Tcr 32 Highpoint

Shimmer locked eyes with me, before slowly nodding.

I stood up and looked over at Manifest, “Could you open a portal to somewhere where the two of us can talk.”

Looking a little wide eyed, the Transporter nodded and raised his hand to open a hole in the air showing a flattish spot high up in the wilderness and looking out over what looked like Yellowstone Park.

Shimmer followed me through. “Oh. We called this Highpoint. We used to have campfires out here.”

Highpoint looked to be fairly high up the side of a mountain, and the view lit up by the sunset looked dramatic as hell.

I put my hands in my pockets and let Shimmer take a moment to look out from the edge of the drop off for a moment.

“Today I asked the Mice to find the guy who killed me.”

The teen superhero turned and shot me a started look. “Gains? I… thought you were going to talk to me about Coaltrain?”

I walked up next to her, saw how far down the drop off was, and took a few steps back. "We are, but making this about me might give you some perspective, or not. It’s not like I know what the hell I’m doing here.”

Shaking my head, I walked over and looked at the fire pit surrounded by large chunks of stone. “The two of us have a unique perspective. We died. Seriously, for real, dead. All because of someone else’s choices.”

“I want to face the man who did that to me, and make him answer for it.”

I rubbed at my face, “Well, not like that sounded. I want him to tell me how the hell I’m supposed to feel about dying by his hand. Seeing my dead friends all around me and going to their funerals, watching their grieving families. I want to know, to hear, how the hell he’s dealt with it.”

Turning around I looked at the teen who was staring down into a fire pit with a haunted look.

"Does he feel any guilt, then or still? Has he paid for it, in his own mind?"

I kick one of the stones. “TV morality says revenge won’t make me feel any better, but knowing someone got him out of jail to use him... Is he living free now? Was there justice in what they made him face? Was it enough?”

“...Do I owe three dead kids vengeance because I’m the one who got to live?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Rank 3 Brutes give good hugs.

Shimmer sniffled. “I died.”

"Metal went… into me. It tore me up, and I couldn't breathe. The water was in my lungs, and everything went cold and dark… Then nothing."

“He was arrested, and he was going to be prosecuted for murder in the second degree. And my family made it clear, no vanishing from jail. No secret mission in return for clemency. He abused the powers he was given and would face the Justice our society considers fair.”

“That's all I get because the person harmed can never make a fair judgment on something that involved them."

She let go of me as she took a step back and looked me in the eyes.

"I hate him so much for what he did to me, more even than I think I would if he had done it to someone else. But I want to do the right things. Prison will make him suffer, which I know I shouldn't want, but he chose to harm another person. His well being is less of a concern to me than everyone else on Earth who has never chosen to harm others.”

The teenager gave me a half smile. “And if I get to hit him as hard as I can while bringing him in to face the law? Well, arresting him is what I decided I’m willing to settle for, getting to hurt him while I do it will be a bonus.”

Then she gave me a stern look. “I support your right to face your killer, but I don’t think it will help you.”

I got poked in the chest. “You are way too willing to get brutal with people who hurt other people, so when you find him, I have to insist you bring me with you. I have a few things to say to him myself and to ask him as well. Agreed?"

She held out her hand. After a moment, I shook it.

After all, while I didn’t know what I would do if I even found Gains. Shimmer could and would stop me from doing anything that might put me in jail.

Back at the base, the communications console AI Clovis went to work.

Someone had called Coaltrain’s Mother from Miami earlier that night from a burner phone with a GPS locator, which gave us the address of a hotel right in a densely inhabited spot.

Not a good place for a Super fight. Especially two high Ranking Brutes. Too many lives are at risk.

Shimmer thought it over. "If he runs, he's mine. But if someone can talk him into surrendering…"

She turned to look at me. I looked behind me. “Me?”

Shortly after eleven, Eastern time, I had Dead Talon Clone Number Two knocked on door 6B of the Motel No Tell. I could hear the sound of heavy feet hitting the floor inside. "Mr. Roth? I would like to talk to you before anyone does anything violent. Please don’t attack me.”

After a moment, the door cracked open, a short chain limiting how wide the door could open. Coaltrain’s all white glowing eyes went wide. “You, you were the one fucking with me at that fountain.”

The chain snapped as he pulled the door open, with black smoke beginning to rise out of his skin.

Sitting in my chair back at the hidden base, I spoke into the microphone hooked up to the speaker on Number Two's throat. Splitting myself between two bodies, even if one was just sitting in a chair and talking was a distraction. But it wasn't like I could fight a Rank 4 on my own even with my full concentration.

“You had just killed a seventeen year old girl, can you honestly say you didn’t deserve it?”

He glared at me as he tightened his fists. "All she had to do was get out of my way."

"She didn't, instead she tried to talk you down. Now she is up above us waiting for you to throw a punch or try to run. At which point she will use her full powers to take you down, hard. Who knows, she might even shove your head underwater and let you drown to death. From what she’s told me it's not a pleasant experience."

The gray skinned man raised a fist and black smoke began to choke the room, then he surprised me.

He dropped his hand and stumbled backwards. Weeping.

Full heaving of the shoulders sobbing as he half sat, half fell onto the edge of his unmade bed. His steam whistle voice screamed out, "I'm sorry!"

Well, this wasn’t something we had planned for.

Stepping into the room, I closed the door behind me and looked around. Seeing the many empty bottles of cheap liquor, I cleared a spot on the floor and pulled up a chair in the room before the gathering smoke completely blocked off all the light from the fixture above.

“So tell her that. She can hear you. Tell the girl who was trying to do the right thing how sorry you are that you shoved a length of rebar into her heart and let her lungs fill up with water as she died.”