Abnormals

“You can’t be serious!”

“It’s true,” Knox insisted, “And it was true love.”

Catherine shook her head. Emerson Knox was Catherine’s closest friend at this point, aside from her sister. They mostly talked about dead partners, but because of that, they knew more than almost anyone else about each other.

“You just lied to her brother like that?”

“Without hesitation,” Knox scoffed, “He was a fool. How did you first meet Pete?”

She had been kidnapped, and she’d run from her captors, falling off a building in the process. Suddenly she was in the arms of an armored man, and she immediately criticized the armor’s make, even flicking the helmet to assist in her point. No wonder he treated her coldly when they first officially met.

“I got my dream job at the Quartz Institute, so I was introduced to everyone. I wasn’t the friendliest, and Pete knew my connection to Henry Eisel, who he wasn’t fond of. Being not yet twenty gave a more pressured experience for my first year there. We didn’t really talk until one night, while we were both working late, we got locked into a testing chamber neither of us could get out of.”

“You didn’t get along?”

“Not until after that, no. He realized I was mostly fear at that point in my life, and I realized he was mostly kind, and the parts of him that weren’t are the parts I miss the most.”

She shook her head.

“It’s hard to let him go.”

A little over six years since Pete had disappeared, and she still had no answers.

“Do you ever wonder what would happen if we hadn’t lost them?” she asked.

“In another life,” Knox began, “Where I never…”

“Never what?”

“Never did whatever caused me to lose her.”

Catherine put a comforting hand on his, before a phone call from Berserker interrupted the tender moment.

“I have to take this, sorry.”

She left the coffee shop, giving herself enough distance.

“So you found something?” she asked.

“Definitely Coven related,” Berserker said, “I’ll only give you so much time to get here.”

“You’ll wait just as long as it takes me,” she said, “You can be predictable sometimes.

“Just for that, I’ll run in early.”

“We’ll see.”

Nearly a week later, Berserker was somehow dead, and Catherine was staring intently at a wooden sword. Nothing about it was out of the ordinary. It was just a sword, with some kind of barely detectable Magek coating, but not in the finish.

In a moment of pure frustration, she took off her gloves and grabbed it.

Faster than she could think, the sword turned into a hoverdisc, even lessening in weight like it was meant to. She felt it within the network of discs that she’d already made.

She let go, and three steps back later, it fell on the table, again a wooden sword.

“Camera, what were my vitals during that incident?”

“All worked the same as normal. You are just slightly fatigued, and your internal temperature is 3 degrees colder.”

There was also the data that the item kept it’s shape until Catherine moved far enough away, which would probably be a longer distance in a place without her lab’s safety measures.

“Well, it’s something.”

It specifically turned into a hoverdisc for her. It was freaky how it knew what weapon would be perfect.

She looked at the time of this discovery, realizing she shouldn’t be in the lab anymore.

She ran upstairs to rectify the mistake, finding Harold already at the couch.

“Hey, baby,” she said.

“I’m not a baby anymore, mom. I’m six.”

Catherine knew, but Harold would always be her baby.

She sat next to him.

“Sorry it took me so long to get ready for movie night. I was helping a friend with things.”

“With what things?” Harold asked.

“Things that involve my lab downstairs. Top Secret things.”

“I can keep a secret.”

“I’m sure you can, but I still can’t tell you. It would break my friend’s trust.”

“You don’t have to let them know,” Harold said.

Catherine squeezed his cheeks.

“Who taught you to say things like that? Was it Aunt Liz?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Definitely Liz.

“Let’s just watch a movie, you little scoundrel.”

“What movie?” Harold asked.

“What did you pick?”

Harold laid out the options, and Catherine was able to eliminate all but one.

“The rest are going to give you nightmares.”

“They’re not that scary.”

“I’ve watched them. They are.”

“Pfft,” Harold blew.

“Pfft,” Catherine blew back.

Catherine pet Harold’s head now that he’d fallen asleep. He was precious like this. He was precious even at his most mischievous. His blond curls reminded her so much of his father, even if they were a bit darker.

