TCR 58) Endgame

I gave Larry a look.

He waved his hands back and forth. “No, not you specificity. Although I doubt there would have been a better choice. I just needed to get a warning out, and started sneaking out clues to get someone up here. I also hoped it would be someone who would raise a fuss about the government holding a twelve year old kid in captivity as a lab experiment and spread the word that I’m up here.”

Looking over at the destroyed Teleport Blocker he gave it a sad shake of his head. “I don’t think Falco or the Talons would have been a good choice for either job.”

I crossed my arm. “Why don’t we start with the warning.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m basing this on something I felt back when I first Triggered when I was four. Even with me being a Genius 2 now, I don’t remember or fully understand what it was I linked to. But I would judge them as a Rank 6.”

I blinked.

He held his hands up. "I know. Rank 6s are conspiracy theory stuff. But it was the best way I could describe how powerful they were. The worst thing about it is that their power is working on a subconscious level. I don’t think they even know what they are doing to the world.”

I lifted my hand for him to keep going. “And what are they doing.”

He took another deep breath. “Influencing how people think. How they act. They want everything to work like a fictional world with superpowers, like a comic book or a movie. And they have enough range to affect the whole world. Except for people like you that they can’t target.”

Outside the still open door to the Blocker room, I could hear yelling. Holding up one finger, I headed over to the security door and pressed the button on the wall panel to close the door. Then yanked on something that looked important for opening a heavy door that sprayed out something oily when I broke it.

I held my finger up again. “I bought us some time. Let me unpack all of that for a second.”

After taking a moment to think about it, I finally admitted. “Nope. I got nothing. Explain.”

The kid sat down in a swivel chair. “Trying to explain it will just sound like I’m trying to convince you of a crazy theory. So let me tell you what I know for sure. I felt their power. I linked to it and I knew what it could do and how it was being used. That’s the main part of how my power works.”

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He spun around in the chair. “I zeroed in on some of the people the Power was influencing. I was too young to fully understand it, but analyzing it after I had permanently boosted my mind I understood how they were being pushed into distrusting, even hating Supers. And wanting to exploit them as something less than human."

He held his hands out to me, “And the Supers, while they could resist the effect, especially the strong ones, like you, they still got pushed not to use their power to change the world. Just for selfish reasons. Right now Concentric City is selling home Fusion devices that could provide cheap power all over the world, but no one outside of the Super city is willing to use them.”

Sighing, he slumped down. “Because that wouldn’t make a good story.”

I stared at him. "So why not go with Falco? Get down there and link up to this person…"

He looked up as I paused. “I call them the Narrator.”

I nodded. "This Narrator and counterbalance him. Cancel them out."

Pressing his hands up against his face, he sighed again. "Comic book stories. I can give myself some permanent low level powers, and duplicate any power at a higher level than the original owner. I could do so much good, but that wouldn't make for a good story. The influence of the Narrator would get me killed for any number of cheap, lazy, storytelling reasons.”

I thought that over. “They can’t reach you up here. Can they?”

He shook his head. "That's why I outed myself and called the Triggered hotline. A kid in my school had precognition and when I duplicated it I knew it was the only way I could survive. I didn't know I would be stuck up here this long. Precog gets more and more uncertain the farther you look forward."

There was a pounding sound from the other side of the door. Which considering its thickness was probably something more than someone knocking on the door.

I looked from the door to Larry. "Anything else you need to say, you might want to say it now.”

He looked thoughtful. “It’s not just that you’re strong that the Narrator has a hard time influencing you, it's because your power is big. It covers a big area, and that makes it hard for their power to zero in on you.”

The kid stood up and walked forward, pressing his hand against Samantha's chest. “When you call people back. They come from the same direction, but not the same place, that Powers come from when people trigger. That is why when you resurrect people they Trigger. And no I have no clue what that means. But between the two of us. We might be able to call the original owner of this body back."

“If that’s a good idea.”

Well. She was a serial killer. Of rapists. “She won’t be a danger to you, and I got to leave her behind anyways. Let’s try.”

I had been using her for her body, it’s the least I can do.

There was a stretching of my mind as I could sense all the Rank 1s and the few Rank 2s around us on the base, and just the lower levels of the base. Larry’s range was nowhere near mine. But for a moment I understood how a mind could expand in so many ways to enhance intelligence.

Then…

[ Where? Was I asleep… Who the hell are you? ]

Whoa. She sounded angry “I am the Lord Savior, and this is my favorite son. Go in peace my child and sin no more.”

Like I said, I don't think she was a bad person, but she wasn't a good one either. She deserved to be messed with, at least a little.

I gave Larry a wink as Samantha tried to mentally wrestle control of her body away from me. I hung on for a moment as me and the kid cleared out the last of the embalming fluid from her body and revived the remaining dead tissue.

Then I slipped away to wake up with a sore back from lying still for so long in my hammock.

Wiping some dried crust from my eyes I heard a groan as T’Rex stood up from the swivel chair at the console and stretched. “You back, or just dropping in.”

I half fell out of the hammock and began to stretch as well. "I'm back. I lost Samantha. And we're are all going to need to talk to someone where no one, and I mean no one can overhear us. Crazy stuff.”

The shapeshifter blinked at me. "Great."

He pointed at a small wheeled cart next to me. “Drinks and snacks. Then you might want to take a shower too.”

“I’ll gather everyone else up.”