Emergence

by Various

  The Other had no car and, unlike some chimeric, he couldn't fly. Still, he was in peak condition and made the 25-mile run in just under an hour. The plant was fairly in the open, though, and he needed to get to it unseen somehow. He decided there was nothing else for it but to trust in his speed and stealth.

  The Other set off at an Olympian-paced sprint among the trees. He knew approaching the plant by the main gate would be a good way to get shot. Most likely it would be patrolled and policed by armed guards with orders to shoot anyone who didn't look like they belonged. Under cover of night, the Other darted across a grassy field straight up to a section of fence that looked clear. He hid nearby, amid the tall grass, watching for patrols. A couple of guards walked past, paying little attention, and then it was clear again.

  He peered askance at a few cattle in the field. They didn’t seem spooked by his presence. One looked at him dumbly as it chewed cud. The Other looked past it at the outline of the twin reactors. Having read up on the site, he knew the station had a Radioactive Materials Laboratory where post-irradiation examinations were carried out. He fought the urge to check the cow for a third eye, the beast having grazed its entire lifespan beneath the shadows of those massive towers.

  Rushing over, the Other easily tore a hole in the chain link fence. Pulling it back together was more difficult and, if the guards were observant they would definitely see it. He moved in a fast crouch over to a nearby building and put his back against the wall, creeping towards a nearby door.

  He tried the handle, found the door locked. A keypad nearby looked like it controlled the door. It bore a card reader. The Other had neither pass-code nor card, of course. A camera sat above the keypad aimed towards the door. He realized with a small grunt that he was in full view of it; if anyone was watching, his cover was already blown.

  On cue, an alarm started up. The Other cursed. No way in hell he would leave Blink for another day. Now was his chance and he was going to take it.

  A small rectangular window sat above the door. It was a long way up, far too high for any normal to get to; of course, the Other was no mere human. Crouching down, he sprang, launching himself upward. His clawed gauntlets bit into the brick around the window and held.

  The glass was lead-lined, tough, and nigh unbreakable. The Other punched at the glass once, then twice, feeling the brick giving way beneath his claws with each impact. On the third punch, the window buckled. The frame fell inward. Shouts echoed from across the power plant, and the Other knew they were close by and coming for him.

  It was a tight squeeze, but he managed to slip through. He dropped the twelve feet to the floor, landing with less grace than intended. He was in a room filled with noisy, whirring machinery, but there didn't seem to be anyone else around. Yet. He knew power plants like this could operate with a skeleton crew of engineers.

  The Other hoped he didn’t run into anyone. Blink would only use civilians as interference against him again.

  The detector in his gauntlet pinged. The Other turned in the direction and moved forward past the whirring, clunking machinery and myriad blinking lights, even the plant’s alarm was lost amid the noise. The far wall loomed up and a set of metal steps led down into a basement. It seemed the only way to proceed, so he set off down the steps two at a time. The ping from the detector was fading. Once it was gone, he would have to wait for Blink to teleport again before getting a fix on her. He just hoped she was staying around for a while.

  As he descended the steps, the noise from the machines faded, yet there was a distant humming that permeated the air. The alarm sounded from above, but still he’d come across no one. A large corridor extended in front of him, rooms leading off to each side.

  The Other moved along quickly, glancing through the window on each door. Inside the first few rooms he spied technical equipment, most likely workshops that looked strangely familiar though he couldn't say why. In other rooms he saw figures in white hazmat suits going about their work. He didn't stop to investigate. Guards would be behind him, and Blink was somewhere up ahead.

  The corridor split left and right, and the Other chose right, descending another set of steps into a large open area with various machines scattered about and a glass and metal dome in the center. He judged he was a good three stories below the surface by now and hoped that would make escape almost as hard for Blink as it was for him.

