Transparency 1.04

The building was situated in one of the more rural parts of the countryside, several kilometres outside of the city. It had been erected near the side of a small stream and a somewhat antiquated-looking waterwheel had been added to an extension that reached out to the stream's bank. Both the cabin and the extended building showed obvious signs of wear, broken sidings and boarded up windows suggesting damage that had been left unrepaired for some time.

Trees and flora dotted the nearby fields. They were too diverse and scattered to look intentionally planted, yet dense enough to hinder anything larger than foot traffic. The overall effect promoted a sort of spooky ambience, all but ensuring that no visitors would feel comfortable wandering onto the property at random.

My path to reach the cabin was not a straight one. Using my phone to read the directions that had been mailed to me, I slalomed back and forth past several trees and made at least one full circuit around the building before I arrived at the doorstep. Just as I raised my hand to knock, I heard a brief electronic whine and the door began to move on its own, forcing me to take a step back as it opened towards me, revealing a wheelchair-bound figure blocking the entryway.

I coughed. "You know, if you were going for the 'abandoned cabin in the woods'-type thing, I would have left the main floor alone to continue the trend of uninhabitability and stuck all of the secret stuff underground. I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. "And what was with the path you told me to take?"

A young man with slightly unkempt, blond hair reaching to his shoulders glared at me from behind his glasses. "Digging was too much effort," he replied. "And nobody's really bothered me so far, so it's apparently working." The wheelchair he was seated on whirled around with a similar electronic whine as the I'd heard before, moving away from the entryway to allow me passage. "As for the path, let's just say, 'it builds character,' and leave it at that."

I shuddered slightly as I imagined what might have befallen me had I deviated from his precise instructions, then stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind me. Once inside, I could appreciate just how much the exterior of the building contrasted with the interior. It was just as messy as one might have expected from the outside, but it was the kind of disarray that came from being a workshop that saw constant use, rather than from years of neglect.

I doubt I could have properly identified even a quarter of what I saw inside. Humanoid parts that could either have been powered armor or simply incomplete jumpsuits built a small pile over in one corner. An entire wall was lined with shelves, filled with brightly-glowing jars of some kind that flickered at random intervals. Probably half of the space was taken up by long tubes and cylinders—possibly parts for guns or cannons. At the other end of the workshop was an open door leading into a darkened hallway. Living quarters I assumed. Wires stretched all over the walls and ceilings, with a few thick cables running across the floor between piles of discarded machinery.

"So, what brings you to my humble abode, James?" the Tinker asked. His wheelchair was carefully navigating the one clear path from the door to an open area near the living quarters. A computer station had been set up by the far wall, complete with a trio of monitors. One of the screens had a three-dimensional modeling program on it, the other two displayed what appeared to be an opened email and a web-browser.

"Hello to you too, Volley," Jamie said in a slightly miffed tone. She flew past my shoulder, heading for the wall of shelves and jars. She liked shiney things.

Volley paused and looked over his shoulder, tossing out an abbreviated wave. "Hey, Pretty Lady." He resumed his course towards the workstation. "And call me Pete, I'm not in costume anymore."

"You could be," I said. I'd followed him and flicked a hand against his wheelchair. "I could have sworn you received an insurance payout to take care of your injuries. It wasn't enough?"

Volley—Pete—looked down at the stumps that were the remains of his legs and frowned. "I didn't see a point. I had a few ideas about building my own prosthetics and thought I'd take care of it myself rather than letting some hack job have a go at it."

"... and?" I prompted him.

Pete sighed. "I... sort of got side-tracked with a new design. I managed to scrape together this wheelchair for myself, and it worked well enough that I sort of... forgot about it."

Jamie floated back over, having satisfied her own curiosity. "You forgot about it...? You forgot about walking?"

"Well, there was that... and also I realized I was no good at designing actual prosthesis devices," Pete said with a rueful grin. "Nerve connections, locomotion, artificial skeleton structures—all of that is sort of beyond me. By the time I'd realized that, I had... sort of spent all of the insurance money."

"Brilliant," I said dryly. "Great job, there."

Pete narrowed his eyes. "So, you never answered my question. Why are you guys here?"

I pressed a hand against my chest in mock offense, "What, I'm not allowed to visit my former mates and simply ask after their health?"

