{A gathering of hatchlings in a nesting colony, tended to by different adult birds.}
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Everything was wood panels and cream paint here. Warmer and more welcoming than the lower levels. The carpet was dark green. If I tried, I could imagine nothing was wrong, that the heavy silence was normal. Then we passed a chair smashed on the wall. Here and there blood was smeared on the walls, a hole was punched in the plaster. A door was braced with chairs arranged in a jam under the knob. A sheaf of papers was scattered in the middle of the corridor. A clipboard abandoned in a corner. An arc of red trailed over a door ajar, and a dark stain pooled under it. Drag marks in the carpet, but no body.
It was so quiet.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. That sense of danger, of being under a microscope, weak and powerless, was back. Stronger, as my power returned again.
"My power's back. I can feel him looking for us." I said, "Let's keep moving."
I turned my power to tracking the blood trail. It wasn't new. Most of it was dark and coagulated.
The blood trail continued through double doors, the footprints, bare feet tracking red, we followed them until we found the Dispensary. The Dispensary was a mess- it was a room shaped like a U, with a long counter dividing the Dispensary proper from a sizable waiting area, with doors at each end, and two more on the far wall. Now, chairs were tangled, tables shattered, upended- and doors ajar, all of it illuminated under florescent lights, and I slowed, taking in the waiting area. There were also some metal security shutters, half-closed over the counter. Something had wrenched them open, the locking mechanisms were torn out of the floor.
"W-were is everyone?" Elle whispered.
"I don't know," Mimi replied, "Maybe... Maybe they evacuated?"
But evacuated where?
Cabinets and shelving lined the walls, pill bottles and boxes were strewn everywhere, and cabinets stood emptied. It looked like there had been looting, but it had been interrupted. Or perhaps someone had been searching for something. We wandered behind the counter, and scattered pills crunched underfoot. A security camera hung from a ceiling fixture, broken.
But... But if the security shutters couldn't keep anyone out, we couldn't hide here...
"Where do we go now?" Elle wondered, wobbling past me. She was limping, her feet-
"Elle!" I gasped, and grabbed her shoulder, steering her to an intact chair as Mimi hovered. She was bleeding! She had left a lopsided trail of bloody footprints behind us, and even as she sat there, a pool started to spread under her left foot. I lifted her foot to see, and found a three-inch cut across the pad of her heel.
"I- I didn't realize- I'm sorry!" She said.
It had to have happened while we were running- stepping on glass maybe. It was deep but neat and clean, it would bleed freely, but I didn't think there would be any permanent damage.
"Mimi, help me!"
She knelt down beside me, holding up shaking hands, and a roll of gauze. She'd had that all this time? "Where?"
"Just put pressure on it, we need to stop the bleeding." Mimi wrapped Elle's cut, and the gauze was soaked red almost immediately. I glanced across the room, where would there be a first aid kit. Mimi's little roll of gauze wouldn't last long.
Wait, it was a Dispensary. There had to be something-
"Keep pressure on it, I'll be right back!"
Bandages, something that could stop bleeding, something to prevent infection. I pushed my power out into the mess of pill bottles and boxes, my good hand quickly rifling through the detritus. There- a big box of gauze, I grabbed a fistful of rolls. A tube of antiseptic cream. I dug through a tipped shelf and extracted a stretch bandage and hurried back to Mimi where she fought ith her sodden gauze.
More gauze went on, and some of the antiseptic, then Mimi wrapped Elle's ankle. I watched, standing by helpless with only one hand while Mimi worked, until I felt a tug on my sleeve. Elle's hand was fisted in my sleeve again. She was biting her lip, really pale. If the pain hadn't hit her while we were panicked and running she was feeling it now.
"How are you holding up?"
Elle looked up, "I'm trying to hold onto- to me."
"You?" I blinked, "Oh, you mean your power?"
She nodded, "It- it's back and, I don't want to be useless. I don't want to slow you down."
"You won't slow us down." Mimi said firmly, "I can carry you if we need. Right Taylor?"
"Yeah." I said. Elle frowned down at Mimi.
"How does your power work?" I asked.
