Powerless: In a world of superpowers, what happens when you have none?

by Niall McCreanor

  Tom continued to look and with a muffled roar he shouted out, “I can’t see the release for the other cell, we can't leave without McKay. He's in the cell next to mine…”

  Lee instantly gazed over at the middle cell and saw a face pressed up against the glass watching everything unfold. Lee turned to his brother and with an exhaustive tone instructed Tom, “Just kick the damn thing.”

  Tom replied, “I might alert the guards. It's too risky to do it again.” With that, Tom flicked a switch on the desk. “It doesn’t matter, found it…” and the door to McKay’s cell opened. From the shadows emerged the figure of the man Lee was trying to identify through the darkness.

  This was the first time that the two had met or even seen each other, but each knew about the other from stories Tom had told. Tom introduced the two. “McKay this is my brother Lee…” then turning to Lee he said, “Lee this is my brother in arms McKay…” Lee offered McKay a subtle nod of his head in acknowledgment of his presence.

  McKay scanned around the room declaring, “Man, you can certainly make an entrance…” Lee didn’t like the vibe that McKay was projecting; sensing a certain amount of passive aggression in the way that McKay carried himself. The way he looked at Lee did not sit easy with him, it was as if McKay was aggressively scrutinising him, analysing him, but trusting his brother and wanting to make hast with their escape Lee instructed the men.

  “Follow me, we don’t have much time...” and he turned in the direction of the cell that he had used to enter the compound.

  Lee made Tom climb up the rope that he had left secured to the top of the ventilation shaft and told him to wait at the top for him. McKay followed close behind; lastly Lee entered the shaft and carefully closed the vent behind him, being careful to screw back in the cover he had previously removed.

  McKay, with a muted voice, called down the shaft to him, “They are going to notice we are not there, especially as you two decided to destroy the cells.”

  Lee looked back over his shoulder. “Well at least they won't know how we got in or out.” Lee slowly pulled himself up the rope and into the vent.

  The three men made their way back along the shaft with Lee guiding them to where he had entered. Lee climbed out of the shaft and into the night air followed by Tom and then by McKay. The three men were now hidden behind the unit that Lee had hidden behind before he made his entrance.

  He instructed Tom to watch him make his escape out between the fences that he had entered through earlier and to await his signal to follow. Lee, showing Tom a dull red flashlight, told him, “This light is the signal; the fog will affect the light so it will appear even duller and mask it. When you see it, trace my steps. Be careful to stay out of sight. The light shouldn't appear too obvious to the patrol guards…” Once again Lee made his way to under the guard tower, timing his exit by the position of the light and the distance of the guards to him.

  Passing under the first fence and crawling his way across the gap to the second, he slowly ejected himself under the second fence and into relative safety, putting a little distance between himself and the fence before giving the signal. Making himself small to the ground and using the fog once again to hide his position, he turned, faced the compound and gave the signal. From where the two men were positioned the signal shone like a red hew against the fog.

  Waiting anxiously for his brother to make his escape, Lee knew that given his background he would make it out okay, but was unsure of McKay’s ability to go undetected. Sitting on the damp ground, he tentatively waited to see who emerged out of the fog. While waiting, Lee heard a loud hissing noise come from his pocket and quickly scrambled to grab the radio he had taken from Ericson. Struggling to get the radio from his pocket and turn it down, he heard command looking for Ericson to check in again.

  “God damn it, Ericson you were supposed to check in ten minutes ago, over.” followed by a brief silence. “Ericson respond, over.”

  Lee debated in his head whether he would answer in the place of Ericson. Lee struggled as to what to do, weighed up his options quickly in his head, recognising he had to cover up what happened to make sure his brother and McKay had time to escape. Placing his finger over the radio button, as he went to push down on the button a voice came through the radio before he had delivered his message.

  “Right, Ericson. I am coming down, you better have a good excuse for that, over.” Lee turned his eyes back to the fence where his brother was coming from and began frantically willing his brother to move with a heightened urgency.

