Audrey awoke to pounding on her front door. Morning sunlight filtered in through her curtains to touch her face, making her eyes hurt. Try as she might, however, she couldn’t move. She couldn’t move her head; she couldn’t lift her arms to shift the blanket; she couldn’t move her legs to get out of bed. Every joint in her body hurt, every limb was stiff and frozen in place. She felt like a balloon again, this time filled to bursting and ready to explode. This was the arthritic flare to end all flares. Audrey was trapped in her own bed, utterly helpless.
The pounding at her door continued for a minute longer, then stopped. Then Audrey could hear the door open. “I will not go down like this,” she told herself. With an ocean of pain to draw from, the power flowed from her easily. She pushed, using the pressure to sit up. The bed creaked but held, so she pushed further, using her power to maneuver herself around so that her legs draped over the edge of the bed. She moaned with the effort, the shifting of joints eliciting excruciating pain, but she wanted to face what was coming rather than take it lying down.
The door to Audrey’s bedroom had not been replaced yet, so there was nothing standing between her and the hallway. Hearing forceful steps coming her way, she prepared herself, readying her power to push her attacker into the next county if necessary.
“Audrey!” Mary’s voice yelled out as she turned into the bedroom. “Where the hell are you?”
Her brother’s wife stopped short on seeing Audrey who did her best to look menacing while wearing only a bed sheet. Audrey was regretting giving her brother and sister-in-law keys. They were meant for emergencies, not so they could barge in whenever they felt like it.
“Don’t you dare give me that look,” Mary spat. “What the hell did you drag Peter into? He says he nearly died because of you. He’s spouting some nonsense about you having superpowers, but I don’t buy that crap. And is that an orchid I saw downstairs? No way Afterimage is leaving flowers on your doorstep. Are you mixed up in some kind of mafia protection scam? You’re going to tell me right now what’s going on or so help me…”
Audrey didn’t bother saying a word. Glancing at her nightstand, she released a burst of pressure. Her alarm clock sailed past her sister-in-law’s head, out through the door, and embedded itself in the hallway wall. The wall was already damaged, what was one more hole.
Mary looked at her glassy-eyed with shock. Her anger had flown away with the alarm clock, forgotten.
“How are you, Audrey?” Audrey quipped. “I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in. Why yes, Peter is doing well. What’s this I hear about you having superpowers?”
Mary just stared at her, her mouth hanging open.
“Sit down,” Audrey stated flatly, seeing that her stunt had broken her friend.
Mary sat down on the bed beside her, eyes still wide. “So it’s true.”
“Yes, and someone has been hiring people to kill me.”
“People? You mean plural?”
“Two so far. I went to the park when I got home yesterday, and there was someone waiting for me with a big ass gun.”
“You kill them too?”
Audrey cringed, which made her muscles twinge with pain. “That other guy was an accident. I swear. This one is very much alive. At least he was when I left.”
“So you’re still in danger. Is Peter in danger?”
“No, I don’t think so. He was hurt because he was with me. I’ll stay away from him until this is over. I promise. Speaking of which, you should go too.”
That seemed to snap Mary back to her old self. “What? And leave you alone to deal with this? I want to help.”
Mary, with her manicured nails and waifish figure, didn’t seem like she would be much help in a fight, and her work as a medical transcriptionist hardly qualified her to give advice on how to be a powered hero. She belonged in front of a computer, typing away while listening to medical jargon.
Audrey’s stomach growled, reminding her she had skipped dinner the night before. “Then help me get breakfast. I’m starving.”
Mary helped Audrey dress and gave her support as she limped her way to the dining room table. Her friend left her there to go to the kitchen, grumbling about how thin Audrey had become since their college days. It gave Audrey time to check email on her phone.
A few minutes later Mary placed a bowl of cereal and a glass of juice in front of her. “You don’t have much in the kitchen. I could go shopping for you if you’d like?”
Still looking at her phone, she saw what she was looking for – notification that her healthcare account had been updated. “Maybe. But right now I could use your expertise. Can you look at some medical records with me?”