"Have you paid your respects to Wu, yet?" Pete asked me pointedly.

That brought me up short. "... I haven't found the time, yet," I admitted. I frowned and lowered my hand. "I did run into Flurry though, the other day."

"Oh?" Pete had swiveled in his chair, plugging away at his computer whilst we spoke. A not-to-subtle sign as to his level of interest in the conversation. "And how is the Boss-lady?"

"She's coping... in her own way, I suppose. Absolutely does not want me calling her Boss-lady anymore."

Pete sighed and nodded, still not looking at me. "That's about what I figured. Look, I'm glad to see you, don't get me wrong. But I'm in the middle of a few things so I'd rather get back to work. So if you don't need anything important... ?"

I hesitated and caught Jamie's eye. She frowned at me and jabbed a finger towards our former teammate. "Actually, there was one other thing. I was hoping you could give us some information, but seeing as you seem to be having problems with it—what do you know about prosthetics? Or is there anyone you could you refer us to?"

Pete's hands stilled on the keyboard and he turned his head to peer at me closely. "You seem to be fine," he concluded, part statement and part question.

"Not for me." I jabbed a thumb over my shoulder at Jamie's head. "She's interested in the mechanics of walking, I thought I'd indulge her curiosity."

He stared at me. "You came to me for that?"

I shrugged, "You're the only Tinker I know."

"I'm a Tinker who tries his best to keep a low profile," he replied. "That way I'm not hounded by every government flunky or two-bit crook looking to ask me to make weapons for them and their kind." He waved his hand around his workshop. "Why else do you think I set up shop all the way out here? I'm not even attached to the city's power-grid."

"Oh?" I looked around his workshop—from the shining shelves at the back to the clearly operational computers. "You're running all this from a waterwheel?"

He smirked, "Trade secret."

"I never realize you had to put up with that kind of harassment," Jamie said. "That's been going on ever since we split up? We never knew."

He waved his hand, brushing aside the implied apology. "It's just the nature of the power," he said. "Things like what you, Wu Lung, and Flurry do, they're just things that awe the normals. Tinkers make stuff, tangible things that even common folk can use if we dumb down the process for them. We don't really have powers unto ourselves, we're more like force-multipliers. Some guys can make powered armour, some can make hyper-efficient power supply systems, some can make hand-held artillery.

"Put all that together and all of the big organizations would really, really like having a Tinker on their side." He sighed. "I guess I was lucky. I sort of had it good, with you three."

"Four," Jamie added absently.

He nodded, accepting the correction without comment. "What I mean is you guys never really tried to abuse my skills. You didn't demand that I equip you lot with my latest and greatest, for example."

"You already helped us out plenty," I pointed out. "Those communicators you scrounged were fine for our purposes. And I can't speak for the others, but I didn't really need much more than that." I shrugged. "Besides, I like to think that we were friends, even if we were coworkers of a sort first. It wouldn't have felt right to take advantage of a friend like that."

"I'd like to think that," he said wistfully. "But, going back to the main topic, I'm afraid I can't help you at the moment." He waved towards the screen that he was using to browse online. I noticed the window was displaying the Parahumans Online messaging boards. "Most of my research on prosthetics has been done somewhat anonymously so far. I haven't yet gone in-depth to find any other Tinkers who specialize in the field. Most of the ones I've found that seem to lean in that direction aren't local, so you'd have a hard time trying to get in touch anyhow."

"I see," I said, trying not to let my disappointment show. "Thanks for even that information, at least."

"Anytime."

"James always wanted a flight suit," Jamie suddenly chimed in.

I snapped my head around to find her smirking.

She held her hand to the opposite side of her mouth, leaning towards Pete conspiratorially, "He was just too polite to ask."

Pete chuckled and pointed at me. "Now, that just wont do," he said with mock sternness. "Jamie, you should keep a close eye on him."

She raised her hand in a salute, "Aye, sir!"

"Now, buzz off, I'm working here." Pete made a shooing gesture and I obediently retraced my path through the debris field back to the exit. I paused there as he triggered a command from his console, activating the doorway.

"Hey," I called. "If you need anything, just let me know, alright?"

He gave me a thumbs up as I stepped back outside. Just before the door closed, I heard him call out one last time. "There aren't any traps, by the way! I was just messing with you!"

