Thirteen’s form is changing. The stormy creature bulges as parts of her body shake violently. Her radiant glow is fading and stuttering while the smoky bits are dissipating. Like a glitch sputtering out, Thirteen is still flickering between being bound prone on the table and standing in front of the protective glass. I don’t know what is happening, but I think she’s running out of juice. She can’t sustain this discordant form for too long. She was able to briefly become electricity and move as fast as lightning, appearing in two places at once. Now, as the energy we filled her with is fading, she’s changing back. While Kai is lying on the ground in pain, I leave the makeshift bunker he made and head for Thirteen.

Thirteen is back to being human and lying still on the table. Not dead. I can sense both powers inside her. I remove my glove and press a finger to her forehead, beginning the transfer. At least I can take back multiple powers at the same time. It would be a pain if I had to queue them up. Thirteen profusely sweats as I remove my gifts, and her skin is paler than I remember. The second the reclamation ends, her eyes flicker open, and they are a sickly orange color. Her pupils are unfocused and moving erratically.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

I have no reason to speak with her; she is dying.

“Because I was curious,” I answered.

She doesn’t react to my voice despite how jarring it must be. She is fading fast.

“Does my life mean that little to you?

“Your life means nothing to me, Subject Thirteen. You are one of many, and I have no desire to learn the name of a corpse.”

“Thirteen? There are others?” She coughs, and a thin line of blood dribbles from her lips. “You’re a monster. You’ll be called before God eventually, and you’ll rot in hell for all eternity.”

I don’t respond, leaving Thirteen to die while I check on Kai. His prosthetic has transformed back into a regular arm, and his tablet is on the ground. He’s getting up gradually, but he’s still shielding his eyes. His goggles did nothing to protect his eyes. I offer him a hand, pulling him up.

“Thanks. Holy shit, that hurts. It feels like I microwaved my retinas,” Kai said, taking his goggles off.

“My helmet shielded me. Are you able to see?”

“I’m fine, just gonna be seeing spots for a few hours,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “What the fuck was that? I’m going to have to go over the footage from my camera drones.”

“We were proven correct. She destroyed all your drones and might have damaged everything else. Thirteen managed to show off at least one new power, if not multiple. She transformed into an elemental form similar to Vivienne. Luckily for us, the energy requirements were too high, and she overtaxed her body.”

“Motherfucker. Alright, give me a few to check on everything,” Kai said, cradling one of his smoking drones. “Do you want to end the trials for today?”

“We will continue as soon as you’re ready. We’re on a tight schedule, Doctor.”

Kai rounds up the ruined drones and tosses them over by his workshop. I wait as he goes around checking that everything is still working. It doesn’t take him long before the monitor is back up and showing the prisoners still locked up.

“The base is fine. No one escaped containment,” Kai said.

“Okay, now tell me, how are Zero and Six performing?”

“Zero is off, for lack of a better word. She mumbles and mutters due to the effects of Manic Panic. I’ve made sure to synthesize more since I now need enough for two. The gas is distributed on a set schedule every two hours. The drug has made her less responsive but much more creative. Zero has been mass-creating body parts using Swaim’s power and then shrinking those body parts down till they’re almost microscopic. You know what, it’s just better to show you,” Kai said.

The large display monitor changes from the group shots to just Zero’s room. She’s lying on the bed, except she isn’t all there. Zero’s head and body are lying on the bed, but her pants and sleeves are clearly empty. She’s twirling her head around, tongue hanging, and her limbs are nowhere to be seen. That drug is quite a concoction. The ability to shrink the portioned-off body parts is not the flashiest, but there are bound to be duds.

“As you can see, the ability isn’t very useful. She can only shrink the pieces of her body that aren’t attached to her. It isn’t nearly as interesting as the last new ability she discovered or what Subject Six has displayed,” Kai said.

The monitor switches over to Six in his room. He’s punching and kicking out, clearly practicing some form of fighting style. I bet Vivienne would know. She and Tuesday should be back soon. Six continues cycling through his movements, but now, he ends each attack with a short blast of yellow kinetic energy. There is no sound coming from him, he bubbled his room off. Six is using both powers simultaneously. He’s obviously got a history in martial arts. What were you doing before ending up on the streets?

“His moves are impressive, and he’s using both abilities far better than either of the originals ever did. But I’m not seeing anything new from him,” I said.

“Part of the whole ‘don’t interact with the subjects’ mandate means I can’t coax them into tricks for your amusement. The subjects are like zoo animals; they do what they want to do. But I’ll save you the suspense. He can create force bubbles that release kinetic energy when they pop. Do you want to pull up the footage?” Kai asked.

