Chương 43: Costume Party

Climbing fire escapes was probably the best exercise known to man, and by best, I meant hardest. Jogging to Mr. Cheng's each day was a close second, but cardio in general was just the absolute worst. Rigel just had to choose the top of a building four stories high for his hideout. Rushing twelve blocks to get here after training with Mr. Cheng had left me dying and now the stairs were finishing the job. By the time I got to the small door on top, I was ready to quit this whole superhero business.

Clearly my body was not made for this kind of strenuous workout, at least, not my lungs. But, if it was this hard for me, it would be that much harder for anyone else, so I guess this Rigel guy knew a thing or two about maintaining secret lairs. I put a hand on the door knob and turned. It creaked open just like it did before. If the door was unlocked, that meant he had to be there. This was all still in the testing phase. Mr.

Cheng advised me not to do things alone, so I was going to give this a try with the only person available. I stepped down the stairs and then pushed the second door. A light was on in the room and a figure sitting in a chair turned around toward me.

"You made it." The electronic voice was now familiar. He stood up and walked over.

"I did." I tried to keep the breathlessness out of my voice, leaning against a table. He paused, staring at me.

"You okay?" I finally let out a full ragged sigh.

"Your stairs tried to kill me."

"Well, that's the point. It works on most people. Keeps enemies out."

"And you're gonna make me go up that every time if I want to come here?" He shrugged.

"If you want to fight others, you should probably be able win against inanimate objects first." I flopped myself into one of his cushioned, musty-smelling chairs.

"People are easier to battle. I just poke them and then they're flat on the ground. I wish I had that option with stairs." My head leaned back on the pilled, flannel fabric, looking over at his board.

"So, any updates since I was last here?"

"It's actually been pretty quiet. I don't know if they're planning something new or what, but I haven't seen them since your fight." His helmeted head turned towards me.

"Maybe you scared them." I let out an unladylike snort.

"Oh yeah, the girl who barely got away with her life sent a message to the big bad crime ring that they better not mess with her."

"Maybe it was that one of their hybrid mutants couldn't win against a beginner super. It's gotta be a blow to the Alchemist's ego." Rigel began walking around, picking up various items.

"My guess is that he's doing this to create his own army. He gets to be the captain and creator and he can draw from the entire human population for exactly the people he wants."

"Sounds pretty megalomaniacal, especially how it turns everyone into mindless animals."

"Evil people rarely think what they're doing is wrong." I leaned forward in the chair.

"So, what's your plan? You said you still don't know who the Alchemist is, and now no one is coming out to play at night." He walked over to stand in front of his map."I'm working on that. I raided one of their lairs in an abandoned house two weeks ago but six of them mutated and I had to jump out the window before they tore me apart. I went back the next day but the place was abandoned."

"Do you know where they are set up now?" He shook his head.

"No, but I'm looking." My fingers began squeezing the side of my legs as I bit my lip.

"Could you use some help with that?" He stood still for a second.

"From you?" My knees jerked up to stand.

"Yeah, I mean, two is always better than one and I think there are some things I could do to really help." Rigel leaned back against a table.

"Alright, you wanna tell me what you can do?" My head turned away and I sighed. I was already trying to branch out by having a partner. It still felt necessary to keep some things secret.

"I'm sure you'll see it in the moment."

"Look–" he stumbled on his words, coughed, then continued.

"Zero, if you want to fight with me against a whole group of Chem Heads on their territory, we have to coordinate some things first. We can't just go in and fight like individual people, we're going to want to figure out how to use our powers together in the way that works best…so we don't both die." This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. I folded my arms in front of me.

"You know about my poking thing. I can disable someone's arms with that." He nodded.

"With your ridiculous, constitution-enhanced fingers."

"How many times do I have to say this: I was at death's door, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to concentrate it all in one place– the system sure wanted me to, by the way, so that's on them–" He held up a hand.

"Alright, alright. You're excused. Tell me what else you can do." I straightened my shoulders, still trying to buy time.

"I've also started to learn how to disable legs, but I've had very little practice, so I have no idea if I could use it in the moment."

"Noted." His head turned directly toward me.

"Anything else? Didn't you say you were a speedster?" My head was turned away, eyes looking somewhere other than his face. Perhaps he was right, if I didn't tell him exactly what I could do, it could end up severely hindering our fighting ability and, most likely worse, get one or both of us killed. I would certainly view it as wrong for him to keep some ability or power from me. And this was one of those friendship things that Mr.

Cheng had talked about– actually trusting someone with something big and important about you. I was already planning to fight with the guy, which meant putting my life in his hands, so giving him a very important detail about that life should go along with that.

"Not exactly. I may have lied about that last time." My voice wavered as it came out and I still couldn't look at him.

"Of course you did." He sighed.

