This is the first official chapter in the combined story of my super hero world, The Aetherverse. Our respective protagonists were already introduced in their own stand alone adventures broken out below:
1. "Dear Maria, Count Me In," (Maria/Twister)
2. "Who You Are" (Sam/Psyion)
You may want to go back and read those if you haven't already for a better look at the characters. With that said, please enjoy:
The Break In
The cold, night air nipped at my cheeks. I kept adjusting my mask. It still felt like a costume to me. Ok, it was supposed to be a costume. But it felt like a Halloween costume, not like a badass super hero suit. I looked down at the purple leather jacket, emblazoned with a nested series of circles. They'd decided to call me Psyion because of my powers. At least it was better than "Subject Alpha Mu."
I glanced back over at my partner for this mission, the super hero Twister. She leaned over the rooftop's railing with binoculars in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other. The black leather bands of her jacket hugged her figure. I couldn't help but think she looked much more natural in her costume than I did in mine. Honestly she looked more than natural in it. I couldn't help but imagine bending her over the railing and... STOP. I cleared my throat. "So is this the kind of thing heroes do often? Just hang out on a rooftop for hours, watching a lab and waiting for someone to break in?"
She finished chewing and swallowed a bite of her burger. "Sorry new guy. It's not all punching bad guys. Sometimes it's more like fishing."
"Right, right. And is the burger part of it?"
She finished another bite. "I need the calories to fuel my stretching. If this Fractal guy shows, we'd better be ready for a fight.
"Right. Are we sure we want to fight him? His psychic powers are probably stronger than mine. Freya and Saphira just told us to slow them down until they could come back us up. Saphira's teleporting only works in the daylight. So that could take a bit."
"Sometimes you have to fight uphill. Besides we'll be fine." She tapped the binoculars on the silver circlet wrapped around her head. "You need more confidence."
I sighed. I hadn't exactly meant to sign up to be a super hero. I'd spent most of my life running away from danger and here I was running towards it. But if Fractal was after me anyway, I may as well try to get a jump on him. "Look I can't guarantee the silver will protect you. It works with my powers but we can't know for sure that his powers work the same way as mine."
Another bite. "And if they don't, I'll just take it off and you can protect my mind."
"That's a lot of faith to put in someone you just met days ago."
She set down her food and the binoculars. Then she walked over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Look new guy. Trusting people is hard, but being alone is harder. I used to feel like an outcast for my powers. I dreamed of finding other people like me, of working together with a team. I know it may be hard for you to accept, but you don't have to do everything on your own anymore." Then she turned back to the roof edge. "Now less yapping and more telepathic scanning of the lab."
Did she really mean that? I couldn't tell because she had the circlet on. But I decided to believe she did. I reached out my consciousness across the building. I could feel only the thoughts of a few minds within, likely all security staff. Their surface thoughts flowed into my mind. "Let's see. I'm pretty sure the gatekeeper is watching porn. One of the front security guards is daydreaming about his neighbor's wife. And... And" the image slammed into my mind, a young woman with crimson-red hair crying in a destroyed house. I could see claw marks ripped into the walls and floors. It was so vivid, almost like she was dreaming it right now. "And there's a young woman who's incredibly sad and maybe asleep?"
"What? Are you sure?" She put away the binoculars And discarded the finished wrapper of her meal.
"Yeah I'm sure."
"Ok. We're going in." Twister pressed a button on her ear piece. "This is Twister to Sanctum. Psyion found suspicious activity. We're heading to investigate."
Freya's voice crackled with static in response. "Roger that. Signal if you see any signs of Fractal and I'll dispatch to your location."
"Will do." Then she stretched an arm over to me and coiled it around my chest. She jumped off the roof, holding me as she did it. With an effortless grace, Twister stretched her hand out to a signal tower on the hospital roof. She swung both of us across the street. I looked down, terrified at the cars and streetlights below us, barely managing not to hurl.
She landed us on the Barton Labs roof. "7.2. Not used to the weight." She muttered under her breath. She made her way to the roof access door and started picking the lock.
"Are you sure we should be going in for this? We don't know if she has anything to do with Fractal. She could just work here or something." I asked.
