Tag: Rachel

Chapter 31 – Are You Always This Frustratingly Vague?

Published by Veronica Marloe on January 31, 2016

Part 4 – Veronica

I never thought I’d live to see an apocalypse. Never really even bought into the idea, worrying about the end of the world. Nuclear wastelands, zombie hordes, alien invasion, global warming, it all seemed kind of silly to me. The realm of fiction and fantasy, something for nerds to geek out over.

Several months ago, I saw the sky above Melbourne torn apart. I saw a futuristic spacecraft fly through it and crash into the ground. I saw people turn into rampaging monsters, I saw men and women who could shrug off bullets walking among us. I saw the gangs seize control, saw the military move in, struggling to contain it all.

No, not struggling. Failing.

Somehow, Melbourne had turned into a place where it wasn’t safe to walk the streets, where monsters ruled and the rest of the world seemingly had no idea what to do. I was half expecting them to eventually give up and nuke the whole city, except I had a sneaking suspicion that wouldn’t do much to stop what was happening.

Technically, a few weeks ago, an official evacuation had been ordered, and the city was placed under quarantine. No traffic in or out, after the initial exodus, and anyone who left was kept in temporary housing just outside the city limits. I’d seen it, and it was terrible. Tents and preserved food and no electricity.

Somehow, still better conditions than our refugee camps.

I couldn’t stay, even though I knew sneaking back into the city was tantamount to suicide. I knew I wouldn’t survive more than a day, probably not more than an hour, but I didn’t feel like I had a choice.

Sabrina was missing. Probably dead, but my gut told me she wasn’t.

No, okay, that’s a cop-out. I just didn’t want to accept it until I saw it for myself. Which was stupid, because I was effectively scouring a dead city for a corpse. What if she’d been turned? I’d never know. Or blown up? Wouldn’t be a trace.

It didn’t matter. I needed to know, couldn’t give up until I’d seen something. Anything. She was my best friend. She deserved that much.

I’m not sure how I managed to keep myself alive for as long as I did. Avoiding busy areas, keeping an ear to the ground, rationing the food I brought with me. Staying out of open areas. Mostly, I think it was just luck.

It certainly wasn’t by being overly cautious. To a certain degree, I couldn’t avoid trouble completely, because trouble was more likely to lead me to answers. More than anything, that was what I needed. So, a little personal risk here and there, why not? What was the worst that could happen?

So when I saw a nondescript van driving down the street, what else could I do but follow? From a safe distance, of course, but that didn’t make it any less dangerous.

The city had been evacuated. That meant anyone left behind was one of the bad guys, probably gang members. Or, incredibly stupid and/or stubborn. Which still made them dangerous.

The next street over, I saw another van. Suspicious, which helped confirm my theory a little. Almost certainly a gang operation. Probably a big one. They were clearly trying to avoid moving a large number of people, or maybe a not lot of equipment, without looking like it. Having the vans take different routes would help with that. So where were they going?

I followed as best I could, but on food, I was admittedly a little slow. I managed to keep them in sight for a while, but they were apparently travelling for a while, and I eventually completely lost them. Dejected, I kicked the curb, then kept moving, knowing better than to stay in one place for too long. Besides, I rationed, if I kept moving, maybe I’d accidentally stumble onto where they were going?

Ten minutes later, an explosion shook the ground, and I stumbled. That wasn’t far at all. Was it related to the vans? Almost certainly. I had to find out.

Like an idiot, I ran towards the source of the explosion.

It took me another fifteen minutes to cover the distance. I nearly got lost, but I saw a young girl ahead of me dash down an alley. By the time I caught up, she’d vanished. It was mildly disconcerting, but any thought of her disappeared from my head as I saw a column of smoke up ahead.

From there, the location was pretty obvious. One of the vans was a smouldering wreck, bits of it scattered across the street. The others were missing, but there were tire-tracks on the road. They’d been here.

They’d all been parked in front of a slightly derelict-looking office building. The weathered sign was impossible to read, but it looked like it might have been some kind of clinic as well as an office building? Weird, but not the weirdest thing I’d ever seen.

The front door was blown open, a gaping hole surrounded by scorch marks. Obviously, I needed to get inside. Just as obviously, going in the front door was a monumentally stupid idea. I checked the windows.

Reinforced with bars and melted closed. Not gonna happen. I circled the building, looking for another entrance. There was a back door, in the same condition as the front one.

This building had been turned into a fortress. A fortress that someone had forced their way into. Which meant the only way I was getting in was to go in the same way. Fuck. Well, at least they’d done the hard work for me.

The idea of just walking away didn’t really occur to me until much later. I was too curious, too desperate for answers.

I walked through the back entrance, as quietly as I could manage, sticking to the wall. Not one metre in, I had to gingerly step around a grotesque splatter of blood. There was no body, that must have been cleared out, but with that amount of blood, there was no way whoever it belonged to survived. Unless it was one of the superhumans, I mused.

The further in I got, the uglier the scene was. Too much blood, and it was already starting to smell. At least it made an effective trail for me to follow? I held my breath, pushing through the worst of it.

The trail went down some stairs, and the almost claustrophobic hallways opened up into a large space, almost completely empty, save for more blood. A few doorways led out into other, similarly sized areas. They seemed to be just as empty, and with a lot less blood.

“You missed the party,” a voice behind me said, startling me. I turned, backing away from the stairwell. A woman was sitting on the railing, legs dangling.

She looked to be young, not too far from my age. Latina, with choppy black hair and large, sullen eyes. She was dressed all in black, with blood dripping from her hand and cheek. She looked about ready to murder somebody.

“Who’re you?” I asked. Asking questions was my default defence mechanism, I’d discovered. Since I was potentially talking to a supervillain, maybe it would help me. Get her monologuing, or something.

“That’s a good question,” she said, dropping down to land on the floor. The impact barely seemed to register to her, but the thud she made was significant. Was she heavier than she looked? “I need a codename. I’m sure someone will come up with something soon enough.”

That didn’t tell me anything, except maybe that she didn’t want me to know her real name. Maybe that was significant, but I didn’t have the presence of mind to put it together.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking around, trying to find any clue in the environment before I got chased out. Or murdered, that was always a possibility.

“Waiting for nosy kids to stumble into places they have no business being,” she said, with a sort of lopsided grin.

“You can’t be any older than me,” I accused, not sure why that was the first thing that came to mind.

“It’s getting hard to tell though, isn’t it?” the girl asked, looking irritatingly smug. A glint in her bloody hand caught my attention. I gagged when I realised I could see through to the bone.

Wait, no, not bone. It was silver. Metal? Was she an android? No, too much blood for that, surely.

Distracted by the sight, I didn’t answer her question. She didn’t seem to mind.

“Have you seen Specimens G or Z?” she asked. “They’re well over two hundred years old. The small Japanese girl with the psychic powers? Nearly one hundred.”

I vaguely knew who she was talking about. Sightings, rumours, news reports. The superhumans from the other world, if the stories were to be believed. I didn’t have a better theory.

“And you’re one of them?” I asked, aware that my heart was beating just a little faster.

“No, I’m local,” she said, with that same smug grin. “So now, you tell me, Veronica. What are you doing here?”

Panic flared up, felt like a knife in my chest. She knew my name? How? Why?

“How do you know my name?” I asked, trying to sound demanding, barely managing to hide my fear.

“I keep tabs on people who might be important,” she said, with a simple shrug.

“I’m flattered,” I retorted, slowly recovering my composure.

“You’re avoiding the question,” she accused.

“Maybe I don’t feel like answering it,” I said, hoping I managed to sound more confident than I felt.

“Ah, well, in that case, I apologise,” she said. There was an edge of danger in her voice. “I shouldn’t have given you the impression you had a choice.”

“What are you going to do, threaten me?” Wow, way more confidence than I was feeling there. Probably too much.

“I could,” she replied, smirking. “Physically, you’re no match for me. I’m not sure you’re the easily intimidated type, though.” She waved her hand, the one that wasn’t caked in blood. “And it’s not really my style. I much prefer tricking the answers out of people.”

I sighed. “So neither of us is going to answer the other’s questions.”

“Doesn’t seem like it.” She didn’t seem too bothered by that, strangely.

“Are you going to stop me from looking around?” I asked, carefully. All of a sudden, it felt like I’d lost my read on her.

“Wasn’t planning on it. You won’t find anything, though.”

I looked around again. The place had been stripped clean. Only signs that anyone had been here at all was the blood.

