaker’s body. My darkness complies, providing the gruesome death that Widowmaker deserved.
Widowmaker’s aura dies with her, and I feel instantly reconnected to my power. It’s different this time, though—I feel it merging with my darkness. The two forces are so different, like ice and fire, but they finally do come together into a brand-new element, and I feel suddenly rejuvenated and stronger than I’ve ever been before. I turn my attention to the three bastards bullying my boyfriends. It’s time to take out the trash.
Now that Widowmaker’s aura is gone, my connection to the guys is back too, and it’s stronger than ever. Everything we’ve been through together flashes through my head, from meeting Tristan in the hallway to Paul saving us in Epsilon and exploring my past with Damion, reminding me of how precious each of them is. It would be devastating to lose any one of them, so I have to act now.
Paul is in the most immediate danger, so I decide to target Parasite first. He’s scared me since the first time I saw him in his cell in Epsilon, with his grossly huge and disproportionate body and that parasitic worm festering inside him, but I feel no fear now with my power surging wildly through my veins as I run sprint towards him.
Even though Paul has managed to wrestle himself free of Parasite’s worm that was entangling him before, he’s now thoroughly exhausted and not dealing with the barrage of strikes coming from Parasite himself. Calling upon my now fully integrated power, I effortlessly immobilize Parasite—all 300 or so pounds of him—and move him away from Paul. It’s as simple as willing it to happen, as though my power is now only limited by my imagination. Despite the danger of the situation, I feel a rush of exhilaration from having command of such awesome energy.
I can literally feel how badly Paul wants his revenge, so rather than smash Parasite against the wall or fling him toward one of the other Unstables, I just hold him there while Paul, now himself more empowered by my presence and dark awakening, unloads on Parasite with everything he has. Parasite’s creature slithers out of Parasite’s skin in an attempt to defend its host, but it’s only able to take a few blows from Paul’s frenzied attacks before it drops to the ground.
Parasite is crying out in pain and trying to resist my control, but his power is no match for mine now. With no way to defend himself, it’s only a matter of seconds before Paul’s strikes overwhelm Parasite and he falls limply to the metal floor.
Paul drops to his knees, utterly exhausted from everything that’s just happened. His pants are shredded and bloody from where Parasite’s creature had wrapped around his legs, but I know he’ll be fine.
“Mazzy...” he says breathlessly, looking at me in amazement.
I know Paul was scared—he thought this Test was going to be a repeat of his last. I want to let him know I won’t let that happen. I want to run over and hug him and let him feed off my power, but I know there are more pressing matters to attend to.
Normally I’d be exhausted after using up so much of my energy, but my power feels inexhaustible now. I turn my attention to the two remaining Unstables, who have started to realize their numbers are dwindling and evidently identified me as the major threat.
As though some kind of holographic version of himself is splitting off from his body, Flux releases a doppelganger that begins charging toward me. I scoff to myself, sure of my ability to deal with such an unimpressive attack, but to my surprise, my power doesn’t affect Flux’s clone at all—I can’t stop it from running at me.
Thankfully, though, we have the numbers advantage. Now that Flux has taken his attention off Tristan, Tristan is free—despite the damage he’s taken—to get his payback. Working from the shadow realm, Tristan extends a long shadow along the floor in the path of the running doppelganger, and before the doppelganger gets close enough to me to detonate, I see Tristan’s hand reach up from the shadow and yank the clone violently under with him, where I assume it explodes harmlessly in the vast landscape of the shadow realm.
Flux looks shocked—and fatigued. Apparently making clones is an exhausting process.
He looks even more shocked when he sees Damion walking over from the other side of the test chamber. That makes two of us. Damion looks like he’s been through hell, with gnarly rashes on his skin where Specter’s acid burned him and parts of his outfit ripped to shreds, but he’s alive, which is more than I can say for Specter, whose corpse lies mangled in the other corner
of the room.
Even Paul has joined us, and now we four—me, Paul, Tristan, and Damion—have surrounded Flux. With all of us reunited, our powers rejoice and swirl together, drawing energy from the connection. Just like when we all made love in the shadow realm, I feel once again as though I am the center of their world, as my power is the strongest out of us all and feeds theirs like a perpetually flowing spring.
He had the upper hand on Tristan, but Flux knows he can’t beat the four of us combined. The look of defeat in his eyes is palpable. We could crush him now if we wanted, but seeing Flux kneeling on the ground trembling reminds me of the dark years I spent in the Soviet testing facilities—this is just how the “prisoners” they had me test my powers on looked too.
“No,” I say in a stern voice. Everybody freezes. “We’re better than them.”
The guys know who ‘them’ is. They all nod.
I turn away from Flux. “Take him away!” I shout to the sky, commanding the Architect to heed my words. “We beat your test! We’re not going to kill a defenseless man!”
Silence fills the test chamber. Flux is looking at us with wide eyes, waiting to hear the verdict on his life, but we’re not that ones that will decide his fate—the Academy is.
“Step away from the Unstable,” the Architect finally says over the loudspeaker.
We do as told and then a panel on the wall opens up. A squad of guards comes out to take Flux back to Epsilon; the Architect and her valet come in after them.
We stay where we are, waiting for the Architect to come closer. We look like we’ve been to hell and back—acid stains, ripped clothes, bloody noses, red necks—but we’re triumphant.
The man is as emotionless as ever, but the Architect is smiling the first real smile I’ve ever seen on her.
“Congratulations. You passed.”
Chapter 26
Mazzy
Christmas day.
