Perhaps it said something about his life that Chase Masters, at the tender age of 14, knew a hospital bed well enough to identify it by feel. Being the youngest person in Extreme Entertainment's Networks media sponsored supergroup, he had been forced to work even harder to match the physical combat prowess of his older teammates, One of the few areas where his intelligence didn't help him was in training his muscles to learn the instinctive physical responses that were required of them. Mistakes in training were common, and even with his enhanced stamina and healing abilities, mistakes made in Tactical Exercises could still put him down for the count.
So his first response upon awakening on a hospital bed was not the fear and confusion of the typical teenaged boy, but the analytical calm of a young man trained to think. -hospital. was I dreaming? possible. i remember the fight with humanity, then they brought out that weird exotic. -
With an Intelligence Quotient measured at 203, and a memory that bordered on the eidetic, the young mutant known as Rook began to analyze the battle with the geno-terrorist group Humanity. He and Shadow had inserted into the Burea of Exotic Affairs office in down town Los Angeles. Star, Mach, and Crash were outside, their powers being better suited to open spaces and loud distractions.
It was just like a tactical exercise: Shadow took to the duct work, transmitting enemy positions and hostages back to Rook's HUD monocle. Fifteen live hostages, nametags didn't match any registered exotics. Groups of 5, 2 guards each. Armed with AK-47's and remote detonators, hostages loaded with half a pound of C-4 each.
The groups were spread out in three different offices, too far apart for any kind of straight on attack. The radio equipment he carried could disrupt communications for a few minutes, but only for one group at a time, and that wouldn't neccessarily stop the detonators.
A plan came to him quickly, and just as quickly was relayed to Shadow and the others. Approval was given from Star outside, and the operation began.
The first group of terrorists were taken out within five seconds, the buttons on the detonators covered by tiny forcefields, protecting the hostages, while Shadow's combat skills made short work of the terrorists. In less than a minute all of the hostages were released, leaving only the enemies remaining outside to deal with.
With the explosive laden vests removed, the hostages were ushered out of the building under a Force Field strong enough to stop an artillery barrage. As soon as the hostages were seen, the rest of Group Alpha turned up the heat, and the hostage group took only minimal fire.
As soon as the hostages were safely behind police lines, Rook raced back to help in the mopup. Using his forcefields to bind key opponents within his range, making it easier for the others to take them out, or shielding the others when they were pinned down.
Then things got confusing. One of the terrorists steped forward. Stars blasts of light, and Rook's own Kinetic force blasts bounced off of him. Concentrated gunfire was forcing the rest of Group Alpha slowly together while this man began gesturing and shouting. Mach, flying above, was the first to notice the dark vortex swiftly irising beneath their feet, but even her speed wasn't enough to stop Crash and Rook from falling into it.
Star and Mach did their best to fly them out, but were unprepared for the acidic agony of the dark place they were pulled into. Even Shadow had some how been propelled into the darkness. Before even a strong attempt at escape could be made, the portal closed, trapping them in the darkness.
Then the interminable flight in the force bubble, landing on that strange shore, then nothing until waking up in this hospital bed.
Step one: Get information. He sat up, rather surprised to see himself in a ward full of young boys and girls, and not the private clinic at the Studio. Shortly, a nurse arrived, a warm smile on a fairly plain face atop a middle aged body. "Good morning!" her voice was as warm as her smile, and as earthy as her body, Rook couldn't help but smile back. "How are you feeling today?"
Still smiling, he answered. "A bit confused really. Could you tell me where I am?"
The nurse nodded indulgently. "Of course. You were asleep when they brought you in. This is the Ambrose Youth Services Safe House."
Rook suddenly lost his smile, confusion winning over amiability. "Could you tell me how I wound up here?"
She bit her lip before continuing. "The police found you, you were unconcious, and they suspected you had been kidnapped."
"I see." -some kind of clerical error.- "May I make a phone call? My employers may be concerned."
Confusion passed from Rooks face, and seemed to find a new home upon that of the kindly nurse. "Employers?"
"Yes, Extreme Entertainment Network, the number should be on my BEA card."
Confusion had not only found a home upon the woman, but seemed to be beginning a colony. "BEA?"
Rook sighed quietly. Obviously the woman did not approve of the Burea's rules about young Exotics. "Yes ma'am, I am an exotic registered with the Burea of Exotic Affairs, ID number 2231-I4, Chase Masters, Approved Alias: Rook. I am sure if you call XEN this can all be cleared up in short order."