I thought back to the vans from earlier, the blown-open doors. I felt like I had a pretty good idea who was behind all of that.

“Are you with the Celestial?” I asked. “Are you one of the Stars, keeping guard on your spoils?”

She smiled indulgently. “That’s certainly an interesting theory.”

“Are you always this frustratingly vague?” I groaned.

“Almost always.”

I sighed, wandering away from her. If she wasn’t planning on killing me, she wasn’t worth my time. I wasn’t here for small talk.

“Looks like one hell of a fight happened here,” I mused, more to myself than to her.

“Who do you suppose won?” the girl asked. I needed a name for her, I decided. Silver. Like her bones.

“I don’t even know who the combatants were,” I said, wondering if she’d feed me a little information after all.

“Sure you do,” Silver prompted. “The Stars, and…”

“And the new super,” I finished. “The one that’s been fighting against the gangs, and the infected. Protecting people.”

She was the only one that seemed even vaguely heroic. Certainly more heroic than the Vigilante. Charlie. I felt my face twist into a scowl at the very thought of her.

No, this new hero wasn’t like that. Something about her was different. She was a real hero. She needed a name to suit that. Maybe if I’d ever picked up a comic book in my life…

I thought about the limited amount I’d seen her. Fair skin, blonde hair, blue eyes. Like the other one, Specimen Z? But more human, somehow. More approachable? Supermodel good looks, but down to earth, so to speak. A hero of the people.

Miss Melbourne.

“You think this was her hideout?” Silver asked, a leading question.

“That’s what I was hoping to find out,” I said.

“So, assuming it was, who won?”

How the hell was I supposed to know that?

“If she did, she would have cleared out, tried to find somewhere new,” I said, thinking aloud. “So, it looks like she might have. But then again, if the Stars won, they’d have stripped the place, taken it back to one of their bases, before another gang or the military could find it.”

“So you have no idea?”

“So it would seem,” I confessed.

Silver sighed, seeming disappointed. Why did she care?

“And so the war continues,” she muttered.

“The city’s been evacuated,” I pointed out. “They can keep fighting over territory if they want, but eventually, someone will run out of supplies.”

Silver shook her head. “You’ve seen what the superhumans can do. Any one of them could just walk into a new city, and take it over.”

“They’re quarantining the city,” I argued. “Locking it down.”

“Again, you’ve seen what they can do. What could possibly keep them here?”

I had wondered the same thing myself. Nothing that was being done seemed sufficient to keep them here. For some reason, though, they did all seem to be staying put.

“Honestly? They seem to want to be here,” I said. “Otherwise, they would have left already. There’s something here they all want, that’s the only explanation I can think of.”

“And what happens when they get it?” Silver asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know. Probably depends who gets it. I’m guessing it’s not good for the rest of us, though, regardless.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” she asked, surprising me.

“Me? Nothing,” I said, almost argued. “I’m not a hero. Just… curious.”

“Well, you know what they say about curiosity,” she replied, that damned smirk returning.

“Yes, and ignorance is bliss. Seems like I’m just cut out for a life of misery, but at least it’ll be a short one.”

She laughed at that.

“I like you, Veronica. I hope you survive all of this.”

“So do I,” I muttered.

Chapter 30 – Tinker v Blinker

Published by Rachel Fierro on January 17, 2016

“Miss Murder? Kill her.”

His voice cut off, the connection clearly dropped. Suddenly, it was just the two of us again. That wasn’t as comforting as it could have been.

Had to think quick. I was fresh out of secret weapons, or weapons of any kind. I’d even taken my gloves off. My opponent could blink, and she knew more ways to kill a person than I knew people. It wasn’t a great match-up.

There was a kevlar weave in my clothing that would probably protect against most knife attacks, it was probably even bulletproof. My skin didn’t have that same advantage, and my face and neck were exposed. Far too vulnerable.

My skeleton was difficult to break, and unless she teleported me off the side of a skyscraper I doubted she could hurt me that way. Small comfort.

No super-strength or super-speed. No accelerated healing. Just me and my tough bones. Not a lot to work with.

Miss Murder was fast, I knew that much. Maybe hyperkinetic? Nothing like Zoe or Sabrina, but it felt like something

When she’d teleported me, I’d glimpsed something else about her power. It wasn’t just teleportation. She could actually deconstruct her body, turning it temporarily incorporeal. Could she use that defensively? Probably. That would make her difficult to hurt, even more difficult to contain.

Despite what I’d said, I had no intention of killing her. Cathartic as that might have been, I doubted I’d be able to live with myself. The Celestial was right. I wasn’t a killer.

What else did I know about her? As deadly as she was, she only used a knife. No guns. Her bare hands would have been just as deadly, though, had to keep that in mind. Still, if I could keep my distance, I’d be mostly safe. That’d be helpful if she wasn’t also a teleporter.

She blinked, appearing in front of me, slashing with the knife. I was fast enough to throw up my arms as I leapt away from her, and thankfully, the knife did not cut through. I had some protection, at least.

She didn’t give me more than a second’s reprieve before coming at me again, teleporting behind me, nearly catching me off guard. She was relentless, never staying in the same spot for more than a second, never attacking from the same direction twice. There was no strategy on my part keeping me alive, only reflexes.

Still, I was learning. Nothing useful, but any information could become useful in the right circumstances. If I could stay in one piece for long enough, I could find a way to use it.

There are a lot of ways teleportation is theoretically possible. Deconstruction at the molecular level, followed by reconstruction at the destination. Creating a copy at the destination and transferring consciousness, before terminating the original. Freezing time, moving from A to B before resuming it. She wasn’t doing any of that.

She grabbed me, cutting off my train of thought, and the world faded to black around me. When it snapped back, we were nearly ten metres in the air. She let go, blinking back down to the ground, letting me fall.

I hit the ground hard, landing on my hands and knees, the shock reverberating through my body, but I managed to stay in one piece, no significant damage. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the point of it. She took advantage of the temporary stunned state, dragging the blade of her knife across my throat.

Before she could get it in too deep, I let my body slump to the side, sliding off the edge of the knife. She managed to draw blood, but the wound wasn’t enough to cause any serious harm. I got lucky.

She grabbed me again, teleporting me up to about the same height as before. I felt the same distortion, confirming my suspicions from earlier. Her teleportation worked by folding two spaces in three-dimensional space together. Did she know that? Did she realised the implications of that?

I dropped again, the ground rushing up to meet me. This time, I was more prepared, and knowing what my body was capable of, I twisted, landing on my feet, my legs absorbing the impact. Before Miss Murder could assault me again, I threw myself to the side, less than a second before her knife slashed through the spot I landed.

Fuck, she was fast. Faster than I was, and blinking didn’t seem to be tiring her out at all. That actually made sense. The amount of energy required to do what she was doing would be phenomenal, way more than her body could possibly have access to. Which meant she was drawing it from somewhere else.

I wanted to know how she was doing that, more than anything, but it wasn’t the time. Even if I could figure it out, maybe even figure out how to cut her off from it, chances of me being able to do it in the middle of a fight more infinitesimal. Not a helpful line of thinking.

She teleported me again, this time directly over an antenna. I cried out as the sharp point drove into me, but it couldn’t get through my jacket. It was going to leave a killer bruise, though.

I needed a way to stop her without killing her. That was going to be difficult. I’d need to hurt her, badly, but not in a way she couldn’t recover from. Enough that she’d have to stop fighting, that she’d give up and leave. I wouldn’t be able to do that without perfect timing, and I’d need to surprise her.

She slashed at me, and I raised my arms to protect my face. As I did, I saw her body shimmer and fade to shadow, and the blade past right through my arm, solidifying again just in time to cut my cheek open, spilling blood out everywhere.

Fuck. She was smarter than I was giving her credit for. Stupid of me, I’d always known she was clever. I was going to lose if I didn’t come up with something, and fast.

Needed to be reckless. I looked around, saw a window. Good enough. I ran for it, and she didn’t try to stop me. I hurled myself through it, letting my protected shoulder take the brunt of the impact, glass shattering around me.

I landed painfully as a cascade of glass shards rained around me. Miss Murder materialised in front of me, still pristine. Not for much longer, though.

I grabbed a shard of glass large enough to be used as a knife and charged at her. The first time, she blinked away. I staggered forwards, only slightly exaggerating it.

The second time I charged, she simply turned to shadow, letting me pass through, then turned and slashing at the back of my head. It only barely missed. Fuck.