  The dome was flashing, or sparking. The Other approached cautiously. Near a control panel with various switches, levers, dials, and readouts, he saw four people lying on the floor. Two men wore the uniforms of guards, while a woman was wearing overalls and a third man a lab coat. They looked unconscious, not dead, but the Other couldn't tell without a closer look, and his attention was grabbed by activity within the dome.

  Electricity arced out from a central sphere within it, trailing lines across the glass. Blink was inside the sphere, strolling along carefree despite the deadly electricity. Occasionally, one of the arcs struck her and, instead of being fried as the Other would have expected, she seemed to absorb the energy.

  As Blink walked around the sphere in the center of the dome and was struck by another arc of electricity, she spotted the Other watching her from outside. A wide grin stretched across her face, and she blew him a kiss just before another arc hit her.

  A single steel door sealed the dome and the Other approached it. A keypad with a card swipe locked the door.

  “What are you doing here, hero?” Blink asked.

  The Other turned to find her perched on top of the control console. Electricity still arced out from the sphere inside the dome, crawling across the glass.

  “I'm here to capture you, Blink,” he said, stepping away from the door. “Your crime spree is over.”

  “Oh, really?” Blink let out a throaty laugh. “Last time you tried…well, you almost demolished an entire apartment complex. Now we're standing, or sitting in my case, in a nuclear power plant. I'm not sure your heavy-handed approach is wise here.”

  “Why were you in that apartment, Blink?” He didn't walk straight towards the chimeric, but instead away from the dome, moving closer to her as he did.

  “I was looking for this place,” she said with a smile. “That fool with the pinball machine works here. Or worked here, before you buried him under his own home. I was just looking for this.”

  Blink pointed towards the dome. An arc of electricity shot from the glass and into her finger, through her, and down into the console she sat upon. Sparks flew and electronics sizzled. Smoke puffed up from the console, and the screens died.

  “Uh-oh…” Blink stared down at the sizzling, smoking wreck.

  The Other didn't waste the opportunity. He crossed the distance between him and Blink in mere moments, grabbing hold of her arms in a tight grip. She wouldn't be able to teleport with him.

  Blink started as the Other grabbed her, but she quickly relaxed. “Such strong arms,” she purred, pushing herself back against his body and wriggling. “But we have a more pressing issue, hero.”

  The console was dead, a small fire burning somewhere within its metal depths. The sphere within the dome was still arcing electricity outward toward its glass cage.

  “What is it?” the Other asked, keeping a tight grip on the woman.

  “Look a bit closer, Other,” said Blink. “I mean really look. Not at the dome. At the sphere.”

  The Other tried to ignore her writhing in his arms. He squinted against the arcing electricity and focused on the sphere inside the dome. It was smooth and silvery, almost like metal but too light, too translucent. There was also something inside the sphere, and it looked a lot like a child, naked with their knees drawn up to their chest.

  “Who is that?”

  “I don't know,” Blink said with a smile. “I'm calling him Sparky for now.”

  The Other shook his head, there was so much happening. It was beyond his understanding.

  “Don't move,” a guard shouted
from the stairway down into the room. He had a rifle trained on them. Two more guards moved around him, heading down the stairs.

  “I caught the teleporter,” the Other yelled.

  “I said don't move!”

  “I don't think either of us are getting out of this if they get their way, hero,” Blink whispered, turning her head to look up at him over her shoulder. “Let me go, and I'll deal with them. Then we can figure out what to do with the rest of the night.” She winked a beautiful, sea-blue eye at him.

  He had a sinking feeling she was right. The guards wouldn't care that he had come for her, only that he had broken in. They might even think him in league with the thief. Even if he wanted to incapacitate the guards himself, there's no way he could do it without letting Blink go.

  “Don't kill them,” the Other said, then he let go of her.

  There was a shimmer in front of the first guard on the steps, and a fraction of a second later Blink disappeared from in front of the Other and appeared by the guard, her knee connecting with his face. The guard’s rifle flew out of his hands and sailed towards the ground.

