Electron & Berserker

“Something’s going on with the Coven,” I said, jumping up from the couch, “I can feel it.”

“No you can’t.” Alyssa smacked me on the head, making me sit back down “You’re just restless.”

Alyssa is a beautiful Japanese-American woman with black hair, blue eyes, and a dancer’s soul (and formerly career). She is my dearest friend in all realities, and I would be nothing without her.

“No,” I told her, “I think something’s going down in California.”

“California?” Alyssa asked, taking the other couch cushion, “How are you getting to California?”

“Like this,” I kissed her on the cheek, absorbing her current powers, though this time all I got was a little bit of hydrokinesis. “May I please borrow your car?”

“No,” Alyssa said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because I don’t trust you with my car.”

“But you love me.” I leaned endearingly on her shoulder. She flicked me in the forehead.

“Be that as it may,” she leaned her head on mine, “I don’t want to lose my vehicle before I can pay it off. The insurance on it already spiked thanks to you.”

“What did I do?”

“You crashed the last one. Plus, if you have to go to California, I won’t get my car back for at least a day, and I have a life.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Have a life?” Alyssa asked.

“You can just come with me to California. We can solve this issue with the coven, then just hang out.”

Alyssa pulled away, shaking her head.

“Take a bus if you want to go to California so bad. I’ll even drive you to the station.”

“Thank you!”

“Why are we stopping here?” Alyssa asked, staring at the circus, “Actually never mind, I know this routine. How do you always manage to find her?”

“Because readings are fun to write out. Are you coming?”

“No,” Alyssa said, “I’m already going to be late enough for work without your song and dance of trying to get a reading done together.”

“You never get a reading done though.”

“Because I don’t want one, Berserker. Go on.”

I trudged on alone until I reached the tent of one Madame Mysterium, absent customers thanks to the big top having a show on. Madame Mysterium had tanned skin with dark hair and eyes and dressed like a Victorian era woman in mourning.

“The mysteries do not speak to me at the momen—” she turned to see me, switching immediately out of the English accent, “Oh, hey Berserker.”

“Circe!”

We gave each other a tight hug. Circe isn’t Alyssa by any means, but she’s solid in the running for my second favorite person.

“What do you need?” she asked, sitting down at her table and shuffling her deck of tarot cards.

“What I always come here for.”

“You know you could buy me lunch one of these days,” Circe proposed, “If you’re going to keep abusing my abilities like this.”

“Take it up with Alyssa,” I said. “What’s up with the Coven?”

“The Coven?”

The cards stopped in mid air as the light reaching inside the tent dimmed.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I’m pretty sure they’re in California.”

Circe’s card’s returned to the laws of physics as she shuffled them a few more times before handing me the deck.

“Do I place them?” I asked.

“Just cut the deck. I don’t need your humor if the Coven’s involved.”

“Fine.” I took a single card off the top and handed it to her.

She placed the next three cards in front of me.

“Reveal your past.”

I played a game of elimination before picking the middle card.

The three of pentacles had one each held by a different small child. The one in the middle had tan skin, dark hair and brown eyes, to her left was a girl with blue eyes, black hair, and a Magen David necklace that I know wasn’t there when she was actually that age. The one on the right had black hair streaked with white, and eyes watching him, just like you are right now.

“We know our history with them,” Circe said, “And I don’t want to get into it.”

“Why are you the one in the middle?” I asked.

“Because I’m the reason we got out, now pick another one.”

I took the right one, still watching my younger self, though the image had fully stilled now.

The knight of swords had a heavy emphasis on knight at the moment. For some reason he was just floating, and the armor looked a little too modern, with some dotty logo on the front.

“You aren’t the only one looking into them it seems,” Circe said, “He’s smart, a scientist probably, but also a hero like you.”

“I’m not a hero, heroes are boring.”

“He’s not alone,” Circe continued, ignoring me.

“Yes he is, can’t you see the card?”

Circe pointed next to the knight’s ear, rubbing her finger on it before pulling it up and showing the light image of a woman whispering to him.

“Someone’s controlling him.”

“Maybe,” Circe said, “But I think she’s helping. Whatever’s going on, she’s as important in this as he is.”

I hovered my hand over the last card, waiting for Circe to turn it over.

The lovers consisted of a man with curly blond hair and an electric halo alongside a woman with long red hair and a nasty scar on her face, both leaning on the hood of a car. Unlike how I usually saw this, they weren’t touching each other at all, just looking forward. When I changed the angle, the man began to look like the knight of swords, but the woman remained the same.

“So I’m going to help this knight of swords make a decision about this girl? Is she the woman from before?”

“No idea,” Circe said, “But you are going to cause something to happen between those two. I’m not sure what. There’s a decision involved, but I don’t know what it’s about.”

I kept an eye on the two of them, memorizing their appearance.

“I’ve got a bus to catch,” I said.

I don’t like crowds. Anyone who does only likes them when they’re outside of them.

Eventually, I felt a tug, and got off the bus, through the skylight. The driver yelled at me for a minute, I’ll admit.

