The face started speaking, its voice raspy and mysterious.
“They are talking about Centralian colors, and what they signify. The female with the mask was telling a story she heard from a relative, about an exemplar who had gone mad by trying to codify colors and their effects on people. Another spoke about how colors could be interpreted as sound, and what this meant for Centralians who want to change the color of their homes.”
The voice continued explaining what it had learned, going into detail about what each person had said. Once it finished, Ava sent a mental message to allow them to reenter the gym.
The door reformed, and Roman reanimated Celia, the beautiful doll happy to be awake again, her hand coming into his for a moment as he stood and helped her up. She remained by his side as they walked through the door, only letting go of his hand once they were inside.
The man in the black mask simply looked at Roman. “And?”
“The overall subject of your conversation was colors…” Roman proceeded to explain to them the various directions in which the conversation had gone, and some of the theories and superstitions that had been discussed.
“And how did you discover this?” one of the females asked.
“I animated a bulge on the rooftop, which melted into the ceiling, and I gave it enough consciousness that it could listen in on your conversation. Once you gave the signal, I brought the bulge down the wall and had it tell me exactly what was said.”
“Fantastic,” the woman said.
“Thank you. I believe you wanted to see the dolls in action?” Roman asked.
“Yes,” said the masked CIA leader. “Ava, is our next exercise ready?”
Roman’s teacher nodded, clearly proud of her pupil. “He should be here any moment.”
As if she had conjured the portal herself, a spark fizzled near Ava, signaling that they would soon be joined by another guest. Soon, Mister Fist’s form took shape, who Roman remembered was a strongman with the power to completely dissolve his body into mist.
“Ready,” Mister Fist said, the lower half of his body filtering out until it was simply a growing expanse of smoke.
“Okay, Coma, you take the lead; Celia, you back her up.”
“Yep,” Coma said, Roman imbuing her with some of his power.
The people watching him didn’t say anything about him doing this, but he could tell by the way they were looking at him that they were interested in this power demonstration.
Roman brought the same steel down that he’d used earlier, forming bladed weapons on Coma’s arms.
For Celia, he brought some of the flooring up, growing the size of her fists, which would allow her to amplify the power of her strikes. She would mostly be playing defense, looking for a way to move in if Coma took a misstep, but she’d be ready if the time came.
Fog was all around them now, and Mister Fist appeared randomly, throwing fists out of nowhere. Coma was quick on her feet, dodging most of his attacks and bringing up walls to try to encase him.
While she was supposed to play offense, she found herself mostly trying to protect Celia, who moved through the mist ducking and swinging randomly, a leg out of nowhere tripping her, the floor rising to catch her.
It played out like this for a moment, Roman growing more and more frustrated with the fact that Mister Fist seem to be toying with the dolls.
He understood why the famous exemplar would do something like this—after all, he had to save face—and no one wanted to be beaten by a noob…
Which got Roman thinking about whether Ava had purposefully capitulated early, just to show the power of her student.
He couldn’t tell for certain, but now wasn’t the time to dig too deep into the earlier demonstration.
Now was the time to try to make a statement.
Eventually Mister Fist took his real form, advancing on Coma, punching at the ground and sending a wave of debris in her direction, which she knocked over with a flick of her wrist. It went on and on like this, Celia getting just about as far away as she could from the main fight, allowing Coma plenty of time to shine.
Coma never went after Mister Fist directly, knowing that the man would turn into mist and reform behind her in an instant, so she mostly played defense, not letting the famous exemplar get a hit in.
She was wiry, and while Mister Fist was big and fast, Coma was agile, coming close to his fists but always getting away just in time. Roman was proud as hell of her once the man in the black mask called for the fight to stop.
“This is all good,” the man told Roman, “and it gives us much to think about. There will be more training ahead if we decide to take you into our ranks, but we are happy with what we have seen here today. Thank you. We will see ourselves out now.”
Chapter Nineteen: Mutual Informants
Roman wasn’t surprised to find Ava waiting for him after he’d changed back into his normal clothing, but he was surprised by her next request. He figured she would want to grab some lunch, possibly start on the bottle of wine early.
But he was mistaken.
“I’ll have to check,” he told her after considering her question. “To be clear, I’m not the person that makes those types of decisions.”
“Well, see what you can do, because I think it’s imperative that this happens.”
Roman knew it was going to be a bit of a reach, but he decided to go for it anyway, especially after everything Ava had done.
The redhead standing before him had completely changed his life. Roman was still not sure how to process the fact that he was now an exemplar.
And true, one part of him wanted to get on with it and go after Margo, hoping that now his official status would prevent them from stripping his power away from him.
But there would be destruction, and while he wasn’t really friendly with his neighbors, Roman didn’t want to put them through that. He didn’t want innocent blood on his hands, not if he could help it.
Roman received a message with the time and place, surprised that his request had actually been approved.
“All right, but we have to wait about thirty minutes,” Roman told his teacher.
