Electron & Berserker

With The Voice of Reason in his ear, Electron started his search on the roof he’d brought Berserker to after their warehouse fight.

“You know, I’d thought the reports that he’s lost his mind were just gossip, but after two conversations, I think they might be onto something.”

“I doubt it, honestly,” Reason said, “I think he likes the persona. Very Hamlet of him.”

“You’ve read Hamlet?” Electron asked. His family had always been very interested in the humanities, but Reason seemed to have less literary influence.

“Watched the movie,” Reason admitted.

“Which one?”

“Ping,” they said instead of answering, “Berserker spotted by police, probably arriving at your location in three, two, one.”

The large trench coat flared out as the man jumped onto the building, just in front of Electron. This was the first time he’d really looked at Berserker. Aside from the trenchcoat, he had a simple pair of pants on, and no shirt. His hair, though black, was streaked with what seemed to be silver. He looked like he hadn’t a care in the world.

“Did you bring the police here?” Electron asked, trying to look anywhere else.

“No,” Berserker said in perfect sync with Reason.

“The police determined him not worth their time.”

“How are you worth ignoring and I’m not?” Electron asked.

“Because the plot conveniences me until it doesn’t.”

Electron immediately gave up on parsing that sentence.

“You were going to explain the Coven now that the Voice of Reason is here?”

“Yeah, if she’s ready.”

“How did he know that?” Reason muttered.

“Know what?” Electron asked.

“Nothing. Yeah. Ready.”

Electron relayed the fact.

“I escaped the Coven as a kid,” Berserker said.

“Escaped?”

Berserker nodded.

“They wanted to make some kind of super weapon, and I was part of the attempts. I escaped with two of the others, and now we’re out in the world.”

“Who were the others?” Electron asked on Reason’s direction.

“Can’t say,” Berserker said, “Doesn’t work that way. What you need to know is that after a certain point the Coven’s goals became about power, not about helping each other, not that everyone working there realizes that’s what it’s about. They think they’re here to stop human domination, by whatever means necessary.”

“That’s admirable,” Electron admitted, “In a way.”

“Of course you’d think that, Xenologist.”

“What did he call you?” Reason asked.

“Xenologist, a scientist who studies superhumans.”

“I know what it is, why did he call you one?”

“Let’s file that under information we don’t ask more about.”

“Fine,” Reason said, “Does he have anything else on the Coven?”

When Electron turned back to Berserker, he wasn’t there.

“He didn’t explain much, did he?” Electron asked.

“He brought up the xenologist thing on purpose,” Reason said, “I think his brain is more intact than he wants us to believe.”

A few stopped muggings and one interrupted gallery break-in later, Electron had some breathing room to watch the city.

“Do you think we can trust a word that comes out of his mouth?” Electron asked.

“No idea,” Reason said, “He has a mark on his neck like the collarbone one he pointed out, but that could just serve to corroborate his story.”

Electron wasn’t sure.

“I assumed Berserker was just trying to help people, like we are, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s going on here. I’m not planning to help on a vengeance quest.”

“You’re helping me with the Eisel plans,” Reason said, “What makes you sure that’s not a vengeance quest?”

“Nothing, except for the fact I think Henry Eisel needs to be dealt with, whether or not you want vengeance. I’m not so convinced when it comes to the Coven.”

“You think it’s actually trying to stop human domination?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

Reason remained silent.

“Henry Eisel’s empowered, isn’t he?” they finally said.

“Are you implying that Eisel and the Coven could be working together?”

“If the Coven’s trying to amass power, and building weapons,” Reason said, “Berserker could just be a less mutated version of that monster we’re so sure was connected to Eisel.”

He didn’t want to think about those creatures again. His limited conversations with Mandie seemed to still be shaken up over the incident.

“So Berserker is just them before they’re over-mutated.”

“Eisel destroyed the program,” Reason said, “That may have been on Coven orders.”

It seemed to be against someone’s orders from Mandie’s limited report.

