by P. S. Power
Oddly, things settled into a kind of peaceful sameness for a while, Brian didn't feel like complaining, but he did start to notice when little things started happening that he ordinarily might not have. People giving him strange glances now and then or whispering when he worked in the gym with Karen. Nothing big, but enough that it drew his attention.
On the fourteenth or fifteenth relatively peaceful day Marcia kept giving him careful looks at dinner one night, which seemed suspicious and finally asked if Penny was there. When he said that she was Marcia nodded but didn't say anything else. A few minutes later she casually asked Penny to stay after dinner for a while. Then, with not nearly as much subtlety, she invited Brian and Mark to leave. Christian didn't move at all, which both Mark and Brian got instantly. Some kind of girl thing. Both men looked at each other and shrugged, then left while they could. They had mental training anyway. If Marcia didn't want Brian to know something like that, it must be pretty bad. He'd heard the woman cheerfully discuss the merits of cannibalism on the battle field as a potential policy. Not that she was a cannibal or liked the idea for herself, she just thought it would freak out the enemy in most cases and save on rations. So anything she thought was too much for him got his instant attention and respect.
After that, for nearly a month, he barely saw Penny at all. Karen came and visited him a lot, and asked after the invisible girl, even suggesting that Brian and her might want to get together, since it would be hard for her to hook up with anyone else. He shrugged and gave her a grin. "Yeah, you'd think, but she just wants to be friends. With the new intercom set up her potential dating pool has gone way up anyway. I mean, a lot of people can feel her, so that part isn't really a big problem for her. It's just making sure that the right person wants to do something at a given time. Now she can."
The idea didn't set as well with him as he'd hoped, but if that's what she wanted, who was he to get in the way? That might be what she'd been off doing, for all he knew. She showed up for meals sometimes, so he knew she was around, not on overseas assignment or anything. He didn't let himself feel too jealous. If she'd found someone that made her happy, then he'd be happy for her. No matter what.
A day after that, fairly early on one of his infrequent off days, Brian decided to just walk the halls for a while. Sometimes when he did that he could strike up a conversation or meet someone new to him. It was a little bit of a desperation move, but they didn't exactly have a club he could go to in order to make new contacts or anything. So pacing the halls it was.
Dharma appeared beside him and held out her hand, telling him to stop.
"Brian..." Her voice sounded so tentative he found himself staring at her, "There's a fight, one... Person? Thing? I don't know, this feels weird... Wrong. Be careful..."
The tingling started almost immediately then.
Instead of finding himself facing a normal fight, or even the zombie-like class fives Brian found himself in a room with a being that no longer seemed to approach human in any way. It wasn't big, only a few inches taller than Brian, but weighed about as much, from the way it looked at least. It glowed, an eerie purple black and looked... odd, as if he viewed it through moving water or something. It distorted the space around him so much that the movements Brian made, tried to make, didn't correspond to what he could reach in the room at all. He really couldn't touch anything he found, no matter how hard he tried.
But it could touch him, and did. Painfully. He didn't know for sure, but it felt like some of the things it did with its long purple black fingers hit inside his body. Hard.
What he normally did in a fight didn't work at all, and as it stood, perhaps twelve feet away, its right hand wrapped around his heart, squeezing, making the world go black, he figured out that he needed to go through the space within himself to reach the being at all. Simple fourth dimensional physics. Taking the fine black knife from its sheath, he tested his theory by stabbing through his own left hand, letting the thin blade slide between the bones carefully. It damaged him, like fire ripping through the flesh, but the creature squealed in horrible pain too. Brian smiled grimly. That worked then. Well that, or the creature was a fantastic actor. Possible, but it would have to be a telepath or something to understand what his thoughts in stabbing his own hand had been.
Not all that likely.
Working the knife slowly, he stabbed through his own armored chest, the knife sliding in easily, moving under the armors hardening threshold. The cut burned, but the creature gasped in pain as Brian smiled and a wound opened on its chest. A white rent appeared in the purple-black background.
Brian looked at its blank face and grinned.
"I'm willing to die to protect the person you want to kill. Are you willing to die trying to kill me in their place?"
Apparently the creature was, because it tried to crush Brian's heart with a sudden movement. Working the blade in he started to make the cuts that would destroy his own and the other beings hearts, planning to take it with him into death.
Before the cuts went too deep, the being, black as the void itself suddenly, seemed to decide that Brian wasn't bluffing after all and fled, giving a slight bow first, then walking backwards into the wall. Or rather a space that took it through the wall, but that normally couldn't be seen. It looked like it shrank and rushed backwards without moving at one point. It was strange, because while it moved, the path it took was clear, as if anyone could follow it. Brian pulled the blade out as four armed men ran into the room shooting at him, he covered his face with his arms in time to save his head from a bullet.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" A voice bellowed, all of the men stopped firing, but none of them lowered their weapons. As soon as the men in their dark blue and black jackets stopped, Brian went back to the hallway on floor nine, not too far from his room.
