xx49.07.17 | 22:14 | Still Thursday | [LIVE]

Testing. Okay. Daniel's getting the teleporter set up. I just changed into my infiltration gear in the fastest time anyone's ever put on a form-fitting suit of phase-compatible stealth armour. It automatically blends—

"Two minutes, Curls."

Two minutes two minutes TWO MINUTES until I go oh it's been way too long since I got to do anything SO excited this is going to be great I'll have Daniel's phase-shifting and at like 80% power for forty-seven minutes that is DEFINITELY enough time to save everyone—

"I'm going to rez you somewhere safe and open, okay? Schematics of the building are in your Opal as well as a map of the island. Once you 'port you'll lose communication with me, there's nothing I can do about that, but I've messaged Mum and Dad—"

"You didn't call them?"

"Couldn't get through, not sure why. It could be they're in a blackout zone, or using anti-monitoring devices."

"Oh."

"Worried you'll need backup?"

"No! Yes! Argh, this stupid honesty curse—I'll probably be fine by myself, I just ... I was kind of hoping Mum and Dad could, y'know, be there to help me. And see me. Being a hero."

"I'll keep trying, don't worry. I've also sent messages to all our allies, if there's anyone in the area they'll try to get to you."

"Okay. Okay, thanks."

"But, I mean ... it's not likely, Curls. You're on your own for this one. Your Opal will automatically upload your live update to any secure local archives, but I won't be able to monitor you—"

"It's fine, I'll be fine. I have your power, right? Unless there's another phase-shifter there they won't even be able to touch me."

"Unless they have weapons attuned to the Seventh Field."

"Well how likely is that?"

"I don't know. I mean that, I genuinely don't know. These supervillains seem pretty smart, and very prepared. And they know we're trying to stop them, and they probably know your ability is mimicry, and they definitely know my ability is phase-shifting—"

"Isn't that two minutes up yet?"

Daniel grins at me.

"Yeah. Any time you're ready, Hero."

I am SO ready.

The teleporter looks so normal, like always. It doesn't even glow, not until Daniel activates it andCAN'T HEAR HER WAIT THIS ISN'T RIGHT HOW DID NO I REMEMBER THIS I REMEMBERI drop from a height of several dozen metres but only my phase-shifted legs sink into the ground, up past my knees. It's easy to pull myself out. This island is beautiful, there are palm trees around, the sky is deep blue, I'm on a lush green hill, it's steep but not—

Whoops. Timer. Countdown started; forty-seven minutes of phase-shifting left. Better get moving. Better phase-out as much as I can. Except for my feet of course.

Argh I hate this. I think I liked it better when I could only half phase-shift, the Seventh Field is really creepy. Everything gets tinged with what looks like purple-black fire and sound doesn't work properly, you can still hear but everything has weird echoes and disturbing harmonics, and there's this noise, this constant horrible noise like hissing and whispering—anyway, I don't like being here but it's necessary for my infiltration.

More hills. Where did you put me, Daniel? I mean yes fine be cautious but I can't even see the—is that it? No, that's a lighthouse. Wow, I'm pretty high up. So why can't I—oh.

...

Kind of a big cliff here. I think I see the school in the distance. I'm going to have to jump. It's a really long drop, but if I judge my phase-shifting right I should be fine. Okay. Here I go. No more hesitating just have to AHHHHHH okay that wasn't so bad. Sank into the ground up to my neck but at least I didn't go under. Pulled myself out and now I'm heading forward again. I can't see the school now, I'm in a kind of valley surrounded by trees and hills and there's a little river. I think it's in this direction. I just have to start walking.

...

...

Getting close to what I think is the school, big wide white building on the edge of a cliff, it goes down to the ocean too, there are stairs and things and a little harbour with ships. Still no one around. Thirty-three minutes of phase-shifting left.

...

I can see the town from here, it's down a steep path from the school. It's really pretty. It's big, too. It looks like more than just a couple of thousand people live there.

...

Some people around the school, they look normal. My phase-shifting hasn't gotten worse so I'm guessing none of them are supers. Nobody's seen me, even at 80% power I'm pretty much invisible, especially when I'm not in direct light. The island accent is kind of cute.

