Standing blocking our way, with a hand on the door handle, stood a man. He was completely dressed in military garb. The green and blacks of his camouflaged uniform standing in contrast with his pale skin.
The man eyed the room with a cold smile. There was a greenish mist slowly leaking from his form, almost imperceptible against the light of the morning entering from behind him. I only noticed it as I was frantically searching for what his powers could be.
“I had to scare some poor civilians to get here fast, but it was well worth it.” He spread his arms gesturing to everyone in the room. “I got to make you all such a great surprise. And I’m not about to let it go to waste.”
He inclined forward toward us his arms staying wide at his sides. He opened his mouth widely and sucked a turquoise smoke out of everyone, shocking us even more. It quickly gathered at his mouth as he inhaled straightening his back.
LED didn't wait for whatever the result was. He activated a shining circle on his forehead and tackled the guy in an unnaturally fast move. The attack launching the two outside.
I activated my matrix pulling on the level of enhancement I could give myself. Payback Spyglass and Spotlight took out their guns. The woman on the room doing the same. David backed away a bit together with Paul.
“Don't go away. Our exit is through them.” Payback solidly told the two that were backing off.
“I'll be going first.” I told them. My team nodded back at me.
I ran through the door. Encountering LED getting up from tackling the guy. Now a turquoise mist was involving his form, and much more strongly than before. His powers probably had a timer then. Whatever its effects were.
I quickly saw that there was a woman with him, also in military garb. She was raising a hand in LEDs direction.
“LED out of the way.” I yelled continuing barreling straight to their position.
LED jumped to the side just as the woman flicked her fingers. Earth exploding from the ground where he just had been. Narrowly missing the other soldier.
It seemed to be some kind of missile of energy. The woman tsked in annoyance. The military guy quickly got up looking to the woman.
“Woo that could’ve hit me, Julie.” He said in an even voice.
“You know very well my aim isn't that bad, Robert.” She said derisively.
At this point the others came out the door. LED got back up taking out his pistol from the holster at his waist. He pointed the gun towards the guy.
“Don’t do it” Spyglass said. Her eyes glinting with internal light.
LED paused. Keeping the gun trained on the guy. Spyglass continued. “That’s Robert Sulphal. He can eat emotions. Surprise gives him a rebound power.”
Robert made a fake surprised expression putting a hand on his chest.
“Back there is his cousin, Julie Sulphal. She can enhance the force of her movements.”
Julie's expression of anoyance got even worse. Both of them looked awfully young; 25 at most.
Spyglass ducked quickly as Julie flicked her hand in her direction the force punching at the television in the room behind her, sending it crashing against the wall.
“Aw, that was new.” Paul weakly lamented seeing the TV falling to the floor.
The now named Robert smiled back at LED completely unconcerned.
“You get him Matrix.” LED said finally, making a gesture to the others in front of the door. Payback commanded them to fan out to get better lines of fire.
LED pointed his gun to the woman but she was already flicking her finger toward him, LED aborted to jump out of the way evading the hit.
Following what LED told me I went towards Robert. Quickly stomping in his direction and aiming a punch to his face. He made a bummed face. “Such a shame I like it much more when they just shoot.”
The turquoise shroud around him seemed to snap to involve my hand, seeming to be consumed. And the force I was going for lurched me back. I fell on my ass ingloriously.
I licked my lips getting up. “Force inversion, of course it also works on punches.” I mumbled to myself.
“We should focus on getting away. Distract them.” LED commanded while he evaded Julie's force missiles.
I frowned. That order was very vague, as we had spotlight on the team. But I guess that was the point. I resumed my assault on Robert, focusing on my matrix. I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.
As the turquoise mist had acted on me, I got a good feeling for it. It could change phenomena. in this case the force I was putting on the attack. Launching me to the other side.
I repeated my punch, and the mist came to me again. It somehow was the surprise we all had felt; he ate the thing up and somehow transformed it into this mist. Semms like an interesting ability. I'd need to fight with him more to get how he did it.
The mist tried to lurch my attack and I planted my feet on the ground, quickly pulling my arm backwards, my mutations adding me with changing my movements so quickly.
The result was my arm practically being sucked towards him as it accelerated towards his chest. The fist got him and he was thrown coughing out his breath.
I took stock of the situation Julie was creating huge waves of energy as she swung her arms around. deflecting the bullets and skewing the aim of everyone. doing so quickly enough that she hadn't been hit yet. They were making their way slowly closer to the cars.
They were now more or less at the middle point. I ran to get closer to them even as the mist guy got to his feet. This time I went towards Julie, hoping to distract her so the other could get a shot in.
I rushed against the force. being thrown back each time. The force on the waves were much less destructive than the flick. Something I attributed to the focus.
The force wasn’t directly her power. This would be easier if it was a projected member or something.
That way my Matrix could interact directly with it, but she was enhancing the kinetic energy of her movements. And to a ridiculous degree.
Spotlight and Spyglass were almost at the car, scouting David towards it. Payback was behind shooting at the woman, his aim was the best, and Julie concentrated on disrupting him first before deflecting LED.
Moving much more carefully was the couple from before. Still a quarter of the way. Behind even myself now.
I was fighting against the wind when LED yelled at me: "Matrix what are you doing? Go help them." I turned to see, but it was too late.
Robert had arrived at them first, and was wearing his creepy emotionless smile holding a gun to Paul's head.
The pale soldier laughed as he sucked a green smoke from the terrorized revolutionist. I started running in their direction. Robert raised his eyes to me.
And he simply pulled the trigger. Paul's brain matter exploding out of his head to the sharp yell of the woman I didn't even get the name of. Robert’s smile widened as he laughed at the womans face. He raised a hand towards her and sucked out a pink smoke, and then proceeding to brutally kick her aside.
