Chapter 17: A Chance Encounter.

I turned a few corners and follow along some straight passages while keeping a lookout for more centipedes or eels or moles or whatever else decided to make an appetizer out of me.

With a grunt of effort, I sniped one of the moles when it came into range.

I then tried to find a detour that would allow me to reach it in order for Buddy to top off his reserves.

Goose prickles erupted all over my skin as I took note of a large antechamber.

Cobbled paths that crisscrossed each other around a dried-out fountain greeted me, barely illuminated by motes of green and red light floating in midair. At its center was a trio of metal statues depicting dancing children. Rust trailed down from their hollow eyes where running water might have flowed.

“Nice. This definitely doesn’t scream B-rated slasher film.”

Unlike the normal resting spots, there weren’t any doors on this one, and there seem to be multiple entrances.

Stone stairs were carved into the walls, leading to rocky balconies adorned with withered roots. Other than that, it was a similar deal as before. A steady stream raining down from the ceiling into the middle of the room, flowing down several stone grates.

Almost as if the rooms are slight variations of each other. Of the same rough template.

Looking at it from that perspective, I couldn’t help but wonder what the architect was on.

If the designer was even human.

Artificial intelligence could theoretically design a dungeon in this manner by re-arranging premade rooms. Meaning there was a chance some distant mastermind had a bunch of computers and an army of drones to dig out his pet project.

Various scenarios played out within my weary mind as I made my way over to the dead mole next to the fountain. In most cases, robot armies would be a ludicrous proposition. Regardless, it was no less maddening than the very notion of giving random people powers.

“Stop that, Sully. That road leads to many questions and few answers. Best to avoid making assumptions until you’re out. Also, stop talking to yourself. Its creepy. I’m not crazy.”

‘That’s right! You’re perfectly sane!’ Said the talking amoeba glued to my skin.

Many snarky replies tried to leave my mouth. All silenced by the rustle I heard behind me.

I bolted forward as my mind sharpened, turning around to face my foe.

“Whoa! Easy there! I’m human! Just like you!”

I stopped and looked at the newcomer. Very much aware that my fog failed to pick up anything.

My eyes scanned his form, moving up and down to get their measure.

It was indeed a human.

Tall and lean, with taught muscles, pale skin and an athletic frame.

Their face suggested early thirties and their expression spoke of hope and relief. Their blue eyes were firm, betraying an inner strength I sorely wished I had. Their hair was matted and filthy, unleashing a stench that would make a disgruntled skunk blush. Specifically, their beard reeked of half-digested mushrooms and what I really hoped wasn’t flying eel meat.

‘Hey Buddy. How am I smelling this dude through the astronaut form?’

‘I’m the one smelling him and passing along the info!’

‘Cool, can I ask you to stop for a little while?’

‘Sure. Thing Sully! Anything for you!’

Coming back to the issue at hand, I breathed a sweet sigh of relief. Pointedly ignoring my own odour.

The man wore an abused set of winter camping gear, torn in places where an errant jaw might have tried to find supple flesh. Puncture wounds indicative of many encounters with centipedes. Strangely, I didn’t find any bloodstains, human or otherwise.

His breath misted in the air with every heave of his lungs.

“Man! I’m I glad to see you. I thought I was all alone in this cave. Did you get bit? How did they get past your shield?”

“My shield?” I replied dumbly.

What was this guy talking about? He got a shield? Where was it? More importantly, why hadn’t I gotten one too?

Oh, that is just perfect. More than a week into my kidnapping and whoever ran this place was already picking favourites. As if the whole host of murders wasn’t enough to cement their villainy.

“I’m talking about the ability. Force Bubble. You know, the one that covers you up and takes the bites for you.”

Oh.

He’s a Projector.

Moreover, he thinks I’m a Projector.

Tell him I’m a Telepath?

Not quite yet. I had hoped to get the measure of people by mind-reading for bit before taking that step.

An added level of insurance, put in place after my last encounter. One which wasn’t available for whatever reason.

There was only one real solution. Misdirect harder than a politician on campaign.

