I woke to a humming noise and the feeling of weightlessness. My eyes opened to a brightly-lit white room. I was disoriented, groggy, and for a few seconds I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to be. Then I remembered phasing into the facility and seeing Daytona in front of me and Donna on the ground. My pulse quickened as I realized the worst case scenario had happened. They were waiting for us. I didn’t know where Donna, Brenda, or Jess were or if they were even alive.
I felt panic spinning up inside of me. I needed to find them. They needed me. I needed them. The other readied herself to pounce and I could not let that happen. I focused on my breathing and managed to calm myself and focus on my surroundings. Before I could help anyone I needed to know what state I was in. It wasn’t good. I was floating above a flat, circle shaped, metal platform. The floor, ceiling, and three walls were plain white. The fourth wall was glass. On the other side stood Morden and Daytona. Morden pressed an intercom button on the wall.
“I’ve been following your adventures since Syria. Do you know that you gripped that tank so hard impressions of your hands were indented into the armor? Fantastic stuff. I have to say, I’m a huge fan of that rage monster thing you become. I would really love to include you in our projects, but your abilities just won’t allow for the necessary control. It’s too bad. And since we can’t kill you, you’re just going to have to get used to being suspended in there until we can figure out something better.”
He let go of the button and walked away. Daytona pressed the back of her hand against the glass and leaned in closer. Her fist was closed and she stared right into my eyes. I wondered what she was doing until she presented her middle finger. She said something that I couldn’t hear but by the movement of her lips I could understand. The blonde said “Fuck you” and backed away from the glass. She turned around and walked away, still holding up her hand and middle finger until she was out of sight. The petty gesture was all she had to offer. It bothered Daytona to no end that she could never hurt me. Not physically, anyway.
So there I was. Hanging in midair. I tried to free myself but hours of struggle led me nowhere. I was flailing my arms and legs, trying something, anything to get me to move. I just made myself spin. Stuck floating off the ground, my strength was useless. There was nothing I could do. I was scared, hopeless, and angry. These were the feelings that had triggered my abilities and birthed the other. And for a moment, I was tempted to give into the building fury. But I just couldn’t let that rage-filled feral side come out. I wouldn’t let myself be trapped in the nightmare ever again. So I had nothing to do but scream in defeat. My frustration and sorrow shrieked again and again. My wails caused the glass wall in front of me to vibrate, distorting my reflection.
The malformed image of myself silenced me. Even when my reflection stabilized I didn’t see a person. I saw a useless thing hung up in a closet to be forgotten. So then I cried. I could not believe this was our fate. My fate. There I hung there in silent despair. Half of my brain still raced to find something, anything, some idea to free myself. The other part was drowning in the sorrow and the realization that I could not help my friends or Leah. Just like I couldn’t help my parents. I felt like I had let them all down. And my other waited patiently in the dark of my mind.
I was at my lowest when a shadowy apparition appeared in front of me. It was not quite solid, but I could definitely make out the shape of a woman. She gave me a few seconds to figure out who was standing in front of me and then chose to come into focus. She reached out and pushed her hand into my head. I felt a blazing hot pain spear through my brain and I heard her voice.
“Silly girl. Don’t you know anything about your power?” asked Elizabeth.
The tone was almost mocking. Well actually, it was very much mocking. I wanted to scream but the pain was paralyzing.
“Sweetie, you need to think outside the box. Your body evolves to respond to threats,” she told me.
I was confused and angry. The pain from the hand in my head didn’t help. I could feel that the Feral was paralyzed too. I knew Elizabeth wanted something from me but I had no idea what it was. I silently looked into her demented eyes. I had nothing. Then she lost her patience.
“Oh my god, for a smart girl you are dumb as rocks. Our powers are polymorphic. Think heavy, dummy,” she said.
She removed her spectral hand from my head. It felt like the neurons in my brain were being torn away. Then I blacked out. I didn’t know how long I was unconscious but when I opened my eyes she was gone. I had the worst headache I would ever have. It’s actually the only headache I can remember having. What was her game? I knew that it had to be her who slowed Jess’s teleport. But now she was helping me? It didn’t make sense. I was at a loss so I focused on questions that maybe I could answer. What did “think heavy” mean? Was she being literal? What did she mean by powers being polymorphic? My mind suddenly flashed to my parent’s death and I began to wonder.
