On Metamaterials.

Metamaterials are the most common and least powerful of the metaphysical phenomenons but perhaps one of the most important.

A metamaterial is a nonliving object that has either directly or indirectly been affected by a metareality event. This results in the physics of the material being altered in a somewhat predictable fashion.

For example meta-aluminium is often stretchy like rubber, while maintaining all of it’s conductive properties. Sometimes on the other hand it will drain heat from the environment, making it freezing cold and impossible to smelt or recast. Magnetised iron often has its magnetic field replaced with an altered gravity field, drawing or repelling matter.

The study of metamaterial properties and how to exploit them is a fast developing and incredibly lucrative field.

Coming home Mickey found his long term girlfriend on the couch eating chinese in front of the television.

"I got chinese. I didn't get you any."

"It's a bit early for dinner anyway." Mickey said.

"I had a busy day at work and I was hungry."

Mickey thought to himself 'lets see, she's had an annoying day and she came home early, I'm not there. I left no note so she doesn't know what I'm doing or when I'll get home. She's probably a little annoyed.'

Mickey walked behind her to give her a back rub.

"So a bunch of teens walked into my altered dimension today. Nobody got seriously injured but one guy got a bunch of scratches from the rats. Went to the club to celebrate a little bit. How was your day?"

"Fine."

"Nothing interesting happened?"

"It was fine. Nothing happened."

Mickey waited to see if she would open up herself or if he would have to prod her a bit. Just as he inhaled deeply, prepared to use his “calm, reasonable and understanding” tone

“Arrgh. Fine, There was a partial phasing shop lifter who I had to arrest, which easy, wrap him in my shields and done right? But less then an hour after handing him off to the cops, I get called into the station because the guilty as sin bastard brought in daddies trust fund lawyer. SO then I had to write another after action report and a witness statement and every goddamn piece of paper the suit could throw at me so the sleazebag would walk scot free. And then when I finally get home” Eleanore cuts herself off, slightly embarrassed.

“And when you got home looking to vent I’m not here, you don’t know where I am and I come home tipsey.”

“Would it have killed you to leave a note.”

“You could have texted me.”

“I didn’t want to text you.”

During conversation Mickey's hands had been busy, working her shoulders and down to her upper and lower back. She was still noticeably tense so mickey asked

“Do you still want ta vent?”

“YES.”

In the home gym, a converted dining room, Mickey and Elanore squared off on some jigsawed together exercise mats.

On the mats Elanore and Mickey put on gloves tapped fists before taking their positions. The timer on Elenore’s phone went off and the match began. She opened up with a pair of translucent bronze barriers from her feet to launch herself at him. Mickey stepped to the side dodging her hammer strike countering with a jab at her stomach. Instead of missing him completely Elanore twisted her downward strike into his torso while parrying his jab. Making use of her shorter toned physique Elanore threw jabs and swift kicks at Mickey, testing his defences. Mickey for his part relied on the extra padding and reach his size afforded him to keep her at bay.

‘Like a bear being hounded by a really aggressive wolf.’ Mickey mused waiting for an opening.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘There!’

Pivoting on his backfoot, Mickey sacrificed his balance for extra reach, kicking out at Elly’s leading leg. As she jumped back he followed up with a lunging jab, then a trio of stepping cross punches. For almost three seconds Mickey had control of the fight.

Then Elanore drove four sharp bronze energy projections into Mikeys face.

With a sound of churning gravel the blades were pulled apart by dark smoke billowing from Mickey's skin. While the barriers did no damage to him, his smoke blinded him and he felt something hit the inside of his knee hard enough to force him onto the ground. Before he knew it he was flat on his back in considerable pain.

His vision cleared in time for him to see Elanore straddle his stomach and pull her fist back with an intensely focused look on her face.

Mickey hurriedly brought his arms up to guard his face yelling

“Yield! Yield! Tapout! I’m done!”

After a few seconds of not getting pounded into paste, Mickey lowered his arms. Seeing the satisfied look on Elly’s face Mickey hesitantly asked

“Done venting?”

‘Please be done.’ Mickey inwardly begged.

Elanore pulled off her gloves and wiggled her hips down to straddle Mickey's hips.

“Nope. Time for round two.” She purred as she began to remove her top.

        ###

Later.

Mickey woke up to a sense of wrongness. Focusing on his dungeon he found an obviously homeless man in his dungeon. Urinating on his wall.

‘Not dealing with that.’ Mickey purposely pushed awareness away from the dungeon.

‘Cameras. Need to set up cameras.’ Were Mickey's last thoughts before drifting back into sleep.

Mickey awoke to pain. The beating he got yesterday had grown from distracting to debilitating. In particular his knee was agonising. Pulling the sheet back he saw his joint had turned red and swollen.

“Fuck.”

Mickey jabbed Elanore in the kidney with a knuckle, risking his life to wake her from a contented slumber.

“Mmm. Goo’ morning sweetie. Round three?” She smiled.

“No.” He responded flatly. “No sex today. My knee’s fucked. You need to get some ice, help me onto crutches, and help me get dressed. Then we’re going to get my knee looked at.”

Elanore first looked annoyed before her face shifted to concern and settled on remorse. She looked at his knee and winced.

“Shit, sorry. I didn't think I kicked you that hard. You were fine last night.”

“I should have wrapped it immediately, but well, we got a bit distracted.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for good sex.”

After dealing with the inconvenient logistics of using the bathroom, showering and getting dressed Mickey dropped into the passenger seat of his car. His knee freshly wrapped; he watched Elanore slide into the driver's seat. After they had travelled some distance Mickey raised a concern.

“Aah Honey? We’re going the wrong way. Clinic is on the left.”

“We’re not going to the clinic. We have that thing at HQ.”

“Hun it's just a bruised knee. I don't need time with the Recombobulator. It’s a bit expensive and the doctor will be fine. ”

“Sweetie, you can use my pass. No one will give a rats arse. That's what it’s there for.”

“Ahh Bu-”

“Sweetie let me do this okay. Just. Please.”

Mickey looked closer at Elanore and noticed the tensed shoulders and whitened grip on the wheel.

“Okay honey. We’ll do it your way.”

Elanore nodded and relaxed slightly.

Situated relatively central to Brisbane ‘the Bunker’ occupied a slice of the victoria parklands. Home to Brisbane City's premier superteam the Brisbane Bastions. And the workplace and home away from home of one Elanore Jackson AKA Laminae.

Elanore drove down the ramp into the underground parking, navigating the security with easy familiarity.

After checking Mickey in with security she lead her limping boyfriend to a ground floor sickbay in the low security area. There they found the on duty nurse and the recombobulator room. With a few more forms signed and a quick consult with the nurse, Elanore kissed Mickey on the cheek and left to talk to the team leader.

Stan, the nurse, directed Mickey into the small room and told him to gently exercise the affected areas until the pain faded.

Mickey looked at the recombobulator. While he could only see one of the three cone-like projections he knew the other two were equally covered in wires and protruded into other partitioned rooms. The cones drew their interesting properties from a hunk of altered meta-jade. When held directly by a metahuman it would replace any power they had with regeneration. The bizarre device weakened the effect and gave it more range.

So while in one of the three rooms any metahuman would have their powers weakened and would gaina low level regeneration.

The room Mickey occupied was reserved for the local Emergency Metahuman Crisis Teams and the other two were available to rent for a high hourly rate. With medical metahumans being so rare this helped the superheros stay in the fight longer, and train harder.

After an hour of flexing and bending his knee, Mickey judged it fully healed and left the sickbay. Only to run into the main reason he tried to avoid the base. The Brisbane Battler loomed menacingly over Mickey, muscles bulging