For a brief time, the colony of confusion appeared to be reaching Metropolitan size, then was wiped away with a massive bomb of compassion and pity. "Let me get the doctor."
With great effort, Rook did not get up out of the bed, or even use his powers on the woman. "psst, hey" a whisper from the left turned out to be a young woman about his own age with shoulder length brown hair and a scowl that looked like a longterm resident on her face.
Aside from that, she was rather pretty so he smiled at her. "Hi, Chase Masters. whats your name?"
"Call me Tom." she said. "So what was with that crappola you were talking about?"
Rook's smile was a bit strained, but he continued gamely. "Crappola? I take it you don't think much of exotics."
"Exotics? What the hell are you talking about?" Tom's face screwed up in honest confusion. "You get crazed er somethin?"
Before he could respond, Rooks attention was drawn to two men coming in his direction. One was a doctor, much the same in dress and appearance as any other doctor in any other government facility. The other, however, was . . . odd. In build and face he was average, the only thing that stood out was his perfectly pressed black suit and his mirrored sunglasses. His face was stiff and militant, but he lacked the unique bearing of a soldier.
When they reached the bed, it was the doctor who spoke first. "Mr. Masters, may I call you Chase?"
There was something about the situation, and the doctors companion, that rubbed him the wrong way. "I prefer Rook, if you don't mind."
The doctor smiled. His eyes fairly radiated blatant condescension. "Okay 'Rook'. My name is Dr. Lestedt, I'm in charge of the clinic. This is Agent Blair. We have a few questions to ask you."
Rook decided that it wold be Agent Blair that would be asking the questions. "Are you with BEA?" He asked the black suited man.
The Agents voice was gruff and his tone sudden. "I'm with the NSB. Do you know these people?" The photographs were police mug shots of Star, Mach, and Crash.
-mug shots. why would they be in police mug shots? and why would this guy be asking about them? and what the hell is NSB?- "Why are you asking me? That information is readily available in the Exotic Affairs database. Any government agency can look it up."
Lestedt was taken aback by the young man questioning the government agent, but Blair himself, by his face, didn't seem to even care. "Mister Masters, you will cooperate with this investigation, or you will be compelled." with that the agent reached for Rook's shoulder. Unwilling to let this man touch him, the young mutant generated a force field surrounding the agents entire body below the neck. Blair seemed to take it in stride. "Let me go."
Rook favored him with a cold glance. "Under the circumstances, I think you should stay still, 'Agent Blair'." -let him go.- The young man began to remove the force field.
-why ya lettin tha pig loose?- Then returned it to full power. "Try that again 'Agent Blair' and I will not only report you for Misuse of Exotic Abilities, but I will cut off your oxygen." -ha, that's got the beastie shakin in his boots.- -he doesn't look scared. hey! who was that?-
-me, tom.-
-you're an exotic?- Another force field was placed over the agents mouth.
-i'm a psychic- a mixture of confusion and contempt set itself in Rooks mind.
-okay. do you know what's going on with this guy? what's this NSB?-
-NSB is the feds. this ones one of the beasties though. his brains a big bug. are you gonna escape? if so I wanna come with you. he's gonna take me in too, if I don't get outta here.-
-take us in where?-
-i dunno, someplace dark. someplace where it hurts.-
First rule of survival in a strange situation. Take control. -can you walk?-
-no.-
-will it hurt you if I carry you?-
-no.-
-which wall faces outside.-
"What's going on here?" Dr. Lestedt was understandably confused at the silent and still government agent stuck in an awkward position reaching towards the boy on the bed for the last 10 seconds.
Rook glanced at him, then back at Tom. "We're leaving." With that he got up off the bed, went over to Tom and lifted her up, the sheet falling away revealing heavy casts on both legs. "Which way?"
She pointed to the wall at the end of the ward some 30 feet away. Carrying his load with the ease with which one would hold a small child, Chase Masters approached the wall and lashed out with a roundhouse kick, Schedule 4 muscular capacity ripping through plaster, wood, and exterior bricks easily. Doctor, Agent, and patient's stared, stunned mute. A few more kicks opened a hole big enough to walk through.
Rook carried Tom through the hole and into a sunlit suburban industrial area. Bullets from three uniformed police officers bounced off of a force dome.
