Arrival 1.4
We returned to the training room. Once again it was otherwise unoccupied. I wondered if this was usually the case – a room built for a team that did not yet exist. Or if the rest of the staff used it when it was not reserved for power testing. Or possibly some combination where the heroes used it some hours and the staff at other times.
I could see the potential dangers of having normal and capes training together. Unless, that is, they would potentially be operating in the field together. Then joint training was a necessity.
Regardless of the reason Mr. Gabriel and Dr. Moss were the only people in the room when Dr. Grace and I entered. They had a bed and some portable monitoring devices set up at the ready.
Just in case, I supposed.
"Good afternoon, ah…" Mr. Gabriel trailed off. "We really need a name for you. It is undignified to continue to refer to you as …" he checked his tablet. "Subject #7 in our records. Nor do I think Chariot's suggestion of Red is neither sufficiently distinctive nor original. Have you given it any thought?"
"I should like to be called Azim Amari, with a cape name of Sentinel," I replied. "They come from a heroic character who holds an important place in what I assume is my home culture."
"What if the name is recognized?" the masked man asked.
"Whomever should recognize it may have some connection to my place of origin and might be able to tell me more," I replied. This was something I had considered. "The name itself is something of a tethered goat."
"I see. Very well. Good afternoon, Azim. Or do you prefer Mr. Amari." Mr. Gabriel asked.
"I think Azim is acceptable in these circumstances."
"Are you ready to begin the experiments?" the man in white inquired, taking out a small wooden box with three vials of blood.
The mere sight of the fluid sparked my craving. I marshaled my will to bridle the urge to rush forward and devour the crimson essence, eventually overcoming it – or at least holding it sufficiently in check to act in a composed manner.
"Very well. What did you have in mind? I recall you wanted to test the effect of applying the blood to my skin." My voice was slightly tight with my effort to restrain myself, but I hoped no one noticed.
"Let's try that first," Mr. Gabriel agreed.
He took out a vial while Dr. Moss motioned me to the stretcher. It was configured almost as a chair, allowing me to sit up topless while she attached several monitors. Once her work was complete she stepped back and Mr. Gabriel handed me the vial.
Dr. Grace had a camera set up to record the event.
I unstopped the glass tube and poured a quarter of the contents onto my palm. It took a second to control the urge to immediately lap the blood from my hand. Instead, I smoothed the blood between my thumb and fingers then smeared it on my chest.
We waited.
Nothing happened.
After five minutes, carefully timed, Mr. Gabriel suggested "Why don't you try drinking it?"
With a silent nod I raised the vial to my lips then chugged it down. The expected pain shot through my body, centered mostly on my brain, arms, and hands. It was very unpleasant, but not traumatic enough to drive me to unconsciousness. Or perhaps I was stronger than I had been the first time. Eventually I was able to reopen my eyes and sit up straighter.
"How long?" I asked.
"Forty-seven seconds from your ingestion to your opening your eyes," Dr. Grace responded. "Can you describe what you felt? Was it the same as when you drank yesterday's sample or different?"
"Different," I replied quickly. "Yesterday it felt like fire pouring through my nerves and across my skin. This felt like pressure pulling at my brain and hands. Like something was trying to shoot out."
I gestured and two dark, misty tentacles grew out of my hands, almost like shadowy whips. I could feel the immediate connection with his telekinesis and was able to control them like limbs. They even provided tactile feedback. I could feel through them. And they extended my telekinetic reach. I could manipulate whatever the tentacles touched.
"Oh my," Dr. Grace exclaimed. "I estimate them at roughly ten meters in length. How many can you produce at a time? Can you produce them from anywhere other than your hands?"
"Let's see," I said.
Unfortunately, I could only produce the two, one from each hand. Her estimate on length proved accurate. I tried combining them with other powers as they worked well with my TK. I could not get them to burn. And when I turned dark, they vanished, becoming part of the shadow on my skin.
We spent another hour testing them. Their lifting capacity topped out at just over a ton, which we hypothesized was based on my TK field alone. This was significantly weaker than my physical enhancement multiplied by my TK field. There were also constraints to the fine manipulation of the pseudo-limbs, relying on the capabilities of my TK for that purpose.
"Very interesting," Mr. Gabriel mused. "This sample came from a villain called Grue. He produces clouds of dark fog that can cover a city block or more. Like with the first small taste of Shadow Stalker and the acquired sample from Circus you seem to acquire a related but reduced power. For Shadow Stalker you cannot achieve her fully intangible breaker state. Instead, you have a breaker state that reduces your mass by eighty percent or more. Instead of highly enhanced dexterity and reflexes, along with pyrokinesis and an extra-dimensional pocket, you develop a lesser increase in reflexes and the ability to produce a fire field around your body. Here you developed the power to create limbs of darkness instead of great clouds of it."
"But a significant ingestion of Browbeat's blood gave him the deceased cape's full powers, possibly at even higher levels than the original," Dr. Grace added. "So the volume of blood may be the differentiating factor, or somehow the death of the donor, perhaps? There is precedent of post-mortem power transfers with the Butcher and Fairy Queen."
"Those are not the most felicitous comparisons, Doctor," Mr. Gabriel said repressively. "And we will not be testing anyone to destruction to prove the theory."
"I was not suggesting we should," the power tester replied tartly.
I was not familiar with named capes. Instead, I was coming up with another invidious comparison. Was I a vampire? I craved blood and gained power by ingesting it – gaining more power if I killed my victim.
"I think I need to take a walk, outside preferably," I stated. My pensiveness was clear in my tone.