“Nah man! This came from a dead mole. I got them before they reached me but got blood all over the suit. Now that I have powers, I’ll never let these guys touch me again!” I cringed as soon as the words were out. There was an itch in my skin.

A visceral reaction to a very poor performance. It was technically true, yet I wasn’t known for my credible poker face at the best of times. I was feeling more itching at the back of my neck.

A feeling that my new friend didn’t buy the steamy pile of fertilizer I was selling.

My hands felt clammy and cold. A knot was forming in my stomach.

All stemming from the simple fact that I had been bested in the one ability I’d grown to trust above all others. Marshalling my resolve, I narrowed my focus. Wrangling the fog as if it were an unruly beast and trying to find this person within its depths.

Nothing. Not even the hint of an outline like with the Bunny Man.

Was he even there? Could this be a hallucination?

“Hey man, Sully, was it? Are you ok? You’re starting to give me the creeps with the whole silent treatment. That and the astronaut suit make you look a bit off. Not that it’s a bad look mind you. I thought I was prepared for the apocalypse but you really took it one step further, sleeping in that thing.”

“Sorry.” I answered reflexively. Pointedly ignoring his comment about some apocalypse. “I…I got caught off guard is all. Been a while since I saw another person.”

“Boy, do I hear that. Those (Gnome)ing gnomes sure are doing a number on us.”

The man took another step in my direction. Worry painted on his face. As he did so, the coloured light ebbed and flowed away from his body in a circular motion. Pushed away by an unseen barrier.

Taking inspiration from this apparent talent, I forced my fog to rotate into a drill-like shape and tried to wrap tendrils of smoke around the stranger.

In less than a second, that careless slip had been rectified and I began to get signals from his mind too.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

‘So, it wasn’t just me that got thrown down here.’ He thought with evident relief. ‘I was right. This is a government conspiracy to hide where powers come from. They’ve been keeping the truth from us for years! The bastards! They didn’t want people to know about aliens teleporting humans into their underground cave networks. The only question is why? Why keep this hidden? Why breed monsters here? Why work with the freaking gnomes? AHA! They wanted to keep people from being prepared! To keep the number of Espers low! To control the population! The secret cabal must have messed up this time and grabbed older people instead of teenagers. Ha! I was right to kill those government spooks! Just you wait! I’ll blow this thing wide open!’

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

That was…

That was a bit more information than I wanted.

Conspiracies aside, my new friend doesn’t know anything about the current situation.

Not anymore than me at least.

He also didn’t even stop to suspect me.

Either I did way better than I gave myself credit for. That, or this guy is completely oblivious.

Like a Shifter who doesn’t understand why everyone is so upset at him for eating passengers on the go-train.

“Anyway, I’m really glad to meet you. My name is Randall.” He said, reaching forward to shake my right hand.

Freed from my momentary horror, I grabbed onto that gesture with more gusto than he could ever know. The feelings of unease were still kicking, all my strings moving erratically behind my eyes. The golden string of [Precognition] was especially active. It vibrated with a frenzy that suggested singular purpose.

Now was not the time for contemplation however. So far, this encounter was going far better than I had dared hope for. The last thing I needed was my own ability mucking it up.

I opened my mouth and greeted him with enthusiasm.

‘Hi. I’m Solomon. Nice to meet you.’ Is what I meant to say.

“I am your death. Butcher.” Is what came out of my mouth.

“What?”

“Solomon! My name is Solomon! That’s what I said!”

‘HOOOOOOOOOLLLLYYYYYYYY COOOOOOOWWWW!!!!!!!!!’

‘WHAT! WHAT THE ACTUAL, WHAT!?’

‘DID PRECOGNITION TAKE OVER MY SPEECH!!!!’

‘IT CAN DO THAT!!!!’

‘AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!’

‘NO!’

‘NO PLEASE!’

‘NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!’

“Yeah, I must have misheard you. Sorry. I think I’m a bit shaken up by everything. Lack of sleep is something else. Almost ran out of Psy a couple of times you know?”