Sitting at the dining room table with Audrey’s laptop between them, Mary’s brows furrowed as she examined her friend’s genetic test results. She tapped on the arrow key every few minutes, paging through the files. Audrey was thankful for help in deciphering them. It was all gobbledygook to her.
They listed out genes associated with rheumatoid arthritis, some of which she knew about, but most of the list, all represented in genetic shorthand, were unrecognizable. HLA-DRB1 was familiar, but what were POU3F1, TYK2, or RUNX1? She had no idea.
“So what do you think?” Audrey asked, giving up.
Mary paged quickly through a few more before leaning back and rubbing her eyes. “No idea.”
“Great, thanks for the help.” Audrey hobbled over to a chair and gently settled herself in despite the protest from her joints. The more she moved, the easier it got, but it meant forcing her body into uncomfortable positions. From the side table she picked up the note that came with the second orchid left on her doorstep. She re-read it for the fifth time. “I took care of the problem. I know you’re angry, but don’t become like them. You’re better than that. –A” was all it said. The words jived with what Audrey saw in the morning news. Afterimage catches known terrorist in public park. Thankfully there were no injuries, nor mention of other powered individuals in the area.
“I transcribe doc speak. Just because I know how to spell the words doesn’t mean I know what it all means,” Mary sniped back. “Besides, I wasn’t paying attention to that stuff anyway.”
Audrey looked up at her in confusion. “Then what were you looking for?”
“You said someone may have looked at your files and figured out you had powers. They might have broken into the hospital’s computers, sure, but there are easier ways to get the information. Someone had to know what they were looking for, and who better than the people doing the testing?”
“And who would that be?”
Mary glanced back at the computer screen. “Each of your tests was signed off by someone at IDEN Labs, the place the researchers used for their analyses. Every entry was initialed by BCT.”
“Well that’s useless.” Audrey leaned back in defeat.
“Oh contraire, my dear.” Mary opened up another tab on the web browser and did some typing. “How many people do you think work at IDEN Labs? They only have like ten employees, and they’re all listed on the about us page of their website.”
Audrey tried to leap out of her chair but failed. She had to settle for slowly levering herself up by screaming wrists that ended in useless balls of flesh and bone called hands. “And?” she asked as she hobbled over.
“Benjamin Tucker. He signed off on every test run on you, and probably handles most of the tests that go through the place. If anyone is passing out information about people with genetic markers for superpowers, it’s him.” There was a picture on the web page of a man in his early thirties with a receding hairline and thick-rimmed glasses wearing a white lab coat. He looked like every picture of a lab geek Audrey had ever seen on the internet.
“That’s a pretty thin lead.” Audrey tried not to feel overly hopeful. She didn’t want to accuse an innocent man based on such a tenuous association.
“Hey, it’s that or someone is scanning their computer files. If that’s the case, unless you know a hacker, you’re screwed. This is your best chance. It’s worth looking into.”
Audrey took a deep breath. “Yes, you’re right. Thank you. I’ll look into it.”
“And how the hell are you going to do that? You can barely walk.”
“Oh, I have my ways.” Audrey smiled. Looking down at knobby fingers curled into tight fists, she could feel the pressure ready to come out. “I have some preparations to make first, though. Want to help me shop?”
Later that day she was in downtown Portland waiting on the rooftop of the building opposite IDEN Labs, looking out over the parking lot below. It was early evening, the sound of nearby traffic reaching the frenetic hum of rush hour. A few people had already left for the day, but she had yet to see anyone resembling Benjamin Tucker.
Audrey waited, gray hoodie up over her head to hide her face from anyone who might see. It was a clear night with an enjoyable view, so she rested her chin on the lip of the roofline’s low wall and counted cars as they drove by, looking down every now and then when she heard a door open. She fidgeted as she watched, frequently shifting position to ease the pain in her hips and knees, adjusting her ill-fitting clothing, or checking her newly purchased fanny pack to make sure her energy bars, bottled water, zip-ties, and mirrored ski goggles were all accounted for.
