Chapter 11 - "The Cost of the Hunt"
Part II
We arrived at the school. I spoke over the team frequency.
“Everybody stay put. Weapons under cover until we leave.”
I got out and headed into the school. The looks I got were mostly amusement. they assumed I was somebody dressing up like a Olympus MetaHuman. The principle's office was not hard to find and my reception there was slightly less than amused.
“I need to see your Principle.” I told the glowering woman behind the desk.
“Please take off that mask.”
“Sorry. That is against the rules.”
“Who are you?”
“Pulsar and this is urgent.”
“I mean who are you really. I can see who you are dressed as.” snarky and unpleasant.
My forcefield lit up. Her mouth hit her desk.
“The Principle... now please.” a little Darth Vader voice to complete the effect.
She pointed to a door to her right. I opened and went through it to find a rather average middle-aged man doing the usual paperwork.
“Who are...” he began.
I flashed my shield. I was out of patience.
“I'm Pulsar and I need your help. One of my people has been hurt and the only chance we have to save her requires your school's help.”
“But. But what could we do? I don't understand. We do have a nurse but...”
“I do not have time to make you understand. You know who I am?”
He nodded -- Twice actually.
“Then you know what I do. Does Olympus matter to you at all?”
Again he nodded. Just the once this time.
“Then help me. Explanations can come later. Call an assembly and take me there. I have a team of people outside waiting for my signal and time is short. You have my word it is safe and necessary to save a life.”
“Alright.” and off he went. The PA crackled to life and the student body began to shift it's location.
Mr. Huckle, the Principle, showed me the way to the gym. As soon as we got in the door I tapped my earpiece.
“Psyche. Bring her in. My location.”
“On our way.”
The kids started to stream in from the other end of the rather large space. They spotted me and their chatter grew louder. The bleachers along the walls began to fill.
Psyche and the team made their way in the room, I directed them to the center of the open space.
The kids were dead silent now. Somehow they had figured out that we were not some sort of show but instead the real deal. Never felt so many eyes on me before.
Might as well do it right. I floated into the center of the room until I was hovering 10 feet over where Selene now lay. She was still but breathing.
“I am Pulsar.” add a little echo along with some volume. Bring up the shield.
“We are here because we need your help. Selene is a Metahuman and she has been hurt. Not shot or stabbed. The hurt is in her mind. She is a Telepath. A very evil man has done something to her and we need all of you to help us undo it. Do you think you can do that?”
“YES!” came as a roar. I wish I could describe how I saw it but it is just impossible. A tidal wave of sound is so lacking but it is the best I can do.
I floated down next to Selene's prone form. To Psyche I directed the question I had to ask.
“It might not work but the kids will be in no danger. You have my word on that.” was her reply.
Psyche was crying.
“Why the tears honey?”
“The kids... they love us... so much. It is wonderful. Bring them closer.”
Back into the air.
“Kids I need you to move down here. Sit in a circle around us.”
A waterfall of children roared down towards me. They were not yelling or shouting but just the movement was like thunder. I might have been a bit over-sensitive right then.
Psyche was in the middle next to Selene. She spoke to the group.
“Now I need one brave boy and one brave girl. I am going to ask you to take one of Selene's hands. This will be a little scary. Roller coaster scary. You are perfectly safe but you might see lights or flashes of weird stuff. I know this is a lot to ask but we will not let anything happen to any of you.”
She was speaking with what we called the 'Gaia Voice' it worked on everyone including me.
Full of warmth, trust and love it was her at her very best.
A bunch of hands shot into the air but one boy and one girl just got up and moved to sit next to Selene's hands. I was ready to warn them not to touch her until we were ready but they just waited. Psyche might have been helping them along a little without my noticing it.
Off by the rest of my team the Principle was looking extremely uncomfortable. I could not blame him but I would not allow him to stop us either. I drifted down near Psyche and whispered “The Principle. Convince him this must go on unhindered.”
Via my special senses I saw the tendril of mental force reach out and make the connection. In a moment the look on Mr. Huckles face changed to something more hopeful.