"Call it a hunch. People like him love to pick on people weaker than them. Besides, even if she's not related it sounds like she needs help." With a soft click the lock gave way and the door swung open, revealing the dimly lit stairwell within. "Now which way?"
"You know I see sad people's minds all them time. Most of them need a therapist more than a superhero. It's coming from the basement." I replied.
"Yeah but can you honestly say this one didn't seem like she needed help?" Twister led the way down the winding, concrete stairs. The fluorescent lighting bathed the tiny space in an eerie glow.
I thought back to how crushingly alone the woman had felt in her mind. It reminded me of how I felt before I escaped from the foundation. "No you're right. She needs help."
As we emerged from the stairwell, the utilitarian, concrete walls gave way to intricate metal panels. Row upon row of glowing buttons and switches seemed to cover every surface of the basement. Straight ahead, a colossal blast door stood wide open. Two guards waited on either side of it. They leveled their assault rifles at us. "Hey you. You're not supposed to be here!"
I reached out to their minds, ready to knock them unconscious. But rather than the usual rambling fragments of thoughts I felt a calm, cold presence bearing down on their wills "Shit. Twister, it's him. He's here and he's controlling the guards."
I closed my eyes as the muzzles flared. The gunshots echoed through the metal chamber. I saw my earliest memory, crying alone in a padded room at the foundation. Then that darkness faded into the day I developed my powers and escaped. The sterile white hallways of the foundation gave way to filthy, New London streets where I could barely feed myself. I remembered the old art supplies I found in a dumpster and spending every waking second drawing and then painting and then selling my paintings on the street. Then the sunlight melted the dirty pavement and I remembered standing in the Sanctum's white marble chambers with Saphira and Freya and Twister as they picked out my costume. Everyone was smiling and laughing and... and... Wasn't dying supposed to hurt more than this?
I gingerly opened my eyes to see Twister's lithe silhouette standing in front of me. The two guards were sprawled out unconscious on the ground, bullet impacts ridded their body armor. She flashed a quick grin at me. "You ok back there new guy?"
"Uh I think Yes? But I mean how?"
She playfully pinched her cheek, stretched it out and then released it. The tan skin snapped back in place. "Did I forget to mention I'm bullet proof? Now let's get going. Do you hear that?"
I could hear a faint, metallic banging echoing down the corridor beyond. I activated my ear piece "Freya, he's here. We found him. Meet us in the basement."
"Co... You... H..." The response came back garbled.
"We must be too far underground. Who knows if she heard that. Saphira probably can't see us this far from natural light either. What do we do?" I asked.
"We stop him ourselves." Twister took off down the hallway. I paused for a moment and then chased after, barely keeping up.
The corridor yawned in front of us, occasional lights dotting its cavernous darkness. As we ran, the banging grew louder and louder. Finally it reached a crescendo and then stopped. "Come on. We have to hurry," she yelled over her shoulder.
The corridor terminated into a round chamber, once again covered in glowing control consoles and monitors. At the far end stood another vault door, like the one we'd found open before. Except this one was still closed and had a massive hole torn through its center.
Two figures emerged from the darkness of the vault. The first was a pale, young woman with long, crimson hair. She wore baggy black pants and a loose, black tank top. Spiked chains hung from her belt and shoulders and she wore a collar with a gemstone in the center around her neck. She eyed us both with a cold glare.
The second was a man in a dark trench coat. He walked slowly with a casual, unbothered air. His head was completely covered in a reflective helmet. A narrow, silver frame ran under the chin and up the sides of the helmet, wrapping around a faceted, reflective surface. The surface covered the entire face and wrapped up to the crown of the head, replacing a face with an endless series of fragmented reflections. It almost looked like a more angular version of that helmet from the daft punk guy.
I tried to read their surface thoughts. I felt the same overwhelming sadness from the girl with some other feeling underneath it but I couldn't see it under the image of her crying. But the masked man, I couldn't read anything from. Either that mask included silver or he had some other way to block me out.
"I must say I'm surprised to see you here." The helmet turned towards me as he said that. "Do you honestly think you can stop me?" His voice filtered through the helmet in a low, ominous growl.
"Why don't you come over here and find out Fractal?" Twister shot back confidently, stepping towards them.