“One day you’ll know how amazing he was,” she promised him.

Intruder in the lab, Camera let her know, Unidentified.

Catherine gently moved away from Harold, making sure her gloves were on hand. There were a few hidden hoverdiscs throughout the house ready for action as well.

The door was silent as she opened it, with a man taller than her stepping in.

“Ms. Piec,” Emerson Knox said, “I wish I could say this was a surprise, but knowing the identity of your husband, and having witnessed your morals in action, I knew our paths would cross in this sphere eventually.”

Catherine took a step back.

“You got me,” she put her hands up, “I’m the Voice of Reason.”

Why she clung to a secret identity at the moment was beyond her.

“A laudable effort, but the gloves give you away, Tesla Coil.”

She summoned one of the hoverdiscs behind him, but he turned to smoke as it went through him.

“And you continue to impress,” he said directly in her ear. She tried to elbow him in the stomach, but he was back in front of her.

“And whatever energy suppression your lab works is a gem. I couldn’t exit until you opened the door.”

“So you’re this Dark Magek?” Catherine asked, too tired deny any of the accusations.

“That is what they call me,” Knox admitted, “Though you should know, I have enjoyed our luncheons.”

“Eisel knew what you were.”

One of his closest associates, and she’d been blinded by his sympathy.

“Eisel knew many things,” Knox said, “That’s why I kept an eye on you.”

“So you became my friend to be a perfect spy.”

He didn’t look her in the eye.

“It was good to reminisce, go back to who I used to be, for just a moment, but I’ve known a long time the moment wouldn’t last.”

“Then get out of here before I hurt you.”

He scoffed.

“I’m beyond pain, but I don’t wish to hurt you either, Catherine; in the spirit of our bond, I will grant you a choice.”

She prepped a spark in one of her hands.

He moved his hands, creating a ball of shadow. Words in an alphabet Catherine didn’t know appeared in the haze before disappearing again.

“Your friend the Shadow Master would recognize this as a body-lock curse,” he explained, “Its victims are fully conscious as their connection to each part of their body is removed, in order of personal value.”

“Do your worst,” Catherine said. She was used to feeling like her body wasn’t her own, and she was a technopath in a house full of technology.

Knox shook his head.

“Those in your line of work don’t care much about bodily harm, not when there’s someone to be helped. It’s an admirable impulse, however foolish. This curse isn’t going to hurt you.”

“Then who?” Catherine’s original eye glanced back toward Harold asleep on the couch, while her prosthetic one kept its gaze on Knox and his curse, identifying the energy as the same one from the swords.

“This will hurt whoever you love the most, so I’m not really sure. You never really know the answer to that question. It even changes from moment to moment. Who do you care the most about right now?”

“What’s the choice?” Catherine asked.

“Simple, you stop working against me: Stop studying the weapons, don’t inform your companions of your findings, and sit this one out; or I use this curse, and you endure the incredible guilt of being the reason your most beloved person can’t do anything anymore beyond think about what life was before you made your choice.”

They could figure it out without her. Jet was a good reporter, Mandie could fight, Tetra would get her majority to kill this man. She wasn’t even being asked to work for him, just stop in this one instance. All she brought was knowledge, and Tetra had far more in this scenario.

“Think carefully, Catherine.”

That was Eisel’s phrase to make her do what he wanted.

Catherine saw red.

She increased the wattage in her hand as far as it could go, the glove giving it power suppressing abilities. Then her body charged toward him.

He grabbed her hand with ease and pushed the orb into her heart. She felt a chill fill her body.

“I told them it didn’t work anymore.”

Knox—Dark Magek disappeared.

Catherine collapsed on the floor, heaving as she felt something crawl up her throat at a leisurely pace.

Eventually she coughed out a thin line of black smoke.

She grabbed at it with the still charged glove, hoping the power suppressant would dissipate it somehow, but it slowly moved toward the room with a paused television.

“No!”

The curse made landfall, and Harold screamed.

“It’s a body-lock curse,” Tetra confirmed, “But a slow one.”

She handed Catherine a vial. She didn’t even look at it, too focused on the pain in her son’s face.