  Another shimmer behind the guard who had just reached the floor. Blink appeared, an elbow slamming into the base of his skull.

  The third guard turned, spraying bullets that ricocheted off the floor and impacted into brick walls. Some bullets found the slumped body of the second guard, but Blink was gone. A shimmer formed above the firing guard. Blink appeared, the tip of her boot crunching into his face, sending him crashing to the ground.

  A final shimmer in the air just a few feet in front of the Other. He stepped forward, reaching out. He managed to grab Blink just as she appeared. The look on her face was shock and fear combined in one.

  “How did you…?”

  “It appears I have adapted. I can see where you're teleporting to now, Blink.”

  “Wonderful,” she growled, trying to wrench her arm free. He held her tight. “Let go of me!”

  She seemed small and young all of a sudden, and the Other realized she actually was. He had been chasing her for weeks now, and only just realized that she probably wasn't even twenty years old. Struggling against his iron grip, her short hair fallen across her face, she looked fragile. Far from the villain he had sworn to bring to justice.

  Blink punched the Other in the chest with her free hand and drew it back, cursing. She tried to shake away the pain.

  “Stop struggling. Tell me exactly what is going on here.” He shook Blink by the arm. “Before more guards arrive.”

  “Isn't it obvious?”

  “No.”

  Blink stopped struggling and stood up straight, a fierce look in her pretty, blue eyes. “The boy’s a chimeric labrat. They're experimenting on him, seeing how much power they can leech out of him.”

  The Other looked again at the dome and the electricity arcing out of the sphere inside. Science wasn't his strong suit.

  “That's why the power plant keeps going dark,” Blink said. “They're testing to see how much electricity they can draw out of him. They want to use him like a generator. Make him spend his entire life like this. A prisoner. A slave.”

  “So what are you doing here? You're a thief. A bank robber.”

  Blink pushed against the Other's chest. He stood strong, far too big for her to move without using her speed or teleportation.

  “I'm also a person, you jackass. Nobody deserves to live like that. Someone needs to help him. Might as well be me. Idiots like you won't do it, too busy trying to catch people like me.”

  “How?” the Other said, letting go of Blink.

  For a moment, the girl stared up at him, confusion making her look even younger. Then she vanished.

  The Other let out a sigh.

  Looking down at the control console, he still saw smoke rising out of it, though the fire didn't appear to be spreading. The dome looked to be unchanged, electricity arcing out against the glass. The Other approached and placed a hand against the glass.

  A woman shouted from behind the Other, and he turned to see another guard tumbling down the stairs. The air a few feet away shimmered. Blink appeared. She had a wary look on her face and kept a good distance between them.

  “Console is fried,” Blink said. “My fault. There's a safety shut-off if we can break the glass of the dome.”

  “What happens if we don't?”

  “Then we don't save him, and this machine keeps leeching electricity off him until there's nothing left to leech. Either we help him now or he dies, and I can't break that glass.”

  The Other wasn't sure if it was the right thing or not, but it felt like the right thing. He stepped close to the glass and punched. The glass didn't budge, but the shock traveled up his arm, and he rolled his shoulder.

  “Harder,” Blink said.

  The Other shot her a glare before turning back to the glass and punching again. Hard. This time, a small crack appeared. He punched again and again and again. Each time, his arm felt like it was about to break, but the crack in the glass grew larger and larger.

  One final punch. A section of glass shattered inward. Shards rained onto the floor of the dome. The Other took a step back. The arcing electricity didn't stop. A bolt of lightning snaked out of the gap and hit the console, sparks flying where it touched the metal. Another arc shot out and connected with the brick wall by the stairway, leaving a trail of smoking, black brick in its wake.

  “You said—” the Other started as another arc leapt out of the glass and struck him.

  #

  Daniel felt something tugging against his face. He groaned and tried to go back to sleep. His head was pounding like nothing he'd ever felt before. It felt like someone was stabbing him in the brain.