If Rorschach wasn’t so emotional about Murmur, I could use that power. There are so many possible combinations I could do with it.

“No, I’m alright. I want to move on to seeing the limit of the amount of powers I can give. Bring up Zero, Six, and one of the others.”

“Kay, just gimme a bit.”

----------------------------------------

Three unconscious people lie in front of me. Each one of them is fully sedated and restrained. Subject Zero, Subject Six, and Subject Ten will be the guinea pigs. Subject Ten is a Caucasian woman, and while better off than Zero or Thirteen, shows telltale signs of living on the streets: mistreated injuries, scars, signs of poor diet, and a frail, thin frame.

“I’m going to start with Zero,” I said.

“What are you giving her now?”

“A Mentalist/Manipulator that grants the ability to see trajectories and make things bouncier in a way that ignores physics.”

“Alright, I added it to her file. You can start whenever you’re ready,” Kai said.

I touch her wrist and send the power into her. There is a chance that it won’t work, and that two is the limit. Both Kai and I wait for any signs of rejection, but none comes. The power is inside her, along with the other two. Subject Zero is peacefully sleeping, and there are no visible changes.

“Scans say that she’s perfectly fine. This changes everything. If two isn’t the limit and the abilities keep combining, you could make the next Apex. We could birth a god,” Kai said giddily. “Sorry, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. There is still a chance that Zero is an anomaly, and further tests are needed. What are you planning to give Six?”

“For Six, I’m going to give him Constrictor’s power. I doubt that it will have any quality synergistic value, but I’m running low on powers that aren’t too dangerous to give,” I said.

I transfer the power to Subject Six and Kai whistles at the transformation. Every scar on his body starts to heal as his tanned skin shifts hues over to a cloudy green. Flesh changes to scales, body hair falls away, fingernails become claws, and his head shape shifts from mammalian to a more reptilian one. His mouth splits at the seams, giving both of us a front-row view of his teeth sharpening and lengthening and his lips bubbling away. Six’s tongue grows, becoming forked and long. I thought he would just look like Isaiah did, but it’s clear now that Six is less bulky and much more lithe than Constrictor was. He’s taller and longer. Where Isaiah was crocodile-like, Six is much more serpentine. The brown shirt is now a crop top, and the pants have become capris. His tail thumps as it hits the floor, hanging loosely off the table.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“He’s completely different from Isaiah. The power doesn’t grant much of a size change beyond height. Absolutely fascinating. You know there’s probably a certain group of people who would pay for you to change them into this,” Kai said.

“I have no interest in helping strangers live out their perverse pleasures,” I rebuked.

“More of a missionary man, huh?” Kai asked.

“Kai, do not confuse me for the others. My anonymity extends to every part of my life. Do not forget that.”

“Understood,” he said sheepishly.

“I’m going to give Subject Ten the original combination we gave Zero: gravity and telekinesis. For the final ability, I’m going to need our Cape.”

I start the transfer of the first two powers while I wait for the table drone to bring Offset to me. The transfer happens without a hitch and I hear the tapping of the table drone as it brings me the mutilated Cape. It is time-consuming to have to pretend that I need five minutes to take the power back, but a secret does require secrecy. Once Offset’s power is back within me, I start the process of giving it to Subject Ten. I don’t have enough stolen powers to run this with more than three subjects. There is no telling when Tuesday and Vivienne will be going after the White Knights, and Isaiah isn’t back with the other two monsters yet.

The seconds tick by until the five-minute mark, and then Subject Ten wakes up. The woman screams so loud I feel it in my bones. She’s having a seizure, her body jolting around under the restraints. Her eyes roll back into her head and Kai’s machines are blinking warnings.

“What the fuck is happening?” Kai yelled over the noise.

“I gave her the third power. You said she was sedated.”

“She was! Look at Six and Zero, they all got the same dosage. Out of the way, I have to make sure she doesn’t bite her tongue off,” Kai said, rushing over.

What happened? What went wrong?

Kai’s arm transforms. He uses the points to hold her head steady, keep her mouth open, and stop her from biting her tongue. This looks like a scene out of a dental-themed horror movie. I did everything exactly the same as the others, so why is this different? Ten’s seizure continues for over twenty minutes, and Kai is forced to stay in one spot to keep her alive. Eventually, she stops and passes out.

“That was an abnormally long seizure, was it not, Doctor?”

“If by abnormally long you mean four times the longest recorded one, then yes,” Kai snapped at me.

Is the stress of today started to wear on him? “Are you all set to continue, Kai?”

