“No, no way! What if I get trapped there and there’s no way back?” I shook my head. “Not happening.”
Nebula watched me, arms folded. With her mask on, and those glass coverings on her eyes, there was no way to tell what she was thinking.
“You have two choices, Sable. Either you do this, or I punch you so fucking hard that you will wish you had just done it.” She said it so matter of fact, it caught me off guard.
“If I can chime in,” Nebula turned that gaze on Macaw, making him flinch. “Sable, I think you should just do it. From my experience, the powers don’t usually do anything that could lead to your death by using them. Well, there was that one time, but she was an outlier.”
That did little to calm me down. My foot was tapping nervously. Am I actually going to do this? Fuck! Entering into that space, and shutting the door. Quite literally locking myself in another dimension. Nebula made a solid argument though, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. It’s not like she was the one being risked here.
Use them instead.
I could do that couldn’t I? Just convince them to go in instead. We proved that the the birds were fine, but what about people? The answer was most definitely a no. Nebula wouldn’t agree to it. She had this idea that we could open the door from my space directly into the venue. Basically, teleportation. She wasn’t going to move past this till we tried it, and since I seemed to be the only one who could interact with the door, it had to be me.
“Fine! Fine. I’ll do it. How do you want to test this?”
“You’re going to walk in and shut the door.” She said. “Simple as that. If the door is still there and you can get out, then we move on to step two.”
Simple. Right. I went straight to the shadowed area of the training room. To keep those two from feeling the negative effects of my crows, we had dimmed the lights in the room to give me some shadows to work with. Once I was in the shadow, I pulled at the shadows to bring the door to me. It was getting easier and faster the more I created it as it warped into place in front of me less than a second later. I took in a deep breath, and opened the door. I stepped through quickly and slammed it shut behind me before I could think too hard on what I was doing.
I slowly turned back towards the door, hoping that it would still be there. When I saw the door still there I let out a huge sigh of relief, falling to the ground. A few of the crows above ruffled at the noise I made, but were otherwise still. Willingly locking myself in this place, something I had barely even found I had access too, was terrifying. Seeing the door still there had me swelling with relief. I got off the ground and opened the door walking back into the training room.
Walking right into Nebula, knocking us both to the ground.
“Watch where you’re walking dumb ass!” She yelled, quickly getting up and backing away. Macaw gave me a hand up, and watched as I shut the door. Once again it vanished into the shadows it had come from.
“The door stays there. Opening it again seems to bring me back.”
“That’s good.” Nebula nodded, “On our side the door vanished without a trace. We both checked it out and it wasn’t invisible or anything, it just vanishes like it was never there.”
“It seemed to only come back when you were opening it on the other side.” Macaw added in.
Nebula clapped her hands together. “Well, with one test done, let’s move on to step 2. Teleportation!”
I turned to face her slowly. “What other tests are you thinking?” I had my doubts about teleportation working. It was like, there was no resonance inside me to the idea.
Her answer was a giggle that sent shivers down my spine. I was not going to like this.
The rest of the day was spent testing my power in as many creative ways that Nebula and Macaw could think of. Mostly around trying to get a feel for if teleportation would be possible with it. We had left the building to go and mark a random back alley. Carefully, as we were still in costume.
I took in as much info about that alley as I could. I looked at the graffiti on the walls, the loose pieces of garbage on the ground. I even committed the way the wind blew through the alley to memory. When we were back in the base, I re-entered the door in the shadows of the training room, and closed the door. I tried to visualize the back alley, focusing on all of the information I had committed to memory. I could see it clear as day in my minds eye. I put my hands on the door knob, turning it, and opened the door to see…
Nebula and Macaw. In the training room.
Needless to say, Nebula was quite disappointed. She had me try three more times.
After all failed attempts, we ended up back in the common room. Switching out of our costumes, the three of us were hanging out and chatting. One of them had grabbed some beers from a fridge which we were all sipping on. Well, Kaitlyn was chugging them actually.
