She was at the far end of the platform, near the entrance and exits, had they existed. For the doorways had been filled with cement, cutting off any access to the station except through the tunnel that I had just taken, including the exit tunnel at the opposite end of the station.
She had lost weight since I had seen her last, her cheeks hollow, the mass instead migrating upwards to fill the bags under her eyes. And one of those eyes was bruised, the green and purple remains left over from a black eye forming a crude circle, accented by scratch marks that grazed across her jawline. Her clothing was ripped along some of the weaker seams, my fists closing when I realized that she was still wearing the same clothes as the day she had left. A fresh tearstain formed across her shirt as a she pinched her lips together in an effort to keep them from trembling, and when she stood, I saw a chain link drag across the ground to her right wrist.
“Mother!” I shouted, vaulting up the edge of the platform, renewed energy powering my sprint. With each step, I caught more details about her appearance that made the muscles in my jaw clench – that a host of other cuts and bruises occupied her skin. That her hair, usually kept and neat, stranded in multiple directions from lack of care. And that the shackle around her wrist had cut into the skin, dried blood fusing to the metal to give it the appearance of rust.
We embraced, my face digging into her shoulder as she held me close. And for a moment, I was no longer the leader of a small rebellion, or a student at the rehabilitation facility, or a Special with an unknown power. Rather, I was a child again, and nothing more.
“You shouldn’t have come, Star Child,” she said, her voice soft as I looked over her shoulder and saw a long table on the platform with the space around it shimmering. And not only did I see it, but I felt it. “You should have stayed hidden.”
“Yes, boy,” said a voice behind us as we stiffened. “You really should have.”
Chapter 80
I whipped around to see Peregrine alone on the platform, ten feet away, his chin tilted as he stared, his eyebrows raised.
“I should have noticed the resemblance,” he remarked, studying us. “The facial features are quite similar. Not that you can notice much about your mother at all, but that’s why I brought her here, isn’t it? And I suppose that makes me directly responsible for bringing you to the academy as well, by effectively orphaning you.”
“What are you doing with her?” I demanded, stepping forwards as my mother’s hand restrained my shoulder. “Why did you take her from me in the first place?”
I stopped myself as my fists clenched tighter and black orbs threatened to spring into existence. First, I had to extract more information from him, to find out who might pursue us if we escaped. And second, though Peregrine was a seasoned fighter, there was one advantage that I possessed over him. A lesson from Instructor Linns when I had just started at the facility.
The strongest power is the unknown power.
“Boy, I wouldn’t have taken her from you if I knew you existed; rather, I would have taken you with her. She hid you well. But it was necessary, absolutely necessary to steal her for her abilities. She’s incredibly unique – I could not have picked a better candidate if I tried.”
“So you shackled and beat her?” I shouted, watching as he walked in an arc around us but maintained his distance.
Peregrine shrugged, his expression unchanging.
“She’s a Snuffer, and Snuffers’ powers are saturate. They emulate nature. The opossum plays dead when it is afraid, the hedgehog balls up, the chameleon blends with its surroundings. Pain and fear drive a Snuffer’s power.” He frowned, looking over my mother. “If your mother had cooperated, we wouldn’t have had to rely upon such methods. But the risk of discovery was too great. So we activated her powers ourselves.”
“By torturing her?!”
“By stimulating her abilities, boy.” His tone was corrective, as if he were teaching a lesson, “SC, we would never cause anything permanent. No, we need her too much for that. But now that you are here, why hurt her at all? There’s no greater fear to a mother than the harm of her child – by keeping you here, I maximize her powers without laying a finger on her again. Think on that, SC – stay here with us, and you will be remembered when this is all over. When our side has won the war on the horizon.”
“And is that side Siri’s side? How many have died at the rehabilitation facilities over the years, and how many now live as your slaves? Why would I ever join her, or you, after what you’ve done?”
“Because, SC, we’re going to win. No price is too steep for that!” A smile widened across his lips as he spoke, and his eyes glinted. “Ask any war general. Besides, we have already won, because my project is practically complete. My weapon, the ultimate advantage.”
“Who are you even fighting against?” I asked, watching as he continued to walk so we now faced the table we had seen earlier, with the shimmering air above it, “And you can’t force students to fight against their will just to win a war.”
“Is that not what you just did tonight, SC? Are you not any better than us, after leading the charge of your friends without their consent, after you somehow managed to shake off Siri’s influence?” He tilted his head, his eyes scrutinizing me, and continued, “But I’ll let you answer that one on your own. You’ll have plenty of time to think on it down here. I’ve fought many wars, and I know the nature of people. Those in power act like we do, using others for their own gain, pitting them against each other. Sacrificing lives for trivial matters, whether the motive be for minute differences in opinion or ownership. And I, along with many others, came to a simple conclusion – that the only way to eliminate those who do not deserve power is to unify under a common front. To have one last war, a terrible war against all, against the police, our government, corruption. To command afterwards. A war won with my weapon, which brings us back to why you should consider fighting alongside us, and why your mother is so necessary.”