"It's um..." Elle's eyes lost focus for a moment, "It's like I'm building a world, all my own. I can fill it with whatever I want." She said, all in a rush.
"Whatever you want? That sounds pretty cool." I said.
"But... But... I can't... I get lost." Elle stumbled, eyebrows furrowing, "It's hard to keep... anchored, to myself. I... I g-get lost."
Her hands clenched, and her mouth opened, but fell silent. Wordlessly, she turned and looked at me, there were frustrated tears in her eyes.
"It's okay, Elle." I said, quietly. Mimi finished tying Elle's foot, and wouldn't meet my eyes, instead looking at the ground dejectedly. I took a deep breath and let it out in a heartfelt sigh.
Then I stood, looking out over the mess. Where did we go from here? This wasn't all, was it? I glanced to the back of the Dispensary, there was a door, I could only just see the frame from the counter. I stepped around the mess of the fallen shelf. Behind the Dispensary counter was all tile and florescent lights, though most were turned off. It was clean and sterile, except for the bloody smears on the wall, dried red hand prints framed a struggle and a corpse broken beside the door. A girl in blue. Blonde hair cropped short. Now, mostly red.
I swallowed, looking away, "There's a body back here."
A pause, "Do we need to leave?" Mimi's voice was cautious.
"I frowned, "I don't think so. There's a door..." A door- barred from the other side with a desk and steel storage shelveing, piled boxes; the door had been sturdy and had held off a furious assault, now gouged and splintered. "Looks like someone barricaded it." I said.
I tried to see into the room. It looked like storage, shelves and boxes- the backrooms of the Dispensary. Curiously empty and orderly compared to the chaos and disarray in the waiting room. Boxes sat on shelves, a chair sat at a workstation, which showed what looked like an inventory spreadsheet. Bottles of prescriptions waiting to be filled. Pills and syrups. Paperwork. Clipboards. Folders in an orderly stand. Aside from the shelves and desk shoved in front of the door, it was almost untouched.
Someone had shoved that desk and those shelves in front of the door. Someone had locked the madness out, which meant someone else was in here. Might still be... No, I could see a second door, left open, on the other side of the office. I regarded it sadly. I'd hoped we would be able to stay here, safe. But it looked like this wasn't a sure haven.
The shelf barricading the door was one of those utility steel things, all twisted out of shape. Bits of the door still blocking the way and tangled up in the shelf and the bent metal of the hinges, the bar lock, and the arm closer, and little space to slip through.
The door was scarred, but the barricade had held.
An idea took root. That huge parahuman with the heavy footsteps... He wouldn't fit in there, but we might. We were small enough.
And I could still feel that sense of watchfulness in the back of my mind, of the parahuman's Thinker power. He was still out there, he was still stalking us. It was just a matter of time...
"Mimi, Elle. I think I have something."
I turned and walked back, Mimi was helping Elle stand up. The vacant look in Elle's eyes was back.
"There's a door here, it's got a desk shoved in front of it, and a shelf and other stuff. I think we can squeeze through, and the other guy can't. It might be somewhere to hide. I-" I paused, what was that? It was like a wall of silence was moveing across the room, filling every space. But I wasn't seeing it with my eyes, it was like a feeling on my skin. The wall passed over Elle and Mimi, and Elle blinked sharply.
I stumbled back a step, but it was too late, and the advancing wall engulfed me, and when It touched me, and the silence descended again.
It was that power- that power canceler!
"He's back!" I hissed. How close was he? I had no way of knowing!
"Can he find us?" Elle asked.
"He knows we're here." I gasped, "Come on, we gotta move."
We hurried to the back of the Dispensary, pushing and kicking through boxes and slipping on the pill-covered floor.
Elle gave a quiet gasp at the sight of the corpse, and Mimi's lips thinned to a grim line.
Confronted with the door itself, my earlier assumptions appeared far too optimistic, "All right... Can Elle fit through there?"
Mimi turned away from the dead girl and looked at the barricade, "Is there another way through?"
"I don't know, but it's all we have right now, and it looks like nobody got in." I gasped, "Help me with this."