“You know what? No. We’re calling it for today. I have a ton of tests to run on all of them, and I have to find out what happened to Subject Ten. My eyes still hurt like a bitch, and I have to rebuild my camera drones. We can continue tomorrow,” Kai said.

“Alright, I don’t mind stopping,” I said, leaving the lab.

----------------------------------------

“How are your eyes feeling?”

“Much better, and I’ve upgraded my goggles with new lenses that should hopefully mitigate any injuries to my eyes if another subject goes haywire,” Kai said, showing off his new goggles with even thicker lenses.

“Is everything all set for us to continue?”

“Yes, cleaned everything up and spent a bit salvaging what I could from the fried camera drones. Thirteen’s body is in the freezer and I’ll let you know if I find anything anomalous.”

“And what about Ten?”

“She’s braindead,” Kai said casually. “All brain activity has stopped, and without the machines, she will die.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

Kai flips his tablet over, showing me what looks like MRI footage. He presses play on the video, and I see the brain diagram flashing as more and more sections light up.

“The second you gave her the power, her limbic system lit up like the Vegas Strip. She's a vegetable,” Kai said.

“What about Zero and Six?”

“I went over the readings and their brains lit up when you gave them the third power as well. The activity was centered around the amygdala and the hippocampus and, in Subject Ten’s case seems to have been overloaded. The process by which the third power is transferred seems to put the brain under extreme duress, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are hallucinations involved. We will have to wait for the two of them to wake up to figure out what kind of long-term effects the experience had on them.”

“They’re still not awake?” I asked.

“No. And if we attempt to wake them before they are ready, there could be complications,” Kai answered.

“Well, I’m going to be removing the powers. Dispose of Subject Ten once your autopsy is done.”

“Understood.”

My phone rings as I finish up. Why is Isaiah calling me instead of texting?

“Hey, Nobody, I’m on my way back now,” Isaiah said.

“Which one are you bringing back?”

“Both of them. Phantasmo took my offer, and together, we were able to capture Carapace. Heads up, she is fucking huge. We should be there in about ten,” he said.

“I will meet you when you get here.”

“Gotcha,” Isaiah replied, hanging up.

“Who was that?” Kai asked.

“Isaiah, and he’s brought a friend. We’ll need a few table drones. We may have a Big Phish situation on our hands.”

I head for the staircase, leaving Kai to organize the lab and send his drones along after me. The main room isn’t one I have spent much, if any, time in. Uncluttered and designed with an open floor concept that would make Daniel proud. I don’t even know what the inside of the break room looks like. That is purposeful; employees cannot relax with their boss in the room. The table drones come clinking along, joining me. I count the minutes while I wait for Isaiah to arrive. Keeping time is not a compulsion, but it is an activity I frequently find myself drawn to. It is a careful balancing act, keeping so many plates spinning, and it’s only made possible by my meticulous sense of timing.

“He’s back. I’m opening the main doors to let the truck in,” Kai said over the speakers.

The large warehouse doors creak open. I was unaware those opened. In comes the truck, along with sunlight from outside. In the passenger seat is a jellyfish-like ghoul masquerading as a man. Phantasmo. Isaiah hops out of the truck, and the warehouse doors shut. Phantasmo slips out of the truck, and I notice he’s shorter than I imagined. The way he moves is floaty, even when he’s walking. Is it a possible side effect of his ability, or is it just his unique anatomy?

“Hey, boss. This is Phantasmo,” Isaiah said, slapping him on the back.

“Uh, well. Hello. Sir,” he said.

Awkward and immediately deferential. A man who has long forgotten whatever social skills he once had. Someone who will be easily manipulated but remarkably genuine.

“Hello, Phantasmo.” He nearly jumps at the sound of my voice. “You can call me Nobody. I am the one in charge of this operation. I hear you have taken Isaiah up on his offer.”

“Yeah, he said you could fix me?” Phantasmo said hopefully.

“I can. I’d like to have a little chat before that. Isaiah, get Carapace down to the doctor; I will be down when we’ve finished,” I said.

Isaiah walks away to open the truck, with the table drones trailing him.

“Follow me.”

I head toward the large double doors with Phantasmo floating behind me. He quietly hovers along as I lead him through the base. He follows me into the empty conference room, and I motion for him to take a seat across from me. Sitting so closely, I am subjected to his unsightly form. Gelatinous, wriggly flesh ribbons trail off every part of his body. He’s a faded gray color like that of over-oxidized meat, and his large puppy-dog eyes tremble as he stares at me. Time to begin the dance.

