Mutation (16 page)

Chapter 22

Going to see Adam totally freaked me out.  Not because of what he had allegedly done, but because of where he was being held:  a nullifier cell.

Nullifiers, as the name implies, nullify your powers.  They take away your super abilities.  I’d had to suffer through having my powers removed for a short time before, and calling it difficult would be an understatement.  For supers, your powers are an element of your essence, as much as a part of you as an arm or a leg.  In fact, losing your powers has often been described as like losing a limb.

Still, Adam was my friend, so I could take being in a nullifier cell - at least for a little while.  In this instance, that meant going down to the basement, where the nullifier cells were.  As I understood it, they were typically employed just to give students a timeout when they had been unruly or violated some mandate.  They’d never been employed to hold a killer before.

Adam was sitting on a couch when they let me in to see him.  As I said, the room was really meant to be the super equivalent of sending a bad student to the corner, so it wasn’t as spartan as some nullifier cells I’d seen before.  Aside from the couch, there were a couple of comfortable chairs, a desk, and some fully stocked bookshelves.  A door set in a side wall presumably led to a bathroom.

I pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him.  His eyes were puffy and red, an obvious indication that he had been crying.  He looked at me, completely forlorn, and just broke down into tears.

“I just, I just don’t know what happened,” he said between sobs.

I placed a hand reassuringly on his shoulder.  “Tell me.”

Adam nodded, took a few seconds to compose himself, then blurted out the entire sad episode.

In short, he had decided to pull his infamous exploding pen stunt on another student.  It was something he’d done a million times before so he wasn’t concerned.  The pen was supposed to gently burst and spill its contents on the anointed victim.

However, instead of a small pop, the pen had exploded like a stick of dynamite.  The female student who was the subject of the prank was essentially blown apart, and four other people standing nearby were wounded.  (For a second I harbored a fear that the victim had been Electra, but as Adam told his story, it became clear that it wasn’t, and I sighed in obvious relief.) Adam, who had actually been close by when everything happened, had been as much in shock as anyone and had basically confessed on the spot.

All of this had occurred the previous day, while I had still been indisposed, and Adam had been in the nullifier ever since.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” he said after telling his story.  “I’ve always had
complete
control over my powers.  But it’s like my abilities were somehow amplified - ramped up.”

“Have you tried using your powers since then?” I asked.

“No!” he practically screamed.  “I’ve been too afraid to.  Besides, I haven’t left this room since it happened.”

“There’s got to be some explanation,” I said.

“There is,” he replied, voice full of regret.  “I killed someone.  Jim, what’s going to happen to me?”

“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.

*****

I left Adam a short time later and made my way to the cafeteria.  I hadn’t eaten in three days and was in desperate need of a meal.  Still, I had consciously suppressed my hunger pangs in order to visit with Adam first.

Classes had been suspended because of the student who had been killed, but were set to resume the following day.  That being the case, the hallways were full of people, and they were only discussing one thing:  how Adam had killed a fellow student.

As it was late afternoon when I finally got there, the number of people in the cafeteria was quite small.  After going through the service line, I found an unoccupied table and sat down to drown my sorrows in food.  I went back through the line two more times and was considering doing so again when Electra stepped up and sat down beside me.  I’d been so wrapped up in my own thoughts that I hadn’t even noticed her come in.

She didn’t say anything, just leaned over and gave me a hug that I returned.  Then we just sat there quietly for a few moments, with her holding my hand.

“Hey,” she finally said, touching my face.  “Penny for your thoughts.”

I sighed despondently.  “This is all so crazy!  Nothing makes sense!  First, I get sick and end up hospitalized?  I
never
get sick!  And now Adam…”

“That’s not your fault.  None of it’s your fault.  You didn’t choose to get sick.  You didn’t make Adam do what he did.  It’s just the way of the world.  Things happen.”

She was right, of course, but I didn’t feel like I should just accept it.  I wanted to do something.  Instead, I just sat there and let Electra silently console me.

After a while, I caught her glancing at her watch.

“I know you probably have things to do,” I said.  “Don’t feel obligated to sit here and hold my hand.  Literally.”

She smiled.  “Thanks.  Have dinner with me later?”

I nodded and watched as she walked out.  Then I teleported myself to my room.  I stretched out on the bed, only intending to rest my eyes for a minute, but before I knew it, I was asleep.