He staggered down the hall, hoping he hadn't nicked anything in his heart too badly. His left hand bled freely, so he wrapped it in cloth from a low table that he snatched up while passing it and stumbled toward the elevator. When the door opened Tobin stood there, gapping at him. The small man, green and black skin shining softly, reacted quickly and supported Brian's weight as they went to medical on seven. Tobin carried him in his arms like a baby at one point, running as fast as possible, not knowing what was wrong, but figuring it had to be bad if Proxy didn't just walk himself. The smaller guy muttered this as he moved, carefully trying not to jostle Brian too much.
Brian had to peel the armor down with Tobin's help before Doctor Clinton understood just how hurt he was, but after that the man worked quickly and called in help fast enough it seemed. The room kept fading in and out, but that was all right. After all, whoever he'd been there to save lived. That's all that was really important.
For a while after the room went dark, he heard people working on him, not seeing or feeling it at all. They used medical terms, most of which he recognized by now, however a few of them were new to him. He wondered if he'd ever learn what they meant?
Brian woke up some time later, the lights low, the sheets crisp and warm. Looking around he recognized the room as the one they normally put him in on floor seven. Home, he joked to himself. He didn't laugh. His chest didn't hurt much, so hopefully he didn't do any permanent damage. He waited alone, because no one was there. That was fine, he knew where they were, most likely at least. They'd come if they needed him. Until then, he could sleep. That worked well enough as a plan.
He woke up again knowing it was much later, but not how long he'd been out. He felt stronger this time and ran the bed control up so he could look at the wound on his chest. It was sealed pretty well and only had a light bandage on it. It didn't look stitched or even glued when he peeked under the dressing. Brian stared at it for a bit. While he did Burrows walked in and smiled, then pointed at it.
"Something fairly new, an Israeli process, using lasers to cauterize the wound. The inventor said he got the idea from Star Trek, of all things. We sealed it all the way down, it worked because of ho
w little damage your knife did. That was... either the bravest thing I've ever heard of, or the stupidest. Possibly both. You'll live. We can even send you back to your room as soon as you're ready. No hard exertion for a week. If you have to fight, don't do anything fancy, just kill them and come back, got it?" She stared at him from about ten feet away. For some reason her eyes looked wet like she wanted to cry or something, instead the doctor turned quickly and went back into the hall.
A few minutes later Lancaster came in, looking like he always did, black suit, short blond hair and like he could pose for GQ without having to audition. He walked in slowly, carefully, watching Brian tentatively the whole time, as if expecting him to do something strange. Maybe be extra twitchy? Had something bad happened while he'd been out? Brian wondered but didn't ask, not wanting to stir things up if he didn't need to.
Brian smiled instead. "Lancaster! Haven't seen you for a while. Everything all right?"
The agent gave him a wry look and nodded. "Fuck yeah it's alright. Stop me if you've heard this one, some asshole politician, McCreedy, Hooper's little bitch on the house floor, gets himself attacked by the only known class eight, a freak that calls himself Tesseract and some other asshole takes the senators place and get this, takes Tesseract out of action by stabbing himself in the heart."
Brian shrugged.
"That makes sense. The name I mean... A tesseract is the fourth dimensional analog of a cube. It exists both inside and outside itself at the same time. Is the... Representative all right?" Normally he'd know. He lived, so the man would be fine, but there was a small chance that when he'd stabbed himself and Tesseract that McCreedy had been involved too. If he'd been stabbed... Well, Brian had gotten help pretty fast and knew what he'd done. The politicians people wouldn't have had a clue and probably didn't have high powered medical help on tap either.
Lancaster told him the man was fine, shaking his head then taking a few steps forward.
"Tesseract normally keeps to his own business. The last time anyone fought him was nearly thirty years ago, the first version of team two. They were called Bravo team back them. We changed the designations for all the teams after that. There were forty-two of them Brian, twenty six class fives on that team, the rest tough as brass class fours, and all of them died in fourteen seconds. We could say that Tesseract is slowing down I guess, but the distortions around the event have been reported as being stronger than during the last known incident by about twenty percent."
Brian focused, using his mind in a way he hadn't in over five years, going back to the way he used to be, once upon a time. After a minute of staring blankly he tilted his head and looked at the taller man.
"Right. If the field were spread forty ways, even if someone had done the same thing, everyone involved, all forty-one of them would have died to take out Tesseract. This time, one on one, all that would have had to die is me... and him of course. Someone smarter or freer in space than I am might even be able to take him out without dying. I may even be able to figure it out myself, if I have enough time..."
Lancaster told him that he'd just come to make sure that Brian wouldn't kill everyone that came in, after the way he'd beaten down Charles before. People wanted to see him, but none of them were police or even former police, except Charles, who promised to keep his distance. Friends first, he announced, going to the door to call for the first group.
Karen, Penny and, oddly enough Carl, came in, each one giving him a hug. Karen and Penny cried for a bit, but Carl just told him that this light duty stuff would only last so long and that they had a lot more training to do if he was going to go around getting himself in fights like that one. The words had a jovial ring to them, but sounded worried underneath, not something Brian associated with the man at all.
