෴Raz෴
෴Midnight෴
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
Closure
෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴
Raz followed Midnight up the stairs toward Sia’s apartment. Along the way he maintained a tiny trickle of Somatic Recovery on himself, while keeping his energy full with the full body fuel cell model.
This model construct for energy regeneration is so slow. I’m going to need to go back to my original energy chain, or make something better.
They arrived at her door. Midnight knocked, Raz just went in and invited Midnight along.
Ok, game face. Figure out what he knows, he’s got to have a cure, or know someone, or, or something to make this better.
Several Hex aspects were still sitting in the living room, made up and dressed to kill. Literally. The short, tight dresses of shimmery thin fabrics and stylish high heels made for an interesting contrast with Nona in her combat gear and rifle. Nona had washed her face and pulled her short hair back. They were all holding books. One looked up, the rest continued to read. Sia came out of the hallway, the strategic cut out panels on her dress challenging Raz to look anywhere else.
Midnight looked at them as though he didn’t know what he was seeing. “Are you—Have you—What are you doing?”
Sia glared at him. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
Midnight raised his hands in surrender. “Ok, point taken.” He looked at Raz and shrugged.
Raz stepped forward, knowing this was about to get awkward. “Babe, I need some time to talk to him, just for a while, maybe get a chance to clear the air.”
She jumped on that idea, “Are you two done butting heads? That’s so great!”
Raz shrugged. “Um, I guess we’ll see how things go? Maybe.”
In a fraction of a second every aspect in the room except Sia vanished. Sia stepped forward and kissed Raz. “Do you need the place to yourselves?”
Raz nodded slightly, “I hate to ask, but that would be really helpful.”
Midnight looked at Sia then Raz with a bewildered expression, but said nothing.
Sia smiled at Raz, looked at Midnight with a tight frown but clearly forced a smile back onto her face. “Ok boys, you do your male bonding or whatever, but don’t trash my apartment.”
Raz shook his head and rolled his eyes. “We’re going to sit down and chat, not throw a party.”
She shrugged. “Well, way to make it sound boring. Try not to be too long about it. I’ll check back in about an hour. We do have things planned for today.” She looked at Midnight, “No fighting!”
With that she was gone.
Raz turned to face Midnight. “Uh, can I get you a drink or anything?”
Midnight waved that off. “Nah, I know where things are if I need one.”
Raz couldn't help recalling Sia’s tipsy confession about her attraction to Midnight.
You just know where everything is huh? Just how comfortable are you here?
“I see.” he said in a flat tone. “Anything about that I should know?”
Midnight frowned and then chuckled. “No, not like you’re probably thinking. But I don’t have all day, so many things to do, let's not waste time on your insecurities.”
Raz thought about how to say it, to try and ease into the discussion he needed to have. After several seconds of thinking he just went with his gut. “A guy from her work did something that fucked her up in the head.”
Midnight settled into the loveseat facing the window. “She mentioned that her boss used an ability with some kind of influence components on her. I don’t think he has an ability like that. Do you have any more information about what happened?”
Raz took the couch on the other side of the room. “I don’t know what to tell you. Whatever he did had a big effect on her. Do you know a way to fix it?”
Midnight made a tiny gesture and for an instant, Raz saw a light blue rectangle appear in front of him and then vanished. He stared at the spot in the air. “Gimme a minute to think about this.”
Is that an ability or some kind of tech?
The room seemed to shift around him, becoming brighter then dimmer, louder, then quieter. The tactile feel of his clothing became nearly overwhelming for a moment as he became aware of every mote of dust touching him before it mercifully receded into normalcy. Raz’s senses fluctuated less violently for another moment and then stabilized.
[It is an ability, probably part of the Enhanced Cognition tree.]
[The energy usage and output from this ability is extremely low, barely detectable even at this range.]
See if you can lock down some good presets for my ability senses. If I was doing anything more than just sitting here, I’d have a problem.
[On it.]
Raz watched Midnight sit there making subtle twitching motions for another minute before he couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. “What are you doing?”
