Sidekick

by Carl Stubblefield

  The core appeared to be shrinking as Gus drank in the powers. At first, he worried he was compressing the core and damaging it, but the effect continued even though he modulated his touches to be feather light. Pressing more lightly also increased his speed, shaving tiny slivers of time away from each contact.

  When the core had shrunk to the size of a basketball, a high-pitched whine began to emanate from the crystal, resonating in an ever-higher tone. Gus pushed on, oblivious to his surroundings or how much time had elapsed. It must have been ear-shattering to anyone who hadn’t been operating at such a high speed.

  All that mattered for Gus was keeping these abilities out of Basileus’ hands. The whine increased to an ear-piercing screech and suddenly the core imploded to a bright pinpoint of light. There was an aftershock that exploded back outwards, flinging Gus away like a rag doll.

  Gus twitched on the floor, his body struggling to make sense of the new information within him. It was excruciating euphoria. His blood was on fire and powers coursed through him, recklessly trying to exert their effects.

  Gus lifted his head from the gritty concrete floor and saw Basileus frozen in the act of reaching for the core, but bending backward as the force of the blast was pushing him backward. In Gus’ current state, nothing appeared to move, and he took in the scene as his body refused to listen to his commands, shivering and shaking.

  Jet was in mid-slice, slashing the end off a gun-arm hybrid from one of the cyborg supers. Glowing orange outlined the severed metal while sparks hung in the air around the cut.

  Looking up, he could see Aurora above, raining down ionized death in the largest stream of energy he had ever seen her generate. Supers cowered underneath her as she looked like a vengeful goddess, descending in glory to punish the unworthy.

  Slowly time reverted back to normal and chaos resumed. All Gus could do was lie there and watch as Jet flipped and flailed. Hitting supers in the face with the butt end and destroying equipment as the weapon focused on supers who used any sort of electronic augment.

  Aurora touched down and began attacking with gusto. Gus watched in admiration as she disabled super after super, the relatively diminutive woman taking out men larger and apparently stronger with ease. Gus smiled, enjoying the show when a boot stepped in front of his view. A polished gold boot, with some new scuff marks on the toe.

  The boot suddenly disappeared until it made its reappearance in his side, flipping him over onto his back from the force. Gus barely felt it, his body numb from the near-constant shocks he was feeling as he jittered on the floor.

  Seeing his state, Basileus stepped over him crouched down. “You idiot!” he screamed. “All that work, all that time, waiting for my moment and you took that from me!” A thin line of drool hung out one side of his mouth, suspended for a second, then dropping to the floor next to Gus.

  Aurora was right, this guy was unhinged and was quickly becoming worse.

  “At least I was able to pull more power to me than any super has before…” He stood, raising his fists in triumph.

  That’s debatable, Gus thought, wishing he could vocalize the jibe.

  “Now I will be able to pull Manticorps out of obscurity and establish it as a new fourth Faction that others will flock to. It will be glorious!”

  Yep, he’s definitely losing it. Did absorbing all that power fry his mind? Or at least the part that kept him sane? Gus could feel the first hints of control returning to him, being able to very slightly move his neck, but he was still trapped in his own body.

  Basileus leaned in close, his hand beginning to crackle and pop with energy. Sparks flared as dust particles entered the field and were immediately burned away. He moved the ball of energy closer to Gus’ face and visions of Graviton sliding by reminded Gus of what was about to happen next. His face began to redden from the intense heat and energy pouring off the madman’s hand.

  “You don’t know how much I am enjoying watching you suffer; I’ll make sure to prolong—”

  Gus thrust his neck forward into Basileus’ hand. Gus’ face exploded with pain as he pushed it into the plasma. His vision winked out with indescribable pain but it allowed him to activate Energy Absorption and drink. He pulled energy inside and opened himself up. The plasma ball fizzled and sputtered out.