I rose back into the air because I needed space to focus. I wove a matrix of energy around and through the entire group of us. It was delicate and complex. Working with psychic energies is difficult for me and I was really pushing my limits here. Psyche was helping and on familiar ground but I had to guide energy that I could not control.
But now I could put Selene into telepathic contact with each individual person and shield them from any hostile feedback. In theory.
“Ok everybody. I want you all to think of a happy memory. A birthday, a trip, anything you like. I need you to keep thinking about it until I tell you to stop. Now you two please take her hands.”
They both reached out I felt contact being made.
Selene stirred, not much, but it was something.
The two children holding her hands looked ok. Nothing was coming back to them from Selene that I could detect.
“Psyche?”
“Tiny but positive. Not sure how much it will take. Go slow. One a second until I tell you to stop.”
I began to link the kids to Selene one at a time. Everything was flowing into my wounded Telepath and nothing was going back. At least that worry did not materialize the kids were fine.
We continued for a few minutes. I could tell Selene was responding but she was still out. The fear that this might not work was back in full force.
My head was aching and I really needed a drink of something. Each new link was a pop in my head that sent little echoes of pain down my spine.
Psyche called to me from below. Odd that she spoke rather than sent. Stress of the moment I suppose.
“It is not enough. That blackness just swallows up each new contact. Hit her with all of it at once. I know what that means. I love you. Please don't die.”
Oh this is going to hurt.
I landed and sat down. Let's not crash into the kids.
Up went my hand. Into it I gathered all the strands, all the connections. The faint glow of my forcefield became a stronger one. In a smooth motion I threw the energy at Selene.
In one instant she was connected to some 300 children. Their lives flooded her, all that power, life when everything is possible, invulnerable, eternal, alive.
Selene's eyes snapped open and she screamed. A long hard scream that seemed to empty her and finally fade away into echoes. She grabbed the two children that had held her hands and squeezed them.
Cheers erupted. Everybody cried.
At least that is what I was told. I was unconscious at the time. Head pretty much exploded when I made those links. Fire and pain -- not even a little bit fun.
As I swam up from the blackness a thought not my own swirled just out of reach.
'You know... if you die you are going to bum me out.'
My eyes opened slowly. Impressions intruded, couch, dry mouth, whole body intact, but wishes it was not. Alive, probably.
Psyche was sitting next to me. We seemed to be in a lounge of some sort.
“Where is everybody else?”
“Entertaining the kids.”
“So I guess I am not dead.” the jury was still out as far as I was concerned. Nobody alive could hurt this much.
“No, but if you were a cat I would say that you have 8 left. She is fine, Speed came and took her home. The docs have her but it looks good. Long term though, not sure. We are going to have to alter how we handle this project of yours.”
“Yeah, fine, water please. ”
We stayed for a couple of hours. I got better quickly and was soon setting up zero gravity bubbles for the kids to try. They loved it. Sure a fair amount threw-up, but as soon as it left their mouth, it vanished. I am good. The child in question also found themselves floating back to the ground to recover.
Selene did recover but our new understanding of what constant contact with horrible minds could do to the Telepaths made us slow down our operations. We knew we had to continue the work but we did not want to destroy our people to do it.
So to compensate each of the psychics visited a elementary, junior or senior high school every month. Through less dramatic means they absorbed the happy life of the children. The kids got a MetaHuman show that they would never forget and some of the worst of the worst vanished off the face of the earth.
Sitting back, here and now, thinking about it all. 63 Jack the Rippers would never hurt anyone ever again. More than worth what it cost but it did cost. Psyche and the others tried to hide it from me but the impact of those 63 personalities on them is something they will never shake. Every Telepath who has done this work has shown some twitch, or phrase, or emotion, that is not their own.
Evil has a foothold in my girls. From the moment I understood this I have thought carefully about everything I ask them to do with their power. I need them.
There are more serial killers out there in North America and the rest of the world. But we eventually terminated the search program. We did not want to we knew there was more to do. But to continue would have cost us some amazing women and I could not ask that of them.
