Anomalies: Control

They ended up in the tunnels, the same tunnels that Rune had shown him. There was still panic, but the screaming had faded to crying and the occasional muffled shout. He followed Tech into the tunnel, still upset about leaving Rune behind, and was about to force Tech to explain himself and why he was so willing to abandon Rune, but they were swarmed before he got a chance.

“Tech they got Gaia-”

“-and one of the triplets!”

“The other two are freaking out, we don’t know what to do-”

“What if they kill them Tech?!”

Tech raked a hand through his hair. “Everyone calm down. Mags?” The redhead was immediately at his side, and a pleasant calm washed over Cole and- he suspected- everyone else, and Tech was able to regain control. “Ok, first things first. Aside from Gaia, the triplet, and Rune, is everyone here and alive?”

Maggie was the one to answer him, which surprised Cole a little. She’d always lingered around like a mother type, keeping an eye on everyone, but now… now she truly seemed in her element, a mama wolf keeping track of her cubs. “Lights is hurt, sprained ankle and a few bruised ribs, and a nasty black eye and a cut above his eye. Tracker has a broken arm and possibly a dislocated shoulder, while Kane took a nasty chunk of something to the face and has a gash down the side of his face. Everyone has some scrapes and bruises, and the remaining two triplets are half about to lose their minds without their sister, but other than that everyone’s here, alive, and accounted for.”

Tech nodded, looking relieved. “Ok, not as bad as it could be.”

“Not as bad?! They have our people!” Lights wailed, immediately shushed by a woman Cole didn’t recognize, with dark skin and darker hair. Probably a nomad that made her home in the tunnels for now. “They have Gaia, Tech. And the fate and Rune and we need to get them back,” he insisted, covered in blood and wincing as he argued, but arguing nonetheless.

“Lights, I’m sorry, but you know how this ends. We cannot risk any more of us getting caught.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I’m sorry - are you saying we’re not going to try to go after them?” Cole asked, going to stand in front of Tech and glare at him.

Tech gave him a pitying look. “Charge, we can’t. They have a secure facility. Armed Officers. The power of every official police and military power at their fingertips. They also have a desire to capture us to study us, and no one who’s been caught, who’s fought against being caught has ever come out to tell exactly what that studying entails. We cannot risk the rest of us getting caught in some suicide mission that has maybe a 20 percent chance of working.”

“So you’re just going to leave them in there? You said yourself we don’t know what’s happening to them in there.” He was trying to stay calm, trying to keep his cool. Freaking out like Lights was wasn’t going to help the situation. It would just get him labeled as some kid who couldn’t handle pressure.

“And we don’t know any way to even begin to sneak into where they might be keeping them. If we’re even right about them being kept in the main Pravitas Tech building in the sector. Let alone know any way to sneak back out with three additional people. Possibly unconscious people.”

It sounded bad when he put it like that. But nothing was hopeless. “We can figure something out. I’m not saying we run to their door and knock it down and run in haphazardly. But I am saying we plan, and we cover our bases, and we at least try.”

“Older, better, more people than you have tried, and failed Charge.”

“Which is why I need help.”

“No, Charge. Right now we need to collect ourselves, get to a safe house, tend wounds and set bones. We aren’t exactly in a position to be planning a break-and-enter on a government building.”

He let Tech turn away and follow Maggie back deeper into the tunnels, figuring he’d let them all regroup, then bring it up again. Arguing now wouldn’t do much. Tech was in crisis mode, and not much would sway him from what was needed by the others right now. For now, he was better to get his hands bandaged up and rethink his persuasion. Maybe get his own ankle looked at, it was stinging like hell now that he was paying attention to it and the adrenaline was wearing off.

Maggie was busy, so he found a quiet corner and lowered himself to the ground, wincing as he realized his ankle hurt more than he’d thought. He hadn’t been paying attention while they were running, and he really should have. It wasn’t broken; he’d had a few broken bones in the past and knew the basics, but it was definitely twisted, and now it was swollen because he’d been too stupid to realize the stinging was an injury and not just a cut or superficial scrape from the falling rubble.

He rolled his pant leg up and untied his shoe, clenching his jaw as he pulled his shoe off his tender ankle. “Fuuuu-”

“Need some help, Bright Eyes?”