  Gus continued to pull, feeling multiple channels he had never noticed before open up. His glove disintegrated as Gus pulled and allowed Leech to activate. It grabbed at Basileus’ new abilities, the Absorb ability from Ash kicked in and he took energy from Basileus’ very body, breaking apart the bonds that comprised his muscles, bones, from his every cell and lapping up the energy.

  He felt sudden cold in his hand and he felt the filigree on Jet’s guard had slid into his hand. He jabbed the naginata in Basileus’ side and drank even deeper as Vampire’s Kiss activated. His face felt a refreshing wave like a cool mist and his skin was suddenly whole. Blinding light appeared as his eyes reformed and were restored. Still he pulled more, feeding the black hole within him, trying to fill the void.

  He locked eyes with Basileus, seeing the terror there as he was now just as paralyzed as Gus was, in the throes of the Leech effect. Gus took and took, stripping the new powers from Basileus that he had just obtained and added them to the myriad others. At that moment, he was a leech, a vampire, a parasite. And he was okay with that.

  Basileus opened his mouth to scream but could find no words as Gus continued to draw everything. He saw Basileus appear to visibly age, his skin becoming furrowed and sallow. His hair became limp and lifeless, a dull gray mess matted to his bony skull with fervent sweat. His cheeks sank as his features became more gaunt.

  Sensing he had almost taken everything, Gus forced himself to stop. It took a brief moment to stop the massive momentum and influx of power. Gus stopped just shy of killing the man, who toppled over to the side. His now brittle bones made a crunch as he fell to the side. The infusion had restored Gus’ ability to move, although he still felt like he was vibrating uncontrollably.

  Taking pity on the husk of a man before him, he fished in his pocket for a red gel and popped it between the man’s teeth. There was a rough scraping noise and Basileus remained there curled up on the floor weeping.

  “What have you done?” He looked at his liver-spotted, withered hands, suit hanging off his shrunken frame. “Father can only restore me to where I was before death…what now?”

  Gus turned away from the pitiful sight, not sorry in the least.

  Looking around, Gus saw many supers standing in awe, their leader summarily deposed. Many turned to flee, and Gus sped into motion. He flew toward each and stripped their powers away with the velocity of the best speedsters. The process was much quicker now and in less than a minute he had reached them and sapped away what remained of their powers, for good.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Shake It Up

  When he had finished running, he noticed that his hands were trembling. No—it was his whole body, as if he had an uncontrollable shivering fit.

  “What have I done, Aurora? I think the effect isn’t stabilizing. There’s no way I can assimilate this many powers.” Gus could feel a fatigue starting to creep in, so intense that he began to ache. He dropped to his knees, and the deluge of powers felt like it was literally crushing him, burying him with their enormity. The perimeter of his vision started to fade to blackness.

  “Gus!” a voice called.

  It felt so far away. It sounded insistent but it could have been his imagination.

  “Gus!”

  The voice was screaming now, but Gus found it difficult to focus through the grogginess. He felt cold. Or did he? Why am I shaking so much? He took a deep breath in and subconsciously activated his Energy Absorption skill.

  The temperature of the room dropped ten degrees as the ambient heat was converted into something Gus could use. With the infusion of energy, Gus rose out of the fog briefly, enough to realize what had happened and he pulled more at the energy.
>
  Aurora stepped back as a rime of frost formed in a widening circle around Gus’ body.

  “You must use Energy Absorption at full blast to maintain yourself while you hold those powers. It will take an enormous amount of energy to make the changes your sudden increase in stats is trying to implement on your body. It will take some time for your body and Nth to catch up,” Nick urged.

  Finding the ability in his display, he opened the tab and maxed out the ability, pushing the slider to the far end. His fatigue dropped to a manageable level, but he still felt worn out. He ached everywhere. Even the back of his hand hurt. He began noticing pain from overexertion from the most unlikely of places. His eyelids ached each time he blinked. How do eyelids get sore?