“What—”

“Get him to drink it,” Tetra ordered.

“What does it do?” Catherine wasn’t just putting a random substance in her son.

“Saves his life. Do it!”

Catherine lifted Harold’s head.

“Sweetheart, I’m gonna need you to drink something for me. It will help with the pain.”

The color returned to Harold’s cheeks, just barely.

“Harold?” Catherine asked, holding her son's curls in her hands.

His curls weren’t supposed to be red.

Harold’s eyes fluttered open, suddenly gray instead of their usual blue.

“Mom, is that you?” he asked, eyes unfocused.

“Yes.”

“Where are you? Where am I?”

He tried to look around.

“You’re in your bed. I’m right in front of you.”

Harold’s eyes shifted in panic.

“All I see is the main hall.”

Catherine watched Harold, then remembered the cameras in her house.

“Go to the main hall,” she ordered Tetra, “Harold, tell me when you see a woman in armor.”

“Now,” Harold said, exactly when Tetra reached the camera’s view.

This was terrifying, but this was power development, which was inevitable given Harold’s parentage. Catherine had hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with it until puberty, but she shouldn’t have expected such luck.

This was Xenology. This was technopathy. Catherine was in her element. She took a breath.

“Okay, Harold, what happens if you close your eyes?”

Harold closed his eyes.

“I still see the main hall.”

“Open them again.”

Harold opened his eyes. It would take time for Catherine to get used to that gray. It looked too much like hers.

“I still see the main hall!”

Catherine held Harold down.

“This is a normal development. You’re looking through one of the house’s security cameras, and I need you to stay there.”

“Stay? I can go somewhere else?”

Catherine cringed. She shouldn’t have told him to stay.

“I see your workshop. I see a room that’s all dark. There are a lot of rooms that are all dark. I see your room.”

“Once you’ve found a place to stay, let me know.”

Harold dutifully nodded.

“I’m in the main hall again. Why is Tetra here?”

“Because I called her to help save you. Are you going to stay in the main hall?”

Harold nodded again.

Catherine closed her eyes, bringing her mind to the camera, sensing data that wasn’t supposed to be there.

Harold?

“Mom?” Catherine cringed at the feedback from her ears and mind together.

“Am I like you?”

Apparently.

“Cool!”

Catherine couldn’t keep herself from a smile. He thought being like her was cool.

I need you to come with me, okay?

“Okay.”

She pulled herself and Harold back to her vision, where her prosthetic eye still showed visual information. It was a risky choice, given how connected it was to her whole body, but she didn’t keep a camera in Harold’s room. She might have to change that.

“Is that me?” Harold asked as Catherine was still focused on his face. The animation in his eyes was fully gone now, but the rest of his face made up for it.

Yes. Do you think you can jump your vision back to yourself now that you can see yourself?

“I’ll try.”

It was all Catherine could ask for.

“I can’t see,” Harold said. “My eyes don’t work.”

“Stay here,” Catherine said, “And let me know if anything else stops working.”

She stalked over to Tetra.

“It didn’t cure him,” Catherine said.

“I didn’t say it would cure him,” Tetra answered, “I said it would save his life. He should still have most of his body, and he’s lucky for it. How on Earth did he come in contact with a body-lock curse?”

Catherine wanted to throw up from the memory already.

“Do curses end when the person who cast them dies?” she asked.

Tetra shrugged.

“Depends. Some have lasted centuries past their caster. Harold is most likely to know the conditions necessary to break it.”

“Like true love’s kiss?”

Tetra scoffed.

“More like a woman you’ve never touched has to run from your bed, through your window, and into your arms.”

“What?”

“Real condition. Rose Red’s diary. Curses aren’t meant to be simple. They’re meant to be burdens.”

“Mom!” Harold yelled, “My legs don’t work.”

Tetra almost seemed to shrink under Catherine’s gaze.

“You have a way to kill Dark Magek?” Catherine asked.

“He’s the one who did this?”

Catherine had acted like Electron, like she had the power to keep people safe without extreme measures, and Harold had suffered for it.

“You have my full support.”