That bastard.

ooo

Volley's cabin was far enough from civilisation that we had a bit of a walk just to reach an obvious trail. Thankfully Jamie was able to keep me oriented in the correct direction.

I had been walking for only a few minutes before she finally spoke her mind.

"That was it?" she asked.

I didn't look at her, focused more on where I was placing my feet. "He had nothing to tell; he didn't know. It was something of a long shot to begin with."

"You barely told him anything. 'I wanted to try walking'? How was he supposed to work from that?"

I stopped and turned to face her. "It's the best I could explain, given the circumstances. I can't exactly go around telling people about your true nature."

Her face clouded. "This had better not be some half-witted notion of yours to protect me," she warned. "Because that excuse is starting to wear thin."

"It's not," I assured her. I stopped and thought about it. "Although if it is, it's because I'm also trying to protect myself as well."

Aside from using parahuman abilities to kill or mind-control other people, dimensional travel was also one of the Big No-no's in the unofficial rulebook. The existence of parallel universes had long been proven by various Thinker and Tinker capes. Communications between our world and one or two alternate worlds had been accepted, but any and all attempts to bridge the gap suffered enormous penalties from the various governments of the world. In my mind, what Jamie and I did was far too close to breaching that directive to risk being caught.

Jamie mulled over the point as I let her read my thought process rather than trying to explain it in words. "Volley wouldn't turn us in," she said finally.

"I hope you're right," I said. I turned and continued walking. "But I'd rather not risk it without a very good reason, either."

"He wouldn't have to risk anything if you could use your own power correctly instead of relying on me," she muttered darkly.

I had no answer to that, so I continued walking in silence.

Last night, Jamie had me to try and possess her in the same manner she had done to me earlier that day. What we found was that although I was able to subsume myself into her body without any issues, I was unable to affect her to the same degree she could with me. I couldn't assume control over any of her limbs.

Part of that may have been because her muscles were too weak to move on their own—I wouldn't be able to override a control that didn't exist. Jamie apparently believed I simply wasn't trying hard enough. I, however, had suspicions that my particular powerset lay in a different direction.

While I tried to figure out just what I could do in my ghost form, I offered the compromise of finding out if Volley had known anything about artificially enhancing Jamie's strength, either through leg braces or some other possible Tinker devices we could try to easily hunt down in her world. However, I couldn't quite get the information I needed to know without letting him know about Jamie's condition, which was something I absolutely did not want anyone else to find out.

As I was busy thinking of my next move, I suddenly felt my link to Jamie shift and I stopped walking in order to concentrate on the variance. I could tell she was still present in this world—several hundred metres away and flitting around the forest—but the sensory input I was receiving from her was subtly altered. Her vision seemed to be sharper and her sense of hearing was magnified. I belatedly realised I could also feel the wind of her passage as she flew through the air.

Just then a tiny bird, barely ten centimetres in size, zipped past my ear and circled my head. A rather plump ball of brown and grey landed on my shoulder and twittered at me, absolutely fearless, completely out of character for the local wildlife. Even as I narrowed my eyes with suspicion, it tweetled once more and then I felt a sharp pain as it nipped at my ear.

"Jamie!" I shouted, batting at the bird who nimbly dodged my hand. "Gerroff me!"

The wren suddenly keeled over, pitching off my shoulder as Jamie floated in its place, giggling madly.

I gingerly ran my fingers over my ear, feeling a slight tender area around the lobe. Fortunately she hadn't broken skin. I took a step back and glared at her. "What was that for?" I demanded.

"Testing a theory," she said pertly. "I told you I'd had the idea that possession was made easier if I knew the mindset of the person better, which is why I could do you but not other people. My other theory was that I could assume control of more simple-minded creatures as well."

"Congratulations," I said, not quite able to keep myself from being short with her. I dropped into a crouch, scanning the ground briefly before my eyes settled on the wren. It was completely still except for the movement of its chest, rapidly beating as it hyperventilated. "And did you think about what might happen if you impose your will over these 'simple-minded creatures'?"

Jamie floated down to get a closer look for herself. "Is it still alive?"

I reached a finger out slowly. "I think so. But you certainly gave it a fright, if you didn't drive it completely bonkers." I gently prodded the bird in the side and it twitched slightly, still breathing rapidly.

