“What?”
Spark laughed. “Yeah, he likes to get a feel for the applicants, too. It’s why he went and picked you up.”
Shade called out from the darkness. “And I had a hell of a time finding you, Portal. Didn’t expect you to be on the roof. Although, hearing that you can Link your doors -neat trick, that- I shouldn’t be too surprised. So how does that work?”
I stood there, nervously looking between the five smiling faces. Thankfully, someone came to my defense.
I just didn’t expect it to be Zack.
“Let’s give the man some mystery. And some time. If what I recall is correct, you have a difficult time trusting people, don’t you, Portal?”
I sighed and looked at the floor. “Yeah. I really do.”
“And I accept that it’s my fault. At least partly.”
“Also true.”
“Give him some time, Shade. Once we prove to him that we aren’t gonna rat him out or take unfair advantage of him, I’m sure he’ll help us all understand how his ability works. And how we can use it in a team setting.” He clapped me on the shoulder and squeezed it gently, smiling at me.
I gave him a half smile that I didn’t really feel.
“That makes sense, Spark. Hmm. If neither of you have an objection, I’d like for the two of you to work together. Help him get a feel for us, Spark. Who we are; what we’re about. You good with that?”
“I’m fine with it, boss. I’m not sure Portal is, though. We have a rough history, and I was the reason for it.”
“Oh. Well, in that-”
“No. It’s fine.” I took a deep breath. “If I’m likely going to be working with him at some point, I have to come to trust him, right?” Both men nodded. “What better time than now? May as well bury the proverbial hatchet while we’re at it, too.”
“You really mean that?” Zack leaned forward slightly.
I screwed my face up in thought. “I think so? It was seven years ago and we were kids. Well, you were an asshole. I was a kid.”
Shade snorted. “He’s still a bit of an ass at times, Portal. But, I think he’s changed enough that you might find working with him tolerable. I’ll leave you two to it, then. Can you leave this space, Portal?”
I thought for a moment and pulled up a tiny door on the wooden spool, Linked to my bedroom. Opening it, I saw everything as it was when I left. I closed the door and let it vanish. “Yes, sir. I can actually come freely to this space.”
“I would request that you not. Spark is able to jam all EM frequencies, so I’m not concerned about your cell phone right now, but since you say you can open a door to this space, I can’t be too careful. Go anywhere but here, Portal. Our existence hinges on that.”
“You got it. Um… What if I don’t have my phone on me and can’t be tracked?”
“Not until after we remove your implant, and that could take weeks.” Shade said off-handedly.
“Implant? I don’t have a fuckin’ implant.”
Shade crossed his arms. “Spark? Show him.”
Spark rolled his left sleeve up and pointed to a scar by his elbow. “See that? There was a tiny little GPS transmitter implanted in my arm. We went to the same school, so it’s likely there’s one in your arm, too.”
I looked at my left arm, flexing and tensing the muscles there. Wrinkling my brow, I repeated the process on the right. Nothing felt different. I cocked my head and relaxed my left arm, using my right hand to poke and prod at the flesh.
Shade chuckled. “You won’t find anything like that, Portal. Trust me. The implant is tiny. We have someone that can find it. It’ll just take them a while to get to you.” He looked over the five of us. “You guys ready to leave?”
“I can open a door to my apartment from here. I don’t want to trouble you.”
Shade stroked his chin. “Can you now? I wonder…”
“Sir?” asked Spark.
“Hmm? Oh. It’s nothing. I’m just wondering how the Linking part of his ability works. That’s all.”
“I honestly don’t know how it works. I just know that it does. Here. Let me show you.”
Shade nodded and gestured for me to continue. I walked over to the shaded corner that Shade had led me to earlier. Concentrating for a moment, I opened a door that simply opened up on the far wall. I walked into the one in front of me, and walked out of the one on the far wall.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“And that’s pretty much it.” I called out, causing all five heads to turn in my direction. Shade began clapping.
“Simply marvelous. And you have to have been to wherever it is you open a door?”
I nodded. “Yep. As long as I’ve seen the room, or whatever, I can open a door there.”
“How?” Dice chimed in.
I sighed in annoyance. “I already told you-”
She held her hands up defensively. “No… What I meant is how are you able to keep that many locations in your head?”
I relaxed slightly. “Oh…Um. I also have a photographic memory. I was born with it, and it’s not always a blessing, let me tell you.” I shot Spark a dirty look, and he deflated slightly.
Shade laughed. “This will certainly prove useful. For now, I’d like you to open a door to the roof of the Mirleson building. That way, when Spark here stops jamming your GPS, it’ll look like just a glitch. None of us have a phone of any sort on us, so we won’t arouse suspicion. You, on the other hand, do. I’m not blaming you. Quantum is only able to give short messages in the way he did.”
