Fiction: Stormwolf and Basalt II
Aug. 17th, 2010 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackMagmae strolled with doc. "What do you think of Adam? Of our new weatherchanger?"
Doc smiled. "Intelligent. Well trained. Appropriately tough. A high class compared the to the intelligensia and bravos the institute normally intern with us."
"Is he ours or theirs?"
"It's not clear yet, but at least as much ours. He'll settle down in a year or so. The institute will bother him for dribbles of information about us, which he will duitifully feed them, but if neither of us press him to choose loyalties... Well, the longer we leave it, the more he'll see himself as a mutant, and the less as English."
"And if they press?"
Doc cocked his head. "He'll be divided. He'll seek an honourable course, and he'll be unpredictable if there isn't one. I'll let you know if it comes to a head. For now, woo him. Show him how mutants can be noble, and free. How mutants can be normal, and loved. Let him blossom."
"And spend time with our handsome enforcer?"
"Oh, certainly." Doc cocked his head. "Even, find him some off-island missions, if they're reasonably laudable. He's past ready, and trust and responsibility can only help him."
"And the other one?"
"Shireen, the beautiful dwarf. I can see almost nothing. She's as clouded as one of Bennie's projections."
"She's not..?"
Doc laughed, a little clicking of lizard jaw. "It could be, but I don't think so. She's... odd, but she's hardly hellish. But I don't like it."
"She works with something? Or visits a corrupted site?"
"No, that's not quite right. That would be a brick wall across the future, but this is more like a fog. There are occasional flashes, but I can't see _anything_ she's going to do."
Magmae shook her head. "We can't trust her."
Doc shrugged. "We can't rely solely on my vision, we know that. Assaulting her could be as dangerous as leaving her be."
Magmae hesitated. "What do you think?"
"Wait a few days, and see if anything becomes clear." He paused sadly. "If not, take her over."
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Walking with Basalt, I touched my newly healed chest and remembered how it had felt when Chrystalline had healed it. I'd imagined ribs aligning like parallel streets, and tiny blood vessels straightening and lengthening, torn ends knitting together. I imagined Chrystalline snatching its hand away moments before my chest would have solidified permanently.
"Do you all... spar often?" In the institute we'd had combat training, with weapons and bare hands. I'd thought it very useful to train people to work under stress, but wasn't sure how much human martial arts would actually mesh with most mutant abilities. But up here, it seemed a real habit. "Who's the best?" And did that even mean anything with people like doc and Chronegg?
"Oh yes," he replied. "And maybe me. Or one of the other enforcers, depending how you count."
"What about doc?" Or Chronegg, or Magame, or some of the mind control powers?
"He doesn't spar often. Along with some others. Though I think he practices. I meant, people who fight, not people who win. There's just no point doc fighting. He fought a demonstration match against Nightgaunt. Nightgaunt's strong, and has those long leathery wings covered in little claws, and coated the whole arena in midnight darkness before the match started."
"Can doc see in the dark?" Those little lizard eyes.
"I don't know. I think maybe... But I think Nightgaunt's dark is too dark even for infrared. Nightgaunt said doc closed his eyes, 'just to make it fair' he said afterwards."
"And...?"
"Doc knocked Nightgaunt unconscious in a few seconds. The cameras didn't even work properly in the blackness, but doc ran towards Nightgaunt, Nightgaunt dodged, wrapping doc in a wing, but doc ducked, and caught Nightgaunt on the chin with his elbow. The blackness lifted, to see Nightgaunt flat on the ground and doc smiling. One of the healers rushed up, but Nightgaunt woke up right then, and didn't even need healing."
"A lucky shot can always..." My voice trailed off. It was the opposite of the fight we'd just had. If someone was determined, they could end a fight immediately. In a real fight, it was normally wise. Either you'd get a lucky blow in, or your opponent would. But I could tell, James wouldn't be telling the story if it was just luck.
"He's done it before," said Basalt. "Gave someone a handgun, had Chronegg standing there in case he got shot."
"is that safe?" I remembered Chronegg hesitating nervously over my chest.
