Hypersubjects

by Ainsley Komper

  “Stay but don’t look at me.” Mercy said and then turned her back, almost burying her face in the pillow.

  “You are going to compile all the information you can get about me.” She continued.

  “Ok.” The nurse replied.

  “Don’t say anything.” Mercy answered. “Compile everything and carry it with you at all times. I will let you know what to do with it. Now leave and remember not to tell anyone about this, otherwise, you will be very sorry.”

  The nurse left and Mercy prayed that nobody was listening. She tried to whisper and not give any signs through her body language that they were speaking to each other. An interesting fact in her development was that once she had made a connection, it became easier to make it again. The strong guy from downstairs and the nurse were easier to follow now as if she was linked with them. Regarding Gavin, as they knew he had been compromised, he was being removed from the building. She had to be prepared so she started to create those connections with security guards and more personnel, without them knowing. It was highly unlikely that they divulged what they thought she was capable of. It would have been very funny to see the debriefing for the building staff in that case. The strong guy was getting closer so it was time for a distraction. To that effect, she summoned near her four security guards and made them fight. Mercy commanded them to channel their frustration and anger towards each other and also requested the nurse presence nearby. The fight show was enough to distract everyone from the strong guy who was now on the floor. Quickly, she commanded the nurse to leave the information somewhere convenient on the other side of the building. Mercy could feel the strong guy nearby and his energy was pulsating faster than anyone’s. It was as if he could see her, like he was feeling her but in a different way. He was going her way and that was not the idea, so she told him to stop in her mind, almost directing him to the place where the nurse had placed the information. Mercy felt like a shining Tinkerbell guiding a lost cat in a maze. She got the feeling from him that he was satisfied, so it meant he got the information, but now there were people around him which she commanded at once to clear the space. Her abilities were getting stronger as she even had the power to toy with all of them in her sleep. The strong guy left, following the right path illuminated by Mercy-Tinkerbell and she was happy. There was a sense of accomplishment that lasted for only a short period of time because he suddenly left. He went so far away that she could no longer feel him. Despair inundated her soul and she could sense the people around her feeling that too. As she had connected with more people, it was easier to keep doing it. Mercy’s strings were helping her to create more and more of them but she wanted her strong guy back. However, a new type of drug was administered to her, different and more effective to keep her from wandering, dizzy in dreams where she failed to get to her dad, failed to cry for help to Natalia, scared as she re-lived over and over the accident at the bridge. Mercy fought hard to concentrate and looked in vain for her big guy in shining armour. Although he was nowhere to be seen or felt, she realised that her scope of influence had grown compared to what she could achieve a few weeks before. Finally, he was back but different, like locked up within himself. Damn, they had captured him and, of course, drugged him like her. Mercy knew he was not as strong in his sleep, but then again, she had him within reach which was actually a relief. A doctor nearby was easy to reach, so she tried to ask her how to get the strong guy to which she answered by showing her a room in the south corner of the building, two floors up from his room. Connecting to people was a difficult task. Very unlike the movies where telepathy is portrayed as a chat between voices with eco. In Mercy’s case, the communication was more like an exchange of feelings and impressions, not words. She could grasp concepts, ideas, orientations, sensations but not words, numbers or coordinates. Watching over her guy, another figure appeared, someone who seemed to care about him, a similar man, maybe another specimen like him but different, like Mercy herself. They were communicating, although the strong guy was still sedated. She couldn’t even communicate properly with him, but this guy could, there was some sort of emotional exchange between them that she ignored even how to intervene until it happened. The other guy held the strong guy’s hand and their energies combined to the point that the other guy was able to see Mercy. She tried to scream, yell at him about the room in the south corner and, effectively, he ran to it, faster than a human being could. His energy was all over the place. He could do it but Mercy fainted again due to a new dose of drugs. She felt in a dark place, solitary confinement, a black hole where nobody could see her, unable to perceive anyone. Weakened and lost, she was fighting her trap and when everything seemed lost, they were there, next to her bed, surrounding her. All of them were different to the people she had ever perceived before, the other guy, the strong guy, the woman from the running tracks and a new boy. Mercy ignored what it was but his shining light was piercing, it seemed like a knife sharp enough to cut through her prison. She had learnt in that period of time to follow her instincts, so he was there, like an apparition, an angel holding the key to her cell. There was no time for dialogue, kindness or explanations. There were hostile forces nearby so she commanded them to run away and then focused on the boy.

  “Sorry, kid, but you have something I need, just give it to me now and do whatever you have to do.”

