“That is incorrect, Austin Spencer.”
The glowing light in between the tiny spheres intensified with each word.
“Wha —”
His voice caught in his throat. This thing could talk? Now he was really intrigued. The feeling of static electricity in the air grew as suddenly the blob began to stretch upwards in the air, elongating itself like a column. It grew taller and broader until it began to resemble the rough outline of a person…or a person’s shadow. Details filled themselves in. The tiny spheres bunched closer together where they needed to in order to form hands, fingers, and even the hint of facial features.
“H-how do you know my namer?” Austin stammered.
The dark spheres continued to grow denser and more defined until the light in between was nearly all but extinguished. Then it spoke again.
“I know a lot about you, Austin,” it said, its voice metallic and clicking, the same sort of sound that Austin had heard when the black mass had slithered into view. “And you are wrong. You have something that I need. Something that only you can give me.”
The dark blob — now the unmistakable figure of a female human being — hardened and, in a flash, changed its outward appearance completely. Where there was just shiny black glass before, there was now detail. Mocha-colored flesh, or what appeared to be flesh, in the correct places, poking out from skin-tight clothing that reminded Austin of a jumpsuit that had been molded perfectly onto the body’s form. The clothes were the same black as before, but this time they were lined with glowing red accents to give it some sort of definition.
The most striking part of the figure, however, was the face.
It was the most terrifying woman that Austin had ever laid eyes on. Her face was as smooth as glass, yet it was beautiful in a transfixing way. The eyes were a bright gold that glowed, locking in Austin’s gaze. Hair that had to be synthetic came down to her shoulders, yet it blew this way and that, as if in some sort of wind simulation. There was no wind in the cell, however, so the effect was unsettling. Austin knew that he was looking at what he could only describe as a computer simulation of what a woman was supposed to look like.
Is this what my victims felt like when I pulled the wool over their eyes? He wondered.
The woman’s feet had morphed into high shoes with sharp heels that clicked menacingly on the concrete floor. She took a step towards him, then another. It was not a menacing approach, but Austin couldn’t help it. He flinched and pushed back against the wall, though it did him no good. There was no place that he could go.
He was trapped. Cornered by whatever this creature was.
The simulated woman must have noticed the fear in his eyes because she laughed, a sound that was hollow and unnatural. Electronically modulated.
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “I have not come to kill you. In fact, I have a job for you. Two jobs. The first one is easy. The second one is a bit more…involved. But, I’m sure you are up for the task. You’ve proven as much so far.”
“Y-you’ve been watching me?” Austin managed as his eyes remained locked on the woman’s. “How?”
“Our technology is more advanced than your own,” the woman replied. “I won’t explain it here, but if you help me, I can promise you that you will see things that you’ve only dreamed of.”
She paused — literally — as if her simulation had ended, though the pulsing electrical energy continued to ripple outward towards Austin. He swallowed.
“Do I have a choice?” he asked.
The woman came back to life, this time with a smile that glowed brilliantly, revealing what were supposed to be straightened teeth, but the effect was horrifying. Charges of electricity moved between the teeth periodically, circling them as if they were made of conductors.
“Your choice is simple,” the woman answered. “I hope that you choose wisely.”
Great, thought Austin. He was so close to a peaceful existence, and now he was being used as some sort of a pawn. And for what?
There was only one real way to find out, he supposed, and that was to take up the woman on her offer — whatever she was. He would find out the information he needed, pretend to be on board, and then if things went south, he could always figure out a way to escape.
There was always an alternative.
For now, however, he had one option: Self preservation.
“Alright,” he told the woman. “I’ll comply. But, you better be explaining things to me. I don’t work in the dark. If you’ve been watching me, you’ll know that.”
“Naturally,” the woman replied with amusement. Her eyes glinted. “Do I even need to ask you what your first questions are?”
“Probably not,” said Austin as he got to his feet and stood facing her. “Let’s start with who are you, and what are you doing here?”
The clicking, whirring sound like that of a hard drive booting up was heard, intensifying until finally the woman became animated again. Her voice spoke in that same modulated tone, answering Austin without hesitation.
“My name is Zolyn,” she said. “I’m from the Xanther system, far from my home. I have come to find take the Vestige. And you are going to help me acquire it.”
4
One Hour Earlier
“Drop your weapons, or I start killing people!”
The fifth floor office was filled with anxiety and terror as a dozen desk-workers gasped and cried out for mercy. Most of the well-dressed people were in their mid-thirties. Working-class people suited in crisp-collared white shirts, flattering blouses and business skirts…and a handful of wacky ties.
It was wacky tie day, after all. Everyone expected a pleasant start to the weekend.
Instead they were all huddled into a corner of the somewhat bland office building, pressed as closely together as possible, against a padded cubicle wall. Some of them sobbed. Most were sweating profusely, with streams pouring down their foreheads and necks.
No matter what their state was, all eyes were glued to the disheveled man beside them, who just happened to have snapped, and just happened to be aiming an assault rifle at their fear-gripped faces.