"If he reverses your whole body, sure. But he doesn't normally like to -- image being in the middle of a match, and then suddenly waking up to be told that you lost but don't remember any of it. You'd deck him before you realised he'd not just walked into the middle of the combat by accident. But doc didn't care, he knew it wasn't going to happen"
Basalt gestured vigorously with his left hand. "Doc just stood there, encouraging the girl to line the shot up straight. And she did. One slow, careful shot right to the heart, and then another, and then the rest of the clip all at once as soon as doc moved.
"The first shot hit a cigarette case in a pocket in his robe. The second hit a different cigarette case in a different pocket. Then he dropped flat, dodged most of the rest of the clip, and deflected the last on his forearm. Taking a flesh wound, but not cracking the bone."
"He doesn't even smoke... I don't think he could do that against a machine gun, but I'm not sure. I don't think he can do it every time, or he'd have shown off more often, but he's sure as hell done it every time I've seen."
"So who could beat him? Someone with a mental ability?" I wanted to know what was common knowledge about mind-alteration abilities. I knew a couple of names, but everyone was amazingly close-lipped about who was who on the island.
"You'd think. I'm sure they could. Doc controls the odds... if there's a way to win, a moment to duck, however slim the chance, he has that moment, ten, a hundred times on the trot. But if someone is literally untouchable, there'd be nothing he can do."
"So, have you seen it?" I was curious to know about ways round doc's omniscience as well.
"Oh, no. He fought Mirrorglaze." The seven-foot tall bipedal rhinocerous with mirrored armour skin and the ability to implant memories in people's mind. "She was getting cockier and cockier. She thought she was unbeatable. The way she saw it, most people she could physically crush, and anyone else she could get into their head."
I imagined it. A false memory of Magmae calling the end of the match, and then Mirrorglaze springing onto you. "What happened?"
"He was all smiles. 'If I lose, I lose' he said. 'A little scrawny lizard can't beat everyone.' She was cautious, she knew what he'd done before."
"And?"
"As soon as Magmae called the start of the match, she moved, and tripped on a loose paving slab. Knocked out instantly."
Hm. There was a long silence as we strolled on, arm in arm. "So who _could_ beat doc?"
"Chronegg. A mind-power, if they planned it out right beforehand. Nightgaunt could, if he didn't try to attack physically, but sucked doc's memory away. I might, if I could turn completely to stone and just wait."
He paused, and suddenly the arm I was holding filled with stone-hardness, spreading up and down, and across his chest. I glanced at my hand, and saw it taking on the hard, mottled appearance of flesh-over-stone itself. Then Basalt shook himself, and his flesh flowed back to softness.
"But I don't think it would work. Bennie might."
"Bennie?"
"Hellgate." I'd heard the name, but only in the context of 'thar be dragons'. "His power makes doc's -- and lots of others -- go all screwy. But it's too dangerous to use, and it doesn't give him an edge in a fist-fight, it'd be two little-trained humans against each other, which wouldn't make either of them look good."
I'd asked Basalt what exactly Bennie did, but I couldn't remember any of his words now. I just remembered when I'd seen Bennie use his power for the first time. The darkened restautant had filled with a sad keening, and the feeling of paranoia you get when it's dark and you _know_ someone's there even if there wasn't. And then the room and fixtures had started to melt away, a dull gray light sweeping across the dappled shadows, and the matter in them running and slumping. A hatstand had shook, and started to lean forward with the shape of a distorted figure... and then everything snapped back to normal, apart from a few melted tabletops.
"And," Basalt continued, "some of the healing powers don't work right either, nor Chronegg's." So no wonder Bennie didn't use his power much, if ever, and not for demonstration sparring matches.
And James didn't mention it then, but every time Bennie generated a little private corner of hell somewhere in the world, if it persisted too long, some of it could become self-sustaining: a little piece of matter, or even a creature, which could walk out of Bennie's range. We called them demons, and they were often as resistant to doc's talent as Bennie himself. Doc would probably be happy if Bennie never used his power, and Bennie probably would be too.
I shook myself. "What about more normal matches? Do you train in teams? With weapons?"
"Oh, yes. It's all useful practice. I already know I'm tougher than any human, and can withstand a bullet. So Magmae arranges that I have a challenge." He grinned predatorily. "You never know what you'll face in the field."
