Kat grimaces and starts again, about halfway through Kat looks over at Brigid. Her eyes are dilated a bit, they would have looked reptilian if they weren’t glowing purple.
There’s a tiny lip on the ones that are setting off the traps. I can’t believe it took me this long to spot it. So much for enhanced senses...
Kat takes a tiny step forward onto a non-marked tile, triggering nothing, she advances again unmolested.
“Really?! This is some chippy bullshit.” She proceeds to walk through the rest of the test without triggering another trap.
“Figured out the first pattern I see, good deal, you’ll get a new one the next time we do this.” Brigid smiles. “Theo, you’re up. I recommend you Suit up, Jolly said yours would be brutal if you didn’t figure it out.”
“Understood.” Theo wills his scales to surround him in the golden suit of Jinlong. “Can I start?” he asks, his voice distorted by the suit.
“Whenever you’re ready, be my guest.” She waves at the field of tiles as if to say, “Go for it”, though she doesn’t vocalize that.
Jin stares at the field of tiles in front of him, taking in every detail with his enhanced senses. Time seems to slow down as he steps forward onto a green tile.
Nothing triggers.
This is a different pattern than Kat’s, her pattern wasn’t even a pattern. It was just a simple lip that indicated which tile was trapped. Mine is so much more complicated. Jolly’s nothing if not sporting, I would have just walked through her test. Now, if I were Jolly, what would I do?
He glances over at the scoreboard and sees that the clock is ticking much slower than it should be.
Superspeed almost feels like cheating, but they did say we could use our powers, so all’s fair in love and war. Get your head in the game Theo, getting a bad time would be embarrassing after all that training with Cinder. I wish she was out here.
Jin feels a bit of heat in his chest for a moment before moving back to his task.
Focus, it has to be something only I would see. Let’s try using tremorsense.
Jin focuses on his tremorsense and details start popping out at him about the room.
The walls are reinforced with some metal I’ve never seen, though that’s not uncommon, I never really studied metals. The tiles are all powder coated, I wonder what with.
Jin focuses on the tiles in front of him and notices that there’s a pattern within the powder coating.
Basalt under my feet, but limestone on all of my surrounding tiles but the one to my left. I bet that’s it, I’ll go for a good time now. Jolly’s gonna be pissed that I got it this early, he probably tuned up those traps for me too!
With what looks like no effort Jin breezes through the test, a big grin spread across his face inside his mask. At the end he banishes his scales and stands proud at the end, never having triggered a trap.
“Superspeed, ladies and gentlemen, is why this is not a time trial.” Brigid smiles. “Supers with superspeed usually get another mental gear to deal with the speed. We call it time dilation usually, though it’s been called speed time before. Theo could have spent the equivalent of a day on that starting line for all we know, depending on how fast he can go, though I’d guess it was closer to an augmented minute or so. Am I right?”
Theo’s grin slips a bit. “45 seconds or so, though I did spend a bit of time admiring the construction of the bunker we’re in right now. Where are we exactly?”
Most people would miss the tic as Brigid answered, but Theo and Kat aren’t most people. “This bunker is under New Athens, Sublevel 29 to be exact. This sublevel was specifically designed by the FSA to prevent any type of extranormal sense, though we obviously missed one, what did you use?”
“Tremorsense, like an Earth elemental in a tabletop RPG. I could probably just glide through these walls like one too, if not for the weird metal in them. What’s that?” Theo doesn’t let his grin shift.
‘Does she seem uncomfortable to you guys?’ Theo sends to Kat and Dante.
Kat keeps her cool. ‘Yeah, you shook her up with the thing about the construction, I wonder why?’
Unlike Kat, Dante doesn’t keep his cool, he stares at Brigid as she starts to answer.
Brigid stiffens as Dante stares at her. “That’s not something you’re cleared to know. You wouldn’t even be on this floor if not for what happened last time you were allowed to train outside. You made powerful enemies of both Crimson and Ebony that day. We decided to train you in here to try and limit the risk of that happening again. You’re powerful, but not indestructible.”