The next group crowded into the doorway impatiently, so Karen kissed him on the cheek and so did Penny. Carl didn't, but he threatened to, which got Brian to laugh. It surprised him that laughing didn't hurt at all. That was a first for being in the hospital, so he must not be too injured. Good. About time he caught a break as far as pain went.
Next was the rest of team three, Christian coming into the room for once, smiling when she got close. "Oh... my, yes, that does seem to have worked! I thought you'd be in agony, but you feel... fine."
Mark smiled and shook his hand. Marcia hugged him for a long time when her turn came, long enough that the others started to look at her funny. Brian didn't care. As far as he was concerned she could hold him for the rest of the day. For once he wasn't too sad or injured to appreciate it.
Team two came in groups of three, finishing with a group of people he hadn't met at all before, Soar, who's name turned out to be Felecia, he'd heard of from Becky. She looked like a pterodactyl and could barely speak, due to her beak. She seemed surprised when Brian put his arms out for a hug. An interesting thing since her fleshy wings had to wrap around him to make it happen. Charles seemed surprised too as he stood in the door watching. Brian hoped the girl wasn't underage or something. A lightning bolt through his ass would probably stress his heart a little.
Lobo didn't have any other name, at least not that he'd tell anyone. He sounded fine, perfectly normal even, but looked like a lobster, except lavender in color and standing upright. Kind of cool looking really. They shook hands, Lobo had articulate claws, but carefully didn't rip Brian's soft fleshy appendages off, so it was all good with him.
The last team two member that came in, not all of their team, not even half if he'd been told correctly, was a man named Hobbs. He looked hard, scarred, red haired and bearded. Dressed like a street person rather than in a team two uniform or even sweats. He bowed from a distance, but smiled hugely at Brian.
"Advocate Yi" He intoned and bowed again, then left without explaining, still looking vastly pleased for some reason.
Charles stood in the door still and waited for Hobbs to clear the room, speaking but not walking in. "He's from a different place... a different reality... that's what he claims at least. From what he says their whole world uses advocates in their legal system. He couldn't really explain what they were, until he heard about you, then he told us they were basically what you were, without the teleportation thing."
Soar came over for another hug, so Brian held her for a bit letting her go only when she moved to stand straight again. When they left he expected things to calm down, that everyone that had wanted to see him had already come in. That, he soon discovered, turned out to be wrong.
First Director Moore, Charlot Chambers and the makeup artist he'd worked with before that one time, Clarice, came in. Charlot moved toward him carefully and gave him a hug and the Director put a hand on his arm for a few seconds, looking... proud of him. Brian appreciated it, especially since half the times they'd met the man had taken Brian to task for something or other. As he moved back the other woman stepped up, so he put his arms out so she could hug him too, which she did chuckling.
"I came to do make-up, but my friends will be extra jealous when they learn I got to hug you too! Now, we don't have a lot of time, can you do what you did last time? Hold still and follow directions like that?" This came out in a friendly sounding way and Brian thought it would be doable, hoping that the others would tell him why a make-up artist was needed while she worked.
They didn't. Maybe he was just supposed to guess? Twenty minutes later the woman stepped back. "Charlot, any suggestions?"
The press agent shook her head. "Perfect. You always do such a good job on him. Fast too. Maybe we should have the others take lessons from him?"
Clari smiled and patted Brian on the arm gently. "A good canvas makes the painting easier."
The Director stayed by his bed and the others tucked themselves in the back right hand corner of the room, then the place flooded with reporters and cameras. It felt like someone had opened up a flood gate at least, possibly literally, the way they flowed in. Brian didn't know what they wanted in particular, but he smiled and welcomed them all. He'd stinted
at least some of them out of the birthday party he promised to throw for himself, after all, having gone crazy at the time and being in a bit of a mood. Maybe they'd come for their cake?
After a bit everyone got quiet as if waiting for a statement from him. The Director looked at him meaningfully.
"I'm... not sure why everyone is here... This is just another day around here really... This is even my regular hospital room." He smiled suddenly which got a laugh on the line.
"Does anyone have any questions?"
Noise erupted in the room. He held up his right hand, smiling, until everyone was quiet. Then seeing the blond female reporter he recognized from the thing with Prime, he pointed. She smiled at him, looking... pleased, he thought.
"Brian, people are starting to wonder if your powers are somehow greater than advertised, especially now, after this incidence with Tesseract, the only known class eight on the planet. Would you care to comment?"
Brian smiled and shook his head.
"I really haven't done anything that any of you couldn't have done too. The only difference is that I was there. That's all my ability really is, getting there in time. I'm not special and don't have hidden powers or secrets, not that I know about any way. Um, well, maybe what I do in the shower is a secret, but certainly not a power... Though with all the cameras here... I know, it's not as interesting... but it's the truth."
Looking around he found a man near the back that didn't look familiar at all, he looked shocked when Brian selected him to go next.
"Um, McCreedy is a known anti-Infected legislator, would you, being Infected yourself, still save him if you knew who you were protecting before hand?"
Brian nodded.
"Yes. Just like I'd protect you, or some little Infected kid, a homeless person or anyone else. Even people that hate me just because I'm different. It's happened a lot more than once or twice." He smiled and shrugged. "Everyone is worth saving, if we can."