He gestured, then held up three fingers.
“Optimal because, first, she has the power of a Snuffer, which was required to hide the weapon.”
He ticked down a finger, and continued.
“Second, because of her past profession. A nurse, particularly a delivery nurse, someone with experience in the field. That could enter that role again.”
His second finger collapsed, until only one was left.
“And third, because she has seen the insides of the space station high above us. And she can direct me there.”
Chapter 81
“Let him walk,” insisted my mother behind me. “Let him go, and I’ll cooperate.”
“Unfortunately, we can’t do that. Not anymore,” answered Peregrine, “He knows where the weapon is located, and I can’t move it, considering it’s woven into existence itself. Besides, he may be interested in working with us if he comes to his senses. He’s clever; we could use someone like him. The problem with leading an army of drones is none of them seem to have good ideas.”
“And what, exactly, does this weapon do?” I asked as Peregrine walked towards the table. I followed at a distance, my stomach turning as I came closer, the space before me disorienting. It was as if the entire room was tilting, or that I walked on uneven ground. Like standing on a ship in the center of a storm, as invisible waves fought underneath the deck.
“Something you can appreciate with your telepathic power. Your mother must have travelled quite far to be able to gift that to you. It’s something I wouldn’t expect to see from one born in the city. As a maid, I can hardly believe she would have the funds to purchase a birthing slot in a Special hospital. No, if I had to guess, you were born illegally, SC.”
“Perhaps, but you can’t prove that. You don’t know anything about my birth.” I protested.
“Exactly!” he exclaimed, and clapped as if to capture the words in midair, “And even if I did, the documents could be forged, the officials paid off. But here, SC, is the great equalizer. It’s wel
l known that powers are influenced by the location of birth – the data collected over centuries demonstrates this fact. And it’s been proven that environmental factors drive power type – even in the coldest locations, if a child is born near a roaring fire, there is a chance they may become a Furnace. But until now, it was unpredictable, the chances were low, and often there were ill side effects like a reduced power. But now, that’s all changed.”
He placed his hands on the table, one of his rings clanging against the metal, and continued to speak.
“It took years to build, years. And only someone like me could have done it, with strong teleportation powers like myself. And even then, I spent decades learning how to make it permanent.”
He paused for a moment, staring around himself, his eyes bright with admiration.
“Come inside, SC. See what I’ve created. What I’ve done.”
“Don’t get closer,” warned my mother, and Peregrine shrugged.
“With my teleportation powers, he’s already as close as he can be. If I was going to kill him, I would have done so already. Let’s go, SC – consider this another lesson, perhaps our final one. Careful, walk just over that strip of tape on the ground. Don’t take another path.”
He pointed to a two – foot – long stripe of blue at the edge of the table, and I stepped forwards slowly, nausea growing with each movement. I blinked as the world compressed, stepping over the line, feeling as if someone were stepping on my chest. Peregrine backed away as I entered, leaving me in what I saw was not mere open space as it appeared from the outside, but rather a small room. One surrounded by windows ten feet tall, except for the space with the masking tape, which formed a doorway back into the subway.
There were eight windows in all, shaped like an octagon around me, each of them displaying different scenes. Different portals into worlds beyond.
To my left, I saw a desert, the wind blowing sand in whirling gusts, the blistering sun far overhead making the air above the ground dance. The dunes stretched as far as I could see, and from the position of the sun, I could tell that it was far earlier in the day than our current location.
A forest occupied the adjacent pane, the sound of hooting monkeys and the chirping of tropical birds coming through the window, accompanied by the sickly sweet smell of wildflowers. Bugs whipped past, buzzing along their path and stopping occasionally to investigate blooms. Here, it was early morning or twilight, the heavily shadowed area barely lit.
Next, there was a wall of water, dark shapes moving in and out of layers of seaweed. The plants swayed with the current and the wall of water bulged slightly, as if threatening to enter our enclosure. A school of bright fish darted by, their scales each from a different part of the rainbow, and their eyes alarmed as they saw us staring back at them. And at the ground inside the enclosure, a small pile of them lay dead, their fins coated with frost.
Each of the other windows portrayed scenes just as exotic – from an active volcano to a peak of a mountain, each an entry into a location far away, perhaps on the other side of the world. Each with their own distinct flavor, feeling alien so close to one another, as if they were warring for the nature of the room. All except for the final panel, one unfinished, which fuzzed with rushing images too quick to recognize in a blur of static.
“Amazing, isn’t it? Well worth the years of effort, and beyond what even I thought I could do. Something I once thought impossible,” whispered Peregrine, his voice close to my ear. “Something to change the world forever. Watch now, as we travel to the Pacific.”
Chapter 82
Peregrine stiffened as he closed his eyes, the muscles on his forearms bulging outwards, his lips pursed and his fingers gripping the edge of the table. And the world around me shifted, the space stretching and constricting in a dizzying fashion, making it difficult for me to stand.
“Enter,” started Peregrine as the window that was the desert flashed to ocean water, the pane with the forest following.
