Now

Telekinetic fingers fiddled with the locking mechanism hidden inside the wall. The silver door smoothly slid open with a soft hiss that Cal only heard because of his superior than normal human hearing. He stepped out into a bright corridor.

It was strange, seeing it for the first time since all of the previous times he had traversed the facility he was completely encased inside the alien sarcophagus. The corridor was awash in natural light, as if it was outside on a nice, sunny day. Except there were no obvious sources of the light. As near as he could figure it was coming from every surface of the corridor, walls, ceiling, and floor.

Cal turned right and took his time walking down the long corridor. As he walked he used his telekinesis to disable the detection devices and alarms across his path.

Another silver door greeted him at the end. He opened it with a wave of his hand and stepped into the next room.

“Well… shit.”

Six power armored Threnosh stood at the ready, as if they were expecting him.

“Uh… hey guys, I was looking for the bathroom and I got a little lost. I’d be grateful if you could point me in the right direction.” As Cal talked he reached out with his telepathy. His attempt to look into the Threnosh’s thoughts yielded the same static-like buzz that he encountered earlier with the interrogators. It seemed that they had figured out how to block him.

As one the Threnosh raised their gauntlets in his direction.

Cal jabbed a thumb back over his shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll just… go that way.”

He detected the audible whirring of machinery inside the gauntlets a split second before six projectiles fired at him. It was enough time for him to act.

He threw his left arm up across in front of him, like he was holding a shield. Of course there was nothing attached to his arm. Nonetheless the projectiles struck and stopped a few inches from his body. Hanging in the air they crackled with electricity for a moment before Cal dropped his invisible telekinetic shield and they unceremoniously fell to the floor.

“I remember those,” Cal said. Strictly speaking he didn’t need to perform any movements to use his powers. Sometimes he found the pantomime useful as a technique to help focus and strengthen his power. Another purpose was misdirection. If his opponents thought that the movements were a necessary component of his abilities then he could catch them off guard later in the fight. As an added bonus it would throw off all the modeling and calculations that the Threnosh’s algorithms did for them.

The Threnosh fired another round of projectiles, which Cal blocked with another invisible telekinetic shield. He recognized the type of power armor they were wearing from his first and only fight after he emerged from the spire. He guessed that they were going to fire two more volleys, since in the first encounter he feigned an inability to block the fourth round of projectiles.

He blocked the third volley, then took a posture that indicated growing fatigue.

The Threnosh algorithms didn’t disappoint. As soon as they fired the fourth volley, the Threnosh dropped their gauntlets and relaxed.

Mistake.

Cal blocked the projectiles.

The Threnosh reacted quickly, but they were still too slow. Cal was already on the move. He dashed into and through the middle of their crescent formation. They fired and missed. As he reached the closest two power armored Threnosh on either side of him, he gave them a light shove. They were sent rocketing down their formation, clipping their fellows and knocking them all to the ground. Several hundred pounds of power armored Threnosh might as well have been a bag of marshmallows when given a small taste of his telekinesis.

The silver door slid open just in time and Cal sprinted right through the opening.

The corridor went in two directions, left and right. From his telepathic scouting of the facility he knew that the most direct way out was to the left. The right path led to, among other things, the power source deep in the bowels of the facility.

The surprise Threnosh had for him in the previous room made Cal reconsider his plan. And so he went right.

Cal made his way deeper into the facility. Surprisingly there were no stairs, just lifts that were too small for him, clearly made for the Threnosh, and open shafts, like elevator shafts without the elevator. Fortunately, he was able to use his telekinesis to carry him up to the levels he needed to reach.

The facility was fairly large. He had found it surprising when he had first discovered that aside from the two interrogators’ visits, he was the sole living occupant. A peak into their thoughts confirmed that the Threnosh were concerned about Cal being a potential contaminant, so they limited his contact with them.

He moved quickly. Now that he couldn’t rely on his telepathy to check for pursuers he had to operate on the assumption that they were behind him, just beyond the notice of his physical senses.

It was six, seven minutes since he had stepped out of his alien sarcophagus when he finally entered the room containing the power source. Invisible telekinetic fingers went to work. He bypassed the Threnosh’s protections with ease. The glowing pillars in the center of the room went from bright blue to nothing. The natural daylight turned into a dim red.