‘I don’t see anything, she just seems a bit uptight like usual,’ Dante sends back confidently.
Kat sends just to Theo, ‘Sometimes, I wonder how he’s the top of our class.’
‘He’s really good at doing homework? I know I always just skip it, seems like a waste of time to me,’ Theo flippantly replies.
I’d strangle him if I thought it would help. He’s such a slacker sometimes!
‘Do your homework, it’s important,’ Kat exasperatedly replies.
After a pause however, Kat continues, ‘You know what, skip that. Read the books at super speed and try to CLEP out. That leaves more time for Cape training, plus hunting down your family. If they ask where your newfound mental acumen came from, point them to all your straight A’s on tests. You never did the damn homework anyway.’
Dante’s exasperated tone cuts Theo’s reply off. ‘I’m feeling like I’m missing a conversation, am I?’
‘Nope, I’m just giving Theo shit for not doing his homework,’ Kat cooly replies.
He picks that up, but misses how uncomfortable he made Brigid...Dante’s going to be a wild card for sure.
‘Kat’s telling the truth. She told me to do my homework, but I’m still not going to.’ Theo sticks his tongue out at Kat and Dante.
“Do I want to know what you’re taunting your friends about Theo?” Brigid shakes herself a bit, obviously trying to loosen up after her earlier tensening up.
“Nope, just teenager stuff.” Theo grins.
Brigid sighs and rubs her forehead. “Dante, get out there and start before I have to heal my own headache.”
“Got it!” Dante struts over to the field of tiles and stares at them for a few minutes.
I can’t get this wrong, Kat got it halfway through, I have to do better than at least one of them. Theo’s always been better at puzzles than me, I’ll have to beat Kat. Looks like 37 tiles is the goal. I can only mess up five times to stay under that.
Theo sends to Kat. ‘How long do you think he’s going to stare at it? Isn’t it obvious?’
‘Nope, you’re just a freak with patterns, even more now than you were as a kid,’ Kat replies. ‘I did see it though. Ope, looks like he’s going to start, let’s see if he got it.’
The heat signals have to be it, only a few are cold. I just have to walk from cold spot to cold spot. I may even tie Theo!
Dante takes a deep breath and stares at Theo first, then Kat. “Looks like I’m going to have an easy time here.”
He steps forward onto the closest tile before a cold one.
Nothing happens.
I got it!
With a bit of a swagger Dante steps forward, exaggerating his step as he lands on the cold tile.With a hiss the four tiles surrounding the cold tile spring up and spray the tile Dante is standing on with a cold mist.
It’s not that Dante couldn’t defend himself normally from that kind of attack. He happens to be so off balance that he slips into one of the sprayers when he gets surprised. He catches the brunt of the freezing mist in the face and down his throat. Dante slumps over, unconscious.
Brigid flares up and shoots over to grab Dante, flames surrounding both of them as she grabs him from the still spraying trap. She flies him back toward Theo and Kat who stare in horror at the state of their friend.
Dante’s afro is frozen solid, his limbs are coated in almost an inch of ice, and his mouth is
frozen open.
Brigid’s flames wrap around Dante for a moment before she banishes it with a whipping motion. “Theo, get over here and warm him up, inside out. Now! I need to focus on reversing the damage to his throat.”
Theo speeds over to his frozen friend and drops to his knees. “You idiot! How did you let this happen?” He wraps his arms around Dante and focuses on two things: warm up and be better.
He gasps as he can feel flame inside Dante’s body, not the raging flame he usually uses for attacks, but the healing flame of a warm hearth, a feeling mostly lost in the modern age. In addition he feels his vitality entering Dante through his chest.
This is that healing thing I did in the SUV on my first day as a Cape. This is how my mom saved people...I’m going to make sure my friend’s okay.
