by P. S. Power
"We already have a plan. This guy here told us what to do. We're watching the girl, and making sure she gets help. Now, who else is going to help out in the kitchen? How about you, toots?"
He could have picked anyone in the room, but his paw was held out toward Cardy. She was fast, and her face looked a bit like she didn't eat enough, but Brian could see him being attracted to her. In a room full of angry people, she was the one just sitting there, looking at a little silver colored figurine. It was a unicorn. If that didn't say "happy and well adjusted" then what did?
She stood, fast, and stuffed the little statue into the front of her jeans pocket on the right.
"I guess. What do I have to do?"
Brian smiled at her, since she'd always been nice enough to him. Not that they were close or anything.
"Listen to Mark and Warren. Also, Warren, please try to not kill Penny yet. We'll let you beat her up later. In the gym. Maybe Rigs can help you with that? Penny turns profoundly invisible. Telepaths can hear her though, and you have to have someone like that in your set up, right? There might be other ways of doing that too. Warren is regular." Not Infected.
The bear got the idea though.
"And still standing here with the rest of us, in hiding from the world to keep you all alive. That takes balls. Violence isn't the way though. I might be able to come up with something though, if that's all you got." As they headed toward the stairs, the fuzzy man glanced around at the ones that came with him. "So, names and all that? I have Warren, who's one of the bosses. Mark, Denis, Kerry and Scott. The rest of you are... Well, Argos, but that can't be your real name, can it? Peterson?" He looked at Tobin, who was half a foot shorter than he was. "And Proxy. Again, not exactly the real deal, name wise."
Everyone looked a bit surprised, except Cardy, who held out her hand and gave her name.
"Speed. I have a fascination with small figurines. Argos is the cutie next to Prime. Jason. Tobin Peterson, and Brian Yi, playing the part of Proxy today. Our villain is Penny Cooper. Cellophane." She didn't growl the last words, but it was close enough that Brian smiled.
After all, that was pretty close to what was going on here, wasn't it?
Penny had been partially released it seemed, and while she was still visible, and Denis was looking at the back of her head, she didn't seem to be half as stupefied any longer.
"It wasn't like that though. I was alone, for years. No one saw me, or spoke to me. Not really. I did things and took stuff, but it was just to survive. Do any of you have any idea what it's like to be that isolated? It got to me, so I... Found ways to make it better. That's all. No one knew about it, so it didn't really matter, did it?"
Warren punched her.
It wasn't too hard, and no one stopped him, even though Mark could have. Cardy too, if it came to that kind of thing. She was fast enough that she could have probably taken half the people in the IPB in a fight.
The blow was only on the arm too, which got her to wince, but not vanish. Denis was holding her too close to perfectly relaxed for that. If she managed to tense up enough it would happen, but letting someone feel relaxed was well within his abilities.
"Hey! I've never hit you, so watch it."
"Noooo, you just shoved a giant rubber cock up my ass. Without my permission. Guess what, that pretty much means I hate you now. Why shouldn't I do whatever I can to get what little power I can back? Raping a person using super powers... That would get you the death penalty in most places. This isn't France, witch." He was gearing up for another punch, when Rigs cleared his throat.
"Dude, you're embarrassing us with this in front of the new guy. Though seriously... Penny is it?"
She answered looking down at the new man.
"Yes?" There was no meekness to her words. Just a bit of clearly growing anger.
"You can't treat people like that. I don't know what things were like for you before, but that doesn't seem to be holding now. You aren't locked in solitary anymore. That can be hard to beat, isolation like that, but now you have to change. If you don't, then... Well, like Marcia told me. If you slip too much, for too long, the rest of the peeps here will have to try and kill you. That's about all they have with someone like you or me."
No one spoke for a minute, but when Penny did she sounded defiant. Not shy and retiring at all. Nearly wicked.
"Do you think they can really stop me? I'm a class six. Maybe a seven." That got some of the people to look at her, but Brian knew it was true, unlike Cardy or Jason.
