෴Midnight෴

A black suited figure faced off against a trio of alternatively shiny and transparent glassy creatures. They faced each other on the steep mountainside. The oddly insectile serpentine creatures writhed together in a sort of sinuous ecstasy in the bright sunlight, sending thousands of brilliant reflections scattering around them. The constant blinding flashes made it hard to keep a close eye on them.

The figure’s normally black glossy armor was marred by a patina of impact craters and fine scratches. The armor’s battered surface looked like it had more in common with a pockmarked lunar landscape than its normal form fitting seamless appearance. Two solid pseudopods of black metal extended from either side of his torso like auxiliary arms. The end of one metallic tentacle was a blocky fusion of hammer with a spear tip on top, the other a solid flat surface somewhere between an anvil and a shield. Six thin shafts of black metal protruded like legs at an angle from his lower body, stabbing into the snow and ice below like built in pitons on the steep slope. From each foot, a single thicker stabilizing blade penetrated deep into the treacherous frozen mountainside.

“I know I saw four more of you fuckers, so let's get to it already.” he snarled inside the suit.

Midnight scanned the area in front of him before glancing to the sides. Recent experience had shown him that losing sight of these things was just asking for them to catch him from behind again. With that thought, he skittered in a lateral strafing circular motion around the three intertwined shimmery creatures, each stiff metal support beam suddenly coming to life like eight long metal spider legs. The movement was a fast compound motion that combined the speed of a spider with the smooth sinuous motion of an octopus on the hunt.

On the other side of the creatures, he could see the one he’d lost track of earlier land hard, face first, its razor sharp crystalline jaws sparking on the bare mountainside, where he’d just been. One of them tried to lure him in with a false start. He didn’t take the bait until it came too close. In a black blur, the hammer and anvil met with a crash like a shattering wine flute, with hundreds of the creature’s component organisms crushed between.

“One down, still three to go.” he muttered to himself.

The would-be ambusher dug itself out of the snow and joined the other two in the whirling dervish of blades and bright lights. The three of them suddenly separated and circled the black armored man.

“Come on you glassholes. I’ve got places to be!” he shouted inside the armor.

A few moments of intense combat later, he was surrounded by the shattered remains of the last three of what he’d dubbed the glassholes. He sagged in the armor, allowing it to hold him up on the steep slope. Panting, he looked down the hill, past the dozens of other shattered glassholes, toward the optical transgression that was the anomaly event horizon.

A few hours later, he’d finished disposing of the pile of alien bodies. He lay down on the side of the mountain and watched the area around the anomaly in the valley below while he rested.

The anomaly seemed to twist and shimmer in his view. He knew better than to try looking at it directly for too long.

A while later he engaged the suit’s onboard comms suite. “Norns. Events are accelerating out here. I’ve just finished temporarily setting back the growth of a portal we didn’t know about in—” He looked at his arm as metal flowed away to reveal a cracked screen displaying a rainbow of graphical artifacts. He tapped at it and then glanced around at the mountains. “GPS is fucked till I can grab a new one. Not that I have any on hand. I’m honestly not sure what country I’m in at this point. I’m north of Makalu, still pretty far south of Everest, but I think I see it in the distance. More bad news, the incursion looks bigger than when I first saw it, just since yesterday. Anyway, I’m either in Nepal or Tibet. Can't get coordinates, but I can find the spot again. Once I’m rested up, I’ll renew my suit mass and get back to work. Mental note, I’ve got to start rebuil—.” He trailed off, squinting at the sky.

Three vapor trails cutting across the sky headed west above him caught his eye. “What the hell is that?! Standby.”

He let out a tired groan as he retracted and reshaped his armor into its aerodynamic flight setting. The once again glossy black form leapt soundlessly into the sky.

Inside the armor it was far from soundless. The roar of the thin high altitude air around the aerodynamic shape was nearly deafening as it conducted straight through the dense metal.

“If you can still hear me over the noise, there are three cruise missiles in the air. They’re travelling westward. The only real target in this direction is—ah shit.”

He got into range of the one trailing the others and latched onto it with a metal tentacle. The change in shape and added chaos of the missile attempting to course correct sent them both tumbling out of control in the air and then hurtling for the ground.

He twisted his head and body around frantically trying to get his bearing. Precious seconds later he arrested his fall a just before impacting the side of a mountain. The missile, locked in his grip, continued to attempt to correct its course as its rocket booster burned.