The finally tally would eventually be: 13 months & 63 killers. Enough to make a difference in a lot of lives.
When we returned home that day I got to read this:
Transcript of initial Police interview with MetaHuman known as 'Mad Mongo'.
9:07 pm
Officer1: Subject was apprehended after he personally and intentionally caused the destruction of a entire shopping mall. Suspect is charged with 157 counts of first degree murder along with a host of destruction of property, both public and private, charges.
Officer2: Relax Mongo. Those chains are titanium and unbreakable. And we have you on a heavy dose of muscle relaxers so even if you get free, you ain't going nowhere. The chains come from Olympus and they know your kind.
Mongo: Wanna bet?
Officer2: Why the mall Mongo?
Mongo: Like you give a damn.
Officer1: We are just curious. Thought you might like a chance to tell your side of the story.
Mongo: You guys are a scream.
Officer2: Some clerk blow you off for a date? Cause lets face it you are butt ugly. Come on, why not tell us? None of us is going anywhere. We have to talk about something.
Mongo: muttering you don't care.
(Long silence)
Mongo: You never cared, any of you. Oh you would arrest me. Lock me up sure. But you never asked why before. You never asked if anything was making me do the things I did. F--- you. Now you care because I am strong. You fear me now.
Officer1: We brought you down with tear gas and tasers, you are not that tough.
Mongo: LUCK! F------ luck was all that was. I'll get a gas mask or something, yeah. Stupid tasers would not have worked if I could have kept moving, damn gas made me puke.
Officer1: Superpuke. You killed an officer by blasting him into a wall with your vomit.
Officer2: And you killed three other of our brother officers before you went down. You are going to pay for that.
Officer1: Arch, cool it, you know the rules.
Mongo: Rules! Yeah, that is what is going to kill ya. You will never even see it coming until it is right in your miserable faces.
Officer1: What do you mean Mongo? When what is in our faces?
(Short silence)
Officer2: Hey Mongo, how can we be scared if we do not know what to look for?
Mongo: Cute, so so cute. I see how you get humans to talk, push their buttons until something works.
Well I am not human. I am Metahuman. I am a GOD. You have not yet learned your place but you will soon enough. He is going to teach you.
Officer1: he?
Mongo: He. And we.
Officer2: He got a name?
Mongo: He does and you will learn to fear it... just before you die.
(noise)
Officer1: Subject seems to be undergoing some sort of convulsion. Wait, wait, he is changing, altering his appearance. He is smaller now closer to human-sized.
Mongo: You think I am some insane child, Mad Mongo. I kept that stupid name because it was fun and it made you fear me even more. That visage is part of my power you idiots. You do know that word don't you? When I power up I get a little ugly along the way. Everything else is theatrics.
You two have no hold on me. No levers to apply. I will be free in hours either by legal maneuver or by a good old fashioned jailbreak. Attempting to hold me here simply shows how little you understand the situation. You should have turned me over to the Olympus goons or just shot me in the back of the head. Tell me, how many of you fine police officers are in this building?
Officer1: Over 100 so forget any ideas about that jailbreak.
Mongo: Confident. Good trait in a cop. Too bad you are most likely dead.
Officer2: Making threats against a police officer is a crime pal.
Mongo: Ya. I know. 157 counts of murder. Looks impressive. But my actual total is 831. After I rip this place down around your ears it will be close to 1,000. Since you are recording this I believe that qualifies as an admission of guilt.
You think I care about your LAWS? You are nothing. Mere insects that infest OUR world. Do you believe that Pulsar and his dogs of Olympus will save you? They are a pathetic handful of misguided fools. Worship us. Or die. Even you monkey boys should be able to understand that.
I am done talking to the two of you.
(End Interview)
Nine hours later a group of what were believed to be MetaHumans assaulted the police station. Mongo was released and he carried out his threat to level the building. 169 Officers and civilian staff lost their lives. Detective Archie Toma managed to survive. His partner did not.
Mongo's kill total stands at 1,000.
End Report
Pulsar, Psyche & Selene
MetaWar Chapter Twelve