It was the tweeky woman that spoke first, in shock.
"What? That can't be right... Can it?"
Brian walked down to the third level where the dining facility was, and finally nodded. It was time for everyone to know... everything. All they could share. Keeping things a secret wouldn't help them anymore.
"Yeah. We had to hide a lot from the government. Our own people. Mark is at least the same in class that way. Me too. Rigs, you're what, a class nine?" He was guessing, but the bear let out a single sound, a huff.
"Probably an eight. I make class six and seven constructs, and can keep five going at once. So far they can pretty much do anything I can dream up for them, too. Telepathy, teleportation, healing. Even energy based crud. So you get the picture. I'm the freaking bomb. That's why they put me here. All my people, my team, they can functionally teleport themselves, and go wherever they need to. I don't even have to know what they're doing. I set up Coordinator for that. Right now that bird girl at the hole in the ground has him. I just power them, and dream them up. It's a huge pain in the..." Looking down he pounded a cute looking paw into his gut. "Middle. I need to eat a lot when they're all deployed, and doing their thing. They'll be around, no doubt. Sooner or later."
Cardy touched his soft looking furry arm. Brian didn't, but it seemed silky soft. Unreal, but not exactly in the uncanny valley either.
The woman spoke gently, with a little smile on her face.
"Why are you here though? I don't get it? Shouldn't you be there, out in the real world, so that you can see what's going on? I don't get it."
Jason touched her, in much the same way she was doing to the new guy.
"Don't you though? He's here, so that if he gets out of control, or just loses it, Proxy can kill him, before he destroys the world."
That got them all to be totally silent for a bit.
Finally the bear looked at him, seeming to smile still. It was a fixed thing, but to tell the truth, he didn't get any sense of menace from the guy in particular. He felt normal, horrible first mode or not. In control, and relaxed.
"Well, it could be one of you others. That's the deal though. Boss lady said it pretty plainly, even though I was nothing but sweet to her. I either keep my stuff together like I have been, or I end up dead. And here you thought the inviso-girl was going to be the hot topic of the day, didn't ya?"
Brian nodded, that was, actually, pretty close to true.
Chapter two
They were two hours into the work for the evening meal when Brian realized that he was a giant prick. Not that he didn't know that, in general, but it was suddenly acute. A sense that he was, without a doubt, the very worst boyfriend ever. Mary, his girlfriend, had been there, and he hadn't even said hello to her.
What kind of tool did that?
Clearly the kind he was.
Sure there was a magic teddy bear to distract him, and the fact that he was a rape victim, but even given that crap, he needed to do better. It was what he was thinking when he traded out. The sense of it came fast and hard, but with no real information about who he was trading out with came with it. For a moment he didn't get anything from the scene in the slightest, but realized that the smiling man in front of him, who held a small, very strange looking pistol, was familiar to him.
A person that he'd seen not three hours before, in fact.
"Mickey?"
Rather than try to attack him, the obvious doppelganger of Sure Shot nodded, and put the weapon away, in the knapsack he w
as carrying.
"I was told that there was another me here. I'm Jake. My real name is Mickey Robson. Um, I'm kind of from a different reality. I come in peace?"
It was ridiculous, except Brian did know several people from a different reality, didn't he? The one that Mary, Hobbs and Liz came from. For that matter, he'd been there himself. It kind of made silly claims like that seem a bit more realistic. That, or someone was faking being his buddy from the base. Some kind of shape shifter or projective telepath.
The man looked harmless though. Even more so than his Mickey did, which was saying something. The man was always smiling and happy. They were identical nearly, but paying attention he could see the difference. This one was a few pounds heavier, and his nose had been broken at some point. It added character to the face, and was minor, but real enough. Like a twin brother, but not so perfect they couldn't be told apart if you paid attention.
"Ah. Well, if I came for you then you were just about to kill someone, no matter how nice you seem. Can you explain that?"
The man shook his head a little, then stopped, clearly thinking. Not worried about Proxy being there in the slightest.
