String - Interception 10.4 (Patreon)

The rest of the mission went without a hitch.

I returned to my workshop with minimal power left in my suit. There had not been any cause for concern, and I relayed as much to everyone anxiously waiting for me to get back. However, I had kept my encounter with Gaea to myself for the moment. I didn’t know how to even approach that topic, let alone explain it. I could see Sam suspecting me of keeping a secret. Gold would have clued in instantly, but everyone else was none-the-wiser.

The game had changed, and I couldn’t pretend like Gaea’s offer wasn’t living in my head rent-free.

Temptation plagued me the following day at school. I watched the clock like every other kid did on a Friday, but my mind wasn’t focused on heading home to play video games or socialize. No, every waking moment was consumed by indecision and an inability to stay the course. I had plans… Madhouse had plans centered around me and here I was, wondering if any of it had any merit when faced with Gaea’s unbelievable offer.

I could double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of charges I had. The possibilities were endless and I had to wonder if my power was just limited to charges. I knew there were other functions, smaller ones that I discovered over time. I could learn the intricacies of the things I touched, the components, the makeup, wear and tear, and potential. Did it just stop there or were there aspects about my power I had yet to discover? If there were, Gaea could help me with that – the ultimate shortcut.

The only cost was loyalty. Gaea didn’t seem to have any kind of interest in Sam or Liam. There were arguments to be made with Mia, but outside of that, Madhouse would essentially crumble if I agreed to Gaea poaching me. Cyberspace would either take the blow gracefully or seek retribution for the betrayal. There was a good part of me that didn’t want to roll those dice. There were a number of things that could happen, and Gaea couldn’t guarantee the safety of my mother and sister.

Gaea was one person, and The Queen’s Court was situated here in Bayside. Cyberspace’s network was global. I might be able to keep Mom safe, but there wasn’t a chance I’d be able to get to Alex to help before Cyberspace captured her. Hell, as far as I knew, Alex was probably already sitting under a swinging pendulum of Cyberspace’s making. One threat of disloyalty and they would set it in motion.

What was Gaea playing at? She must know that crossing Cyberspace wouldn’t end favorably for me. Maybe that was why she opened with such a tantalizing offer. The price of betrayal would be crippling, but the sheer amount of power would be the trade-off.

I’m not that desperate.

The temptation was sickly sweet, but the consequences destroyed any desire to pursue it seriously.

If there was any time when I wanted to play both sides, it was now. It stung that I couldn’t have my cake and eat it too, and these feelings followed me all the way into the weekend.

“Oh. My. God,” Sam groaned, throwing her head back. “Could you be any more of a depressive sook? Seriously, we all decided to take a day off for ourselves and go out for some fun, yet you’ve been moping since we left home,” she gestured to Liam and Mia who sat with plates of food in front of them. Mia was lightly picking at her salad while Liam shoveled pancakes into his mouth. “I even brought you to one of my favorite diners. The least you could do is look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

I met Sam’s gaze and struggled to look away.

“Sorry. There’s just been a lot on my— ow!” I recoiled as an olive hit my eye. I rubbed it and scowled at Sam who sat across from me, fingers primed to launch another olive. “Fuck off, that hurt.”

“Quit it with the apologies then. You’ve been sitting on something ever since you got back from that outing. I’ve held my tongue because if you wanted to share it with everyone, you would have done so by now. I suspect you don’t want Cyberspace to know what it is,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “I took the liberty of switching off all our phones, except yours. Had to remove the battery because of your improved security.”

“Wait, what?” Mia interjected, reaching into her pocket. She retrieved her phone and stared at it incredulously. “When did you…?”

“Fifteen minutes ago. You guys were ordering food,” Sam casually dismissed. “There’s not much tech stuff in this place. Pretty stylistic and old-fashioned, but since our boss is a literal ‘knife in the dark’ type, it’ll be best if we keep our voices down.”

“Easy,” Liam said, cutting off another chunk of his pancake. “I just won’t talk. Too busy with this, so you guys do your thing and I’ll just listen.”

I was still focused on Sam’s fingers. She hadn’t removed them from her plate of food and the next olive was already lined up ready to fire. My gaze flicked between her and the olive and I could feel the anticipation in the air. I half expected her to fire it off at me the moment I started talking. With her aim, she would be able to get it into my mouth.