Even all three of us working together could only pull the shelf leaned over the desk a few inches to the side- enough for one of us to wiggle through. Elle went first, since she was the smallest, but even then it took a lot of effort for her to shimmy through, head bent low. It would take me, or Mimi even longer.
In the distance, a door slammed.
We didn't have longer.
"Mimi." I whispered, "Mimi we need to hide."
Elle redoubled her squirming, and finally half fell, half crawled through the shelf.
She was back in a moment, "W-what about you?" Elle whispered back.
"Hide, Elle." Mimi whispered, "We'll- we'll be fine."
I wobbled a bit, managed to grab Mimi's shoulder, and steered her back, away from the door. I tried not to see the look on Elle's face.
Thump.
Where could we hide? I was momentarily at a loss, before the obvious occurred to me, and I knelt down in front of one of the ransacked cabinets. I started crying when I tried to reach out and open it with my bad arm. It hurt so much. I felt so weak and powerless, so small.
Thump. Scrape.
I fumbled with the handle, and opened it, most of what had been inside was thrown on the floor now. Mimi climbed in, and I climbed in after her, my ribs stung, my arm screamed, and I almost blacked out with the pain, I could only lay there panting, spots swimming in front of my eyes.
Thump. Scrape.
I pulled the cabinet closed, then cracked it just a hair, looking out, almost afraid to, but more afraid not to. Mimi crowded me, but only just, and we jostled a little in silence.
"Shh," I hissed.
"I'm not saying anything!" Mimi protested, which earned her a hand over her mouth. My heartbeat felt so loud I thought we'd be heard anyway. Too loud, everything was too loud. Every movement as Mimi tried to pry my hand away. We shifted around, trying to find a possition that allowed us to sit comfortably even wiht our legs and arms tangled. Mimi jabbed me with a knee. I lost control of Mimi's mouth and tried covering my own. It was so loud.
I hoped Elle was hiding too.
A breath passed. Another. Something Thudded, wood splintered, wood scraped as something pushed it across the floor.
Thump. Scrape.
Something was in the room. I couldn't see it, the cabinet was facing the wrong direction. But I could hear it, and it sounded huge, each footstep thudding with ponderous slowness. I was sure I could feel it through the floor. A shadow passed across the wall, enormous and misshapen.
Blood. I nearly gagged, it reeked of blood. The smell was overpowering. Copper in the back of my throat.
I didn't realize what I was hearing until the thing passed our cabinet; it was two legs, thick and heavy, huge, bare. Hairy. A man, I guessed. He stepped and his skin stuck to the floor, and when he took another step it peeled away, left a bloody footprint behind. Each step was like a tree trunk striking the ground.
A tap, as a drop of liquid hit the floor, and a cool wash passed down my face, a chill ran down my back. His hands were red with it to the elbow, and he was splattered from head to toe. That was him I smelled. The blood all over him.
I craned my head to look up, and glimpsed a broad chest and dark red. A large, faceless helmet, a mask- perhaps it was a brace- covered his face, neck, and shoulders, distorted his profile, made it alien. Some thing not real, sub-human. It was tied to his chest with a kind of heavy leather harness that trailed broken chains. Only a narrow cross slit in the front allowed him to see.
He stepped again, dragging something behind him. I could see a person- a leg- oddly proportioned, and it took me a moment to realize it was the malformed ape-thing. Now, limp and unmoving, dragged by an ankle.
There was another sound, one I didn't recognize at first, a wheezing, snuffling. A cough. Or was it a growl?
He turned- with that brace on his shoulders, he couldn't move his head -after a moment I realized he was scanning the wreckage, slowly moving across the cabinets and boxes and shelves.
I shivered. Across from me, Mimi's face was sheet white, and her hands covered her mouth. In fear of making a sound, or attempting not to vomit. I pressed my hands together, and they were trembling.
A thud, and I nearly screamed, Mimi was crying silently. He was tearing at the door with one hand, shoving and pulling at the shelves blocking his entrance. He gave a great heave, throwing his weight against the frame, and I heard wood give, break and splinter. That growl again, rumbling from deep within his chest.
Behind the man in the mask, the mutated ape stirred. It woke up, yammering and protesting weakly. I could see its leg, ankle gripped in the masked man's huge hand- thick and muscled, but in the Man's grasp, it looked small, like a child's. It tugged slightly in his grip. All discolored and sickly and completely hairless.
