What if having superpowers was not a gift but a curse? Would you still choose to use it?
Aleksandra Leszczyńska works as an agent for a secret government organisation training people with superpowers - the Gifted - to work as a police support force...
"Yuliya, do you read? Team Beta, can you hear me?" Toni hailed and then shook his head. "We are cut out."
"That's not ideal," Regan said. "But we need to move forward and meet with other teams in the main room of the warehouse." He nodded to the agents in antiriot gear in front of them. "Proceed."
The inside of the old, dilapidated building looked unexpected. After crossing the threshold, the assault team Alsfa found themselves in a tiled hallway lit by buzzing overhead lamps, far too modern to fit the outside. There were no sounds or signs of any deviants so far.
"This place gives me creeps," whispered Pola, who kept the rear of their team.
"It looks like the work of the gifted," Stephen said. "Someone who can shape matter, probably. Shame. We could use someone with such talent."
"Sir, the next hallway is clear too!" reported one of the soldiers.
"And there is no other way forward." Regan took a long drag from his cigarette and puffed out a cloud of smoke. "They are leading us exactly where they want us."
"Should we abort the mission, sir?"
"It's too late for that now. The other two teams are already inside. If we leave now, they stand no chance. Proceed forward but be cautious of any traps."
They slowly moved forward. Sweat trickled down Toni's neck. It was damn hot in the heavy bulletproof vest. He said he didn't need one, but Regan insisted everyone in the assault team wore one, as a stray bullet could take down even the strongest gifted. He flexed his fingers. The quiet and empty hallways were unnerving, and Toni wished that whatever trap the deviants were springing would reveal itself soon. He was itching for action.
"There is a large chamber ahead of us, but there's no light inside," the soldier at the front reported.
Regan turned to Toni with an unspoken question. He nodded and, cracking his fingers, moved past the soldiers to stop at the mouth of the hallway exit. In front of them was only darkness. Toni raised his hands, igniting flames, forming them into the balls, and throwing them inside. They didn't see much, just a large circular room without anything inside. When he raised his hands again to send more flames inside, the whole place suddenly illuminated with lights from the ceiling.
The soldiers raised their rifles, pointing at a single woman standing at the other side of the room. She wore black, gothic clothes with leather pants laced at the sides, a tight corset and a choker on her neck which didn't cover a huge black tattoo covering her neck. Long black hair fell to her waist, and dark eyes with long lashes were adorned with heavy dark makeup. She looked like a witch.
Or a vampire.
Her red lips curved with a smile showing white teeth that, to Toni's relief, were not fangs. She spread her arms wide. "Welcome! Welcome to our humble home. Did you finally come to join Rioters?"
Regan made a gesture, and the armed soldiers with shields and rifles spread out in the room, still aiming their weapons at the smiling deviant.
"We are here for the people you kidnapped." Stephen stepped forward. "Release them, and we will talk."
The woman rolled her eyes. "Talk. All you righteous gifted want to do is talk, talk, talk," she mocked. "No wonder no one wants to join you. You are dreadfully boring!"
Toni felt the flames dancing on his fingers. This deviant was new. They didn't have her in their database and had no idea what gift she had. It couldn't be anything good, though.
"You are surrounded," Stephen said calmly. "Raise your hands and surrender. We don't want to hurt you."
Deviant's red lips formed a pout. "Too bad because I want to hurt you. How about we spin this place around, eh?"
Toni raised his hand to throw a fireball at the deviant, but he was too slow.
"SPIN!" she roared, and her jaw opened impossibly wide, falling right down to her chest in a caricatural way, like in a cheap horror movie, realising a horrible shriek.
And then, as if obeying her order, the world spun.
It wasn't a gentle spin, like when you got off the carousel or had too many drinks. The room rotated so fast and violently that everyone fell to the floor. But that was only the beginning. Huge chunks of the floor broke and started floating around in random directions. Toni barely dodged one piece bigger than his head. He looked around and realised that something horrifying was happening to people too. One of the soldiers dropped his rifle and fell to his knees, his body bending at all the wrong angles. He screeched in pain. Another one turned into a giant black bear and charged at Toni.
He instinctively raised a wall of flames, and instead of a roar, it was a painful human scream coming from massive jaws. Then the gunfire erupted. Something hit his chest, and the impact threw him to the ground again.
"Don't shoot!" Reagan shouted, but Toni could no longer see him. Everything around him spun so fast he felt nausea coming up to his throat. But as he lay on his back, the ceiling started crumbling too, and he had to roll to the right to avoid being crushed under a concrete block.
"Cease fire!" Regan roared again. "Nothing here is real! It's the deviant playing with your mind! She's─" His voice cut out and became an incomprehensible gurgle.
As if someone just slit his throat.
Toni roared in anger and rose to his hands and knees, avoiding looking at the mad world around him and focusing on the ground under his palm. It helped a bit. At least he could keep himself from falling again and didn't feel like puking any second. However, to find the deviant inside this madness, he had to get up and look around, but every time he raised his head, his brain got flooded with false visions, and his body was reacting on instinct to the dangers that weren't real.
He raised his head again to see a boulder flying straight at him. It took all his strength to stay still and not jump away to avoid being crushed. He closed his eyes seconds before impact, but nothing hit him. When he opened his eyes again, the world was still spinning like crazy, but there was no sign of the boulder.
But then someone cried out in pain again, reminding Toni that somewhere in this psychedelic vision was a very real deviant that was here to kill them. He got up, but his brain again got flooded with mixed signals from the rotating chamber, and he fell to his knees, cursing through gritted teeth.
He wished Aleks was here. She would know what to do.
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