It was just a couple of steps to get to him, but he raised his hand to me and the pink mist gathered creating a roiling ball of fire. It lurched in my direction as I widened my eyes running headfirst into the burst of fire.
I came out of it stumbling but fine, a new skin covering my form.
“Waa, look at that! So fearful.” Robert said, making some trembling motions.
I concentrated in the necessity of fighting, and I went to punch him again. Managing to keep my form lean and flexible. He dodged most of my attacks, while moving unnaturally fast and with a flexibility that didn't make sense for a normal human body. The green mist flowing over his form was probably the cause.
He didn’t just evade though, as he shot at me a couple of times before realizing it was fruitless. opting to just punching and throwing fireballs at me. Soon enough though he had drained himself of all the mist.
I smiled at him through the thick armor my skin had become.
He sighed “You're one of those cockroaches aren't you.” He gave me another dead eyed smile then. “It's good though. it's not every day that I get to taste this.”
Robert inhaled again pulling out of me a yellowish-green smoke. It billowed towards his mouth.
He snapped it shut. Smiling at me as his form grew. muscles overflowing as the mist entered his body. A huge fist shot into my head, rattling it. I felt my brain shook, and two other punches followed.
I was forced to step back as my face got pummeled. But the adaptation was working as always and by the third punch I was okay. Crossing my arms in a block to better wait out it all.
He stopped punching me, seeing that I was just taking it effortlessly now. “That’s good and all but let’s see how you deal with this.”
He grabbed at my shirt pulling me closer, and I saw the world spin around me. I was in the ground immediately, my eyes widened as I realized what he was going for.
Before I could think my arm was locked into a leg lock. He put force into it immediately and my matrix spun quickly once, but not fast enough. The bone exploded through my skin snapping muscles on its way out. I let out a muffled cry at the pain of having my arm violently bent the wrong way.
I took a breath and urged my mutation. it reformed everything my joints now capable of bending the other way.
Well, that was a way of solving this problem. I used the inverse joint to grab at him, digging my nails into his engorged flesh.
By now, he was already starting to lose some of his size. The transformation leaving him slowly as wisps of smoke as I increasingly got the upper hand.
Disentangling from him in a heap of arms and legs, I finally got to my feet. and took a step back from him.
“I really thought I had you in that one.” He lamented in mock outrage. His face not even moving this time.
It seemed he acted on every interaction he had. what weird mannerism, but it was starting to grind my gears as well. Looking if everyone was all right, I saw LED gesturing to me to come. Everyone else was at the cars and Spotlight had his eyes closed in concentration.
I looked back at Robert. I hadn't really figured anything about his powers. The fireball contained a sensation of rage, so he was converting emotions into enhancements. That could be really good to my powers, possibly letting me use some enhancements without engaging in fights.
“I hope to fight you again someday.” I smiled at him. He tilted his head in confusion but then just holstered his gun, while looking down at the brains in the floor and shaking in disgust.
“Every fucking time Robert! The civilians aren’t just toys.” Julie yelled at Robert pointing at him with a tired and furious expression on her face.
"Come on they were clearly insurgents." He said shrugging.
I just went to the car, feeling somewhat numb about it all. Trying not to think about where the blood on me had come from, aside from what was mine.
I entered the blue car. Using the car at all felt really morbid, but we had a new member in David so everyone didn’t fit just in one car. Payback took the driving wheel with a grim look on his face. I took the passenger seat as Spotlight lay sprawled in the back seat.
The others were in our original car, and Payback followed after LED. He driving us through the now lively street bubbling with movement and energy in the mid-morning. A complete contrast to the mood in the car.
Not even twenty minutes later I felt something in my core.
My matrix awoke alerted. Something had glued itself to my power. I investigated it, and noticed it was something similar to Davids power. I wondered if he had somehow activated it again. But, looking closely, it gave a different feel and had a different purpose. Also, it was attached to my power core and not on my mind.
And most importantly; it had a tether that led me to another power. I could reach to it easily even if it clearly was from someone that was far away. The tether connected our powers.
Again, like with Davids power, I felt I could just yank it off. but this was an impossibly lucky opportunity. Feeling the other power so close, I brushed at it with my matrix, and feelt no reaction.
If I could copy this tethering ability, I would be able to copy much more powers and in much more ways. I could be the direct interactor.
Realizing that I investigated the power, and after a brief analysis found out whose it was; the tracker! My back shot straight at the realization.
Should I just snap him off? I will gain so much from this though, if I just let it on long enough. Maybe the other two would even come again. with the added ability from this tracker, I could learn from Roberts or even Julies powers. The greed felt heavy over me, but I couldn’t pass up the perfect chance.
I wouldn’t just leave it at that though I turned to Payback.
"We have a tracker on us; I can feel it on my power.”
“Shit.” he banged the steering wheel a frown now on his face. He took his phone out giving it to me. “Dial LED, he’ll know what to do.”
I did as he said. No one suspected or asked about if I could sever the connection. I guess they just thought that if I could I would've said so. I felt guilt, but I was already learning how to tether my power to others; it seemed the tracker used a part of who he wanted to track.
The cellphone biped and I looked over what LED had said to my message. “He said we should wait it out, if they’re going to ambush us, we should lay in wait and counter ambush them.”
Payback only nodded.
“LED said he knows of a good spot. We can wait there. it's not far.”
“Okay.” Payback said curtly. Continuing to follow the white car, and I sat there; a mixture of giddiness at gaining so much, and guilt by not disclosing I could sever the connection. But again, he could have a track on any of the others, so would it really matter if I undid the connection?
While learning how to tether powers by creating a bridge with an example of what I thought meant anyone's DNA, I closed my eyes. Immersing myself into my matrix. The car speeding us away to the place of the ambush.