Muscles that could carry five tons pushed at the ground, carrying slightly over two hundred pounds to the roof of the two story building behind them.
"What the hell, man? How you doing all this?" Tom's scowl vanished in a combination of awe and fear.
"I told you I was an Exotic." He couldn't help but grin when she wrapped her arms around him and held tighter. -we got maybe a minute to get out of here. The next building's too far to jump.-
-so what do we do?-
"The telepathy thing is a bit distracting. You may want to stop for now, cause this is gonna get a little tricky." A wall of force extended from the edge of the roof into midair at a forty five degree angle. Rook ran as fast as he could out onto the ramp, his strength making the steep angle as easy as flat ground. Forty feet out, forty feet up, a limitation in range that the BEA doctors said would improve as he learned more focus. Split second timing was the only thing standing between the two of them and missing the jump.
Tom's eyes were closed tight when Rook made another leap that wouldn't take them nearly far enough to make the next roof. Their fall was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a carefully shaped force field that acted as a slide to the next roof where it was anchored.
Another force ramp assisted jump took them another street away from Agent Blair and any backup he might be able to call. A few more leaps to further lose any pursuers, and Rook set Tom onto the roof of a convenience store.
The restrained terror on her face was actually kind of cute. It took a few moments for her to realize that they had stopped. She cracked one eye. "Is it over? Are we alive?"
"For the moment." he said with a wry smile.
"So what's the plan?"
"First, we find a place to hide. Then we find my friends. Somewhere along the way, finding out what exactly is going on."
"Yeah, over planning is such a pain." Tom deadpanned. She was still a bit shook, but mostly recovered from the ride. "I know a place we can hole up. An empty warehouse. Buncha homeless and runaways use it. I got some friends might be there, they can maybe help."
"You know how to get there from here?"
Tom looked around, getting her bearings as best she could from her vantage point in Rook's arms. "Yeah, I think so."
10 years ago an accident during a covert operation had been the beginning of the end of James Nero Kincaid, and the beginning of the long years of pain that birthed the para-human known as Shadow. He still wasn't quite sure exactly when the sequence of events had fallen so completely out of control as to leave him on the roof of an office building in another reality while the rest of his team was taken off to jail.
Still, he was a soldier. He would adapt. He had been forced to spend the rest of last night on the roof. He had no fear of the elements. This, admittedly, wasn't saying much in Southern California.
It was day now, but somehow he still felt a twinge of the same energy that flooded his body and senses at night. A mystery, but one for another time. Right now there were more important things to worry about. Something had gone wrong. The team had been captured. Something about the fight with Humanity's exotic and that weird portal had put them in a place that wasn't home. That could wait too.
Of somewhat greater importance was finding his friends. If they hadn't escaped custody by now, then the differences between worlds would have likely put them into even more trouble. The building below would have computers he could use to find information and news, if he could get in without being seen.
If he knew how to hack into secure systems without setting off ten or twenty kinds of alarms. Not very likely. Even in the military, they had given up teaching him much beyond basic computer skills.
Times like this, he truly felt the pain of his situation. If he had a face, even with his skin this odd shade of blue, he might have been able to enter a library as a normal human. Or even buy some breakfast. He wasn't human, though, not anymore. Not for a long time now. Too bad, an egg and bacon on toast would go great about now. Meanwhile, there must be an unattended snack machine somewhere in the building. As much as he disliked casual theft, he wasn't carrying any change in his costume.
Across a series of low rooftops a pair of teenagers crossed the city, concealing themselves as best they could against detection. Though if they had been seen, they would have made a most curious sight: A dark skinned boy making superhuman leaps carrying a fair girl with both of her lower legs in casts, both of them wearing state issued hospital gowns.
Tom still wasn't quite used to being carried across rooftops over nearly invisible force ramps and bridges, but she could see how it could get fun. For now though, they were near their destination. "There it is." she said, pointing at a large, if slightly run down, warehouse.
Rook's trained eye spotted the three guards in the front. Well positioned, but unarmed. Or at least not visibly armed. Lot's of people would mistake him for being unarmed, too. "There supposed to be guards there?"
"Yeah, but I can get you in, just put us down there."
-may as well go in style.- The building they were on was only two stories, putting the street well within range of his force fields. Visualizing carefully the shape he wanted, Rook made a staircase visible only by faint sparkles in the air. Taking his best impressing-the-press posture, he carried the girl down the stairs without hurry or hesitation.