Once again foresight trumped luck and skill. Cal was glad he had spent the months imprisoned going over every bit of the facility and learning how things functioned.

Since he couldn’t see the Threnosh coming, then it was only fair that they wouldn’t be able to do the same.

Now it was really time to go.

Cal stepped into the corridor and was met by a small group of power armored Threnosh. These were wearing a different type of armor. Larger and bulkier with more obvious attached weaponry. Most notable were the sleek, multi-barreled cylinder mounted on a metal arm that came up over their shoulders. The belt that connected the cylinder to a large pack on their backs cinched it for him.

“Wow! Legit War Machines,” Cal said. “Escalation then?”

Cal sprang into motion an instant before the cylinders whirred to life. He used his telekinesis to slap the lead Threnosh’s minigun to the side. The spray of projectiles raked the corridor wall to his left. With his right hand he made a gripping motion and pulled hard toward his body. The Threnosh was jerked across the fifty feet that separated them at tremendous speed.

Cal flipped his hand to a stop motion, palm out, which brought the Threnosh to a halt just in front of him. Held immobile, floating in midair the Threnosh could only stare at Cal with wide eyes. With his temporary Threnosh shield the rest of them had no choice but to power down their weapons.

“So, that minigun of yours… magnetically accelerated projectiles? I didn’t hear any loud bangs and I can’t smell any powder, so that rules out chemical combustion.”

The Threnosh said nothing as its face grew strained in its efforts to free itself from Cal’s telekinetic grip.

“Don’t bother, you might hurt yourself. I’ve held stronger than your armor,” Cal said. “Besides I’m just going to borrow you for a few seconds. I’ll let you go soon enough.”

Cal ran toward the other Threnosh. They opened up with their weapons. Projectiles filled the corridor like an unending swarm of angry bees. His Threnosh shield took the brunt of the assault and Cal felt bad at the uncharacteristic look of sheer terror on the poor alien’s gray face. Either they knew the armor could take it or friendly fire wasn’t a concept they were familiar with.

The latter seemed more likely. Unless his assessment was wrong, then Threnosh culture valued the whole over the individual. Sacrificing one warrior to secure his re-capture fit within that structure.

Fortunately for the Threnosh in his grasp, Cal still didn’t see them as true enemies. He formed another telekinetic shield to protect it from its own squad mates. He realized that doing so rather made taking a Threnosh shield pointless, yet it was a necessary salve for his conscience.

Cal closed the gap within seconds.

He rammed the Threnosh in his telekinetic grip into the others. Using his telekinesis he lined them all up into a nice straight line, like a train that he pushed in front of him. They shouted in alarm and anger, uncharacteristically emotive, he was happy to note.

A genuine grin spread across Cal’s face as he ran down the corridor pushing a group of heavily armed and armored alien warriors. He couldn’t wait to tell the story to Nila and his family. Just the visual of it must’ve been hilarious.

The corridor curved slightly, so he adjusted his telekinetic grip. The strain sent a slight stab into his brain. Not too bad. The secret exercise over the many months of his imprisonment had done wonders to improve his mental stamina, even if it did weaken his physical stamina.

Another silver door awaited Cal’s impromptu alien train at the end of the corridor. He knew that it contained a sizable storage room of sorts. Plenty large enough to temporarily restrain a handful of bulky power armored Threnosh.

The door slid open at his mental command and he unceremoniously shoved his helpless captives into the room. He shut the door and destroyed the locking mechanism with a thought.

Cal couldn’t help but smile. The Threnosh’s combat assessment of his capabilities was based solely on their first encounter. An encounter in which he was definitely sandbagging. He wondered how badly their algorithms were going crazy now that he was giving them a glimpse of what he was truly capable of.

The dim red light that suffused the facility reminded Cal of some of his favorite science fiction movies. Except he was the otherworldly invader stalking the narrow passageways. Eron would’ve loved this. Cal was the alien and the Threnosh were his poor, unfortunate prey.