The man paused, before ponderously turning and stepping over the prone mutant. He lifted a foot, and for a moment I believed he'd step over it.
Then he brought his foot down.
I couldn't see, the angle was wrong, I didn't see where the blow struck. But there was a meaty crack and the mutant's misshapen foot kicked, and I felt the impact through the floor. There was a pained squeal. The masked man stomped once, twice, then three times. On the fourth, the foot didn't move, didn't kick any more.
I didn't dare make a sound. Hardly dared to breathe. Mimi watched me with wide staring eyes and bloodless lips. The smell of blood was everywhere. There was a rushing in my ears, and the pain of my shoulder had my head swimming, but I didn't dare move. In a corner of my mind, I wondered if this was what it was like to be present at a cape fight and not have powers. To feel this small and weak and afraid.
I heard, and felt, him move away, each thud as he stepped- the shadow passed across the wall again.
I listened until his steps faded into silence. Until the pounding of my heart started to quiet and the rushing in my ears stilled. It was longer until my shoulder and arm hurt so much, and my legs cramped to the point I could no longer feel my feet- and I nudged the door open. I kind of folded out onto my face, Mimi helped me stand.
The mutant was dead, its rib cage cracked and pushed in, its skull crushed. I pulled away from the pool of blood surrounding it, walking for the reception area, looking for space, space to breathe.
That was were I lost it, and threw up all over the floor.
Mimi held my hair out of my face, and didn't throw up; but when I looked at her, her mouth was a grim line. She was pale as a sheet, but her jaw and eyes were fixed and hard.
"H-hello?" Elle's voice drifted to us past the barricade, "Is it safe?"
"I don't know." I said, huffing and holding a hand to my side. Ow, still hurt.
I could feel my power return, for just a moment, and an destinct impression, of a roving eye pauseing and turning back the way it came.
"He's on to us, come on!"
Again, my awareness faded, but where the huge man with his awkward metal mask and brace was unable to squeeze through, Mimi and I were slimmer. Even with the ruined door and shelf tangled with each other, Mimi could shimmy through, only earning herself a couple cuts on her hands- and a long tear on her scrub pants. I was a bit more awkward, I slipped my arm out of its sling delicately, before maneuvering one leg painfully through, wiggling a bit. My clothes caught on the jagged edges, my pants and shirt, the hem rode up a little, pinched in the splinters. I pushed, and when that didn't work I tried to back out again- but it was no use, I was my sling.
"Give me your arm." Elle asked. She reached out her hand.
It was my bad arm.
I hesitated, then clenched my teeth and reached out for her hand, she gripped me by the wrist and I braced myself. But I was not prepared for the pain. Mimi and Elle tugged lightly, then they pulled. It was all I could do not to scream. I twisted, working at it. With some effort my scrubs came loose with a rip and I tipped in to the room beyond. But I didn't care about that much anymore. I didn't care about much at all, care about much besides my arm. I just curled up in a ball on the floor, crying.
I was dimly aware of Mimi crouched down beside me, fussing over the bandages, and the sling- it had come loose- while I tried to stop sniffling.
"Thanks Mimi," I said, when she was done.
"Sure." Mimi said, looking a bit uncomfortable. But she wasn't shivering or rubbing her arms. Was this the real Mimi? Was whatever was blocking our powers also blocking out the effects those powers had on her?
I noticed Elle watching me, a little withdrawn.
"You okay?" I tried to smile, but I felt like shit and probably looked it too.
Elle opened her mouth to say something, but instead her eyes drifted to the door, and widened. And then she screamed.
I jumped, bolting to my feet, even though it made the room spin, Mimi right there with me I turned to see what she was loking at, and had to take a step back..
He- it- the thing was standing there, on the other side of the door and the barricade. Just standing there, covered in blood, red on his hands, splashed halfway up its leg. Heavy muscles, a patchwork of scars and leather straps- cuffs on his wrists, arms, ankles, each thick and each torn loose. He wore very little clothing beyond shredded and discolored scraps of stained red hanging around his waist. Back-lit, dark and so huge; his shadow seemed to fill the whole world. Looking at him, the barricade looked so flimsy, like it couldn't possibly pose an obstacle at all. I felt so terribly exposed, my mouth was full of cotton, and I swallowed thickly.