“Focus on figuring out what their abilities are first and foremost.” Kaitlyn Paused to take a large chug of her drink. “While also trying to keep the full scope of yours a secret. Lucas is a great example at this. His costume is flamboyant, and he focuses on hand to hand combat. No one ever expects it when he turns on his real power, which gives me plenty of openings. Most people say powers are inherently unfair, I think it just matters who wields them.”
She crumbled up the can she finished, opening another one. She took a large chug of that can, let out a sigh, and then kept talking.
“It always helps to keep one card up your sleeve when fighting against another Exalt. They will be doing the same to you.” She thought for a moment, then said. “One thing though, the more recognized we get the less likely it is to keep all your abilities a secret. Lucas an I are in a good area right now because we are so new to the game.”
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
I couldn’t help but notice Lucas squirm a bit with that comment.
“So, what if we beat them? Do we get to look under the mask and see who we’re fighting?”
Lucas gave me a look. “Not exactly. See, the Exalts with New Dawn don’t really have secret identities like that. They’re all in a public register. Those not with New Dawn are usually villains. There are a few one offs who don’t fall into either category, but they are few and far between.”
That shocked me. Given how we had been very careful on keeping our costume identity and civilian identity separate, I figured that’s how it was for everyone. Before I could ask more, Lucas continued.
“See, it was a way to make things somewhat accountable. Exalts had been around forever, but being organized like this? Grouped together? It scared people. By having them be public figures, they could be held accountable. No anonymity means you know exactly who threw your car into a wall. The Exalt would then be held accountable for the damages. Now, New Dawn helps there by covering the costs, but that’s the general idea.”
“That sounds… Stupid. Like really stupid.” I took a big chug of beer. “Why in the world would someone agree to that? Villains could abuse that. Doesn’t that give them a disadvantage?”
“It does. But, it’s what keeps people from rioting about their taxes going to New Dawn. It’s subsidized by the government right now.” Lucas had a far off look in his eye. “Look, not everyone like Exalts. People are terrified of us, and have been for a long time now. There’s even a group dedicated to hunting us in this city. Call themselves the Clearbourne. They sprung up as an ‘answer’ to New Dawn founding itself in this city.” He paused for a moment, that classic dark look creeping in. “There was even a case where an Exalt from the New Dawn was hunted down by this group, and murdered. The attackers got all the info they needed off the public register.”
“And they haven’t changed it? That’s awful.”
“It is. Though, after that incident they did change a few things. Most Exalts with New Dawn now live in guarded areas. Since then, there hasn’t been another murder like that again.” Lucas leaned back, finishing the last of his drink. He seemed done talking about that.
“Who was the Exalt who died?”
“Sunfault.”
We all turned to look at Keiji standing by the elevator. None of had heard him come in.
“Her name was Sunfault. All she wanted was to be a hero people could look up to. Bastards tracked her down, beat her up. She died from her wounds. She didn’t fight back once, as that’s what she believed in. She always said ‘Exalts needed to be better, because they wield greater power.’ Look what that got her.” He scoffed. “I have to wonder, if death was worth it?”
He slapped a packet down on the table. “Broadcast told me to deliver these to you. Plans for the Veritas Pavilion. Should show you what you need to break in and get situated before the conference.” He turned to walk back towards the elevator.
“Keiji,” I asked spontaneously. “How do you know so much about Sunfault? Did you work her case?”
“Couldn’t.” He was in the elevator now. “Would have been a conflict of interest.” The doors closed, and Keiji was gone.
My mind was running fast, trying to come up with answers to all my remaining questions. I wanted to dive into Andree’s memories in case there were answers there, but I didn’t feel the normal pull where a memory had reacted to something I heard. Instead, I felt a lapse, as if all the memories striving to pour into my head were suddenly gone. I gulped down the rest of my beer as I kept thinking of answers.
“Well, this has been one depressing topic after another.” Kaitlyn slurred. “Why why don’t we change the subject? Oh I know! Let’s tell him how to act in costume!”
“Act in costume? What do you mean?”