"What powers do you have?" My eyes closed as I took a deep breath. Here we go. The first person to ever know about my true power.

"I can stop time." His mouth dropped open.

"Well, it's– I'm not really good at it. At first it just slowed things down, but now it stops everything completely. I don't have great control over it. And it's really quick, my record is I think four seconds, but that's not a for sure thing. I have been able to do multiple intervals in a short amount of time, but I get sick after each one. So the first headache turns into a migraine, the nosebleed becomes Niagra Falls out my nostrils, and then I'm just basically drunk and disorderly.

I fainted once after I used it four times, so yeah. I mean, it's really not great, but I can do some things with it. The system says I'm a chronomancer." My rambling slowed to a stop. His mouth had stayed in the same position all while I talked.

"You're a chronomancer?" My arms shook the way they always did whenever I revealed something personal about myself. I ran my hands through my hair to cover it up.

"Yeah, I guess that's the official name for it, but like I said, it's just kind of using a pause button for a few seconds where everything stops and then after they go back to life."

"Do you know how rare that is?"

"You know, I've spent my whole life trying to learn as little as possible about supers, so yeah, this is the first time that I've heard that." His head ducked down, looking at a book under his hand.

"Why didn't you look up things after you found out?"

"My family is on a strict anti-internet regiment, okay? I just kind of rolled with it; I didn't think it was that strong of a power, so it just didn't seem important. Besides, I thought the Academy kept a pretty tight lid on super stats and data and all of that."

"Yeah, they do, but most people are able to do the math. Some classes are rare like mine; Tinkers aren't very common. Most people get basic brute or speedster classes that enhance the body and have to branch out from there. Mancers are incredibly rare and I have never even heard of a chronomancer." I shrugged.

"Math was never my strong suit. Or supers. Or any of this– I was really planning on being completely ordinary for the rest of my life, okay?" My feet began walking around the small space.

"Then it turned out I wasn't. After a lot of kicking and screaming, I've accepted it, and I'm trying to learn, get better, do all of the things I need to do. And I think that working with you will help me with that." His head nodded, hands on his helmet, tilted away from me.

"It will. I'm just trying to calculate all of the ways we can use this. Even a few seconds of paused time would allow you to do a lot." I opened my mouth to disagree, given my track record, but then closed it. It probably wouldn't sound too good for me to admit how little I could do with the monumental ability to stop time, and for all I knew, maybe he was right and someone much smarter or talented than I could do so much more with just a few seconds.

"I usually use it with my finger poke move," I admitted, hoping it came across as somewhat adept.

"I stop time to ensure I get clear access and then I go for it. When everything starts moving again, they've got rubber for arms that can't hurt me." He began pacing around.

"Ok, that's a start. But we need to learn your limits and capabilities. Four seconds is your limit and with four intervals, but is that per day or per hour?"

"Ummm…" That was it, the only data I had for him. He was still burning a hole through the carpet with traction.

"You haven't tested any of this yet, have you? Why am I not surprised? It's fine. We have time before we find another Chem Head lair. We can come here and test each day after school." My eyebrows shoved together. I had never told him that I went to school, but… I was only sixteen and I certainly did not look old for my age. So, it didn't exactly take an Einstein to figure it out, but his statement might have meant that he was in school too.

Strange that I was putting so much trust in a person when the only thing I knew about him was how his chin looked. But there was the oddest sense sometimes that something about him felt familiar, but as soon as I recognized it, it would slip away. Rigel kept walking around, probably not even aware of his surroundings, in the zone about making plans.

"If we can get the space of your intervals worked out, we could really anticipate anything that might happen, block any of their moves. Get the inhalers out of their hands first, and then they become just regular targets. They've had training, he likes to select people with some kind of fighting background, but our powers should more than outweigh their lack of any–" I picked up some household cleaner he had on a table, casually inspecting it. He clearly didn't use it for its intended purpose.

"Listen, I don't want to disappoint you, but I've only ever had one-on-one fights before. I have no idea what to do with a whole group of people, especially when they go mutant monster on us."

"Well, I'm hoping that we could overcome them before that happens. If you can use your chronomancing first to steal their inhalers, then we just have to fight them in their human form. You'll still have your disabling attacks as well as time stopping if you needed, and I'll have my creations."

"Yeah, as long as I don't pass out or flood the place with a nosebleed or throw up over everyone." He paused.

"Vomit could be an effective deterrent; don't discount its usefulness." I rolled my eyes.

"Spoken like a true weird scientist. Don't tell me you want to combine my barf with some kind of chemical to make your own version of mustard gas." He snorted.

"That's ridiculous, it would lack the carbon framework to make the necessary molecules. Look, we'll have to figure this all out later. In the meantime, I have your mask and suit ready."