I woke slowly and painfully. I could hardly believe I had slept, so much did my body ache. My eyes struggled to open and even when they did, my vision was blurred. I heard a voice to my left, a woman’s. I knew not whose, nor could I make out the words.

“W-water,” I was able to whisper. I knew not if she heard me, but her conversation had ceased. A dark shape moved close to me and after moments, I realized it to be a person, holding a round flask. I moved to take it and put it to my lips, but my arm would not move, and screamed at the exertion.

I would not be so easily defeated by the pain, but the person gently held my arm down and spoke more words. I understood one of them. “Broken.” Unfortunate.

My other arm was only barely more mobile. It felt as though great weights had been tied to each joint, making even the feeble movement of reaching for the flask slow and ponderous. Unbidden, the figure moved the flask to my lips before I could reach it. I accepted the kindness, but took small offense. Even in this state, I was capable.

The water was cold and crisp. As I drank deeply, I felt some of my pains subside. I must thank my rescuers, but first, needed to determine where I was and how long I had been here.

I turned to the figure at my side and attempted to speak, but the liquid had reconstituted a film of fluid in my throat and I coughed, which racked my body with pain. I hoped what was in my throat wasn’t blood.

“…easy. You’re…bad shape,” said the figure. It was a man’s voice, different than the one I had heard at first. There were two here, possibly more. A hospital? Unlikely, they would have pulled my medical records and put me on a regenerator immediately. Where then?

I stared at the figure and willed my vision to come into focus. Unfortunately that was not how vision worked, and the best I could manage was an indistinct, swimming image of a man wearing dark colors.

“Visor,” I managed to cough out. “Visor,” I repeated, refusing to stutter. The man and woman conversed for several moments.

“…harm it can…”

“…bad idea…”

“Visor,” I pleaded, and attempted to gesture at my head. I knew not what the cause of this delay was, but its very existence made me nervous. The man left my side and came back a moment later with an object in his hands. As gently as possible, he pressed the visor down over my ears and seated it snugly on my face. Blackness covered my vision. I struggled for the controls on top of the face, but he was there to help again, tapping the activation switch.

The splash holo came up, advertising the manufacturer while the firmware loaded. As I had hoped, my eyes were able to focus on the image mere millimeters away from them, even if the parallax and projection of the holos made it appear as though it were floating meters away. I needed not the ability to focus if the visor could do it for me.

Within moments, the display engaged and I saw the rusted beams and concrete ceiling above me. Informational readouts gave me the height of the ceiling and composition. I slowly turned my head towards the horizon and verified my orientation. Only a few feet below ground level. Too derelict to be a hospital. But where, then?

I couldn’t use the controls or voice comms to request a map, but I could determine my absolute position. It was…two days after my fight, and only a few hundred feet away. Where could that possibly place me? Had someone followed me into the exclusion zone after I failed to report and rescued me? Then why would we still be here?

I turned to ask the two, and froze.

The holo readout identifying the male as Athan Ashton was redundant. I knew his face already, had already seen far too much of it.

I coughed again and struggled to sit up through the pain, but he had me trapped in some kind of net and my struggles were in vain. He moved to stop me, but seemed afraid to come closer.

“So…it’s capture then,” I sneered. Truly this man was as diabolical as any Exhuman. My defeat and death was insufficient for his twisted desires, and now I was to be his…what? Torture victim? Bargaining chip? Sexual object?

I re-checked the visor’s chrono. I had been out two days. What unspeakable things had he done to me in this time? It was hard to tell what pains were from the fight and which he had inflicted on me after, but I did not remember my arm being broken before I lost consciousness.

Now that I was cataloging my ailments, I was able to determine that my bra was out of place, hastily arranged on top of my breasts rather than under them. My whole being burned at the violation. So it was sexual deviancy, then. I should have ended him when I had the chance.

“I know not…your vile deeds…but you shall pay…” I managed to hiss out, my breath coming in pained gasps, though I felt any pain in my body was now nothing compared to what he had done to my soul.

“-ld you she wouldn’t see it that way,” said the female voice.

Who was that? The target was supposed to be alone, and furthermore, isolated in an exclusion zone. It did not surprise me that he would violate the conditions of exile, in fact I had counted on it as justification for his execution, but that he was now working in concert with a human? Perhaps his powers were not fully catalogued, and mental domination was among his powers? If so, I needed to end myself before falling to his subjugation. But I had to report as well…

“Karu,” Athan said. My head instinctively snapped to face him, and my body immediately screamed in protest of the rapid movement. “I doubt you’ll believe me, but I actually saved your life. I’ll tell you whatever you want, but please believe me when I say I don’t mean you any harm, and please don’t try anything stupid.”