“Great, I love a good walk,” Ava said as she turned to the exit. “Come on, girls,” she called to Celia and Coma, who sat on a bench near the exit. Coma was smoothing her hands over her dress, looking for any smudge, Celia adjusted Coma’s mask, carefully examining the other doll.
It was a nice day outside, the cold breeze from earlier gone, the sun warm against Roman’s skin. It was still cold, warranting the black jacket he wore, but it felt nice regardless, and as they walked, Roman stuck his hands deep into his pockets, listening as Ava spoke about some of her past adventures.
While she had told him she was Plume, and part of an exemplar team, she hadn’t said much about some of the missions she’d been part of.
Now she was opening up to him, explaining about a recent occurrence they were dealing with that Roman could hardly believe he was hearing.
“So you really think vampires are back?” Roman asked as they turned onto a nice boulevard. “Isn’t this kind of classified?”
“Who are you going to tell?” she asked. “And I’m pretty sure they are going to accept you in the CIA, where you’ll hear all sorts of crazy stuff anyway. But yes, vampires may be back, not yet confirmed, and it’s a long story. Believe me there.”
“I believe you.”
“But I’ll get more into that later, because you’re right about what you said earlier.”
“Which was?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this.”
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear anything.”
Roman looked up, the magnificent buildings making him feel small. It didn’t matter what area of Centralia one was in, there was always a skyline. Some of the shapes and designs reminded Roman of broadswords, and while he lived on the top floor of his own building, it was nothing like some of these places—penthouses seventy-five floors up, gardens on
the roof tops, private pools, views your average citizen could only imagine.
And looking at the skyline now, with Ava still talking, Roman was reminded of the East, the difference in its size and proportions, buildings replaced by trees, orange and yellow leaves covering everything, winding cobblestone streets, tribes that had rarely seen the type of civilization Roman experienced on a daily basis.
He missed the calm, the smell, the quiet, but he also liked the bustle of the city, the security, the hub of diversity it created. He wished there were a way to live in both.
Eventually, Roman got a mental message with the meeting location.
“I’ll order a teleporter,” Ava said.
“Not necessary, I already have,” Roman told her, and sure enough, slivers of reality began to fall directly in front of them, each strip falling one at a time as a teleporter pushed through the very fabric of their world.
She was younger than the teleporters Roman normally saw, likely working as a part-timer to help put herself through a teleporter trade school.
But the young girl was cordial enough, actually offering Roman, Ava, and his dolls mints before vanishing. No one took a mint, but it was a nice gesture.
Their shapes took form one sliver at a time. They now stood outside an eight-story apartment complex, and a message came to Roman to confirm that there were no telepaths in the vicinity.
“No, this is just something I want to see for myself,” Ava said. “Trust is a two-way street. I trust you, you trust me. For something as sensitive as this, I wouldn’t involve a telepath. At least not without your explicit knowledge.”
“All right, we can go in,” Roman said as he went for the building’s door, holding it open while the ladies stepped inside. They walked down the hallway and up a circular flight of stairs to the third floor, where they came to a room marked ‘Apartment 3K.’
Roman knocked once, and a woman in a mask quickly came to the door.
He almost said her name, but stopped himself just in time.
“Nice to see you, Roman,” said Nadine, her face covered completely by an emerald-green mask with sunglasses underneath to obscure her eyes.
Her hair was tucked into the back of the mask, creating a small bulge, and as she greeted Ava, Roman looked to see that Eli also wore a similar emerald-green mask, his eyes also obscured by sunglasses, although they were adult sunglasses and they looked large on his face.
“Hi, Coma; hi, Celia,” Eli said as he waved at the two dolls. Celia came to him immediately, placing a friendly hand on his shoulder before offering him a hug.
“And this is the young healer?” Ava asked, not at all curious or concerned about why the two were wearing masks.
“Yes, it is,” Nadine said, cutting right to the chase. “Boy, please come meet Ava. She’s a superhero who goes by the name of Plume.”
“Excuse me?” Ava asked, her eyes flaring up slightly.
“Who do you think is the one that told Roman?” Nadine asked, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric covering her lips.
“I…” Ava took a deep breath in. “I guess I should have suspected as much from a spying operation. I’m glad to see my country is keeping you busy.”
“Centralia keeps most spies busy with all the bullshit you cause worldwide,” Nadine said as Eli approached.
“Hello,” Eli said to Ava, extending his hand toward her.
Ava shook his hand, staring at the young boy for a moment.
“Did you bring Casper?” Roman asked.
“Uh huh.” Eli took Casper out of the front of his jacket, and Roman instantly gave the tiny doll life.
“I hate it,” she said, leaping to attention in Eli’s hand. “You can’t just take life away from me whenever you want and stuff me in someone’s pocket!”
“Casper, I was told I couldn’t bring you.”
“But you brought the other two. I’m just as useful as they are.”
Coma started to laugh.
“I’ll rip that pointy mask off and shove it up your ass!” Casper said, lifting her fist at Coma.