  Tom and McKay both converged where Lee was and dropped to the ground beside him to keep cover. Lee turned to Tom.

  “It's only a matter of time.” No sooner than he had said those words a loud alarm sounded from behind them and all the spotlights illuminated the area. There was enough light to render the fog cover meaningless.

  As the spotlights were scanning the area, the men found themselves pinned down by fast moving beams. Lee had run out of ideas. At a loss as to what to do next, he turned to his brother for guidance, “What do we do now?”

  Tom grabbed the radio from Lee’s hands, seeking the North Star to see where they were positioned in relation to the compound. Quickly deducing that they were to the north-east of the compound, he radioed, “Prisoners spotted on foot to the west of the compound.” As soon as the words played across the radio the spotlights turned to the west of the compound.

  Tom turned to Lee and McKay and spoke hastily, “This will buy us a little time. When they realise we are not heading west they will turn to the east, and we won't be there either, come on we need to put a lot of distance between here and there.” As Tom stood up on his feet he put the radio in his pocket. “Let’s go while we still have fog and the cover of night to hide our tracks. Come morning we will be easily tracked in these conditions.” With that the three men rose and disappeared into the night.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Leading them back up the ridge Lee had maneuvered around only hours before, they made their way back to the ledge that he had originally used as a vantage point over the compound. Lee started to gather all his equipment that he had left before making his descent down the hill to liberate his brother.

  Lee and Tom quickly began to hide any evidence that there had been a camp set up on the site and made sure to cover up anything that would link Lee to the escape. They covered up all his tracks so even though the guards would certainly send out a search party they would be tricked into thinking there was only the two prisoners and no co- conspirators involved.

  As the two men cleared the area McKay kept watch. Noting how proficient Lee was in covering his tracks, he quizzed him. “Have you ever been in the service?”

  Before Lee had a chance to answer, the sound of a twig breaking off in the distance could be heard.

  Even though it wasn’t loud, it echoed through Lee and Tom, reminding them of the imminent danger that a snapping twig can bring; a memory of all those years ago when they confronted the bear in the woods filling their minds. Despite being faint and off in the distance the sound penetrated the three men and caused them to instantly look at each other.

  “There is no way they could find us that quick…” and in a deafening silence the three men waited to see what was to emerge from the darkness.

  The men stood with their backs to the ridge and faced into the wooded area. They scanned the tree line for any signs of movement. Something caught Lee’s attention away from the tree line. Glancing on the ground at where his equipment was he saw that all the schematics were sitting beside his bag, which had been moved. He turned his attention to alert Tom and let out a whisper in his direction. “Tom…” Getting no acknowledgment that Tom had heard what he said he again tried with more urgency in his call, “Psst, Tom…”

  Tom then broke his attention away from scanning the horizon where he was trying to figure out who or what was there, and turned to Lee with a questioning expression on his face. Lee pointed to the ground where his
bag had been opened and stated, “They are already here…”

  Tom glanced at McKay and saw his attention was firmly fixed on the tree line. He ran up to Lee, gripped him firmly, dragged him a few paces over to the base of a tall tree and without hesitation he whispered in his ear, “Remember the bear…” and he launched his younger brother vertically into the tree over his head. Managing to grab a branch and pull himself onto it, Lee found himself half way up the tree looking down on his brother.

  Hearing a commotion from behind him McKay turned around to see Lee wasn't there. He grilled Tom, “Where's your brother?”

  Tom hastening himself replied, “Don't worry about him, and just get ready…” Tom knew that the noise that came from the woods was too subtle to be more than one man and he was anxious that the figure that would appear from the cover of darkness would be the sinister form of Project K. He looked to McKay. “We have to get him before he gets us. We won't get a second chance to do this…” he fervently acknowledged.

  Tom’s worst fears were becoming a reality, as a figure emerged out of the darkness and began to move with the same sinister stealth that he had seen before. The shadows he cast seemed to come from three different places at once. The two men waited in the clearing with baited breath to see who would show themselves from behind the shadows.