“Give me just a second, I need to make sure I’m not going to hurt him,” Brigid says before taking a deep breath. After she sets her hand on Dante’s throat she looks at Theo strangely, “Have you been holding out on me? He’s healed. I can’t even feel any scarring.”
“I can share my healing factor, but it leaves me very vulnerable, so it’s a last resort. I could feel how bad the damage was, so I just acted on instinct. Sorry about that.” Theo straightens up as he feels his vitality flowing back into him, its work done inside Dante.
“Don’t be sorry, though I would have appreciated knowing about your ability to heal in a pinch. I’d say we need to train it, but I can’t even feel any scarring. Looks like your healing ability is pretty potent, you’re lucky. Most healers can only deal with external damage.” Brigid stands up, brushing off her knees.
Dante remains on the ground, passed out from his near death experience.
“I’ll take him to the nurse,” Kat says before picking Dante up with her psychokinesis. “She’s used to him getting beat up in boxing training, though this is different, she should still be able to help.”
Brigid gives Kat a small smile. “Thank you Kat, be sure to use the private elevator for that, it wouldn’t do to have someone see you carry him like that. The code is 87589 today.”
“Thanks, let’s go Theo,” Kat says as she starts back toward the portal to RSCA.
Brigid stops Theo before he can follow. “I’ll need to hold Theo here for a bit, I have a few questions for him.”
Though she stumbles a bit, Kat keeps walking with Dante floating behind her. “All right, I’ll see you at dinner, okay? I want Japanese. Deal?”
Theo smiles a bit. “Fair, but make sure you get a large this time, you ate all of mine last year.”
“No promises!” Kat says before the portal flashes and she’s gone.
Theo turns to talk to Brigid only to find her ready to attack him, flame roaring in her hands.
Chapter 50: Who Are You?
“You have approximately ten seconds to explain before I go ahead and melt you down right here,” Brigid says calmly, though the flames waxing up her arms attest to how furious she is.
Theo’s head tilts in surprise. “What do I need to explain? That test was easy, basic mineral analysis was all it was, I just did it at superspeed to save time. Did I do something…”
A wave of heat rolls off of Brigid. “That doesn’t explain how you traversed the course in less than a second, the turns alone should have taken at least five, even for a speedster. There’s no way someone with as little training as Theo could do that. You’re obviously a Mimic of some impressive talent, but you’ve messed with the wrong student.”
Her whole body is shaking a bit, either in fear or preparation for a fight, Theo can’t tell the difference.
Theo laughs, even though Brigid’s flames start licking toward him when he does so. “That’s it? Talk to Femme-Fatale, she knows a bit about what I and those like me can do. You’d be surprised.”
Brigid’s snarl checks Theo’s unbridled amusement. “Sorry, about laughing, I’m just remembering how you treated me in the SUV after my Power Rush event, so gentle. This is the Brigid who scares Cowls into surrender. Ask me anything, though I’m not going to promise to reveal anything that isn’t my story to tell.”
Brigid surrounds Theo in a flame cage, he doesn’t even sweat. “Well, that wasn’t as effective as usual.” She banishes the cage in disgust and then holds her hand to her ear. “JEN, lockdown this room and this floor. No one in or out until I give today’s code, including me. Authorization, Beta-niner.”
“Sublevel 29 is locked down,” JEN’s voice comes from somewhere in the ceiling.
“What is your connection to Jolly?” Brigid asks while pacing.
Theo’s easy smile dims. “Not really my place to say, suffice to say that he’s my handler.”
Brigid stops pacing near the wall, a panel of which slides up and reveals a hand scanner. “Not good enough, what’s to stop me from activating the safeguards in this room and destroying you, the imposter who looks like Theo?”
“Well, the fact that you’re very likely to fail at killing anything but yourself like that is probably the best reason. The next best is that I’m the real Theo and I would miss my auxiliary handler.” Theo grabs a seat on the bench nearest the center of the room.
Hopefully this sets her at ease, I can’t believe I set her off this bad. Something else has to be going on.