Another hour ticked by on her watch before her target showed his face. In the light of the lamp over the back door of the lab, Benjamin Tucker stepped out into the early evening. He was small and pudgy with a backpack slung over one shoulder and a large manila envelope in one hand. He glanced around the lot before making his way across to one of the few remaining parked cars.
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Audrey slipped on her goggles and pushed herself over the edge of the building, floating down on a cushion of air to meet the lab tech. Unlike Afterimage, who glided on a beam of light, she was more like a helicopter. She produced a downdraft that kicked up dust and leaves into a billowing cloud beneath her. It spoiled the surprise but forced Benjamin Tucker to duck and shield his eyes in trepidation.
Audrey’s ability to fly was still unsteady, her path wobbling as she descended, but she hoped her entrance was dramatic enough for him not to notice her awkwardness. She brought up her bubble shield when she touched the ground and covered the remaining distance on foot. The fear in his eyes as she approached was amplified by the lensing effect of compressed air between them.
“Benjamin Tucker?” she asked sternly, glad he could not hear the pounding of her heart.
“Ya… yes?” he stammered. Intimidated, he dropped the envelope in his hand and stepped back, but Audrey moved forward to take up the slack and apply psychological pressure.
“You’ve been selling us out. Who are you selling to?” Audrey had never been a good liar and was thankful this guy could not see her face clearly. It was taking all she had to keep up the bluff. She needed to keep the doubt out of her voice, to make him think she knew more than she really did.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Liar!” Audrey yelled. She stepped forward again. “You’re giving test results identifying powered people to someone. Tell me who.”
He tried to step back once more, but a parked car behind him blocked his escape route. “I haven’t done anything wrong…”
The look on his face, the way he turned away his eyes, told her all she needed to know. Audrey knew that expression of shame all too well. It was the same one she’d gotten from former friends who made excuses to avoid being with her after she was diagnosed with her disease.
No longer bluffing, her anger rose, every ache in her body threatening to pour out of her and pound into him. Instead of letting loose, however, she let the pressure leak out, slowly pushing him back against the car. In her fury, it took considerable effort to keep from crushing him like a bug.
Benjamin Tucker gasped from the force, his back bending to conform to the shape of the vehicle’s door. Thinking of the incident at the park and Afterimage’s note, she reigned herself in further to let him breathe.
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” he stammered in panic.
“Tell me.”
“This guy told me to pass along files for anyone with errors in particular gene sequences. Mostly just common chronic diseases. He was paying good money for what I thought was nothing. I didn’t know it was about powered people.”
“Who is he? How do I find him?” She got up close, the bubble of her shield nearly touching his nose.
“I’m right here,” she heard someone say behind her. “Thank you for the files, Ben. You’ll get your money once I’m done chatting with this lady. You can go now.”
As Audrey turned toward the newcomer, Benjamin Tucker scuttled away to his car. She heard the door slam and the engine roar to life, but the lab tech was no longer important. Only the man before her, the man who had been trying to kill her, held her attention. She could feel the pressure building inside of her in preparation as she faced her would-be killer.
Then emptiness struck. A vast void opened within her, sucking at the core of her being to drain away her essence and rob her of the energy and will to act. It was both physical and mental; crushing despair coupled with exhaustion so deep she wished she could lay down and sleep on the asphalt. Her defenses dropped away, taking too much effort to maintain, as she fell to her knees in defeat. Her heart clenched in erratic spasms as she struggled to fight the oppressive sensation and failed.
The man walked past her to pick up the envelope Tucker had dropped. “You’re better than I expected. I wasn’t planning on meeting you so soon. But here we are. At least I didn’t lose this.” He tapped the envelope against his hand as if he could measure its value by the weight of its contents.
He was a plain man. Average height, nondescript dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, wearing a black leather jacket and tan slacks. He could have been anyone from anywhere. Even his voice was average, so normal and understated it was sleep-inducing. Yet his presence was sucking the life out of Audrey, making it impossible to lift a finger against him.
