Tesla Coil

Tesla Coil appreciated the novelty of the criminals apparently holding Harold in an abandoned house instead of a warehouse. It made it harder for her to see inside, but at least the inside was new. She watched for any sign of weapons or powers through the window.

Two had guns, held with care, like they knew what they were doing. That was a problem.

One person pulled a can through the air into their hand, which meant she was dealing with some kind of kinetic. She’d need to get close. She checked to make sure her gloves had enough xenobotanicum to disrupt his powers should he be electrokinetic.

One didn’t show any abilities, just talked excitedly. No weapons meant he could be the most dangerous.

The last one she spotted changed back from Catherine Piec as he stepped in, stretching his muscles like he just woke up. That one was going to pay.

She crouched under the window, waiting for one with a gun to appear in range. She grabbed his arm, sending enough of a shock through it to disrupt him before smashing her head against his to knock him out.

She checked her heart-rate: Over 90 BPM, good.

Two bullets hit her forcefield, stinging her chest. She ran toward the perpetrator, taking her weapon and quickly incapacitating.

She turned the gun on the kinetic. All she needed was a cocky remark on why it wouldn’t work.

“Electron,” he greeted, “Must have gotten surgery. Looks good on you.”

“Right symbol, wrong tools.” she moved toward him, before something grabbed her from behind. She dropped the gun.

“I thought you were smart,” the man holding her said, squeezing, “That’s what the Care Crew said.”

“They’re right.”

She reached back, touching his leg enough to send a shock that released her. She kicked him in the face when he bent down.

“Where’s the kid?” she asked the kinetic.

He responded by pulling her forward through the air.

“Who taught you those moves?” he asked.

“So you’re telekinetic. What were you doing in ‘97?” she asked.

He flinched, giving her enough wiggle room to send him flying with a kick to the chest. She ran toward him and gave a shock that should keep him incapacitated.

She grabbed the errant guns and moved through the house, trying to find Harold. The shapeshifter was still at large, so she held herself from calling out.

Kicking open any closed door, she found nothing but empty rooms until she made it to the entrance of the garage.

“I could have ignored all of them and gone straight for the goods.”

She kicked open the door. Harold was tied up on a decaying couch. Her imitator, not that they looked very similar right now with Coil’s wig, was sitting across from him.

“Let the kid go,” Coil said, uncaring of what the shapeshifter might be saying to her son.

“You’re not Electron,” Catherine Piec said. Tesla Coil clenched her fist.

“One of your guys seemed pretty convinced,” she said.

She moved with caution, closer toward Harold, watching for weapons.

“How did you find us so fast? Nobody called the police, nothing in the news, just us and Catherine.”

“Electron’s not the only one who can pick up radio signals.”

The shapeshifter lifted Harold by his ropes, holding a taser to his neck.

“I know you want to help, and that’s admirable, but we have a job. Bring us Electron, or lose the kid.”

Tesla Coil put her hands up.

“Like I told you before, Electron’s dead.”

She manipulated the hoverdisc right behind the shapeshifter’s neck.

“You?” Catherine asked.

With a quick crack, Harold fell out of the shapeshifter’s hands as she fell.

Tesla Coil pulled the ropes off of him and picked him up.

“Are you okay, kiddo?”

“My Uncle Rex says you’re a poser.”

She let out a chuckle.

“Is that so?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well, how about I take you to your grandmother, and you can decide if you agree with him once we get there.”

“I agree to these terms,” Harold answered. Coil couldn’t hold back a smile for him.

Grace’s home was a little bit secluded, which made it take more time than Coil would have liked. She managed not to drop her child at the high speed of the hoverdisc, which was lowered by the imbalance of weight.

Harold’s face was snuggled into her chest, trying to avoid the winds.

“We’re on our way down, okay?” she told him.

“Okay,” she felt muffled against her chest.

Grace and Richard were just outside as they descended. Tesla Coil stepped off and bent down so Harold could get down of his own accord, like he preferred.

He started to walk over to Grace, then ran back to hug Tesla Coil.

“Thank you! I like you.”

“I like you, too.” she lightly tapped Harold’s nose, eliciting a giggle, “If you ever need help, you can call me.”

“How?” Harold asked.

“Ask your mother.”

She stepped back onto the hoverdisc, waving goodbye for longer than necessary.

“He likes Tesla Coil,” she bragged.

“You’re his mother,” Camera replied.

“He doesn’t know that yet. I’m gonna build some sort of signal device for him to call me, with a two-way signal so I can hear if I actually need to come or not.”

“Don’t forget the fundraiser.”

“Right!”

Catherine straightened out her suit as she stepped into the party. She hadn’t worn a dress to an event, if ever, since Harold was born. Luckily the suit caused more of a positive splash than a negative one.

