Note: This story resides in the same Hierarch world established in "The Henchwoman."
"Hey Jer, if a zoo had a half-man, half-horse, do you think he'd be the centaur of attention?"
The young, elemental twins Jerry and Gerry, known by their team codenames as Burn and Blizzard, laughed to themselves, intentionally within earshot of me as our team hid in the shadows of the warehouse. They were at least mature enough to keep it off-coms, but childish enough to get their daily dose of half-jokes in. I had no idea what to expect being part of a superpower-filled outfit like Epsilon, and times like that made me wish I never found out. Humor staved off boredom and my rattled nerves as we all waited for the meeting brokered by our rival force, Hierguild, to arrive. Human and/or Hierarch trafficking we'd been told we were stopping, though with Hierarchs involved, there seemed to be a lot of legal grey area, enough to call it "Hierarch recruitment" if it ever reached a courtroom. It was a big enough deal that they'd probably be bringing in considerable firepower as protection, leaving me on edge. Even if the grade-school joke was a harmless distraction that cut some tension, it made me privately grind my teeth off to myself. "Fuck the B&B twins," I thought privately, "and fuck me for ever letting the codename 'Half' stick."
It was just another bad day in the running for being the worst; competition was stiff ever since I got recruited, but the day of my first mission was exceptional.
Started with the perfect dream, the one where everything was right and good in the world; in my case, that meant I'd gotten enough sleep, a nice dream that didn't end abruptly, the sun was gently shining in my bedroom window - all the signs of a great day ahead. Then the alarm clock went off and I woke up for real, still tired, grumpy, sore, sunlight blocked by a brick building that's literally the only view I get from my window. To top it off, I realized what I used to call "normal" is out the window since I woke up to find myself still a known Hierarch, still drafted by my shitty Hierarch-weilding taskforce, and that the dream of an old life where things used to make sense was fantasy.
"Fuck," I muttered sleepily, punching the wall and feeling my powers weren't there to make the significant dent I wanted in the wall. Rather, the wall left the nerves in my hand hurt and angry at me.
Then after a sub-par oatmeal breakfast that tasted like shitty porridge, it was the most painful round of tests the our resident Hierarch physician, Dr. Kasdien, wanted to run on me. More poking, prodding, and trying out new "benign" formulas meant to stimulate the Hierarch side of me to physically remain so the change could be artificially locked in. Didn't matter to them that the stuff burned like hell in my veins, they loved seeing that state rise on their monitors for a second, only to disappear right before their eyes. I wanted to chew him out hard for what he put me through, but I knew all the science and tests stuff was at his discretion, meaning he could keep me for more painful, "necessary" tests longer. I simply shot unseen daggers at his back as I left the his lab to a different part of the compound for physical regimen.
Instead of just a simple workout though, I got my first Hierarch training against almost the whole team at once. It was put off longer than I thought it'd be, but I'm guessing management was tired of waiting for me to get control of my powers and toss me right into the tiger pit, with some peckish tigers that seemed to love toying and maiming me a little with their powers, since my Heirarch-half was a no-show for the whole thing. After patching up small bruises and light freezer and regular burns, I sulked all the way from that to the briefing room where they showed us some intel for the trafficking mission, and Hierguild's newest asset.
They called her Maelstrom. Goth as hell, decked out in full black leather, bodysuit and jacket, like stolen from a Matrix wardrobe, complete with black lipstick, eyeliner, hair and a disposition to match with the angry expression from the mugshot in her file. The hair was especially weird, spiky and short down to her neck, but with a long, thick, gravity-defying tress sticking out and falling low in a thick curl, almost lightning bolt-shaped. Hanging low in front of her hot-as-hell face made it seem more fashionable and less like insect antenna somehow. I kept the attraction to myself; everyone, including me, almost immediately started cracking goth jokes about her.
No one was laughing when they showed us captured videos of her abilities being tested. One had her waving her fingers towards a pile of metal, energy from her hands made the pile compress into a ball when she made a fist, waving her hand over that fist set the huge metal ball on fire, and then a small throwing motion launched that fireball to a tank that exploded upon contact. She was crazy powerful, like matter-bending powerful, with a variety of them at her disposal. If that wasn't weird enough, each power she had was color-coded, visible from the glow of her eyes, hands, and at the end tip of the curled antenna tress, making that thing seem less weird. They knew the power behind a few colors, red being power, purple being some kind of pestilence effect, white being some kind of light manipulation, and blue as some sort of scanning. Wasn't sure if any number of unknown powers or possibilities scared us more or less than what we knew then; it certainly didn't help morale as they cleverly dubbed her "rainbow death." One of the twins suggested "cray-crayola." The other snickered, but no one else got levity from their stupid naming.