My grip on the glass was too tight, cutting through the skin on my palm. I swapped it to the other hand. The cut was deep enough that I could see the bone, or rather, the synthetic exoskeleton covering it. It stung, but I could handle a little pain.

I charged again, and just like last time, she turned to shadow. This time, I thrust my hand in, the one with the cut open palm, with a hand gesture that would normally have provided a surge of power to the glove I usually wore.

In the middle of her shadowy form, the electrical energy burst forth, spreading out, filling her. She twitched, staggering backwards, forced back into her physical form. I didn’t have long.

I kicked her, knocking her to the floor. As she hit the ground, I fell on her, using my weight to drive the shard of glass into her stomach. She convulsed, then turned to shadow, rolling away from me. The glass shard stayed behind.

She stood up, clutching her stomach, blood dripping from the open wound. It was bad, worse than I’d intended. Damn it. Still, she’d have access to top-notch medical care. She’d be fine, so long as she left in time to get it looked at.

The glare she gave me could only be described as withering, but then she vanished, teleporting away. I waited a few seconds, on the off chance she had some final sneak attack planned, then slumped to the ground, my arm twitching. That electrical surge had hurt me almost as much as it had hurt her.

My breathing was heavy, my throat hoarse, my body ached. It didn’t matter. I survived. I’d won, and next time, I’d be prepared.

Now to find out of Zoe and Sabrina had been as successful.

Chapter 29 – You, I Could Kill

Published by Rachel Fierro on January 10, 2016

As soon as I saw the words appear on the screens, I knew I could rule out Charlie. The theatrics weren’t her style. That narrowed it down considerably.

Gabriel? I knew he was looking for Zoe. Was he the type to make a show out of it? Even if he was, he wouldn’t risk timing it when all three of us were here. He wasn’t interested in Sabrina or me. It didn’t make sense.

It had to be someone who wanted the three of us. That made it painfully obvious. The only two people I wanted to see less than Charlie. My chest ached just from the memory.

A series of explosions signalled the breaching of our outer defences. I knew Zoe had the place booby-trapped, had considered adding a few mechanisms of my own. Wouldn’t have made a difference. Within a minute, the building was swarmed with gang thugs, armed like soldiers. The Stars.

Sabrina changed in a heartbeat, her skin paling, her hair lightening, her body elongating and her nails growing. Zoe had tensed up, and I got the impression she was struggling to contain her rage. Her sanctuary had been violated. I could understand.

The gang-soldiers surrounded us, not looking nearly as afraid as they should have. Their faces were concealed, but their body language was confident, almost arrogant, every last one of them. They knew something I didn’t, that was the only explanation.

A wisp of smoke congealed in the centre of the room, quickly taking the form of a young woman. She solidified, a teenage girl dressed entirely in black, her neck and mouth concealed, a vicious looking knife held in her left hand. Her eyes settled on me, fear and anger and hatred all emerging in equal measure.

She vanished in another puff of smoke, appearing in front of me in the same second. Her hand wrapped around my throat, and before I could react, the world around me faded to black, and everything was silent.

The world snapped back into place with an almost physical impact, but it wasn’t the same. My eyes scanned around me, looking for any identifiable feature. It didn’t take long.

We were on the roof. She’d teleported us straight up. Why so close? Was her range that limited? Was that a weakness I could exploit?

To my surprise, she let go of me, taking a couple of steps back. She didn’t want to kill me? What else could it be? Was she just removing me from the fight? No, she’d have taken me further to do that, even if she had to do multiple hops. Besides, I was the least dangerous of the three of us, in that situation. Unprepared and exhausted? I was basically useless.

I knew she didn’t want to talk. Did she want to show me something? Was removing me just a demonstration of her power? I already knew she could blink, and letting me see it up close, experience it, all she was doing was giving me the tools to fight against it. Assuming I survived this fight, at least. Was she showing the other two?

Protecting me? No, there was no way. She had no love for me. Her partner had even less. If they weren’t trying to kill me, it was because they wanted something from me.

Miss Murder, as she was going by, reached into a concealed fold in her black top. I stood my ground, not entirely sure what to expect.

“Hello, Rachel,” a distorted voice said, coming from her general direction. It wasn’t her voice, though. I recognised it, even through the filter. It was him. The Celestial. Leader of the Stars, the most powerful gang in the city, especially now.

The man who was responsible for poisoning me.

“Why are you disguising your voice?” I asked, trying to read Miss Murder’s body language. She kept very deliberately still. “You know I know who you are.”

“But anyone who might be listening in doesn’t,” he replied.

“And what’s to stop me revealing your identity anyway?” I asked, and saw Miss Murder tense. So, her secret identity was important to her? Interesting.

“That would cut this conversation unfortunately short,” the Celestial replied, already sounding impatient. That was good. He was far less dangerous when he didn’t feel in control, and I knew exactly how to press his buttons.

“Not seeing a downside,” I said, wondering if he could see my smirk. He was almost certainly watching through some kind of video feed.

“I believe we can help each other, Rachel,” he said, in a perfect imitation of a supervillain. I wondered if that was how he saw himself. Or the dark saviour of the city? That seemed more his flavour.

“Not interested.”

So, he was trying to recruit me? Why would he ever think I would want to work for him? Or even with him? He’d need something incredible to even entice me.

“I have resources-” he began, but I cut him off.

“Don’t care.” Even as I spoke, I kept processing, the pieces falling together. I realised what it was he had. “Wait. No. That’s not what you mean. You have her.” My heart was pounding. I was livid. That wasn’t fair. “You have Haylie, and you’re stumped. So of course you’d come to me.”

No trace of surprise on Miss Murder’s face, at least, the half of it I could see. She knew what the Celestial was offering. She knew I’d figure it out before he told me.

“You’ll never get another opportunity like this,” he said, still acting like he had control of the situation. He didn’t. He’d played his hand too early, and I was going to make him regret it.

“You’re an idiot. Do you have any idea what I could do, if I had access-” I stopped. Recomposed myself. “Of course you do. And you’re already prepared for it.”

He was shooting himself in the foot. The one thing he had to bargain with, the one thing I actually wanted, he knew he couldn’t actually give me. It was far too dangerous for him. Hell, it might have been dangerous for me.

“Her power is mine, needs to be mine,” he said evenly. “But you would see enough, learn enough to make it worth your while.”

How did he see this going? He needed my help, but anything I was able to help him with, I could weaponise, would use against him. It would be a desperate race to the end, him trying to get enough out of me to be useful before he killed me, or before I managed to turn the tables and use it against him.

I didn’t want to get stuck like that. Not that I wasn’t confident I could win, but I had my own agenda to work towards.

“Or, I could just kill you,” I said casually, but I still saw Miss Murder twitch. How hard was it for her to just stand there, completely still, nothing more than a glorified handset? How much did it gall her to be a puppet for him, after everything?

There was a surprising pause before he replied. When he did, it was with more reservation and humility than I was prepared for.

“As much as I deserve that,” he said, “you’d fail. You know you’d fail.”

Regret? No, just a ploy. Trying to cultivate a sense of trust and honesty, make me easier to manipulate.

He was right, though. I wouldn’t have a chance of killing him, not the way things were now. He was protected by more than just his gang, more than his supernatural sidekick. He had information, power, money, secrets. I had a few half-baked gadgets.

“Maybe now,” I conceded. “But I’ll keep building, keep preparing.”

“I’ll figure her out before then,” he told me, fully confident. He might have been right about that, too. I had no idea how close he was to being able to actually use her.

“I have allies,” I said, knowing I was reaching. Dammit, he had me on the back foot all of a sudden. How had that happened?

“Tenuous at best,” he said, calling my bluff. I growled. “Besides, they’re already dead.”

How long had we been speaking? A couple of minutes? More?

“You’re more arrogant than I thought. Your thugs don’t stand a chance against Zoe or-“

“You know me well enough to know that I had a plan,” he interrupted. “I know what they’re capable of.”

Frustratingly, I knew there had to be truth to that. Attacking Zoe in her base of operations was a stupid, reckless move, and he wouldn’t have done it if he wasn’t absolutely sure he’d be successful. There was a good chance Zoe and Sabrina really were already dead, or captured. What a terrifying notion.

“Well, even if you’re right, I won’t lose any sleep over it,” I said, with more confidence than I felt.

“You’re alone now,” he pushed, and I realised Miss Murder was enjoying this. I glared at her. “Or, do you trust Charlie more than me?” he continued. A chill ran down my spine. “Would you go back to her?”

