Paragon

FWOOSH! The sound of flame roaring into the sky through the hole the Scarab had made could’ve easily been heard all the way into the heart of Glacier City. Zeke had flown out with tongues of fire licking at his heels, though he managed to get out of the way of the tremendous pillar that erupted from the incinerated lab deep underground.

“Holy shit.” Kira whispered into his chest. Both she and the other woman Zeke was holding mid-air were trembling having just seen their lives flash before their eyes in the form of fiery tendrils. The bookstore crumbled and burst into flames below them as they hovered fifty feet above the ground. Zeke looked around, searching for his friends. He was glad to see they’d managed to get to the parking lot where Kira’s car was parked. Zeke heard sirens in the distance and guessed that they had heard the explosion. The spot where the bookstore had once been was now a colossal bonfire easily seen from a distance, though if it weren’t, the smoke it was giving off was certainly a fantastic indicator.

Zeke touched ground by his friends and let go of the young brunette and Kira, though Kira still clung to him insistently. The other woman ran to the small group of refugees they’d rescued and hugged a stout, ginger-haired man who returned the gesture with fervor, swinging her around and kissing her cheeks. Once all the captives were back on solid ground Bryan let his wings unfold from his carapace and took to the skies once more. He was out of their sight quickly.

“Where do you suppose he’s goin’?” Jon asked as he stared at the fast rising sun.

“Away, somewhere he can return to his disguise in private.” Zeke said while running his hands up and down Kira’s back.

“Speaking of private, we need to see what was on that server.” Jon’s eyes became a steel gaze and Zeke knew this was something that meant a great deal to him. Probably a part of one of his many theories he liked to ramble about and now he held actual proof. He knew the man wanted to tear through the data as quickly as possible. Kid in a candy store.

“Right, you good to drive?” Zeke asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I’m good, here,” Jon said, handing Zeke his satchel with the tablet in it, “it’s probably safer with you in the skies.”

“Hopefully, take Kira and meet me back at my apartment. I need to get back before the sun is all the way up.”

“Right, get on up there then,” said Jon with a wave of his hand, turning his back to Zeke and Kira and making his way to the car. Kira threw Jon the keys and followed, but only after giving Zeke a tight squeeze around his waist.

“All of you find a safe place to lie low for a while. Get out of the city if you’re able to.” Zeke said and then took off like a bolt of lightning, straight into the sky. He surged all his power through his feet, not even bothering to cloak himself with a shroud of fog. Speed was the only thing on his mind at the moment. He hoped that nobody was awake and doing any cloud searching.

On their way back to Zeke’s apartment, Jon’s mind raced through the events. He hadn’t had time to look over the data he’d stolen from the facility run by Dr. Vivisector and he’d decided to try not to think about it until he was in a safe place where he could decrypt everything. Images of the strange monsters they’d seen, not to mention the one they’d fought, flashed into his mind; each one a nightmare in and of itself and there were easily hundreds of them down there. It reminded him of his brief time spent in covert operations. He’d just finished two tours as a U.S. Army Ranger and had seen his fair share of nightmare material when he was approached with an offer for covert missions. Spy work. Given Jon’s ability to adhere to any surface, his strength, his agility and heightened senses the government felt he’d be the ultimate spy. Able to get in where other’s couldn’t simply because he didn’t need fancy gadgets to crawl on walls or ceilings. They taught him to hack, to encrypt and decrypt delicate information, but most importantly, they’d taught him how to disappear, a skill he’d used to drop off of “the grid” when he decided he didn’t want to have a government paycheck any longer.

Jon had seen human experimentation before. Scientists trying to break into cybernetics; trying to give powers to people without them; gene-altering chemicals; bombs; bio-hazardous gasses intended for large populations. He’d seen his fair share of horrific shit and when the government decided they were going to start keeping a closer eye on Supers because of their “potential threat,” Jon decided to become a ghost in the system. They’d taught him too well.

Jon moved to Alaska and started to develop his connections throughout the city. This is how he and Zeke had first met. Jon had been inside the club where Zeke fought twice a week and had watched him fight a young telekinetic, who used his mind to give his punches and kicks more impact.