Did I become bulletproof because it was my power or was it because I needed to be invulnerable? Did my strength start the same way? Did I evolve to threats? Before that moment I never thought about it. I also never really tried to exercise my power or push my abilities. I really didn’t know what my limits were. I never needed to. They were just always on and turned up to eleven. I’d always assumed that was all there was to it. And honestly, I was too scared of myself to push my abilities. Elizabeth’s comment forced me to wonder if there was more. I thought back to the biology and genetics studies I’d been doing over the years. Look, just because I was not in school did not mean I should neglect my education. Yes, I’m a nerd. Anyway, I knew I came across the term polymorphic before. Genetically speaking, polymorphism is when two or more traits are present in a gene.
“How was that relevant?” I asked myself.
Then it struck me. No single gene was responsible for a single trait. A trait could be controlled by many genes and could be triggered by environmental factors. Alpha-Wolfe spread genetic material across the entire human chromosome. It replaced genes and altered combinations of genes to give humans enhanced traits. But there was a mutation. Now there was larger and more extreme variety in the expression of those traits. The existence of powers still didn't make sense to me but I had bigger problems to worry about.
It also became clear that secondary traits were necessary for human bodies to handle super powers. I was strong but I would need more than strength to do what I do. I could not simply lift heavy things. My bones would have to handle the weight or else they would have broken. The same was true for my joints. And my skin would be ripped to shreds hitting things as hard as I do. Was that trait primary or secondary? I didn’t need strength to be invulnerable, but I needed to be invulnerable to safely handle enhanced strength. I settled on my invulnerability being a secondary expression of my power to cope with my strength. Maybe.
“Was it possible?” I thought.
Thinking on it further, it sort of made sense. Again, inasmuch as super powers made sense. Brenda could project fire without being burned. Her other elemental abilities didn’t harm her either. Even Daytona had to have other secondary powers. Her body had to withstand the speeds she moved at or she could literally fly apart. I couldn’t even fathom what Donna and Jess could have as secondary traits. Elizabeth also said that my body evolved. So that meant that strong and unbreakable were not the extent of my abilities. I probably couldn’t develop completely new abilities, but maybe I could find new things within the scope of what I already had.
Thinking on my first challenge in saving the others, I realized that I couldn’t get free of this anti-gravity device because it wasn’t actually hurting me. There was no obvious threat for me to evolve a defense against. It was passive, just holding me in the air. Through my dulling headache, I concentrated on trying to sense my own body, how it felt, and what it felt. I did not feel pain because nothing could hurt me. Non-corporeal hands in my head being an exception, apparently. I did have a normal sense of touch. And I could feel heat. Well, I could feel heat up to the level my body would allow without it feeling painful. So I did have all the traditional senses. I could also feel an electrical charge like everyone else. I could be shocked. Not electrocuted, but I could get shocked.
Could I feel more? Then I began to notice something different. I began to feel the electromagnetic field around me. It was different from just having the sensation of floating on the air. It felt tangible like something between floating in water and steam flowing over my body. That is about as well as I can explain it. I also noticed that the dull pulse of my headache corresponded with the pulsing of the field holding me up. As I focused I began to sense more. I could almost feel my skin, muscles, organs, right down to the cells. It was surreal.
“Think heavy,” Elizabeth said.
My body was invulnerable partially because it had a higher density of matter. That didn’t completely explain it, but that was part of it. It also meant that I was heavier than I looked. I’ve always been aware of this. It’s not something I like to advertise. It can be handy in a fight, though. So then I wondered how much control I had over my density. I had to clear my mind and think heavy. I felt a shift in the electromagnetic field. The wavelength frequency increased to compensate. I began to feel more control over my body. I focused more and heard a noise in the floor like metal straining under heavy weight. The field compensated again. Now the amplitude of the EM field was jumping higher. I knew my strength potentially had no limit or at least a really high limit. So my secondary abilities had to be the same. I continued to make myself heavier.