Midnight sighed and looked up. “I know it looks like I’m just sitting here, but I’m looking into something. I’m going as fast as I can, just be patient for a minute.”
Can we active scan without it looking like an attack?
[We cannot predict how a scan will be reacted to but factually, the scan itself is not an attack.]
I get that, I want to see what an active scan shows me, but it could look, I don’t know, aggressive.
[What do you want me to do?]
I don’t know, scan casually. No, actually I don’t care if he notices. Scan as thoroughly as you can.
[Enhanced Consciousness ‘Midnight’ detected.]
[Energy: 67/100]
[Energy Usage rate: 1 (per minute)]
[HP: 100/100]
[MHP: 10/10]
Just as Raz was about to ask what MHP were, Midnight looked up and scanned the room visually. He started to stand up before looking at Raz with an arched brow.
“Interesting. That’s coming from you, I take it? Suddenly I’m more glad you sought this chat out.”
Raz shrugged. “What can I say, I think I might have something to offer after all. We can talk about it after you help me figure out how to fix her.”
Midnight gave a noncommittal nod. “We’ll see. The bad news, is that I don’t have any record of Wilson having any ability with an influence component.”
Raz pursed his lips. “Well, it might not be in his file or whatever you’re looking at, but I know what I’ve seen. She’s been quite different, at least in one area, since it happened.”
“Ok, tell me the whole story. Don’t leave anything out.”
“Are you sure? It gets kind of—” Raz started to say.
“Tell me everything. Spare no detail.” Midnight asserted.
*** *** ***
A few minutes later.
Midnight put up a hand, “Ok ok slow your roll, Casanova. My mistake. Spare me some details. I get it, she's extra-strength hot to trot as a side effect. Just stick to the important facts.”
Raz let out a single harsh barking laugh. “Well that’s the problem. Whatever’s been done, seems to be deeply entwined with her sexuality.”
“That’s tricky for a number of reasons. Tell me what you’ve tried so far.”
“The main thing I’ve been doing is remaining obviously accepting of her as a person, while avoiding buying into her frame of reality, again, without rejecting her personally. A tougher balance than I expected. I’ve read that agreeing with or playing along with a schizophrenic episode, or other delusions is a bad idea.”
Midnight rubbed at his chin. “That’s good, smart. I hate to say it, but that might be all you can do right now. I can look into finding more options, but nothing else comes to mind. I’ll see if there’s some way I can find out more from Wilson, but I can’t exactly just ask him about it.”
“Why not? I thought you hired him. Can’t you just ask him?”
“Not that simple. Unfortunately, some things in the past have led to me feeling like I have to be playing a game of secrets and double agents here.”
Midnight leaned forward in his seat and rested his head in his hands. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then looked back up at Raz. “From his perspective, I have no reason to be in contact with Hex. You told me yourself, she knows revealing our association would be bad. She’s right. If we can’t avoid it coming out, we still want to wait for the right time. Right now is about as wrong a time as possible.”
Midnight pinched the bridge of his nose and then sat up straight. “The problem with mercenaries is that at the end of the day, they’re mercenaries. Necessary, useful, not bad people, but they have fundamentally different goals and a vastly different worldview than I do.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Raz waited nearly a full minute before realizing Midnight was really done.
He leaned forward with a frustrated expression, and tight, coiled body language. “So that’s it? All you’ve got is ‘keep doing what you’re doing’ and hope? I need more than that.”
The older man shrugged. “I wish I had a better answer. Everyone assumes I know everything about this stuff, but I don’t, not even close. I meant what I said, I’ll look into it. It’s the best I can do. For now, I really think you’re on the right track.”
Midnight steepled his fingers and looked over his hand at Raz. “The first step is persuading her to fight it in the first place. That’s the most insidious thing about influence abilities. People are complicated. Some influence is hard to even want to fight, and from what you’re saying, it sounds like this one keyed in on something that’s already part of her.”
He clasped his hands and rested them on the couch as though not sure what to do with himself. “That kind of influence is worse. It tends to leave a lasting mark.”