Zeke had described the hits he took as invisible fists that followed physical ones, like he was getting punched twice. Jon watched Zeke freeze the kid’s arms into solid bricks of ice that were so heavy he fell down, which only left him open for Zeke to promptly boot him right in the face. Jon could say a thousand things about Zeke but no one could doubt that the man was as cunning as he was powerful. He didn’t just use his gifts, he applied them to the situation at hand. Instead of just throwing lightning and ice around like a maniac, like most other Supers would do. Jon decided to buy Zeke a victory beer and the two simply bonded from there. Two weeks later Zeke met Kira and the three of them stayed relatively close since then.

Eventually, Jon had told Zeke of the things he would research. What Zeke called conspiracy theories were actually things Jon knew were happening within the government, and he was trying to bring them to light. He tried to get Zeke to accompany him on some of his missions, as it were, but Zeke always declined until now. Now, Jon was wondering how Zeke was able to free them all and deal with Dr. Vivisector and handle with the security outside while there was a nullifier in the room. Sure it was broken by the time Jon woke up, but how did Zeke break it?

Jon had resisted nullifiers before, something he considered was due to the fact his abilities were physical and didn’t require much willpower to use. Even then, however, he was disoriented by the world’s worst migraine with black spots in his vision, spinning rooms, loud noises and the feeling that someone had just cut off his arm. Military training and torture-resistance training had prepared him to deal with pain and work through it, but nothing compared to the pain brought on by a nullifier wave. Zeke’s powers required will and concentration and use of a sense Zeke had described to him once where he could see energy in electric panels or circuits. How had he worked through the pain without any training? Jon made a note to ask Zeke about that later.

Kira remained silent for the entire trip back to her and Zeke’s apartment and Jon didn’t bother to try and bring up any more annoying small talk. The night had been significantly more adventurous than they’d anticipated, which was funny because they had brought Bryan specifically because they thought about the dangers they might be facing. Still, nothing had prepared any of them for what they’d seen down there. It was a nightmare factory and according to the late doctor there were more facilities all over the city. Perhaps, even all over the country, if not the world.

Jon turned down the street where Zeke’s apartment was and drove right past it.

“Jon, please, can we just go upstairs?” Kira asked while placing her palms on her face.

“Now, more than ever, we need to make sure we’re not being tailed or watched. After what we just did they’ll be out for blood. Our blood.”

“We don’t even know if there is a ‘they’ maybe this was all the work of that creep, Dr. Vivisector.” She pleaded.

“No, the server I hacked into used Draco Industry’s encryptions; they were funding this place like they are every other facility in this city. Drake tower has a lot more going on than people think and I’m not taking chances with this, or your lives.” Jon said with a steel resolve. He parked in an alley two blocks down from the apartment complex and opened his door. “Stay here, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes. If I’m not, find Zeke and get the hell out of town.” Before Kira could say anything, Jon closed the door silently, and leapt onto the wall. Kira watched him climb the wall like a spider and then disappear over the rooftop. She sat alone with her own thoughts for what seemed like forever. She thought of that inferno that had nearly engulfed them. She thought she was going to die.

In the last moments before Zeke had pulled her away and diverted her will from the blaze, Kira had readied herself for death, thinking that if it came to that she would sacrifice herself so that he could escape. She’d felt so useless during their visit to Facility Manticore. The creature that they fought in the bookstore had flung her to the side and each time it appeared it went after either Jon or Zeke and she’d stared, frozen in terror, at the fleshy abomination trying to eviscerate her friends. She’d done nothing but get in the way and she was ashamed, until that moment where she was able to hold back the blazing pillars attempting to roast her and the captives they’d rescued. Zeke hadn’t seen her tears but they had been there as she imagined not getting to say goodbye to her lover, her fiancé. A word she still wasn’t entirely used to.

Kira stared down at the ring still on her left ring-finger and admired the beauty of it. Even without any light it sparkled gloriously. She turned it in loops around her finger, completely enthralled by it. She still could hardly believe Zeke had proposed. They’d been together for years, they’d talked about it several times and she had a hunch he’d been looking around for something but she still had trouble believing that it was there, on her finger. It was like a badge to her, not a chain or manacle like so many modern men and women liked to view marriage. The idea that marriage somehow locked you down and led you into boredom she’d always found to be completely idiotic. You were supposed to have fun with the person you loved. Zeke always made her laugh and for that she loved him more than she ever thought she was capable of loving someone.

Kira was still staring into the fiery ruby when the door suddenly popped open, startling her slightly. She cooled down when Jon slipped into the driver’s side door and popped the key into ignition. The little car sputtered to life and then sped off back towards her abode. When they got there, Zeke was already waiting for them up in the living room pacing around the couch and love-seat. When they entered the room Kira rushed toward him and wrapped her arms around his still-bare chest and waist.