Twenty-seven minutes of phase-shifting left.

I'm phasing through a wall to get inside the school then dropping down until I get to the basement, if it's like Emerald Hill that's where they'll have their hideout or control room or whatever.

...

My phase-shifting just degraded, I'm definitely not as deeply in the Seventh Field as I was before. That means there's another super around here. It's not obvious what power I just copied. Not really any time to do testing either. I'm in the basement but hesitant to go any lower, I don't want to get stuck inside anything solid.

Twenty-five minutes of phase-shifting left.

...

It just struck me that there's probably a facility near here, like at Emerald Hill, the place they take those selected for Advanced Self-Improvement. We should've paid more attention to the satellite images of the island, I'm sure the facility would be disguised but we may have—

...

People around. I had to hide, but I think I might have—

...

Twenty-one minutes of phase-shifting left, but I've found the hidden room. As I suspected, it was beneath the basement. If it's like Emerald Hill this whole thing will teleport out once their plan is finished. Everything's very smooth and white down here. Blue lights. Workstations against the walls, all powered-down. No people. There's a teleporter in the middle part, different to Daniel's. Much bigger and flashier and more proper-looking. Meant for multiple people at once, or for equipment. There's a control panel but it's locked—I can activate the teleporter but the destination is set. It could lead to the facility, if I could get there I'd have a better chance of stopping whatever—

I know that sound.

Hydraulics activating.

Someone's coming down.

I just got dragged into-phase, not all the way, but I suspect I'm mostly visible—how many of them are there?—must be at least five or six supers for my phase-shifting to degrade this much—no exit except the entrance—no way out exceptSEE HER AGAIN NO THAT'S STILL NOT THE RIGHTThis. This teleporter. This teleporter works. This teleporter works so differently. This teleporter works so differently from Daniel's. Time dilation. Time compression. Three seconds were stretched into half a minute. Half a minute was compressed into seven seconds.

I want to vomit, but instead stagger towards nearby stairs. Why would people be entering the underground room? Possibly to use the teleporter. They might be following me here. Did they notice me? Maybe. I should assume that they did. What is this place? It's round. Big round room. Low ceiling. Empty. Quiet. Really quiet.

Just seventeen minutes of phase-shifting left. That teleporter might have messed up my personal time. Didn't Daniel say something like that to me? Doesn't matter. Stairs lead both up and down. Down or up, down or up, Alice was on the lowest level at Emerald Hill but something tells me things are different here.

I go up.

There's very little around. A few empty desks. Power sockets on the floors with nothing connected. No people.

Something is nearing an end.

...

Thirteen minutes of phase-shifting left. No windows here, none at all. Round. Why would the building be round like this? The stairs are steep, made of metal. Everything's made of metal. Why isn't there more of an echo? It feels ... blanketed. Almost suffocating, a closeness all around, blunt and heavy and uncomfortable. Am I underground? I'd like to spend a minute trying to figure out what powers I've absorbed, but no time. Keep heading up. How many floors does this place have? Maybe I should have gone down. Now I'm trapped. Unless I'm underground, in which case I'm heading up to the surface. Heading away from whatever they're using for mood control here. Or I could be heading up towards it. Heavy feeling is getting stronger ... could it be psychic pressure? My phase-shifting is even weaker now. Still heading up. Still more stairs. Still more floors. All of them are empty.

There are no lights. There are no lights but I can see—one of the powers I absorbed? Am I using echolocation? I'm sure I wouldn't be able to see with such clarity, and I can see colours, too. Not echolocation then.

That doesn't matter now.

Why am I thinking like this? I don't usually think so coolly and clearly. Another power I copied? It's a possibility. Except I'm not thinking clearly, I can feel my thoughts getting clouded. Something is clouding them. Something alien.

Oh, please let it not be rats again.