He looked up at Banshee, who was holding an ace bandage and an ice pack- an ice pack? Where did they keep ice packs down here?- and nodded, barely able to offer a smile at the nickname she refused to give up. “Please.”

She knelt down by him and he took his sock off as well, laying his leg out flat for her to inspect. She set the bandage and the ice next to him and reached for his ankle, checking it with a practiced assuredness that hinted either she or her friends had had more than a couple injured limbs over the years. He leaned back against the wall, letting the bricks of the underground tunnels cool his head. “Done this before?” He asked teasingly as he let his eyes drift closed.

“A few times.” He felt a light smack on his knee, well out of range of his injured ankle. “Hey, no napping. Mags says everyone gets checked for concussions before they’re allowed to sleep.”

He reluctantly opened his eyes. “Can’t you do that first then?”

“No, because I’m pretty sure you don’t have one. But I’m not getting chewed out by Maggie and Murphy’s Law says that if I let you fall asleep before checking you, you’ll definitely end up having a concussion because Murphy’s Law hates everyone so you’re stuck staying awake until I’m done.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re really bossy sometimes?”

“Often.” She looked up at him with a devious smile. “I’m told it’s one of my more charming qualities.”

He chuckled, and tried to stay awake while she finished up and wrapped the bandage around his ankle. His eyes started to close again, but the sudden cold of the ice pack touching his ankle shocked him back to full alertness and she laughed. “There you go. Now you’re up.”

“I was never asleep.” He argued.

“Good. Then sit up and stay awake while I go find someone’s flashlight.” She laid a hand on his leg and pushed herself up to go find said flashlight. He didn’t lean forward, but he didn’t close his eyes again. Instead he looked around, taking stock of all the people he could see. There were two different openings aside from the one they’d come in through that assumedly led further into the nomad’s tunnels, but most of the Skye residents were still here in what seemed to be a main space.

Kane and Tracker were sitting next to each other, letting a nomad Cole didn’t know patch them up. Kane was holding a towel to his temple, and Tracker was wincing as the unknown man popped her shoulder back into place. Kane was arguing something, but it seemed both Tracker and the nomad were ignoring whatever he was saying. Cole could guess though; with his strength, he probably figured he could relocate her shoulder faster, better. Due mostly to his concussion- or maybe he just sucked at healing- neither of the other two seemed to share his feelings.

Lisa and Suki looked relatively unharmed, Suki trying to bandage Lisa’s arm while Lisa tried to bat her away to try to focus on talking to the two remaining fates, who were looking panicky. Hopefully she’d succeed; they couldn’t have the two girls setting out on some suicide mission to save their sister. Maybe they’d be helpful in convincing Tech to go after the captured members of Skye though. He made a mental note to think about talking to them later if they managed to calm down. If not, they’d be no more useful than Lights; panicked, unreasonable siblings that Tech would sympathize with but ultimately claim were too involved and not thinking clearly.

He couldn’t see Garet, but he hadn’t been mentioned in the list of captured members, so he must be hiding in some shadow hoping to go unnoticed. Maggie was with Lights, who was wearing a strange expression of anger and peacefulness. Maggie must be trying to keep him calm with her ability and he was fighting her; she wasn’t a mind controller, she could only manipulate the feelings and even then she disliked doing it full strength. Maggie was a sympathizer and hated taking people’s choices away, even if that choice was anger. Rune had always found it a source of annoyance and called Maggie a waste of a host for that ability. Cole didn’t feel the same way at the moment though; he wanted Lights’ on edge, wanted him to not forget what was at stake and wanted him to want to get the others, not some peaceful zombie of happiness.

And if Lights looked bad, Shock looked worse. He was pacing a circle in the middle of the space, raking a hand through his hair, pulling it so taut he risked pulling it out. He couldn’t keep any part of him still; his legs paced, his arms went from twitching at his sides to twisting his hands together to pulling at his hair and scrubbing at his face, he muttered to himself and every time so much as the smallest sound was made he twisted his head up to the main entrance, hoping to see the Skye member that was neither down here nor captured- at least as far as they were aware. Hawk had been out when the tower came down, and since she ran no risk of being tested while she was airborne, her flights lasted anywhere from ten minutes to three hours depending on her mood and how cooped up she’d been feeling. Even if she knew to come here when she saw what had happened to Skye tower, poor Shock might be waiting anywhere from minutes to hours for her return. And if she got unlucky and she was spotted lingering around a demolition sight no true bird would be caught at, she might be captured as well and Shock could be waiting here forever.