  A dark figure began to form and manifest. It moved out towards the two men. Even the fog parted to allow the man through for fear of the effect he would have. As the fog parted it was replaced with an ominous downpour of rain. The moon shone through and illuminated from the back of the man’s head. The rain bounced off his body as if it was trying to escape his touch.

  It was then Tom could see the same dark clothed man with the dark mask that hid his humanity so well. He seemed to be of another world, a cold world; a dark place where there was no weakness and if there was it wouldn’t last for too long. It was Project K.

  The man stepped out from cover and marched right into the middle of the two men and stood very still. Stepping back Tom and McKay allowed themselves room to launch an attack against Project K if needed. Project K tilted his head from left to right and assessed what the men might do from their positions and still made no move to attack them. Tom and McKay looked at each other at the same time and gave a small nod and then progressed towards Project K. The two men were skilled fighters after years of action in that army.

  They engaged Project K in combat; Project K never seemed to move, choosing just to stand there as the two men launched one attack after the other. Each time they came close to landing a blow on Project K he didn't seem to move, yet the punches never landed. It was as if they were fighting something that wasn’t there, trying to hit a shadow.

  Eventually Tom managed to grip Project K and with all his strength wrapped his arms tightly around him. Finally he managed to hit his target and landed a barrage of punches to the face and body of Project K. Losing his strength and going limp he fell to his knee. Feeling this, Tom loosened his grip, telling McKay, “Quick, grab some rope, we need to secure him…” As McKay turned to look for rope, Project K's muscles began to tense up again. Rising to his feet, before Tom was able to tighten his grip again, Project K threw his head back and struck Tom right on his nose with the back of his head.

  Tom’s eyes began to water up and clouded his vision. As a result, he released Project K from his hold and stumbled backwards to re-gather his composure. Project K now viewed an incapacitated Tom as less of an immediate threat so he turned his attention to McKay.

  McKay was in a hurried panic and searching for rope.

  He was unaware that Project K had managed to break Tom’s hold on him and incapacitate him, nor was he aware of the immediate attack about to be thrust upon him. With very silent and deliberate movements Project K ran and launched himself onto him, unleashing blow after blow to the face of McKay.

  Holding McKay up, he kept him from falling from his grasp but McKay’s body went limp and seemed to be just hanging from the hand of Project K.

  Tom in a panicked daze had just about been able to recover from the eye-watering blow he had taken to the face. Looking up and seeing McKay’s limp body; he ran over and gripped Project K from behind. This time instead of squeezing him, he lifted him up off the ground, turned him upside down and with gritted determination drove Project K down into the ground headfirst. Hearing an almighty crunch as he dashed Project K's head off a rock that lay at his feet, his body fell limp for the last time.

  Any sinister signs had been removed from his body by Tom along with any signs of life. Tom dropped his body, which fell to his feet in an exhausted lifeless pile.

  He took a breath to compose himself, for he had effectively defeated the undefeated. Then Tom began to think about this feat and something didn’t sit right with him. Looking to McKay he stated, “That was too easy, there’s something going on…” He went to tend to McKay, not knowing if he was alive or dead. To Tom’s bewilderment he found him to be unhurt and unharmed and very much conscious as opposed to the lifeless body he had seen only moments before.

  Tom paused seeing this. McKay saw that Tom was processing what he was seeing, with a reluctant and hesitant expression upon his face he assured him, “It's okay Tom, I'm a healer…”

  Never knowing what McKay’s ability was, this made sense to Tom after what he had just seen, so he leaned over and extended his hand to help his comrade up.

  While doing did this he called his mind back to his childhood and when his mother got hurt she would heal relatively quickly, but the greater the injuries the longer it would take for them to heal. It may have only been a matter of minutes, but she would still heal. Given the extent of the beating that McKay had just taken, Tom got a little suspicious and considered his surroundings. Looking over McKay’s body where it lay, he realised something was missing and with trepidation questioned, “Where is the blood, McKay?”