Cal was careful as he made his way through what he hoped was the most unlikely escape route as judged by the Threnosh’s algorithm. He used his telepathy to scout around him and found nothing. When he attempted to look directly into the Threnosh’s thoughts he was met with a block of sorts, a static-like buzz. He knew that there were Threnosh in the facility, fought them and beat them with ease in fact. Yet, how come he wasn’t getting the static when he stretched his telepathy out. Was direct contact the determining factor? It was a puzzle that needed solving.

Cal entered a large room. Going by the many rows of silver tables he decided it was supposed to serve as a cafeteria or mess area. He found it odd, to be honest. He was under the impression that the Threnosh didn’t eat food in a way that he was familiar with. Of course he based that solely on the liquid diet that he had been fed. Perhaps non prisoners got actual food.

What he couldn’t explain was the complete lack of chairs or even benches. It was a giant room filled with nothing but tables. There were no obvious places from which food was served or even trash receptacles. He wondered briefly if that was a consequence of the facility being used for his prison. Was it different before his arrival? What purpose did it serve? His peaks into the interrogators’ thoughts revealed that they had no prior knowledge of the facility.

His thoughts were interrupted when he finally noticed the soft hum coming from somewhere above him. The ceiling was extremely high, he estimated it to rise at least four stories from the floor. The dim, red lighting created natural shadows above.

“Crap,” Cal whispered to himself.

Correction. The soft hum was coming from two distinct places.

Cal threw himself to one side. Enhanced reflexes and enhanced muscles combined with a little telekinetic help was the only reason that he was able to dodge the twin beams of bright yellow light that punched into the floor where he was just standing.

The beams came from opposite corners of the ceiling and left noticeable dents in the metallic floor.

Two power armored Threnosh slowly drifted down from the ceiling shadows.

“That’s new.”

Their armor was different. Though they still added significant height and bulk to the Threnosh’s frail physical forms, these were sleeker and less utilitarian looking. They lacked the rough, unfinished quality to the two interrogators’ armor and the obvious, bulky weaponry of the fighter types. Unlike the others these two weren’t uniformly colored.

One was metallic blue in the armored chest and along the outer edges of their extremities, ending in blue-colored gauntlets and boots. The inner edges of their arms, along with their thighs, upper chest and neck area were a matte dark gray. Their helmet consisted of the same metallic blue on the completely opaque, featureless faceplate. The rest of the helm was also a matte, dark gray.

The other Threnosh replicated the scheme with a metallic rose color as the primary and a metallic brass as the secondary.

A soft glow emanated from the soles of their boots. Cal realized that those were the source of the soft humming sound he was hearing.

“Is that anti-gravity? Or repulsors?”

“Return to your containment,” the blue Threnosh said flatly.

“Yeah… no.” Cal sprang to his feet.

The two Threnosh fired the same beams from small emitters on the back of their right gauntlets.

Cal threw his telekinetic shield up just in time. The twin beams slammed into it with a loud thud. The force of the impact pushed him back a dozen feet and slammed him into the metal wall, driving the air from his lungs.

“Repulsors then,” Cal groaned. A part of him couldn’t help but internally squeal at how cool this was. The rest of him was too busy trying to catch his breath.

Cal reached out and grabbed the rose-colored Threnosh with his telekinesis and pulled hard. At least that was his intent. The Threnosh reacted quickly and kicked their boots out toward the invisible force tugging at them. The glow on the soles of their boots intensified and the soft hum turned into a loud whine.

They stayed locked like that for a few moments. Cal’s forehead was furrowed as the strain of the tug-of-war sent small stabs into his brain. The rose-colored Threnosh raised their right gauntlet at Cal, but the emitter stayed dark.

The blue-colored Threnosh took the opening and fired their beam. Cal saw it coming. He dived forward at the same time as he changed his pulling grip on the rose-colored Threnosh into a forceful push. The Threnosh went rocketing into the ceiling.

Cal grinned at the loud clang, which was followed by the rose-colored Threnosh plummeting to the floor.

He slid across the metallic floor, propelled by his telekinesis, until he stopped himself underneath one of the metal tables. Blasts from the blue-colored Threnosh followed him the entire way. They continued to pepper the surface of the table leaving fist sized dents on the underside, just above Cal.

“Yup, totally repulsors. I wonder if they make those armors in my size. I can finally be Iro—”

A shot finally punched through the table and struck the floor right next to Cal.

