“You want me to do what exactly?” I asked Patricia and stared at her containment field. We were still in her workshop. I’d watched her tinker with her powers in a way I hadn’t seen before, which left me notably impressed.

The Technomancer, or how I thought of it. Was actually a lot more dynamic that simply thinking of something and then building the device.

I gawked as the raven-haired beauty had every device she planned to use, split, and shifted its mechanical and technical parts, forming different tools or other devices for her use.

At some point Ophelia had joined us, explaining that she was waiting for Karen to return from visiting Natalia. The Conjurer apparently had an apartment in Idrasa city centre somewhere. But only Karen knew where, as the two of them were close friends.

I got the feeling that Natalia wasn’t particularly welcomed amongst the Sisterhood, even though she was a member. Less welcomed I guessed that this Devlin they’d spoken of.

When I asked Ophelia about it she’d shrugged and explained. The angelic woman liked Natalia. But the conjurer was difficult to deal with.

The real problem stemmed from Patricia. The Technomancer had a minimal dislike for the woman. As Natalia was prone to fleeing from her responsibilities.

She didn’t use her powers because she could hurt someone. Or draw attention to herself. Which meant that if the Conjurer saw someone being hurt or attacked. She would rather call the cops, or flee the scene.

I could understand both perspective.

“It’s simple,” Patricia replied. “I want you to test your Projection-form on the containment field. If I’m right, and your Projection-form is a mental side effect of your powers. Then that stands to reason the same should work on Psychic link’s. Which I’m guessing is similar to a link formed between a Lich—if there is indeed one—and its seeded Necromancer. If not, then all we’re dealing with a is simple Necro.”

“You do realise I have to be unconscious to be in my Projection-form, don’t you?” I scowled.

“But do you actually, My Sweet?” Ophelia commented. “You haven’t tried as such to purposefully access it yet. You may be able to accomplish this without Patricia putting you under.”

“Fine…” I sighed and my shoulder sagged. “I don’t particularly enjoy passing out. As much as it keeps happening to me as of late.”

“I thought it was due to a lack of fluid that it kept happening to you,” the Technomancer deadpanned. I resumed my scowled at her, as Ophelia arms wrapped around my neck from behind.

“So, let’s say I manage this somehow. What do I do?”

“We’ll have you situated inside the field to start with. Then when—and if—you manage it. I want you to try and push your way through the field. It would help if one of us were actually a Psychic. But no matter.”

“What’s so special about Psychic powers. How’re they different from mine?” I rubbed my hands along Ophelia’s pale-bronze arms.

“They’re no Psychic’s left. At least not any more there shouldn’t be. Your powers as far as we know. Are both mental and physical in their structure. A Psychic, is purely a mental based power. A power that is both weighty in responsibility and insidious in nurture. Psychic’s in the past. Before they were pretty much culled out-right, alongside Necromancers, and a few other superpowers.”

“Had the advantage of manipulating a person’s brain. They could see all of a person’s deepest and most darkest thoughts. Some even managed limited control over the mundane populace. Whereas some were so powerful that they could manipulate an entire city’s worth of people. Even other supers.”

“I take this was back when we inhabited Winderall?”

“Precisely. Psychic aren’t inherently evil or bad. Neither are Necromancer’s. But their powers are so great, and the temptation to push that powers to its full capacity is even greater.”

“Damn…” I breathed deeply. Imagining having that sort of power at my disposal. To have anything and anyone you wanted. All it would take, was a simple planted thought. I wasn’t so sure that even I could resist such a power if I had it at my fingertips.

“Now come on, sparkle’s. Purple-up,” the Technomancer snickered with a wide shitting-eating grin. I snorted at her new nickname for me, and close my eyes.

My Telekinetic powers were remarkably easy to use and call forth once I knew what I wanted. Their manifestation was made manifold while I was in my otherworldly-guise. So I summoned my power and drew it inwards, commanding it to change my appearance.

Like Patricia ordered, I purpled up.

“Should I go in there now?” I asked her and nodded towards the small containment field. It was a five by five structure. Wide enough for me to sit comfortable in. Though standing would be a pain. My head would break through the barrier roofing, and I could only imagine the sort of repercussions that would have.

