Anomalies: Control

Eventually Banshee left, obviously figuring she wasn’t going to turn him on Rune in a few minutes, and he was left alone. The dull roar of talking voices had risen up again, and he flopped back on the mattress to listen to the indistinguishable sounds for a few minutes before getting bored and getting up to go find Rune. He drifted back to Tech’s office, and the closer he got, the more defined their two voices became. With practiced silent steps, he crept closer to the door, until he was only a few feet away.

“I don’t understand why you have to be so suspicious,” Rune’s irritated voice, followed quickly by an equally irritated Tech.

“Well, excuse me for not believing that you magically learned how to make friends after 21 years of life.”

“It’s not about making friends, I told you that.”

“But you’ve yet to tell me what it is about!” His voice raised for a split second, then immediately quieted down again. “You know how the others get, and with you bringing someone new with you, they’re going to be uneasy.”

“Who cares?”

"I care, Rue, me. These people are my responsibility, I have to make sure to keep them safe.”

“Do you want me to leave, Tech? Is that where this whole pointless argument is going? Because I can; you know I can find other options.” she said in a forced way that suggested she didn’t have any other options, but was refusing to admit to it.

Tech’s voice softened. “You know that’s not what I’m getting at, Rue. You’re always welcome here when you need it. But I need to know what’s going on with the kid, and I need you to put effort into not picking fights with the residents.”

“Nothing’s going on with him.”

“Then why won’t you even tell us his name?”

“Because it’s not my name to tell. You know how private some of you get-”

“Us, Rue, some of us get.”

“Whatever. I don’t want to go telling every Tom, Dick and Tracker his name if he wants it kept under the radar.”

Cole felt a rush of admiration for his protector, and wondered if it’d make things easier on her if he just announced his name to everyone on his own. But even as he considered that, he considered how easy it’d be for someone to hear that the Officers or other officials or whoever Mr. Lewis had working for him was looking for him, and turn him in for a reward or immunity. No, Rune was right, better to keep under the radar. If Rune was even her real name. That’d be weird if it turned out it wasn’t even her name. It wasn’t a defining name, like Tracker or Banshee, and he’d just assumed it was her real name. But now that he thought about it, he realized how unlikely that was.

“You can’t even tell me?”

“Not unless he tells me to.”

He went to the door and pushed it open, surprising both Rune and Tech. “Cole,” he announced. “My name’s Cole. But I don’t want it getting around.”

Tech nodded, his expression calm and unreadable, but Rune looked annoyed with the interruption. She looked away as Tech spoke. “Thank you, Cole. I appreciate your honesty. We’ll figure out something for everyone else to call you. Did Banshee show you your room?”

“Yeah, thanks for that. I really appreciate it,” he said, his eyes avoiding Tech’s out of habit.

“You got a problem looking at me?” Tech asked, and even though his voice was lighthearted, Cole flinched. Rune was at his side immediately, and Tech was speaking again.

“I’m not gonna hurt you for it, Cole. We’ve all got things to be ashamed of.”

Rune growled, but didn’t voice any further objection, and Cole lifted his eyes to Tech, who may have seemed friendly and even-tempered, but so did a lot of people until you crossed that invisible threshold of what was acceptable.

Tech grinned and didn’t comment on Cole’s action. “Well, it’s not often Rue here finds someone she can actually tolerate for more than a few seconds at a time. If you need anything, give me a holler. I’m usually hanging around somewhere.”

Cole shot him a wry smile, and Rune rolled her eyes, moving to leave. “You coming or staying?” she snapped at Cole, who smiled in response. “Coming,” he answered good-naturedly. He followed her back into the bullpen, glancing at the others out of the corner of his eyes, watching them watch Rune with apprehension, like mice would watch a cat, wondering if she was full enough to leave them be, or hungry enough to come after them. Rune, for her part, didn’t appear to notice the discomfort her presence caused, but he had a hard time believing she didn’t notice. It was a tangible gloom hanging over the entire room. He followed her past the crowded room and back to hers, and followed her in. Hers was a little more decorated, in the sense that there was a bookshelf and a chair in one corner in addition to the mattress on the floor, and a door that led to a makeshift bathroom.