“You want to go fast? Let’s go fast!” he said through gritted teeth.

The pair shot straight up. Within seconds the missile and his armor began to glow, burning off the outer layers of their respective alloy noses. The roaring sound in the suit rose in pitch, then blessed silence as he left the atmosphere. A few seconds later he was a few thousand kilometers up from where he’d been. With a roll of the hips, he hurled the missile further out of Earth’s gravity well on the end of his metal limb.

Returning to where he’d just been took several seconds. Figuring out where exactly that was, from space, without his high tech guidance, consumed more precious time. He’d just caught sight of the missiles when they detonated over the residential and refugee area. The area was instantly blanketed by a sickly green vapor.

He watched for several moments as innocent civilians tried to escape the terrible fate he’d failed to save them from.

Shaking his head, he looked back the way the missiles had come. Already the trails of vapor and smoke were fading. His jaw clenched as he launched himself that way.

For once he didn’t even notice the roaring wind thundering in his ears as he followed the fading booster trails back toward their source.

෴Raz෴

෴Hex෴

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

[New status: Dislocation ]

[Consciousness “Hex” present.]

[Target Energy: 1/50]

“H—urk!” Raz barely managed to twist and bend over in time to avoid vomiting in Hex’s face. The liquid hit the ground, splashing off the rough asphalt surface onto his toes and ankles. He couldn’t focus on anything without feeling nauseous. Every breath was a fresh sickening motion. He staggered back against something cold and hard. Warm skin pressed against his chest, arms wrapped around his midsection.

My toes!? “Why am I naked?” He blinked and tried to focus on her. “Why are you naked?!”

Hex looked at him with a wide, unfocused gaze. “Is ‘scuz muh canna brng.” Her eyes rolled back and she went limp. Raz barely managed to grab her in time to keep her from falling into his vomit. The movement allowed his gauntlets to slip out from between them and the ground. He wasn’t optimistic about what they’d landed in.

[Consciousness “Hex” offline.]

[Target Energy: 1/50]

The intense vertigo started to recede. As it did, the overall impact of the situation and his surroundings started to intrude on his awareness. The warm pitted asphalt under his bare feet, the afternoon light casting bright lights and long dark shadows along the side of the road. The sound of voices calling out terse orders. A hissing sound like water spraying through sprinklers.

He shook himself.

Bee, what's that status? Everything feels wrong.

[Dislocation Effect estimated to clear within thirty seconds.]

Not what I asked!

Raz twisted around, trying to keep his grip on Hex while he figured out where they were. With a relieved sigh he realized the cold metal he was leaning against was Hex’s van ‘Dolly’.

“Hope you left it unlocked.” he muttered under his breath.

She had. He struggled to get the door open without dropping her or stepping back into the vomit pooling in the rain gutter. Once the door was open he set her into the back of the minivan as gently as he could, wincing when her ankle smacked the side of the door with a dull thunk. She didn’t react, laying there insensate and boneless. Raz looked around for a blanket, or spare clothing to cover her up with.

“Unconscious naked woman in the back of a van, at least there’s nothing weird or suspicious about that.”

Raz gingerly picked up the slimy gauntlets and put them in the back of the van, as far from Hex as he could.

The hissing sound like spraying water grew louder. He peeked over the van toward the facility. The vehicles didn’t have any markings on them, but the way the men moved said former military.

Trucks that looked like an odd combination of a fuel tanker and a fire truck were drenching the building in some kind of shimmering gelatinous fluid.

Raz considered walking around to the driver side door, but that seemed way too exposed. He clambered through the side door, over Hex, awkwardly maneuvering into the driver's seat.

Keys in the ignition? I know I didn’t leave it like that.

[Perhaps this isn’t the time to question good fortune.]

As Raz pondered that and watched the crew working on covering the building in that liquid, the twisted form of Hutch burst through the doors into the parking lot.

Through the slightly opened van windows he could hear someone shout out “Light it up!”

Almost as one, a dozen shooters launched brilliant silver-white flares at the monstrosity. Most of them missed. When they hit the gel, Raz realized that the flares weren't the weapons, they were just the ignitors.

The fire engulfed the shapeshifter, and then the building and parking lot. One of the trucks kept spraying it out, leaving a heavy perimeter of fire between Hutch and the team. The monstrous shifter ran back and forth, crashing into the walls of the facility twice as it staggered around, clearly blinded by the intense flames. A few seconds later it fell. Instantly a smaller humanoid form leaped out of the large twisted shape. It took several running paces before the flames brought it down. It twitched a few more times on the ground and then went still.