Most times against Hierguild's regular roster, we surprisingly won more than we lost. Maelstrom seemed the exceptional type, capable of taking all of us on by herself, Hierguild's solution to our bitter rivalry. I didn't envy my comrades that might have to face her down someday, less so after they told me I was going to start joining them in the field as of that briefing. Short of pissing my pants, I explained to them how much of a liability I was in the field, and how I was better off gathering and compiling intel for the team like usual; everyone brushed off my concerns, telling me I'd be fine.
Thoughts of my increasingly messed-up day culminated a mix of anger and fear in my gut as a few black vans finally pulled in to the river-side warehouse. Being so close to the water, boats soon after pulled up to the docks, typically suspicious guards in suits and sunglasses walking towards each other, exchanging words I couldn't hear.
"Our targets are probably in one of the vans," Expender, our second in command spoke over the com. Her voice was measured, and gave me a bit of reassurance. "How are things outside, Copula?" It took a few moments for our psychic, Copula, to scan the area to report back. "No surprises waiting outside; looks like this might actually be a simple exchange."
"Good, everyone wait till they're released from the van, then we take down the suits and protect the Hierarchs." I could hear the faint hum of Expender's powers revving themselves up over the com. Using energy absorption, she'd be able to take expected gunfire and power herself up to rush the guards, and the twins could take care of anyone she missed. I felt relief as I saw figures covered up in black robes and hoods being made to exit the car. With no sign of any Hierguild powerhouses around, this looked to be easy.
"Too easy," my intuitive gut told me.
From one of the robes, a faint blue flashed outwards across nearly the whole warehouse, and a cold shiver shot through my spine as the robes as taken off to reveal a nightmare come true: Maelstrom herself, and more suits with guns underneath. She looked intently at places we were all hiding, settling, almost staring hard at my location. Expender was saying something over the coms, but I was too distracted to hear her, watching Maelstrom's hair, eyes, and that tress cycle through different colors to end up at red. Creaking from somewhere nearby made me turn my head to see metal pipes moving like snakes to wrap themselves around me. My stronger half kicked in and I was able to slip away before any of them could grasp me. Sounds of gunfire and powers echoed throughout the whole warehouse as I moved silently, running up to a few suits with uzis who barely had time to turn their guns towards me before I locked my arms around the first guy's head and kicked the other guy into a crate ten feet away. I used the remaining momentum and gravity to slam the restrained guy down through the wooden flooring. Acute hearing alerted me to a guy somewhere above, and I grabbed another normally-heavy crate to throw at him; weighing as much as baseball with Hierarch strength, it hit him like a chair-sized fastball, and he satisfyingly fell from his sniping position into the water. I was about to look for other guards to hit, but the Hierarch strength faded, just in time for me to have to dive barely out of the way of gunfire from more suits. Before they could get to where I dove to, Expender slammed into them from behind, grabbing their heads to toss against the wall, knocking them out cold.
She was heaving as she looked at me, looking roughed up in a way I'd never seen, clothes ripped and out of breath. I'm guessing she barely escaped Maelstrom somehow. With my heartbeat pounding in my ears, I think I said "thanks," or I hope I did, before a wall of red energy slammed into her and through more wooden crates. I looked back from the downed Expender to find Maelstrom right in-front of me, hands raised, glowing a fierce red. Instinct and inner-strength took over as I grabbed her forearms, wide-eyed with shock as I found my Hierarch half struggling against her strength, trying not to be toppled, compressed, ripped apart, or whatever else she could do to me. Life on the line, keeping her hands as far away from me as I could, I panicked and flung us both through the window of a small office as hard and as far as I could. By the time I collided with anything inside, I was human-Half again, head throbbing from hitting something hard. I tried to move, to get away, thinking Maelstrom was unconscious, but I felt myself forced on my back, hands pinning wrists, hazy eyesight clearing to see an angered Maelstrom cycling through colors again, that tress colored orange and a flame ignited in her eyes.
The part of my mind that reasoned told me it was all over, that the worst day of my life was about to come to cap off appropriately. Watching that flame dance in her eyes, apathy and acceptance began to wash over me, the pleasant calm before the storm of being sent straight to hell by a witch. Flames poured and burned into me, as I watched my life flash before my eyes.
The beginning of my worst day, random moments I'd spent in Epsilon, being recruited by Epsilon, being nearly beaten to death in the street for being a Hierarch, the family that by now disowned me, darkness, experiments, shared pain....critical thinking came back a little as I wondered who I bothered to share pain with, wondering why that pleasant calm sensation never left, and the only burn I could feel was a heat like....arousal? Thinking about why I felt that way washed away in waves of pleasure that shook me, and Maelstrom. She pulled back from gazing into my eyes, and I could see this was having some kind of effect on her. She looked surprised, trying to focus back in on me, but shaking a bit, looking how I felt.
"Fuck, this feels..."