Looks like I’m on my own for helping her through this.
Midnight sat up straight. “You know, I think I buried the lead here. I should have led with the good news. Influence abilities, even powerful ones, can’t make permanent changes in a single event. Keep doing what you’re doing, and for now, keep her away from WD40, if it’s any form of malicious influence, even a second exposure is a huge increase in long term effects.”
Raz sat back and thought about this. “Well, that might not be easy, but I’ll try.”
Midnight nodded, “I’ll try to defuse the situation there as well. I’ve allowed myself to become—over reliant on having a support team in the field, and overall logistics.”
His tone made Raz suspect that Midnight was admitting something to himself he hadn’t given much thought to before this moment. He wondered if Midnight was being straight with him.
I guess if he’s not, there isn’t much I can do about it right now. Might as well be cautiously optimistic about it. Keep me apprised of signs of deception.
[Of course.]
Midnight glanced up at the clock. “Was there anything else?”
The way he said it, from tiny micro inflections in his voice to a subtle shift in his positioning told Raz that the wrong answer would end this discussion, and Midnight would be happy for an excuse to leave. Raz didn’t want to give him a chance to escape, so he blurted out the first question that popped to mind. “Why were you so mad when I first met you?”
Midnight sagged back into the loveseat and closed his eyes for a few seconds before answering. “Look, that's a much bigger question than you think. If you really want the answer, you’ll need to accept that you’re about to hear a lot of things that are contrary to what you’ve been told about abilities.”
Raz leaned in, eager to hear the secrets. “Of course. Lay it on me.”
“So, for starters, you should know that catalyst is everywhere. That didn’t used to be true, but now, I’ve been almost everywhere on the planet. Deepest depths, highest heights, low earth orbit, you name it. The only place I haven’t been able to confirm it is–Well, never mind that. But just accept that it's effectively everywhere.”
Raz opened his mouth to ask why this mattered. Midnight shook his head sharply.
“Nope. Last time we really talked, you got to set the quid pro quo ground rules. Now it’s my turn. You can ask me these big questions, I’ll try to answer you, but I’m going to try and answer you the right way. That doesn’t include you jumping ahead with questions. A question asked from the wrong frame of reference is just pointless.”
Raz shrugged and leaned back on the couch.
Midnight continued, “The first time someone is exposed to a high enough catalyst density, it sets off a cascade of changes in them, these changes start at the subatomic level and move upward.
“At this point, people are constantly being exposed to small amounts of catalyst. But unlike someone who has lived through this cascade event, a person who hasn’t, is all but inert to the catalyst. It literally bounces off them, almost as if repelled by them, and stays in circulation.” Midnight scratched at his stubble.
“I won’t go too deep on this part, because honestly, your dad spent the better part of a decade studying catalyst before the world as a whole had even heard of it, and I know I don’t have even close to the understanding he did.”
His voice sounded pained, and he stopped a few times to let out soft coughs. “Anyway, I’m going to tell you what I know, but just know that beyond what I tell you, aside from the odd observation here and there, it might as well be sorcery to me.”
Midnight stood up and looked out the window as he spoke, taking a tone that suggested he’d said these words many times before. “Everything in nature and biology, and even physics, usually comes down to shape. Antibodies in your blood are just shapes. Atoms that form molecules do so based on the shapes and charge of electron shells. Yes, there are other factors, but shape is key. Catalyst metabolically breaks down in the body, resulting in particles so small they bond with subatomic particles, and for lack of a less crazy way to say it, they give those particles a sort of antenna. Those particles with the antenna, form atoms with the antenna. Atoms become molecules, molecules become DNA, RNA, organelles, cells, etc. Cells become tissue, tissue becomes you.”
Midnight stopped and looked down at Raz., “I know it’s a lot, you with me so far?”
Raz nodded in the affirmative.
“Starting to wonder why I’m telling you this?” Midnight pressed.
Raz shrugged and held up his hand, tilting it back and forth to indicate “so so”.
Midnight smirked. “If I ask you a question you can answer, I just don’t want to stop for questions constantly.”
