Chapter Eight

“Are you sure this is what you want?”

Air Raid and Beauty both nodded in response to Flint’s question. “I know you want to help,” Beauty said. “But at this point, I think real experts in the field will be my best bet.”

“I understand that,” Flint said with a sigh. “I’ve got to say that the Metagene Active Research Center wouldn’t be my first choice.”

“It’s my only choice, Flint. The facilities for the care of meta-active people aren’t very common, and MARC has some of the best experts in the world. They may not have the best history—”

“May not have the best history!” Flint’s eyes burned brighter red with his frustration and rage. “They dissected degens in the name of science!”

Air Raid stepped between Beauty and the fuming Flint. “I don’t like it so much either, but that was fifty years ago. And we both know Beauty won’t face the same problems you and I would. Despite the problems her powers present, she looks normal enough.”

Flint sighed. He knew they would not be dissuaded. “You’re sure you want to go along, Air Raid? Degens are in far more dangerous territory in New York than they are in Seaside City.”

Air Raid looked at Beauty. He grinned at her. “I’m not letting her go anywhere without me ever again.”

Flint shook his head. “All right then. Can’t say I didn’t try. Promise me you’ll both be careful?”

“Never doubt it,” Air Raid said.

“What about Bobbi? Don’t you want to say goodbye?”

Beauty shook her head. “I love Bobbi like a sister. But with her unconscious I can’t risk losing control again. Please give her my apologies and tell her I’ll call as soon as possible.”

“All right then. I guess that’s everything there is to say. The car’s waiting,” Flint said. “Come back to us soon.”

“We’ll be back,” Beauty said. “No matter what happens, you won’t get rid of me and Raid that easy.”

After a final round of goodbyes, the young couple made their way out to the waiting car. Flint watched them the entire time. It’s like my younger days all over again. Please don’t make the same mistakes I did.

Flint wiped the tears from his face before they could steam away.

*****

“Aaaaah!”

Bobbi shot upright in the bed. Had is it all been a dream?

Athena rushed to her bedside. “You’re awake!” Her words were half question, half statement.

Bobbie clutched at the temples of her enlarged skull. Her head throbbed. “What happened?”

“You collapsed after we subdued Beauty. The strain must have been too much for your mind.”

Bobbi shook her head. “It wasn’t that. I saw things, horrible flashes of… of something. I think it might have been the future.”

Athena looked puzzled. Bobbi knew she sounded crazy, as crazy as the stories the other students told her about that Psalm girl.

Athena stroked Bobbi’s bare head. “When we push ourselves too hard, especially on a mental level, strange things can occur. Things designed to protect us. I wouldn’t worry about those visions, Bobbi. We need to focus on getting you better now. Okay?”

“Sure thing, Ms. A.”

“All right, Bobbi. Get some more rest. Flint will check back in with you in a couple hours.”

Bobbi nodded. She settled back in the bed. Athena covered her back up. It felt strange to Bobbi, too domestic for the Epsilon leader. She liked it. It reminded her of her mother; at least how her mother was before she went through the change.

Bobbi watched as Athena left the med lab. She settled down to try to sleep.

The med lab door hissed back open almost immediately. The new arrival stood in the shadows, but she recognized the outline of Athena.

“What is it, Ms. A? Did you forget something?”

The shadowed figure stepped forward in to the light. It was Athena, but her eyes were wide and blank. Her clothes were torn and disheveled. Her chest and neck were covered in fresh blood.

“Athena, are you all right?”

Athena stepped towards her and reached out. Then she vanished.

What the heck is going on? It was just like my vision. Bobbi couldn’t stop herself from shaking. She fumbled out from the bed and repeatedly smashed in the call button before she passed out again.

*****

His skin burnt and blistered as he lay unprotected beneath the African sun. The damage done by Feud kept his regenerative abilities in overdrive. The fact he still couldn’t feel his legs made Bagheera wonder if he would even have time to heal. Between the burning sun, dehydration, and the ever present hyena packs, his chances seemed poor.

The wavering state of his consciousness wasn’t a good sign either. He felt feverish, a sure sign his regeneration was now over-taxed.

Bagheera clenched his eyes shut as the sky began to spin above him. Better to die with my wits still about me, not in a fever dream

He couldn’t keep his eyes shut. They would not stay. Even the simplest bodily functions betray me.

“You seem awfully eager to give up.” The voice sounds distorted, but feminine. “I thought you were stronger that that, Lefu.”

Who’s there? He tried to speak the words, but his mouth would not follow through with his mind’s command.

“You don’t even remember your own name, Lefu. Why would you think to know me?”

It wasn’t long ago I would have gutted you for less than this.

Laughter. “Now, now, my dear Lefu. You were named well. Death and misfortune, indeed. You have been subjected to tortures far past any a man should endure. I don’t blame you for wanting to keep them blocked.”

