User: Piotr Ivanov/Poltergeist

Civ: Move the Headstones

The user is able to fill objects they touch with kinetic energy, taking the form of small yellow lightning bolts that extend from the object. The smaller the object, the more energy is added to it, allowing the user to effectively turn normal objects into bullets. If any of these objects touches something, the user can either let it tear through it like a regular bullet or transfer the kinetic energy to the object, allowing the user to restructure it by using kinetic energy on a molecular level. The user can undo any restructurings they make.

“Have you come to kill me, Thomas?” Piotr asked, seeing the phantom hand slowly approach him. Soon, a phantom ear came over as well. “Have you come to kill me?” The hand gave a thumb’s up. And Piotr gave a sigh. “You must have figured out who I am. In which case I understand. But make no mistake, Thomas. I am not your enemy. I do not work for the Krokodil Crime Family anymore. In fact . . .” Piotr stood up triumphantly. “I want nothing more than to destroy them!” he shouted.

A phantom mouth approached. “Wait, what? Why?” it asked.

“I had known Cyrille for many, many years. We founded this gang together. Came here from Earth together. To make lives for ourselves. He had a wife and four children, which I’m sure you already know. I had a wife and child as well. However, my child wasn’t involved in the Krokodil Crime Family. I had kept them separate, for reasons that will be made clear in a moment.”

Thomas listened closely, bringing his body parts nearer.

“His wife was highly involved in the gang’s operation, but he didn’t understand the risks of that. I was assigned with her one night, taking on a job against a rival group. But . . . we failed. She was killed. And I was blamed for it. I thought little of it, aside from the pain I had felt for my friend, and the wound faded. Soon, I myself fell in love, and we married, her child becoming mine. But shortly afterwards, just a few years ago, I found her dead in our own home. Krokodil had waited for me to get married and then killed my wife as revenge! I’m only lucky my child survived. But as she grows older, I worry that Cyrille will turn his rage to her as well. I need to stop him before that happens.”

Thomas didn’t know what to say. “Wow, that’s . . . intense. I’m sorry, Piotr.”

“I know allies are scarce, especially in here. But I knew I’d heard your name from somewhere, Thomas. And after getting you to use your Civ, I knew you were the same Phantom Limb who had terrorized their operation shortly before I was framed. Thomas Finn, I humbly ask you to rekindle that fire and help me destroy them!” Piotr shouted, extending his hand towards Thomas’s phantom one.

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“Um . . .” Don’t say yes, Thomas thought. “Well . . .” Thomas, you have a job and responsibilities. You don’t have time to go fight a gang with some guy you just met! “I, er . . .”

They supply you with Chorus! Even if you beat them, that means never seeing your family again. Do you want that? “I have to think . . . think . . . maybe?” They hate you, Thomas. They’re going to kill you and worse. Thomas saw the pain of grief in Piotr’s eyes as he hemmed and hawed over his answer. He recognized it. “Yes. I’m in.” Thomas clasped Piotr’s hand with his phantom one and shook it. Fuck. I’m going to regret this, he thought.

“Fantastic my friend! You’re not going to regret this!” Piotr said, his expression changing to one of excitement and glee.

I AM going to regret this. Making regrets is practically my real Civ ability, Thomas thought. Again.

Phantrana, are you listening? Thomas thought to himself as he stood in front of Piotr. And the scene around him melted away to the same purple dreamscape as before.

“Well done, Thomas! Making good choices!” Phantrana echoed.

I’m only doing this so he’ll help me escape, all right? Thomas thought.

“Oh. Well, never mind then. Why can’t you just help him?”

“Because I don’t want to get MURDERED, Phantrana.”

“Remember when I told you you were going down a dark path?”

“Yeah, but I got myself off it, right?”

“Not murdering a father of two isn’t enough to save yourself, Thomas! Look at Piotr. Does he remind you of anyone? Someone who committed dangerous and illegal murders and then was later betrayed by their employers?”

“No.”

“This is your future if you don’t help Piotr and cement yourself as a good person. Going after the Krokodil Crime Family won’t be the safest thing for your body, but it will be the only way to save your soul.”

* * *

Blair Aureo had thought about what happened after Thomas had saved her life. She sat on her motorcycle, hiding away out of view as she saw Thomas being dragged off by police officers. She looked at his bag, seeing his mask and handguards inside. Hopefully keeping this evidence away from police would be enough to help him get through the court system safely—but she wasn’t sure. She needed to do more.

Blair rode home on the empty train tracks. She arrived at her apartment late. Later than she had hoped to. She was still injured from her fight with Thomas, and she sat on her cat-fur-covered couch attempting to cauterize the two massive holes in her shoulders. She still barely had motion in them. After seeing Thomas shatter the debris that was about to crush her, she snapped out of her blind fervour. She was able to revert back the transformers and fix everything she couldn’t revert with her electrical know-how, and then heal Thomas the same way. He hadn’t just saved her life a few hours ago but saved her from herself. And she had to repay that.

What was Thomas doing there? That’s what I don’t know, she thought as she pet one of her cats, a dark fellow. She found it helped her thinking, and she heard that purring could help with healing injuries. He didn’t want to steal anything. He would’ve done that. He also blinded himself, presumably creating phantom eyes. He had to have been looking for something. But what? Blair thought of the security guard. Was Thomas sent to kill that guy? If so, why didn’t he have a heat gun on him? He grabbed one later. Blair was leaning towards Thomas Finn, being an assassin sent to kill that security guard, Robert Engels. But even afterwards, he didn’t make an effort to escape me and kill him. He was focused on stopping the meltdown. Blair thought about what Thomas said about being caught in a dead-end job that he hated and having wanted to be a vigilante until that happened. Maybe he’s an assassin but doesn’t like killing people. I think he wants out, somehow. Blair knew that despite Thomas’s desire to not be a hired gun, he still was one. And “wanting out” alone didn’t make him redeemable. But she felt like she owed it to him. And she wanted to know more herself.

She had decided to ask this Robert Engels person to not testify against Thomas. He seemed pretty weak-willed based on her conversation with him, and getting him to stay quiet wouldn’t be too hard. She slept that night in her tiny apartment surrounded by her meowing cats, thinking about cornering Robert Engels on his morning commute tomorrow.