The brilliant tongues of flames reached high into the afternoon sky. The rushing of air created a low moaning sound in the van. Raz watched in fascination as the flames began to consume the building. The stink of burning asphalt filled the air as the initial low pressure shock evened out.

We were just in there!

He shivered uncontrollably for a moment. Only after he gripped the steering wheel hard, and closed his eyes did he manage to get calmed down.

He watched the working crew. As soon as he felt that no one was looking, Raz started the van and drove away, his eyes frequently darting to the rearview mirror until they turned a few corners and he could relax.

On the way out of the south end of town, he spotted a thrift store donation box that was overflowing with clothing bags.

He was still digging through the bags when a police cruiser pulled up at the corner next to them. The officer in the car looked down at his phone and was just about to turn his head toward the naked man rummaging through the clothing donations when Raz spotted him.

Oh shit. This isn’t a good look. Just keep looking straight ahead.

[Energy: 9/?]

[If you run out of energy with Overload you’re going to die!]

The officer aborted the side glance and focused on the road in front of him.

I wasn’t trying to use energy!

A few minutes later he pulled away from the donation bin with enough clothes to cover them up in ill-fitting horribly mismatched outfits. When he stopped in another secluded parking lot to dress himself and her, she stirred and mumbled incoherently at him.

[Consciousness “Hex” online.]

[Target Energy: 2/50]

“Uh n— muh —ocean” she babbled as he carefully dressed her without letting her flop around too much. Her limp arm thumped down on his leg where the bandage had been. It looked like an angry red area of bruised and injured flesh now. He braced himself for the pain of her hand hitting the injury, but was surprised that the pain didn’t really come. A dull ache like an old bruise was the worst of it.

[Consciousness “Hex” offline.]

Hey. Weren’t you listing her as a distributed consciousness?

[Earlier I was, because she was.]

Raz looked down at her delicate features with an unexpected rush of emotions.

So that means she…

[Yes.]

For the better part of an hour, he sat there in the back of the van cradling her head and shoulders on his lap as she slept. Only his stomach’s loud complaining and an accompanying message from Bee finally tore him away from her.

[Recovery is proceeding very well.]

[You need high quality food as soon as possible to maintain this healing rate.]

My leg feels a lot better. Almost too much better. What happened?

[True. triage and recovery cannot account for this much healing over this time frame.]

Got a guess?

There was a sense of hesitation before an answer appeared.

[Your injury may have benefitted from the Dislocation effect.]

[Before you ask, I am still attempting to come up with a reasonable breakdown of the Dislocation effect.]

He laid her back down gently, and crawled back into the driver seat. The much-too-small shirt rode up his torso like a crop top.

At least I’m dressed enough to use a drive through now without someone calling the cops.

He stopped and bought a large order of tacos and burritos from a local drive through.

[Consciousness “Hex” online.]

[Target Energy: 3/50]

“Hey sleepyhead. You hungry?”

She nodded, her eyes still closed. “Yeah.”

Once they’d eaten their fill, Hex pointed to her glove box. “Can you hand me my lotion?

Raz pulled out the strange looking bottle and handed it to her. She carefully metered out a small dollop and then handed him back the bottle. She quickly spread the small drop as far onto her arms and thighs as she could.

[Target Energy: 10/50]

By the time she’d finished, she looked up to see Raz rubbing a similar sized blob of the lotion into both of his hands and forearms.

[Alternative datastream detected. Analyze?]

Sure.

“Oh shit!” she muttered in a weak tone. “You’re not supposed to use that!”

He shrugged, “Sorry?, I won’t use it again.” He sniffed his hands. “Unscented, I approve.”

He continued to rub it in until all the lotion had disappeared into his skin.

If she’s not analyzing it herself, what's the point of catalyst in lotion?

[Records imply that unanalyzed topical catalyst is an inefficient, and inelegant, but effective way to increase energy stores.]

That's good! I could use some.

[This method appears to have some significant drawbacks, and is unsafe for those without abilities.]

Hex watched him warily. “No bullshit, you have an ability, right? I need to know for real.”

He nodded.

She sagged back against the seat cushion. “Oh thank god. I was pretty sure, but if you use that lotion and you don’t have one, I’ve heard really bad things can happen. Make sure you don't use any more of that for at least a day!”

She pointed her index finger at him. “Later we need to talk about your ability and why you felt the need to keep it secret.”