Can you hear my thoughts?

The response came directly in to his head. “Of course I can. This wouldn’t be much of a conversation otherwise.”

Who are you?

A young black woman walked in to his hazy vision. She wore only a wrap around her torso. Her features were lean and strong. She looked to him like some vision of an African goddess.

She laughed. “A goddess? I think not. But you may think of me as Veldt until you remember otherwise.”

She looked him up and down. “In order for your body to heal, the mind must be set right as well. It is time for you to find your soul and unlock it from its confinement.”

Bagheera’s vision wavered. The world became a wash of red, blue, and gold.

“Godspeed, Lefu. Godspeed—”

Veldt and the world faded away and Bagheera floated in to nothingness.

*****

Athena sat down at the desk of her office with a sigh. Only a few weeks in and I’ve made a mess of things. Devil Boy, Thief, Air Raid, Beauty. All gone. It took Wave a decade to put Epsilon together and it took me seventeen days to tear it apart.

Angus Miller, a rail thin fur-covered final year that liked to call himself Cheetangus, zipped to the door at speeds faster than the eye.

“Yes, Angus, what is it?”

The minotaur-like seventeen-year old shuffled his feet. At his speed, the action made a low hum. “Mail’s here, ma’am. Got one addressed right to you.” Angus streaked forward and left the mail on the desk and then back to his starting point in less than a second.

“Thank you, Angus, but since when have you been in charge of mail delivery?”

“Oh, I’m not, Ms. Athena. But I just ordered the new Galen the Great game and hoped it had come today. But it didn’t so instead I decided I would bring everybody their mail and that included you so—”

“That’s quite enough, Angus. Thank you. I’m sure you have studies to return to.”

“No, not really, I—”

“Angus, please.”

“Sorry, ma’am. I’ll get out of your hair.” A moment later only a soft breeze even indicated the young epsilon was ever there.

Athena looked at the elegantly designed envelope. She couldn’t remember the last time she even received a letter; her life revolved around the school. Sure she got the regular bills and the like, not to mention a ton of Wave’s mail, but never anything addressed to Calista Chaykin. Definitely nothing like this.

She carefully broke the pressed seal and opened the envelope. Inside, she found an equally beautiful piece of water-colored stationery.

It was an invitation.

Ms. Calista Chaykin,
 You are cordially invited to the New York branch of the Order of Nephthys. The Order takes note of your recent accomplishments and plans a celebration of achievement and initiation.
 Please RSVP for travel scheduling.

Yours,
Blaire Dresden
High Celebrant

How much help could such an organization be to the school? We’re already floating in bills, that money could—

Angus charged back in to the room and stopped just short of the desk. He was breathing heavily, obviously winded.

“Angus, what’s the meaning of this?”

Angus eyes went wide and he dropped forward on to the desk. She could see the bloody bullet wounds that covered his back.

She looked up just as a cyber-soldier in the hall raised his rifle and fired. Athena threw up a shield, but it was too late, she was going to die here—

She blinked repeatedly to make sure her vision hadn’t betrayed her.

Angus and the soldier were gone. Like they never were there at all. Athena rubbed her throbbing head and started out in to the hallway, straight for med lab one.

*****

The village burned around him, but Bagheera paid it no heed. His eyes were firmly planted on a young woman in the midst of the inferno.

Her skin was darker even than his own and the blood dried against it made it that much darker. She wore nothing but a small cloth around her head and the beads braided in to her shoulder-length hair. Her attention rested solely on the young boy clutched in her lap.

“Lefu. Lefu, my son,” she said in an African dialect Bagheera did not know he knew. The boy’s eyes stared blankly in to the fires and he shivered despite the heat. He couldn’t be more than six, Bagheera thought. Who would expect him to survive this chaos unharmed?

“My Lefu, you must awaken. We must leave or it will all be for naught.” She tried her best to drag the unresponsive boy upright. Her own blood loss proved too great though and the added weight threatened to throw her off balance.

Bagheera wanted to go to her and help them but found himself unable to even blink. He realized he couldn’t feel his physical form at all. Have I become nothing more than a disembodied soul, forced to watch a tragedy but do nothing?

A squadron of soldiers dressed in a variety of uniforms that made them look like an ad for Military Uniforms of the World emerged from the thick smoke.

“We’ve found them,” the man in the lead, speaking in Swahili, said in to a walkie talkie. “Moving in now.” The militia men raised their assault rifles to fire.

A moment ago she seemed ready to collapse, but now the woman leapt in to action. She dove towards the man in the lead, and her hair seemed to lengthen and thicken as she moved.

The men opened fire, but she threw her head forward. Her hair, now several feet in length, coiled around at blinding speed, and the beads throughout it were now deadly spikes. Strands of hair shot out and snatched dozens of bullets from the air, but eight rifles at full automatic were too much for the woman’s metahuman powers. Every few shots cut through her living hair and buried in to her arms, legs, and torso.