One good thing, the psychic signal is getting stronger as I go up so I know I'm heading in the right direction. How many floors have I passed? Forty? And still I'm going up. The walls are closing in, as I head up through the floors they're getting smaller and smaller, always circular—

I'm in the lighthouse. Of course, they're using the lighthouse as their facility. They extended it underground. They'll have their teleportation transceiver in here, and also the blackout generator ... and whatever they're using to broadcast this psychic signal. This is really different to Emerald Hill. Stronger, blunter, no subtlety. It's like a heavy blanket has been laid over my head—over my whole body. It's getting stronger.

Seven minutes of phase-shifting left. Soon it will begin to critically degrade, soon it will be useless, soon I'll start feeling the full effects of whatever this psychic mood control is. It's bad enough now, I don't think—

The lights are on here. I'm not sure how I can tell the difference, but I can. Wait ... the lights aren't on. This light is natural.

Two floors up; windows. This is definitely the lighthouse. How far underground did it extend? Doesn't matter.

Four minutes of phase-shifting left. Degradation has begun. Can't rely on it. Maybe I should just lose it—

Top floor. Huge and open and tall. High windows. Monitoring stations around every wall, four large screens displaying data that means nothing to me. Everything is turned inward.

There's a huge glass cylinder filled with clear liquid.

There's a large grey brain floating in the liquid.

Dozens of wires feed in and out of the brain. Psychic energy pulses from it in waves, almost visible. Wait, 'almost' visible, how am I sensing it? Is the energy phased-out or is it a power I'm copying or—

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter!

Nearby there's a bulky cart with a small monitor, it looks like it's displaying vital signs. There's one particularly thick cord leading from the tank to some kind of pump. Oxygen? Near that is a computer, small but dominant. Control system for the brain? For everything?

Nauseous. Thick-headed. But I have to do something.

Three minutes of phase-shifting left. So weak it's barely there, but better than nothing. I let my hands go into-phase to work the computer, and focus my energy on letting my phase-shifting 'rise'. I don't know how else to put it. Whatever other powers I'm currently copying sink and my phase-shifting increases in strength. I let my body go into-phase, except for my head. If I focus my energies there, I should gain some respite from the psychic waves.

It works. I feel better instantly. But I only have a little more than two minutes of phase-shifting left...

Can't make sense of this computer. Interface is cumbersome and obtuse. Menus within menus within menus—Local Area. Map.

This is the island. Bird's eye view. Lighthouse, school, township, all clearly marked.

Something else. There's a circle centred on the lighthouse, it easily encompasses the entire island. 'Projected Fallout From Burst (100%)'.

Burst. Across the room, one of the large screens—Burst Charge. Currently at 89%, now 90%, now it flicks back down to 89%. Maybe the giant brain can't quite build up enough power to unleash this burst. Or maybe it's fighting, fighting the horrible things these supervillains are trying to make it do.

Fiddling with the thing—okay, managed to change the 'projected fallout' percentage. 90% power burst would still affect the school but the town would be spared.

Think. Ninety-seven seconds of phase-shifting left. They're building up a psychic charge—what will the 'burst' do? It doesn't matter, something bad, of course something bad, it'll kill everyone here or turn them into mindless vegetables—I have to stop this!

Someone's coming up—they're running. They know I'm here. If I could—

"Who the HELL are you?"

Six of them, all wearing uniforms, clean white and blue, all of them have earpieces—on both ears. Psychic dampeners, the reason they're unaffected by the brain's psychic waves.

"YOU!"

At the back, I gasp as I recognise him—The Head! From Emerald Hill! Power: Non-Aura Telekinesis. Which means—

I thrust out both hands, my telekinetic power weak and clumsy. I couldn't hope to lift anything of any weight, let alone hurl it with any kind of force...

...but to pluck the tiny, near-weightless psychic dampeners from a dozen ears...

The effect isn't as dramatic as I'd hoped it would be, but it's enough to give me a few seconds of freedom—the main cord, the one leading to the pump, it can't be disconnected but there was a woman, she was raising her hand before I pulled the psychic dampeners from her ears—

"Don't move or I'll cut off the brain's oxygen!" I call, one hand tight around the cord, the other held high to display the lightning I command. It sparks and crawls over my hand, unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but it works; everyone stops.

