The Vindico

by King, Wesley

  As soon as the word came out of his mouth, a weird, echoing voice repeated “Sliver” in the back of Sam’s mind, and he shuddered.

  Yesterday, before Avaria’s group training, Sliver had taken Sam out for a second individual lesson. They’d spent hours working on perceiving the minds of others, and already, Sam’s sensitivity had grown. He had yet to decipher any actual thoughts, but following Sliver’s lead, he’d managed to find traces of emotions in the others around the mansion.

  Sliver began his lesson. “The League has two telepaths of their own, and they will try to use their powers to locate you, read your thoughts, and control you. A true telepath can render an untrained opponent completely useless. As such, you must all learn to shield your minds. When you sense intrusion, you must locate your internal voice and follow that alone. It is not as easy as it sounds. For today’s session, I will illustrate how it works.”

  Do you hear me, Sam? Sliver whispered into Sam’s mind. It was like a voice talking from far away, but just loudly enough that Sam could hear it.

  Yes, he replied, still slightly unnerved by the connection.

  Good. While we will spend time training the others, they are mostly here for our own uses. Understand?

  Sam frowned. Not really.

  We are going to practice delving into their minds, so that you can feel what it’s like to read their emotions and their most vivid thoughts. Once you can do that, you can control them.

  That doesn’t seem very nice… Sam started.

  Silence! Sliver snapped, and Sam felt a rush of his mentor’s impatience flood through him. Let’s start with Hayden.

  Sam opened his eyes and glanced at Hayden, who was smiling and twiddling his thumbs, though his eyes were still closed. You want me to go in there? Sam asked dubiously.

  Yes. Focus, just like I told you, and then follow my lead.

  All right, Sam said, and even in his head it sounded like a whimper.

  Concentrating on the area around him, Sam closed his eyes again and felt the other four protégés as tumultuous clouds of mental energy. Sliver had explained that once a telepath actually spoke to someone, he could listen for that person’s voice and associate it to their specific train of thought. So while a telepath couldn’t identify strangers without digging into their subconscious, he could always identify those he already knew by simply listening.

  Using this technique, Sam found Hayden’s internal voice and focused on it, feeling the surge of emotions as his own. First, Sam sensed boredom, and then, as he went a bit deeper, delight at some hidden thought came to the forefront. Sam carefully reminded himself that it was Hayden’s pleasure that he was experiencing, not his own, before he continued. It was a strange sensation, as if he was partially detached from his own mind and wandering around inside of Hayden’s.

  You’ve connected to his consciousness, Sliver said. Good. Now, can you sense any distinct thoughts?

  Sam tried to quiet the influence of Hayden’s emotions, as Sliver had instructed, and listened for any comprehensible words.

  I wonder if they’ll give her a uniform. A nice tight bodysuit, maybe.

  Was that him? Sam said.

  It was, Sliver replied, sounding amused. I believe he’s referring to Lana.

  What’s that other feeling? Sam asked as he sifted through the changing emotions.

  That would be arousal.

  Ew, Sam said, making a face. Can we move to someone else?

  First, you must learn to control him. He is untrained: it will be simple. Tell him to strip to his boxers.

  Why would I—

  Do it!

  Shaking his head, Sam focused on Hayden’s thoughts again and then projected his own voice into the current. Soft and understated, as Sliver had taught him.

  Strip to your boxers, Sam whispered, feeling very awkward.

  There was a moment of doubt in Hayden’s mind as he questioned the origin of this new thought. Sliver’s voice joined Sam’s, repeating the same message. Sam felt Hayden weaken immediately and then break.

  Opening his eyes again, Sam watched in amazement as Hayden pulled off his shirt and pants, all with his eyes still closed. He was now sitting only in his faded boxers.

  Excellent, Sliver said, we can leave him for a while. Now see if you can enter James’s thoughts.

  Sam did as he was told and soon found James’s voice at the desk behind him. His most direct and tangible emotion was not boredom or even fatigue. Something else was there. What is that?

