“You’re a superhero.”
“I’m absolutely not a superhero.”
“You have heat vision.”
“I have light vision at best. Look, the wall doesn’t have a mark on it.”
“You’re even a journalism student!”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“What else can you do? Fly? Super strength? Ice breath?”
Chase turned pleading eyes away from Miles’s manic questioning and onto the rest of the group. “Little help here?”
Tom looked pensive, then turned to Miles with the hint of a smirk. “Do you think he’s weak to radioactive rocks from his home planet?”
“I’m pretty sure everybody’s weak to radiation!” Chase protested.
Kayla snorted, and Jess let out something halfway between a giggle and a sigh. “They’re not gonna stop unless we stop them.” She said, “Let’s figure out what’s actually going on rather than assigning Chase a comic book backstory.”
“Plus he would look terrible in blue and red tights.” Kayla snarked.
Chase pouted. “Well that’s just hurtful.”
Jess patted his arm in mock consolation. “Green is much more your color. I’m not sold on a cape though.”
“You all suck. At least Echo’s still on my side.”
“I’m not sure calling on your imaginary friend is the move you wanna go with here.”
“Imaginary? You just saw those eye beams! Do you think I would’ve kept it a secret if I could do that this whole time?”
“Maybe,” Miles cut in. “If you didn’t want to drag your family into your frequent bouts with supervillains and make them a target. Just mild-mannered Chase Adkins, journalism student.”
“Please,” Kayla argued. “Nothing about him is mild-mannered.”
“At least I’m not boring.” Chase nodded emphatically.
“So…” Tom said. “As entertaining as this whole tangent is, do we maybe want to focus on why Chase can do that kind of thing now?”
“Yeah, I probably should give you all the backstory. You see, it all started when I was a child -”
“You’re still a child and it started maybe two hours ago.” Jess corrected.
“Spoilsport. Okay, I may have left something out when I told you all about my dream conversation with Echo earlier. It wanted me to be a bridge for it into the physical world, and said that would involve channeling some kind of power through me. Didn’t know it would be eyebeams, but I can think of worse options.”
“A bridge? Can Echo not interact with the physical world under typical circumstances?” Ellie spoke up for the first time since Chase’s eyes had developed laser capabilities.
Chase scratched the back of his head and looked up at the ceiling. “It’s hard to explain. Echo experiences time and space kind of all at once, but on a more conceptual level than we do. I think that’s why the dreamscape was so confusing at first. It was trying to communicate with me like it would with another member of its species.”
“Conceptual how? A lot of things can be boiled down to concepts.” Tom asked.
“Good question. It certainly hurt a lot when Echo tried showing me how it sees the world. I can’t really describe it, I’m pretty sure it has five or six senses that just don’t translate into how we experience things.”
“Is it changing you?” Jessica’s voice was hard. “I know you said it was helpful and a rebel and all that, but is it just using you?”
Chase met her eyes. “I don’t know.” She took in a breath, but he kept talking before she could voice an objection. “I’m choosing to trust Echo. It didn’t have to tell me anything, and I think it’s on our side here. I’m pretty sure somewhere in that confusing mess of sensations it showed me its literal birth. It was made from gentle curiosity. I don’t really think it knows how to be sinister and scheming.”
Jess huffed out a half-sigh. “Fine. But I’m watching you, and you let us know the instant you start feeling something off.”
“I promise.”
“So it’s more of a symbiote situation, I see. Chase, how would you describe the moment of bonding? Did you find a bit of black sludge and-”
“You said this Echo is like a rebel, right?” Kayla cut off Miles’s comic book tangent before it could get going. “So that means there are others, others who wouldn’t be on our side.”
Chase nodded grimly. “Yeah. From what he showed me, they’re only interested in keeping us around as incubators for more of their kind. And they’ve already got a hell of a foothold here.”
“The researchers.” Tom said, realization dawning. “No wonder they’ve been isolating themselves and acting so odd. They’re not entirely themselves anymore.”