I gave Jamie a sharp glare before I reached out my other hand, rolling the bird into my palm and standing up. "Where did you find it?"

"Um..." Jamie spun around in a brief circle to orient herself, then looked at me apologetically. "I don't remember..."

I sighed and stood in place, bird in hand and hoping it would recover in a timely manner. "And how are you?"

"Um, good?" She grasped my meaning immediately and patted herself down, giving me a nervous thumbs up. "I don't feel anything wrong." She paused for a moment and then pointed at me sternly, "And no bird-brain wisecracks."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I said. I glanced down into my hands, then glared at her. "So, are you proud of yourself?"

She blinked. "What?"

I brandished the comatose bird, holding it just under her nose. "This is what I was afraid of. I wasn't just protecting you, Jamie. I was also protecting other people and things from you!"

She seemed to wilt under my gaze and retreated a few paces from my hands. "I didn't mean to..." she protested. "I mean, the others... I didn't really remember, and they were bad guys anyhow..." She raised her eyes, even as she kept her head lowered. "I'm not a bad person..."

"You could be a weapon, Jamie," I said bluntly. "An immensely effective one, if these examples are anything to go by." I softened my tone and stepped towards her again. I lifted my free hand to pat her head. It passed through slightly so I raised it back to the level where it would be if I could touch her normally. "But, I don't want you to be one. If people saw me using you as a weapon... then they wouldn't see you—if that makes any sense..."

She reached her hands up to hold mine, continuing the charade I had started and trying to cling to that minor offer of comfort. "I know what you mean," she said. "I'm sorry, Big Brother..."

I felt movement in my hand and looked down to see the wren finally starting to come back to itself. It flipped itself over to its feet, testing its wings briefly. Its head snapped towards Jamie and gave her a scathing cheep before launching itself back into the air, carefully avoiding her.

I smirked and continued walking, dropping my hands back to my sides. "Somehow I don't think it accepted."

Jamie didn't smile at my attempted humour.

...

"Are you feeling alright? We're worried that this whole experience seems to have altered your circadian rhythm." A nurse stood at the foot of the bed, wringing her hands nervously as she stared at Jamie. She carefully avoided looking at me.

Jamie vocalized a rather un-ladylike word, or as close as she could get with her current speech capabilities.

The nurse still got the gist. "Well, I'll be back with your supper then... or would this be breakfast?" she asked.

Jamie mumbled something else that didn't quite come across.

"Anything she wont throw up... or that crap she had last night," I translated for her. "Apparently the only thing worse than hospital food is a hospital protein shake."

The nurse all but squeaked out an affirmation and retreated from the room.

This sucks! Jamie complained as the door clicked shut. I want to be able to talk on my own, already!

"You're getting there," I said encouragingly. "When you first woke up, you couldn't even groan once for 'yes', twice for 'no'."

Her eyes snapped towards me. Not. Helping.

I raised my hands placatingly in surrender.

Try again, she demanded. Her meaning was clear.

"I'm not going to try to possess your arms and legs again. At least not so soon. Let's wait for you to get a bit more strength in them first."

No, see if you can do anything with my voice.

"O...kay. But I think we're going to have the same problems."

Humour me.

I lifted my arm in a parody of her habitual response. "Aye, ma'am!"

...do I really look like that when I do that?

"Pretty much, yeah," I said. I lowered myself towards her chest and focused on her body, on her presence.

She kept herself open and I was quickly able to orient myself to align my entire being within hers. Interestingly enough, I felt like I could move my viewpoint around and she'd still be able to interpret what I saw as her own viewpoint. I wasn't seeing with her eyes and she could somehow supplement her vision with what I saw. I turned my senses towards the pillow beneath her head and focused in enough to see several stray hairs scattered across its surface... as well as some dandruff.

Thank you for pointing out that I am in desperate need of a shower, she said archly. We can test dual-vision in your body, maybe give each other 'spidey-senses' later. Now, talking. Go.

I felt myself link to her body, though I couldn't explain what it felt like beyond the sudden sensation of weight. Bracing myself, I tried taking control over her mouth and sounding out the alphabet.

A, B, C, D, E...

Nothing. Not even a twitch of her lips.