“Yes. I totally relate to that.” I said, clenching my jaw hard enough to crush diamonds.

That was, not okay.

Holy cow that wasn’t okay.

‘Oh, my goodness.’

‘What the actual…?’

‘That can happen?’

‘Really?’

‘In the middle of a conversation?’

‘Wait. I’ve been silent too long.’

‘Act normal.’

‘Act normal.’

‘Push the bad feelings down! Push Solomon!’

“All right. Let’s get out of here.”

“Right on man! Oh wait, I need to get a drink first. My throat is killing me right now.”

He moved past me and quickly began to pour water into his mouth. Afterwards, he began to scan the room in earnest, eventually noticing the fountain.

“Hey! That’s not a natural formation!” He said, stating the obvious.

“Yeah. It looks like someone put it there.”

“I knew it! This must be a secret government facility! Where they experiment on people who get powers! They catch us before we know what’s going on and teleport us away to their secret underground bunkers! All so they can give us to their alien wasp overlords and make us part of their space harems! That must be where the gnomes come from! They’re crossbreeds between people and aliens. Bred to take over our planet and become another slave colony in the Zircon empire!”

Whoa.

That was… honest.

I had expected Randall to keep his theories to himself at first.

It’s usually the kind of thing you post on forums under the cover of anonymity.

Yet here he was opening his heart out to me. Maybe he thought I was another theorist?

“I don’t know man.” I answered wearily. “Somehow, I don’t think the Canadian government has the budget for secret underground power testing facilities. I was leaning more towards paramilitary groups or psyched out billionaires.”

“Who said anything about the Canadians?” He responded with genuine confusion.

“It’s our government?”

He looked at me like I had just grown an elephant trunk.

“I’m from Nevada. In the Western Federation States.”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed. If they’re taking people from different countries, this might be the global shadow government’s doing.”

“Of course.” I answered at once.

Some people might have taken this time to scoff or to call Randall all sorts of hurtful things.

Not me.

Randall could believe whatever he wanted, so long as he helped keep me safe.

In fact, he might even be right, considering every strange thing that had happened so far. Granted, the weight of evidence wasn’t on his side, but you never know. It could be true if enough powerful people got together and decided to flip the current status quo upside down.

Yeah, Randall wasn’t quite as crazy as he seemed.

Again, he still hadn’t tried to rob or kill me. Or admitted to robbing and killing other people. What’s a few conspiracies between friends?

At least he wasn’t having a mental breakdown caused by traumatic visions.

Or having his own abilities taking over his body.

Or talking to himself.

“I’m telling you. This is it. We got hard proof on our hands now. They won’t be able to hide the truth. Telepaths secretly control the world from their hidden island resorts around Australia. They make elected leaders into puppets and have them do whatever they want. All so they can mate with their insectoid waifs from the Andromeda galaxy. The gnomes are in on it too. That’s why they hunt us down. They must be some kind of servant race genetically created to look like humans. You know their pointy hats, right?”

His eyes gleamed with malice and bloodlust. His lips moving so fast the words became slurred.

“Well, they’re only pointy because their skulls are pointy! Like, we humans have rounded heads, but their heads are shaped like traffic cones! Personally, I have a theory that they’re actually cyborgs who keep telecommunications equipment inside their skulls. Like a pointy, circular antenna. It’s up to us to make it right. We have to find all the Telepaths here and kill them. Like I killed those people who mad fun of me back home! They all laughed! Laughed at me in their blogs and videos! They weren’t laughing when fist got powers, I’ll tell you that! They tried to label me a terrorist! Because I was showing people the truth! So, what if I burned down some animal shelters!? They were secret induction zones where they primed normal people against the rest of us! Now though….”

He looked down on his hands, before clenching them tightly.

“I can grow beyond S-rank. Beyond my former limits. I’ve already merged some abilities and I’m gonna keep merging more! I’ll be unstoppable!”

Oh.

Oh.

Oh no.

At that moment, I wanted to tell him he was wrong.