He scooted his body over to place himself beneath the least damaged-looking section of table. Fortunately there was plenty of space under the large table.

Thinking quickly, he tore one sleeve off of his futuristic alien jumpsuit and tossed it out to one side while giving it a tiny telekinetic push.

The Threnosh’s beams immediately struck the piece of fabric, but the momentary distraction was just what Cal needed. He rolled out from under the table and scrambled for the far end of the large room. Directly for the rose-colored Threnosh, who was still staggering to their feet.

The Threnosh saw Cal coming and tried to raise its gauntlet, but Cal was too quick. He juked right, then dipped left, his bare feet sliding on the cold, metallic floor. The beam flew just over his shoulder, as he tackled the Threnosh to the ground.

Cal postured up and threw a quick succession of punches into the Threnosh’s opaque, rose-colored faceplate. The metal clanged under his fists as the Threnosh desperately tried to push him off, while simultaneously attempting to protect their face.

It seemed that the Threnosh wasn’t used to direct physical confrontation. It made sense to Cal, they likely fought by keeping their distance in the air and striking with their repulsor beams.

He probed with his telepathy, seeking options, but found the same static-like buzz. He had a thought that he should brute force his way through whatever was blocking him, but dismissed it just as quickly. He had no idea if doing that risked potentially dangerous feedback for the Threnosh. The last thing he wanted to do was accidentally turn them into a drooling vegetable.

Two seconds, Cal had spent two seconds punching the Threnosh when his eyes widened. A sudden realization that two seconds was an eternity in a fight. He blindly threw himself off the rose-colored Threnosh.

The move was prescient, as a repulsor beam from the blue-colored Threnosh rushed through the space Cal had just vacated. A space that was now occupied by the rose-colored Threnosh.

The beam struck the Threnosh in the chest with a loud thud.

Cal winced sympathetically as he spun around to locate the blue-colored Threnosh floating high up, near the ceiling. He spared a quick glance at the rose-colored Threnosh, who was no longer moving. Its chest armor was dented inward and smoke drifted up from the battered piece.

Cal couldn’t tell what the blue-colored Threnosh thought of the friendly fire incident due to the opaqueness of its faceplate. They did, however, hesitate, which was all the opening that he needed.

He jumped straight for the levitating Threnosh. Super strength with a little telekinetic assist made the thirty plus foot distance easy to cover.

The blue-colored Threnosh tried to dodge out of the way, but it was too slow. Cal grabbed them around the neck and swung his body around until he was behind. He wrapped his legs around their waist in a figure four. Sleek armor meant their proportions were closer to his own rather than the bulkier builds of the others he had encountered earlier.

Now, he’d usually go for a rear naked choke from this position, but he figured that’d be useless thanks to the armor’s protection. Instead he opted for the full nelson. He passed his arms under the Threnosh’s and placed the back of his hands behind their neck. He pushed forward and down with just enough pressure to make it uncomfortable, but not too much that he’d risk injuring them.

Cal wanted to shake his head. From the capabilities the Threnosh had displayed he could’ve ended the fight shortly after it started if he wasn’t so worried about doing real damage.

The Threnosh’s power armor whined as its internal musculature struggled against Cal’s grip. He could feel it vibrate and shake. It appeared that the armor’s physical strength fell short of his own.

“Look, I don’t want to hurt you,” Cal said easily. “I think if you calculated your probability of stopping me you’d find that continuing to struggle is a waste of your time and effort. So, how about I let you go? You go see to your buddy down there and I go on my way.”

By way of an answer the Threnosh pointed his boots straight to the ground. The soft hum grew thunderous as it went rocketing to the ceiling with Cal sandwiched in the middle. Solid metallic ceiling, solid metal power armor, Cal didn’t fancy being the filling of that sandwich. So, he pulled back with a combination of his super strength and telekinesis.

Cal flipped around until the Threnosh was now between him and the ceiling. In one smooth motion he pulled his legs free of the figure four and kicked up against the Threnosh’s armored back, adding a little extra telekinetic force. The unfortunate alien slammed hard into the ceiling, while below Cal completed his backward rotation to land in a crouch. A forty foot drop was nothing he couldn’t handle.

He looked up and— “Oh, crap!.” Cal dived out of the way of the falling Threnosh, just barely avoiding them.