She dropped down to her hands and knees, but her hair still madly twisted and turned above her. The soldiers calmly watched her bleed out in to the dirt.

“Stupid cow,” the team’s leader said. “We care nothing for your used up genes. Only the boy is important.”

She looked back to her son. “Lefu. You must get up and run. Please, my child.”

The soldier brought his boot down across the woman’s forehead. Her hair sliced in to the sole but once her head dropped in to the dirt, neither she nor her hair moved again.

He walked over to the boy who still shivered on the ground a few feet away. The soldier leaned in to the child and smiled. He grabbed the boy by the jaw and forced the boy’s blank eyes to look at him. “You’re not so tough, are you? The Doctor will have a field day with you.”

The boy’s fist suddenly clenched. As they unclenched, five steel-hard claws protruded from his fingertips. Five very familiar claws, Bagheera realized.

The boy swiped the soldier’s face from his fore head, through his eye, and down to his right cheek. Blood flowed freely from the wound as the man’s hand moved to cover his wounded eye.

The other soldiers were on Lefu in a minute, and Bagheera could only watch helpless as they wrestled the boy down and locked shackles around his hands and legs.

Bagheera could do nothing but watch as they started to drag him away. “Wait,” their wounded leader said. He turned to look at the boy’s naked mother. With his free hand, he tugged open his breeches. “Leave the boy to watch.”

Bagheera could do nothing as the boy watched the rape of his mother. As each soldier took his turn. No, not just the boy’s mother, he reminded himself. My mother. When they were finished they lifted her body and drug it towards the fire.

After an eternity, the scene before him faded in to blinding red light.

“They need you, Bagheera.”

His agony was broken by the sound of the voice. A voice he knew. “Katie? Mindset?”

Red faded in to black and out of the darkness walked Katie Jurgens. She didn’t look like the woman he had killed two weeks earlier. No, this was Katie as he loved her, the blue-skinned beauty who stole his heart. Stole it, but never gave back to it.

“You can’t be here, Katie. I killed you. You were a monster. I-I had to.”

Katie rested a soft blue hand on Bagheera’s cheek. He could feel the warmth of her skin against his own suddenly present flesh.

“You set me free, Bagheera. Mindwarp took my body, corrupted my mind, but you kept its influence from destroying my soul. For that, I will always be with you.”

“But why are you here now? Is this it? The last hurrah for the ol’ black cat?”

Katie smiled and Bagheera’s soul lifted to see that grin again. “You have many more years ahead of you, my friend. And despite all the misery of your life so far, the loss of your mother and village, the horrors Project Eshu committed upon you and made you commit, even the destruction I caused as Mindwarp, you have much more to face in the days ahead. Epsilon’s greatest threat looms in its future.”

“But the Project—”

“The Project was the past, Bagheera. Your life as Lefu was the past. Your family needs you, Bagheera.”

“My family is dead! I watched my mother raped than burned alive by the Project’s thugs.”

“Epsilon is your family now. You know it in your hear. Go back to them. Save them before it is too late.”

The light began to fade again and Katie with it.

“Please, Katie, don’t leave me again.”

“I’m always with you, Bagheera.”

And she was gone. Bagheera was alone in the darkness.

*****

Dozens of students had now reported visitations and images in the hall, from tanks to cyber-soldiers to dead classmates to entire military squadrons on to the Brethren, Negate, and even Wave.

Athena was at her wit’s end. Psalm could tell her nothing about the visitations, only to state many sounded like her own. Athena found her only clue was the strange comatose state in which Bobbi Kwok had fallen.

Flint couldn’t find anything medically wrong with the young telepath, so it was time to find some outside help.

She lifted the phone receiver and dialed in a Federation number. On the second ring, a chipper young secretary answered.

“Get me Phantasy please.”

*****

The hyenas followed the pack leader as he sniffed at their strange prey. Rarely did a man travel this far in to the savannah. But food was food, whatever shape it took.

The dead man’s hands shot up around the nape of their leader’s neck. Claws stranger than steel drew blood and made the hyena laugh and whimper in pain. His pack backed away, unsure of how to proceed.

Bagheera threw the injured hyena away. The pack leader scurried off, and the other hyenas quickly followed. Bagheera pulled himself upright. His skin was still blistered, and the blisters started to bleed as he walked, but he could feel it slowly begin to heal.

It didn’t matter. He had several days walk ahead of him and he needed to move. It was time to go home.




Epsilon, Athena, Bagheera, Flint, Beauty, Air Raid, Thief, Devil Boy, Rubicon, and all related characters, and Metahuman Press are © and ™ 2005-2007 Nick Ahlhelm.