“Sure. You don’t want to try and practice your Projection-form first?” she asked and tilted her head quizzically at me.

“It’ll be more efficient If I’m in there to start with. That way if this works I won’t have to do it twice.” I patted Ophelia arms and she obligingly let go of me. I stood up from my stool and walked onto the raised platform the containment field had been built upon on.

It wasn’t active yet, so I passed through the blue barrier shield harmlessly. I doubted any of Patricia creations could cause accidental harm without that being their primary intend to begin with.

I sat down in the center of the containment field and crossed my legs. I closed my eyes and focused my intent inwards, like I would when changing my appearance. But this time I tried to strip my conscious mind from me and push it outside of myself.

If super powers were the intent of each individual’s will and genome class. Then focusing my thoughts on pushing my mind outwards while visualising my Projection-form should do the trick.

I pictured how I’d looked the last time I had Projected while unconscious and Ophelia tried to heal me with her power’s. My form had been different then. More like otherworldly guise, with a similar aura to that of my powers.

I visualised the cord between my bodies, tethering the link between us. Remembered how Ophelia had manage to see my Projection when she accidental touch the tether while trying to heal me.

I didn’t feel any noticeable change take over, other than I no longer felt the subtle breeze caused by Ophelia’s wings on my face.

I opened my eyes and looked around.

My body floated off centre and to the right of my seated form.

“It worked!” I exclaimed and looked down at myself. I appeared exactly how I’d visualised. The tether trailing off from behind my neck, winding itself around me and toward the centre of my sitting body’s chest.

“It did?” exclaimed a voice inquisitively. I looked up to see both women staring at my seated form in the middle of the containment field.

Did they hear me?

“You can hear me?” I asked them in surprise.

“Uh, yeah… you’re speaking with your mouth,” Patricia cocked an eyebrow in concern.

“O-oh shit. I am?” I chuckled as I watched my seated body say the words and then laugh. Directly in synch with my Projection-form.

Damn… this… was going to get confusing.

“I don’t see you,” the Technomancer looked around and shook her head. I floated over to her, felt the tether unwind more and more as I drifted away from my seated body. Maybe I should start calling my real body, the Material-form instead. Easier that way… I think…

I poked one finger into the side of Patricia’s cheek, causing her to flinched and spin around. Her pale-red eyes ticking back and forth around herself in shock.

“Relax. It’s just me. Have Ophelia use her powers on me. Like you did in the bar when I first met you,” I smiled down at the angelic woman. Even as she smirked in memory at my Material-form. The angelic-woman strutted over my material body and summoned her healing powers.

A divine golden glow radiated off her hands in a sparkling gold halo, as her six wings glowed in unison. Then, Ophelia placed her hands on my chest at the centre of my sternum, then trailed her hands outwards away from my chest slightly.

I saw her hands gripping the tether that connected my two forms. I was still floating beside Patricia when the Technomancer eyes when wide and she stumbled backwards.

“W-wow,” she whispered in fascination and shock. “You look… incredible.”

“Thank you,” I mock-bowed to her even as I floated towards the ground. Ophelia strode back to us, one of her hands still following my tether.

“What does fascinate me,” the Technomancer began and watched the angelic woman walked back over to stand beside me. Ophelia grinned up at me and reached out to pat my thigh. Her fingers just barely brushing the swinging Projection of my dick.

“What does fascinate me,” Patricia began again and cleared her throat. Her eyes never leaving my penis. “Is that Ophelia’s healing power has such an odd effect on your Projection-form. I’m not sure whether she’s making you more corporeal in this form. Or whether the two of your powers are working in concert to boost your Projection visibility .”

“How do you mean, corporeal?” I asked, rubbing my chin.

“Well. If you’re more corporeal than you were before. Then you are also more at risk. I mean, what would happen if someone struck your tether and severed it?” the Technomancer reached over and poked the tether.

Suddenly my head swam with a blast of memories not my own shooting through me.

All of them in a rush.

Snippets of each and every single one.

There were hundreds of thousands of memories. Far too many for a simple person in her assumed twenties to have. Then a single one struck me.

Destruction, blown up cars, and mutilated corpses. To my right blazed a giant red disc in the air. Grey-men with lizard-like tails rushed through the giant red disc. Strange hulking furry beasts stomped through behind them. Some of the lizard-like figures even rode large reptilian creatures. They all passed through the disc and winked out.

