“Hey, man where you going—” Marky called after me as I left him and Andrew Wendrin’s new girlfriend behind at my table. I stalked out of the cafeteria and almost crapped my pants when I saw her standing just there.

“If it isn’t the Byson boy,” she greeted me mockingly. She wore tight black jeans and high-heeled boots that accentuated her long slender legs perfectly. Her upper half was covered by a short leather jacket and a tucked white and blue sleeve top underneath.

Her beautiful stoic face watched me with some amusement as I squirmed through my options of responses. Her pale red eyes twinkled. I noticed that her ears bore twin red piercings like buttons.

Her long black hair was swept to one side, exposing the left side of her face more clearly.

“Uhhh- h-hi,” I said at last and gave her a small awkward wave. She laughed at me.

“Really, that’s the best you can come up with?” she taunted teasingly.

“Well, how would you react?” I questioned boldly and flick a hand towards her.

She shrugged, still amused. “Fair point. Look, I’m not here to cause you trouble. Just looking for information. If you’ll allow a private chat with me.”

“I’m guessing…” I started hesitantly, “that saying no, wouldn’t be good for my health?”

“Or your mother’s health,” she replied cold and simply. I felt my hands clench into fists reflexively, and my knuckles pop. My mind raced through every possible scenario. Even one where I tore off my collar dramatically and blasted her with eyes beams. If, I could actually do that.

“You make an excellent point,” I noted grudgingly, “I’ll go with you.” I followed her as she started to walk. We eventually wound our way up through the academy, going four floors higher until we came upon a door with roof access labelled across it.

It wasn’t the actual roof, but did still afforded us some measure of privacy. I shut the door behind me, and waited as the woman strode over to peer down off the edge.

“So, what information do you need,” I said after clearing my throat. The silence becoming uncomfortable. Would a drop off the edge kill me? I didn’t know, nor did I want to find out.

“I’m searching for your associate, Harry Nalsteader. He escaped my custody at the restaurant, and I want to know where he is.”

“I… I can’t help you,” I started and explained further when she turned to regard me. “We’re not -uh- associate’s as you put it. He was just a colleague, until all that went down yesterday.” I sighed heavily and stepped away from the door. “I don’t know what drove him to it. I mean I hated William Byson as much as the next guy, but to try and kill the man—” I shook my head.

“He isn’t dead.”

“Huh?” I grunted and looked at her in confusion.

“William Bysons body is missing along with Harry Nalsteader.”

“And the Pulser- Neal?” I asked nervously.

“Dead. I killed him,” she replied matter of factly.

I closed my eyes and rubbed at my forehead. “Heroes and villains, my ass,” I whispered roughly.

“Why kill him?” I asked her curiously.

She didn’t seem taken aback by my question, in fact it seemed as if she expected it. She looked out from the roof towards the city. The academy was position at the outer edges of the city. One could look towards the inner city and its towering sky scrapers. Then turn one hundred eighty degrees and see the vast Keldasen Ocean. The Plateau city of Adaset to the north, and westward the city Ziila. All Interconnected by underwater tunnels and bridges.

“Your ‘friend’ and Pulser were a part of a cult calling themselves the Unbound. So far they’ve killed one hundred and twenty-six people, in their bid to free ‘our’ people of their shackles.”

“So because they’ve killed, you can as well?” I asked her softly. She shook her head, not at all offended by my question.

“I found other…corpses. Some so twisted and badly mutilated by the Unbound cultist. All for defending those of their relatives who’re collared. The majority of the those that’re killed are collared. They, like you didn’t want any trouble.”

“Then how’re they… ‘unbinding’ them?”

“At first I thought it was Neal the Pulser. Some side effect of his powers nulling the Arium devices.”

“Its not?” I asked.

She shook her head, her lips twisting in distaste. “The Arium collar’s are malfunctioning. I believe those who’re being visited by members of the Unbound, are so for a reason. They have some sort of intelligence that provides the exact date when a collar is discharged…”

“And along with that information is the person,” I concluded. Which meant that either Neal the biker was there for Harry, or both were there for me.