  There was a pause as McKay looked up at him from the ground. Tom leant down, taking McKay by the hand and began to help him to his feet before challenging him. “Where is the blood, even healers bleed the same, they just heal faster…” As Tom raised McKay up from the ground, noise crackled from the radio he had taken from Lee earlier.

  There was no voice on the other end of the radio waiting for someone to check in; this time Tom just heard radio interference. Looking down to where the noise was coming from he realised that the radio placed on his hip was touching against McKay. Bringing his eyes to meet McKay’s with sudden, wounded clarity. “It’s you.” Gasping, “They tracked you. That’s how they found us so quickly…”

  McKay’s demeanour then turned as an evil glare came over his face. Before Tom had time to act upon what he saw, McKay had stuck his two fists into the gut of Tom and sent him hurtling back from where he stood. Tom fell to the ground and endured a cataclysmic pain he had never experienced before. It seared through his body like a dull blunt electrocution. Tom struggled to get to his feet on the wet ground; falling again and the ground seemed to move under him. He struggled to get up to one knee and looked over to where McKay was standing. He saw him lift the corpse of the man Tom had just killed, to remove the blood soaked mask from off his face and place it on his own. Tom in disbelief, gasping for air, spluttered, “It’s you.” Struggling to find another a breath to deliver the words, “You’re Proj…”

  Before Tom could finish his words McKay looked at him and sneered, “Yes, I am Project K. It shouldn’t have been such a big leap for you to work out…” McKay reached into his pocket and removed a small GPS device; this is what caused the interference on Tom’s radio. “They don’t need to track me, I don’t need backup, but I suppose they just want to protect their investment…” Breaking the device, he proclaimed, “Alone at last…”

  Now with the mask both hiding and showing his true identity, McKay walked over to Tom, grabbed him and lifted him up off the ground. With everything he still had inside him, Tom drew back his fist and threw it harder than he had ever before at
McKay and connected with his jaw. He waited for McKay to fall to the ground or at least loosen his grip, but he did not. For the punch that Tom had thrown was the punch of a child and had no effect on McKay other than to cause his anger to grow to boiling point.

  McKay hit Tom and sent him falling towards the ground. “You clearly don’t get it, your powers count for nothing with me, but I do like how yours feel. It must be immense to have this kind of power in you the whole time…”

  Tom sneered up at him defiantly;

  “I know exactly what your power is, you absorb powers from those you touch, that's how you can easily defeat anyone around…”

  McKay laughed and jeered, “Well done, Tom. Finally the penny has dropped. When I hit you, I hit you with your power. No matter what it is, I can turn it against you. All the power and none of the weaknesses…”

  Tom, struggled to find his feet as pain coursed through him. “Then why pretend?”

  McKay growled back with menacing intent. “Why pretend to help you or why pretend to have been locked up with you? Well that’s very simple really, I worked with you for long enough to know that you would have taken precautions to protect yourself. I knew you would make a copy of the files I needed to get back and I also knew you would entrust them to someone. I wasn’t sure who you would trust with them, your father or your brother, but I should have known that you would choose your brother. And to be honest I didn’t think he would have the balls to pull this off. Speaking of which, I know you won't tell me where the files are, so therein lies the million dollar question: where is Lee?”

  Tom wiped his brow, got to his feet, “Lee is long gone. You will never be able to find him. I might be good, but he’s exceptional and no matter how powerful you are, he will not be outdone. Trust me, I know, and if you don’t find him, you won't find the files…”

  While this was all happening Lee was perched above watching all this unfold on the ground below, unsure as to what to do. Seeing the power McKay had in him, he knew that without an ability he didn’t stand a chance. After listening to Tom cover for him, he knew it was not looking good for his brother. He watched from above as Tom struggled to stay on his feet and McKay stalked him like a predator pursues his prey.