“As I said downstairs, my name is Nobody, and I am the only person in the world who can fix you. My moniker isn’t accidental. Anonymity is paramount to everything you see here. My offer to remove the burden you’ve been shouldering all these years has only one string attached to it: your silence and willingness to forget everything you’ve seen here. But Miles, if you decide to talk to anyone about me or this place, I will cut your tongue out and pluck your eyes from your skull. There is nowhere you could hide that I could not find you,” I said.

“Jesus Christ,” he mumbled. Miles’ weird head twitches before looking up at me. “But you can do it, right? You can make me normal? You would do that for me and for free?”

“Yes, in exchange for your silence, I can make you human again.”

The silence in the conference room is so thick I could slice it. Not just a threat but a promise of what could happen if he fails to uphold the bargain.

“Miles, do you agree to my terms?” I asked.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you know my name, but it’s still unnerving. I have to be honest; this is all moving so fast that I'm kinda getting cold feet, but it’s probably just my anxiety talking. I gave up on any dreams of a normal life years ago, so I can't help but feel odd. Sorry. I’m stalling. I accept your terms. What do I have to do?” Miles asked.

“Just give me your hand.”

I take his damp, gross appendage in mine and start to absorb his ability. Miles immediately starts fidgeting in place, but as the absorption finishes, he goes still. Phantasmo is no more, leaving behind the man Miles Martinez freed from his previous circumstances.

Miles is on the shorter side, about five-eight and stocky. He isn’t heavy set but sturdy like a nightstand. Miles has bronze skin, brown eyes, and a wider face with a full beard and mustache that doesn’t connect. His dark curly hair is a cross between a mullet and a wolf cut, but even more unruly. And just like Isaiah, he’s completely naked after transforming. He spends a few minutes inspecting his body before the reality sets in, and he quickly uses his hands to cover himself.

“Oh my god. Sorry. I didn’t think to bring clothes or anything,” Miles said, blushing.

At least he has a sense of shame. “Kai, send a drone with clothes to the conference room,” I said aloud.

“What, why? Ohhh, ohoho. I see,” Kai replied over the speaker.

“Miles, I’d like to talk to you about an unrelated topic. You are obviously free to go whenever you'd like, but I'd like to propose something,” I said.

The blush on Miles’ face is fading, and his face is an open book, revealing his interest plainly. Now that he's human, I can read him. His file suggests he could be receptive to emotional manipulation. He is a loner not by choice but by circumstance, desperate for a place to belong. The others can fill the role of a found family quite easily. They all have strong personalities that will give him a sense of safety. Miles is a follower.

A camera drone flies into the room with one of the outfits Kai created for the subjects. Miles wastes no time and throws both the shirt and pants on. The pants are bunched up around his ankles, and the shirt doesn't cover his stomach, pulling tightly around his chest. Still, it offers him a bit of modesty, and he visibly relaxes. He is more comfortable now that he’s clothed, but he’s having trouble looking directly at me.

“Thank you for the clothes. What was the other thing that you wanted to speak about? The least I can do is hear you out after what you’ve given me,” Miles said.

“Miles, do you think the world we live in is fair?”

“No, it absolutely isn’t. The world is only fair to those who are favored and brutal to everyone else. The haves and have-nots.”

“Do you believe Neuvohumans are inherently superior to regular people?”

“Not at all. I’d even say that most of them are worse than the majority. I think that Triggering brings out the good and the bad inside us. And whichever you have more of tends to hold the reins.”

“What are your thoughts on the Heroes’ Union?”

A pulse of raw anger ripples across his features, his lips turn to a snarl, and his drumming fingers clench into a fist. He is still upset about it.

“A bunch of hypocrites pretending to be heroes. They don’t care about making a difference if it isn’t marketable. There’s a reason they only exist in major metropolitan cities, they don’t care about crime or famine if it’s happening somewhere without wifi. They are frauds, plain and simple,” Miles answered.

“They rejected your application, didn’t they?”

“You’ve clearly done your research into me. Yes, they said I ‘wasn’t the right fit.’ What they meant was that I was too ugly to be sellable to the masses.”

“Do you hate the Heroes’ Union?”

Miles stares at me but doesn’t answer right away. A thin line of stoking his resentment to make him malleable.

“I thought my life ended when I triggered and turned into that creature, but the truth is my life ended the day they rejected me. The Heroes’ Union was my only chance to be able to make a living while looking like I did. I’d have spent the rest of my life in that toy store if you hadn’t sent Isaiah to look for me. It boils my blood when I think about that moment. My feelings toward the Heroes’ Union go so far past hate. There might be good Capes, but the organization is corrupted and deserves to be burned to the ground.”

“Final question, Miles. Do you want to be the match?”