"Oh fuck." Mimi said, grabbing my good shoulder in one hand, and Elle's in the other, pulling all of us back from the door.
How? How the fuck had he snuck up on us?
I was hyperventilating, my hand in Mimi's. Mimi was tugging on my arm. Not hard, she was looking at him too. We couldn't take our eyes off him, but Mimi was tugging me back a step at a time all the same. We moved back, foot by foot, never taking our eyes off him.
"What do you want?" Mimi demanded, voice shaking.
He didn't say a word. His hands were loose and limp at his sides. I could hear his breathing, echoing within the mask. Deep and even. The only sound I could hear. Maybe we had stopped breathing, maybe we didn't have heartbeats any more, it was the only sound. How was it so loud?
"W-what's he doing?" Elle whispered.
I didn't know, and I didn't trust myself to speak, so I took her hand and squeezed it.
But... He just stood there, watching us. Watching us. The seconds dragged on, until he slowly turned. Without a word, he just... He turned and walked back out. His footsteps were not as heavy as before, still ponderous and slow. But they weren't loud. They were no warning, if we tried to hear him coming, we might not.
I felt cold.
He wasn't letting us go. I was sure of that. My power was still a blank absence, but I knew that with bone-deep certainty. He wasn't letting us go. He was hunting us now.
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I slid to the floor, just breathing shallowly. I felt drained. I looked at my hands, and the fingers shook. The pain, the walking, the running, the... things, and the emotional crucible had caught up with me. I couldn't stand any more. I was tired. Tired in my bones. I just... I needed time to breathe. I needed a rest. Sit down.
On either side of me, Mimi and Elle sat down as well, and we sat there a moment, tired and emotionally wrung-out. Then, to my surprise, Mimi wrapped an arm around my shoulders, around both me and Elle. She was pale and shaking at least as much as I was, but her eyes were focused on the barricaded door. For just a moment, it looked like we were safe.
We sat like that for a while, until finally my powers started coming back.
Mimi stiffened, and withdrew her arm quickly. There were two tiny glowing motes in her eyes, quickly doused. Her eyes were green again.
Elle just sighed, staring down at her feet. I could sense a mingling of frustration and dejection from her. And from Mimi, I could feel the familiarity, her guilt and her determination to make it right any way she could. Loyalty. The flash of fear in Mimi's eyes, when she realized her powers were back... It occurred to me that she'd pulled us away from the danger, from the masked man, and placed herself between us and the monster.
-afraid; afraid of being alone, afraid of loss, seeking reassurance; protective; fatigued; emotionally fatigued, physically fatigued; socially starved for contact-
I looked at her sidelong, too tired to turn my head- looked at the burns down her cheeks and the bags under her eyes. Her eyes closed, and she leaned her head back against the wall, like she was dozing; she looked exhausted.
You can do it, Mimi.
"Hey." I said.
Mimi's eyes opened blearily, "Whu?" she rubbed her face, "Taylor?"
"Thanks back there." I said.
Mimi blinked at me a moment, then looked away.
Elle fidgeted, sneaking little glances, until she spoke up too, "Yeah... Um, thanks."
Mimi was tensed, shoulders hunched forward. Almost like she was bracing for a blow she was expecting, but after a moment she relaxed again, a little. We sat in silence. I couldn't have told you if it was a comfortable silence or not. Mostly, it was a tired silence. But eventually we'd need to move, and that meant that before that eventuality I'd need to start thinking.
Our powers were back... I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. If he could control that power suppressing ability; reel it in, or spread it out, then he might be lurking right outside the door right now, trying to lure us out. I waited, trying to sense the Thinker power- that sense of something hunting me. Trying to gauge what he was doing.
There was a brief awareness- a flicker, there then gone. Then it was back, and gone again. There was... Energy behind it. It moved, indecisive.
"How does your power work?" I asked, "I mean, using it?"