Chapter 23

I awoke to the sound of a deep, reverberating rumbling.  I lay still for a moment, trying to ascertain whether it was something real or the remnant of a dream.  The sound came again. 
Definitely real
.  Moreover, I recognized it for what it was:  an explosion.

I jumped up and shifted into super speed, then zoomed from the room, heading straight to the main lobby of the school.  Once there, I decelerated back to normal speed, trying to get a fix on where the explosions had come from.  If I were in a place filled with normal people, I’d be able to pinpoint the source of the problem by noting the direction that people were running
from
.  Here, students were running every which way, as some apparently tried to flee the danger and others were willing to face it.  A bevy of screams coming from the cafeteria area caught my attention.  I teleported there.

An odd scene greeted me when I popped in.  Adam was in the center of the room, leaning on a table for support.  He was covered in sweat, and seemed to be straining to hold himself upright.  Groups of students were frightfully clustered against the walls all around the room, trying to stay as far away from him as possible.  Some of the cooking staff were peeking out of the windows in the two swinging doors that led to the kitchen.

As I watched, the table Adam was leaning on began to splinter and come violently apart in little bursts as a sound like firecrackers going off rippled across its surface.  Finally it exploded, sending splinters and wood chips flying everywhere, and eliciting another round of screams from a group of girls near the window.

Empathically, I felt anxiety pouring off him, as well as anguish and - surprisingly - steely determination.  But most of all I felt fear.  I ran towards him.

“Keep away from him!” somebody yelled, but I ignored them.

Despite the shouted warning, Adam didn’t seem to notice me until I was practically in front of him.  Relief, sudden and unexpected, flooded out of him and hit me in a deluge of emotion as he practically collapsed against me.

“Please…” he muttered, his entire body tense with strain.  “Please…”

He didn’t seem to be able to say more, so I peeked inside his mind, not daring to go too far because of my own limitations.  My eyes went wide and I stared at him.

“Get back!” I shouted at the crowd of onlookers.  Then I wrapped Adam in my power and teleported both of us to the lake where we’d all hung out just a few days before.  I telescoped my vision as far as I could and, looking in the direction opposite the school, picked a point on the horizon - a small, grassy hill - and teleported us there.  With my vision still telescoped, I looked to the horizon and once again teleported us to the farthest place I could see - this time a large, open field.

The tension left Adam as if swept out with a broom and he collapsed to his knees.

“Thank…thank you,” he said.  I knelt next to him and put and arm around his shoulder.  Then I turned my head, closed my eyes and phased, becoming insubstantial as a small popping noise began coming from where Adam was kneeling.

*****

I later learned that the explosion - despite how far I’d teleported us - had still been heard and felt at the Academy.  Afterwards, I just stayed there for a long time - floating at the center of the giant, smoking crater Adam’s death had created - crying.  I stayed there crying until the ringing in my ears died down.  I stayed there crying until the blackened, scorched earth started to cool.  I stayed there crying until my eyes fully recovered from the brilliant white flash that had accompanied Adam’s passing and penetrated even my closed eyelids.

All in all, I stayed the night and a good part of the next day there.  Finally, when it seemed that I was all out of tears, I decided I needed to go back.

Hungry after my ordeal, I teleported to the cafeteria.  It was officially well past lunchtime, but there were usually a number of late stragglers still dining.  This time, the place was empty.  Not just devoid of students, but
completely
deserted.  When I stepped through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen, there weren’t even any staff in the usual process of preparing dinner.

Although surprised not to see anyone, I was still determined to get something to eat.  After a few seconds of wandering, I saw a large door that seemed to lead to a walk-in refrigerator.  Inside, I found a bunch of vegetables, fruit, uncooked meat and so on.  I went back out into the kitchen and pulled a large mixing bowl down from a cooking rack.  I took it into the walk-in and filled it with grapes, apples, and bananas.

I left the kitchen with my bowl of loot, eating as I walked.  Now that I took a good look around, I noticed that the place was kind of a mess.  Tables and chairs were overturned, presumably the result of students trying to distance themselves from Adam.  Half-eaten morsels of food and spilled drinks littered the floor.  And splintered wood was everywhere.