"That might have happened. I was in the Zombie war, about a hundred years ago, now. Time doesn't really run the same way, in all the worlds. Anyway, I had to be good at head shots back then, and while the rapid stun is supposed to be non-lethal, a few shots to the eye could take a person down. It's been a while since I had to do anything like this. Things have been pretty peaceful for me, for a long time." He shrugged, almost in a relaxed fashion, and smiled a little larger.
Brian could feel peace and love coming off of him. It was a bit like Lady Glory's power, but not as strong. He didn't let it influence him, but also didn't go for his knife.
"Okay then. Who was coming for you? What was he like?" Brian could feel that the man was Infected, and had been upset, but not why.
"Big. Muscular. Like a body-builder from back before? No one really does that kind of thing now. In my world. Um, dark? I'd noticed that he seemed upset, and asked if he needed help, but that seemed to offend him. He was going to hit me, so I armed myself, then you were there. That's very useful, by the way. You're being much more easy going about the whole thing. Is there anything I can do to help you in your tasks?" The words were so genuine that Brian kind of wanted to simply think the man was just a telepathic shape shifter sent by Braid. Otherwise he'd have to admit to himself that he was generally a pain in the ass. The contrast between him and this other man was huge, and didn't leave him in a very good light, by comparison.
That wasn't the case though. The longer he stood with the man, the more it became clear that he was really who he said. Some shmoe from another reality. Visiting.
Why that was Brian didn't know. This wasn't where he'd have picked to go on vacation, if given a choice.
"Well, I think that if one of us runs away far enough that will fix things for now. Can I ask why you're here? You don't really seem the type to be conquering places... Also, Zombie wars? That's a thing? For real?"
The nice seeming fellow who looked like another kind and gentle man, nodded.
"Yeah. A long time ago. A group that called themselves the Technologists tried to wipe out humanity. The other races, the hidden ones, they managed to pull together in time to stop that from happening. It was nearly too late for us regular people, but we pulled it out, at the end. The Technologists were trying to stop Global Climate change. They'd run out of options, so decided on genocide. It was really their own people that stopped them in the end. I ended up being the world's religious leader. The Very Good Man. It's a thing there. Kind of like Jesus, if he had to shoot people in the head and tell everyone to play nice for a hundred years? Anyway, we already have another one. Hope. She's a hundred now, and people keep acting like they need me to hold their hands through every single issue." The man grinned and shrugged. It was kind of familiar. From Mickey.
Brian didn't doubt the story at all, though he knew that he should. Nothing inside of him screamed that he was being compelled to do it though. It just felt honest. Like the story was correct, no matter how insane it might seem. Then, really, did it? The Zombies were a bit out there, but some crazy group of a-holes trying to kill everyone else? That wasn't so farfetched, really.
"Okay. I can buy that. Why come here though? Just so people couldn't lean on you anymore?"
"Pretty much. I'm kind of built to help people, so my friend Skolu sent me here. She's the head of the Outer Worlds Exploration Corps. We have a lot of tech from the Technologists. Hence me being alive after so long. Really, I'm on my way to meet up with the other me. Do you know where he is? You called me by name."
Nodding, he grinned, since the man was being darned infectious that way.
"I do. I can't tell you how to get to him though. We're kind of in hiding. So it won't help you much."
The other man, Jake he'd said, didn't even seem sad to hear it.
"Oh? Well, I can go and help someplace else. If I can. Really, all I can do is pretty much just tell you all to work together and try to get along. If you can manage that, I'm probably not really needed here. I heard a war just started though? That's pretty much the opposite of my shtick, that whole working together idea?"
No doubt. Not that Brian could see how the man could really help. Still, there had to be a way to do something for him.
"Okay... I think... After you run away, find someplace where you can make a call, you know what a phone is?"
That got a happy nod, so Brian kept going.