“While I was out, something—” I saw it coming and ducked to the left. My movement threw Sam’s aim off and the olive flew over my shoulder. She made up for the loss by lightly kicking me under the table. “You’re so predictable.”

“Damnit!” Sam cursed with a laugh. “Anyway, you were saying?”

“While I was out, something did happen,” I said, confirming everyone’s suspicions. Sam leaned back in her seat while Mia waited patiently for me to elaborate. Liam shoveled bigger portions into his mouth, drinking in anticipation. “I ran into Gaea, or to put it more accurately, Gaea purposefully ran into me.”

Mia frowned.

“Seems irresponsible for her to be out so late. Was she not scared of being caught?”

“No, she seemed wholly unbothered. She and Ajax have an understanding, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the war machines are tuned to ignore her if they come across her. It would be a pretty bad look to kill or imprison someone like her for a minor infarction,” I explained. “She never confirmed that, but some of the things she said imply there is a level of immunity in place for her and the rest of The Queen’s Court.”

Sam scoffed.

“That wouldn’t surprise me. What else is there?”

“Where do I even start?” I shook my head, trying to recall the conversation. “Maybe with the fact that Cyberspace handed your identities to Gaea on a silver platter. She knows who you guys are, and she justified it by claiming it was necessary information to have so she could prevent her people from interfering in our lives. It’s part of the fragile alliance they have.”

“What!?” Mia hissed, her expression shifting to visible anger. “You can’t be serious, she knows who we are?”

“The three of us,” Sam mused aloud, raising an eyebrow in my direction. “You conveniently left yourself out.”

“On purpose. Cyberspace has been tight-lipped about my identity. Gaea doesn’t know anything about me, and from the looks of it, they want to keep it that way,” I said. “I picked up on that too. It’s probably because I’m a Mechakinetic.”

“Probably,” Sam agreed. “Also incomprehensibly stupid. If Gaea knows who we are, she can easily figure out your identity. Look at us,” she gestured all around us. “We’re hanging out in public, and if Gaea has half a brain cell to rub together, it’ll be easy enough to figure you out. It wasn’t like Cyberspace forbade us from socializing and going out together like this. If they were serious about keeping your identity under wraps, you wouldn’t be allowed to leave your workshop.”

Sam had a point. That was stupid. Why hadn’t I realized that sooner?

“So, what does that mean?”

“It could mean a number of things. None of which are particularly good,” Sam sipped her milkshake. “I’m thinking Cyberspace expects Gaea to figure out who you are, maybe they’ve withheld that information on purpose to push Gaea to confront you. There’s dozens of reasons as to why, the only question is the motive behind this decision,” she leaned forward and propped her elbows up on the table before resting her chin in her hands. “Fucking hell this sucks. I hate not knowing. This is why I hate working for people this big. They have all the cards and we have nothing.”

“We knew all this going into it,” I replied, trying to ease the frustration I felt rolling off Sam in droves. “You said it was the best move to play along with them. We’ve got resources and everything we could ever need to stay ahead of everyone else.”

“We do until we don’t,” Sam sighed. “You know it too. When we stop cooperating and playing ball, things turn sour for us.”

The atmosphere turned tense as we all shared concerned looks. Liam, on the other hand, continued to devour his pancakes. When he finished his mouthful and none of us spoke, he audibly groaned and rubbed his face in exhaustion.

“Is that all you guys talked about?” He asked. “Cause, like… we already know most of this stuff, apart from the fact that she knows our names. That fuckin’ sucks but it is what it is. What’s she gonna do with that information? Nothing, unless she wants to piss off the international super-terrorist.”

“She is one of the Trinity…” Mia trailed off. “Maybe Gaea thinks it’s worth it?”

“There’s more. I got a bit of a history lesson. Stuff about why she’s trying to run for Prime Minister, why she helped create this country. There’s also her conflict of interest with Cyberspace. They may have an agreement now, but they're working toward two different goals.” I said as I scratched my chin, trying to figure out how to explain what Gaea had done to me. “Something about the end of the world.”

“Whoa, what? Pause. End of the world?” Liam glared at me in disbelief. “Fucking lead with that, bro. What the hell, how is the world gonna end?”

“It’s not as bad as it seems—”

“Bad as it seems? It doesn’t get much worse than the end of the world! That’s finality, the end of the end. No do-overs or second chances.” Liam argued. “What’s got Gaea talking about this shit? Does she know something we don’t?”