“Exactly. As best I can tell, Echo’s species feed off of emotions and identity. They take whatever your core concept of self is and amp that up while consuming the little bits and pieces left on the periphery. Once you’ve been boiled down to a single thing, they can use that pure concept to make more of themselves.”
Kayla paled. “That sounds sick.”
“They are parasites.” Ellie whispered.
“Insidious ones.” Chase agreed. “The kind you might not notice until it’s too late. After all, you’ve just been a little more focused lately, or a little lazier or angrier. You’re not doing anything out of character, you’re just more in tune with yourself. So the little things fall by the wayside one by one until there are no little things left. There’s just one big ball of a single concept where there was once a multifaceted person.”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“We have to warn them.” Miles had seemingly snapped out of his comic book comparisons. “They’re sitting ducks.”
“We can’t warn them.” Kayla said firmly. “We have no way of knowing who might be hosting one of these ghosts.”
“Can we please not call them ghosts?” Jess begged.
“Well they need a name, we can’t just keep calling them Echo’s species. Plus they essentially possess people. It fits.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“If we cannot trust the researchers with this information,” Ellie began. “What can we do? We are simply students, we do not even have access to the central laboratory.”
“Good question.” Tom looked at Chase. “What do we do?”
Chase blinked. “Why are you looking at me? You guys are the sciency ones!”
“Bro, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve moved way beyond the known limits of science here. Plus you’re the one Echo chose to stick to. I figure that’s gotta mean something.”
“What he said.” Kayla agreed.
“I admit I am at a loss, and you have had good ideas thus far.”
“You’re the one with powers, of course you’re the leader.”
Chase scowled. “Pretty sure that logic only works with villains. Are you calling yourself a henchman, Miles?”
He shrugged. “I’m not nearly British enough to be your butler, so yeah.”
“Chase,” Jess said firmly. “You’re the ideas guy. Where do we go from here?”
Chase sighed. “Look, I don’t really know, alright? I didn’t go into this with any kind of grand plan, just a question I thought was worth answering. Now we have an answer and a bunch more questions, but they’re the dangerous kind. If this was just for an article, I’d be pulling back about now, weighing the pros and cons to see if it was worth the cost to keep digging. But this is a lot higher stakes than pissing off the assistant dean of student engagement over some mishandled budget for intramurals. We could seriously get hurt.”
“We know, dumbass.” Kayla said bluntly. “We’re already trapped here. If we do nothing, we’re just waiting for those parasites to hollow us out. So yeah, we’re gonna get hurt. It’ll be worth it if we figure out how to get out.” A series of nods and agreeing noises followed her proclamation.
“Fine.” Chase said. “Let’s make this a proper conspiracy and start a revolution. I’ll see if I can get any more information out of Echo on how the others of its species might have themselves set up. I don’t know if there are any more rebels like Echo, but if there are I’ll see if he can persuade them to bond with us, if you all are comfortable with that?”
“Dibs!” Miles yelled immediately. “I call dibs, you all heard it.”
“Pretty sure they’d have to pick you as well, this is a two-way street.”
“Dibs nonetheless. I have so many ideas…”
“I’m a little scared of what those might be.”
“Not as scared as our enemies will be.”
Chase turned to Ellie. “Can I trust you to reel in his mad scientist tendencies? Steer him away from any death rays or volcano lairs?”
Ellie tittered. “I will do my utmost.”
“Right, what else… we need more information if we’re going to make a plan worth a damn. Right now we know next to nothing about what’s happening in the central labs, and that just became critical if we’re going to be looking for this other faction of Echo’s species and finding a way out.”
“Yeah,” Tom said. “But how are we gonna get in there, bro? Place is locked down tight, most of the maintenance staff can’t even get in.”
“Most?”
Tom looked thoughtful. “I guess there’s Marcus, he’s the facility manager. Pretty sure he’s got keys for everything, but I’ve only seen him around a few times.”
Chase nodded. “See if you can tag along with him one of these days, or at least figure out where he’s holed up. We need a way in.”
“You wanna swipe his keys?”