He went to the bookshelf as she went to stand by the window, staring out at the rain. “You like to read?” he asked, looking over at her.

“No, I just thought they added a homey touch to the room,” she deadpanned, and he had to look over at her to make sure she was kidding.

“I know how to read, but there wasn’t much to read where I was.”

She turned to look at him, watching him unblinkingly, and for the first time he started to feel uncomfortable around her. But then she spoke, and he relaxed again. “I’ve been thinking about the touching thing. About what it could mean about you and your ability.”

“I keep telling you, I don’t have any abilities. My eyes are-”

“Just a birth defect blah, blah, blah, and like I keep telling you, I don’t lose control for no reason. So shut up and listen,” she snapped, and he glared at her, even as he snapped his mouth shut. She seemed to pause at his glare, but then continued as though nothing had happened. “I figure the only way to figure out exactly what’s going on between us is to try it again. In a controlled environment, of course.”

“Try it how?”

She came across the room to stand right near him, and held her hand out to his, offering the uncovered tips of her fingers. He moved his hand nearer to hers, but didn’t touch her. That same pull from before implored him to touch her, but he resisted that pull.

“What’s wrong?” She tilted her head at him.

“That pulling. It’s like... it’s like I want to touch you, and I have to actually concentrate on not.”

She tilted her head the other way. “I don’t feel anything.”

He blinked in surprise; it was all he could do to resist it, he couldn’t imagine being able to ignore it completely. “Nothing?”

She shook her head, frowning, and reached to close the small distance between their fingers. He didn’t recall much from the first experience except the overwhelming, almost-but-not-quite-pain, but this time it happened more slowly, so he could feel what was happening. It was like being shocked, not completely painful, but not unnoticeable either. Like a current was running from his hand to hers. It wasn’t as painful as he’d first thought, but then again it was just the lightest brush of fingertips between them, but she was gasping and pulling away from him, her hands gripping her arms as she eyed him warily. “What did you feel?” she asked; her voice strained like she was holding back pain.

“Hardly anything, just like a small shock. What’s wrong? Are you ok?”

She walked past him, careful to not touch him, and into her bathroom, shutting the door behind her. He followed her and knocked. “Rue?” he called. “Are you ok? I’m sorry for whatever I did...”

She didn’t answer, and he was about to push the door open when he heard yelling in the bullpen. “I’ll be right back!” he called to her as he ran out of the room and into the main area, and almost collided with a pretty redheaded woman standing in the hall where the rooms were. She looked over at him with a confused but not-unfriendly look, and the two of them looked back to the commotion. Tech was standing between Tracker and the hall to the rooms, and Tracker looked about ready to kill something.

“No!” she shouted, getting in Tech’s face. “I get that you’ve got some weird fascination or empathy or whatever for that walking disaster, but she can’t be here while she’s having those freak outs! You know how easy it’d be for Officials to track that kind of ability usage! She’s a danger to us all!”

“One lapse is not justification for kicking her out. Go back downstairs, Track,” Tech ordered in a stern voice Cole wouldn’t have suspected from him.

“And that kid she brought with her? How do we know he’s not one of Ghost’s crew she ran with?”

Tech’s frown deepened. “Don’t bring that up, Track, you know better.”

“She’s right, though.” Another guy came up alongside Tracker, and another girl followed his lead.

“Kane, don’t make this a grudge match,” Tech warned, and the redhead by Cole went over to stand next to Tech.

The man - Kane - shook his head. “We don’t like her being here; she’s too dangerous.”

“And I know you can’t feel the spikes of her ability, but I can, and it’s like a homing beacon to anyone who can sense it, Tech.”

Cole debated whether to get involved or not. He knew any sort of reaction to her power had to do with their experiment. But there was a lot of people in the room, most looking annoyed and antsy for a verdict between Tech and Tracker, and his self-preservation was telling him to get out of there, or at the very least stay quiet.

“And how many do you know that can sense, Track?”

She curled her lips unhappily. “Two in the city.”