Where in the world did this man who they had known and worked with for several years buy himself such a hefty assault rifle? That was a question that floated through many of the hostage’s heads, but they didn’t expect to get an answer before they bit the dust.
Their colleague appeared crazed. He was definitely not right in the head. His eyes bulged out of his skull from beneath thick eyebrows. The bloodshot orbs darted back and forth, not looking at anything in particular for more than a split second. His forehead was practically a waterfall of sweat, and his hands — both the one holding the rifle and his free hand — were shaking up a storm.
The hostages feared that at any moment the man’s finger would twitch and pull the trigger.
No gun salesman should have granted this lunatic access to a deadly weapon. If the salesmen had any sense, they would have denied this deranged man the purchase.
But, here he was, weaponized.
The office workers thought this was the end.
Little did they know that their salvation was standing just outside the office doorway.
“Fallout, where are you?”
Shaun Boding, also known as the superhero Fallout, pressed a finger against the earbud tucked into his right ear, insuring that it was secure and more importantly, registering to his hearing only. He grimaced at the question. Why was he always expected to answer questions in the middle of a covert operation?
“You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago!”
It was Mae, his partner, both in the hero world and also privately.
“I’m in the middle of something,” Shaun replied as he lingered outside the doorway to the cubicle farm. He couldn’t help but grin slightly despite the high-tension. “Calling me by my Aberrant name now?”
Mae scoffed on the other end.
“This is your secure line. What else would I call you? You aren’t on spe
aker, are you?”
“What do you take me for?”
“I don’t know. I take you for someone who can’t keep a dinner date.” Mae sounded as if she were trying not to bust his balls too badly. Then she added in a more moderate tone, “What’s the situation this time?”
Shaun peered cautiously around the doorframe, focusing through the most technological part of his superhero costume — a pair of tinted smart-glasses that not only cloaked his features with pulsating blue light to distort his appearance on camera, but also displayed important information like a VR headset. He also pulled a new development over his head, a particularly high-tech piece of equipment called…a hood.
He was lucky that he even had that. Usually he wore an under-armor shirt emblazoned with a series of lightning bolts embroidered into the chest, but this time he was in a hurry, and the hostage situation wasn’t exactly planned.
The rest of his attire was completely ordinary. A dinner jacket beneath his sweatshirt, freshly ironed pants, and shiny black shoes with modified soles to allow him to shoot energy from his feet and fly.
Hopefully nobody took his attire as a sign of weakness because he still packed a mean punch.
“A hostage situation,” Shaun detailed for Mae. “A good bunch of them, too. One gunman. Not bad odds.”
Mae didn’t sound pleased.
“I’m going to shut up now,” she said. “I don’t like this, you know.”
“You don’t have to,” Shaun replied. “You just have to put up with it.”
She gave him a sarcastic, forced laugh.
“Let me know when you’re on your way.”
“I’ll see you soon.”
Beyond the doorway, the gunman continued to wave his rifle around as a group of four officers in combat armor crept forward, surrounding the man in a wide ring. They didn’t move very quickly because any sudden movements might cause the nutcase to jerk his gun around, and nobody wanted his finger to suddenly slip and set off a string of bullets.
Leading the police force was a familiar face.
“Easy now, son,” said Officer Stephen Murphy. His feet moved so slowly that they seemed to never leave the floor as he crept closer and closer to the suspect. “Just let these innocent folks go free and we can put this whole misunderstanding behind us.”
There was a snap in the gunman that Shaun noticed before any of the law enforcement officers, and the man whipped his gun around to focus on Officer Murphy.
“Innocent?” said the gunslinger. “Innocent? Let me tell you something, cop-man — none of these people are innocent! They’re all guilty to the core! They know what they’ve done to me, and now they are going to pay for it. This has been a long time coming, and I’m not backing down now.”
Even with the weapon aimed at his face, shaking like a rattlesnake, Officer Murphy was calm and collected. He held up a hand and the other three officers stopped where they were. His tone became conversational now.
“Tell me all about it,” he started, obviously trying to distract the gunman, or at the very least gain his trust. “Where did it all begin? What’s your name?”
The man stuttered as he answered the question.
“M-my name is Riley Cunningham.” Judging by his expression, it appeared that he had let his guard down, even for just a split second. For a moment it looked like Officer Murphy was going to be successful in taking Riley down on his own, but this hope was dashed as Riley blinked, his eyebrows screwing together. Then he readjusted his grip on his weapon and the nozzle rose up until it was level with Officer Murphy’s eyes.
“You’re not going to trick me,” said Riley. “I know what you’re trying to do. And it’s not going to work. These people have mistreated me and belittled me long enough. I was just a grunt to them. Well, not any more! Their day of reckoning has finally arrived.”
With all the nonsensical, emotional babbling, Officer Murphy’s shoulders slumped in resignation. No matter what he did he didn’t possess the ability to make Riley stand down. Not with words, at least. When a person became so entrapped in their own mind and their own emotions, they began to act out unreasonably. Violently.