  Infatuation, Sliver replied. It is a pungent emotion, so his thoughts should be easy to track. Who is he thinking about?

  It took Sam only a few seconds to figure it out. Not Lana again, he thought. Then he saw a fleeting image, as if he had briefly remembered something. Did you see that?

  That, Sliver replied, barely containing his amusement now, was Lana in a towel. He was picturing it so strongly that even we could see it.

  Tell him to go run his fingers through her hair, Sliver ordered.

  What? Sam asked. I can’t do that. That’s—

  Now!

  Sam sighed inwardly. All right. Focusing on James’s train of thought, he injected the command. James’s mind was already so absorbed with Lana that the instruction came naturally, and Sam didn’t even need Sliver’s help to break him. James opened his eyes and slowly rose out of his chair.

  Sam turned around, catching a glimpse of Sliver’s wide grin, and watched in horrified fascination as James shuffled toward Lana’s desk. Coming to a halt beside her, he bent down and ran his fingers through her blond hair.

  Lana reacted instantaneously. Her eyes shot open, and then she punched him right in the face.

  Sliver erupted in laughter as James yelped and toppled backward to the floor. Hayden and Emily both opened their eyes as well, and Hayden hastily covered his bare chest with his hands.

  “What the…” he said.

  “Why are you naked?” Emily asked. She shifted her attention to James, who was now tenderly rubbing his eye on the ground. “James?”

  “He scared the crap out of me!” Lana shouted, pointing at him.

  “I didn’t mean to,” James protested. “That really hurt!”

  Lana scowled. “What do you mean you didn’t…”

  She paused and then turned to the front of the room, where Sliver was still laughing. Her eyes shifted to Sam, and he felt his cheeks burning.

  “Sorry,” he murmured.

  19

  THAT NIGHT, HAYDEN STUMBLED OUT OF THE BEDROOM, HIS EYES half-closed. His hair was sticking up on one side, while the other half was plastered against his forehead with sweat. He cast himself face-first onto one of the couches.

  “Why?” he moaned.

  He was not alone. James was sprawled out on the couch next to him, while Lana and Emily were strewn across the other two.

  “Why can’t we just sleep?” Hayden mumbled. “It’s not fair.”

  “Tonight was the worst by far,” James agreed. His left eye was swollen again from where Lana had punched him.

  “Definitely,” Lana said. “What’s the point of—”

  A loud shriek split the air, and they all bolted upright. Sam came barreling down the hallway in his underwear. Without slowing, he jumped onto one of the recliners and curled into a ball, shaking.

  “I want to go home,” he said. “I want to go home.”

  “What happened?” Lana asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sam whimpered. “All of a sudden my sheets pulled tight against me, and I couldn’t move. The ceiling opened up, and a bright light shone on my face and said, ‘You are being replaced, Samantha,’ and then the sheets let go and the whole bed tipped over.” He hugged himself even tighter, still trembling. “I thought I was done for.”

  Lana glared at the mirror. “They’re probably in there having a big laugh.”

  “Most likely,” Hayden agreed, rolling onto his back. “Well, it’s not all bad. At least we can sleep out here. It’s like a little slumbe
r party.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, the lights began to flicker. Wind howled in from the vents in the ceiling, sending everyone’s hair flapping around them. Lana fought to hold on to her sheet, which was billowing into the air. Sam screamed and burrowed into the recliner, while Emily tried to protect her face. James just gave up and lay there.

  I need to stop saying things like that, Hayden thought as he dug his head in between the cushions.

  Emily awoke to the whoosh of the sliding panel. She slowly pulled her face from the couch and wiped the drool from the side of her mouth.

  She looked around. Hayden’s head was under the cushions, while Sam was blinking groggily from the recliner, where he was still huddled in a ball. On the couch next to Emily, Lana’s windblown hair was completely covering her face. James was lying on his back, and one of his arms was draped over the side of the couch, his fingers curled up like a dead spider.