“That,” I grunted “is the last thing…I would believe.”

“-impossible. You should have left her dead, Athan.”

“Please don’t joke about killing her in front of her, AEGIS. I am trying to get her to trust me.”

“Well you’re wasting your time,” she said. I privately agreed. The woman was called AEGIS, obviously a code name. I tried to turn to see her but could not move my head far enough, and my visor was only tracking one entity in the room other than me.

I had a horrible realization. What if AEGIS was another Exhuman, who could hide from my visor? If these two were collaborating, it could be the largest Exhuman event in history. I had to warn somebody, but I could not without alerting them. Perhaps if I could convince them I was truly helpless, I could sneak out, or call for aid while they thought I slept?

“Karu. Please,” Athan was saying. “I know you’re planning some elaborate escape attempt but we’re not holding you here. We’re trying to help you.”

I focused on him again. His vitals were stressed but not consistent with lying. Given his lack of training and electrical-aligned powerset, and how easily I had been able to determine his lies in previous encounters, it seemed likely that he believed himself to be speaking truth. Yet that counted for little at this point, he may just be a puppet operating under AEGIS’ strings.

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However, if he honestly believed he was helping me, perhaps that gave me an opportunity.

“If you believe that…then untie me. Return to me my possessions. I desire to leave now.”

“You’re um, not tied up. You’re in a hammock,” Athan said.

I looked down and realized how true that was. My visor identified it as hand-woven synth-weave.

Truly, I was in a deplorable state if I could not even escape the reaches of a hammock. It was almost laughable. Still, renewed with this newfound knowledge, and with only a small amount of the embarrassment I felt residing on my cheeks, I attempted to sit up and extricate myself again.

My embarrassment only multiplied as I continued to lack the sufficient strength. Athan frowned and stepped towards me. I recoiled at whatever scheme he had designed, but instead, he gently slipped an arm under my back and legs and hefted me bodily from the accursed net.

“Want to try standing?” he asked. I nodded. His breath was uncomfortably close on my face, and his arms were solid, resolute, and warm. I realized that now out from the blankets laid in the hammock, I was cold all over, except my broken arm, which burned like fire.

“What…happened to my arm?” I asked. Athan carried me to the center of the room and gingerly lowered me to my feet. My legs shook and would not hold me. I stumbled right back into his arms.

“Easy there. You really took a beating and you’ve been out for two days. It’s natural that your body will be unsteady.”

“Do not think to patronize me and answer my question.”

“Told you, you should have left her for dead.”

“Still not helping, AEGIS. Karu, your arm…you rose up about 30 feet in the air and fired missiles at me at the end of our fight. Do you remember that?”

“I do,” I said. It was intended to be the end of the fight…and in a manner, it was. To combat the Ramanathan Laws, I had fired missiles of every conceivable type at him at once. Incendiary, concussive, corrosive, toxic gas, flechette, containment foam, blunt force, irradiation…If they had struck, his demise would have been certain. The only way his powerset could combat it would be if he could defeat the delivery system, which it had proven more than capable.

“I have this lightning shield which protects me from projectiles and restraint–“

“Athan! Do not tell the enemy your abilities.”

“–and when your missiles hit it, the shield detonated them and the current followed back to the source. You got electrocuted, a lot. You uh, died, actually. Heart stopped on the spot.”

“I…see.” I’d never died before. The knowledge that I had touched death made me feel empty. While I was out, had I met my maker?

“Anyway, one of your gun-arms blew up and that broke your arm. You fell the 30 feet. I tried to catch you, didn’t actually know you were dead at that point. I got these in the crash.” He pulled up his pant legs and showed an enormous number of deep cuts from his knees down. I winced, not at the wounds, but that they were afflicted on my account.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to. Again, my holo indicated he was telling the truth, and the extent of each of our injuries did somewhat substantiate the claims.

“After that, I gave you CPR and ultimately jump-started your heart with my powers. I um,” he averted his gaze and scratched his head guiltily. His vitals were jumping. Was a lie forthcoming?

“I had to…undress…you, to administer the shock.” I sighed. It was embarrassment, not lies. And justified embarrassment as well.

I realized he was holding me up the entire time he told his story and the presence of his hands on my shoulders made me uncomfortable. I shrugged gently and he laid me down on the concrete floor. It was cold, and internally made me miss the warm arms, on a level.

“I must ask why you choose to continuously make the worst possible decisions,” I said, now staring at the ceiling again and unable to look down at him.

“That’s what I want to know every day,” AEGIS chimed in.