My head spun.

“Elias,” someone called out. But who? Elias wasn’t my name.

My name was Kay— the memory swam again. Of the mutilated bodies I came upon one I recognised. It was my friend, Arabella. We had just been playing in her backyard. Using the new old-earth trampoline her mom and dad had brought her.

Now, she lay there before me. Her body mangled oh-so terribly. She was a year younger than me. Only ten. Yet I watched her, stunned. My ears domed by dullness and the constant ringing. Arabella gasped into sudden life. Her eyes shot open as she stared all around at the destruction.

Then the pain hit her, and she screamed, and somehow her screaming pierced through my deafness. It was all… too much. I fled running away from her pleas of help. Calling for her mommy. My small legs sprinted me through the smoke and debris of bodies and ruined houses.

I tripped and skidded across the ground hard as I tried to make it home. I’d had only been across the street at Arabella’s house.

Yet I couldn’t see it anywhere. I turned and spotted what had tripped me. My father’s unmoving and contorted body stared up at the smoky sky above.

His red eyes dull and listless with death.

“Elias!” I jerked upright, and gasped as my eyes shot all around. I was no longer in my Projection-form.

Patricia’s pale-red eyes filled my vision as she began shining a bright light over me. Tear’s welled up as I stared at her. I knew. Somehow I knew it had been her memories. I opened my mouth to ask how she could carry that with her. But no words came out, instead I choked them back and let the tears spill.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t think touching the tether physically would cause you such harm,” the Technomancer sighed apologetically.

I just shook my head and finally found my voice. Though it croaked, “l-let’s not do that again.” It almost sounded like a plea to me, but I didn’t care.

That memory still swam before me. The numb terror. The unrecognisable truth of the horrible event. I remembered her story now. The one she had told of her brother. I cleared my throat and shook my head again. “Well. We can safely say that you becoming corporeal while in your Projection-form, definitely makes you more vulnerable. I’m guessing Ophelia powers conform with your Projection somehow. As she causes you no harm. You yourself, are therefore unharmed. I’m really sorry again, Eli.”

“It’s fine,” I waved my hand, brushing off aside her apology. “We didn’t know.” I looked about myself and frowned as the reason for my going into the Projection-form came back.

“We didn’t get to test out your field.”

“Actually… we did,” Ophelia murmured and ran her fingers through my swaying white hair affectionately, though, concern creased her brow.

“It was the only way to bring you back,” the Technomancer nodded a little sheepishly. “Both of your – bodies – were experiencing a seizure. Ophelia managed to draw your Projection-form back to your body and kept it near you. I activated the containment field, and this caused your Projection to vanish. Then with Ophelia’s healing powers we brought you back.”

“I barely did anything,” the angelic-woman shook her head. “Your recovery is extremely fast. All I did was top it off.”

“Well… thank you, both of you. But let’s not do that anytime soon. So the containments works then?”

“Yep,” the Technomancer replied and nodded. “Which means we can interrogate our prisoner as soon as Karen is back.”

“Why wait for Karen at all?”

“Extra muscle,” Patricia shrugged and smirked. “Plus, she can get really whiny if left out of things.”

“Yes, yes she can,” Ophelia chuckled lightly, and both women helped me to my feet. My legs shook with the effort of moving. But I was eventually lead out of Patricia workshop and into her living quarters.

“I’ll make us something for diner while we wait,” the angelic woman announced.

~*~*~*~

“Karen’s on her way down. Apparently she has news we’re going to want to hear,” Ophelia stretched after wiping her mouth and checking her wrist-phone.

Patricia and I carefully carried the stasis pod between and set it down in the centre of the containment field.

“You can open it remotely right?” I asked looking at the dark-haired woman.

“Sure. But it’ll have to be before I activate the containment field. I don’t want any signal’s crossing.”

“How long will it take for him to come around?”

“About an hour or less…” she trailed off and looked towards the entrance of her home. Concern flittered across her features. I was about to ask her what was wrong when it came apparent.

The door to Patricia’s house slid aside as Karen stormed her way in. Her yellow savannah dress swishing lightly as she all but ran to us.