  Emily pulled herself up and turned to the panel. Breakfast was there, and beside it were bundles of clothing. She hurried over. There were five piles and a piece of paper with a name on each. Emily found hers and noticed that it was entirely black, as she preferred.

  “Wake up, everyone! Breakfast and clothes are here!”

  Several loud groans answered her. Lana poked her head over the couch.

  “We got clothes?” she mumbled.

  “Yep. I’m going to go change.”

  Laying out the pile on her bed, Emily saw that she’d been given a black shirt and matching pants, both unmarked. Also included were new socks and underwear. She stripped down on the spot, casting off her dirty clothing with relish.

  As she unfolded the pants, something fell out onto the ground. Emily bent down and picked up a gleaming, silver half visor. It was much sleeker and more stylish than Rono’s, just wide enough on the end to cover her eye.

  She gently placed it around the left side of her head, the same side Rono wore his, and as soon as the visor touched her skin, she felt the tiniest bit of suction as it attached itself. The end came across her left eye, so that she was looking through a screen.

  “On,” she instructed, hoping that it was voice-activated like most of Rono’s devices.

  She heard a little hum.

  Suddenly, readings scrolled across the top and bottom of her vision. The visor began analyzing the size and positioning of all the contents of her room and then provided a careful readout of her own current physical condition.

  “Awesome,” she whispered, and then raced back to the common room to show everyone.

  “She must be kidding me,” Lana muttered.

  She’d only been given one article of clothing: a scarlet, one-piece jumpsuit. Lana had been hoping for some sweatpants and a hoodie.

  But the clothes she’d arrived in definitely needed to be washed, and she supposed she could get them back soon. I guess it’s a jumpsuit for me, she thought bitterly, grabbing the outfit and crawling under her blanket to change.

  After much cursing and wrangling, Lana emerged wearing the red one-piece, her other clothes cast about under the covers. She stood up, feeling very strange. The jumpsuit was reinforced in some areas with much harder material: around the ankles, wrists, and forearms and over her ribs and sternum. Yet it was very flexible and clung to her body like saran wrap. A lot like Avaria’s outfit, Lana thought, and despite herself, she couldn’t help but like it. It would at least absorb some of the more violent blows during sparring.

  Scooping up her clothes from under the covers, she went back to the common room.

  Everyone else was already there, admiring their new outfits. Breakfast sat forgotten in the panel. Hayden was spinning around, his new cape swirling behind him. He wore all black like his mentor, except that he had no gloves or boots on. Sam was wearing an elegant purple shirt, which contrasted with his mocha skin, and crisp dress pants. The expensive clothes made his mop of curly hair look very out of place.

  James was watching the proceedings with a frown. He was wearing a forest-green shirt and brown pants that were both much too big, making him look twice as skinny.

  Everyone turned to look at Lana as she came in. James flushed, and Hayden broke out in a lopsided grin.

  “Well, hello,” Hayden said.

  “Shut up,” she snarled, biting back a smile.

  Lana hated to admit it, but she was starting to find Hayden more and more attractive. He was arrogant and insufferable, and because of that, she’d assumed at first that he was a spoiled rich kid. But when Lana had heard the story about his mother, she realized there was probably a lot more to Hayden than he let on. He was putting on a confident act, and who could blame him? He’d basically been abandoned since he was fourteen years old.

  But Lana already had enough things to worry about in this place. Getting involved with someone was the last thing she needed.

  She threw her old clothes next to the plates, where the others had already started a pile.

  “I like the outfit,” Hayden said. “It’s very supervillain,” he added, mocking a fashion commentator. “It just screams: I am full of rage, and I still look sexy.”

  Lana laughed and shook her head.

  “And then we have James,” Hayden went on, “who’s bringing back the peasant look with aplomb.” He snapped his fingers. “He may be plain, but he packs a wallop.” He winked, and James became even redder.

  Hayden turned to Sam. “And, of course, our eligible and tantalizing bachelor, Sam, who is reinventing elegance with a stylish new outfit courtesy of Villaineo Vivide. Get ready to take some cold showers, ladies.”