He wasn’t just taunting me, he was threatening me. Threatening me using Charlie. The conversation was officially over.

“Here’s what I’m going to do,” I told him. “First, I’m going to kill your girlfriend, here. Then I’m going to check on my heavy-hitters. If they’re alive, you’re fucked. If they’re dead, I’m going to disappear, and I’m going to dedicate every waking hour to building the tools I need to destroy you. Then, you’re fucked.”

I smiled at the momentary panic on Miss Murder’s face when I said I was going to kill her. For all her confidence, she was wary of me. Good.

“You’re not a killer, Rachel,” the Celestial responded after a pause, trying and failing to call my bluff.

“Not usually,” I conceded. “But you? You, I could kill. Happily.”

Truth.

“I’m disappointed, Rachel.”

“Cry me a river,” I snapped, letting adrenaline flood my system.

“I will own this city,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about that.”

“Fucking watch me,” I snarled.

No hesitation this time. “Miss Murder? Kill her.”

Chapter 28 – More Secrets?

Published by Rachel Fierro on January 3, 2016

“What happened?” Sabrina asked, as I stormed in through the main entrance, fuming. I swore silently at myself for not pulling it together before I entered. Seeing Charlie had thrown me off balance, and I needed to be on top of my game whenever I was around these two.

“Nothing,” I said, a terrible lie. “Why?”

Sabrina frowned, folding her arms across her chest. Interestingly, she was looking more feminine than when we’d first met. Had she gotten access to hormones? How? No, the changes were too rapid, even for that. A side-effect of her power? Subconscious minor shifting? No, that wasn’t important.

“You don’t need to lie to me, Rachel. What happened?”

She wasn’t the type to let it drop, and if I kept avoiding it, I would only seem more suspicious. Better to twist it to my advantage. Couldn’t be too obvious about that, though.

“I saw Charlie. I don’t want to talk about it.”

I said it with just enough aggression that it sounded genuine, but not so much that she’d be scared off entirely. At least, I hoped so.

“You survived,” she said, sounding genuinely surprised. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Not that she was wrong to be surprised. There was no chance I’d survive a one-on-one fight with Charlie. “Wasn’t she going to try and kill you?”

Yes, I thought. And instead, she chose to dance with me. Somehow, it was worse.

“It’s not that simple,” I said, cringing as I did. What an awful, cliched line.

“Do explain, then,” Zoe said, practically materialising behind me. As there so often was when speaking to me, a hint of danger accented her voice.

I had to play this very carefully. Give them just enough information to throw them off balance. Preferably without lying. Could I do it?

“I have something of hers,” I said slowly. Truth. “Something she needs.” Lie. “That’s why she threatened me.” Partial truth.

“What?” Sabrina asked, and even though I knew that would be the very next question, I didn’t have an answer prepared.

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”

Both of them looked at me, more suspicious than ever. This wasn’t going the way I wanted, but I couldn’t tell them more. If they knew what I had, what I’d taken from Charlie, what I could do with it…

“More secrets?” Zoe asked, a rhetorical question that was somehow also a threat. I needed to change the tone, and quickly.

“I’m here to help you build your machine,” I said, my tone forceful, aggressive. Half-truth. “You helped fix me. That doesn’t mean I trust you.” Truth.

Zoe looked angry, the same way she always did, for the briefest of moments, so easy to miss if you didn’t know to look for it. Not enough to push me further. That was fine. I just needed more time.

After this, she would probably do another search of my belongings, my notes, everything I had within her grasp. Just like every other time, she wouldn’t find anything. My prize was hidden far from where she could find it, and by the time I was at risk of revealing the location, she wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it.

“So what happened with Charlie?” Sabrina asked, breaking the tension. Well, sort of. I glared at her.

“We… We talked,” I said, letting my shoulders slump. “I don’t think she was expecting to see me, or for me to be… You know. Better. I won’t catch her by surprise a second time.” Truth.

“Maybe it’s not safe for you to go out,” Sabrina suggested. I had to fight the urge to laugh at her, because there was some validity to what she was saying.

Also, it gave me the opportunity to lay some pressure on the two of them, undermine their confidence. Putting them on the back foot would make my job just that little bit easier.

“It’s not safe for me anywhere,” I said. Probably true. “Sooner or later, she’ll figure out where I am. Hell, maybe she already knows.” Truth. She almost certainly knew where I was, she just wasn’t stupid enough to risk taking on both Zoe and Sabrina in a head-on fight. For all her power, she wasn’t guaranteed victory against either of them, let alone both, and especially not on their own turf.

“Should we move?” Zoe asked, and I could tell my attempt to unbalance her had been successful. She was too confident in her ability to stay undetected, too afraid that someone else might find her. Letting Gabriel know her location was one of my backup plans. Let the two of them tear each other apart. I had enough of Zoe’s schematics that I probably didn’t need her anymore.

“She’s not a threat to you,” I said. Mostly true. “Her power, it’s basically the equivalent of Wendy’s.” Mostly true again. “That’s where it came from, after all.” Depending on what you considered ‘all’ of it. There was the power she had before we’d known about Wendy. “Mostly she’s just tenacious.” Definitely true.

“I guess there are three of us,” Sabrina mused. The sort of naive confidence that could get a girl killed.

“I don’t like anyone knowing we’re here,” Zoe said, almost growling the words. It was satisfying, seeing her so on edge.

“Wherever we go, she’d find us again. She’d find me again,” I said. Truth.

“Then maybe I should leave you behind,” Zoe threatened, though her body language told me it wasn’t a serious threat. She wanted me to capitulate, to acknowledge the power imbalance. I was worrying her.

“You can’t finish your machine without me,” I replied confidently. Both the statement, and the confidence, were lies.

“I’ll figure it out eventually,” she said, and we both knew she was right. I was accelerating the process, streamlining production, providing a safer alternative than trial and error for some key components, but I wasn’t essential.

“And risk Gabriel finding you in the meantime?” I countered, with just enough trace of a threat of my own that she’d take it seriously. I could, and would, go to him.

She snarled, a look of utter contempt and fury in her eyes. Sabrina didn’t seem to notice. It was gone in the blink of an eye.

“Fine,” she said, barely concealing her rage. “But we are going to move. And you’re going to do everything in your power to make sure Charlie doesn’t find us,” she added.

“Of course,” I said, lying again. I fully intended on giving her just enough information to find us, just not yet. Not until I was ready. “I’m assuming you already have a place lined up?”

She smiled, accepting the compliment. I genuinely couldn’t tell if her ego was such that she couldn’t tell that I was only playing up to it, or if she just didn’t care.

“How are we going to move all of this without anyone noticing?” Sabrina asked, looking around and the rather massive collection of assorted salvaged tech and scrap.

Before either of us could answer, all of the lights in the building went out. As the three of us tensed, ready for a fight. My mind was racing. Was this Charlie? Had she followed me back? Surely not.

Every monitor I could see lit up, all at once. On each of them, two words were printed.

“Found you.”

Chapter 27 – You’re Still Angry

Published by Rachel Fierro on December 27, 2015

The two of us stood there on the rooftop, staring at each other, not saying anything. Her thigh-length coat fluttered lazily in the wind, too heavy to be moved much. She had her hands tucked into her pants pockets, leaning casually against the doorway that led back into the building.

She’d lost weight, I realised. She’d always been fit, but she’d also always had a persistent layer of body fat that gave her a cuter, cuddlier look. Not that anyone else seemed to consider her cuddly, but I’d seen her softer side.

The kindness in her eyes was gone, too. Had that just been a trick? Surely not. We’d known each other for too long for her to have been faking that. Beneath it all, she was a genuinely caring person.

Or at least, she had been.

There wasn’t anyone more dangerous in the city. Before Impact Day, before the arrival of everything that had changed the landscape of the city, she was impossible. With the power she had now…

Charlie was tenacious, driven, single-minded. She had a goal, and nothing and no-one would stop her from achieving it. She was tough, clever and more than able to handle herself in a fight. She’d gone up against the gangs with nothing, and nearly won.

Now, she had all of that and more. Superhuman strength, speed and resilience. Her wounds healed almost instantly. Her senses were sharper than anyone, or anything. She was unstoppable.

Her words from the television broadcast echoed through my mind.

She smiled again, a softer smile, but one that conveyed just what a difference in power there was between us. I had nowhere to run, no way to escape from her, and she knew it.