The emptiness brought up feelings and emotions from deep within her memories. The days after her diagnosis, of telling her friends the results. The useless advice they gave that if she’d been a better person, done the right things, eaten the right foods, she would never have gotten sick. The despair when they left, telling her she was lazy and worthless, that she enjoyed playing the martyr, that if she’d get off her ass and work harder the disease would go away. It was all lies, but deep down a part of her believed them.
“Why?” Audrey gasped out, trying to breathe through the darkness in her mind. “Why are you trying to kill me?”
“It’s nothing personal,” he said matter-of-factly. He sat down on his heels in front of her, casual and unhurried, unconcerned that someone might see them in the middle of the parking lot. “I wanted to do it before your powers manifested, but I guess I was a little late. That or I triggered them. That happened once before. Afterimage has been a thorn in my side ever since. Oh well. Nothing to do about it now.”
He took a deep breath, thinking over his options. “You’re a strong one. No use sending anybody else. I suppose I could kill you myself right here, but what’s the point? From what I can see, you’re as useless as Afterimage. He keeps coming after me and failing. You will too. But tell me, do you like your powers?”
Audrey was confused, barely able to think under the crushing miasma he exuded. “What do my powers have to do with it?”
“Well, Ms.… what’s your name again? And please don’t tell me you go by one of those silly hero names.” He paused as if expecting an answer but seeing her discomfort he rattled on. "No matter. You see, I woke up one day with this cancer worming its way through my head. I could literally feel it sucking my life away. And then I find I can make others feel it too. You know what? The more I do it, the less I hurt. My tumor even gets smaller. Would you believe it? Damn thing won’t go away entirely, but sometimes I almost feel normal again.”
Audrey heard the door to the IDEN Labs building open then. She tried to look up to warn away whoever it was, but she could barely raise her eyes from the pavement in front of her. “Hey,” someone shouted in their direction. “What’s going on over there? You OK?” She heard footsteps approaching but then it stopped in an anguished cry. The steps shuffled back and then retreated back into the building.
Mr. Cancer shook his head sadly, using the envelope to point in the direction of the fleeing person. “See, that’s the problem. Nobody likes being around someone who makes them hurt. I am a god-damned blight on humanity. I might feel normal sometimes, but I’m not. And neither are you. We’re just a couple of walking diseases. You honestly think there should be more of us?”
“The only upside is I can do whatever the hell I want. Nobody will mess with me. And I mean nobody.” He tapped her on the head with the envelope to make his point. “I might as well take advantage and do whatever I can to keep this disease from spreading.”
He stood up, gloating. “So enjoy your day in the sun. One day you’ll realize I’m right. This isn’t a blessing. It’s a curse. Maybe when you see that we can talk again.”
Audrey heard the sounds of sirens approaching. Mr. Cancer did as well. “I better go. Not much they can do to me, but who needs the bother? As for you, I don’t advise coming after me. Afterimage already learned that lesson. Stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. Like my mom used to say, if you can’t take the pressure, don’t climb into the cooker.” Then he turned and walked away.
Audrey was left gasping for breath. The farther Mr. Cancer went, however, the more the discomfort eased until it lifted entirely. Yet she stayed on her knees, body trembling, frozen by failure. The pain had been replaced by embarrassment and the crushing feeling of defeat. She had powers, but they were useless. She couldn’t help herself, she couldn’t help her brother, and she couldn’t help his future victims. People would die because of her. She played hero and fell firmly on her face.
A police cruiser pulled into the lot, siren chirping into silence as it came to a stop. A spotlight shined on her as both doors opened up. One officer stayed behind their door, gun drawn, as the other stepped around to walk to her. The female officer kept her gun holstered but kept one hand on it as she approached.
“You ok?” The officer had made sure to stay out of the way of the spotlight, keeping the glare of it aimed at Audrey. She was glad she wore goggles.
“Yeah, I’m ok.”
“The call said there was a man attacking you. Someone you could feel from far away? Someone who could make you feel sick?”
“Yes,” Audrey nodded. “But he’s gone now.”