Cal gave the two fallen Threnosh one last look before heading for the door. They were probably fine-ish. They were still breathing at least. That much he could still detect with his powers. For a moment he was tempted to spend a little bit of time inspecting them in an effort to find out what was blocking his telepathic scans. He discarded the idea immediately. He had no idea if there were more chasing him.

The rest of the way through the facility was clear of any further encounters. Perhaps the last two pseudo Iron Men were the bosses. The thought brought a wry smile to Cal’s face. It seemed that he had conquered this unofficial Encounter Challenge. Although he didn’t trigger a quest, which was a little disappointing. A part of him was expecting one. It was strange though, wasn’t it? Months in captivity and zero quests. He figured there should’ve been at least one for escape. Perhaps since he could’ve escaped at any time the spires’ system didn’t deem his situation worthy of a quest.

Cal had a lot to think over and he’d start just as soon as he escaped the facility and melted away into the wilderness. One last door and he was outside into the bright sunlight.

The grass between his toes, the breeze, the sounds of nature, even on this alien world, there was a familiarity to it that he didn’t know he was missing. He took a deep breath of the clean, crisp air. “Ah! Freedom!” He smiled widely. “Now whe—”

A loud boom shook the clear skies above Cal.

He squinted his eyes at the object that was descending from the sky. It was small and fast, really fast.

It came to an impossibly abrupt stop a good thirty feet away and maybe ten to fifteen feet off the ground where it hovered in place without perceptible movement. The way it killed its momentum in an instant was some kind of physics violating bullshit, which made Cal very wary.

It was another power armored Threnosh, but he instantly knew that it was orders of magnitude more powerful than the ones we had already faced.

The armor was actually more of a non-armor. It was almost a skin-tight suit of spandex. It revealed the Threnosh’s true physique. Just as frail and skinny as Cal figured. The only reason that he figured it for a type of power armor was because of the multitude of green-glowing lines in geometric patterns set into the jet black surface. Well, that and the flying.

The Threnosh’s head was encased in a sleek helmet that appeared to be part of the rest of the suit. The faceplate was clear. The blank expression that Cal had grown to associate with the default state of the Threnosh was present. What was strange, however, was the skin color. This Threnosh was heavily mottled, a variety of grays, from light to dark dotted its face like some kind of digital camouflage. All the others he had seen before had skin that was mostly a single color of smoothly-blended tones, unmarred, almost perfect.

“Yeah, so I made it outside your facility,” Cal said lightly. “Which means that I beat the Encounter and am now free to go on my way.”

He took a step forward and the Threnosh raised his right arm, fist down, and pointed it at Cal. A large, rectangular cylinder bulged along the upper portion of its arm. The opening at the wrist, above the hand, glowed with a dull, green light.

Cal frowned. “Where did that come from? I swear that wasn’t there a second ago.” He shrugged. “Well, whatever. Rules are rules and it’d be a ghastly foul if you shot me after I triumphed over your Encounter Challenge.”

He took another step and the Threnosh fired its weapon.

The brilliant green light forced Cal’s eyes shut. He didn’t see the solid beam that shot out of the Threnosh’s weapon as they raked it across the ground a dozen feet in front of Cal. All he could do was feel the tremendous heat that washed over his body.

Cal blinked away the stars in his eyes and found the Threnosh still in the air a short distance away. Its armored arm, he noted was no longer pointed at him and the weapon had disappeared or receded. He didn’t know.

“Laser? Or Plasma?” Cal shook his head as he looked at the sizable line scorched into the ground. “Burned the grass and dug a few inches into the dirt. Man, my science isn’t anywhere close to being able to figure out what that was. I’ll tell you what, though. You have my attention.” He held his arms wide, palms up to show that they were empty. Not that it mattered in the least. “I am unarmed. Let’s chat.”

“Designation: Honor. You are a weapon.”

“I could say the same about you lot.” Cal shrugged. “So, who are you?”

“I am Prime Custodian 3 and I seek to negotiate an accord.”

“Custodian? Man, whatever the spires do to auto translate it sure feels like it misses the mark a whole lot.”

“Will you negotiate?”

“Sure,” Cal said. “It’s the only reason I let you keep me imprisoned for so long,” he mumbled.