“You’re looking better,” she said, almost taunting me. The last time she’d seen me, I was halfway dead and entirely broken.

“So are you,” I replied, my tone full of venom.

My reply seemed to give her pause. What was that expression? Concern? Irritation?

“You’re still angry,” she said bluntly.

I took a deep breath. This wasn’t the time for over-the-top theatrics.

“Do I not have a right to be?”

Charlie shrugged. “I did what I had to do.” The line was careless, forced, too much like she was reading from a script.

“And to hell with the consequences, right?” I demanded.

Charlie cocked her head, the way a curious dog might do. Her hands remained in her pockets, but her arms seemed tense, ready to move at the drop of a hat.

“Do you want to fight me?” she asked, surprising me.

The idea was laughable. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do less.

“What good would that do?” I asked, trying to figure her out. Even now, she was a mystery to me. It’s what had attracted me to her in the first place, way back when. She’d been a puzzle for me to wrap my head around, as much as anything.

She smiled again. A different smile. A smile of triumph, bemusement and arrogance. It was a smile I knew well.

“Would you like to dance, then?” she asked, and if her last question had surprised me, this one nearly knocked me off my feet.

She was asking me to dance? Surely she wasn’t being serious. Was she mocking me? After everything that had happened, was still happening, was going to happen? What part of her thought it was a good idea?

“What, here?” I asked, confused enough that it took me several seconds. “Now?”

She shrugged casually, the smile remaining. “I guess we could go somewhere else, but I like the privacy here. Nobody can see us.”

Nobody can see us, she said.

I shook my head. “Weirdo.”

She took another step towards me. I didn’t back away. What would have been the point? This situation, this conversation was entirely out of my control.

Another step. Close enough to touch. I didn’t know what to do. If someone saw us, what would they think? If Sabrina saw…

It was hard not to remember what it used to be like, with her. The love that I’d felt, the passion, the need. Bodies don’t just forget those feelings, even if heads would very much like them to.

I took her hand, the hand of someone who had threatened to kill me, who had the power to do it. Her fingers wrapped around mine, gently, and her other hand found my hip.

There was no music, no rhythm, only the sounds of the city. That was what we danced to, holding each other in silence, moving slowly, gracefully.

“I miss you,” she said softly, so quietly I almost didn’t hear. We stopped dancing. I let her go.

“You’ll live,” I said coldly. The message needed to be clear.

“How’s Sabrina?” she asked, her expression and body language shifting instantly, defensive and professional.

“She doesn’t like me,” I said, though I’m not sure why. Reflex response, maybe. We used to tell each other everything.

“You never were good at making friends,” she said, understandingly, condescendingly. A reminder I didn’t want, didn’t need.

I decided to try catching her off guard. She deserved it, even if provoking her was a stupid idea.

“How’s Sadie?”

Charlie’s eyes narrowed, and for just a moment, I saw vulnerability flash across her face. It was gone in an instant, but I relished the victory.

“I think she hates me more than you do,” Charlie replied reluctantly. The edge to her voice almost made me regret asking.

“Sounds about right,” I said instead, rubbing salt into the small wound, the only wound I was capable of making.

Charlie looked distant, vacant, though only for a few seconds. When she returned, everything about her was hard.

“Do you still have it?” she asked, the question I’d been waiting for. The question I’d known she was here to ask. The question she already knew the answer to.

“Yes.”

“No burning desire to give it back to me? To come work with me again?” she asked, the sort of question with only one correct answer. The sort of question that still needs to be asked.

“No,” I said bluntly. “I’m happy where I am.”

A screeching sound filled the air, grating against my nerves. The fighting from earlier had attracted infected. Already, I could smell them.

Charlie nodded, and backed away. “Well, you know where to find me. You know, if you want to,” she said. One final chance, she left unsaid. “Otherwise, sooner or later…”

I shook my head again, the message clear. “I can’t see you again. You know that, right?”

“I know,” came her wistful reply.

“It… was good seeing you, though,” I confessed, surprising myself. Despite everything, the chance to see her gain, to talk to her, to touch her… It was why I needed to stay away from her. Proximity was dangerous. She was dangerous.

“Does that mean I’m forgiven?”

“No. Goodbye, Charlie,” I said.

She just nodded, turned on the spot, and leapt off the rooftop, disappearing into the darkness.

I collapsed, my head whirling.

Chapter 26 – Don’t Try Anything

Published by Rachel Fierro on December 20, 2015

The fresh air was amazing. It felt refreshing, even more so than just the abundance of space around me. I’d been cooped up indoors for far too long.

Zoe had, of course, been opposed to by going out. She’d suggested that at the very least, I should wait and go out with Sabrina, who could protect me. I’d had to bite my tongue, assuring her I knew how to handle myself without giving too much away. I promised I’d be safe, avoid conflict, not stray too far.

I lied, in other words.

It wasn’t that I was specifically looking for a fight. I just had no intention of backing away from one, and a small part of me did relish the thought of getting the chance to take all of my frustration out on someone, no hold barred.

Zoe had also reminded me of the risk I might bump into Charlie. We both knew she was out here, somewhere, and for all my confidence, I knew full well I wouldn’t stand a chance against her in a fight.

It was a risk I was willing to take.

I walked slowly, enjoying the tranquility. In the distance, there were the sounds of violence, the omnipresent backdrop of Melbourne ever since Impact Day. Gunfire, explosions, the inhuman screeching of the infected. By rights, I should have been terrified, but I’d never felt calmer. I was exactly where I wanted to be, and more importantly, I was alive, functioning, capable.

Even with all my upgrades, I knew better than to consider myself superhuman. Zoe, Sabrina, Charlie, they were all considerably stronger than me, faster than me, a lot more durable than me. They could heal wounds almost instantly, I couldn’t. In a fistfight, any one of them would trounce me in under a minute. At best, I could rest assured my bones wouldn’t break, I could hit harder than any human and my reflexes were sharp enough I likely wouldn’t be caught unawares.

It didn’t matter. I never intended to be a superhero. I wasn’t looking to save the city, not like Charlie. I didn’t want to put my abilities to good use, like Sabrina. I didn’t have a home to go back to, like Rachel. All I had was my mind, and all I wanted was the chance to push it.

I stopped in front of a storefront, the lighting perfectly positioned for me to admire my reflection in the window. I was on the scrawny side, not as athletic as I once was. Still as flat-chested as ever. My hair was shorter than I was used to, a styled mess of curls that barely touched my shoulders. I wore combat boots from an army surplus store, and fake leather pants and a jacket, the kind you’d wear for protection on a motorbike. They weren’t without modifications.

A glint in the reflection caught my eye, and I focussed on it, saw the source in a window behind me. Sniper. SR98, standard issue for the army. Military presence. Uncomfortably close to our base.

I gave no impression of noticing. It didn’t matter. Several soldiers emerged from around corners, twelve counting the sniper. All of them had their rifles trained on me. One of them stepped forward. Lieutenant.

“This area’s under quarantine,” he said gruffly. “No civilians allowed out after curfew. Identify yourself.”

My eyes scanned the soldiers around me. They were on edge, ready for a fight. They didn’t see me as a civilian. Would be foolish to. A teenage girl out in the dark, alone, in the middle of what was effectively a war zone? Not likely to be there by accident.

Would they believe me if I convinced them I was? Even if I did, they’d just try to escort me to the nearest safe place, outside the combat zone. Not interested, and the likelihood of convincing them was low enough it probably wasn’t worth the effort. More likely, they’d decide I was a member of a gang member. Not one of the Stars, because I didn’t have the tattoo on the back of my hand. Well, technically they couldn’t see my hands under the gloves, but it was tantamount to the same thing. The Stars did not hide their identifiers.

A lesser gang, then. They’d try to detain me. When I refused, resisted, they’d use force. Lethal, if necessary. Twelve of them, including one sniper. One of me.

“Must’ve gotten turned around,” I lied, making no effort to disguise that fact. “Don’t worry, I know my way back.”

“Check her,” the lieutenant ordered. One of the other soldiers lowered his gun, and pulled out a small device that looked like a diabetic’s insulin checker. He began to approach me.

I knew what he was looking for. It would take a sample of my blood, test for markers, compare it to both human blood and their likely limited database of supernatural samples. 83% accuracy on identifying if I was supernatural.

My blood, though mostly my own, had traces of Zoe still interspersed through it. Would the machine identify me as supernatural? Instincts said yes. Which meant they’d try to kill me on sight. Too dangerous to detain.

