Chapter 64

FIRST CONTACT

Alexander waited until the man had moved far enough away that he wouldn’t hear him, then he pulled on the hatch, easing it up.

He dropped down into the elevator with a thud; his drone floated down noiselessly after him.

Reaching for the doors, he gently slid them apart with a thought. Caution was the name of the game, now that he was so close to finding something he could use.

Ahead of him was a long, dimly lit, featureless concrete tunnel that ended at a T-junction. He hadn’t known what to expect when they arrived, but he had thought the location where their most secret research was taking place would be more advanced. Instead, it felt more like an old medical ward in a low-budget horror flick.

The suppression fields cut into his senses in both directions. Only the far door at the end of the right hallway gave him anything. He could feel a human signature moving, slow and deliberate, about the room. The man he’d followed down here, possibly even the Doctor the quartermaster had warned might be a superhuman.

Which meant that was his final destination.

So he went left first. Doors lined the hallways on both sides. Heavy steel doors, with no windows or viewing slits. Alexander tested each one he passed; they all had similar-looking locks, with a keyhole that would require one of those heavy metal keys to unlock.

And each room thrummed with a suppression field. He couldn’t figure out how they were being powered, either. Tracing the walls, there were no electrical signals running inside the rooms. He could find no hints of technology, either.

And Metallokinesis was worse than useless. Let alone reaching into the room, he couldn’t even seize hold of the heavy steel doors through the fields.

He felt a flash of annoyance wash over him. Gritting his teeth, he moved to the next door and pulled on it. Locked.

The next one. Locked. Locked. Locked.

Alexander looked back toward the only place where his senses could reach. To the door at the far end, the only one with a security panel instead of a lock.

Annoyance hardened into something sharper. He could feel it rising, like a heat inside his chest. Clenching his fists, Alexander began stalking toward what must be the lab.

A single key. That’s all that’s keeping me from the evidence I need to ruin Santiago Systems.

It was obvious who had it. With it, he would rip these cells open and find the evidence of their crimes. Proof enough that it should lead to his own imprisonment being reviewed by the right authorities. From there, it would be easy to make the case that Annie had been rescuing him from Santiago Systems employees hellbent on murdering him. That Flashpoint had ambushed and tried to murder them, too, forcing Talia to do the only thing a decent person could and defend them. And then to flee with them. That Augustus was equally wronged in being declared a supervillain alongside them.

That it had all snowballed from one vicious crime to the next, and that they’d only been doing their best to survive.

Sure, there’d been some vigilantism along the way, but surely that was pardonable in the face of those they’d saved, right?

Alexander breathed heavily as he reached the door. Raising a hand, he felt for it with Metallokinesis intending to crumple it and hurl it at the doctor on the other side—

Only for his drone to smack into the side of his face, sending him stumbling against the wall. He turned, staring at it in surprise, rubbing at his cheek.

“What was that—” Alexander began, then stopped.

Just a moment ago, he’d been furious about being unable to access the cells. A minor inconvenience at best. He wasn’t impatient, generally speaking. And there was no doubt in his mind that he would soon have access to those cells, even if it meant going through the man he’d followed down here.

So why was I so angry?

Alexander withdrew his senses and slowed his breathing. He didn’t know if it would help, but he tried guarding his thoughts, too. Focusing on each thought with intent, working it through slowly, instead of allowing subconscious thought to flow.

Wait… the drone hit me. Intentionally, and without being given a command to do so.

He reached out and grabbed the drone, staring into its visor as though it were eyes through which he might see its soul.

“Droney?” he whispered.

No response.

Alexander shook the drone up and down. “Are you in there?”

When nothing came of his efforts, he released the drone back into the air where it hovered in place. Turning back to the door, he considered the problem.

Something was wrong with his emotions. He didn’t deny that there was a lot of anger deep down over the whole attempted murder turned imprisonment turned everything else, because there was. But it wasn’t anger that drove him, not even here.

No, that was his need to see the scales balanced. An eye for an eye. He wanted to see the organization that tried to kill and bury him, killed and buried in return. Part of it was for himself. Part of it was for his other self. It felt right, to see to it that Santiago Systems paid for destroying his other self’s dream.

Even if it had ultimately been of his own doing.

Thinking back on it, he’d felt off from the moment he’d heard the grating, off-tune humming.

No…

It was right before he heard it, when he’d sensed the man rounding the corner. His first instinct had been that something there was dangerous. After that, he’d started feeling irritated. Impatient. Frustrated.

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The quartermaster had told them that Doctor Miller had powers. Or at least that everyone believed it.

And why would everyone believe someone has powers? Normally, you’d know based on them flying around, or shooting lasers, or something obvious.

Maybe people would believe it, but not know it, if those powers didn’t show obvious signs, and yet still could be felt every time you were near the person.

Emotions are based on electrochemical signals… and I have been reaching out with all of my powers intertwined of late. If he has the power to affect people’s emotions, then perhaps it piggy-backed on the senses of my Electrokinesis.

Alexander hesitated, recalling that he’d warned the others not to be heroes. Then again, opportunities to go toe-to-toe with another superhuman without interference didn’t come by all that often.

“I’ve reached the research wing,” Alexander subvocalized. “And I’m pretty sure the Doctor is here. Power might have something to do with emotional manipulation based on how I’ve been feeling. I’m going after him.”

“Wait, Alex,” Talia said. “I’m done with security. I can be there in a couple of minutes.”

“Me too. I’m with Auggy but he’s still spinning,” Annie replied. “And you said no heroics!”

“I know. That’s why I’m telling you. Elevator shaft is accessible, but you’ll need to get down yourself without calling it up. I’m not waiting, though, so you’ll either be getting here after the fun is over or rescuing me from my ambitions.”