“The,” he continued, the next three windows switching.
“Pacific,” he finished, just as the last two panels flashed to underwater ocean, and I stared, the hair on my back prickling. It was as if we were in a glass room twenty feet below the surface, surrounded by coral, the light a dancing blue and the air even cooled by the water. And it felt as if any second a flood would come rushing in to make us part of the scenery.
“The trick is in the elevation changes,” he boasted as I gritted my teeth, focusing on holding back my churning stomach, “That’s what holds the water back. You see, we are at a higher altitude than the water – for it to enter this enclosure, it would have to climb to our elevation. That takes a heap of energy – enough, as you see below, to suck all the heat out of particularly determined fish.”
“So this,” I said, the pieces coming together in my mind. “You built all this as a portable location chamber. So that whoever is born here, on this table, can have any power their parents desire.”
“Any power I desire,” he corrected. “Just think, an army of any power type, no matter how exotic, at my hands. They’re born here in secret, then deployed to our schools, under our influence. No longer do we need to accept the scraps that the police send to us off the streets. Now the rehabilitation centers can manufacture their own powers at will. The strongest powers and it would be years before anyone knew. And if they ever found our secret, it would be years to develop their own portals – simply making one portal stable enough to exist takes months. Along with a high powered Teleporter, which are quite rare.”
“So my mother, you wanted her to deliver their children? So that, from the moment they entered the world, they are your high powered slaves?”
“So that the moment they enter the world, they are our soldiers. They are good citizens. Just imagine, SC – we can create powers completely currently unknown to man! Even I cannot teleport as far as these portals stretch, but when I create a portal, there’s no limit to how far it can go since I create it piece by piece. There’s an entire network of portal connections I have created, and it can only expand.”
“So what? Why don’t you just transport the mother to the locations instead of using this device?”
“Because they’re protected and regulated. Use your imagination, boy! Think why I chose your mother! We can stretch the bounds of human exploration! With your mother’s help, I can create a tunnel to rooms in the space station once she describes them. Or even farther – imagine a child born on the moon! A child born at the core of the Earth! What a wonder that would be, and who knows what the powers would look like.”
“Who knows,” I answered, rolling my eyes. “That truly would be a mystery.”
“Are you being sarcastic with me, boy?” Peregrine asked, an edge in his voice.
“Absolutely not.”
“Then take this room right now. Someone born in this environment would be the equivalent of being born on a submarine. It could produce an Aquatic, a Waver, or countless other marine powers. And they would be strong, stronger than any born above water on a ship. Not only does this increase variety, but also potency.”
“What if it doesn’t work? What if you’ve done all this for nothing.”
“It will, but even if it fails, we still have the rehabilitation centers. There is a movement, SC. Thousands of us. Siri and I are only a small part of the machine – soon, very soon, the casue will emerge across the globe. The cause for a perfect world. To rehabilitate the entire world.”
“And you’re asking me to be a piece of it? To join?”
“Yes, and very near the top of the chain! What do you think, SC? To turn this down would be ignoring the greatest opportunity of your life,” he said, spreading his arms wide, a maniacal smile playing across his lips.
In response, the nausea from his portals welled upwards inside of me, and I released my willpower as it surged. Leaning over, I vomited over his medical table, shaking as I retched, and backed out of the portal room.
Chapte
r 83
“I’ll take that as a no,” intoned Peregrine, his face darkening as he followed me through the exit. “Fortunately, the area is not yet sterile. Think, SC, about what I’m offering you. And realize that I cannot let you leave. Stay here through your own will or through mine.”
“Then I can only thank you for the classes on fighting,” I responded, widening my stance. The hair on the back of my neck pricked as he studied me, and my senses heightened, particularly those waiting for the ripping of space prior to teleportation.
“You realize this is foolishness, madness,” he said, his eyes cold. The eyes of someone unfazed by death, who had seen it many times before. Who had caused it many times before. “I’ve seen your skill, I’ve watched you train for a paltry few weeks. At your power level, I could reach in to crush your very heart.”
He extended his hand with a grasping motion, the fingers curling to point the nails inwards in a gnarled ball.
“Then you should try!” I shouted, and reached out with a force point to the lights high above, dragging a swinging fluorescent down with enough force to snap the dual chains fastening it to the concrete. The fixture and tube fell with an acceleration several times that of gravity, slamming into the ground in an explosion of white powder and glass where Peregrine had stood just a moment prior, just before he materialized five feet to the right.
“You don’t stand a chance, boy. Stand down,” commanded Peregrine, dusting off particles from his coat with the nonchalant back of his hand. “It’s only murder if the subject is innocent, and you have used up your first warning.”
“Then make this my second!” I yelled, dragging an advertising board that had been leaning against the wall towards him in a swipe that covered the length of the station, air whooshing away like the swing of a baseball bat. But Peregrine simply sidestepped, not away from the board, but rather through it, disappearing just before it reached him and materializing on the other side.
Star Child: Places of Power Page 25