“Counting you?” Tech asked in an arch tone, and Tracker’s expression darkened further. To give her credit though, she didn’t refuse to answer, even as it diminished her point. “Yes. But the other works for the Pravitas department! If she can find Rune, we’re all as good as dead or imprisoned!”

“We need to get rid of her,” The unknown girl said, “It’s not safe to have her even near, not if she can’t keep it under control after this long.”

He couldn’t stay quiet anymore. He went up on Tech’s other side and waded into the brewing argument. “It was my fault. We were experimenting, trying to see if I have an ability, and I sparked hers. I’m sorry.”

Tech laid a hand on Cole’s shoulder and looked down at him. “No need to apologize; it’s happened to all of us when we first start showing,” he said, his voice back to the friendly baritone Cole had already begun to associate with him. The redhead smiled at him, and the others seemed to be winding down from the argument.

“Did you figure anything out?” Tracker asked, looking friendlier now that he didn’t have Rune at his side.

“Not really. When we touched, I sparked up her ability, but I don’t know how. I didn’t feel anything but she seemed to.”

“Seemed to?” The redhead sounded confused.

“Yeah. But I can’t say for sure,” he hedged, not wanting to talk about Rune without her around. Tech seemed to understand, and changed the subject.

“Well, at least we know what caused it, and can prevent it from happening again. We’ll help you discover your ability, newbie, but maybe with a more controllable ability. And a name, eventually.” He added with a good natured smile.

Cole nodded, and turned to go back to Rune’s room to check on her, but then Banshee was in front of him, smiling like she didn’t know what he was doing. “You should meet some of the others.” The implication that they’d be friendlier if he met them without Rune around didn’t need to be explained - it was clear. He hesitated, but nodded and followed Banshee back to the crowd, even now unsure about being around so many Anomalies.

She walked straight over to a little group that Tracker and the guy who’d backed her up- Kane- were standing with. He resisted the urge to sigh: after their little stand against Rune, he wasn’t in the mood to play friendly with Tracker or her buddy, but if they were Banshee’s friends, he’d fake his way through it. There were a few others with them, and more scattered around the big bullpen area. Most seemed pretty social with one another, none like Rune, who sequestered herself away from everyone.

Banshee skipped right up to the group, nudging Tracker aside, who moved with an indulgent smile at the younger girl. “Well,” she chirped brightly. “That was fun.” Laughter rumbled across the group, save from Cole, who kept his expression neutral but couldn’t manage to join in. They didn’t seem to fault him for it, and Banshee directed their attention to him by looping her arm through his and speaking up over the laughter. “So guys, I think it’s time to introduce our newcomer. Bright Eyes, this is everyone. Everyone, this is... well, I don’t think we settled on a name for him yet, but here he is!” She laughed easily, and the others smiled along with her, offering up greetings to him.

Kane smiled a wide smile, one that almost took over his face. “Hey man. I’m Kane.”

Cole shot him a small smile in return. He didn’t trust people that went hot to cool that quickly. One minute he was stoic and saying Rune needed to be banished, the next minute he was grinning and happy; that kind of mood change could easily turn nasty on Cole, and he had plenty of experiences where it had with others. He almost felt more comfortable around Tracker because while looking a little less deadly, she wasn’t smiling at him or pretending to be friendly. She watched him warily, but wasn’t frowning, and she was definitely more at ease around Banshee and Kane and the others. Banshee nudged Tracker with an elbow, shooting a warm smile to Cole. “Play nice, Track,” she said, and Tracker forced a small version of a smile at Cole. “Hey. Welcome to Skye.”

He shot Banshee a confused look. “Skye?”

She nodded happily, pleased to be able to explain something to him. “Yeah. The building used to be called the Skye building. So that’s what we call ourselves as a group.”