“It’s Annihilation Theory. I’ve heard it once before,” Sam rolled her eyes. “Scary stuff, pretty improbable though, what with Ajax around.”

“Improbable how?” Mia asked. “If Cyberspace and Gaea are preparing for this, then shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t everyone?”

“The ECU’s prime purpose is to literally prevent it from happening. They might be doing a shit job at it, but it’s something they're doing nonetheless. Ajax is the real countermeasure,” Sam explained. “There’s probably even more stuff that I don’t even know about set in place to stop any sort of apocalyptic event. Gold’s certain of this.”

I wasn’t convinced. Sam’s casual dismissal was uncharacteristic. Out of all of us, I expected her to come out swinging with a hidden plan to survive said event. I hadn’t expected denial.

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” I said.

Sam’s eyebrow rose.

“Oh?”

“Gaea said that evohumans have been getting stronger and awakening in larger numbers. The ECU aren’t going to be able to cut it for much longer, they’re falling behind,” I said, gesturing out the window. “Just look out there. Without Ajax’s war machines here, they would be outnumbered on all fronts. With just the four of us, we could easily deal with a majority of The ECU’s heaviest hitters. Tell me we couldn’t.”

Sam stared at me and pursed her lips. It wasn’t long before she tore her gaze away.

I opted to keep pushing.

“You know the balance is tipping when groups like ours can even last a week, so why say it’s improbable?”

“You want my real opinion? Fine, the world has been steadily leaning into a nosedive over the last five to ten years. I don’t really like thinking about it because what can little ol’ me be expected to do about it?” Sam countered with a flat glare. “I'm just one girl with voices in her head with a bunch of powers that I have to negotiate with to synergize properly. How do you expect me to save the world when I have to fight and bicker with different parts of myself about how much makeup I should put on in the mornings, or what clothes to wear?”

“Hey, I never asked for you to do it yourself.”

Sam groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Seriously, how have we circled back to this? I thought we put these kinds of talks behind us, are you guys actually having a change of heart? I’m not in this business to play the misunderstood group of ragtag vigilantes. I know what I am,” she said stubbornly. “Leave global preservation to the people who actually want to save the world. I am more than happy continuing as I am.”

I snorted and leaned back.

“Oh come on, drop the tough uncaring act, Sam. I know you’re not that cold-hearted. You like to play the realist but that doesn’t stop you from feeling bad when people get hurt. It’s basic human empathy, we feel awful when people around us endure hardship, and you know this so I don’t need to lecture you about it,” I crossed my arms. “You don’t want to be a hero, fine. I don’t either but doing the right thing doesn’t have to be heroic.”

Sam’s glare remained locked on me, unblinking. She had never stared at me with this much scrutiny before and I couldn’t lie, it twisted my guts to argue with her like this. I felt like I was putting her on the spot, but she had to know this sort of conversation was coming.

“How about you quit stalling and finish telling us about what happened with Gaea instead of revisiting a topic we’ve beaten to death? Don’t think I haven’t noticed you holding out on us. You’ve had my full attention from the start,” Sam’s glare narrowed. “I can see right through you. You want to avoid this—”

“No,” I cut her off. “I just don’t know how to say it without sounding insane.”

“Damn, this must be big,” Liam mused before staring down at his plate. A frown crossed his face when he realized his plate was empty. “Aw man, I’m still hungry. Might get seconds, how much were the pancakes?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mia quietly push the menu across the table toward him with a finger over her mouth. Liam looked between me and Sam before tilting his head ever-so-slightly. He mouthed an ‘oh’ before quietly shrinking into his seat next to the window.

“Best you think of a way quickly because from where I’m sitting, it appears like you were considering jumping ship to Gaea’s side.”

“What? That’s not—” I stopped myself when I felt the heat of Mia and Liam’s stares. It took me a moment, but I managed to gather my nerves and summon some courage to explain myself. “Come on, Sam. Seriously? Do you really think I’d just do that?”

“Then tell me because Gold’s clued into whatever internal conflict you’ve got going on. You’re shaken, enough that it’s still affecting you even now.”