"Then call the IPB, and ask to speak to Marcia Turner. She won't believe you, when you tell her your story, since her first mode is suspicion, but tell her to call me and I'll see about getting you someplace safe. She's not a bad person, just kind of driven right now. I have the number. Nothing to write it down on though, naturally."
That had the man pulling out something that looked a bit like a pack of playing cards from his pack. It was all silver, but when he pulled on the edges it turned into a screen. Stretching out like putty, only ending up a rectangle. When he tapped in the surface the thing chirped.
"Here we go, what's the number?"
Brian gave it quickly, trying not to let his voice go harsh. It was odd that this man didn't seem like a threat, but Brian hadn't traded places again yet. That probably meant that if he left, as gentle as this Jake seemed, someone was going to die anyway. It wouldn't be him either, or Brian would feel a need to kill him, in order to protect the angry infected man.
A voice, coming from the pad spoke, almost instantly.
"IPB, Director Turner's Office, this is Bridget Chambers. How may I help you today?"
He blinked. The man from another world had a magic phone... that worked with their system? How cool was that?
"Bridget? This is... Um, well you know. Damn, this line isn't encrypted, is it?" He looked away, but the not-Mickey nodded.
"Yes. I doubt anything from this time can really trace you, even if their phone is monitored on the other end. Let me go to level two though. We don't have a lot of spying or anything where I'm from, but it's different tech, so it should work pretty well for that right now. No one here even knows to try to crack it, much less how."
For some reason Brian just trusted the man.
"That's actually pretty helpful, if it works. Well, Bridgie, it's me. I need to arrange a pick-up for a man. He's... Sure Shot, except not. He's called Jake and is from a different reality. That, or he's mind screwing me pretty well. Can you set that up? We're... I don't really know the location."
There was a city nearby, but no visible sign on the road, Brian didn't recognize it, but Jake, being clearly more clever than he was at the moment, made a few taps on the surface the pad and spoke.
"Location, given the current grid?"
The thing spoke then, the voice sounding like a woman. Not Bridget though. Her voice was higher in pitch and sounded a bit like a munchkin from that old movie. This one was kind of sexy.
"Current location, Bowington Colorado. Approximately fifteen miles south-west of designated target location." The man waved at it a little his eyes pretty happy seeming.
"Seriously?" There must have been an annoyed tone to his voice then for some unknown reason.
Because the pad answered him, sounding a bit like that itself.
"Why, yes. You doubt me for some reason? I'm almost always right, you know. It's what I'm designed for." She didn't seem too happy with him. Well, he had that effect on some women. Really, most days it was all of them.
"Sorry. Well, Bridgie, I guess we don't need a pick-up, we can do it from here. Talk to you later?"
"Got it. I miss you."
"I miss you too. Later."
The line cut then, almost instantly.
"Fine then. Well, Jake, I guess if you run, um, that way," He pointed, a direction that was away from the road they were on at nearly a ninety degree angle. "And follow the old highway to the left when you hit it, you'll wind up almost at our doorstep. I guess I can send someone to meet you?"
That was going to be Mickey, he decided. No one else would believe this guy and his strange tale. Zombies. That couldn't be real.
They'd be too easy to take out.
Finally, Brian started to buzz a bit, so turned to run the other way, trying to get out of sight of Jake, since it felt like the right thing to do.
"Go! I'll see you later? In a few hours?"
The other man turned and started jogging away, not fast, but persistently. He called out though.
"Thank you! You've been very helpful!"
Then he was back in the kitchen, where he'd been thinking about what a giant tool he was. Definitely the worst boyfriend ever. Mark and Denis came at him, making him have to freeze, before he tried to kill either one of them. Denis checked him for wounds, but there were none. So far it hadn't been that kind of day at all.
"I'm good, it wasn't a fight. I... Actually I saw Mickey from team one, except he's a hundred year old man from a Zombie universe. Also, he's Jesus, I think. Coming here, too. In order to tell everyone to work together." Then he smiled, because it kind of sounded like he'd been dropping acid, now that he said it all out loud. For a moment he wondered if it was real or not.