“Yeah. I had to rest for most of the day afterward.” He nodded.
“And believe me, that is a major improvement. He used to only be able to send a single one-word message per day. He’s advanced leaps and bounds.” Shade looked over at Quantum with a face filled with fatherly pride. He turned to face me, and smiled. “Here in The Gray Cloud, I expect you to hone your abilities to their utmost. You won’t be doing so alone, however. Every single member of The Cloud will support you to the best of their ability.”
Celeste spoke up. “He’s right man. All of us. We want you to be better tomorrow than you were today. You may not know this, but a lot of members in The Cloud are those of us who have” -she cleared her throat and pitched her voice low- “a worthless anomaly of a power, hardly deserving to be called such.”
I laughed softly. “You were told the same thing, huh?”
She nodded. “At the time, all I could do was influence my own dreams, but now? Now I can enter what I can only guess is the Astral Realm; separate from my body. I can bring only one sense with me right now, but I’m working on more.”
“Huh. Shows how short-sighted the spooks were.”
Shade nodded. “Indeed. And I would wager that once word gets out -and it will get out- that you’re not working for either the Alliance or the The Guild, that they’ll start to hunt you down. We’ve lost a few members to either forced rehabilitation, or outright murder.” Shade clasped his hands behind his back.
“Jesus. Well, I guess that solidifies my impression of the pair of them, then.”
He turned to me with a shrewd expression. “And just what impression is that, may I ask?”
“That The Guild is more corrupt than the common people want to believe. Brighthawk may not be behind it, but she sure as shit isn’t doing a damn thing to stop it. They only look righteous and loving and caring.
“When I was told my power was worthless, I immediately went to them. They heard me out and asked me to demonstrate my abilities. The weakest of them -Bumblebee- was able to shatter my doors with a few well-placed stings. Gotta tell ya, that felt terrible.
“And The Alliance is no better. They’re fully ready to commit murder and terrorize people, and for what? Money?” I snorted. “They could each make more money finding a more helpful use of their powers. I mean, The Loco Motive would make bank as a demolitions expert! Shit, team him up with Bubble from The Guild, and they’d be a literally unstoppable duo.”
Shade’s grin grew wider as I spoke. “Tell me something, Portal. Have you ever looked up anyone that The Alliance has killed?” I shook my head. “Do it when you get home. You may be surprised. For now, I believe we should get back to the city. Portal? If you would please.”
I nodded and removed my previous doors while the others pulled their robes off, hanging them up on pegs. Concentrating, I opened a pair of steel emergency doors from here to the Mirleson building. “Here we go. Back home.”
Shade opened the door, stepping out into the shadows on the roof. The rest of us followed, and I took a deep breath of the city air.
Blood. I smelled blood. Fresh blood. I quickly looked around, trying to find the source.
“stop. don’t move.” The whisper echoed in my mind. I was fairly certain it was Quantum, so I halted in my tracks, my eyes darting around.
What I couldn’t see, I could hear, however. I heard footfalls coming from above and slowly craned my neck to look up onto the billboard. What I saw boggled my mind.
There was a person up there. Pacing. They had hands that were wrong, and a very unnatural gait. Celeste reached over slowly and grabbed my arm. I looked over at her and she gave the barest shake of her head. I nodded and we both turned our attention to the figure above us.
It had stopped its pacing and was standing there, hunched over. It appeared to be breathing deeply. A sound distracted it and it whipped its head to the left. Quick as a lightning strike, it struck out with a hand, skewering a bat on an elongated finger. Opening its toothsome maw wider than should have been possible, it deposited the morsel inside and crunched noisily. With a huff, it leapt down to the city, and I heard a few shrieks as it left the area.
A collective sigh escaped the six of us.
“They’re getting better. Spark, are you any closer to what you’ve been practicing?”
He shook his head, visibly frightened. “It has a range of six feet at best. Sorry.”
“No worry. You’ll get there.”
“Is anyone gonna tell me what the fuck that was? It didn’t look human.”
“It wasn’t. They’re called Hunters, as far as any of us can tell. As to why they’re here? Anyone’s guess. The Guild and The Alliance keep their existence as quiet as possible. Those screams you heard? They’ll be silenced by morning. One of the few areas in which the two powers will readily work together. Silence. Secrecy. If word got out that there existed creatures on par with Paladin, there’d be mass riots.” Shade was quiet, neutral in his delivery.
“Portal, can you take us somewhere safe? And preferably with food?” Spark asked nervously.
I checked my phone. 8:45. A few places were still open. I grinned. “How about Chinese?”