I walked next door to the student break room.  Like the cafeteria, it was empty.  Now I was starting to get worried.  Something was definitely wrong.  I quickly wolfed down the rest of the food in my bowl, then decided to visit the admin office.  I was tempted to teleport there, but decided to walk on the off-chance that I’d bump into someone who could tell me what was going on.

Decision made, I stepped out of the break room and almost ran into a couple of the SWAT guys.

“Freeze!” they both yelled in stereo, as well as bringing up their semi-assault rifles.  I almost gave in to a knee-jerk reaction to teleport away.  However, I was trying to find out what was going on, so instead I slowly raised my hands, careful not to make any threatening gestures.

“What are you doing here?” one of them asked.

“I’m a student,” I said.

“No, why aren’t you complying with the quarantine?”

Quarantine?

The look on my face must have made it clear that I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“What’s your name, kid?” he asked.

“Jim.  Jim Carrow.”

I saw a strange look pass between the two of them.

“You need to come with us."

Chapter 24

The SWAT guys escorted me to Magnavolt’s conference room.  I was told to wait inside while they took up positions outside the door.  A moment later, Magnavolt practically flew into the room.

“Jim!” he exclaimed, clapping me on the shoulder.  “You’re alright!”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, somewhat perplexed by his excitement.

“They told me you teleported away with Adam.  Afterwards, there was the explosion, and when you didn’t come back…”

Now I understood his initial giddiness.  He’d thought I was dead.  We both took a seat at the conference table.

“Adam…?” he asked.  I simply shook my head.  It wasn’t something I wanted to talk about just yet.

Regardless, before anything more could be said, Dr. Prasad entered the room, accompanied by a middle-aged man with thinning, iron-gray hair.  The man wore a lab coat and had a hard look about him.  Something about him seemed familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Is this him?” the man asked, without waiting for introductions.

“Yes,” replied Dr. Prasad.

“Then let’s get him to the lab,” the man said.  “As soon as he’s there
–
”

“Hold up,” I interjected.  I really didn’t like them talking about me like I wasn’t in the room.  “What exactly is going on here?”

The man in the lab coat looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.  I felt a certain arrogance and cockiness drifting out from him, as if he only deigned to speak with his peers or better.  I immediately got a bad feeling about him.

Before the silence got awkward, Magnavolt spoke up.  “Jim, I think you already know Dr. Prasad.” I nodded at the good doctor.  “This other gentleman is Dr. Aldiss.  He’s one of the world’s foremost virologists and an expert on infectious diseases.  He’s here to help us with this bug that seems to be going around.”

“It’s more than just some bug,” Aldiss chimed in.  “It’s a highly contagious organism that – at the moment – is posing a threat to almost everyone here.  That’s why I declared a quarantine.”

“
You
declared a quarantine?” I asked, then looked at Magnavolt quizzically.

“I’ve handed over all authority of the Academy – all facilities, all resources, all personnel – to Dr. Aldiss and his team,” Magnavolt said in response to the expression on my face.  “They’re running the show.”

I shook my head in disbelief.  We had just thumbed our nose at a government organization a week earlier during our little conference with Pace.  Why would we now invite another government agency to come in and take over?

“You have to understand, Jim,” Prasad interposed.  “We’re in over our heads on this thing.  This virus, it seems to attack the metagene in supers – the gene that’s the origin of their powers.  It’s mutating the gene, making their powers unstable.  One of our students, Glacia, almost froze three of her classmates to death.  Another kid almost asphyxiated everyone in the cafeteria when he sucked all the air out of the room.”

“So you just hand this guy the reins?  That was the best solution?” I asked.  I hadn’t meant it rhetorically, but no one responded.  Aldiss suddenly looked like he wanted to say something, but I didn’t give him a chance.  “What about the Alpha League and the other superhero teams?  What do they say about this?”

Magnavolt sighed.  “They don’t know.  We can’t reach them.”

I was stunned.  “What do you mean you can’t reach them?”

Magnavolt sighed.  “Yesterday, as you already know, Adam somehow got out of the nullifier room he was in.  With his powers back, he – for some strange reason – decided to blow up the transdimensional gateway, the vortex phones, and the communication interface.”

“So that means…” I trailed off as the full ramifications of what he was saying hit me.

“Yes,” he continued.  “We can’t communicate with Earth.  Even worse, we’re stuck here.”