“Don’t try anything,” the soldier said as he approached me. He was young, not more than a couple of years older than me. Things hadn’t gotten bad enough to send every available soldier into the city, so he probably volunteered. Eager. His mistake. I grinned at him.

My hand grabbed his throat, discharging enough electricity from the glove to temporarily overload his nervous system. He twitched and then went limp, but I was strong enough to hold him up. I needed him as a shield.

The others wouldn’t open fire without a clean shot, or so I hoped. I didn’t want to kill any of them, which was going to make the next part a lot trickier. Not impossible, just difficult. That was fine. I liked a challenge.

A flick of my arm and a flashbang grenade dropped into my waiting palm. I pulled the pin with the hand that was holding it, waited a second, then tossed it into the midst of the soldiers, some of whom were already moving around to flank me. I shut my eyes just as it went off, the deafening bang filtered out by the implants in my ears.

Wouldn’t take them long to recover. Had to move quickly. I threw the still limp soldier into the path of one of his stalled comrades, knocking them both to the ground. With my free hand, I fetched another grenade, pulled the pin, and hurled it towards another soldier. It exploded in an eruption of foam, quickly encasing him, already solidifying. I was already moving.

I wrapped my hand around the lieutenant’s face, another electrical discharge ensuring he’d be down for the next thirty seconds or so. It was enough to twist his arms behind his back and wrap a zip-tie around his wrists.

Time for another experiment. I’d had the chance to put together so many new toys while I waited to recover. It felt good to finally have a chance to use some of them.

I pulled out a collapsible baton, flicking my wrist to extend it to its full length. I’d made something similar for Charlie, before everything happened, before she had superstrength. This one was better.

I thrust the end of it into another soldier’s throat, delivering another jolt of electrical energy that knocked him off his feet. The others were beginning to recover from the effects of the flashbang. That was fine.

There was a button at the base of the baton. I pressed it, and the casing around the tip retracted, revealing a sharp, pointed blade. I hurled it like a javelin, catching a soldier in the chest. The blade wasn’t designed to cut deep, but once it was embedded in the skin, through the protective gear, it unloaded another electrical charge.

Six down, six to go. Sniper was still a risk. Should’ve dropped a smoke grenade sooner. Too late to worry about that now. I pulled out a pistol that resembled a flare gun and fired it in their direction. A genade arced toward the window, further than I’d have been able to throw it, and exploded just in front of it, spraying the room, the sniper and anything under it in a white powder that immediately starting smoking, as well as giving off enough heat that the sniper would be forced to remove it all from him.

The butt of a rifle knocked the pistol out of my hands. Rude. I growled at the soldier, but he was already swinging again. Bad move.

I sidestepped the swing, leaving my foot in place, grabbing his arm and carrying his momentum forward. He tripped, falling face first, and I kicked him in the groin hard enough to feel a protective cup break. Four left.

I didn’t want to kill them, but that didn’t mean I had a problem hurting them.

The remaining soldiers had an open shot. I had to throw myself forward, taking advantage of my above-average speed to catch them by surprise. The sound of gunfire from up close was grating more than anything. I rolled forward, making myself a smaller target, pulling out a knife as I did. Quid pro quo, fuckers.

Coming out of my roll, I slashed across a soldier’s ankle, and he lost his footing, collapsing to the ground. Using my momentum, I sprung back up, throwing the knife and catching another soldier in the shoulder, causing enough damage to throw off his aim. That still left two pointing guns at me, fingers about to press down on triggers.

Why’d I only make one of everything? I muttered to myself, running out of options. Once again, I was reminded how much easier it would be if I could’ve just killed them. Good thing I’m better than that.

Still, I was getting valuable data. Next time, I’d have a better idea of what worked, what I needed more of, what needed adjusting. Not a complete waste of time.

Too early to be thinking about that yet. Still soldiers to deal with. Threats to subdue.

What did I have left? Not much. One more grenade, and a grappling hook. Good enough. Was I fast enough? Probably not. Unless…

Another hand gesture, triggering specific sensors in my glove. The pistol that had been knocked from my hands exploded, a loud bang that was enough to distract the soldiers. I dropped the last grenade from my belt and pointed up at the nearest rooftop, a cable bursting out from my sleeve. The soldiers looked back just in time to see me yanked up into the sky, then the grenade went off, quickly filling the area with thick black smoke.

I stood at the edge of the building, looking down. They had no way of following me, and under the circumstances, probably no inclination. Excellent. I’d gotten exactly what I wanted, and not a single injury in the process.

And Zoe thought I couldn’t take care of myself.

I allowed myself a smug grin, turning away from the edge. Mission successful. I felt great. Fresh air, open spaces and the chance to stretch my legs. Plus I got to throw down with a whole squad of soldiers.

I froze when I realised I wasn’t alone on the roof. She’d caught me by surprise, and I wasn’t the least bit prepared to deal with her.

Her blue-green eyes shimmered dangerously in the moonlight, her body language pure aggression and power. A victorious smile played across her lips as she watched my reaction.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Charlie said.

Bonus: You’re Going To Kill Her

Published by Snow on December 16, 2015

Sabrina waited until Rachel left, smiling with just the right mixture of innocent and vacancy to not arouse the girl’s suspicions. At least, she hoped that’s what she was doing. She never had been any good at subterfuge. It helped that Rachel had seemed distracted, barely paying attention to her.

“How can you trust her?” Sabrina asked, as Zoe entered the room. The woman tensed at the question, her eyes darting to a corner of the room. Why? Was that guilt?

Zoe laid a hand on her shoulder, walking with her, taking her to another room. Zoe’s room. She hesitated at the doorway. Zoe just kept walking, and Sabrina decided that was invitation enough. She followed Zoe into the room.

A monitor replayed footage of the aftermath of Rachel’s surgery. Sabrina was distracted, watching as Rachel’s condition visibly improved. In the space of only an hour, she’d gone from looking almost certainly dead, to almost entirely healthy. Sabrina knew it was partially due to an infusion of Zoe’s blood. What she didn’t know was why Zoe was helping her.

She felt bad for Rachel, in a way. She knew what Charlie had done, why Rachel was so scared, and there was no way she could’ve left her to fend for herself, not with Charlie looking to kill her. That didn’t mean she trusted her, not by a long shot.

“I don’t,” Zoe said, the faintest trace of bemusement crossing her face. “I don’t need to trust her.”

“I don’t understand,” Sabrina said, looking away from the footage of the unconscious girl whose breathing was so shallow it was almost imperceptible. “You know she’s planning something, right? She has an agenda.”

“Of course she does. That’s what makes her useful. She’ll work hard for me, give me what I need, to try and convince me she’s worth taking the risk on. Then she’ll try to betray me.”

Zoe said it so calmly, so casually, Sabrina almost wondered if the woman knew what the word betray even meant. Then again, she knew Zoe was beyond intelligent, and cunning to boot. Zoe must have known something she didn’t.

“And when she does?”

“Then I betray her,” Zoe said easily. “She was foolish. Her entire skeleton is attached to a mechanical endoskeleton with an internal control mechanism. All I need to do is activate it, and she can’t do a thing. I gain complete control of her body, and she’s powerless to stop me.”

“That’s terrifying,” Sabrina said, taking a step back.

From the day Rachel had arrived, she knew the two of them were playing head games with one another, lying to each other’s faces, disguising their true motives. She played nice, played innocent, because she didn’t want to get caught in it, knew she didn’t have the same deceptive streak that would allow her to play those same games.

If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t really trust either of them. They were both up to something, more than they were letting on. She did her best not to think about it. In the end, it didn’t matter. There was nothing she could do to stop either of them, not in her present state. Possibly not ever.

Let them play their games, she told herself. It would deal with one problem for her, most likely. As long as one of them took out the other, that was one less threat to the city walking around.

Ideally, Zoe would take out Rachel, and then go home, taking out two threats in one go. If it came down to it, she knew who she’d side with. In the meantime, all she could do was try and protect as many people as she could, try and accelerate Zoe’s departure, and try to become as strong as possible, because if she was going to stop Charlie, or Gabriel, or the Celestial, she needed every tool possible at her disposal.

“There’s not a lot left that can scare me,” Zoe said softly. “Mason scares me. Damien scares me.” She paused, but didn’t bother to provide context for either of those names. Sabrina didn’t bother to ask. “Rachel scares me. Not as she is now, but the potential she possesses. I’ve never seen a power like hers, don’t know what its limits are. I suspect, if left unchecked, she could become unstoppable. I don’t want to leave this world at risk of that. Worse still, she knows enough about my machine, could reconstruct it, could one day threaten my world.”