“I do not trust the Coven,” Reason said, “And I do not trust Berserker, but between those options, his word seems better than theirs.”

She wasn’t wrong, though they didn’t even know this situation was related to the Coven at all.

“It could just be people using the Coven’s symbolism to justify their extremism.”

“Extremism?” Reason asked, “Not sure those guys were even calling for equal rights, let alone superiority. Whatever plans they have are for the long game.”

“Or it’s unrelated, and Berserker’s just fucking with us.”

“I dislike the high probability of that reality.”

Electron couldn’t keep himself from smiling under the suit.

“We’ll figure it out, okay?”

“We will,” Reason affirmed.

The silence overtook, and Electron began actually patrolling again.

“He was right about one thing, though,” Reason admitted.

“What?”

“He identified me as she. He was right. I am a woman.”

That made Electron pause. He’d assumed Reason to be a man based on the voice, though he knew it was altered, an attractive man, but an inaccurate assessment nonetheless.

“Are you going to say anything?” Reason asked.

“I think I need to investigate certain biases of mine.”

She laughed.

“Are you going to stop using voice alteration?” he asked.

“No,” she said, “I may change how much I alter it, though.”

He felt like she deserved some big secret in exchange. He wasn’t sure he had anything of equal value.

“You get one question,” he said.

“What?”

“One question that you can ask about me, and I’ll answer completely honestly. It doesn’t have to be now—”

“Are you seeing anyone?” she blurted out.

“Are you interested?” he asked back.

“No, I just, my image of you is purely heroic. If you are seeing someone, you have a life.”

“Well I told you about the woman ignoring my calls.”

“Are you seeing her?”

“I’d like to, but the point is that I’m not. She’s…” he didn’t need to share about Catherine.

“She’s what?”

“She’s the closest I have to seeing anyone. There’s your question, it’s been answered.”

He jumped into an alley to block a man’s fist before he attacked someone else. The man looked Electron up and down before running. He offered the woman help getting back home, but she just kissed him on the cheek and reentered the club.

“Should I stay to make sure she gets home safe?”

“Not like I can stop you,” Reason said, “I can let you know if something major comes up.”

“Thanks.” He flew up over the edge of the building. If she walked out with friends, then he’d leave, but if she walked out alone or with just one other person…

“An admirable trait,” Reason commented, “Your responsibility.”

“Hanging out above a club at night isn’t my definition of responsible, but thanks.”

He enjoyed the silence, but curiosity gnawed.

“If you want to know about her, you can let me ask a question.”

“I try not to judge life-choices,” Reason said, “But someone out clubbing is not of interest to me.”

“I mean the one who’s ignoring me.”

“I could care less about a woman with such poor taste.”

“Poor taste?”

“If she rejected you, then I doubt I would want to know anything about her.”

“Ignoring me, not rejecting me,” Electron corrected, “And I was spending the night at her place while her sister was in the hospital.”

“Oh,” Reason said.

“I took a guest-room,” Electron reassured, “I just didn’t expect her to outright remove me from her life after everything that happened.”

“Maybe… she thinks she can protect you by staying away.”

“I don’t need protection,” Electron said, “Even if I could use it, I don’t want it if it means losing her again.”

“Again?”

“I feel like I’m saying too much.”

“No more than you usually confide,” Reason confirmed. “Ask your question.”

“Are you seeing anyone, since you seem to care so much about my love life?”

“No,” Reason said, “No, I have too much going on for things like that.”

“Do you do anything outside of this?”

“I have projects, and work, and I live with my sister, so I have someone around.”

“That doesn’t sound like much of a life outside of helping me.”

“Does it need to be? Doing good is what matters.”

“Do you even like your job?”

“You got your answers,” Reason said, “Do you have an interest in Xenology?”

“Yeah, my powers weren’t the most stable growing up.”

“Yeah, level 20, right?”

Electron paused.

“Have you been using the suit to check my power levels?”