“Thanks guys. Karu, can you stop being a huge bitch and just ask me a normal question if you have one?”

I attempted to prop myself up on my good elbow with marginal success. I welcomed the pain flowing through me. I deserved this much at least.

“In our first encounter, you deliberately missed a fatal strike, and then allowed me to escape when you held favorable terrain. Worse still, you permitted me to retreat and regroup, and to prepare countermeasures against your powers.”

“In our second encounter, you spoke of fighting without restraint, but I could read your lies easily. Still you fought a defensive battle, riddled with restraint, and then when victory was delivered to you by providence, you risked personal injury which, if worse, could have spelled your end out here. Then you resuscitate a known enemy, and bring them to your hidden place of operations.”

“And even now, you are treating me as more guest than prisoner, giving me water and information as I dictate, and telling me that after that, you will release me so that I may hunt you, better armed and prepared, yet again?”

“Well, obviously I’d prefer if you didn’t come after me again, but yeah.”

“…why do this? No being is that stupid.”

“Athan is definitely that stupid.”

“Still not helping, AEGIS.” He moved beside me and sat down on the floor within my vision, which I appreciated as I could now read his vitals for signs of lying. “I didn’t plan any of this, you know. This isn’t some protracted campaign to do the stupid Athan thing. I’m just facing choices and making the best decisions I can.”

“Your decision-making ability is deplorable,” I said. Truly, to be defeated by this man, I may need to retire in shame…but only after collecting his head.

“I wonder,” he said “if you have to wear that visor to correct your vision from looking down on everyone so hard.”

I fixed him with an even stare. He was wearing a sly smile, like this was a game. “Though you seem to have a gift for it, make no mistake when I say that this changes nothing between us. You are my quarry and I am your hunter. God has seen fit to give me pleasure from a successful hunt, but yours…I can tell already that your death will be the most pleasurable of them all.”

“Speaking of poor decisions, why are you threatening me when you are totally helpless and at my mercy?”

“Because I have studied you sufficiently. You will not kill me, you are weak, and have strayed from the light of God. You are afraid of doing what is necessary. You will let me go, and I will return, as many times as it takes, and one of these fights, I will win. When I do, I will not show the same foolish mercy which you seem to treasure.”

“You talk about God a lot. Isn’t that the ‘thou shalt not kill’ guy?”

“If God had intended for me not to kill, he would not have created you,” I grunted and pulled myself seated upright. From here I could see AEGIS and realized why my visor hadn’t picked her up. She was not an Exhuman, she was a holo. Maybe one of those virtual girlfriend personalities. I didn’t care, she wasn’t my quarry.

“There really is no arguing with you, is there?” Athan asked, a tone of pleading in his voice. I revelled that the smile was gone.

“There is never room to argue when one person is right and the other is wrong.” I shuffled to a shelf and slowly climbed my way up it, leaning into it heavily as I steadied myself on my feet.

“So I’m a person now?”

“It’s a turn of phrase. Make no mistake, you are still less than nothing to me.”

“Do you want help standing up or–“

“I want you to be silent and dead. But for now I will settle for silent.”

To the Exhuman’s credit, he remained so as I struggled to my feet and shambled across the room from shelf to shelf until reaching the pile of my personal effects at the door. I leaned against the wall with my head and shoulder while strapping on my jetpack, and forsook the other equipment. I would have to land carefully in my current state and would miss the flight suit in the bitter cold of the air, but I would survive, and the pain would be a constant reminder of my failure.

“Enjoy your final stay of execution, Exhuman,” I said as the pack engaged and lifted me off my unstable legs into the air outside. I added the location to my map as I soared away and it became just another rock on the ground so far beneath me.

I rang up my contact. Punctual as always, he picked up after one ring.

“I have survived second contact with the target,” I said “as has he. I was captured but was able to escape with additional insight into the target’s abilities.”

“Does the Exhuman display any capacity for killing yet?” asked the contact. It was an unusual question, but I was here to provide a service, not question my employer.

“I do not believe so. I exploited this fact in order to escape with my life.”

“A pity. Do kill him next time.”

“I am already planning on it.” I hung up.

Questioning an employer’s motives was a good way to never get work again, and with the lull in the number of Exhuman events recently, I needed as much work as I could take. God’s work was righteous, but it didn’t pay medical bills or buy missiles.

Not that I’d need missiles for a while now. I had learned that lesson.

Still, the Exhuman infuriated me. I knew if I could not push him from my mind, this flight would be greater torture than it already was, and yet despite all my efforts, I could not. If only he had answered my question.

I gritted and shivered as the trees whipped past below.

Athan Ashton, why did you not kill me?