After a moment of thought I turned and looked at the vigilante woman. She was strikingly beautiful and had an mature-rich air about her.

“Why do you fight them. You’re not SPBI, that much is obvious.”

She smirked at my question, and shrugged her shoulder. “Honestly, because it’s the right thing to do. And because jailing them isn’t a guaranteed result. Those like Neal Kline can and will escape, again, and again. The Sunken Ring is a cruel place, but it isn’t fool proof. They inject Arium into the blood stream of some down there and let them play around. Its… well… its cruel.”

Arium for those still paying attention is the one singular product that nullifies all super powers except one. Amplifiers. Originally thought to be the base substance of which the Supers genome was established by some secretive researchers some three hundred(ish) years ago during an experiment. The foreign matter was then later founded to have a nullifying effect on supers of great frequency.

Arium, a derivative of the original substance Arianium, named after the researcher who used the substance for human test trials.

Presumably, a few unique properties were found in the organic substance. Properties which only manifested when in direct contact with the substance. Current archival knowledge believes that the Arium substance -then Arianium- was used in the procreation of enhanced beings. The researcher, Dr. Matan Aranian on the continent of Winderall introduced the foreign substance to his pregnant wife. From there stemmed hundreds possibly thousands of more human test experiments.

One rumour states that the evacuation of Winderall was due to this experiment going awry. Turning the test subjects into beasts instead of enhanced humans.

Then the crisis of Preyta city sinking twenty-four years ago happened. The Plateau government established the private sector of the SPBI. Who somehow had the means of lacing their weapons and other devices with Arium.

Since then Arium has been used liberally by the government and other bodies of note. Lacing entrances to government buildings, bullets, Arium gas grenades. The utility of the substance goes on.

I had not once ever heard of Arium being used in injection’s. What sort of side effects that such procedure could have on someone with the supers genome. The lingering mental images in my head made me shiver.

Judging from the disgusted look on the woman’s face. I suspected I wouldn’t want to find out either. I watched her for a moment, judging her expression.

“What can I do to help you? I don’t exactly have a contact number for Harry, nor do I know where he lives. Though I imagine he would’ve left the place by now.”

“I actually haven’t checked his place yet. I wanted to stop by and observe whether he had made contact with you. And from your rousing argument with the meathead back there, I recognise that you’re not too stupid.”

“So it was observe and threaten me first, then onto polite conversation?” I asked and tried not to smirk as she shifted uncomfortably.

“I wouldn’t actually go after your mother,” she confessed, and looked away dubiously.

“Yes you would. I would if it meant stopping murderers and terrorist pressuring collared into joining their ranks. Tell you what. You tell me your name, and I’ll let you in on a secret of mine.”

“Secret? what secret?” she asked me, her striking feature twisted in annoyance.

“Name?” I replied drawing the word out.

“It better be worth it,” she scoffed as her piercing pale red eyes narrowed at me.

“Patricia,” she threw out after a moment. I suspected it wasn’t her real name. Or it could be her real name and she let it out so casually hoping to throw me off. It was working.

“Well?” she drawled impatiently.

“Alright, fine,” I sighed and resigned myself to be thrown off the roof. Maybe if I land on my legs, and break my fall that way. As casually as I could possibly manage I reached up took a firm grip on the Arium collar around my neck and unclasped it. It fell loose in my hands and I watched as Patricia—as she was calling herself—blink in confusion, and then shock.

She stumbled back away from me, and blanched. I looked on in mild amusement until I understand what she blanching at.

“Oh shit, are my eyes all white again?” She nodded.

“And my skin around my eyes is shading purple?” again she nodded.

“It’s- It’s not just around your eyes,” she replied stunned by what she was seeing.

“What?” I practically squawked and quickly scanned about to see if there was anything reflective enough to look at myself.

“Yeah, in fact your whole head is purple- starry purple, and your hair is completely white. And- and its moving on its own.”