The guards saw him about halfway down. As he had more than half suspected, hands were raised in a variety of preparatory gestures. As they continued down, the guards aim followed. Tom began to wave at them. "Jim, Max, Sorrow, it's me, Tom. He's with me." The three men kept their hands up and pointed at the children.
-great, three suspicious projectors outside, god knows what inside, and all i have is me and a psychic with her legs in casts, and i'll lay odds not one of them is registered.- On the ground, Rook dissolved the staircase, creating personal armor. Two of the guards spread to either side while the third moved forward.
The one that approached was a tall, muscular Asian about 33. "Hello, Tom. Who's your friend."
"Jim, this is Rook, he helped me bust out when a bug-head came after us." -don't blow this, man. jim don't play.-
Jim looked the young man up and down carefully, gauging the wiry muscles able to support the weight of someone almost his own size without strain. "Rook, huh, funny name."
The young man smiled up at the obviously dangerous older man in front of him. "At least it's not Slim."
Jim smiled slowly, while Tom just looked confused. "Smart kid."
"My parents liked old music." The joke about his name was a gamble, it made a positive impression, but it didn't reduce the Asian mans awareness one iota. Rook hadn't expected it too; this man was too much of a professional. "Tom needs to get her legs looked at, we've been bouncing around a little since we escaped. If you could please get someone to take her inside, then we can talk, or I can be on my way."
Jim looked over to his left. One of the other guards about 22, Caucasian with medium brown hair and geometric tattoos swirling across his cheeks and forehead, nodded distractedly and went inside. "Alright kid, follow me and we'll get things going.
Inside the warehouse, a flurry of activity centered around a quick-eyed man with twitchy hands who took Tom from his arms, and Jim escorted him down a hall way to a series of offices, past a number of men and women armed with automatic rifles and submachine guns.
He was escorted into the last office and motioned towards a barely padded folding chair in front of a desk covered with maps and papers. Jim stood near the door, impassive. The sound of a flushing toilet was followed shortly by running water, and an adjoining door opened to reveal what could best be described as an angel; A beautiful girl seeming at first glance to be the same age as Rook himself with her small size and flawless, nearly translucent skin. Hair the color of white gold flowed down to her knees in a soft fall. A second look showed eyes as old and hard and sorrowful as her face and form were not.
Her voice was as soft as her skin and as old as her eyes. "My name is Auriel, I am in charge here."
-no duh.- "My name is Chase Masters. I'm called Rook. Feel free to ask any questions you'd like to, and I'll answer what I can."
Auriel looked speculatively at the hospital gown. "I don't suppose you have any ID?"
"I left it in my other pants." Rook deadpanned
Her eyes lost focus for a moment. "Your aura is quiet unusual. Not a mage, not psychic, still a human, but certainly not normal. After what I've heard of your entrance I would have to say you are some kind of mutation. Such things are very rare, but since Dark Day a few have surfaced."
Rook carefully schooled his face into a neutral expression. -not many mutants, and what's this dark day? that strange darkness. maybe it's another dimension? so what to tell these people.-
Auriel's eyes narrowed. "You're a telepath." Rook announced calmly.
One flawless eyebrow raised, "Amongst other things, yes.
Covering his thoughts with a cacophony of mathematics, literature, and chess moves, Rook looked fixedly at Auriel. "Where I come from, using telepathy to invade someone's mind without their permission carries strong social and legal consequences."
"By all appearances, you are not where you're from." She returned, frowning coldly. "You are where I am from, and where I am from I will use any means at my disposal to make sure you are not a threat to my people. This includes ripping through your so impressive mental defenses and forcing your intentions out of your mind if need be."
Frowning right back at her, Rook dropped his mental shields and focused with crystal clear intensity on the events since waking up in the medical ward. –i have had a bad day. i am stuck in another dimension, on the run from the law, and the rest of my friends are apparently in jail. i have no idea what's going on here, or what situation you're in. i need to get my friends out, and then find help in getting us all home. i am not a threat to you or your people unless you make me!- "I hope that helps you make whatever decision you need to."
Still frowning regally at the young man, Auriel sat for nearly 15 interminable seconds. "Alright." She nodded. "We can't offer much in the way of help. Every resource I have is dedicated to stopping an evil that seeks the destruction of all life on this world." She cocked her head slightly. "My people have informed me that Tom has been healed. She will help you to find your friends, and guide you around the more obvious dangers of our city."