Raz nodded.
“Anyhow, those antennae appear to connect every body part down to the subatomic particles, to forms of energy that normally pass right through us. Pass right through just about everything. It performs a sort of awakening of those particles, allowing them to coalesce that energy, and use it in many ways. Anything from manifesting other forms of directed energy, to massively strengthening atomic and molecular bonds, to literally pulling mass or energy out of what seems like nowhere, and then sending it back to nowhere. Burke and his engineering helper did all kinds of tests, trying to nail down how our will can direct this energy, but he never figured it out before…”
He trailed off and sat in silence for a moment before sitting back down and resting his elbows on his knees, his face hidden in his hands. He kept speaking, sitting in his odd, defeated looking posture.
“Ok, there’s a lot more to know, but I just want you to be on the same page as far as ‘what is catalyst and how does it work?’ You still at least mostly with me?”
Raz nodded. Does this all check out?
[No signs of deception detected, no information provided conflicts with existing notes or observations.]
Midnight finally sat up, and stared out the window, looking lost in thought.
Finally Raz cleared his throat. “So anyway, you were upset about my ability?”
Midnight nodded, “Oh right. Yes. One of the things we learned fairly early on is that when a person is experiencing that first catalyst induced cascade, they have that singular event, just one chance to choose an ability that will allow them to further develop themselves safely. Honestly, it's a terrible system, and one we’d hoped to change. There just wasn’t enough—”
Midnight closed his mouth on his own comment, glanced at the front door and sighed. “Hex is a perfect example. I’ve done all I can to flesh out and improve her abilities as she accrued catalyst and ex—”
He stopped and snapped his fingers. “Oh right. I forgot to tell you. Sometimes getting catalyst is the easy part. Catalyst does the heavy lifting of waking those particles up, and connecting them to the, well, everything else, but after that you need. How to put it, well, you need to learn and experience things to create enough of another resource to actually apply and direct the catalyst into new abilities, or strengthening existing ones. If this was one of those MMO’s you used to play so much, I’d call it experience, or XP.”
I don’t like how much he knows about my past. Going to have to have a chat with mom about that when she comes back.
The well dressed older man held up a hand as if to forestall an argument. “Yeah. I know how it sounds. But it’s true. It’s why I can’t just stroll in and fix everyone in every ability dysfunction ward on day one. They have to at least live long enough to have the inner resources to accept ability chain revamps. This resource seems to slowly accrue for everyone no matter what, but there are ways to greatly speed it up.”
He paused and looked at Raz. “I can’t tell if you’re lost, or bored.”
Raz shook his head. “Neither, just trying to fit what you’re telling me into what I know.”
The older man rubbed circles into his temples for a moment. “Anyway, all this was a long winded way to get to this fact. If you had the wrong or badly placed ability, in the right ability chain, I could help you, at least eventually. In fact, in time, you wouldn’t need me at all, you’d be able to help yourself.”
Raz put a hand up.
Midnight glanced at his hand and continued.
“But if you have the right, well-placed ability, but it’s in the wrong chain, then the best I could ever do, is help you with that chain and meet with you once in a while to help you avoid unplanned power surges, some people call them breakthrough events. Yes?”
Raz kept listening until it was clear that Midnight was waiting for his question. “What makes an ability well, or badly placed?”
“Oh, that’s just my shorthand for abilities that have, or lack, the proper supporting abilities to make them safe and effective to use. Surely you’ve seen some of those videos of people mutilating themselves with enhanced speed or strength?”
Raz shuddered, “Unfortunately I have. So you mean the ability is balanced with safety factors?”
“Well, not just safety, but primarily that. There are abilities that, without other supporting abilities, are pointless or borderline nonfunctional.”
He waved his hand as if to brush that topic away and continued. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I can help people with ability problems, but not every type of problem. I can help someone not mess themselves up with their own ability, and I can help them gain control if they need an ability to control what they have. What I can’t do is help someone change the chain they started with to the right one.”
Raz couldn’t contain his comment. “What’s the right chain?”