“Do you have a mirror?” I asked her quickly, but she shook her head. Giving up on the prospect of seeing my appearance change. I snapped the collar around my neck and breathed a sigh of relief. “Is it gone now?”

“It’s going,” she nodded and then shook her head. “Very slowly though. what the hell was that all about?”

“Found out yesterday, after showering. Then, all that happened was my eyes going white and the skin around them purple.”

“It’s looked pretty cool and interesting at least. It’s the fastest I’ve seen anyone’s power manifest after removing their collars. Usually takes a week,” she explained and reached up to tap her own slim Arium collar.

“What is your power anyway?” I asked her. She blushed and cleared her throat after staring at me for a long moment.

“It’s -uh- Technomancy. I’m actually a little bit of a dual powered, having a proportional control of electricity as well.”

“So Technomancy and Electro…mancy?” I blinked in surprise at her confession. It sounded like a pretty awesome combination to me.

“In fact…” she trailed off hesitantly, staring at me for long second. “Never mind. I need to get moving anyway and you’ve got class to attend to. I’ll- uhm, see you around, Elias.” She abruptly left the roof, walking through the access door and down into the academy proper.

“Yeah, see you around, Patricia. If that truly is your name,” I quipped and started down the stairs after a moment of waiting. It would be awkward to follow straight after her I decided.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the morning passed by without concern. My thoughts were filled with the image of Patricia striking face watching me before she’d left. She had been considering something I was sure. But what? I highly doubted I would see her again.

Not too soon midday arrived and with the two-hour break before third period. I decided to brave the sweltering heat and sun and had my lunch in the shade of a tree out on academy grounds.

My thoughts marvelled at the spectacle that I was in truth a health risk to every person within the academy and yet no one knew. Well Patricia knew, but for some reason I felt I could trust her with that knowledge.

Thoughts on whether I should tell my mom on the other hand, made me queasy.

“Hey!” A voice broke through my mental daze and I turned to see Andrew and his girlfriend- Karen. It was her who’d greeted me.

“Hey,” I replied, and gave meathead a grudging nod of my head. He tilted his slightly in response. I turned back and rifled through my cafeteria sandwich. It was filling if not disgusting.

“Apologise,” I heard a harsh whisper from behind me and decided at that instance that braving the heat was a bad idea. “Please, for me.”

Sighing, which turned into a yawn. I cracked my neck and stood up throwing the remnants of my lunch into a sandwich bag.

“Wait!” Karen- it was Karen right? called after me. I turned fully and cocked an eyebrow at her. The short almost petite woman was dragging her begrudging boyfriend behind her, like some swatted toddler.

“Yes?” I asked itching at my collar bone with my freehand.

“Andrew wanted to say something to you,” Karen breathed out and I saw that her face was slightly flushed. Whether from embarrassment or exertion.

“He does, does he?” I questioned and raised both of my eyebrow in wonder at the confession. I hated people apologising when they didn’t at all mean it. Apologising because someone pressured you into doing so, even less. It wasn’t genuine.

“I’m… sorry … for my words to this morning,” Andrew grunted, and I could almost hear the whirring crank of gears in his thick skull. Maybe he had taken a knock to the head during practice yesterday.

It still didn’t sound in the least bit sincere.

“Wonderful, glad you had the opportunity to recognise your fault’s and learn from them,” I said magnanimously, and gave the stunned Karen a cordial nod.

“Your still a coward,” Andrew snarled, and I clapped my hands loud and abruptly. Why did I like taunting idiots so much. It was made even better when the meathead flinch at the sound.

“And your head’s still an inch too thick,” I retorted and grinned ferally. What the bloody hell is wrong with me.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with you?” groaned his girlfriend, parroting my thoughts exactly.

“I don’t know,” I told her honestly. “Yesterday, I watched a man made of smoke straggle my boss—the asshole that he was—then I watched a concussive wave shooting asshole blast not just me, but the people I worked with, as well as a few mundane’s.”

“Then you hid, and let a woman fight a pair of villains,” growled Andrew and the big guy took a step towards me. His girlfriend’s hand keeping him from advancing.