  Oddly, Gus welcomed the pain. It drove away the desire to sleep. He knew that if he allowed himself to doze off, he would not survive the process as his body and Nth tried to assimilate thousands of abilities simultaneously.

  Even with that being done, the shaking he had been experiencing began to intensify. His ears began to ring as the vibration increased.

  “This is going to be bad,” he said as he could feel the resonating become more and more pronounced. His teeth began to hurt as it hit a certain pitch. He checked his logs to see if he was taking damage; he felt like he would literally vibrate himself to shreds.

  In desperation, he opened his stat and ability tabs to see if anything could help him.

  Aurora looked on from far across the room, flustered that she could do nothing to help.

  Gus clicked on his logs and message after message streamed by, listing the abilities he had acquired. Somewhere along the stream of messages he hit level twenty. The messages continued to stream by as nothing happened. At last the euphoria hit, but still the resonance ramped up.

  Gus’ watch spun to life again, emitting a beam out to the side and then reflecting back, enveloping him.

  Requirements met…

  Dimensional unfolding progressing…

  Fractal unfolding level two…

  There was an odd quiet as the pitch from the resonance was absent. He felt compression, and this time it embraced him and he felt no pain. He knew what to expect and flung his arms out to the side as he was lifted into the air. He felt the tightening of his clothes as he was stretched, feeling pain, but the severity was blunted.

  It felt like the comfortable ache after a good workout, a reward for a job well done instead of a punishment. Gus breathed deeply, looking at his body. Green disks encircled his torso and arms and legs within the beam from the watch. Orange and red beams played across his body as he watched himself become visibly more muscular and larger. There was a brief spike of pain as the ring played across his head then it was gone as the process finished and time reverted again and Gus dropped to the floor, falling to his hands and knees with the abrupt end of the effect.

  The whine of the resonance was jarring as time returned to normal, but it quickly diminished, like the power to a siren had been cut and it settled to a stop.

  At long last, it was over. Gus looked to the side and noticed his obviously beefier shoulders and down at his torso. Were those abs? He had always been trim, but more of a runner’s build than a weightlifter. Dang, they look like Poppin’ Fresh Muffins!

  “Do you need some alone time?” Aurora asked as she saw him gawking at his own body.

  He looked up and saw her sardonic expression as she leaned against a large icicle.

  “Ain’t no shame in it,” he said. “I thought we had a no-judgment zone thing going here!” The deeper tone of his voice sounded alien to his own ears.

  “Okay, but there’s a little shame in it,” she teased. Holding her fingers an inch apart.

  “Yeah, but it’s very little,” he bragged.

  “That’s what she said,” she countered, folding her arms and cocking her head.

  “I give up. I bow to your superior verbal sparring skills,” Gus said, dropping to one knee and waving his arms in obeisance.

  “You seem better. I take it that, whatever ‘that’ was, took care of your overload problem?” she said, waving at his watch.

  “I think so. I still have no idea what it’s all about. Nick doesn’t even know why it happens.”

  “Well, I’m glad it does,” she said and punched him in the arm. “You scared the hell out of me!”

  “I didn’t know you cared.”

  “I don’t. But I need you to get off this island, so I have to put up with you.”

  Things seemed to be back to normal with Aurora, but the flame didn’t ignite for him again. She felt more like a bratty sister than a potential girlfriend. Probably for the best.

  “While I think I’m stable for now, I don’t think I can ever go to sleep and allow these powers to attempt to assimilate all at once. What am I going to do from here? It’s going to be a weird life from here on out. Correction, weirder.”

  Gus tasted pear, not like the actual fruit, but more like the juicy pear flavor of Jelly Belly jelly beans. Along with the sensation he also felt a nuance of the meaning, which was new.

  “The hybrid-Nth say—”

  “Hold on, I think I’m getting it.” Gus focused on the taste and he could see. In his mind, Gus could see himself touching other people, regs as well as supers and gifting them Nth with his ‘wasted’ upgrade. The transfer not only gave them Nth, but gave them abilities, turning regs into supers and strengthening others who already had powers. Gus saw himself building up his own force of supers of like-minded individuals and the manor populated with thousands of people, all working together for a common goal.