  Again something pulled against his face. He tried to move a hand to bat whatever it was away, but his arm didn't move. Slowly, very slowly, he opened his eyes.

  The world was a blurry mess. He saw a figure in front of him, tugging something up and over his eyes, but he was having problems focusing and there was something else, something like lines of static. With a groan, he realized his new corneal modification was malfunctioning and closed his left eye. The world slid into focus.

  A pretty, young woman was staring down at him from a few feet away. He appeared to be in dimly-lit building with a glass dome to his left and electricity arcing around inside of it.

  The woman smiled. A blue-white arc of electricity shot out of the dome. It hit her, and she breathed in deeply, a look of ecstasy on her face for a moment. A chimeric. Daniel's worst fear had come to pass. He had been kidnapped by a chimeric.

  “Who-who are you?” he stammered.

  “I'm Blink,” said the woman. “Who are you, handsome?”

  “I'm Da…What have you done to me?” He tried to move his arms again. He was kneeling on the ground, his arms limp by his side.

  “I didn't do anything to you, hero. You got hit by a jolt and then collapsed. Figured I'd take the opportunity to get that ugly helmet off of you. You're actually cute.”

  Daniel thought about it. A strong jolt of electricity could knock some of his modifications offline. As long as the pathways weren't fried, the software involved should reboot in only a couple of minutes. Easily long enough for this chimeric to kill him.

  “Please let me go,” he begged.

  “Huh?” the woman grunted. Then shook her head and vanished. Daniel saw her appear inside the dome, in front of a big sphere. Electricity arced out of the sphere and into the woman.

  “You're a teleporter.”

  “Uh, yeah. Something we established months ago, hero.”

  The arcs of electricity coming from the sphere were slowing down now. Blink waited in front of it.

  “The electricity doesn't affect you.” The static lines disappeared from his vision signaling his corneal modification software had rebooted. He hoped his muscle enhancements weren't far behind. He needed to run.

  “Oh, it
affects me,” she said, tuning towards him. An arc struck her in the back and she took a ragged breath in, her eyelids fluttering and her eyes seemed to shine a little brighter for a moment.

  A shimmer disturbed the air in front of Daniel. A split second later, the woman appeared in front of him. His modification was working, allowing him to see the displacement of her teleportation just before it happened.

  “You think doing that is easy?” Blink asked. “Takes a lot of energy ‘porting about like that. Some chimerics are lucky, like him in the sphere. They produce energy. Some to power their abilities like flight or…well, shooting electricity. Some of us have to absorb the energy we need from other sources.”

  The woman laughed and vanished, reappearing inside the dome again. “I didn't even know I was a chimeric until last year. Tried to off myself by sticking my fingers in a plug socket. Next thing I knew I was standing thirty feet away. What a rush.”

  The arc of electricity had stopped. The woman started feeling around the sphere. Eventually, she found what she was looking for, and the sphere split into two halves, cracking open and peeling away. A small boy lay on the pedestal, naked and unconscious.

  Daniel felt his arms and legs tingle as the modifications that he had made to his body started to return to life. He reached out, grabbed his helm, and put it back on.

  #

  The Other got to his feet and rolled his head around on his neck, feeling a few satisfying cracks. He was a bit fuzzy and couldn't help feeling he had lost some time. The boy was out of the sphere and in Blink's arms. She was cradling him close, a look of concentration on her face.

  An area outside of the dome shimmered and Blink appeared there, the boy still in her arms. She dropped the lad and grabbed hold of the broken console to steady herself. The boy hit the floor and didn't move.

  “Whoa,” Blink said, looking unsteady. “That never fails to hurt. Feels like having my soul ripped out or something. Never teleport another person, hero.”

  “Can you get him out of here?” the Other asked, pulling the boy to his feet. He was young and skinny, his skin an unhealthy yellow-brown color and not a hair on his head. His eyes were distant and unfocused, but he was conscious at least, if not coherent.