“I’ll get to that, but it’s sort of the wrong question.” Seeing Raz’s expression, Midnight held up a hand and continued. “The correct question is how do you get that right chain. The problem is the answer. I hate to say, ‘no one knows for sure’, but that’s about the size of it. I’ve seen some limited success, but it seems to require a particular environment, and a very particular frame of mind to get the right foundation ability.”
He whistled softly, as though venting frustration. “It really seems to do a good job at latching onto whatever people really want, no matter what they try to make themselves want in that moment.”
Raz put up his hand and waited for Midnight to stop and acknowledge him. “Ok, this is all very interesting, and I’d love to hear more later. But it feels like you’re drifting away from the question, which is, why were you so personally upset that I had an ability?”
Midnight nodded, suddenly looking weary. “Because abilities acquired under stress are almost never the right kind. When people get abilities in moments of need, they end up with those badly placed abilities I was talking about. Sometimes it’s enough to get them out of the situation, but it’s never a good move in the big picture.”
Raz frowned. “Ok, but why me specifically?”
“I look at you and see someone who had unlimited potential. The world needs people like you, now more than ever. With your potential, you could have built up a solid foundation of abilities, become a real powerhouse, and been ready to step up when the world needs you.”
Great, another “you have so much potential” speech. I didn’t like them from dad, and I don’t much like them from you.
Raz looked off to the side, his lips pursed tightly to try and hide his displeased reaction. “So, you’re saying I can’t do that now?”
Midnight took a long slow inhalation, and then let it out in a gust. “Not really. I could help you tune up what you have to make it the best it can be, but you’ll never be able to manage your own abilities, or start another ability chain.”
“How can you be so sure, if you don’t even know what I have?” Raz pressed.
“Look, I’m not trying to condescend to you, but it doesn’t really matter. I could tell right away what you didn’t have, and that’s all I needed to know.”
Raz decided to probe a little more. “So how open minded would you say you are?”
Midnight arched a brow at him. “I live in a world where government and corporate conspiracies, fighting monsters, and flying into space on my own is part of a typical week. In general, I feel like my mind couldn’t be much more open than it is.”
Raz couldn't stop the chuckle from coming out. “Hah, ok, not what I meant but that’s a good point, let me drill down a bit. How open minded would you say you are about what you know about catalyst and abilities?”
“I don’t know. Does anyone really know in advance how well they’ll accept conflicting ideas?”
Raz shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking back up at Midnight. “Fair point, so let me ask you this. What if, just what if, you’re wrong about some of that?”
Midnight’s brow furrowed as he looked Raz over. “I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong, but ok, what if. Are you asking purely hypothetically, or do you think you know something that contradicts what I said?”
Raz spoke slowly, choosing his words with care. “Before I answer that, let me clarify something. The key thing you’re talking about is that the first ability lets you work with future abilities, right? Like, it allows you to–for lack of a better way to say it–interface with the way abilities are gained, and what they are?”
Midnight started to shake his head then nodded. “Sure, that’s actually a perfect metric for what would make a first ability a good one. Additionally, or at least ideally, it would also let you make informed decisions about your choices. What’s your point exactly?”
For a split second, Raz felt himself on the edge of a sort of precipice. He wasn’t even sure if he was imagining it or it was somehow real, but he could see in his mind's eye two roads, forever diverging from this moment. The need for answers, his attempts to define problems so he could solve them, all warred with fear and doubt, the vastness of the unknown risk. That battle resolved into a stalemate, as it so often had.
Raz dug deep inside himself for more, something to tip the scales. He thought about the people from his old job. He thought about his house, or what was left of it. He thought about his old life, and all it entailed. Somehow, some of those things from his old life that had seemed so very important, looked faded, hollow, the life and color drained out of them.
Then, as Midnight looked on with a patient, half smile on his face, Raz thought about Hex, in all her aspects, his mother, and the fact that somehow both of the women in his life were connected to the man in front of him. The images in his mind were crisp, colorful, and vibrant. Finally, he thought about his long gone father, what he would have advised, and made his choice.