“No,” Reason said, “Not intentionally, but I know how to use a power assessment, so with obvious evidence of how your powers worked, and a natural recording of your vitals, I was able to come to a conclusion. Is my assessment accurate?”

“Yeah,” he admitted, “You’ve been checking my vitals?”

“And GPS information. It stops sending once the suit is off though. It needs you to constantly charge it for the data to send.”

He should probably be more concerned about how much information was being stored on him, but it felt nice to have that much attention paid.

He really needed a date, didn’t he?

“Don’t stalk me in the future, please.”

“No promises.”

The woman made it out with a group of friends, and Electron knew he should leave.

“If you ever feel safe telling me who you are,” Electron said, “We should meet up, get coffee or something.”

“I will consider it.”

Professor Hunter returned sooner than expected. Pete opted to ask her once more about the coven.

“There’s not much more to tell,” she said, “Dropped out around the seventies, only mentioned in sparse journals. One of them refers to keepers who kept extensive journals, and damn if I don’t want to find them.”

“Yeah, you could learn a lot about the Coven.”

“Or anything,” Professor Hunter said, “Do you know how vital diary-keepers are to our knowledge of the past?”

“A lot?” Pete guessed based on her tone.

“Intensely so. It tells us about their day to day, or what people thought about major events.”

“Do you keep a journal?” Pete asked.

“No, I don’t have the discipline, but I admire those that do.”

Well, now he knew there were records on the coven, if he could ever find them, not that he’d have more luck than actual historians.

“May I ask you a question in return?” Hunter asked.

“Sure.” He was happy to talk about the history of superhumans from a different perspective.

“You were recently in contact with Catherine Piec, weren’t you?”

Pete just stood in stunned silence.

“Yeah,” Hunter admitted, “Should have seen that coming. My husband was one of the people that trained Mandie, so I know her pretty well, and Catherine to a much lesser extent. I was out of the country while Mandie was in the hospital, so I wanted to make sure the girls were okay from a more recent source.”

“More recent?”

“I have a way of knowing whose knowledge is most recent among the people I talk to, and you’ve interacted with them more recently than my husband and his family.”

That was probably not true. Something told him a person who trained Mandie Piec wouldn’t suffer too hard from lack of information.

“Wish I could tell you, but I’ve got nothing. Last time Cate talked to me, it was answering the phone just before hanging up upon hearing my voice.”

“Cate?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, I got in the habit of calling her that when she worked here, and she eventually stopped correcting me.”

“Oh,” Hunter nodded, “So you’re a bigger asshole than I thought.”

Pete almost defended himself.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hunter said, “If she cared, she’d still be correcting you. She doesn’t give up on things.”

“Given up on me plenty,” Pete muttered.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing.”

She accepted it.

“You should head outside. I think there’s something important coming up for you.”

“What something important?”

She shrugged.

“Something.”

She disappeared from view with concerning ease. He didn’t have any work left anyways, so he may as well listen. At worst it was a trap, which he could probably handle.

As soon as he stepped out, Berserker jumped down in front of him. Pete almost fell backwards as he flinched.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Gee, doc, I just wanted to tell you something important.” Berserker put his hands up in surrender.

“Something important?”

“Found a spot where the Coven’s going to be tonight, thought you might want to be involved in catching the bastards.”

Pete put his hands up.

“I don’t have a horse in this race, but Reason agrees that something’s up with whatever’s going on. How did you find your spot?”

“Instinct.”

Pete held himself as hard as possible from making any comments on that fact. Berserker hadn’t been aggressively wrong just yet, and had possibly saved his life.

He did save his life.

“You saved my life,” Pete realized aloud.

“You’re welcome by the way.”

“Yeah, thanks. I owe you one. Where do you want me to meet you?”

“You’re not arguing at my method?” Berserker asked. Pete felt proud of surprising the man.

“Because I owe you one.”

“Oh…” Berserker nodded, “Okay then.”

He pulled a piece of paper from one of his pockets, showing a smudged address.

“You’ll figure it out,” Berserker said.

Hopefully he would.