“It’s another piece of the disguise!” Kaitlyn spoke between large sips of the beer she was drinking. She had a small collection around her chair of empty cans now. “See, I act super aggressive and short tempered even though that’s not really how I am day to day. Lucas, acts like a damn idiot, which is probably more accurate to him, but since he plays it up so much I guess it’s just different enough” She shot Lucas a grin.
“Ha ha. You call it ‘being aggressive’. I call it being a total bitch. But hey, it works right.” Lucas said with a shrug.
He was met with a sharp silence.
“I’m gonna get punched huh?”
“Not today, not tomorrow. But yes, you will get punched.”
We all broke out laughing. Was it strange to say I felt myself growing closer with these two? With how they were super villains. Then again, I guess I was one too. It was easy to forget that with how easy it seemed to be to talk to them. I still knew next to nothing about them. Kaitlyn was the biggest mystery, I at least had spent more time with Lucas to get a better feel for him.
It was an interesting point though. To act differently in costume to throw off any potential links to the real me. Perhaps, I could rely on Andree’s memories and feelings to help there. Act like the crazy man who was willing to blow my brains out. That’d be very different from me.
Is it though? You murdered him. You refused to report the dead man you found.
The voice in my head was getting wordier. It was less like pushing me to certain actions, and now it felt more like an internal debate within my own head. The alcohol wasn’t helping anything, as I felt a pounding headache starting. Ignoring it, I changed the subject again.
“So, you guys spent the better part of today testing my powers. What else do I need to know about each of yours?”
“Oh, I can go first!” Lucas waved his hand around. “So you already had a decent demonstration of mine during our spar. What you don’t know is I have an area that surrounds me, probably a twenty foot or so radius. Anyone within that radius when I activate my powers has their full focus put on me. Forcing their heads to face me and not look away.”
“Yeah, I remember that.” Rubbing the back of my neck as I spoke. The memory of that was easy to pull up in my mind. “It was quite quick.”
“Yup! Well anyway there’s a bit more to it. Anyone within ten feet of me while the power is active not only has their focus turned to me, but they also become unable to move. If they fall out of the ten foot range, then they gain the ability to move again. They also don’t move with me, so if I walk far enough away they’ll be freed.”
My eyes widened at that. That seemed very useful when fighting multiple people. Lucas’s laughter brought me back to him.
“It’s really not that great. If someone can move fast enough they can get into my range before it has a chance to affect them. I don’t stop momentum, just the ability to make movements.”
“Yeash, my power ‘s much better than his!” Kaitlyn slurred. She had a heavy red tint to her cheeks, I noticed. “The light you see coming off my body? That’sh light I can pussh out to make me shpeedy or punch harder. If I pussh it out at the right time and angle, BAM!! I hit you so fassht and hard you’re probably out cold.” She cackled, moving to grab another beer. Lucas gently pulled the case away from her.
“I think that’s enough for today, don’t you think?” She showed no sign of hearing or understanding his question as she kept reaching for the beer. Lucas let out a sigh.
“Sorry to leave so soon Ray, but I think I need to get her home.” He checked the time on his phone “Yup, it’s pretty late. I’ll get her dropped off safely and get myself home. You good?”
I nodded. “Like I said before, I don’t sleep anymore. I’ll probably just do some workout or training.”
“Just don’t overwork yourself. You might not need sleep ,but you should let your body and mind rest. Anyway, have a good night.”
“Goodnight.”
The base seemed much colder with them gone. I went to the main console and opened up a messaging program. Earlier, Lucas had shown me how to use this. It was a way to request items from the boss. The system was set up to delete the record of the message once it had been sent, and then delete it from the receiving system when it had been read. Broadcast said he had designed it himself.
I typed in my request to the system and hit send.
I would like to know who all will be attending the event.
It was only ten minutes later when I heard a ping, and saw the file was waiting for me. I downloaded it and began reading. I ended up spending the entire night reading about all the people who would be there, Exalt and politicians alike. More importantly, I was getting an idea of who they were from the memories of Andree.
Be prepared.
I wouldn’t be caught unprepared. I couldn’t allow it.