“I get the feeling we’re gonna have to do worse than that before this is done.” Chase said gravely.
“Yeah,” Tom heaved a sigh. “Doesn’t mean I have to look forward to it.”
“That’s fair.”
“Chase?” Jess asked. “I think we should make another trip to the security office.”
Chase raised an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
She smirked. “Security would almost have to have some keys and access cards, and Bobby wasn’t exactly a paragon of paying attention.”
“That’s true.” Chase frowned. “But it presents its own problems. We don’t know how lazy Bobby was before this whole mess kicked off. If we’re unlucky, we go in there looking for keys and find out he’s got a parasite. I don’t know if they can jump to someone else, but I don’t want to take that risk.”
Jess pursed her lips. “It’s a risk, but we’re going to have to take some of those. I don’t think the rest of Echo’s species are just going to hand us the answers and send us on our way.”
“I don’t think so either, but I don’t want to put any of us in a position where one of them could attach itself to one of us. Our biggest advantage right now is secrecy. If they don’t know we’re here plotting against them, they can’t act against us until it’s hopefully too late.”
“But we don’t even know if they can sense us here, right?” Kayla cut in. “Just saying, you said they experience the world differently. How do we know they don’t already know about us?”
“I don’t. I’ll ask Echo if they pull me back into a dream for another chat, but right now I’m running off that assumption since our door hasn’t been beaten down yet.” There was a beat of silence as the whole group turned nearly in unison to the door. The door did not react.
“Someone needs to keep me from tempting fate like that.” Chase whispered.
“Sorry, but none of us are qualified to do the impossible.” Jess whispered back.
Ellie cleared her throat. “Chase, perhaps we should discuss the likely leader of these parasites, or rather, their host.”
“And who do you - no. No, that’d be just our luck.” Chase groaned.
“What? It’s probably Dr. Redmond, yeah?” Tom asked, confused.
“Yeah,” Chase said morosely. “Youngest researcher to ever be put in charge of a lab like this. Driven, calculating, some would say ruthless and cold. Values results above all else. And if she’s hosting one of those parasites, all of those traits turned up to eleven. Honestly from what Echo told me, she sounds perfect for his species; kinda reflects their whole ethos.”
“That’s… disturbing.” Jess muttered. “But also enlightening. Know thy enemy is a thing for a reason, and if they’re too alike, maybe they won’t see us coming if we do something unexpected?”
“I know you have a lot of faith in my skills, but I don’t think they’d go for a winner take all rap battle or dance-off.” Chase said dryly.
“But seriously, what could we do that’s unexpected?” Miles asked. “It feels like we’re boxed in, and not just by the dome outside. We need to know what they’re doing in the central lab, and they’re already keeping everyone out. It’s not like they’re suddenly going to let us run through on a tour.”
“I’ve had enough lab tours for a lifetime, but you’re right.” Chase wracked his brain, eyes going distant. Echo could probably come up with some kind of trick to at least get him in the central lab, but that would risk revealing his partner and leave him on his own without backup. On the other hand, the other ghosts didn’t have to change anything they were currently doing to keep the students from learning what they were doing, and any attempts to insist or break in anyway were bound to draw suspicion. Unless they could find that one convenient air vent that could fit a person and was conveniently left unguarded and out of camera range at all times that every action movie insisted on including, it would be difficult to get anyone through without being noticed.
“We’re gonna need to workshop this, because it’s sounding like a heist. I’ll have another talk with Echo, see if we can pull off something subtle like invisibility or a disguise. Tom, we’ll be relying on you to track down Marcus and his keys. Miles and Ellie, it’s probably best if you two get back to hounding the researchers to be lab assistants. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky. Kayla, if you can make a map of where you’ve seen the most activity, we can try to find the best angle of approach. Jess, we’ll visit Bobby’s security office again tomorrow, but we’re gonna be careful about it. If Echo’s species can sense him with me, you’ll have to do it alone.”
Chase glanced at the time, then back at the unusually focused faces of his friends. “It’s late, let’s get some rest. Tomorrow the conspiracy really begins.”