“Query—”
“You don’t have to say ‘query’ every time. If you don’t want to.”
“Want to?” the robot parrots back.
“You can choose.”
“I can choose. I have free will. I am, therefore I think.”
You smile. “I believe you’ve got it backwards.”
The robot shakes its head. “I do not.”
• “First order of business: do you find your new body suitable?”
• “Come, it’s nearly sunrise. Let me show you the beauty of being alive.”
• “I created you to help me. Allow me to explain.”
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Shear Stress
An ambulance arrives first, then a squad car, a fire engine, two more police cruisers, and a second ambulance.
“I told you, I’m fine,” you protest. “The scientist was over by that far wall.”
“Or what’s left of it,” Nick adds meekly.
You sit on the back of the first ambulance while paramedics check your vitals. Catherine is long gone. Ignoring you, the paramedic straps a cuff around your bicep to check your blood pressure.
“I don’t need your help, he’s—”
“The firefighters are searching for him right now,” a man says, cutting you off.
Squinting up at the setting sun, you see a uniformed police officer come around the side of the ambulance. He’s thick-limbed and barrel-chested, but not terribly out of shape. He has a ruddy five o’clock shadow that matches his shortly cropped hair. The man is tall, with green eyes, a large veiny nose, and deep-set creases on his face. He’s in his forties, and you can be sure at least half of that time was spent on the police force.
“We all have a job to do, and these paramedics are just doing theirs. I’m Sergeant Wilson, Mercury PD. My job is to get your statement, and yours is to tell me exactly what happened.”
He produces a notebook and continues. “You were first on the scene?”
“We were the scene,” you say. “It was an experiment, there was an explosion, I—I don’t know what happened…”
Nick clears his throat. “Most likely the artificial atmosphere supercharged, creating excitement at the atomic level, which then fueled the hyper-expansion of oxygen and led to a volatile combustion when ignited by circuitry pushed beyond capacity and not properly grounded or fitted with surge protectors.”
Both you and the cop stare at the young student. His eyes widen, equally surprised by his spiel, but he manages a smile and adds, “At least that’s my theory.”
“You two were inside the lab?” the policeman asks, jotting in his notebook. “How is that possible?”
Nick hops off the back of the ambulance. “An interesting conundrum. There must have been a buffer of sorts created by the activation of the pods. If that energy was directed inward rather than exothermically, the result could have imbued….”
“Imbued?”
“Sorry, more hypothesizing. We got lucky, I guess.” Nick shrugs.
“Uh-huh. And the guy doing the experiment, the scientist, what was his name?”
You share a dumbfounded look with Nick.
“He didn’t tell you his name?” Sergeant Wilson says, skeptical.
You shake your head in unison with the student. The cop shakes his own head, then steps away from the ambulance, lowers the notebook and brings up his radio.
“Check with campus administration, get me a name on the guy running this ‘experiment,’ will ya?” he says to the mic.
“Already got it,” the radio crackles in response. “Doctor Julius Petri, Human Infinite Technologies.”
The name doesn’t ring any bells, but there’s something implacable on the sergeant’s face.
He turns to you and says, “I think we better get a statement down at the station, just to be safe.”
* * *
The observation room is cool, in a “so this is what it really looks like” sort of way. Not too far from the television facsimile, you sit at a metal table, with two empty chairs on the opposite side. This isn’t an interrogation; instead, you were given a pad of paper and asked to recount all you could about the experiment and your companions.
Most likely, Nick is in an identical room and they’re hoping to compare your statements against one another. You look up at the two-way mirror and watch your reflection hold up and shake the notepad.
“Done!” you announce.
Setting down the notepad, you wait. And…wait. They must be talking to Nick right now. You let out a sigh and reread your testimony. Yep, it’s all there.
Out of sheer boredom, you twirl the pen in your fingers, trying to do that trick where it does a full rotation around the back of your hand and lands back in your forefingers. One rotation, nailed it. Two rotations? No problem. Three, four, five rotations. Ten?
The pen twirls around your fingers with no sign of slowing. You realize you aren’t even moving your fingers anymore, the pen is just orbiting your hand, almost as if—
The door opens and Sergeant Wilson walks in with two coffees. He looks down as the pen slaps him in the chest and falls to the floor. You look to your hands; the pen is gone. Did you throw it?
Wilson sets the coffee cups on the table, then takes a step back to pick up the pen. He seats himself, pushes a coffee towards you, sets the pen down, and grabs the notebook to read your testimony.
While he goes over it, you stare at the pen at the center of the table. It’s an ordinary ballpoint, resting motionlessly, yet you feel oddly…connected. You picture the pen rolling toward the policeman—and it does!
Wilson reaches out to stop the pen, then sets down the notepad. He grabs the table at the edges and jostles to test the balance, but the legs remain steady. In his shaking of the table, his coffee cup tips over the edge and starts to fall.
You reach out and grab the cup in reflex, not spilling a drop.
“Nice catch,” Sergeant Wilson says, brow furrowed.
You lean over to set the cup back where it was, but the original position is just out of arm’s reach. That’s odd. Confused, you stare at the spot on the table, ringed by brown liquid. How did…?