  And so, he did and with an intense glow, full of sparks and energy, the cell was broken into a thousand pieces. Like coming out of the water, she rose up with a big gasp of air.

  Now all of them had faces, unlike before where they were just glows with colours and shapes.

  “Mercy?” Said the strong man.

  “Hello, big guy. Nice to meet you.”

  “I am Braith, this is Lark and they are…”

  “Ciana and this is Taran.” Ciana said.

  “Thank you, Taran, that was amazing. You all are.”

  “I am sorry to interrupt the little party but this is about to get ugly.” Said Dr Velia.

  “Doctor, long time no see.”

  “Miss Rogers.”

  “Guys, we need to leave.” Said Braith.

  “I can guide you, follow me.” Ciana replied.“There is no way out.” Velia said while being pushed by Ciana.“Feisty, I like her.” Said Mercy regarding Ciana.“Guards, there are too many downstairs.” Ciana informed them.“Then let’s go upstairs.” Braith suggested.“To the roof?” Ciana replied.“For now, we need to think without her.”

  Through a side door they hadn’t seen before, Dr Velia ran away from them before they could do anything to her.“Don’t worry about her, she is just a crazy Doctor.” Said Taran“If there is someone to worry about, it is her.” Mercy replied.

  Once at the rooftop, Braith bent the lock to secure the door.“What now?” Ciana asked.“Maybe we could jump from here. I can carry Mercy and you will carry Ciana.”“What about me? I don’t think I can use my energy again, I am too unbalanced. I haven’t used it that much so many times in such a short period of time.”

  Mercy went to see over the edge.“There are too many soldiers. I don’t think we can fight all of them.” She said.

  They heard a loud banging noise by the door.“We can, one by one.” Braith said and the door was broken by a small explosion.“Lark, we can do this, come on, man.”

  Velia came out of the door and two agents behind her. She was holding a megaphone.“This is not a game!”

  One of the soldiers behind fired some pellets from a big shotgun towards Braith while the second guard played a recording through Velia’s megaphone. The noise was loud and high-pitched and seemed to affect Lark after a few seconds. The pellets created some smoke that it was impossible for them not to breathe.“Well, you two have received counter doses and Mr Smith cannot support any more electrical charges for a few hours.”“It is true. I don’t feel the same as I did before.” Said Taran.“The smoke was designed to neutralise me.” Braith replied.“And the sound to me.” Lark added.“And I thought I was the weird one.” Sa
id Mercy.

  More guards started to surround Velia while two helicopters were flying around the rooftop.“There is nowhere to go, you belong to this institution. We need you to come one by one. Starting with you, Miss Rogers.”“If she is asking you, that means you are the one she is most afraid of.” Lark said to his mates.“Is there anything you can do?” asked Ciana“I don’t know, I don’t think so, too many people.” Mercy replied“But you can feel it, like you did with me downstairs.” Said Taran. “You just knew I could.“Maybe, I don’t know. We don’t have much to lose.”

  Mercy held Lark and Braith’s hands.“Breathe.” She said.

  In that moment, she could feel what they were, which was basically another version of her. Both were big flows of energy, connected to everyone without limits. They were able to see people like she was, in a more intense way. Both seemed like eager kids to her, made of tons of sparks. Both were ready to fly, they just needed to know how.“You guys are ready.”“No, we are not.” Said Lark.“Remember how you felt when you were going for Braith, and remember when you were going for me. I will help you go to that place inside you.”

  And she did, for the two of them at the same time with a bang that knocked them to the floor.“What was that?” Asked Taran.

  Mercy turned to the couple and held her hands.“Let’s see what you are made of.”

  If the two guys seemed like her, Ciana was practically a sister. Hyper-connected, her strings were reaching far beyond what anyone of them could, including Mercy. On the other hand, Taran was a different story, a creature from another planet walking among them. He was not connected at all but acted like a magnetic hurricane, trying to draw energy around him. Maybe they could both amplify each other so she strengthened their bond and made them one. Mercy was able to see them for what they were while healing Taran’s imbalance. Braith and Lark were recovering on the floor and they stood up when they saw the two helicopters approaching the building.

  “I’ll take the biggest one.” Said Lark.

  “I don’t think so.” Braith replied.

  They both jumped into each helicopter to Velia’s surprise, making them lose control. Every crew member but the pilot was falling down to the rooftop. Braith’s helicopter veered towards the lake nearby while Lark’s landed smoothly by the corner where Mercy and the couple were regrouping.

  Velia gave the order to the guards and they started to run towards the four of them. The big helicopter was dropping soldiers to the lake.

  “I think I can handle this, maaaaaaaybe.” Said Lark.