“Put a shirt on.” Jon said, completely ignoring their affection as he often did.

“Bah,” Zeke scoffed, “I can wear what I want in my house.”

“Fair enough, no one’s followed us so, I’m going to get to work on this. You’re still using the server I gave you for your internet?”

“Of course, Jon,” said Zeke. When Zeke and Jon had solidified their trust in one another Jon gave the happy couple a gift. That gift was incredibly fast internet on a server of Jon’s own making that prevented them from getting hacked or from any government agency using their webcams to peak into their house. Zeke naturally thought this was slightly overkill but he wasn’t going to say no to free, and very fast, wifi. On top of that, it set Jon at ease and allowed him to use his devices when he came over without having to mess with anything.

Jon went to work on his tablet and started pulling electronics out of his satchel. A laptop, smartphone with some kind of circuit board attached to it and a couple other things Zeke didn’t recognize and decided not to ask about. Zeke took Kira into their room while Jon did his tech thing.

Kira lay down on her side and turned to face the wall away from Zeke. Her arms folded around herself as she curled up with her head on the pillow. Zeke lay down next to her and placed his left arm underneath her pillow and his right around her waist. He kissed her neck gently and pressed his forehead against the nape of her neck. A soft exhale escaped him which became a light mist that cooled her skin on impact. She loved feeling his cool breath. It was the only time she ever felt anything other than heat. Even in the snow Kira often felt warm and here they were in Glacier City, Alaska in the middle of November. It snowed every day with biting winds. Yet, she rarely felt them. With Zeke she could feel the cold but not in a miserable way. She didn’t shiver. She imagined it was what most people meant by a cool breeze. Kira squirmed back into Zeke’s firm body, pressing as much of herself as she could against him as goosebumps crept along her skin.

“I love you,” she finally said after her skin had calmed down.

“I love you too,” he responded, still holding her tightly.

“I thought I was going to die,” she whispered with a tear falling down her cheek.

“I’d never leave you behind, Kira.” Zeke said, squeezing her body tightly in affection. “If you hadn’t come, we never would’ve made it. You saved us. You saved me; you saved Bryan; you saved Jon; and you saved those innocent people that sick fuck was experimenting on.” Kira didn’t say anything. Her mind raced back to that fire pressing closer every second to her fingertips. She remembered how it felt to be pushed back by the force of the blast; how it took every ounce of her focus, will and strength to stop it from turning her loved ones and a dozen innocent lives into cinders. She thought on Zeke’s words; she’d saved them. Had she chosen to stay home they’d all be dead and reduced to ash.

Zeke was powerful, he had used his gifts to stop fire before but never like that and certainly never fire of that magnitude. He’d be gone and she’d be alone. Part of that filled her with joy that she had joined him and saved his life. Yet, all she could see was the fire twisting, lashing, biting at her and trying to force its way over her skin and into her body. For the first time in her life, Kira had been afraid of fire. She had seen its destructive force in full and it had nearly killed her.

“Z…”She whispered, craning her neck to the right to see him. Her right hand came up and cradled his cheek. “I’m glad you’re alive…”

“We’re both alive, Kira. We both made it. There’s nothing we can’t conquer if we stand together.” Zeke said and then flashed her that smile. The smile that made her knees weak and her stomach flitter with fire. The smile that made her hair glow. The smile that told her there was nothing outside of this embrace that she had to worry about right now. So, she didn’t worry. She slept.

Several hours passed and Zeke found he couldn’t sleep despite how desperately exhausted he’d become. Once the excitement had died down and his body relaxed, all his adrenaline dumped and he found it difficult to keep his eyes open, and yet, he didn’t sleep. He could feel the rise and fall of Kira’s body as she rested; curled up next to him with his arms around her. Eventually, giving up completely on the concept of rest, Zeke slipped his arms out from under her and gently removed himself from the bed, trying to avoid waking her. He strode into the living room where Jon was still furiously typing and tinkering with his devices. Zeke spent a few minutes just watching Jon move from screen to screen as he worked.

“Any luck?” Zeke finally said, breaking the silence. Jon hadn’t noticed him until he’d said something but at the sound of his friend’s voice his head perked up for a moment and then flashed a satisfied smile.

“Thought you’d be lying down, it’s past your bedtime isn’t it?” Jon said with a smirk.