He nodded, and Banshee turned to the other two in their little group, and introduced them. A 23 year old, tiny girl with fluffy brown hair and calculating eyes that went by Hawk and a 27 year old guy who was twitchy in the same way of someone with ADHD that was called Shock. They hovered near each other, and every move someone made around Hawk was met with a reactive movement from Shock. They were obviously together, and something told Cole that it’d be safer to just keep distance between him and Hawk as a general rule. Names weren’t an issue for him. After the rotating door of brothers and sisters at the foster home, he’d gotten pretty good at remembering names. So when she moved on to the rest of the room, he didn’t argue, just followed her around, meeting Duplicate, a girl who managed to make him laugh by suddenly replicating into four identical copies of herself and greeting him in unison, Lights, who’d barely looked away from the set of light bulbs he was studiously lighting without touching in a particular pattern and finally, Lisa and Suki. The former was a cute little blonde who seemed friendly, and the latter a distracted Japanese girl who’d spoken in a few different languages before Lisa finally stepped in with “English, Suk.”

“Right, sorry. Welcome,” Suki said, less flustered and more lost in thought. Cole smiled at the two girls as Lisa laughed self-consciously. “Sorry about her, she’s a linguist. She knows them all, and she gets lost in translation sometimes.” Cole smiled to let them know he didn’t mind, and Banshee led him away to meet the girl who’d backed Kane and Tracker in the argument, Gaia, but the girl barely looked up from her planter, and Banshee gave up after a second of trying to get Gaia to pay attention and turned back to him. “Well, that’s everyone that’s here right now.”

He frowned, looking past her to a boy about his age, huddled in the corner of the room, mumbling to himself. “Who’s that?”

Banshee didn’t have to turn to answer him. “That’s Garet. He projects. We give him a wide berth because if you get too close to him, you get caught in his fantasy.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like a projector. He can project anything he wants into reality. It’s more than a hologram; it’s like he gets into your brain and makes your brain see and hear and feel and smell anything he wants you to. It’s really creepy, and he’s usually somewhere dark and depressing. So we stay away from him,” she said, linking her arm through his and directing him away from the sad looking boy still mumbling nonsense to himself or whomever he could see in his own world.

It seemed a casual sort of living arrangement. People shared the bullpen sections, a few had their own, but for the most part it looked like more a family oriented setup. He said as much to Banshee as they drifted toward one of the picture windows overlooking the city, and she nodded. “Yeah, we kind of have to become a family. We look out for each other. When you’re living in such a small space you become close, it’s hard not to,” she said, shrugging and leaning against the window, looking down at the street below.

He nodded too, thinking about Henry and Lily. Neither of them were people he’d be friends with under different circumstances, but as it was, he’d protect them to his last breath. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

She eyed him like she knew what he was thinking. “You come from a place like that?”

He nodded again. “Yeah.”

“Your house?”

“Not really.” He didn’t really want to go into details, not with someone he barely knew. He liked Banshee; she was nice, and warm, and accepting, but that could easily be a front. He didn’t want to give her anything she could use against him later. That’s why he was more comfortable around Tracker and Rune. True, he didn’t like Tracker all that much, but what you saw was what you got with Tracker. None of this ‘let’s play friends until you do something to piss me off or it benefits me to turn on you’ bullshit that seemed to be the only interactions he’d had in eighteen years.

He thanked Banshee for introducing him around, and broke off to go back to Rune’s room. He could feel the eyes on his back, wondering why he would go back when he’d clearly been given another option: the option to fit in, to become a part of Skye. And he chose to retreat back to Rune’s room.

But he didn’t care, and he pushed open the door to see Rune standing at the window like Banshee was mirroring outside in the bullpen. But that was where the similarities ended as Rune turned to glare at him. He didn’t quail back like he would if it were anyone else. Rune glared and snapped off sarcastically and was mean and disdainful and had been since he’d met her. If she’d turned and gathered him in a greeting hug, then he might get worried. But for now, he smiled, and went to sprawl in her chair. “How you feeling?”

“Fine. What do you want?”

“Nothing. Just came in to check on you.”

“Well, I’m fine. Go back to the common area.”

“Aw, Rue, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t want me around,” he laughed, making her glare grow more confused. He got the feeling people didn’t joke around with her often.

“I don’t care one way or another, but you’re not going to make any allies if you stay in here with me. Especially in here with me.”