Brigid stands, sweating, with her hand before the scanner on the wall. “How did you get so skilled so fast then ‘Theo’?”
“Wow, I think I heard the air quotes around ‘Theo’ in there. Either way, all I can say is that I had a very good teacher.”
Brigid pulls at her hair. “You sound just like him, but so much more mature. I saw you two days ago, how can you explain that?”
“Growth spurt?” Theo jokes before continuing when he sees how red Brigid’s face got at that comment. “In all seriousness, I had a few revelations in the last few days, they changed how I look at the world. I get how small we are in the grand scheme of things now, I was definitely humbled.”
Learning that there’s a shadowy organization trying to kill you and your whole biological family tends to do that for you, let alone the fact that I didn’t know that I even had a biological family to lose.
With a sigh, Brigid settles down a bit, her hands fall against her side, though they are shaking a bit still. The scanner panel slides closed as fast as it was revealed.
“Oh, and I guess I can tell you something about my connection to Jolly, we’re distantly related. Really far back, but that connection is there.” Theo settles on telling her a half truth there.
Jolly and I are at least something akin to third cousins, but most likely, we’re actually closer than that, given how powerful we both are.
Brigid’s face goes from shocked to annoyed, “Why didn’t you just say that before? The same shit happened when Jolly’s metal powers showed up, he went from a complete loser with them to the badass he is today almost over night.”
“It didn’t feel relevant, plus, I’m not even sure if he knows that we’re actually related,” Theo sheepishly replies.
“JEN, remove lockdown on Sublevel 29. Purple Jell-O Shots over ice,” Brigid says as she holds her hand to her ear.
“Really, that’s your codeword today? That doesn’t even sound tasty.” He laughs.
“I mean, that’s kind of the point. No one is going to accidentally say that in conversation.” She rubs her neck.
“You know, I can rig up a voice recognition module for you, you know that right? I did the same for myself yesterday while playing board games with friends,” Theo genuinely asks. “It can’t be convenient to have to touch your ear each time you want to talk.”
“I have one, but it doesn’t work in the building, something about the composition of the walls, though you know that now.”
Theo nods. “Ah, all right, thought I should offer.”
Brigid walks over and straddles the same bench that Theo is sitting on. “So, your powers come from a similar place to Jolly’s?”
“Same source, differe
nt portions. I got Earth and Fire, he got Wood and Metal,” Theo says matter of factly.
“You both call it wood, even though it’s obviously lightning, what’s up with that? Don’t give me some BS about trees getting hit by lightning either.” Brigid has calmed down at this point, she even releases her long ponytail, shaking out a massive head of blonde hair.
Theo swats some of the stray hairs from in front of him. “The Ancient Chinese circle of elements goes like this: wood nourishes fire, fire creates earth, earth bears metal, metal condenses water, and water creates wood. However fire melts metal, metal harvests wood, wood shapes earth, earth contains water, and water erases fire.”
“That was clear as mud, please break it down for a Westerner like me,” Brigid jokes.
“Wood is plant matter, the wind, and other things that are part of nature. When you think about it as ‘Nature’ instead of wood, it makes more sense. Also, lightning in the sky looks like a tree.” Theo starts out serious, but then breaks down and gives a simple explanation.
“Got it, looks like I’m going with the lightning tree idea. For answering that, here’s a little known fact for you, most Supers’ powers come from their bloodlines. Ancient beings like kelpies, pixies, and even phoenixes. Now, this is mostly speculation, but Professor Tenzi is sure of it, which makes it true in my book. That’s why healers are incredibly rare, those that could do what you did even more so. You see, phoenixes and unicorns were hunted down for their healing properties, so they didn’t get to pass down those traits as often.” Brigid’s face is smug.
How about that? Boy wonder, beat that.
Theo nods. “It lines up with what I was told about my powers, so I’m inclined to agree with the good professor. I take it that you’re descended from a phoenix?”
Brigid’s smug look slides right off her face. “Yeah…”
Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls] Page 26