“You’re going to kill her,” Sabrina realised. “No matter what she does, even if she doesn’t betray you.”

“Yes,” Zoe said.

Sabrina took another step back, pausing in the doorway. It wasn’t like she didn’t agree with Zoe. She had the same fears, would probably do the same thing, at least in principle. She didn’t have the same cruel streak, but Rachel was definitely a threat that would need to be dealt with.

What worried her was what Zoe was going to do to her. She knew better than to assume she was safe, that Zoe wasn’t thinking about her in the same way.

Sabrina didn’t think of herself as powerful, didn’t feel powerful, but she know how her power would look to someone like Zoe. Was Zoe going to try and kill her as well? Something worse?

She needed help, an ally of some kind, someone she could trust.

If only someone like that existed.

Chapter 25 – What Do You Want, Rachel?

Published by Rachel Fierro on December 13, 2015

“Rachel can’t know about this,” Sabrina said, almost aggressively. Very out of character for her. I closed the other windows, focusing on the recording.

Zoe glanced over at the camera, smirked almost imperceptibly. Fuck. I should have known she’d notice. She noticed everything.

“I won’t say a word,” she told Rachel, her eyes leaving the camera. Interesting.

“Okay,” Sabrina said, looking around nervously. “I think we were wrong about my power. And you’re the only person who I think might understand.”

If Zoe was at all interested, she didn’t show it. If anything, she looked bored. It was a telltale sign she was actually intensely focussed. That would have been my cue to focus too, if I wasn’t already.

“What happened?” she asked, at least maintaining polite interest. I didn’t think Sabrina could see through it.

“I got into a fight with Ami,” Sabrina said. “Even with your power, I was losing.”

Zoe nodded. “She’s incredibly dangerous. In terms of offensive power, she probably tops me. Speed and surprise are the only way to get the upper hand.”

I made a mental note of that. Any information on the weaknesses of another superhuman was invaluable, and I had Ami pegged as an extremely powerful opponent. I was glad we hadn’t crossed paths yet.

“Well, like I said, I was losing,” Sabrina said. “And then something happened.”

Sabrina took a step back, and shifted. I’d seen her do it before, when she activated Zoe’s powers. I knew that it gave her the same strength, speed and toughness, and at least some portion of Zoe’s enhanced mental processing. It didn’t seem to bring any of Zoe’s accompanying cunning or emotional intelligence, though.

This time, though, it wasn’t Zoe’s form that she took. Judging from the context of the conversation, I could guess who’s it was, even if her transformations weren’t complete. She grew a little shorter, her skin took on a different tone, her hair grew straighter, her figure more petite. Her face shifted and changed shape. Her eyes, though difficult to see on camera, seemed to have turned a shade of light purple or pink.

Zoe took a step back, overacting surprise. Ironically, I could tell she actually was taken completely by surprise, and wanted to look like she was overacting intentionally. Not sure how I knew that, but I did.

“You have her powers?”

Sabrina nodded. “Like this, I’m not as strong as when I use your power, or as fast. My senses aren’t as sharp, but they’re all still better than, you know, normal. And I have her telekinesis, but I don’t know how to use it.”

I updated my mental file on Sabrina. In terms of potential, her power had just skyrocketed. How was she doing it? Was there a limit to how many powers she could replicate? Could she combine them? What about my power, could she copy that? Charlie’s? If she did try to copy Charlie’s power, would it be the one Charlie had taken from me, or the one she’d had before that?

Despite the massive increase in power I was applying to her, I didn’t consider her any more of a threat. Her motivations were too simple, too naive. More importantly, they didn’t conflict with mine. The chances of us ever needing to fight…

Well, in that scenario, I still felt like I had the upper hand. She didn’t know anything about the things I created, and even if she did, I was always making more. She’d never be able to stay ahead. Conversely, I was well aware of what she could do, and could plan against it. Maybe I’d never need to use any of it, but it was always better to be prepared.

“It’s weird,” Sabrina was saying, in the recording. “It’s like having an extra sense, one I don’t really understand. It’s very overwhelming. Like being aware of everything around me, all at once. And being able to move it? It’s like growing an extra arm, or a dozen extra arms.”

“And you have no idea how you were able to do this?” Zoe asked, sounding almost desperate.

“None,” Sabrina said, shaking her head. She was lying. How did I know that she was lying?

Zoe knew she was lying, too. The two of them stared at each other, not saying anything. I was prepared to fast-forward the recording when the sound of a cleared throat startled me, and I pulled the earphones out of my ears. Zoe was standing above me.

“What do you think?” she asked, not bothering to ask me what I was doing.

“Nothing you don’t already know,” I said, though I suspected it was a lie. Did Zoe suspect something about that?

“The question I need answered,” Zoe said, impatiently, “is whether her power originated here, or from home.” Her impatience didn’t seem directed at me, it was more general frustration. Something about Sabrina’s revelation was making her nervous.

“In your world, the superhumans, they’re all the result of technological advancement, right?” I asked, not entirely sure how I knew that for sure. It felt right, though.

“All of us,” she confirmed. “We’ve no examples of anyone naturally born with any sort of supernatural ability. Here, on the other hand…”

“We don’t have that kind of technology yet,” I followed on for her. “And other than Wendy being here, somehow long before you, there’s no explanation for people with superpowers. And yet, my knowledge is clearly not natural, Miss Murder has an ability you’ve never seen before, and Sabrina might be the most dangerous of us all.”

Dangerous was a stretch, and Zoe knew it. Still, the point stood. I contemplated briefly bringing up Charlie, but it would do more harm than good. She would ask more questions than I was willing to answer.

“Is there any precedent for any of this?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She had full access to the Internet and the ability to read and process information a lot faster than any human.

“None that I know of,” I said. “I know my, er, ability intensified after Impact Day, though. And it’s been growing steadily stronger. Perhaps your presence is some form of catalyst?”

Could Charlie’s power be growing stronger, too? The idea hadn’t occurred to me before that moment. Well, it wasn’t like there was any way to test it, anyway.

“There are too many unknown variables,” Zoe said, irritated. “Keep studying Sabrina. I won’t tell her. Just share anything you find with me.”

“Of course,” I lied. “In fact, I have a few ideas about that. I want to test her, put her in new situations. That would be a lot easier for you to make happen than me.”

“I’ll make it happen. Meanwhile, how do you feel about your new body? Everything working as expected?”

I grinned, flexing my fingers to demonstrate just how mobile I felt. “I feel alive again. And I’m already brainstorming ideas to push it further, see what else I can change.”

“Why?” she asked, almost accusing me, though I wasn’t sure what of. “What do you want, Rachel?”

I stared into her eyes, trying to figure out exactly what she meant. I knew she didn’t trust me, but if she’d figured out what I was actually working towards, she wouldn’t be asking the question, she’d just kill me on the spot. Which meant she was asking about something else. Suspicious, but not about anything specific, maybe. Paranoia was in her nature.

She didn’t care about this world, so she wasn’t worried about what I’d do once she left. Was she worried about me following her? Or was it because she wasn’t planning on leaving, and wanted to know how much of a threat I’d be?

What could I say to convince her there wasn’t an issue, when I didn’t know what she was planning? Something benign, non-threatening, passive…

I shrugged. “I’m a tinker. Building things, improving things, that’s motivation in itself. You’ve given me a whole new toolset, and now I want to see how far I can push it.” I paused for effect. “Once I’ve made myself worth it, of course. Your work comes first.”

Would she buy it? I could feel her scrutinous gaze, her keen perception analysing every micro-expression, every subtle change in inflection. Could she tell that I was lying?

“Mason would love you,” she said simply, walking away. “I pray the two of you never meet.”

Chapter 24 – Everything Went Almost Perfectly

Published by Rachel Fierro on December 6, 2015

When Charlie tore out the solidified blood that had temporarily granted me superhuman strength, I’d thought it was the most pain it was possible to experience and still remain conscious. The blood healed me even as it was being ripped from my body, keeping me together, keeping me just alive enough to feel every agonising second. It had left me paralysed, unable to move, lost in an ocean of pain and isolation, until they showed up, had injected me with the ‘cure’, had broken me down into an all but useless husk.

I’d thought that was the most pain I was ever going to experience in my life. I was very, very wrong.