That this was all some kind of cruel joke and that they’d been given powers, seemingly at random.

“Of course.” I said instead.

There was absolutely no way I was going to tell Randall anything.

Especially since I had no idea what other abilities he had.

I might as well be telling a serial killer all the best places to cut me up. Doubly so with unknown powers in the mix.

For all I knew, the man could shatter every bone in my body with a thought.

Also, Australia? The whole continent had been underwater for a decade.

Ever since The Stomper got a bit too liberal with his power usage. It’s why the grading system is taken so seriously these days. Why Projectors have to wear bomb collars all over Asia as if they were Shifters.

Randall was clearly not right in the head.

He might be even crazier than me, and that was saying something at the moment.

Once more I was lying through my teeth.

Once more, Randall failed to notice.

He was enraptured in his own speech. Each sentence hyped him up even further and his body language became more and more excited.

For my part, I was sweating bullets.

Then, a thought struck me. An idea equal parts feasible and horrifying.

If we stuck together, Randall might sense that I’m different from him. No, he definitely would sooner or later. It wasn’t the sort of secret I could keep.

Worse, he might sense that while I was in a very vulnerable position.

But it didn’t have to be that way.

Randall was distracted right now.

I could see into his mind to confirm it.

He had lost all sense of spatial awareness.

So wrapped up in his own delusions of grandeur.

Inside his cranium, there was nothing but anticipation for his accolades.

A morbid fascination with the notion that he was right and everyone else had been wrong. That his friends had all been too skeptical, too wrapped up in the lies the governments spewed. Not like him. Not like someone with his smarts and his gumption. He wasn’t blinded by the propaganda. By the lies that came on network tv.

He was the hero.

He was the one everyone would remember.

He would put his name in all the history books that were written from this point onwards.

He would find all the Telepaths hidden in their mansions with their mindwiped politician friends.

He would kill them all.

Everyone would love him for it. He would have a dozen girlfriends and a million followers. He would finally clean the halls of office and tear down to alien-backed telepathic regime.

As those ideas begin to take shape within Randall, my own mind sharpens. Adrenaline courses through my veins yet again as stress presses down on me.

All those new instincts guide me, holding muscle and bone hostage.

My will becomes a sword and prepares to fall upon my foe.

How easy would it be, to just reach out and use my power?

To let the stream flow from behind my eyes and snuff out the candle of his life.

For a second. I actually considered it.

Even though it was a vile and disgusting idea.

To kill someone when their back was turned. To hunt them before they hunted me.

Fear and dread rise to meet the challenge.

In spite of all that, I’m still me.

I’m still the same recent graduate.

I’m still a good person. I’m not a murderer. I know that for a fact. Nothing else matters.

‘But would it be wrong? Wouldn’t killing him save more lives?’

There was a very real chance that this was true.

[Meditation] rose up then. Its tender strings calming me down and reminding me that my kindness had almost gotten me killed more than once by this point. That the soldier had literally left me to die.

This guy just admitted to killing people. Multiple people from the sounds of it.

Was it, smart, to let him live? Was it the right thing to do? Was it something Thunder Fist would do?

I considered it some more.

My idol did have blood on his hands, from the many times he’d fought villains.

He’s explained his reasoning on interviews. Telling reporters that he hadn’t had a choice. That innocents would have died if he hadn’t done it.

Finally deciding to trust [Precognition] with the decision.

I saw an unreal me, overlapping with my form. I saw it lash out in wrath.

I saw its assault bouncing off harmlessly.

Then I saw it being cremated. Randall’s frame erupting in psychic fire.

I felt the heat, despite it being a mirage. Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead and I had to forcefully gather all the self-control I had left to keep from shaking.

‘Right. That is a very bad idea. I can’t help anyone if I’m dead.’

Instead, I began walking backwards as quietly as I could, inching away from Randall while he continued to talk.

Upon reaching the entrance to the chamber, I slipped into one of the tunnels and disappeared from sight. Tiptoeing into one of the many adjacent passages. Fading into the hungry darkness like a rat in a barn.