Caped (Book 1): The Burdens of Fate (14 page)

We're talking about undeniably scary shit. End
of days scenario precluded by possible domestic terrorism and crimes of
treason. If we're going to stop a globally disastrous event we can't worry
ourselves with the petty concerns of individual nations, at least not until
said nations come knocking on our doors ready to haul us off to some
nondescript little box of a room somewhere in the mountains and torture us for
months on end. And that's one vacation I hope I never have to take.

But I'm not jumping ship just yet. Besides, do
you want to know the scariest thing about everything that's happening?

I'm terrified.

I know it doesn't come off with the weight I'd
like it to, but it’s true. I cannot be everywhere at once, and the blind fear I
honestly thought modern society to be above seems to be growing. They're afraid
of us, we're afraid of them and ourselves. We're at risk of tearing ourselves
apart.

Three days ago I knocked an entire city
unconscious and accidentally left a couple hundred with mild to severe
concussions. Does it haunt me? Yes, but I refuse to be burdened by any sense of
remorse because I was doing what was needed to save lives.

I combed through rubble for survivors, and
pulled people from toxic environments. It was tedious, strenuous, and time
consuming, but I was truly saving lives. I haven't asked for anything in
return, not one ounce of recognition. I just hoped they'd see that one of the
monsters they fear so much took the time to help. To help 3.7 million people I
don't know.

So yes, I could sit here spout some fake
dribble about how I believed leaving a portion of the clean-up of L.A. in the
hands of the people would perhaps help them see that everyone was effected,
that so-called
normal
people are afraid of E.C.'s, and a good portion of
us are afraid of ourselves. But that wasn't why, it would be a great
justification for my actions but the real reason is rather simple: It was too
much work.

However, the media and that city continually
disappoint me. And considering the shallow nature that city is famous for, I
shouldn't be surprised. At least three different attacks made the national news
last night. Just an ignorant cycle of fear mongering and bickering that my
laziness is partly to blame, and that haunts me.
Unsettles my
stomach.

So I cleaned it. The entire city... Thank me
later.

Edward
Otep
-

I wonder how many days will pass before I feel
normal again. I watch the sun go up and down, write a few pages, before I go
back to flicking through channels and trying to carry on conversations as if my
mind weren't a hundreds miles away, still stuck around that table in Seattle. I
dread each ring of the phone, and checking my mail with both the hope and
horror that this uncanny delusion persists. I am not entirely hesitant to make
the next move, I'm just aware I won't have to. The ball is firmly in Thomas'
court and that man has definitely been putting his massive intellect to work.

After six days of silence an e-mail will
finally come through from Thomas who'll request a meeting with Ivan. After a
short text message to both Michael and Alvin, Alvin will respond almost immediately,
agreeing to help only if he's able to stay and watch. We're all curious so I
can't say I blame him, after all I did the next best thing. Everyone has their
limitations, even me. It's just a matter of not learning them the hard way.

For reasons of comfort and familiarity the
meeting will take place at Ivan's house in St. Louis shortly after eight o'clock local
time. Thomas' kind and respectful, but with a notebook full of questions and
high expectations, there's a certain blunt nature that comes off, which isn't
necessarily a bad thing considering it compliments Ivan's rather direct
personality.

They clear a decent sized space in the
cluttered living room. Ivan's abilities have given him the ability to acquire
all the tiny little gadgets and gizmos that would break a normal man's wallet.

They start off with the simple demonstrations,
simple square plastic boxes. Alvin
recording the length of time, in milliseconds mind you, they take to fully
materialize, and Thomas noting the distance he's most effective. They move from
simple shapes to complex shapes, and shortly after, different materials.
Solids, liquids, and gases. With every benchmark broken the smile on Thomas'
face widens from the numerous ideas this makes possible.

Is it physically or mentally draining, no?
Wonderful. Does size affect the complexity, no? One test after another, each
larger and more complex than the last. Adding colors and surface textures.

They hit a brick wall once Thomas asks him to
make changes to an object he's already created. They decide to rest, talking
briefly about life as a growing minority and other inconsequential matters.

A short amount of time passes and they try
again, this time with visible results. Thomas chalks it up to mental fatigue;
Ivan’ll get better with practice.

So, he can't make it if he doesn't have an idea
of how it works? Just the general idea? They can work around that, it's a small
obstacle with a simple solution. Thomas spends a few minutes describing the
complexities of motherboards, how the CPU, GPU, RAM, and transistors function.
He attempts, fails and attempts again. Three minutes and five tries later,
success. He's a quick learner, and persistent.

They moved from the basics to the advanced. Two
hours later and Thomas is explaining advanced propulsion techniques and
magnetic fields, speaking about cold fusion, Nikola Tesla trying to pull energy
from the ionosphere, and increased efficiency of solar panels. Attempt, fail,
repeat.

Once they've got it working on a small scale
all that's left to do is build it bigger and better... but that will have to
wait.

Their meeting will end on a tired yet
optimistically high note and will be promptly followed by an e-mail with a
brief summary of their progress.

Three short paragraphs ending with a simple
question, "Are you guys free this weekend?"

Exciting times indeed.

–
3/29
–

Kaylie Horn -

A second e-mail came through today, it was cool
to read about it though I wish I could have been there, but apparently I'm
going to get my chance! Thomas wants to meet with all of us this weekend. I
just hope mom let's me go, but considering that stunt I pulled a couple days
ago I'm definitely going to be doing a bit of groveling.