I climbed onto the closest nearby roof and started running. I was waiting for some other pull to take me to my destination. Eventually I came to a warehouse with a broken skylight that was easy enough to jump through. At the bottom was a dome of ice and fire. With the hydrokinesis I got from Alyssa, I quickly turned the ice to water, dousing the fire and making a cushion for me to fall next to my knight of swords.

“Hi,” I said.

“Berserker?” the knight asked.

“You recognize me?” I asked, “Good, that makes everything so much easier.

Two of the people around us were glaring at me.

“Hi, boys.”

I felt some telekinesis trying to take hold and started running. Like with everything, it’s harder to use telekinesis on a moving target.

One of them shot fire at me and I dodged it, headbutting him as I ran forward. His pyrokinesis was difficult to control, but I had experience.

I shot a quick blast of fire at the person holding their hands out at me. The fire dissipated, and the knight of swords finally got up.

He moved his hand, and shiny metal bits from the floor got tossed at the telekinetic.

I ran to the wall, flipped over, and ran over to the ice person, who slicked up the floor underneath me, so I slid, landing on my back in front of his person. I kicked him in the groin, and stood up.

The knight of swords had made a rudimentary cage around the telekinetic.

“Those won’t hold,” I said.

“Of course they won’t,” the knight said, “But considering two people just jumped through the skylight, the police might just be on their way.”

“Might?” I asked.

“Well I didn’t call them, so I wouldn’t know.”

He paused a minute, probably listening to the whispering woman.

“Yeah, they’re coming, let’s cuff these two and get out of here.”

I nodded, poking the telekinetic to get some of his power. I managed to notice a memorable pentagram on the man’s clavicle.

“Guess I was right.”

“Why are you here anyways?” the knight asked, having moved us to a different rooftop.

“Because I knew the Coven was up to something,” I explained.

“The Coven?”

“Old group of superhumans. They’re weird.”

“They exist?” he asked.

“Of course they exist,” I said, “And they suck.”

“But aren’t they supposed to be helping superhumans or something, like we’re trying to help people.” he gestured at the two of us.

“I’m just trying to have fun,” I corrected.

“Of course you are,” the knight said, “What makes you so sure they’re Coven.”

“Pentagram, burned into the TK’s collarbone.” I pointed at the spot on my own.

“Like the one on the back of your neck?” the knight asked.

“Yeah. That’s how I know they’re not helping people, at least not as long as I’ve been around.”

“Okay…” the knight of swords said, “Are you staying in town until the Coven is dealt with, then?”

“Or until it’s not interesting enough to stay,” I said.

“Okay,” he said, “So it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other,” he extended a hand, “I’m Electron, by the way.”

I shook his hand as hard as I could manage, a difficult task with the armor.

“I’m Berserker. I’ll see you after reading up on you.”

“Reading up on me?”

I jumped off the building, quickly disappearing from view.

I jumped down as Electron came out of his work.

“Aah!” his glasses fell off as he jumped away, “How did you find me?”

“You shouldn’t start your adventures at work if you don’t me to find it,” I said.

He watched me with confusion.

“Don’t worry, I don’t share things, except for now, when I’m going to share things about the Coven. How much time do you have in your day?”

He readjusted himself and brought me to the side of the building so we’d be less obvious.

“Never come to my place of work again, please. Some of us have lives outside of heroics.”

“Do you?” I asked.

“Do I what?”

“Do you have a life outside of heroics, or do you just have a job?”

“Yes,” he defended, “I love my job, and my family, and I have a project related to my thesis again.”

I clocked out, realizing this man was a total nerd.

“What about the whispering woman?”

“Whispering Woman?” he asked.

“The one that talks to you.” I tapped my ear, and the confusion mostly left his face.

“Why do you think The Voice of Reason is a woman?” he asked.

“Because that’s what the cards showed.”

“What cards?”

“Circe’s cards.”

“Who’s Circe?”

“The woman with the cards that showed me you and the whispering woman, and a red head, and that car.” I pointed to one of the vehicles in the parking lot.

“That’s my car.” Electron pointed to himself, “What redhead?”

“Do you lean on it a lot?” I asked.

“What?”

“Do you lean on your car a lot?”

“Why do you even care about that?” he asked.

“You’re dodging the question.”

Electron rolled his eyes.

“Not a lot. I try not to touch it if possible.” he made some sparks dance around his fingers. “I only have it because I live too far away to walk.”

“Can’t you fly?” I asked, “You flew before.”

“I moved the metal suit while I was in it. True flight is a very rare ability. Most people we think have pure flight just have high control of their own gravity in relation to the world around them.”

“Interesting,” I said, “Circe said you’d be a scientist. I didn’t expect a xenologist.”

“At the Quartz Institute?” he asked, gesturing to the building he just came out of.

“I live a whole state over,” I explained, “I don’t know anything going on here.”

His look was less than pleased.

“Just tell me what you want to tell me about the coven.”

“Nah,” I said.

“Nah?”

“Nah, I want The Voice of Reason to hear it too. She seems important.”

“You don’t know they’re a woman.”

“Do you?” I asked.

“No, that’s why I don’t call her—them—one.”

“Fine,” I shrugged, “See you there, then.”

“See you where?”

“You’ll find me.”