To purge the toxin from my body and keep me alive, phase one had consisted of concentrated radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and injections of Zoe’s blood, and together they’d left me as a mostly shaken wreck. Somehow, I’d pulled through.

Phase two made that feel like a tropical vacation. Zoe’s main idea, one I’d foolishly signed off on, was effectively a supplementary skeleton. A combination of metal and silicon, grafted to my skeletal system, was supposed to make me tougher and more stable, and myoelectric implants enhanced neural and muscular response times. Well, that was an oversimplification, but the main point was that it involved literally cutting me open down to my skeleton, and I needed to be conscious the entire time.

Things I did not have to be conscious for included optical and cochlear implants designed to enhance and expand my vision and hearing, and a few synthetic hormone distributors that would give me a greater level of control over the physical state of my body. Then there were redundancies for vital organs and even upgrades to them.

Basically, over the course of a month, Zoe turned me into a cyborg. The time passed in a blur, with me being either unconscious, or in too much pain to know what was going on. I was dimly aware of Sabrina coming and going, and whenever Zoe wasn’t operating on me, she was working on her machine, but for the most part, my entire world was pain.

Then, one day, it stopped. It wasn’t a gradual shift, the pain didn’t slowly recede, it just stopped. For the first time in close to a year, I felt normal.

At first, I didn’t understand. I lay in bed, starting at the ceiling, waiting for the pain to return. I waited to feel sluggish, vague, detached. Instead, I felt nothing.

I tried moving my hand. It did exactly as I wanted, without resistance or pain or shaking or delay. I stretched and contracted my fingers, watching in amazement as they moved.

I sat up slowly. There was no rush of dizziness or nausea, no ache or twinge of pain. It was incredible.

“How do you feel?” Zoe asked, and even though I hadn’t known she was there, I wasn’t surprised.

“Normal,” I told her. “Phenomenal.”

“Everything went almost perfectly,” she said, but her voice was an almost guttural purr, an edge of danger in it. “Things almost went badly. My blood should have countered that. Somehow, you didn’t have enough.”

I tensed, feeling like a fool. I should have known even a little bit would have a huge impact. More to the point, I should have known she’d notice.

“Faulty medical equipment?” I asked, knowing full well she wouldn’t buy it.

“Here’s the thing,” she said, leaning in, an aggressive glint in her eye. “Sabrina isn’t calculating or cunning enough to mess with any of things. You, I thought you were too clever to try something that foolish.”

There was no way to keep her suspicions off of me. It was too obvious. All I could do was try to obfuscate my actual motives. Somehow, I had to do that without lying.

“I needed information. After seeing what Wendy’s blood did, I needed to find out what yours could do. And, no offence, but I didn’t trust you to be honest about it.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “And what did you find out?”

I had to keep myself from showing obvious relief. She bought it, and I had actually run some tests, so it would be an easy sell after all.

“Your blood is almost the opposite of hers,” I said. “Whilst Wendy’s sustains, yours consumes. Similar effects in terms of physical augmentation, but it’s much more intense, and would burn out a human body within weeks. My theory is that Wendy is some kind of battlefield medic, whilst you’re designed to create a temporary militia of superhumans in a pinch.”

She stared at me, her expression unreadable. The tension returned, as I waited to find out if my gamble would pay off.

She pulled back, laughing softly. I did my best to maintain an unintimidated expression.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t have told you,” she said. “Clearly, I’m going to need to keep a closer eye on you. You’re going to be a lot more dangerous now that you can actually take care of yourself.”

“As long as you’re not planning on hurting or infecting anyone, we’re on the same side,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t know I was lying.

“I’m not some cartoon villain,” she retorted easily. “All I want to do is go home. The mess, well, that’ll be yours to clean up.”

“Then let’s get your machine working. Right now, that’s my top priority.”

At least that part was the truth.

Chapter 23 – I Did Not Sign Up For That

Published by Rachel Fierro on November 29, 2015

“What’s this?” Sabrina asked, turning the device over in her hands. Her surprised expression was entertaining, at least.

“A gift,” I said. “Trying to make myself useful.”

I still couldn’t move around very much, but I had enough mobility in my hands to craft, and at least my brain seemed to be firing on all cylinders. I got restless.

“Okay. What does it do?” she asked, sounding more than a little skeptical.

“It’s a shock glove,” I explained. “A modified version of my own. Good for incapacitating people without causing them any lasting damage, you know?”

“Isn’t that still really bad for you?” she asked, frowning.

“Can be,” I conceded. “Especially if they have a heart condition or something. Hard to design around that, unfortunately. Use with caution.”

She held it up, looking inside of it, as if expecting it to be booby-trapped.

“Why?” she asked.

“What do you mean, why?” I responded, pretending I wasn’t expecting exactly this line of inquiry. Of course she was going to be suspicious.

“What do you get out of this?”

I pretended to be offended. “I like to help, okay? I can’t do much right now, not in the middle of my treatments, but I can at least do this much. It’s… I used to do it for Charlie, until…”

Sabrina’s face softened immediately. My chest ached.

“Thank you,” she said. “Um, how does it work?”

I grinned.

“There’s a specific hand gesture to activate it,” I explained. “Here, put it on and I’ll show you.”

She nodded, sliding her hand into it. As it clamped around her, she flinched and cried out.

“Ow! What was that?”

“The best part,” I said. “It doesn’t need to be charged, because it uses you as a battery.”

“What? I did not sign up for that,” she said, tugging at the glove, trying to remove it.

“Relax, you have plenty of excess energy,” I told her. “I’ve been looking at the tests Zoe ran on you. You won’t even notice it, and it means it’s always guaranteed to work. Plus, you can ramp up the power if you need to use it on, well, someone a little tougher.”

It took a moment, but I saw understanding cross her face. She nodded covertly.

“So how do I make it work?”

I ran her through the gesture. She had to do it a few times to get it right, but the glove lit up, and she tested it out on a receptor I’d build specifically for that purpose. She smiled, satisfied.

“Thank you, Rachel,” she said. “Um, I don’t mean to complain, but it is a little tight…”

“Oh, of course!” I said, hoping it didn’t sound completely rehearsed. “Here, let me get it off you. I’ll adjust the size a little, and get it back to you.”

“I appreciate this,” she said, as I unclasped the glove and slid it off her hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude. I guess I’m still adjusting to, you know, everything.”

“Trust me, I know what you mean,” I lied. “But for what it’s worth, I think you’re doing a great job.”

She blushed, smiling awkwardly. I let her leave, more than a little pleased with herself. God, she was so naive I wanted to throttle her. Not literally, of course.

As soon as I was alone, I opened up the glove, pulling a small vial out from a hidden compartment. A tiny amount of her blood sloshed around inside. A smile broke out on my face.

I slipped the vial into a locked, hidden container. The last thing I wanted was anyone else stumbling on it, and asking what I was doing with it. A girl’s got to keep her secrets, after all.

With that sorted, I turned my attention back to more important matters. I was pretty close to figuring out Zoe’s machine, and I’d already managed to point out a few adjustments that had impressed her.

From what I could tell, the core of the machine was going to create a literal black hole. That actually wasn’t all that difficult, all things considered. The difficult part, and the part that Zoe was clearly still struggling with, was turning that black hole into an actual transdimensional gateway. She was almost there, but with the materials we had available, it was still a little ways off.

The genius of the thing excited me like nothing else ever had. It was the most advanced, incredible piece of technology I’d ever seen, and to have the chance to look at it up close, to go through the designs, to watch it being built, it was a dream come true.

Then of course there was the fact that it was supposed to be a bridge to a parallel dimension. An actual, bona fide alternate reality, one which was apparently so technologically advanced it could create superhumans like Zoe. I wanted to see that world more than anything else.

Did Zoe intend to let anyone go back with her? Was she just looking to get home, or did she care about more than that? I found it difficult to believe it would be that simple, but I didn’t know nearly enough about her to predict more than that.

There was another risk, too. Even if we could create an interdimensional rift, what if it got out of hand? It only needed to open long enough to send her through in theory, but what if we couldn’t close it after? What if it expanded?

What if more like her came through? What about getting rid of the others that were already through? There were too many variables, too many possibilities, and I did not trust Zoe to nearly the same degree as Sabrina seemed to.

A gentle knock at the door drew my attention, and I was surprised to see Zoe standing there. She never knocked.

“What’s up?” I asked, putting down the soldering iron I’d been absently turning over in my hands.

“Time for your medicine,” she said, grim humour accenting her voice. “It’s going to be a big one.”