They stayed in the tunnels for a few hours, until they were fairly sure no more surprises were hunting for them, then Tech made his way out with Kane and came back looking significantly happier.

“Ok, good news. One of the safehouses is still empty and seems to be off anyone’s radar.”

“How many of those things do you have?” one of the nomads asked with a half teasing, half taunting tone to his question.

“Six. Well, five now. Acquired over the years. You’re all welcome anytime. 4341 46th St.” He recited easily. “Skye residents, it’s time to move. Charge - you, Banshee, and the triplets are with me. Maggie: take Lisa, Suki, Shock, and Garet. Kane - you’ve got Lights, Duplicate, and Tracker.” Kane rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue, and kept his place near Tracker, who was wearing a makeshift sling and looking pissed off that she was injured enough that she didn’t get a group of her own.

Shock however, did argue. “Tech, man, I gotta stay here until Hawk shows up. She knows here, she’ll check here. I’ve got to stay until I hear from her.”

Tech didn’t look happy about leaving someone behind, but the nomad girl who’d been shushing Lights stepped up next to him, nodding to Tech. “We’ll take care of them and send them to you once the girl is back.”

Tech nodded to her and the shadows lingering behind her, and his group left first, Cole falling into step alongside Banshee, the two remaining triplets walking morosely a pace behind Tech. Cole and Banshee didn’t hurry their pace; if it didn’t look like they were with Tech and the two other girls it wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. They walked blocks, and blocks, out of one microdistrict and to another entirely.

“Hey, for what it’s worth, I’d be with you on this whole rescue plot,” Banshee said quietly, reaching out to take his hand. He let their fingers twine despite the slight awkwardness of the bandages around his hand and a few of those fingers, not thinking much about what more the contact would mean other than comfort until it was a few seconds too late to pull away without upsetting her. So once their fingers were already laced together, he loosened his hand but didn’t pull away. The bandages kept him from really touching her, from setting off her ability, so there really wasn’t much to worry about in the way of Anna Maria finding them.

“Thanks Bansh.” He offered her a smile, letting his gaze wander to the park on the opposite side of the street. It wasn’t crawling with kids like some were - must be an older microdistrict - but there were a few families still lingering. In the fading light of day, the happy cries of children rang in the air, making him smile, and his smile (even as he turned his eyes down to avoid anyone noticing the color) made Banshee squeeze the hand she held.

They reached a small, unremarkable house in a street of unremarkable houses, and Tech trotted right up to the door and inside, leaving the other four to follow. They got in and let the door close behind them and Banshee let go of his hand to go sprawl across the couch in the living room of the little one-story, looking up at Cole until he sat in a chair across from her, and watching the door every now and then afterwards, making idle small talk until everyone had arrived and packed into the little house.

He left Banshee in the living room and went back into the kitchen where he knew Tech and Maggie were, along with Kane who’d finally gotten Tracker to agree to lay in the living room and rest. Lights was in there as well, probably hoping for Tech to change his mind about going after the others. Cole watched the others, thinking back to the foster house, back to someone he’d met that had been in those government facilities.

Cole didn’t respond to Henry, simply watched the movement of the Officers as they counted and tracked dishes from the various households, waiting for them to pass so the boys could go inside without being noticed. A shout from inside caught the boys’ attention, and the Officers. The older men simply exchanged a bored look and continued on, but Cole and Henry exchanged a worried glance. That was Lily shouting. Laurel must have found her doing the younger ones’ chores. Once the Officers were far enough away, Cole swung himself back up under the railing and ran back inside, Henry on his heels, and found Lily bracing a hand on the counter, holding her cheek and bleeding from her nose, and Laurel turned on the boys in the kind of rage only her drugs prompted her to.

“And where the fuck were you two?! Doing the rest of the chores I suppose? Oh, you’re going to get it now!” She approached the boys, and Henry took a step back, speaking up immediately. “I told her you’d be angry. I made sure the others did what they had to.”