“Then I was practically knocked unconscious as some badass vigilante kicked the absolute crap out of a pair of uncollared. Not, villains. Get your thick head out of the clouds. Heroes and Villains don’t exist.”

“You’re still a cow—”

Why do say that?” Karen asked me intrigued cutting off her boyfriend’s repeating answering machine of a retort.

“What, the hero and villain thing?” I asked and looked at her. She nodded slightly, tilting her head as she watched me. “In the original classic folklore of fiction, Heroes never kill, and the Villain commits crime for personal greed. Is a villain still the bad guy if all he’s trying to accomplish is the freedom of his people? Do hundreds- possibly thousands of death, matter if the end goal is the freedom of an oppressed people. And the heroes, killing instead of capturing. Stopping an entire generation and the generation’s after from having that freedom they so gallantly aspire to protect.”

“So the lines are blurred?” Karen asked me searchingly. I shrugged and watched Andrew’s eyebrows drew together as his gaze flicked from me and back to his girlfriend.

“Maybe,” I allowed. My thoughts littered by images of Patricia. Killing the bad guy’s because of the horrors she’d witnessed done. Claiming their deaths as some form of mercy compared to what they would face in the sunken ring.

And maybe it was. The prospect of being injected with Arium wasn’t a comfortable feeling to have.

“Or the lines have interwoven some much so that everyone now must walk on both sides,” I said finally. I blinked at the blonde-haired woman as she started to gradually nod.

“You could be right. What was that saying? All good intention stem from bad reactions or something along those lines.”

“I thought it was the road to hell is paved with good intentions?”

“What the hell are you on about?” Andrew barked; confusion etched plain across his face.

I looked from one to the other, “good luck with this one,” I told the pretty blonde and winked.

“I try, I really do,” she grinned mischievously in reply. Then began to pull on her boyfriend’s arm. Dragging him away as he started questioning her.

“What was that all about?” he asked gruffly.

“Oh just a bit of philosophy. Nothing to be concerned with,” she assured him sweetly. “Now let’s go try those cupcakes at the—”

I shook my head in amusement as I retreated to the shade of the buildings and made my way inside. Third period passed as expected, each student receiving a handbook about the work opportunities the academy could provide them through certain program’s. Each of which require an entry fee.

What. A. Joke.

Soon after three o’clock arrived and everyone bagged their crap and belongings, some weeping as they said their final farewells and departed the academy. I for one, strode out of the buildings entrance and made straight for the nearest bus stop.

It arrived and an hour’s journey later I got off at the nearest stop to my street. A quick walk up the road and I was finally home. The door was locked so I guessed mom to still be out.

I unlocked the door, grabbed myself a soda and bowl of dried fruit and made my way upstairs to my room. I ordered pizza over my wrist-phone, sent mom a quick message informing her of my purchase and sat down on my bed.

My hands felt idle, itching to remove my collar. What would happen if I kept the collar off. Patricia had told me of the recent changes. Would that spread all throughout my body.

What if I allowed the change to fully progress? would attaching the collar back on make it go away. Or would I be permanently changed.

I would be buying an unusual amount of body paint for the rest of my life. Then there was my eyes, did they do whole eye contact lenses. Ones with the coloured irises and pupil’s?

So many things could go wrong. Yet I thought of Patricia and her hesitance before we parted on the academy rooftop. For that matter did the SPBI have some way of tracking disabled Arium collars. Or Super-powers themselves. And what if my super power was to explodes and I hurt mom?

Questions, and questions, and doubts, and more questions. The speculation of every single possible thing that could go wrong and will go wrong haunted me. At least until I fell back on my bed and napped for a few short hours.

At least until I heard the slam of the front door and sound of mom grumbling as she entered. Which is when I realised how close to the ceiling of my room my face actually was.

This novel is the work of Rhys Thomas. If you are reading this and it has not been published by Rhys Thomas, then this work has been stolen. Please report this to Amazon and me at email: [email protected]