She started by mingling with the other major donors, who talked about the superhuman plight, especially if they were somehow superhuman themselves. Catherine had enough humility to know that money all but removed that plight, outside of other rich jerks.

“Pike!” An expected but unwelcome voice shouted.

Bryce Warren had been a rival of Catherine’s in private school, who absolutely refused to pronounce her last name correctly. She closed her eyes with a sigh, putting on a smile.

“Bryce, still can’t understand a pronunciation guide for the life of you.”

“How’s the kid?” he asked.

“With his grandparents. How’s the loneliness?”

“An absolute delight. I think I might leave the party early.” he grabbed a glass of champagne, “Is your sister still hanging around?”

“She’s a whole state over.”

“Shame, would have liked to see a pretty face.”

Catherine frowned, eliciting a bigger grin from Bryce.

“Resorting to mocking burn scars,” she said, “I thought better of you, Bryce.”

“I didn’t say what made you not pretty. Personally, I think it’s the smile. You look better frowning.”

She forced a grin.

“Hard not to smile when I can see the sadness in your eyes.”

With that he let her alone. They would avoid each other for the rest of the night now that they’d gotten their animosity out of the way.

She looked over from the group of mingling donors to the employees, all of whom seemed uncomfortable. She stepped toward them.

“You work for the institute, right?” she asked an unfamiliar face that had to be Lanski.

“Yes,” he answered, not looking at her, “Are you a donor?”

She nodded, then realized he probably didn’t notice.

“Yes, I am. Are there any projects you can share about?”

“I mostly work in the genetics department, which is a lot less glamorous than it sounds.” he was tugging at his collar.

“So you compare DNA between families or people with similar abilities to see if any genes match?” she asked, trying to get him to speak.

“Yeah, that sort of thing. After mutation, DNA goes through a complete change. Siblings are sometimes unrecognizable.”

She knew this, but at least he seemed excited.

“Yeah, my sister and I look almost identical, but we’re over 90% different genetically. Reproductive DNA says otherwise though.”

“Yes!” he said, enthusiastically surprised, “You must have listened to the Xenology tapes.”

The tapes her husband recorded, whose release she’d approved after he’d gone missing.

“I need something to do in the car.”

It gave Harold a chance to hear his father’s voice, and say long words that made daycare employees equal parts excited and concerned.

“Do you drive yourself?” he finally turned toward her.

She couldn’t stop herself from laughing.

“I don’t trust anyone else to.”

He started moving back.

“I apologize, I just, last time I assumed—”

“You’re fine. It’s understandable. I just think that’s the first time someone asked me because of money and not because of…” she gestured at the right side of her face. Though easier to blend in post-mutation, her right eye still wasn't quite the same material as her left one, not to mention the burn scars surrounding it made it stranger for it to be normal.

“I mean, considering you’re a major donor, you probably have enough money for the best in cybernetics.”

He didn’t seem to recognize her despite looking at her face now. Should she have denied being a donor?

“My company makes the best in cybernetics,” she corrected. The man’s eyes went wide.

“Eiselcorp?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Dr. Piec?” he asked, almost terrified.

“Catherine!” an arm moved across her shoulders. She’d recognize the voice of Colin Lawrence anywhere. “Glad to have an intellectual equal here. I thought I’d be alone with the fools they consider worth hiring.”

“Charming as ever, Lawrence.” she carefully pulled his arm off her, well aware he’d probably consumed more alcohol than anyone should already.

“May I speak to you privately?” he asked.

She searched for a table, pointing to an empty one.

“Not as private as I’d like, but I’m a gentleman.”

She followed his awkward gait to the empty seats. He looked around for if anyone in the room was watching before his face returned to composure.

“Someone broke into the institute last week, stole some files,” he informed her, buzzed slur now absent.

“That’s not good.”

“It’s not. We can’t afford a repeat of the psychic purge.”

Technically, the institute could afford it. They’d even gotten more donors in the fallout of the original, but that wasn’t the we Lawrence referred to. Though powerless and surly, Lawrence cared about the superhuman community.

“Why are you telling me?” Catherine asked, already planning to look over the security tapes, “I left a long time ago.”

Lawrence gave her a level stare.

“There are things I never discussed with you or your late husband, both out of respect for your privacy and personal indifference, but I did notice them. I know you are the means to resolving this situation.”

Catherine wasn’t one for subtlety, but she caught on to the implications.

“I’ll do what I can. What files did they grab?”

Lawrence shrugged.

“You didn’t check?”

“I’m not an investigator.”

“You are the head of the diagnostic branch. Your job description is literally to investigate people until you understand their powers.”

“Dr. Gionelli was always better suited to it.”

Maybe Lawrence was drunk. Catherine leaned away.