"What about the other two samples?" Mr. Gabriel inquired.
I could feel the urge to consume more blood but needed to deny it to prove myself in control. "Perhaps in an hour or two. I require solitude for reflection."
"Very well," Mr. Gabriel agreed. "Dr. Moss can show you to the courtyard. I would suggest you not venture outside the compound. You're certain to draw attention on the streets. Attention we are not ready for at this point."
I considered that. If I really wanted to leave, once I was outside, I could just fly away. But Mr. Gabriel and his staff had been helpful to me. It was not their fault I was unhappy with the nature of my power. They were literally just the messengers.
"That's fine. Thank you."
I put my shirt on and follow the good doctor through the halls. She respected my desire for silence, not trying to start a conversation. A few moments later I was outside in a walled garden. It was large enough, and held enough high shrubs, that it was possible to wander out of sight of the main building.
Just standing in the sun was proof I wasn't an actual vampire. I relished that thought.
Not a vampire, nor any other sort of demonic hellspawn – all appearances aside. I was a parahuman with a power that drew capabilities through absorbing the essence of others. It was entirely possible that blood was not the only source that I could absorb. If I was processing the DNA of the others, then any biological material would do. The thought of drinking other bodily fluids was unpalatable, as was the idea of devouring their flesh. Hair might be a possibility. The idea was unpleasant, but not as bad as the others.
I was hesitant to suggest the idea to Mr. Gabriel, but I thought it worthwhile to explore options other than blood.
But suppose none of the other options panned out? What if blood was my only path to increasing my power? I had two choices – abstain from drinking blood and be satisfied with my current capabilities or accept that while I needed blood I did not need to harm, much less kill, anyone to grow. I could solicit voluntary donations or even use fluids left at crime scenes, as Mr. Gabril had done to collect the samples we had been using in our experiments. That did not make me a monster. And if I was going to be a hero in this broken world, I would need all the power I could get to help people and fight monsters.
I could not abstain. I would choose growth, guided by conscience.
When I returned to the training room the others were discussing something on their tablets. They stopped when I entered.
"Shall we continue?" Mr. Gabriel asked with no hint of reproach in his voice.
"Yes. One thought I had – if it's DNA I'm absorbing there may be other sources than blood. If we can get other samples, we could try those as well. Though I must admit to being somewhat squeamish at the thought of some possible DNA sources. I'd rather try the more hygienic ones first."
Mr. Gabriel paused for a moment then answered, "I will see what we have in our lab repository. Blood is relatively easy to collect from crime scenes, whereas other biological samples are less common, and more likely to be destroyed in analysis. In the meantime, this vial is from another minor villain. Let's see what, if anything, you get from it."
The second sample caused electrical surges to flare throughout my nervous system. The pain lasted for fifty-one seconds. At the end of it I could produce a taser-like effect on skin contact. Mr. Gabriel brought in one of the guards to act as a test subject, assuring me he would be well compensated. Dr. Moss wired him with even more sensors than I was wearing. Then I touched his arm. It spasmed, his hand closing into a ball and his arm drawing up to his chest. I held on to him and the spasms spread throughout his body, locking up muscles. After fifty-six seconds he passed out.
Further testing on other "volunteers" proved that any contact with any of my skin on any of theirs would trigger the effect, centered on the area first touched. The time to unconsciousness varied by as much as ten seconds though this seemed to be linked to the mass and physical condition of the subject. The touch would not work through clothes or any other covering, including hair. And I could not deliver the shocking touch through my dark tentacles.
"Another variant from a small sample," Mr. Gabriel concluded as we were discussing the tests. "This one was from a striker/master called Regent who can deliver minor body control effects at a distance. I do not know what extended exposure to his power does to a victim, so I cannot say if the unconsciousness effect is similar or something new to you."
He held up the last vial. "This is from a thinker. I am very curious how you might manifest a more mental power. If you are willing of course."
"I'm willing."
This vial burned through my brain. The pain only lasted thirty-eight seconds. I was unsure if the downward trend was due to my adapting to the absorption process or if each instance had a different effect based on other factors.
Try as we might after two hours, we were not able to observe any effect of ingesting the sample. I could feel something in my brain but could not seem to activate it.
Finally, I asked, "Who was the sample from? What is their power? Is there a visual component that I might be able to watch? That seemed to help me spark Shadow Stalker's partial copy."
"This was from Uber. He is a thinker with the power to gain instant mastery in any single skill he wants. And he can switch to a different skill just by changing his focus. But there's no visual component unless he uses the skill."
I tried thinking of a skill I didn't know – juggling – but nothing happened when I gathered three balls and tried to juggle them. I did feel something in my head, but I did not improve significantly after trying for several minutes. After a quarter hour of practice, I was able to keep three balls in the air for two cycles before they fell to the floor.
"I'm not sure, but I think that you might have been learning faster than normal," Dr. Grace offered. "I'd have to test it with some other people to get a baseline. And we know you have some level of enhanced reflexes and dexterity, which could account for it. I would suggest a longitudinal study to determine if you have some sort of accelerated learning. That might fit the pattern of reduced but related powers gained from small blood samples."
"That all depends on what Azim wants to do long-term," Mr. Gabriel interrupted gently.
"I know what I want to do," I said with conviction. "I want to be a hero. I want to help people in need, protect people in danger, and make this world a better place. Whether that should be with Sanctuary, the Protectorate, or some other way I do not know. But as you have helped me, given me a chance, I'm willing to return the favor and give you one."
"Welcome to the team!" Mr. Gabriel held out his hand and I took it.