  “Show off.” Said Mercy.

  “I think we can.” Said Ciana.

  Holding hands, the three of them as one were facing dozens of soldiers which, in Ciana’s eyes, were counted and tagged, enough for Taran to detect them and draw a massive electric discharge from heaven, Tasing each one of them at the same time.

  “That was awesome!” Said Lark. “Where is Braith?”

  The helicopter flew above them and Braith jumped from it.

  “The pilot is pretty scared now.” He said.

  Mercy walked towards the pilot that Lark brought.

  “You are going to get us out of here. No questions, no complaints.”

  He nodded.

  “Wow, the force is strong in this one.” Braith said.

  They all started to board the helicopter but, suddenly, Mercy was pulled out by Dr Velia who then grabbed her from behind while pointing a gun at her temple.

  “You guys can leave but she stays with me. Go!” She dragged her back to the building.

  VELIA

  Her professional path was not clear to begin with, but she knew it would include a combination of her scientific background and her leading skills. Doctor Velia Morant developed her career in the field of Neuroscience within the Pharmaceutical area. The main reason why she chose that area was her need to control her mental condition. Velia’s parents never thought it would be possible for her to have a normal life. Proving them wrong had become her greatest achievement because she had always felt as if she was walking on thin ice, to the point of breaking it at any time but her persistence and resilience led her to move faster, to take countermeasures in order to prepare any possible failure. Her life revolved around those measures, you could tell she embraced failures and mistakes, she studied them, spotted them coming from a mile away and always got ready in advance. From a very young age, she had been paranoid, sometimes delusional with a tendency to mix reality with fantasy. Her psychosis was diagnosed when she was a teenager and that took her to an even darker place. It was probably caused by her lack of sleep which developed into all of those psychotic episodes during the day. Medicines numbed her to the point of absence from herself so she preferred to be in the moment, sick and paranoid, rather than be away, sedated and zombie-like. All her countermeasures included journals, recordings and notes to remind her what was real and what was a product of her imagination. Those notes were written entries, audio files or even visual materials. She became obsessed with her own perceptions so she kept documenting it and trying to understand her logs. Channelling her energy was not always successful but her drive took her to overcome her condition. As chronic insomnia was triggering her psychosis, she decided to go head-on against it by doing exercise to the point of exhaustion. Velia had to adjust her diet and many times she came victorious, while others not so much. By doing an intense physical routine, she became fit but also more focused on what she wanted in life. Perseverance was the key to be effective in defeating her psychosis, or at least in keeping it at bay. With such an intense inner battle, there was little to no time for relationships, and that included her parents and sister. Of course, they were always worried about her state of mind and were cautiously happy that she managed long streaks of health. When things went wrong, they let her know she was not alone but Velia preferred to deal with those episodes medically and tried to stick to the routines. She developed apps and personal reminders on her computers and all sorts of alerts for keeping tabs on her training targets and also in the academic ones. Velia wanted to understand what was happening inside her head and maybe heal it for when she was old and unfit to do three hours of cardio every day. There were layers and layers of knowledge between her and the cure, vast fields of specializations and she understood it would be near impossible to do it alone. Her research projects at university and her PhD were focused on finding a practical and chemical answer to that electrical imbalance. Years and years of research led her to be part of the institute where she had access to other works related to that condition. That general overview was fundamental to understand that the solution she was looking for so desperately could be the combination of several brilliant minds instead of being the result of only one. The eureka moment she was actively looking to break into was not a scientific finding but a logistical one, which was to incorporate many of those milestones from colleagues, some of them working under the same umbrella of the institute. Being a woman made matters more difficult in such a male dominant environment. However, her tenacious search was unstoppable and the path in that quest took her to places she never imagined. After a few years, she learnt that maybe the results won't be ready in time to enjoy them as a patient or perhaps in the best-case scenario, they will allow them to have a peaceful old age. Still, the faster the research advanced, the better and that included leaving her own scientific quest behind in order to supervise others. Velia had the knowledge to understand every one of the doctors in the institution, their goals, and their processes. She was good at selling their projects, funding them and tried to keep alive the ones that were most likely to help her in the long run. Slowly and steadily, she managed to supervise many of the research projects and her voice was considered with high regard among the superiors. The way she dealt with the scientists, researchers and doctors, plus the grasp she had of the greater picture gained her a seat at the table where all the decisions were made. Velia became a key member of the institution, getting to know all of its dark secrets
and future plans. Some of the members of the board were aware of her condition, so they kept tabs on her state of mind and the reports made by third parties hired to have an impartial insight on her psyche.