  He saw himself addressing them all, leading them, which was a strange sight to his eyes. He had never thought of himself as a leader. The taste and the vision faded away simultaneously, their message delivered.

  “I could get used to that,” Gus said.

  “What happened?” Aurora asked.

  “Here, let me show you. You know how you always wanted a crafting ability? Which one exactly did you want the most?”

  “Um, I’ve always liked seeing how things work, but I end up breaking the things I take apart rather than fixing them.”

  Gus closed his eyes and focused on the requirements. Like a magic 8-ball, an ability surfaced, floating in the void. He combined this with some free Nth and opened his eyes. Reaching out, he traced a line on Aurora’s cheekbone, following the contours and leaving a silver streak on her smooth skin. She reached up to touch it as it began to soak in.

  “Oh!” she said as she saw a display and slid the message over so Gus could read it:

  You have been gifted the ability Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Instinctive ability to create, repair, and improve inventions relating to clothing, battle, and espionage.

  “I can create my own group of supers, hopefully one that can actually do some real good in the world. I even have my own lair already!” he said, gesturing to the manor.

  Aurora just smiled, still amazed, and began to plan how she would use her new ability.

  “But first, I’m starving. Let’s head to the cafeteria and eat something and restock our gels.” Gus sighed and rubbed his empty stomach. When was the last time he had eaten a good meal? It felt like forever. Aurora shrugged and did a mock bow indicating ‘after you.’ Gus strode forward and she just shook her head.

  “Men and their stomachs,” she muttered.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Comeback

  Gus and Aurora stepped out of the manor, needing the feeling of space and fresh air after they finished cleaning up everything. After hauling the supers to the brig, resetting Gus’ access in the control room, and eating a well-deserved meal, the world was back in order. He took in a deep breath, enjoying the change from the stuffy chamber on level twenty-three. Warm sunlight played across Gus’ features as he closed his eyes and basked in the afternoon sun. A shadow covered his face, interrupting his respite.

  “Hey, cut it out, I’m trying to relax,” Gus laughed, expecting
Aurora to be messing with him.

  “Who are you?” she warned from beside him.

  Snapping his eyes open, Gus saw a large mecha floating silently in midair in front of him, making his already seven-foot frame even more imposing.

  “I am Voltekka. Ah. There it is,” the robot intoned, and without saying more, the super flung out a hand with fingers splayed.

  Gus felt a wrenching throughout his body, then the imploding pressure increased, causing Gus to collapse. The gunmetal hybrid-Nth that made his armor began to pull away from him. His solid armor began to dissolve into grain-like particles as the mecha activated some ability, pulling them towards his outstretched hand somehow. The individual hybrid-Nth were pulled as grains of sand caught in a powerful vacuum, revealing Gus’ plain jumpsuit beneath.

  Gus would have protested but was in immense pain from the same process happening to hybrid-Nth inside his body as well, driving him to his knees. Blood welled up as Nth were pulled out like tiny bullets, perforating everything in their path.

  As the miniature swarm of Nth touched the mecha, he cocked his head.

  Through tears of agony, Gus lifted his head and saw that the ripped swarm was flooding back towards him, resisting the effect. Bit by bit, his armor reformed, and as it did, the pull on his internal hybrid-Nth lessened significantly, though he felt as if his insides had been thoroughly torn up.

  “Interesting,” the large mecha responded. “This is… curious.”

  Voltekka processed the reality he’d just seen at play. He knew that he needed more of this Endurium, but he had never experienced this before. The metal had refused to meld with him and had chosen to return to its original host. The rumors of semi-sentience must be true! This one had somehow earned the Endurium’s favor, and as such, must be monitored. So strange for one who had not ascended. Nodding in respect, he addressed the entity known simply as Gus.