[Low density, inert datastream fragments only.]

Why isn’t my energy going up then? How much capacity is it worth?

His hands and arms began to feel as though they were burning from the inside.

Oh shit, this really hurts! Make it stop!

[Initiate purge?]

Ye—Is there any way we can absorb it extra slow?

Bee didn’t answer, his thinking indicated by a barely noticeable hum in the back of Raz’s head.

The burning sensation began to subside.

Try to warn me if it's going to get bad like that again.

Raz pulled out of the parking lot onto the road.

“So, did you at least grab a feel?” she interrupted his reverie.

“What do you mean? He looked at her in the rearview.

She lifted the loose shirt and flashed him. “You know what I mean. We’re in clothes that look like you raided a middle school in the 90s.”

He chuckled. “Well, sort of.”

“So what I’m saying is, you put me in a ‘New Kids on the Block’ tshirt. You’d better have at least groped me a little if you’re going to do something like that.” She quipped as she clambered into the passenger seat.

[Target Energy: 20/50]

[This datastream material is unsuitable for significant analysis.]

[It is being absorbed for needed energy.]

[I have artificially slowed down the absorption to avoid further trauma.

We need to talk about that. I still feel like I’ve got a sunburn inside me.

He waited until they reached the next red light to turn and look at her. “Oh, I hate to say it, but those letters didn’t mean anything to me.”

“Yeah right.” she retorted.

He raised an eyebrow at her with a smirk. “All I’m hearing is that someone has an awkward teenybopper past, and it probably isn’t me.”

She looked away as she blushed and bit her lip. Raz wished he didn’t find that look so alluring.

“I guess that would explain why you’re wearing a FUBU shirt that looks more like it would fit me than you.”

He kept his focus on the traffic around them and nodded. “Yeah, I had plenty of options for you. I’m wearing the biggest stuff I could find, and it’s still pretty snug.”

She reached back and put on her seatbelt before facing him again. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her looking him over. She licked her lips. “I don’t know, I think it’s a good look. Those plaid shorts need to go, but I’m liking the skin tight shirt look on you.”

He suppressed a smile and shrugged. “Well, they say everyone looks better in black. But while we’re on the subject, explain it like I’m five, what happened back there?

“Like you’re five? Well, ok. When a boy and a girl like each other very much, sometimes when they’re old enough, they start to play some special gam—”

“You know what I mean.” Raz cut her off. “I’m not judging. Clearly you saved my bacon. Just help me understand what’s going on here.”

[Distributed consciousness “Hex” present. 1/? nodes.]

[Energy per node: 5/50]

Raz glanced over at her. “I’ll go first. I know you took a big risk by collapsing down to one aspect to get me out. And I know you just made a new aspect somewhere else.”

She looked at him with wide eyes before sitting back and relaxing. “What makes you think I would do that? If I ever drop to one aspect, I can get killed as easy as anyone else. Going into a place like that while down to just one aspect?” She shook her head emphatically. “That’s a solid no. I’ll leave that to crazy people like you.”

Raz laughed, his tone rueful. “I’m trying to trust you, and telling you what I know. Denial isn’t going to help us. I’m letting it slide though. I think you did go down to one aspect, and I think you did it to save your bullheaded boyfriend, who appreciates it.”

Raz eased off the accelerator to open up a space ahead of them for the car that was about to swerve into their lane. They drove in silence for several minutes.

Hex looked and sniffed the air. “What smells like puke?”

“Probably the gloves. They got a little messy. I don’t know how you don’t puke every time you pop into places. I’ve never barfed harder in my life. Some got on my gloves.” He gestured behind him with one thumb.

She twisted in the seat and looked at the gauntlets behind him. “What the fuck? How did those get out here?”

“They came with us.”

“That’s not possible!” she shook her head and looked at the gloves again. “Wow. That explains a lot. We’re lucky to be alive, and intact.”

He looked askance at her. “How about a trade. I’ll tell you what I saw happen, especially the stuff while you were out of it, and you give me a little more honesty about what happened back there.”

She sighed heavily. “I swear. I know part of me loves that you never let things go when you’ve latched onto a problem.” She glanced out the window. “And now I know that I don’t love how it feels to be that problem when you’re digging into it.”

He shrugged. “It’s part of the package. For now, why don’t I tell you about what happened while you weren’t there.”

She nodded. “I’d like that.”

“So anyway, after the bomb went off, your aspect there was in bad shape.”

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