The officer nodded, probably aware of Mr. Cancer just as Detective Collins had been. News of a supervillain gets around. Still, the officer stopped a few feet away from her, hesitant to approach. “Why are you wearing goggles?”
“Because I thought I could help.” Audrey put a hand up to show she was unarmed, while pushing off the pavement with the other to get her feet under her. Her hips protested from the movement, but she ignored the pain. It paled in comparison with how awful she felt. Once on her feet she raised both hands in submission.
“Can you take those off so I can see your face?” The officer asked politely but firmly.
The request made Audrey angry. If she revealed who she was, that would be the end of her very short career as a hero. She had failed, but she couldn’t allow Mr. Cancer to take away her dignity as well. She refused to go back to her old life as an invalid or take on a new one as a lab rat.
“I’m sorry, I can’t do that.”
The officer put a foot back and took hold her gun’s grip firmly in preparation for a confrontation. She hadn’t drawn yet, but the threat was implied. “Take off the goggles now and show me your ID.”
“Sorry. I need to leave.” Audrey released her power and took off into the air. The officer stumbled back from the pressure wave, too surprised to react before Audrey had disappeared over the surrounding buildings.
This was the highest she had ever gone. She needed to get as far away as possible. On the wrong side of the river from her home, she angled herself over the water, hoping to reach the park near her house.
Down river she got a glimpse of a glowing ball of light. It streaked toward her at an impossible speed, then slowed to keep pace with her. Great, she thought. The last thing she wanted was an escort.
Still lacking confidence in her abilities, she tried to redirect the force of her power to slow down. She initially overshot the park, but managed to reverse course and descend into a dimly lit area. The lights of the surrounding houses glittered like an inviting beach abutting a dark ocean. She managed to come down in the very spot she had fled the day before, the ring of trees hiding her from the rest of the world. In a puff of dust and leaves she landed, stumbling briefly before finding her feet.
Afterimage glided to the ground nearby. On landing the glow dimmed, allowing her to see the outline of the person beneath. He was taller than she was, the angles of his body distinctly masculine with a broad chest and narrow hips. He was still too bright to see details, but it was probably more than anyone else had ever seen of the elusive powered hero.
“I found the cancer man. I understand why you haven’t taken him to the police.”
The light around him flickered, but no sounds emerged. Audrey wondered if he couldn’t talk, and the twinkling light was his attempt to communicate. Having no way to decrypt the code, however, she felt useless all over again.
“Sorry, I’m not very good at this.”
Afterimage approached until he was close enough for her to touch. She squinted in the brightness, the light forcing her to turn her head in uncomfortable denial. There was no heat, however. His presence was warm and inviting, and like a moth to a lamp, she reached out a hand and touched him on the chest.
Her world collapsed. There was no sight, no sound. Audrey felt her body disappear, all sense of place in the world gone, replaced by feelings both familiar yet alien. Her pain was replaced in a form of sensory synesthesia by an uncomfortable rumble in her stomach like indigestion. Outside of herself, she could taste the nervous tension of his muscles beneath her fingertips, hear the warm flutter in his stomach at her touch, see the pull of gravity on his bones shed away from his body in radiant waves of light. And beyond him she could feel the pulse of the city pound at her like splashes of cold water on a rocky shore, the heartbeats of every person for miles around tingling across her skin like goosebumps. It was simultaneously overwhelming and intoxicating, her initial terror whisked away by a desire to embrace him and never let go.
Then it was over. Afterimage pulled away from her touch, leaving her small and helpless once more. He took a step back but stayed near, as if daring her to touch him again. She could see the faint outline of his eyes watching her from within his halo of light. What he was looking for she could only guess. If he was trying to communicate, she still didn’t understand, but she now felt closer to him than any words could.
“Wow,” was all she could manage to say. If his intent had been to pull her from this grip of despair, it worked. The evening had started with defeat, but ended with a sense of wonder and joy.
He lifted his hand in a tentative wave. Then he looked up and in an instant was gone, only the shimmering afterimage of his body remaining in her vision. When her eyes had adjusted to growing darkness, she was alone in the park, the trees her only companions.