There was silence across their comms for a moment. “Understood,” Talia said at last. “We’re on our way.”

Alexander reached into the room beyond, but only with Technopathy this time, withholding his other senses. There were a number of devices in the room, but the one he singled out was a recording device. It wasn’t one of the cameras connected to the rest of the facility, likely to keep secret what was being done inside.

He pulled on the stream of information, feeding it to Droney—and after what it had done, it definitely deserved to be called by its name, now—then pulling it into himself to watch.

And that was a strange bit of knowledge, too. Without an implant, he wasn’t really sure why or how feeding a stream of data into his own mind allowed him to translate it into its intended format.

In his mind, the picture steadied. And for a moment, he forgot to breathe. At the center of the room was a medical frame designed to hold a patient while automated medical systems operated.

The thing strapped to the medical frame was not human.

It was the first time he’d ever laid eyes on an alien in person. He had imagined this moment more than a few times, thought it might come with awe, with wonder, with something that stirred the heart. He hadn’t imagined it would be while its arms and legs were strapped to steel, wings bound flat, body pinned like a specimen in a case.

The alien was an amalgam, its limbs mismatched as though someone had stitched ones from other creatures, replacing its own. Arms that looked vaguely reptilian. Legs that might belong to a giraffe. Each part looked borrowed, forced to work together in defiance of nature. Its torso looked like it belonged to a third type of creature.

Yet the head was its own. Smooth, elongated, and strangely elegant. The skin carried a purplish hue, almost iridescent under the lights. Where a nose should have been, there were narrow slits over a slight bulge. A mouth, fine and expressive, parted faintly with each breath. The eyes were striking: almond-shaped, set with pupils that twisted and shifted into a variety of shapes. The ears swept back gracefully, wrapping slightly back around its head.

Beautiful and alien, both at once.

Two slender tails lay strapped beside the legs, each bound as tightly as the arms. The wings were flattened under harnesses, delicate bones trembling faintly with each shift of the body.

The alien made a sound that was soft, almost songlike, though strained by pain.

Alexander couldn’t understand it, but Dr. Miller answered as though he could.

He paced the length of the lab, tablet in one hand, voice rising into a rant.

“You don’t understand. See, we theorize that there are upper boundaries to what powers can do. People dream of invincibility, of speed faster than light, of time turned back on a whim. They fill their tales with it. We have comic books and myths, but those are just stories. In the real world, having power is in itself an act of bending reality. That is all it is. Every power bends reality in a way that represents who we are.”

He tapped something on the tablet, scrolling while still pacing.

“That’s why the first powers were so simple. Super strength? Pah. A mother might lift a car in desperation to save her child. Strongmen train their whole lives for feats nearly the same. To leap from there to a power that grants it was not such a great distance. Simple, you see?”

The alien spoke again. The voice was music even in anguish, lilting, a sound that might drive a person to weep.

Miller smiled faintly at it, as if humoring a student. “No, no, don’t be naive. Speedsters that can break the sound barrier are rare enough. Time manipulation? Reality-warping as a power itself? Impossible. Why? Because Will decides. To bend reality that far, to convince the universe itself, requires a Will greater than the sum of all who oppose the idea.”

He stopped pacing, eyes flicking down to the tablet, then looked up at his captive.

“So. We have worked out categorically that some powers cannot exist. And others… maybe. Some only await the right hand, the right Will. You, my pride, my greatest accomplishment, have proven this true.”

The alien’s eyes flinched shut, then opened, glimmering wet in the lights. It whispered something Alexander could not understand, though he could swear he felt its exhaustion.

Miller chuckled softly. “Your natural gift is simple. Shapeshifting through touch. You copy the essence of another creature, and then you can wear it as you please. Beautifully elegant. My enhanced serum awakened your primary power as intended. All the others before you failed the process. Weak-willed. They had no hunger, no desire. They could not survive the fire. But you…” He leaned in, eyes bright. “You endured.”

He tapped the tablet against his palm. His words grew faster, like a lecture spiraling.

“And then the anomaly. This System’s influence sweeping over everything to coincide with your awakening process. Your suffering, your desperation, burned what remained of the serum. That is why the second power was born. You see, you had already awakened! The instruments had already catalogued your power. Another power seconds later? No, no, no. That should be impossible! The first of two. The second? The power itself!”

The alien turned its head aside, chains clinking faintly. Another sound escaped; this one hoarse and low. Alexander caught himself clenching his fists, though this time he was certain the anger was his own. He pushed it down and forced himself to remain calm.

Miller waved a hand, dismissing. “No tears now. You should be proud. The ability to copy other powers through touch, even imperfectly, demonstrates an entirely new category. When you copied mine and tried to wield it against me, it was pitiful, yes. A weak reflection. But proof! Proof that reality can bend slightly further than we believed.”

He spread his arms, tablet dangling loosely from his hand, a mad preacher in his pulpit.

“You’ve advanced our study beyond all expectations. Once people know, once they believe it is possible, the line shifts. Inch by inch, possibility by possibility. Today, a weak reflection. Tomorrow, true duplication. And one day? Powers we cannot even imagine today. All thanks to you.”

The alien’s voice came again, breaking, pained and melodic. Alexander felt it like a note plucked across bone.

Miller only smiled, tilting his head. “Yes. Yes, I understand you. And no, you will not live to see it. But you will be remembered.”

He turned, typed a note into his tablet, and started pacing again.

Alexander sat frozen for a long moment. He forced his hands to unclench.

Ever since he’d arrived in this world and learned that aliens were real, that there were entire civilizations of them out there, he’d been looking forward to meeting one.

But not like this.

Never like this.

Alexander closed his eyes, reached into the security panel, and unlocked the door.