And then my phase-shifting fails, and my head goes back into-phase, and I feel the full weight of the psychic waves being broadcast less than a metre away.

I'm down on my knees before I can recover, my head too small for my skull, my stomach tight, my guts twisted. But then my phase-shifting's back again, I put everything I have into making my head go out-of-phase and instantly my focus is back—one of the bad guys is pulling out a gun, but I sweep my arm around and send it flying across the room—

It stops.

Held in midair.

And then it flies into The Head's hand and he's pointing it at me, and two others have drawn their pistols, and the lightning woman has energy crackling in both hands now. The others stand back, wary, watching. I could knock the guns from the hands of those who hold them, but The Head's telekinetic power is far stronger than mine. I can't fight him directly. They're all suffering from the psychic waves but not as badly as I did when my phase-shifting slipped. Maybe something in their clothes, or maybe they're just used to it.

"Don't shoot her."

It was a whisper, but I heard it. Why not shoot me? Why are they hesitating? Because I hold this cord? Why can't they shoot me?

"Volt, can you—"

I can't fight The Head for the gun he holds. I can't even knock them away from the others, they're gripping them too tightly. 'Volt' for a lightning super, they could've tried harder with that one.

Wait. I know the guns, every part of them, and really they're such simple machines, if you just allow this part to release so that it comes into contact with that part—

And I know why they can't shoot. It's not me. It's what's behind me.

Three guns aimed at my chest.

Three trigger mechanisms.

Three simultaneous discharges.

My eyes are squeezed shut as two bullets enter my body, the third ricocheting off the floor. For the slightest of moments I can feel them inside, feel them travelling through my partially phase-shifted flesh, feel the tiny shockwaves of their passage...

And from behind me, from the tank I'm standing in front of, there comes a sudden intense pressure and a thick wetness and I'm knocked forward, flat against the floor, and I feel warm goo surging over my body at the same time that I become aware that everyone else in the room is just as prone as I am.

I manage to move my head enough to see the big screen; Burst Charge 13% falling to 10%.

I'm trying to get up. My arm isn't working. The psychic shock? But my other arm seems fine. My chest is ... my chest feels strange, my breathing is ... strange. They're all getting up now, The Head is already on his feet, and one of the others still has a gun, and maybe I saved this island, but I don't know if I can save myself—

There's the high shivery noise of glass shattering, one of the lighthouse's high windows exploding inwards. Through the falling glass comes a dark purple silhouette shaped like a woman, and two of the bad guys are down, and then another, and The Head is staring before his legs are swept out from under him and the gun he was holding is plucked from his hand, the slide neatly detached and the clip ejected before the remains of the now-useless pistol are dropped on his back.

From around the shattered remains of the glass cylinder there's a woman, and blue-white lightning courses up and down her arm, and the silhouette shaped like a woman can't see her—

The discharge is massive and violent, bringing with it intense pressure and a sharp, clean smell. It explodes against a blue and black logo, a stylised 'F', birthing dozens of tiny arcs that whisper into nothing.

"Missed one, S."

Two more bolts of lightning slam into the man's chest as he walks forward, not slowing his easy stride in the least. The lightning woman screeches as he nears, grapples for his arm as he reaches for her, but she might as well attempt to bend steel with her bare hands. He picks her up by her shoulder, then calmly places something small and round against her neck.

She slumps, unconscious.

The silhouette shaped like a woman has been doing the same to the others, rendering them unconscious by means of small, round objects, and they both look at me as someone else enters the lighthouse, through the high windows, somehow he's flying although I don't know how, he's coming towards me—

"Goodness, goodness, goodness, such a mess has been made—my stars! What has been done to you? Just rest there, good girl, do not be nervous, I am a doctor, be still and I will come to you."

The figure flies towards me.

The figure flies past me.

I can just about look back; he's standing beside the shattered cylinder, black-gloved hands tentatively exploring the giant grey brain that now lies forlornly in a puddle of clear goo.

And everything. And everything. And everything

[DATASTREAM LOST]