I had my eyes closed but I could tell something was happening. The lights began to flicker in the room and I could feel the pulses of the field getting inconsistent. The system was not designed to handle this much stress. It could not hold me. So I kept up the pressure. The floor made more noises. I kept increasing my density and I continued to hear and feel the strain I was putting on the system. Then the anti-gravity field failed and I crashed down, smashing the device that held me up, and leaving a large dent in the floor. For a moment I just sat there in the new dip I had created, again wondering why Elizabeth helped me. When I stood up a new visitor entered the room. He was young. Maybe eighteen years old at most. I’d never seen him before but I know now that he was an old acquaintance of Brenda.
“Uh, hi,” I said before he grabbed me by my shoulders.
He tried to push me against the wall. The fact that I did not move surprised him. He pushed again, straining. As he kept up his effort I noticed his muscles began to grow under his clothes. He was physically becoming larger. I could feel the increasing force he was using to try and move me. It was impressive. His feet were losing traction so he tried to pick me up but he didn’t have success there either.
“That isn’t going to work. Can we talk about what’s going on?” I asked.
Then he gave up and cocked his arm back for a punch. I didn’t move because I didn’t have to. If I was a normal human, the impact itself would have done a lot of damage. It would have also thrown me back into a wall. It probably would have been instantly fatal. Unfortunately for him, I had not considered the harm he would do to himself by hitting me in my higher density state. The force he used to punch me caused most of the bones in his hand to break. I didn’t move in the slightest. His wrist and forearm also suffered significant fractures. The sound was not pleasant. The pain also made him lose focus, causing him to shrink down to his normal size.
His wail of agony was on par with what he was feeling and I couldn’t risk him attracting attention. I couldn’t think of anything else to do so I knocked him out. Yes, I remembered, almost at the last second, to decrease my density and pull the punch a little. I didn’t want to kill him. One quick punch to his face did it and he collapsed against a wall. I turned to the door Rudy came in through and waited for the next wave of security to come in, but no one showed. There weren't any audible alarms or flashing lights. It was odd. Either security was stupidly lax, or my escape wasn’t a real concern.
Before I could dwell on that further, I remembered what Elizabeth said when she possessed Donna, “I am your maker.”
She implied that she was the source of our gifts. But that didn’t make sense. She received her power at the same time as Donna. But she was a time traveler. Elizabeth could also activate and shut down powers as well as possess a person. That meant that she could physically affect the environment around her. Maybe even at the genetic level. I really had to wonder, did she get powers because she gave herself powers? Did she actually cause the virus mutation? If so, then it meant...
“Bootstrap paradox,” I said aloud.
This series of events had no origin. It was self-creating. Elizabeth created a causal loop ensuring her younger self would become the person behind all of this. She made herself. It was some high level stuff that I can barely wrap my head around even now. My nerd side wanted to dissect the possibility but I didn’t have time for that. The others needed help. I took a step to the door and heard a noise behind me, like something moved. I turned around but my attacker was still on the floor, unconscious. Next to him, an electrical outlet was hanging out of the wall. It looked almost as if something forced it open from inside the wall.
No time, I told myself.162Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkQ8Hys8dKm
But I had to spare a few seconds to check if my assailant was still alive. When I bent down to I saw a tattoo on his neck. It was a letter and numbers, S262. I also noticed a small gray patch of skin behind his ear. There appeared to be a small puncture in the middle of it. When I looked closer, it looked like the gray was spreading along the blood vessels under Rudy’s skin. When I reached to check for a pulse, his eyes flashed open and he grabbed my neck with both of his hands. The good hand was strong but still did nothing to me. And it shocked me that he was trying to use his broken hand. It was like he didn’t feel any pain or didn’t care.
I peeled the fractured hand away from my neck and trapped it under my foot. I pushed my knee into his chest to keep him down and then grabbed his good hand. I noticed there was no pulse in his wrist. I removed the hand from my neck and held it away from me. Then I felt for a pulse on his neck with my free hand and there was nothing. I looked at his expressionless face and I could see the gray creeping into the whites of his eyes. He was dead. I knew that my blow hadn’t been hard enough to kill him. Something else took over his body and ended his life. I wasn’t sure what to do. He kept struggling against me. Then there was a gunshot and a hole appeared on the boy’s forehead. He stopped struggling. From behind me, in the doorway was a voice.
“Rudy might not stay down. We should talk. But not here,” said Morden.162Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHzkDtZ9s6