He shrugged, reaching for a book from her shelf. “I’ve got an ally. I’m good,” he said, thumbing through the pages of the book. He could feel her continue to eye him curiously, but he didn’t give her the satisfaction of looking up to her. Finally, she shrugged, and reached to remove her gloves, setting them neatly by the bed, and reached to remove her long-sleeved top, revealing a tank top underneath it. Cole looked up, wondering if he should leave if the tank was next to come off, but she removed her boots and got into bed without saying anything or removing any more clothes. He set the book back on the shelf and stood. “I’ll leave you to sleep. See you tomorrow.”

“I’ll be here,” she said in response, and he swallowed a chuckle as he went back out into the hall to go across to his makeshift room. He paused in the doorway, and stepped in to shut the door behind him. It looked more depressing now without Banshee in it, without the added crowdedness of Rune’s bookshelf and chair making walking only feasible on a clear cut path between furniture. He sighed and went to sprawl on the mattress, not bothering to take his shoes off or his borrowed hoodie. He listened for the sounds of the others, wondering if there was a standard time everyone went to sleep, or if people just fell where they fell like puppies in a pile.

He couldn’t hear anything except a soft but steady rumble of voices, too low to be distinguishable as words and too quiet to let him be able to sleep comfortably. He’d grown used to the shuffling and snoring and mumbling of the other kids in the foster house, boys in his room all together, the girls in a room next door past paper-thin walls. Every turn, every nightmare-caused whimper, every snore was perfectly clear, and after a few years, it became the norm for his being able to sleep, comforted by the presence of others.

He wondered how Lily and Henry were for the third time, and some of the others: Michael, Sophia, Micah, Janice, and all the younger kids who were mostly a whiney, food covered blur. Had he been replaced already? Was someone sleeping in his bed right now, lonely and frightened and alone like they all were when they first came? Or was his bed still empty and cold, a reminder to the others how they’d had an Anomaly in their midst and never figured it out? He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to force his thoughts in a different direction, and found himself wondering where Banshee slept, in her own room or out with the others. Tracker probably had her own room; she seemed too much like Rune not to. That kid, Garet, he probably did too, unless they’d rather keep him where they could see him. But Banshee seemed to thrive on the community feeling, so she might be out in the bullpen.

The mumbling hadn’t gotten any louder, and he kicked his shoes off to lay back comfortably, tossing and turning for a while before sighing and sitting up. He sat for a while, trying to distinguish voices and words, and even went so far as to reopen his door to let the voices in to be better heard. Once the door was open, he could hear words, voices, movement, but he didn’t feel safe going back to the bed and potentially falling asleep in a strange place with the door open. So he paced. And paced. And paced. And finally huffed out an annoyed breath and padded barefoot back into the hall and to Rune’s door. He knocked, and her irate voice came snapping from the other side. “What?”

He pushed into the room slowly. “Rue? It’s me. I can’t sleep.”

“Bully for you.” She didn’t so much as twitch in response, her back still to him.

“It’s too quiet around here.”

She rolled to her back and pinned him with another glare. “Tell someone to throw a party, then,” she snapped. He rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of her mattress. “I was wondering if I could, you know, maybe sleep in here for tonight. To have someone nearby, like for backup or whatever.”

She sat up to peer at him with a bewildered look. “You want to sleep here? In my room?”

He shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

“Where are you planning on sleeping?”

“Dunno. The floor?”

She looked confused and uncomfortable, and didn’t answer him for a second. But finally, she shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. Sleep here then,” she said, falling back to her back. “But only for tonight!” she added in annoyance.

He nodded and moved to the floor as she threw a pillow and a blanket at him. “Of course.”

“Because I don’t want you getting any idea that this is going to be a habitual thing.”

He settled on the floor, choking back laughter at her adamancy. “I won’t Rue.”

“Good,” she snapped, turning on her side to face away from him and settle back down. He propped himself up on his elbow, frowning that she had given him the only blanket and pillow from her bed, but figured if he argued, she’d probably kick him out. So he lay back down, feeling better with Rune’s steady breathing coming from the bed, the unintelligible mumbling less bothersome now that he was near another person.

“Good night, Rue.”

“Sleep!”