“Gold’s got the wrong idea. Gaea made a proposition, yeah, but the consequences of just ditching everything for her are too costly. Doesn’t sit right with me,” I explained, noting the puzzled stares I got from all three of them. “What Gold’s probably clued into is what she did to me, what she showed me. From what we know, it should be impossible. That’s what I’m caught up on. It changes everything.”

“What changes everything? What’s impossible” Mia asked.

“Power alteration.”

Sam’s eyes went wide while the implications were lost on Mia and Liam. The latter didn’t look all that interested in the revelation while the former just appeared confused. Sam, on the other hand, looked down at her untouched salad with a haunted expression.

“I know that sounds crazy, but it’s the truth. Whatever she did changed me – it tapped into the very source of my power and altered it. Took me from twenty-five all the way to seventy—”

“Seventy?” Sam hissed under her breath. “Do you still…? No, she wouldn’t have known. Gaea doesn’t know the intricacies of your power. She wouldn’t have known what exactly she was changing about you. Just that she was changing something and making it better,” her words came out in rapid-fire before she abruptly shot from her seat. “Gaea pulled it away, didn’t she? She wouldn’t leave you with that kind of power.”

“Not all of it,” I mumbled. “I have thirty instead of twenty-five. Apparently, it’s something she’s only recently been able to do, claiming Mia was the missing puzzle piece,” I gestured to Mia and she recoiled, shaking her head. “Which means the real key was Splicer.”

“I am so lost, what does this all mean?” Mia demanded. “Is that what Gaea wanted? To study me like some sort of… thing to be dissected?”

“She dissected you the moment you walked into that meeting,” Sam grumbled, collapsing back into her seat. I watched as she ran a hand through the top of her head as a million unspoken thoughts raged, all reflected in her eyes. “Shit. Shit! You’re right, this changes fucking everything. If Gaea’s able to change, improve, and cripple people’s powers now, that makes her more dangerous than ever.”

“How is she more dangerous than before? Gaea could turn us to dust in an instant, who cares if she can mess with powers,” Liam scowled. “I don’t see the big deal.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Sam sneered. “Stop thinking so surface level for a moment and look at the big picture. Gaea – Melody – is a politician. She lives and dies by her reputation. The easiest solution to dealing with The Queen’s Court opposition is to kill everyone that opposes her, but that’s insane – the actions of a dictator. She would never, so what’s the next best option? Play the game the way The ECU does – by the book – but do it better.”

“She doesn’t have to do that now,” I said. “Gaea now has the means to effectively sterilize us – render us a non-issue, just like she did to Grim.”

“While empowering the ones loyal to her. All hail the Queen,” Sam muttered sourly. “That’s what she’s done, isn’t it. She didn’t take away your power – she made it better. An incentive.”

“A taste of her generosity,” I nodded. “That’s what she said. There’s no telling what else she’s capable of doing with powers. I don’t have the first clue how she’s doing what she’s doing, but it has to be biological. That’s how her power works.”

“Unless she’s changed it,” Mia pointed out. “If she can mess with powers, what’s to say she can’t mess with her own? She alters the way she looks, who’s to say she wouldn’t try the same with her own powers?”

“Risky,” Sam replied, biting one of her thumbnails. “She very well could, but maybe it’s too soon. Gaea might need to experiment before she’s comfortable messing around with her own powers. One wrong move and she might not be able to undo certain changes. Nobody is supposed to know how powers work, it’s the one constant everyone’s familiar with. There have been thousands of studies on the subject, theories stretching from the physical to the metaphysical. People have tried to look all the way to atomic level to try and figure out why. Nothing. There’s been absolutely nothing. The source of our power is a complete mystery…” she paused briefly, her fingers curling. “Allegedly.”

“Well, clearly it isn’t, cause Gaea knows,” Liam shrugged. “So what do we do? Go after her like with Grim?”

“Ahaha, no. No waaaay…” Sam's weak chuckles petered off into uncertainty. “Um, actually… we, uh. We might. Yeah, um, we might have to.”

“For fucks sake. It’s just one thing after the other,” Liam muttered, pushing his empty plate away. “We gotta draw the line somewhere guys. We have to figure out what happened with my sister, gotta rip Pandora a new asshole to help Lucy out, have to bust up some war machines to make sure Ajax doesn’t murderify us or something. Now we’re looking to pick a fight with Gaea?” He shook his head. “The hell are we even doing? Oh, yeah, you have that thing with the angel girl too. Can’t forget about that.”