“Guys…” she panted and fanned her face. Her hair was a wind-blown tangle atop her head. “We’ve got trouble. I think… something bad… happen… to Natalia. Her apartment looks as if it had been raided, and there are clear signs of a struggle.”

“Does she have any neighbours?” I asked, thinking of my own home. The neighbours on my street were anti-social assholes. At least when it came to socialising with a family who has a collared among them. Then they just ostracised you, and keep you out of local gathering’s. Then they the nerve to invite, Mrs. Bansea over us.

That says something about the length’s people are willing to go through to prove a point.

“I checked with, Michael. He lives below her. The two of them hooked a while back but they stay in touch. He said he must’ve been working when it happened. Because when he got home. There was a SPBI officer waiting outside his door. This officer asked him all sorts of question about Natalia. And whether Michael knew of her whereabouts.”

“Did he know the officer’s name?” Patricia asked as she wiped her hands on her leather trousers. Karen shook her head and frowned.

“I don’t think it was the SPBI, Patricia. I think this was either some sort of housebreaking gone wrong. Or it was one of the other faction of assholes in this city.”

“Faction’s?” I asked curiously. Then the bulb flickered on. “You think this could be the Unbound, or the ASP society?”

“It’s likely. Natalia is a pro at annoying and pissing off corrupt corporations, businesses, and cults. In fact she goes out of her way to dig through people’s history and unearth their dark secrets.”

“Let me guess,” Patricia began. “She didn’t use her powers to defend herself?”

“I checked the apartment, Patricia. It stills there, so obviously she didn’t use her powers. And there no reports of flying Astral Wyrm’s in the news.”

“That… idiot…” Patricia sighed.

“You know how she is about that shit. It changes her to use it. She’s… well, she’s not far different than Elias in that category.”

“She turns a starry-purple as well?” I asked her confused.

“No,” she shook her head and blew a few strands of her blonde away from her face. “Her looks, appearance, and manner change. They’re at least as otherworldly as yours.”

“Okay. So we have possible leads. But they’re far too many of them. For now, I say we keep an eye out and get back to the – why – of why we’re here,” Patricia gesture at the stasis pod.

“Okay,” the blonde Stormcaster sighed dejectedly. “But we’ll try to find her yeah?”

“Of course,” Ophelia assured her and hugged the blonde. “As much as she rejects it. Natalia is one of us.”

“For now focus on helping Elias find his mother. Then we’ll look for our wayward sister,” the Technomancer told the blonde.

“Of course,” Karen agreed and shot me a guilty look. “Sorry, Eli.”

“It’s no problem, really. I’ll even help.” My words lit her face up and gave her some small measure of hope. Not that I was sure I could actually do anything for her though.

“Everyone ready?” Patricia asked as she looked us all over.

I summoned forth my power and felt it come almost eagerly to me. The starry-purple aura of my power that matched my skin was somehow slightly different this time. I looked down my chest towards my sneakers and saw that the aura now covered me entirely from head to toe.

“Well shit,” I muttered and nodded approvingly.

I saw Ophelia beat her wings twice quickly as her divine healing powers haloed around her hands and radiated off her wings.

“Works well on their kind,” she explained when I sent her a look and I nodded my understanding. Karen slung her small bag off from around her head and shoulder, as she pulled the silvery lightning bolt off her choker. There was a brief flash of jagged light that marred my vision with after-images.

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologised as we rubbed at our eyes. She was her in Stormcaster garb. Her armour that just barely concealed her vital areas. I would really have to ask her about it one day.

Patricia was the last of us to get ready. She quickly attached twin bands to either of her wrists and they suddenly extended out across her forearms and hands. From the tips of her fingers to her elbow, she now had gauntlets. The centre of her palms lit alight, with an orange plasmatic glow.

“Let’s talk to the dead-man-walking then, shall we?” the Technomancer quipped and pressed the switch for the pod. The stasis pod hissed as icy steam crawled out through the thin openings. Patricia then activated the containment field. The shielding buzzed with a static blue as it became active. Not ten seconds had passed before Necromancer pushed the lid aside and sat up. He looked around at his surroundings. Not at all liking what he saw.

His face twisted from confusion, to concern, then to horror, and finally disgust.

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]