Mimi blinked, half turned away from me, "Um. I can make fire from anywhere, my skin. I, um, I have a lot of control." She made a sour face, like she couldn't decide if that was something she liked or not... Oh, I got it. She had a lot of control over her power, but not over herself when using her power. Hah, irony. Not funny.
"What can you do with it?" I asked instead.
"Anything!" For just a moment, her eyes were wide and earnest with pride, "I can make it into just about anything I want!"
"Show me."
She blinked, then hesitated, eyes sliding away a moment, "You, want me to... Use my power." Elle looked up too, staring past Mimi, at me- her eyes wide with disbelief. I don't think she know what to think; I could see her, mouth opened soundlessly. Incredulous.
Not at Mimi's power, but at me.
"Yeah."
Mimi raised a hand, slowly. She glanced at me, at her hand, then back again. Then- she lifted a finger and from the tip a thread of flame climbed into the air. It didn't waver like flame usually did, instead it looked like a tiny neon tube. I'd once seen a lamp like that, tiny neon filaments sculpted into a shape. And, like that lamp, the flame took a shape, grew and lengthened and bloomed into a flower of light in her hand. As I watched, it sharpened, settled as Mimi concentrated on the form she wanted and her eyes glowed. Different colors suggested veins in the leaves, suggested depth. I could count the petals.
Elle and I both stared at the tiny sculpture of flame.
"It's pretty," I breathed. I wasn't lying either. It was beautiful, more than I'd ever expected it could be.
She looked at me, it was furtive, her shoulders hunched slightly. I wondered if anyone had ever told her that her power could do anything good, be anything more than destructive. Was anything but frightening. She smiled shyly, pleased with my compliment, but what I was thinking about was the monster hunting us.
Elle glanced from me to the flower and back again, silent and dumbstruck.
"And you can teleport, right?"
She frowned, "Yeah. Why?"
"What are your limitations?"
Mimi hesitated, "I can teleport through fire. I have to be touching it, and I can only teleport to more. To where there's more fire."
Not a problem if she could make more anywhere, "Do you have to see it? Can you do it through walls?"
"Yeah. I, uh, I don't need to see it."
"Hmm..." I thought, "What's your range?"
Mimi blinked, "I don't know." She looked down at the flower, "I've never really used it outside, so..."
I leaned my head back, thinking about what I'd seen. The fight with the mutants, burning the records room... The way the fire surged at her command, blazing on concrete and metal.
"You can effect fire over a wide area, right? Control it?" That was a Shaker power...
"I... Make it bigger, smaller... Hotter, cooler, brighter, or dimmer. Move it around." Mimi mumbled, "Anything."
I was thinking faster now, "Sense it?"
"...Yeah." Mimi was looking uncomfortable now. My power hinted- I was reminding her of the doctors, the doctors that tested her and tested her, but couldn't help her. I sighed and wearily looked over at Elle, who still stared at me like I'd grown a second head.
"You use your power voluntarily?" I asked, "I saw what you did with the wall, made us a door, can you work with more than that, more complicated then that?"
Elle continued to stare.
"Elle?"
"Y-yes..." Elle blinked, voice soft.
I closed my eyes, thinking. She'd said she could build worlds...
"The worlds you build... Do they have to be the same ones? Your castle and the dungeon..."
Elle shook her head, "I can make anything I want, but it's easier if I use one if I've already made it before." That was kind of like how my power worked...
"Anything else?"
"It... It needs to... soak in." Elle frowned, her lips worked, "Everywhere around me, the longer my power works into it the faster it... faster it works..."
Hmm...
I glanced at the back of the Dispensary, at the other door, ajar. Slowly let out the breath I'd been holding.
I reached out and patted Mimi on her shoulder, unfortunately making her loose her concentration. The flower dissolved into a few motes of light, gone in a moment.
"I'm trying to come up with a plan in case that guy comes back. Can I count on you both to use your powers when I say?"
Mimi's eyes went very wide, but she nodded, "I... Yes." Her eyes shone, her shoulders straightened with purpose and she lifted her chin, "Yes. You can. You can count on me, Taylor!"
Elle blinked hard, "I... Its... Yes, I can."
I could work with that.