“Please, Casper, we’re trying to have a professional conversation here,” Celia said as she took the tiny doll from Eli.
“What kind of meeting is this? And why the hell are Nadine and Eli wearing masks?”
“Dammit, Roman,” Nadine hissed.
“Casper,” Roman said, immediately taking her life, the doll falling to the ground. Celia swooped down to pick Casper up, cradling the doll in her hands.
“Well, now that we all know each other, you might as well take off your masks. Right, Nadine?” Ava said with a smug smile on her face.
“That’s not my real name,” Nadine told her, “and the boy has completely forged documents now courtesy of your guy over here, so it’s not his real name either, at least on paper.”
“Are you challenging me to figure out who you are?” Ava asked. “Because if you are, that’s a challenge I will readily accept.”
“All of you, please,” Roman said, looking to Ava. “I brought you here because I trust you, and you wanted to see Eli’s power in action. Let’s try not to complicate things any more than they already are.”
Roman turned to the kitchen, where he found a metal pan, then instantly removed the handle and shaped it into a sharp knife.
He rolled up his sleeve and looked down at his arm, hesitating for a moment as he turned his palm around, then dragging the blade up the inside of his arm.
Roman winced as the gash opened up and blood started to flow freely. Eli moved over to him in an instant and began healing the wound, the boy looking up at Roman as he did so.
“Please be careful,” Eli told him.
“Very interesting,” Ava said after she had a moment to examine the freshly healed wound. “Do you mind if I catch your arm on fire?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t say yes, but…” Roman bit his lip.
He knew this was going to hurt like hell, but he also knew Eli would be able to heal him up. The only thing he was worried about was the other part of Eli’s power; Eli could heal as much as he wanted, but at some point he would self-combust, his body healing instantly but the combustion still causing an explosion able to kill people, which was how he had killed all the people in his village.
“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Ava said.
“No, if this proves his power to you, and cutting myself didn’t for some reason, then so be it. Just don’t catch my jacket on fire.”
“I won’t,” Ava said as her hand ignited. Roman’s fiery teacher lightly placed her palm on his wrist, and Roman was only able to take the pain for a few seconds.
He was gasping by the time he whipped his arm away from her, his flesh boiling off his palm, and he felt just about as stupid as anyone could feel as the stink of charred flesh met his nostrils.
With a worried look on his face, Eli immediately set about healing Roman. By the time he was finished, Roman’s palm looked like it had never been on fire in the first place.
Still, he shook it out, not at all enjoying the theatrics that were taking place in this seemingly abandoned apartment.
“I think that’s enough evidence,” Nadine said.
“Maybe you’re right,” said Ava with a grin. “Sorry to burn you.”
“So, that’s Eli,” said Roman.
Even though he couldn’t see Nadine’s eyes, he knew as they exchanged glances that they weren’t telling Ava about Eli’s other power, the telepathy he had exhibited back at the Eastern Province military base.
It was better this way.
“Since you have been so gracious to share this with me, I will share a few things with you,” Ava said, turning to Nadine. “I don’t feel like I am breaking any oaths by sharing some classified information because I know from breaches in our own security systems that you probably already have this information. I will start with a sentence, though, and we can go from there—the healers of this world are disappearing, drying up.”
“I’m well aware of that,” said Nadine.
“And the exemplar team I am part of has been looking into this, among other things. In fact, I feel like we have stretched ourselves thin in a way, because while there are other teams, ours is usually tasked with jobs that can feel nearly impossible at times. But that’s neither here nor there. I’m wondering now how much more you may know about the subject than I do,” Ava said, “considering you were cognizant about it enough to move to the East to try to find one of the last remaining healers…”
Nadine stepped forward, her fists clenched at her sides. “Your government has been illegally crossing into our country to randomly take people and test them for their healing powers. We first discovered this by looking at prison rosters and noticing there were a large number from the East, from a particular region. We investigated this region, Roman and I, and we actually ran into Centralian soldiers looking to move on some of the tribes that lived in the hills surrounding the city of Brattle. I don’t know how your government pinpointed this region, but I do believe they would have found Eli eventually. Someone would have.”
Roman nodded, recalling what it was like to come to Eli’s village and see that everyone had been slain, the young boy hiding in the cellar.
Gruesome.
“But that is beside the point,” said Nadine. “Regardless of how your government behaves globally, which has its pluses and minuses, we still don’t know why they have been trying to extract any healer they can find, nor the reason healers have been disappearing in the first place. We assume that they are taking the healers to preserve them and possibly replicate them.”
“I would say that assumption is correct,” Ava said carefully.
“Your government tends to do things like that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t eventually call upon the East to help replicate powers. I’m surprised they haven’t done that already, but it may be because of the sensitive nature of controlling all healers. I can imagine a scenario where Centralia figures out how to replicate healing through technology, not only owning most of the wealth in the world but also owning the ability to keep people alive. This is something they wouldn’t want to share with the East.”
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