“I’m allowed to compliment a dead man, aren’t I?” Lawrence asked.

She stared anywhere but him. He obliged by looking away.

“Oh, people are dancing. Care to dance?”

“Hell no.”

“This is why we always got along.”

“You told me I was a youthful hack until I quit,” Catherine corrected.

“Yes,” Lawrence bobbed his head in acknowledgment, “But now you’re an old hack, which puts us in the same boat.”

She managed a smile.

“Dr. Lawrence,” Bryce said from behind her, “I was hoping for a conversation.”

“I was talking with a former colleague. Why do I need to talk to you?”

“I read your study—”

“Probably outdated by now,” Catherine and Lawrence said in unison.

“You mentioned xenobotanicum having greater potential than just power suppression. I was wondering—”

“Well, Dr. Piec here is a greater expert in that field than I could ever claim to be,” Lawrence said. Catherine made threatening gestures, “With all her tech work. It’s a shame she left the institute, but she’s made great strides—there’s the alcohol.” Lawrence followed the path of a waiter, leaving Catherine and Bryce alone.

“Lawrence,” Catherine muttered.

“Wait, you actually know him, Pike?” Bryce asked.

“Yes! Do you think he lied about us being colleagues? It’s not hard to find I worked for the institute after college. That’s how I met my husband.”

“I don’t keep tabs on you, Pike, or the guy who had bad enough taste to marry you.”

She rolled her eyes.

“So you wanted to talk about further possibilities of the Bangkok Elusive.”

“The what?”

“It’s what most people mean when they say Xenobotanicum. The variety that originates in Bangkok, hard to grow outside of it, hard to find: Bangkok Elusive. There’s other relatives, but none of them have the same punch.” She gestured for him to take Lawrence’s seat. She’d wanted to talk science, even if it was with Bryce.

“So that brain wasn’t just bribery, apparently.”

Catherine’s jaw dropped.

“You thought I bribed my way into my grades?”

“I mean I still don’t have proof you didn’t. You were never in class.”

“I went to the science courses,” she huffed.

“Where every lab partner came out hating you. I know about Vivian.”

“Rex is the godfather of my child, so he got over it.” after Catherine apologized, not that Bryce had to know.

“Still a little bitch after all these years. Do you ever get tired of it?”

“Wouldn’t be such a bitch if you weren’t such an asshole.”

“Bryce!” a black-haired woman came up behind him, snaking a hand over his chest, “Who is this?”

“Dr. Catherine Piec,” she offered a hand, “Mr. Warren and I were talking about the uses of a particular flower in Tech and Xenology.”

The woman gave a confused expression. Bryce patted her hand.

“Business, maybe. Dr. Piec owns the majority of Eiselcorp, and runs their cybernetics department.”

Catherine pulled her right sleeve back to reveal her arm.

“Oh, you’re the one who married Grace Johnson’s son.”

“The very same.”

“I worked with her in a few productions,” the woman said with pride.

“I’ve watched most of them,” Catherine replied, “Who did you play?”

“Oh, I’m a producer, not an actor.”

“And I think that my conversation with Dr. Piec isn’t going to bear fruit,” Bryce stood up, still holding his date’s hand. “Sally, let’s go find some refreshments.”

“It was nice to meet you, Sally.”

“Same, Catherine.”

They waved. Catherine enjoyed making Bryce squirm by being friendly.

As the evening waned, Catherine found herself moving away from the hub of people, though she definitely got plenty of insight from the xenologists who recognized her. Bryce had already left with Sally, who Catherine was able to have a longer conversation with and arrange a date between the two of them and Grace.

She found Dr. Lanski hiding away on the phone, which she couldn’t help but overhear as she sat nearby.

“Call it off.” he said.

“You and I both know it was never going to work. Lawrence caught on.”

He made an angry noise.

“He was faking drunkenness while pulling Piec away to talk. I saw him drop the act when he thought no one was looking.”

She leaned down like she was trying to rest from something, and willed her technopathy into hearing the other end of the conversation.

“…It could make millions,” the other voice said.

“Yeah because everyone believes that crap. I like making money, but I prefer a stable income.”

“What income, Saul?”

“Well, Dave, I’m at a fancy dinner with the person you think could make us millions, so I think it pays well enough. Bye!”

The phone call ended. Catherine tried to look like she was breathing out some kind of stress. She caught Lanski walking by then flinching as he saw her.

“Dr. Piec. I didn’t realize you were there.”

“What?” she stared with a confused expression, “I’m sorry, I was a little in my own head.”

She saved the image of Dave’s phone number, and Lanski’s number as well. They could be behind the break-in.

“I was just talking to my cousin,” Lanski said, “Are you rejoining the party?”

She shook her head.

“Not for a bit, I need some alone time.”

“Well good luck.”

“Likewise.”