Sam groaned.

“I know it’s a lot but we’ll get—”

“No,” Mia interrupted. “Just, no. I’m siding with Liam here. This is way too much. We’ve got enough to deal with. I am not going to pick a fight with The Queen’s Court – with Gaea of all people.”

“I’m not disagreeing!” Sam insisted, holding up her hands to quell the incoming arguments. “Trust me, I’m not. With everything that’s going on, believe me, I’m the last person who wants to pick more fights with people. I’m having enough trouble keeping up as is, but Max is right, this changes things. It changes everything.”

An uncomfortable air descended and left us sitting in our booth in silence. Sam and Mia seemed to start a conversation through stares alone, while Liam started slurping his drink. I figured all this information about Gaea would cause a stir, but it needed to be said. I had no idea if I picked the right moment but Sam forced my hand. I didn’t like how quickly she jumped to a conclusion of betrayal, especially if Gold decided to go with that narrative. 

Maybe it was because there was so much going on but Gold didn’t seem like the type to be so off the mark.

“Alright,” Liam said, putting his drink down. “Sure. I don’t really see how, but why not. How’re we going to deal with this?”

“I’ve thought about that,” I said, drawing everyone’s attention to me. “Gaea said she was able to discover her ability to do this by reading Mia. Her Awakening was caused by Splicer, so I’m guessing whatever secrets she was able to discover, we can learn through him.” I looked around for any opposition. “Convenient that we have access to him. Might as well use it.”

“What makes you think Cyberspace is going to allow that?” Mia asked. “Last time you guys saw him, he was being held at their other hideout. What makes you think Splicer’s still being held there? Couldn’t they have moved him?”

“Moved him where?” Liam asked.

Mia shrugged.

“I don’t know. You guys were the ones inside, you tell me.”

“They have a floor where they keep uncooperative supers,” Sam said. “Chances are he’ll still be there. He didn’t strike me as the cooperative type, especially after what happened, which brings up another point. Getting him to talk is going to be tough.”

“Tough? You pulled Grim’s weakness out of him without him needing to say it,” I frowned. “What’s so different about this?”

Sam’s uncertain expression returned with a vengeance.

“Gold’s good at pulling the unspoken truth out of people. Splicer knew his weakness because his work directly corresponded with trying to get rid of it. He needed to know about it in order to remove it. Gold read him like a book,” Sam explained. “This time, I suspect it might be a bit different. I could try my hand at it but I get the feeling it won’t be that simple. Splicer likely doesn’t know the secret, not in the traditional way. It’ll have something to do with his powers. I would need extensive sessions of study in order to figure out what he’s doing.”

“In other words, you don’t have time for that.”

“Fuck I wish I did. I really do,” Sam grumbled. “I have some things lined up this week. I’m going to try a different angle of approach with Seraphim. I’m going to build a plan after studying the data those seismic sensors are bringing in, and top it all off, I need to come up with a strategy for you and Lucy to follow during your play date with Wildfire on Thursday. All in all, busy week. I have no time.”

“I’m uh… doing homework,” Liam raised a hand lamely. “Also grinding that new shooter, so I’m kinda busy too.”

I snorted and smiled.

“You’re okay, Liam.”

“Just letting you know,” he chuckled. “We all got important things to do.”

“I’ll take a crack at it,” I said, turning back to Sam. “Splicer might primarily be a biokineitc but from my understanding, he built all that tech The ECU seized. If I can get my hands on some of that stuff like I initially wanted, I might be able to figure something out.”

Sam pursed her lips for a moment before nodding.

“Alright. Give it a crack, I’m curious to see what you’ll find. Are you going to ask to speak to him as well, or just ask Cyberspace to give you what mechatech he has?”

“Both,” I shrugged. “Can’t hurt to talk to the guy again. Who knows, maybe he’s chilled out a bit since the Grim fiasco.”

“Wishful thinking,” Mia said flatly. “I don’t think anyone has.”

“Regardless, I’m going to try,” I continued. “I can’t just ignore what Gaea showed me. That information is too valuable. I might not be willing to jump ship, but I’m not about to ignore what happened. If she can figure it out, then so can anyone else.”

Gaea didn’t realize what kind of mistake she had made.

I was going to figure out how to replicate what she did, no matter the cost.