“I’m definitely tired enough, though I can’t seem to settle enough to actually pass out.” Zeke plopped down on the couch next to Jon and kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. His heals rested on the one tiny spot not occupied by some electrical device Jon was using.

“There’s a lot here. Much of it confirms some of my own suspicions about the place and then some. There’s also quite a bit that reminds me of some shit I saw overseas.” Jon said without looking away from the tablet in his lap. His fingers swiped this way and that and then punched what seemed like a random array of characters into a keyboard that sat on the table in front of him. Sometimes Zeke wondered if Jon actually knew what he was doing or if he was just very good at pretending.

“Anything of particular interest?” Zeke asked. Jon laughed.

“All of it,” he said, still keeping his gaze firmly planted on his work.

“Well anything you can clue me in on or do I have to wait for you to finish?”

“Let’s see…” Jon paused his work and rubbed his remarkably smooth chin for a moment and then went back to playing with his gadgets. “Well, to start, that creep Dr. Vivisector was definitely into some messed up voodoo. Those things we saw hanging like marionettes, like the one we fought in the bookstore, are the result of genetic testing. They were trying to splice Super genetics into Enns and the backlash made the test-subjects mutate and go braindead. They were all basically comatose, hanging up in those rooms.”

“So… what they’re trying to give people powers?”

“That seems to be the gist of things, yeah, but they could never find the right application. Every subject became deformed and started sprouting appendages or horns or something worse. Most died. They did discover, though, that telepaths could coerce the braindead bodies into animation. Basically, they were actual marionettes and any telepath that had the inkling could become the puppetmaster.”

“They were doing more than just carving out DNA from the Supers though, it seemed.”

“Yeah, a lot more; good ol’ Vivisector was fixated on discovering what makes Supers tick. What gives me the ability to crawl on walls, you the power to shoot bloody lightning from your fingers, that sort of thing. The Supers in captivity were being cut open and put under a microscope once he or his other surgeons had gotten DNA samples they could use to attempt gene-splicing. But none of his notes suggest he found anything concrete; plenty of theories though.”

“Aside from the obvious factor that the doctor was definitely evil, what do you think Phalanx wanted me to find here? I mean, he had to have had more of a purpose than just sending me there to destroy the place.” Zeke said, rubbing his eyes and wracking his brain trying to think of anything he might’ve missed.

“Hard to tell at this point,” said Jon, “the only thing I can think is that it has something to do with Dr. Vivisector’s ties to Draco Industries.”

“How can you be sure he was tied to them?” Zeke asked.

“That facility required a lot of money, the kind even the late doctor didn’t have access to when he was considered notorious. On top of that, there’s the financial records I found that I was able to trace back to Vladimir Dracovic’s personal accounts. The Dragon is everywhere, Zeke. I’m pretty sure his fingers are, in some way, dipped in just about every facet of government and wrongdoing we could imagine. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the bastard was also a damned kingpin of crime.”

“Maybe that’s what Phalanx wanted me to see; he wanted me to see how deep this really goes and see for myself the tie-ins to Draco Industries?”

“Possibly, if he wants you on his side, what better way to get you there than to show you his oppositions twisted projects.” Jon continued to scroll through various files and work through matrices of coding to get them decrypted. “There’s at least a dozen other facilities like Manticore too. Each one seems to house a different field of study.”

“Are they all as fucked up as Manticore?”

“Just about; one is even labeled ‘Occult Research’ and that just makes my skin crawl.”

“Hitler did research on the occult too, didn’t he? Think this guy had anything to do with that?”

“So they say, though it doesn’t make this any less skin crawling.” Jon said, with his hand on the back of his neck, rubbing out an invisible pain.

“You ever dealt with that shit before?” Zeke asked hesitantly. He was always careful when asking Jon about his deployments or the things he’d seen and fought during his spy days. Jon seemed to still be slightly scarred by these revelations and didn’t like to talk about them very often.

“Yeah, actually.” Jon’s voice fell flat and quiet when he spoke. Images flashed back through his mind. He shook his head, erasing the memories as quickly as he could. He didn’t want to see them again. “Anything occult is bad news, Zeke. You and I have seen some weird shit done by Supers but I tell you now none of what you’ve seen compares to what these kinds of people call ‘magic.’ Let me tell you, it’s not pretty, it’s not good and it sure-as-shit isn’t nice.”

“You think that kinda thing actually exists?”