Doc smiled. "Intelligent. Well trained. Appropriately tough. A high class compared the to the intelligensia and bravos the institute normally intern with us."
"Is he ours or theirs?"
"It's not clear yet, but at least as much ours. He'll settle down in a year or so. The institute will bother him for dribbles of information about us, which he will duitifully feed them, but if neither of us press him to choose loyalties... Well, the longer we leave it, the more he'll see himself as a mutant, and the less as English."
"And if they press?"
Doc cocked his head. "He'll be divided. He'll seek an honourable course, and he'll be unpredictable if there isn't one. I'll let you know if it comes to a head. For now, woo him. Show him how mutants can be noble, and free. How mutants can be normal, and loved. Let him blossom."
"And spend time with our handsome enforcer?"
"Oh, certainly." Doc cocked his head. "Even, find him some off-island missions, if they're reasonably laudable. He's past ready, and trust and responsibility can only help him."
"And the other one?"
"Shireen, the beautiful dwarf. I can see almost nothing. She's as clouded as one of Bennie's projections."
"She's not..?"
Doc laughed, a little clicking of lizard jaw. "It could be, but I don't think so. She's... odd, but she's hardly hellish. But I don't like it."
"She works with something? Or visits a corrupted site?"
"No, that's not quite right. That would be a brick wall across the future, but this is more like a fog. There are occasional flashes, but I can't see _anything_ she's going to do."
Magmae shook her head. "We can't trust her."
Doc shrugged. "We can't rely solely on my vision, we know that. Assaulting her could be as dangerous as leaving her be."
Magmae hesitated. "What do you think?"
"Wait a few days, and see if anything becomes clear." He paused sadly. "If not, take her over."
------------------------------------------------------
Walking with Basalt, I touched my newly healed chest and remembered how it had felt when Chrystalline had healed it. I'd imagined ribs aligning like parallel streets, and tiny blood vessels straightening and lengthening, torn ends knitting together. I imagined Chrystalline snatching its hand away moments before my chest would have solidified permanently.
"Do you all... spar often?" In the institute we'd had combat training, with weapons and bare hands. I'd thought it very useful to train people to work under stress, but wasn't sure how much human martial arts would actually mesh with most mutant abilities. But up here, it seemed a real habit. "Who's the best?" And did that even mean anything with people like doc and Chronegg?
"Oh yes," he replied. "And maybe me. Or one of the other enforcers, depending how you count."
"What about doc?" Or Chronegg, or Magame, or some of the mind control powers?
"He doesn't spar often. Along with some others. Though I think he practices. I meant, people who fight, not people who win. There's just no point doc fighting. He fought a demonstration match against Nightgaunt. Nightgaunt's strong, and has those long leathery wings covered in little claws, and coated the whole arena in midnight darkness before the match started."
"Can doc see in the dark?" Those little lizard eyes.
"I don't know. I think maybe... But I think Nightgaunt's dark is too dark even for infrared. Nightgaunt said doc closed his eyes, 'just to make it fair' he said afterwards."
"And...?"
"Doc knocked Nightgaunt unconscious in a few seconds. The cameras didn't even work properly in the blackness, but doc ran towards Nightgaunt, Nightgaunt dodged, wrapping doc in a wing, but doc ducked, and caught Nightgaunt on the chin with his elbow. The blackness lifted, to see Nightgaunt flat on the ground and doc smiling. One of the healers rushed up, but Nightgaunt woke up right then, and didn't even need healing."
"A lucky shot can always..." My voice trailed off. It was the opposite of the fight we'd just had. If someone was determined, they could end a fight immediately. In a real fight, it was normally wise. Either you'd get a lucky blow in, or your opponent would. But I could tell, James wouldn't be telling the story if it was just luck.
"He's done it before," said Basalt. "Gave someone a handgun, had Chronegg standing there in case he got shot."
"is that safe?" I remembered Chronegg hesitating nervously over my chest.
