Blood Obsidian

Issue 42

A brief sense of respite ... - Part 6

Getting out of Ald-Tech headquarters proved as difficult and claustrophobic as getting in. Caitlyn still couldn't understand why they couldn't use the Bastion satellite's transporters and didn't believe for a second that each use left a trace of the target location behind. She just thought Kyle wanted to see her go through her stealth skills. Or to see her suffer. Probably to see her suffer. Nevertheless, he had waited until she had fast-floated at least five blocks away before he transported her back into orbit.

Then he made her wait while he and Drone's drones analysed the tablets that she had found while, at the same time, other drones trawled through the data found on Raymond Alden's computer and, by extension, Ald-Tech's servers. This, too, she felt was done to make her suffer. Kyle knew very well that Caitlyn was expected at home.

For a super-advanced satellite, the Bastion headquarters appeared to have a dearth of clocks on show. But, then again, as Bastion had the entire Earth to watch over, it would mean having clocks with every timezone everywhere. Caitlyn settled for looking at her phone. Only half-an-hour before she needed to get home. More than that and she could expect another grounding.

"Why, she asks yet again, do I have to be here for this?" Had he asked, she would have enjoyed performing the analysis with him, but, apparently, she wasn't insured for the equipment. That may also have been a lie. "Do you hate me? Is that what this is? You want my aunt to ground me until I finish college? If I ever get to college at this rate. You know I have homework to do, right? I'm sure Fear probably intimidates your teachers into giving you good grades, but I have to earn mine."

"Actually, I'm homeschooled. Tommy pays for the world's best tutors." With a pencil gripped between his teeth, Kyle scowled over the top of the monitors. "Come look at this."

At last! Something to occupy her mind instead of vegetating while Kyle did all the work. He pushed the wheelchair back, giving her space to look at the monitors, and clacked the pencil against his teeth, watching her reaction. He didn't offer an explanation for what she saw, allowing her to make her own conclusions.

"It's the stuff that my suit is made out of. The ... um ... Black Element? You know, I hypothesised that it was a liquid metal nano-robotic substance ages ago. And I was proven right. But this, on the other side ..." She used the mouse to zoom in to the image. "This isn't the same thing. It's rougher. The replication process is incomplete, giving the substance a much shorter life. This is synthesised."

"Correct! Raymond Alden has been dosing himself with a poor recreation of your suit, mixed with other stuff, too. Synthesised Black Element, lysergic acid diethylamide, and you know what happens to normal humans that come into contact with the Black Element? And no, I'm not saying you are special, before you ask." Popping the pencil back in his mouth, Kyle commandeered the mouse again, searching for and bringing up, a picture. "Professor Halstrom, I'm sure you are aware of. Perhaps one person in every ten thousand can successfully use the Black Element. For this synthesised version, that ratio becomes even wider."

Even now, Caitlyn couldn't imagine Raymond Alden as Fiend. Yes, he had almost lost his daughter due to Caitlyn's poor judgement, but to turn into a monster who thought nothing of trying to kill Alaina, a schoolgirl, or a super-hero, like Kyle? She couldn't see it. But there it was, on that screen. Evidence that Alden had technology that could turn him into Fiend. It wasn't conclusive.

"But it's breaking down. Unstable. Look. Any powers these pills gave would only be temporary. That's why Fiend never stayed around for long to finish what they, what he started." She watched as the synthesised nano-robots broke apart on the screen. "This is why my suit gets antsy around Fiend. It senses the corruption of its own technology. Just how sentient is this suit?"