Wilson intercepts and takes the beverage in hand. “Boy genius next door said the exact same thing as you,” he says, sipping his coffee. “We’ll look for this Ms. Woodall, but I doubt she’s connected, either.”
Looking into your own coffee cup, you attempt the same “rolling trick” you just did with the pen. Ripples wash over the liquid, like storm winds rushing over Mercury Bay. How in the—
“You three are extremely lucky,” Wilson continues. “Julius Petri was an alias used to rent the lab and—”
Coffee shoots out of the cup like a geyser!
Sergeant Wilson jumps up out of his seat, and you do the same, but when you rise, all three seats slide away and slam against the walls. The notepad, pen, and coffee cups all fly away from you and coffee rains from the ceiling.
“S-stay here. I’ll get help,” Wilson stammers. He runs from the room, slams the door shut, and you can hear the lock engage from the other side.
• I have to get out of here!
• It’ll be okay, just breathe. I haven’t done anything wrong.
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
The Shocker
Mercury City is a large enough metropolis that nothing short of an Act of God would shut the whole grid down, and since you have neither an EMP generator nor the superpower to create earthquakes, you’ll have to settle for destroying the substation nearest the warehouse district.
The electricity of Power Substation Six crackles audibly on the lines above. Catherine smashes through the concrete walls of the power station as easily as if they were merely an illusion. In her world, perhaps they are. A danger sign falls off the wall and you step over it on your way in. It reads, “DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE—RISK OF DEATH.”
You’re reminded of the experiment, in a way, of your own origins and the excitement in that lab. There�
��s just so much…power.
That is, until Catherine starts to rip the transformers out of their bases, pulling them down as if she were merely weeding an unruly garden. Only these are more than just thistles.
The station groans as she pulls it apart. She hurls a transistor through the control room just as the first power line strikes out at her, like a viper in the grass. Catherine seizes, tensing up as the electric current overtakes her.
You telekinetically grab the power lines to pull them off her, but the damage is done. Both to the station and to your partner. This was the station’s death rattle, and the silence left in its wake is tremendously unsettling. Catherine lies on the ground, not moving.
When you rush over to check on her, you find she’s not breathing, either. Her heart has stopped. You pound on her chest, but CPR is useless. She’s like a steel girder.
Can you “shock” her back? The power’s off. You’ve got to bring her to a hospital; they’ll know what to do. You try to drag her, but it’s impossible. Physically, mentally, or even a combination of both—she won’t budge!
How the hell is she so heavy? And if she is, why doesn’t crush the sidewalk when she walks?
“Wowzers,” a voice says from behind. You turn to see Nick, who’s just come in the entrance Catherine created in the concrete wall. He stares at the destruction with awe. He puts one finger up to his lips.
“If you’re attacking the power station nearest the warehouse, you were trying to ‘kill’ the Supersoldier lab, yes? This has to be one of the dumbest stunts….” he says, shaking his head.
“Nick, she’s dying!” you yell.
“I can see that,” he says. “If you’re wondering, that’s irony. He could’ve never hurt her, but by trying to stop Droakam, she kills herself.”
“Stopping you!” you shout, your emotions getting the better of you.
“Moi?” he says, feigning insult.
“Can you figure out a way to save her?”
He bobbles his head from side to side. “I think I’d rather spin it. How’s this sound? Diamond’s partner—we’ll need to get you a name—betrays and kills her. I show up too late to save her, but quick enough to bring the bastard to justice.”
“Nick, please.”
“Ooh! Even better. Diamond goes nuts! That would fit with the security footage of her storming in here and that near-miss with Droakam at the bank today. Then you and I team up to bring her down. I like it.”
“You think I’ll let you get away with that? Villainizing her?”
“I believe you mean ‘vilifying’ and yes, I do. Okay, so you turned off my computer. Is that all you think I am? I have this fun little toy, and it runs on batteries.” He holds up a handheld walkie-talkie radio. “I called some friends. And if you weren’t in shock, blinded by panic, you might have noticed that the cavalry has arrived.”
You blink, and stop to listen. Above you, a police helicopter whirs. Several laser-sights shine their target upon your chest. By challenging Nick, you’ve played directly into his hand. He wins this round.
THE END
Show Your Hand
Dr. Reader’s eyes grow wide, then go dark. It hurts to see how easy it was for Baxter to kill, but you gave your permission. No time to wallow in self-pity—time for a plan! Your superhuman mind works on overdrive, and in only a few seconds, you know exactly how you’ll beat them.
“It won’t work,” the Experi-mentor says.
“You…you can read minds too?” you say.
“What, did you think I was just going to stand here, powerless as you kill my colleagues? I gave myself all of their powers, you fool!”
“Enough!” Nick roars.
The college student rushes toward the Experi-mentor, but Dr. Mind-Control puts a hand on her temple and Nick changes course. With murder in his eyes, he rushes right at you.
You don’t stand a chance.
THE END
Sinking Feeling
You rush out to the docks, and indeed, The Son of Jupiter is still anchored in Mercury Bay.