Lily let out a disbelieving breath that Henry’d throw her under the bus so quickly, and Laurel turned back on Lily, grabbing the vase on the counter and throwing it at Lily, who shrieked and ducked, causing the vase to shatter against the wall and rain jagged glass on her.

“I told her to do it!” Cole yelled, hoping to re-direct Laurel’s attention. And it worked: Laurel turned her foggy gaze on Cole. “You stupid little ass. I’ll teach you to corrupt the kids in my house!” she said, ignoring Lily’s shouts and marching over to Cole and grabbing him by his collar, yanking him toward the staircase and up it, toward the back room she kept locked other than to punish the kids. She shoved him in, and toward the tub Greg had put in the corner especially for punishment. That evil porcelain contraption was where a third of their monthly water stipend went, for cases like this. She filled the shallow bowl with water and shoved Cole’s face into it, holding him for about a minute before letting him back up, sputtering and coughing. Only a precious couple seconds for air, and he gulped in a breath, knowing from experience that this could go on for however long her high lasted. Better to pace yourself instead of passing out and risking her bringing you back to using one of the lashes or boards lying about. Her hand gripping his hair shoved him back down to the water, longer than last time by a few seconds, and he tried to center himself by thinking about something- anything else. But nothing came to mind other than the instinctual urge to stay conscious.

He knew fighting was pointless; if he was going to fight, he should have done it before she put him in that first time and took his focus. But if he’d fought back on the stairs, it’d have been Lily that would be here now. That thought he clung to as he was allowed another brief breath of air before going back to the water, his hands gripping the side of the tub, trying in vain to push himself out. She yanked his hair back out and tossed him to the floor, but before he could get enough air to clear his vision and his head, he felt the telltale ropes looping his wrists, and then he was back in the water without that precious breath he needed to last. Choking on the water, he was about to drop into that appealing darkness, when she suddenly let him go, and he fell back to the floor, choking and coughing on water still trying to fill his lungs, rolling pathetically to his side to clear his airways of water. She scoffed, and ran a wet hand through her hair and turned to go. “I have things to do, I can’t waste my time on cretins like you,” she announced as she left.

He couldn’t respond past the coughing, and simply let his arms relax as much as they could in the ropes. The coughing slowed to a hack, and he heard a small voice speak up, and turned in a panic, expecting to see one of the younger kids hiding away in here. But it was an unfamiliar face that stared back at him from the rafters of the room. “Are you ok?”

He nodded, still coughing, and forced himself to sit up, laying his head on his knees when the room swam in front of him. Once he was steady, he glanced back up at the girl who couldn’t have been more than six or seven, cowering in the corner of the rafters, hugging her knees to her chest to make herself even smaller. “You’re who they’re looking for,” he said, his voice raw and hoarse. She nodded, her eyes going wide in a panic, and he rushed to calm her. “I’m not going to turn you in,” he assured her. He glanced at the tub and back to her. “Did you stop her?”

She nodded again but didn’t speak, so he did. “What do you do?” he asked.

“When I get scared, when people are coming to hurt me, they forget why and go away,” she said softly, casting a glance at the door with a look that no six year old should have so practiced.

“Thank you. Is that how you got away in the first place?” he asked, maneuvering his way out of the ropes around his wrists with a practiced twist, rubbing his raw wrists once he’d succeed.

She shook her head. “No. It doesn’t always work right. I had help. But I got lost. And now I don’t know how to get back,” she whimpered, near tears.

“I wish I could help. My name’s Cole.”

“I’m Distraction.”

He smiled as the young Anomaly gave him a nickname in lieu of her real name.

With a determined breath, he came back to the present. “Hey, Tech. Now that things have reassembled, I want to talk about making a plan to get the others.”

Tech shot him a frown. “Answer’s still no, Charge. Nothing’s changed about the situation.”

“But if we can plan it out, take the risks into account, we can plan for trouble. We can do this, Tech. We just need to be smart about it,” he tried to reason.

“I think he’s right.” Banshee’s voice spoke up from the doorway. Tech shot her a look that was mirrored on Maggie’s face that told her to shut it. Even Cole knew she didn’t have any particular bonds to anyone who was taken; she was doing this because Cole wanted to do this. But hey, he’d take it.

“We cannot be prepared enough to handle government officials, Charge. No matter how much recon we do.”