Jamie's frustration coincided with mine, briefly building in on each other and creating a somewhat painful feedback loop before I withdrew myself from her body and floated above her. Her face was pinched, though she didn't bother vocalising her displeasure.

It's not fair, she mentally complained, squeezing her eyes shut. Why does my body hate me?

I floated down to 'sit' beside her head and quasi-pat her on the forehead comfortingly. "I know a lot of girls would probably be saying that exact same phrase, although the context would be much different.

I heard her grunt in amusement. Puberty. I'm sort of glad I missed out on that. Could you imagine what it would have been like if I had to put up with hormones as a ghost?

I made a face. "Sca~ary mental image. Let's not go there, shall we?"

I felt the pillow vibrate as she shook in laughter—her head and shoulders twitching in time with the weak sounds coming from her throat. I sat up straight. "Huh."

What?

"Um... can you do that again? Laugh, I mean?"

That's not how comforting a person works. You have to do something to make me laugh. You can't just tell me to do so and hope I feel better because of it.

"Never mind," I said. I half twisted around, moving my hand from her head to the pillow and concentrated. I didn't feel anything from the pillow, but then I hadn't really felt anything from her either.

James?

I let myself sink into the fabric, felt my senses expand to fill out and permeate throughout the whole object. O...kay, I sent after a few moments, this is odd.

A pillow? she asked, her tone full of disbelief. Your power is that you can possess... a pillow. That is so lame!

I meant to rise above her so I could face her and scold her properly, except when I gave myself the command to rise up, I could feel myself taking Jamie with me. Her neck tilted into an uncomfortable angle as the pillow lifted her head away from the bed.

Hey!

Shocked, I paused in my ascent then 'looked' around. The pillow, naturally, had no eyes to speak of, yet I was able to sense my surroundings normally. At least I didn't think it had eyes. Tell me I don't have googly eyes, I pleaded.

I can't turn my head to see, dummy. Now let me down, this is hurting my neck!

Oops. I lowered myself back to the bed, gently, and tried to extricate myself once more. This time I succeeded, floating away in my original ghostly form as Jamie followed me her eyes. I looked around, then made my way over to the book shelf and dropped myself into a particularly thick tome.

It was a bit more difficult to move, pressed in as it was by the full weight of the other books to either side, but I managed to pull myself—and the book—out from the shelf and float across the room.

You're uh... not going to drop that on me, are you? she asked timidly. Because if you were, I just wanted to say I'm really sorry about the whole puberty joke, about possessing you, all of the teasing I did over the years... um, I once saw where you had lost your sock and didn't bother to tell you and you threw out the other pair... really sorry about that. And, um...

Relax, I said. Sent? I certainly wasn't talking as a book. I flipped around so that the cover was facing down towards her and flipped myself open. How about a story? I can't tell what page I'm showing so you'll sort of have to tell me what it's about.

Jamie's head tilted fractionally to the side. That's kind of cool, she admitted. And you've probably just saved me from dying of boredom. Her eyes narrowed. But I think you're going to put me to sleep with 'Pediatric Neurology'. Try a different one.

I moved over to the side so I wasn't hovering directly over the bed and released the book, watching it fall to the floor with a faint 'thump'. I felt myself grinning as my face emerged.

By the time the nurse had come back with Jamie's midnight 'breakfast', she bore witness to a pile of research texts dumped carelessly at the foot of the bed and another one pulling itself off of the bookshelf before flying through the air towards her immobile patient.

She did what any other professional would do in that situation. She dropped the food tray and screamed, fleeing the room as fast as she could.

From her bed, Jamie snickered.

ooo

a/n—i try not to care, and i honestly plan to finish this story regardless and i'm not going to hold any chapters 'hostage'... but really, 4 chapters and not a single review since the prologue? either i'm doing something right (and nobody has cause to complain) or i'm doing something dreadfully wrong.

lemme know your thoughts on the story! things i might need to change? things i'm doing well?

theories on where the story is going so i can rub my hands together and go 'yess my pretties, continue thinking those false guessesss' or 'oh crap. i suck at foreshadowing'

here's a terrible revelation! i'm an american! my only exposure to oxford english has been harry potter! (and some londonese from a gamer friend on ventrilo) britpick meeeee!

r/r? maybe that will work.