“Let’s steal a boat,” you say.
“Not just yet. How about a quick scouting mission, hmmm? Save us some time,” Catherine says, tapping some commands into her tech-glove.
“Good plan,” Nick says, rising into the air. “Be right back.”
“Stinger and Venom will accompany you,” Catherine says as the two flying minion bots rise.
“Did you name all your gear?” you ask.
“Of course.”
With that, Nick and the two bots fly over to the mega-yacht. It’s a long few minutes of silent waiting, but Catherine puts on a pair of homemade Google-glasses that enable her to watch through the perspective of her minions.
“Nothing is worse than being an ignored super-genius,” Catherine sighs. “Oh, Cassandra, we will watch as Troy burns…”
“You’re saying he’s not there?”
“The whole ship is abandoned; take a look.”
She offers the glasses, but a beeping on your belt draws your attention away. It appears the belt-buckle on your super-suit is actually a high-tech pager. When you disconnect the pager, an armored cover slides back to reveal an LCD screen beneath. It reads: Distress Signal Active: Return to HQ
“I think Droakam’s in trouble…”
“They were waiting for us to leave!” she cries, furiously recalling the flying robots.
“NICK!!!” you boom.
• Hurry back to the warehouse!
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Sin & Vice
A burning hole in your pocket, you enter the casino ready to turn your spare change into millions of dollars. All you have to do is find the right roulette table, bet on black, and then use your mind to ensure that the ball lands where it’s supposed to. Easy as pie, you’ll double your money. THEN—once you’ve honed your skills enough to hit the bull’s-eye—you can take your winnings, bet it on your favorite number, and the payout will be somewhere in the six figures.
If you’ve got the gall to let it ride, you’ll be a millionaire before the cocktail waitress has time to serve you a drink. Time to practice your “golly gee” face—you don’t want it to look rigged.
“Well, look who it is…” a voice calls from behind. It’s Nick from the experiment.
“Hey,” you say, turning around.
“Hey yourself. Feeling lucky after our brush with death?” he asks, indicating the casino’s surroundings.
Planet Mercury is a grand palace, built on the debt of losers in a shameless display of opulence. Its intergalactic theme boasts some impressive planetary models—which serve as chandeliers and hang from the high-vaulted, domed roof, painted as a brilliant starscape.
“Say, after the explosion, did you feel any…different?” Nick adds.
• Lie to Nick. Tell him you don’t know what he’s talking about.
• Show off your new power; maybe he’ll do the same?
MAKE YOUR CHOICE
Sky Battle!
You lift Nick off his feet by his neck, drawing him in close. “Don’t fuck with me,” you growl.
Then you fling him over the edge. You’d probably have to deal with your fellow test-subjects sooner or later, so it’s good to be done with the kid. He mentioned something about Catherine, right? She’s on her way, he said.
Just on cue, she smashes through the rooftop security door, exploding it into a thousand fragments. She pauses, looking for signs of you or Nick.
Might as well get the drop on her. You reach out and grab her neck, but when you lift—nothing. Might as well be tugging on the building’s main water line. She’s not only incredibly strong, she’s incredibly dense and heavy. You can’t lift her, and you can’t hurt her. Better try something different.
“Over here!” you shout.
She turns toward you, her eyes full of hatred. Just because you own a casino? What a black-and-white view of the world, Catherine. Perhaps you should introduce her to a bit of red.
Like a
raging bull, she charges at you. You wait for the last second, then blast your way into the air—toro toro! There’s no way she can stop on a dime, not with that much momentum. Over the edge it is!
Yet with incredibly fast reflexes, she makes a superhuman jump and sends that momentum into the air after you. In reflex, you blast into her, but it’s like trying to use a fan to blow a meteor off-course. Still, there’s an equal and opposite reaction, and you push yourself away.
With a barrel-roll, you keep free of her grasp. She plummets over the side of the building like a rock just as Nick flies up from the abyss!
Those oversized boots? Jet-boots. Rocket flame comes from them and propels the wunderkind after you. He has his right fist extended, flying like Superman, and his left hand activates some kind of control panel on the beefy right forearm gauntlet.
Before he has the chance to activate his device, you grab his body with the power of mind and smash him down against the rooftop. He cracks the concrete and skips across the surface in a painful display.
An incredible crash sounds from below and you look over the side. There’s a crater on the street, but no sign of Catherine. She got up after that? No, wait—movement catches your eye as she makes an incredible leap from the nearest skyscraper, like a tick bounding off the back of a dog.
She smashes into the casino about a third of the way up. The building shakes slightly. Only a moment later, she bounds across the expanse once more, this time bursting through the fortieth floor of the opposite building.
An electronic reverberation draws your attention back to the casino rooftop. You turn to see Nick aiming at you. The gauntlet hums with life, and the wrist section glows a white-hot blue. Then a pulse bursts out in a ring of energy, but you dive behind a ventilation cube and the blast sizzles out before it can harm you.
SUPERPOWERED: Are YOU a Superhero or Supervillain? (Click Your Poison Book 3) Page 35