“We could, though.” Lights spoke up from the corner. “It’s done in the movies all the time. Get a floor plan, watch for patterns; get someone on the inside.”

Tech was straining not to roll his eyes. “And how do you propose we do any of that, Lights?”

Another new voice spoke up from near one of the bedroom doors. Quiet and somber, it was one he’d never heard before and he didn’t need to turn around to know it was Garet. Though he did turn at the Mentalist’s actual words.

“I have the floor plan.”

“What?” The question came from at least four different voices, but Garet didn’t seemed fazed. He just blinked, watching Cole and only Cole.

“I said, I have the floor plan. I can draw it up for you if you get enough interest in going.”

“Are you volunteering?” Tech asked.

“Only to draw the plans. I’m not going near the building.”

Cole jumped on that. “I’ll take it. Anyone interested in trying it the action flick way?”

“I’m in.” Banshee spoke up, accompanied by Lights’ hand flying into the air.

“So am I.” Kane offered an apologetic frown to Tech, who looked shocked and confused.

“Seriously?”

“I’m sorry, man. But Gai, she’s like a little sister. I can’t leave her to that. And the two triplets, they’re freaking out. They lost a sister, too, and I have just a little bit of an idea of what that’s like with Gai.”

“Dammit- fuck you Kane!” Tracker shouted from the living room, making Kane chuckle and add, “That means Track’s in, too.”

“That’s enough.” Cole stopped it before they got more volunteers. “We can’t have everyone storming the building. Garet, can I talk to you? We can use one of the bedrooms for your floor plan drawing.” Garet nodded, and Cole turned to Banshee. “You mind getting us some paper and a pencil?” Both looked to Tech after his question and waited for his nod, and once they had it, Banshee grinned and went running out the door to head to the nearest corner store.

Cole nodded to Tech, who was looking unhappy but hadn’t laid down any ultimatums yet. “Thank you, Tech.”

“Be careful,” the Mechanical warned, and went back to his conversation with Maggie as Cole trotted after Garet into the bedroom. He stood awkwardly for a moment while Garet sat on the bed, pulling his legs up to cross beneath him and watch Cole with eyes that were too knowing for Cole’s liking.

“So… you have the floor plan to a secure government building…”

“I do.”

“Can I ask how?”

“I became… intimately familiar with the halls when I was there.”

“You were - I’m, I’m sorry, I didn’t think-”

“That anyone ever got out alive. Yeah. Most don’t. Most don’t even know I was there.”

“Tech?”

“Nope.” Cole knew the shock was clearly written across his face and Garet smirked. “Surprised?”

“I… kinda thought Tech knew everything about everyone in Skye.”

“He knows most everything. He doesn’t ask. People just trust him, volunteer information to him. It works for him and his lack of questioning makes people trust him more. It’s a good cycle for him. I just…didn’t volunteer why I ended up on his doorstep one day.”

“Can I…How old?-”

“When I got here? Sixteen.”

“And when you were in-”

“Four.”

Cole sucked in a breath. “Wow. I’m - I’m sorry, Garet.”

“Don’t be. It’s the past. Some of us learn to move on.” The barely subtle dig at Rune made Cole’s curiosity about the two pique. But he had other things to worry about. The way the microdistricts were set up for convenient shopping, Banshee would be back in minutes with the paper and pencil.

“Well, thank you. For helping us, I mean. I really appreciate it.”

“Sure. I have the knowledge, why not use it right?”

Cole forced a smile, and slipped back out of the room to wait for Banshee.

After Banshee came back with the drawing utensils, Cole let Garet hide himself away in the back room while he talked to Banshee, Kane, Tracker and Lights, while Tech watched.

“Alright, so we’ve got the floor plan. Next on our agenda is finding a link into the building and watching for patterns.”

“I can watch,” Banshee volunteered up, making Kane chuckle again.

“And get bored halfway through,” The Exceptional scoffed. “I’ll go with her.”

Banshee shot him a glare, but didn’t argue with him, and Cole nodded. “Sounds good. Not now. Wait a week, let the aftermath of the tower die down. We need to wait until it’s safe for you to be out and about again. Being near a government building is going to get you on someone’s radar eventually and we can’t risk it being too close to today and someone wanting to scan you.”