Shaun had witnessed this sort of violence plenty of times, and many of those times had been up close and personal.
All of those times he had to step up to the plate and solve the problem himself with his own strength and abilities, which were considerable compared to the armored cops inside the office.
This time was no different. There was no doubt that he was going to have to step up again because as Officer Murphy softened his stance, the man glanced over his shoulder and made brief eye contact with Shaun. He nodded, his chin dipping down mere fractions of an inch in an almost imperceptible signal that gave Shaun the sign to move in.
Shaun was ready and he had plenty of options at his disposal.
As Fallout, he had a wide range of abilities. One of those was pulse blasting. He could take this guy out right now with a flaming, purple ball of energy the size of a basketball. Such a blast would be as powerful as being hit in the chest with a bucket of tasers on full charge.
The drawback to using this ability was that it became very hard for Shaun to control a ball of energy once it left his fingertips. If he sent the energy rocketing through the air, there was no telling what would happen after it hit Riley — if it hit the man at all. Riley could side-step the blast, then it would ricochet off something. Shaun didn’t want to risk accidentally injuring one of the hostages...or worse.
Losing any of the hostages was not something on his to-do list. These poor people already had enough on their plates with the ensuing PTSD and sleepless nights that would probably haunt them for months. They didn’t need Fallout adding to their woes. Besides, the media would eat that up for months.
Instead, Shaun had to come up with another plan of attack.
His second option was much cleaner, though it took a lot more physical action on Fallout’s part.
He could soar through the air, vaulting over the heads of the police force, and tackle Riley to the ground. This could be done pretty effortlessly as he had done it before in the past. The drawback there was that Riley was waving around an incredibly dangerous weapon. Most people who saw Fallout flying towards them ended up freezing in fear, mainly because it was unusual and stunning to see someone flying through the air without any visible supports holding them up. Fallout had an advantage when it came to air travel. But, the one thing that he didn’t want was for Riley to panic and pull the trigger, spraying deadly bullets through the room. Any one of those bullets could hit Officer Murphy, his teammates, the hostages, or Shaun himself. Fallout wasn’t bullet-proof.
Despite his ability to fly, Fallout did not possess super strength or invincibility. His skin was just as fragile as anybody else’s and if someone brought enough force against him, Fallout’s bones would break. He has regenerative healing abilities, but he hadn’t tried anything too crazy. As far as he knew, once he was dead, he was dead. A bullet to the head wasn’t something he wanted to test out.
So, that ruled out flying, even if it was really fun…
The third and final option was one that Shaun had his mind set on from the beginning. He could use his super speed to take Riley out before the gunman even knew what hit him.
With Officer Murphy’s permission, Fallout stepped through the doorway for the first time. A shift in tension rippled through the air.
With a jerk of his head Riley locked his eyes on Fallout. They widened when they registered who stood before him.
“W-what is he doing here?” Riley stuttered.
“Stand down, Riley,” said Fallout, instantly capturing all the eyes in the room. He must have looked out of place with his visor and glowing blue features. The shock that people experienced upon seeing him helped him to keep his real identity a secret from the public during his excursions. He came to a stop about ten feet from the gunman, raising his hands in front of him with his fingers aimed threateningly outwards.
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“You said no supers!” Riley cried through bared teeth.
Officer Murphy shook his head.
“I didn’t say anything,” he replied. “We didn’t make any deals.”
If Riley was going to say anything else, Fallout didn’t give him a chance. This situation needed to be resolved. Now. He was late enough as it is.
Fallout flexed his fingers which began to pulsate with glowing photon energy. Riley’s face shone bright with sweat, dripping even more than it was before.
“This is the last time we’re going to ask,” said Fallout, generating a purple glow between his fingers for effect. “Put your gun down and let these people go.”
Riley hung his head. His breath caught in his throat, sounding more and more like he just ran a marathon. Shaun saw the man’s shoulders tense up as he started to answer.
“You supers thing you can tell us what to do. You think you’re better than everyone else. Just because you can fly and shoot energy from your hands...that doesn’t mean that the rest of us don’t matter. We’re important, too. We deserve to be heard — to matter.” He gritted his teeth. “Because, even without powers, I still matter!”
His head snapped up and there was a fire in his eyes now. They almost appeared to glow as he sucked in a raking breath. Riley was infused with adrenaline once more.
Shaun winced as Riley let out an animalistic growl and raised his weapon.
Then he screamed, “Unlike you, I’m still human!”
The group of hostages cried out in shock as Riley tightened his finger on the trigger and unleashed a hail of bullets.
5
The Welcome Party
The shower of bullets flew straight at Fallout, faster than the human eye could see. Gunfire rang out like firecrackers. Little bursts of light illuminated the side of the cubicle and washed out the faces of the hostages.
If Shaun were a normal person, he would have been struck by — and probably killed by — those bullets only a fraction of a second after the hail began.
The Aberrant Series (Book 4): Super Invasion Page 3