A Psychic's Gambit

Prologue

Dark clouds unleashed a downpour that seemed to drown the windows of the skyscraper office. The man stood next to me staring into the churning ocean, his hands behind his back and his demeanor as cold as always. The two of us shared next to no similarities save the powers that had made others like us the targets for a great hunt.

"It looks like I failed again," he began after a long silence. "My time is coming to an end; I'm not long for this world... Can you feel it?"

"You and I both know I try not to feel anything." I responded bluntly.

These powers, this curse, they only bring pain. Even before all of this, my emotions were the gateway to untold suffering. It's better to not feel anything at all. Still, I was curious as to what could terrify that man — no, that demon.

I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind trying to peer into his, but I was met with the same dark void as I had been every attempt before. He let out a soft chuckle and turned to face me. The ebony slots of his ivory mask stared into my soul.

"Haven't you learned by now that you need only to ask, and I'll tell you what's on my mind, Number Two?" His voice was off-putting — terrifying yet somehow calming.

"What's coming then, Number One? What the hell are you scared of?"

He turned back to the glass, and seemed to close his eyes as he looked up. "I'll tell you once this mission is over."

***

We never went on missions together anymore, those of us that still remained. We hunted all manner of violent criminals and targeted undesirables, sometimes a mix of the two. My mission that day was one of the latter. He could cause explosions by touching inanimate objects, and he had turned to terrorizing the people of our city.

Whole squads of grunts had been taken out by his blasts along with significant chunks of the building that he had holed up in. As the two armed escorts and I made our way through the hard fought gains in territory, I saw the carnage that one man could create, and I was reminded of my own situation in a way.

Around a certain corner, we stopped and prepared to go forward as we heard the bloodcurdling scream of another grunt as his own body armor was turned into a functional suicide vest. With the blast still ringing in my ears, I wasted no time rounding the corner and coming face to face with the maniac in question. He was like so many before him — unkept, emaciated, desperate.

Neither of us said a word as we raised our hands to face off against each other. His would stop mere moments after starting as my own ability took hold of his mind, paralyzing him. Like every victim that prefaced that moment, his death was quick. His crushed and contorted body hit landed on the ground with a sickening thud, and the armed escorts rejoined me.

I looked out of the gaping hole in the side of the building to see that the rain had started once again, and my mind drifted to Number One.

Just what the hell are you so afraid of?

"—den."

"What was that?" I turned back to find myself all alone.

"Eden..."

I spun around to see the rain stopped in mid-air.

"Eden, wake up!"

My eyes flew open, and I sat up in my bed. All around me was a familiar space, one that I had grown up in, one that I only had a short time left in before everything would change. I shook off that strange dream once again and got up to start my day.