The other two nodded and he looked around. “Ok, next on the agenda would be seeing if anyone feels like helping me harness my power. Like the watching, though, it’ll have to wait a week or two, but I’d like to get a handle on it before we make any big moves.”

“I’m down,” Lights offered up immediately, followed surprisingly enough, by Tracker.

“I’d be willing to do that. Might be helpful to both of us. If I can use your little power-up, I might have a good chance at figuring out if our people are actually in the Pravitas building.”

“Awesome. Then the plan for now is to lie low.” The words tasted sour, the guilt of leaving Rune while they relaxed and tried to stay under the radar eating at him a little. The others nodded and drifted as apart as they could, Kane going to sit with Tracker, Lights drifting to the door of Garet’s room, curious but unwilling to tangle with Garet in case he wasn’t in a social sort of mood. Tech didn’t say much, but the approving nod he offered Cole made Cole smile, thinking that at least it seemed like he hadn’t messed up this first shot at being a leader.

The waiting proved to be the worst. Days passed, and with each day he got more edgy, the ‘what ifs’ got worse. What if she was hurt? What if she was wondering where he was? What if she wasn’t any of that, and she was just dead? That thought woke him in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, nightmares of Rune, prone and unmoving on the ground, accompanied by the screams and shouts of other people he’d grown to care about.

He struggled with the urge to storm the doors and demand Rune back. His instincts knew that wasn’t the best method, that the only thing that would accomplish is getting a lot of people hurt and arrested. But the urge got stronger with every passing day that they didn’t make a decided effort to get to the others. They ended up waiting two deathly long weeks before scouting the building, before really practicing with Cole’s power. He’d been itching to start earlier, but luck just wasn’t on their side. Extra patrols one day, officers questioning a couple on the street another, what looked like extra security at the Pravitas building, something every few days that stalled their plans just a little more until they blinked and it was thirteen days later.

Finally, though, they got through more than a few days without any suspicious activity, and Banshee and Kane left to go watch their target, and Cole and Tracker hid in the garage to practice with his ability. He still didn’t trust Tracker all that much, but she had a non-destructive ability and a way to find Rune in addition, and he wasn’t in a position to be denying offers of help.

“Ok, so from what I gathered the few times you’ve actually practiced- you should really do that more, by the way, it’s not going to learn itself- you just supercharge it without any control as to how much you charge, yeah?”

“Basically.”

“Well, do it with me,” she offered him a hand, “and pay attention to what it feels like. Try to get a sense of it, like flexing a muscle, and try to manipulate that.”

He nodded and reached for her hand, feeling the pull before he even touched her, and she sucked in a breath when they made contact. “Whoa,” she breathed, nodding in approval. “Not bad.”

“Can you sense them?”

“First things first. Right now we’re concentrating on controlling your ability, not mine.”

He let go of her hand and backed up a pace. “No. Tracker, the point of this is to get our people out. We can’t do that if we don’t know where they are.”

She met his eyes and they faced off for a few long seconds, deciding where the balance of power lie. He needed her to find Rune, she needed him in order to find anyone. She didn’t care about finding anyone, but Kane did, and she cared about Kane. He also had the more logical point: this whole plan was useless if the people they were after were already moved or worse. Seconds ticked by, but she was the one to concede, offering her hand again. “Fair point.”

He laid his palm on hers and did as she’d told him to, focused on the actual feeling of charging her. It still felt like a small shock, but not painful, more like his arm had fallen asleep and he had needles all in his arm. Lily had had teeth pulled when she was younger, said the anesthetic they gave her a shot with felt like ice in her veins. This might be a bit like that, just less icy and more static-y. He tried to concentrate on the feeling like it was a muscle, but it wasn’t like moving an arm or his fingers, it was wilder and less controllable. She pulled away first, and he drew his hand back. “Well?” he asked, trying to make it a polite question instead of a demand.

She didn’t look happy, but then again she rarely looked happy. “They’re still alive. Gaia, the triplet, and Rune.”

“Good! That’s good right?”

“Could be.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can tell you their abilities are flaring a little, but that could mean they’re nervous or they’re…” She didn’t finish, looking uncomfortable, and he pieced it together.

“Or they’re in pain.”

“Exactly.”

He took a breath, and held out his hand again. “Let’s go again.”