“It doesn’t come from gifts like you and I have. It comes from something wholly other; something dark and demonic.”

“You believe in demons, Jon?” Zeke asked and then there was a very long pause. Jon stopped his work and looked up at Zeke. Jon glared into his eyes and his gaze struck Zeke as something equal parts hostile, aggressive, stalwart and yet at the same time utterly petrified.

“I know there are demons, Zeke.” Jon said without a stutter. “When this kind of thing pops up, occult type shit, if you’re around it, something happens to you. All your red flags will go up, every bad feeling will rise into your throat and the pit of your stomach will scream in defiance. You won’t be able to help feeling… wrong; just wrong.”

“Wrong? Hell, Jon a lot of things seem wrong but that doesn’t mean-“

“Don’t act like you have any fucking clue or frame of reference, Z. You don’t. Trust me on this, you don’t want to tangle with the sorts that dabble in that fuckery.” Jon’s voice was suddenly riddled with fury and panic. He was scared.

“I… I’m sorry, you’re right, I don’t know…”

Another long pause ended the conversation. Jon went back to his work and Zeke sat there silently watching his friend go about his work. Zeke had always wondered what Jon had seen in his adventures that made the man so resilient and paranoid at the same time. For the first time, Zeke had seen Jon truly afraid. The memories that must’ve flashed through his mind at the mere mention of the occult, had drawn on something Jon struggled to repress and keep hidden. Zeke thought for a moment that it might be because he’d encountered a Super whose abilities Jon wasn’t able to understand so, he assumed it was magic. No, that didn’t sound like Jon. Then again, fear wasn’t something Zeke was used to seeing in his friend either.

BZZT! BZZZZT! Zeke’s phone vibrated the whole table as it went off displaying that he had a text message.

Strange, he thought. The only people who texted him were Kira, Jon and a man named Halamid: an Israeli man who coordinated Zeke’s fights down in the Womb, the underground nightclub Zeke fought in twice a week. But he’d already done his fights for this week and Halamid never text him before Sunday. Zeke picked up the phone and unlocked the screen and saw the number was titled “Unknown” instead of an actual number. The message simply said, “CHANNEL 6 NOW.”

Zeke picked up the remote and switched on the power. Jon looked up from his work and cocked his left eyebrow up as Zeke flipped through the channels until he found the news station. The two sat in silence when the screen showed Vladimir Dracovic standing atop a podium with his arm around someone they both recognized immediately, as Collin Eckert, the boy with an unending adrenaline flow. Only now he was in his mid-twenties and was smiling, Zeke had never seen him smile before, and waving at the crowd and cameras.

“Collin is the first Super that Draco Industries has successfully cured!” Vladimir yelled ecstatically into the microphone. He wore a tan suit with a blue tie and was flashing his smile for the camera. “This man was once a cursed Super. He hadn’t slept in thirteen years because of an unlimited flow of adrenaline that caused his body to be in a constant state of fight-or-flight. Collin, please tell the world how it felt to sleep for the first time in thirteen years!” Vladimir handed the mic to Collin who wore jeans and a winter coat. The sky was grey and overcast above them and thunder rolled in the distance.

“I slept for like three days straight, it was amazing!” Collin exclaimed. Zeke had never seen him so happy before.

Intermission

The video cuts back to the studio room of Channel 6 news and Diane is fixing her hair as the camera returns to her. She has her hair tied up into a bun today.

“Well, that is truly amazing. That poor kid finally able to get some rest! In other news, the city has suffered yet another attack at the hands of Supers! The suburb of Glacier Valley came under attack when a band of Supers blew up a novelty bookstore. People say the bookstore, Ol’ Dragon’s Books, has been there for years. No one is really sure what provoked the attack but one resident was able to get video footage of one of the Supers leaving the scene after the attack. Here’s that for you.”

The video is clearly from a smart phone judging by the quality. The person carrying it clearly has shaky hands because the image can’t seem to stay straight until he gets to the window. A large meaty hand opens up a window and then disappears behind the camera. The image rolls over to the exploding bookstore. The image zooms in and focuses on a well-built man with blue skin and red tattoos covering his body. His hair is styled into a Mohawk, like some kind of barbarian. The blue man flies away and is gone in the blink of an eye and then the video is over.

“Apparently, beating up cops isn’t enough for this guy as it appears to be the blue-skinned Super terrorizing Glacier City. Channel 6 attempted to get a comment from Chief of Police, Janice Slayt though she had no comment to give.”