But that was a few days ago and they haven't
really brought it up since, so you never know. I may get lucky.

School started back up today, back to hundreds
of teenagers doing what they do best: Gossip. It's no secret I was in Los Angeles, I'd been
posting pictures of the family vacation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all
week, and I let everyone know the family was fine as soon as I got home.

But no force on heaven or earth hath found ways
to stop nosy people from prying into the affairs of others and today proved no
different. We had homeroom, which meant an extra group of people I don't
normally talk to, nor particularly care about, asking me whether I seen any
flying men or guys shooting flames from his fists. Tiffany Holmes, the annoying
little twat that she is, even had the audacity to ask if I'd killed anyone.

Did someone forget to give that child her
meds?! It took all I had not to shed a tear, and little does she know, I wasn't
joking when I sarcastically told her
yes
.

Aside from the questions school was mainly
normal, though I think everyone's becoming a little more skeptical of each
other. I guess they're afraid they're going to piss off the wrong person, too
bad that didn't entirely stop all of the name calling.

I swear my generation can be so stupid at
times, these kids can't even decide whether being a
noc
is a good or bad
thing.

That's what they call us now,
noc
.
Pronounced like “knock." I heard it at school today, I guess it's the
official slang term now.

Whatever.

So one moment Chad Freels is teasing a kid in
the lunch line for being one, and then later that day I see him threatening to
melt the wheels off someone's car and turn them into his zombie mind-slave.
Utter nonsense. One day he's gonna pull that mess on the wrong person, he'll
shit bricks.

I've gotten a few odd stares in the hallway but
nothing too big, not that they'd have any way of proving anything. For now
though, I could be the only noc at my school, and I'm not too sure that I
should even try to find out.

After school I spent the evening doing homework
with Melissa in my room, as usual. She's still crushing on a new boy from
Virginia that she met over winter break that we Skyped with for about half an
hour, things got really cool when he said his best friend's a noc. He's going
to introduce us tomorrow, cool right? I wonder what his ability is. I also
wanted to tell them about mine, to brag a bit I guess, but I'm not stupid
enough to open those flood gates. Still, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. I
guess we'll see what happens.

That's all for now, it's getting late and I
need to finish my dinner before 12 or it's as good as trash... bye lady!

–
4/5
–

Edward Otep
-

First and foremost, it was cold as hell, let
there be no misunderstanding of that fact. The sun was sitting just above the
horizon as if it were threatening to set at any moment, though Thomas assured
us sunset was a couple weeks away.

Under Thomas' guidance Ivan managed to fit us
with some fancy state-of-the-art self-heating clothing, four layers of it. And
it worked wonders. But what little wind there was still felt like a donkey kick
to the face.

This was the cold barren wasteland that is Antarctica, ever hear of it? Base of the world, record
low temperatures, owned by no one. A near endless amount of open land and not
too much in the way of modern civilization except for the rare science outpost.
There's a reason people don't live here, but Thomas was hell-bent on seeing his
idea come to life.

Kaylie was there, accompanied by her father who
was equally as intrigued as he was uncomfortable. The spot had been chosen
about a week in advance, and Kaylie was more than certain she'd be able to
accomplish the
little
task Thomas had asked of her. Alvin had already placed markers along the
ground so she knew exactly where to dig.

She took a small chunk of land from beneath her
and lifted herself into the sky. We stared in awe, most of us watching her use
her ability for the first time.

With a sharp quick motion she her thrust her
arm down, and simultaneously a puncture in the earth formed, jolting the
ground. And then, as if dragging her hand through the sand, she etched a small
sharp canyon into the arctic tundra. Not in some long arduous process, but with
a quick fluid motion, moving out over a mile and a half away and circling back
around in a process that only took a minute or two.

While Kaylie doubled around outside we watched
from inside a small greenhouse looking structure Ivan erected to protect us
from the elements. He and Thomas were off in their own little world and only
occasionally giving us an idea as to what was happening, looked over digital
blueprints on a tablet device Thomas had brought along.

Only through the subtle vibrations and gentle
rumbling could we feel her compacting the rock, so dense that when she
finished, it appeared as one gigantic, yet smooth, boulder among the loose
pebbles and larger stones of the surrounding basin. We watched in silent awe,
shouting, clapping, and cheering through the cold that seeped through our thick
heavy coats, as she came back around.

Ivan pointed to five more points on the map,
and explained that they needed her to tunnel holes a hundred feet across so
they could attach anti-gravitational devices.

We followed Thomas and Ivan into the tunnel and
Ivan immediately started hanging working lights connected to a power source
that looked entirely foreign to me. I asked if it was nuclear, to which they
laughed, and reassured us of their
green
stance on technology.

We're just going to have to take their word on
it because Ivan didn't seem like he was too sure how the thing worked either,
and he made it. I guess if it works, it works, and there's no need to question
how.

Ivan stared at the schematics for a couple of
minutes, I guess trying his best to visualize the giant screw type object he
materialized directly into the rock, followed by a closed vat of a dark thick
liquid which we were told were simple nano machines made to dig the pathway for
the support structure. Some type of liquid carbon mixture made to flow into the
pathways and harden. Capped by the giant screw type structure that Ivan managed
to transmute into a portion of the device that'll create the anti-gravitational
forces. He cautiously materialized the rest, one piece at a time, until the
whole contraption was finished. A completely alien looking device; a large
lumpy mass of metal with no discernible features except a low eerie hum that
sent frequent shivers down my spine.