"If he reverses your whole body, sure. But he doesn't normally like to -- image being in the middle of a match, and then suddenly waking up to be told that you lost but don't remember any of it. You'd deck him before you realised he'd not just walked into the middle of the combat by accident. But doc didn't care, he knew it wasn't going to happen"
Basalt gestured vigorously with his left hand. "Doc just stood there, encouraging the girl to line the shot up straight. And she did. One slow, careful shot right to the heart, and then another, and then the rest of the clip all at once as soon as doc moved.
"The first shot hit a cigarette case in a pocket in his robe. The second hit a different cigarette case in a different pocket. Then he dropped flat, dodged most of the rest of the clip, and deflected the last on his forearm. Taking a flesh wound, but not cracking the bone."
"He doesn't even smoke... I don't think he could do that against a machine gun, but I'm not sure. I don't think he can do it every time, or he'd have shown off more often, but he's sure as hell done it every time I've seen."
"So who could beat him? Someone with a mental ability?" I wanted to know what was common knowledge about mind-alteration abilities. I knew a couple of names, but everyone was amazingly close-lipped about who was who on the island.
"You'd think. I'm sure they could. Doc controls the odds... if there's a way to win, a moment to duck, however slim the chance, he has that moment, ten, a hundred times on the trot. But if someone is literally untouchable, there'd be nothing he can do."
"So, have you seen it?" I was curious to know about ways round doc's omniscience as well.
"Oh, no. He fought Mirrorglaze." The seven-foot tall bipedal rhinocerous with mirrored armour skin and the ability to implant memories in people's mind. "She was getting cockier and cockier. She thought she was unbeatable. The way she saw it, most people she could physically crush, and anyone else she could get into their head."
I imagined it. A false memory of Magmae calling the end of the match, and then Mirrorglaze springing onto you. "What happened?"
"He was all smiles. 'If I lose, I lose' he said. 'A little scrawny lizard can't beat everyone.' She was cautious, she knew what he'd done before."
"And?"
"As soon as Magmae called the start of the match, she moved, and tripped on a loose paving slab. Knocked out instantly."
Hm. There was a long silence as we strolled on, arm in arm. "So who _could_ beat doc?"
"Chronegg. A mind-power, if they planned it out right beforehand. Nightgaunt could, if he didn't try to attack physically, but sucked doc's memory away. I might, if I could turn completely to stone and just wait."
He paused, and suddenly the arm I was holding filled with stone-hardness, spreading up and down, and across his chest. I glanced at my hand, and saw it taking on the hard, mottled appearance of flesh-over-stone itself. Then Basalt shook himself, and his flesh flowed back to softness.
"But I don't think it would work. Bennie might."
"Bennie?"
"Hellgate." I'd heard the name, but only in the context of 'thar be dragons'. "His power makes doc's -- and lots of others -- go all screwy. But it's too dangerous to use, and it doesn't give him an edge in a fist-fight, it'd be two little-trained humans against each other, which wouldn't make either of them look good."
I'd asked Basalt what exactly Bennie did, but I couldn't remember any of his words now. I just remembered when I'd seen Bennie use his power for the first time. The darkened restautant had filled with a sad keening, and the feeling of paranoia you get when it's dark and you _know_ someone's there even if there wasn't. And then the room and fixtures had started to melt away, a dull gray light sweeping across the dappled shadows, and the matter in them running and slumping. A hatstand had shook, and started to lean forward with the shape of a distorted figure... and then everything snapped back to normal, apart from a few melted tabletops.
"And," Basalt continued, "some of the healing powers don't work right either, nor Chronegg's." So no wonder Bennie didn't use his power much, if ever, and not for demonstration sparring matches.
And James didn't mention it then, but every time Bennie generated a little private corner of hell somewhere in the world, if it persisted too long, some of it could become self-sustaining: a little piece of matter, or even a creature, which could walk out of Bennie's range. We called them demons, and they were often as resistant to doc's talent as Bennie himself. Doc would probably be happy if Bennie never used his power, and Bennie probably would be too.
I shook myself. "What about more normal matches? Do you train in teams? With weapons?"
"Oh, yes. It's all useful practice. I already know I'm tougher than any human, and can withstand a bullet. So Magmae arranges that I have a challenge." He grinned predatorily. "You never know what you'll face in the field."