  He whirled to Emily, his cape spinning behind him. “And here we have our shadow lady: lithe, mysterious, and sporting a metal eye. While you’re checking out her new clothes, she’s looking right through yours.”

  Emily looked at James and opened her mouth in shock. “James, I had no idea how muscular you are!” she gasped, and James’s face finally went as red as Lana’s jumpsuit.

  “And how about your outfit?” Lana asked with a raised eyebrow, looking Hayden up and down.

  He strutted forward, swinging his hips. “This outfit makes a statement,” he said in the same commentator voice, fingering his jet-black shirt with one hand and swinging his cape with the other. “It says, I hate you, your mother, puppies, rainbows, sunshine, fun, long walks on the beach, people who encourage others,” he listed off on his hand, still strutting. He spun in front of Lana and posed with his hands on his hips.

  “Well, aren’t we the team now,” Emily said. “We’re starting to actually look like supervillains.”

  “I still don’t feel like one,” Sam muttered.

  “Good morning,” the Torturer’s voice cut in. “I see you’ve all found your new clothes. You will have a group session with Rono this morning, and your individual sessions will follow. For some of you, today marks the beginning of new stages in your training. Now the real stuff begins. Rono will be at the door to pick you up in fifteen minutes, so eat your breakfast and be ready.”

  20

  RONO ASSEMBLED THE PROTÉGÉS INTO A STRAIGHT LINE, FACING him. He wore his usual brown trench coat, but today he had a gun strapped to his leg and a vicious-looking rifle slung over his back. Sliver stood beside him, surveying their new attire.

  James looked around the room they’d been brought to. It was long and rectangular, and the walls, floor, and ceiling were covered with gray plating. He spotted several weapons racks on the wall, all containing an assortment of handguns and rifles. He’d made sure to position himself beside Lana, and he nudged her and gestured at the weapons.

  “I know,” she mouthed, looking disturbed.

  Lana had been somewhat distant with James since yesterday’s hair-stroking incident; she’d barely looked at him during the evening workout. He wasn’t sure why she was acting that way since Sam had already explained what happened. But James was determined to fix it somehow because no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

&nbs
p; “Think he’s compensating?” James asked quietly, and she smiled, the first positive reaction he’d gotten from her in a while. It was enough to set his skin tingling.

  “No talking!” Rono barked.

  As the little man scowled at them, Hayden glanced at James and shook his head.

  “Remember the shotgun,” he murmured.

  “What shotgun?” Lana asked, looking between them.

  James bit his lip. “I think he means on the wall—”

  “Quiet!” Rono commanded, and Emily frowned at James.

  This reminds me of school, James thought bitterly. Everyone talks, and I get in trouble.

  “This room is specifically designed for weapons training,” Rono began. “Regardless of the powers you receive, the ability to properly and accurately utilize a weapon will be invaluable to you. We have weapons here you have never seen or heard of as they are beyond the technology of even the top military capabilities. I know, because I invented them. And in case you get a funny idea that you can use these weapons to escape, I don’t advise it. Sliver is here to monitor your thoughts, and he’ll know what you’re going to do before you ever pull the trigger. And even if you did manage to get by us, you will be detained and punished very severely—severely enough that you’ll wish you were killed in the escape attempt.”

  “That’s true,” Hayden agreed. “The magic forest will attack you.”

  Lana smirked, and James glared at Hayden’s back. Lana and Hayden had been talking more since Hayden’s announcement, and last night they were laughing away as they did sit-ups together in the corner of the workout room.

  “Ah, that’s right,” Rono said. “I forgot one of you already found that out. All the better, then. The rest of you won’t be so stupid. Now, the first weapon you will learn to use is a plasma discharger.” He slipped the gleaming black gun out of the holster on his leg and showed it to them. “This is one of our basic guns. When you become full members, you’ll all receive one. Essentially, this side chamber here ionizes plasma, and then it bursts out of the nozzle as a red flash. If you want to merely stun your enemy, you switch this lever, and the flash will be blue.”