Sacred Forces: A Superhero Story

Chapter 3: Calm

Part One: Ripples in the Water

Aiden Sylum stood in an indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool. He wore a swimming shirt and swim trunks. He was an average man in looks: Slightly overweight, sandy brown hair, fair skin, brown eyes, and average height. He stood in the wading portion of the pool, in the three-foot section where the water came up to his hips. He waved his hands in the water slowly, going back and forth from side to side. He appeared focused on the water and the ripples his hands made as they radiated from the movements of his hands.
The Facility the pool was located in was state-of-the-art. The pool was kept at a tepid 75 degrees Fahrenheit. There were speakers located in the corners of the large room. The speakers played a combination of folk music and Vivaldi, music that Aiden Sylum loved to listen to. The music calmed him and made him feel at peace. He loved the cool of the water on his skin in the pool. He enjoyed the exercises in the pool that were part of his rehabilitation.
Aiden Sylum stretched his hands out to his sides and slowly brought them together. "Good," a man standing outside of the pool said to him. "Watch as the waves you made with your hands reverberate forward and outward. It makes a line, one that you can make and one can focus as long as you know how strong or how weak you can wave it."
Aiden repeated the motion. "Like this, Mr. Donovan?" Aiden asked. He waved his hands together again. He looked at the man with a curious look, hoping for a favorable response.
"Almost, Aiden," the man named Donovan replied. "Keep your elbows fused straight and your hands flat. Try it again. Give it another try."
Aiden did as Donovan instructed. He kept his elbows straight, stretched his arms out, and brought them together with his hands flat and palms facing one another. "Was that better?"
"Excellent, Aiden," Donovan said with a smile. "Do it again; it might've been a mistake."
Aiden smiled. "Okay," he replied. He repeated the motion as Donovan instructed. Donovan was the main trainer in the facility. He was tall, bald, with barely any hair anywhere on his body; even his eyebrows were hairless (he told Aiden because of a radiation incident). He spoke very tenderly to Aiden but he also pushed him gently to expand the skills Aiden had with his Superhuman power. Donovan would coax Aiden to concentrate and increase the level of focus he had with his power. Donovan had other wards under his care in the facility but he devoted a large chunk of his time in training and counseling Aiden. Aiden required a lot of monitoring; but instead of keeping him under wraps and in a locked room Donovan beseeched the supervising officer in charge of the facility, General Ernest Kilconus, to let him train Aiden using aquatic rehab, yoga, and aesthetic weight-training techniques. General Kilconus, whom everyone referred to as "Kilco", readily agreed and approved of it.
Kilco stood behind a window on the south side of the pool room. He was in his dress regalia. He had served as a soldier since he was a young lad in his native Russia. He rose in the ranks under the Iron Curtain but always maintained his stoic and strict honor code. He never yielded or compromised his beliefs. He insisted on doing things his way. He was never a fan of the Communist Party in his mother country, nor did he have fans among his fellow high-ranking officers, but he was highly favored by the common folk. He helped break down the Berlin Wall when it fell at the end of the Eighties. He was seen as a national hero and was hailed as a decorated soldier by both Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev. He had been semi-retired for several years but maintained a presence in national and international politics and military matters over the years. He was old, gruff, and often dour-faced. His thin white hair and nearly-black eyes were fierce and cold. As he watched Aiden Sylum in the rehab pool he stood at attention, with his hands behind his back and his eyes honed on the pool.
Daniel Stälth stepped into the small room. There was a square table in the room with six chairs around it. Little else was in the room except a small desk with a chair behind it, a locked file cabinet, and a standing coat rack. Daniel Stälth walked over to the window and stood next to the general. "Hello, General," he said to Kilco.
"Daniel," General Kilco responded. "How was your visit to California?"
"Not as productive as I was hoping it would be," Stälth answered with a sigh. "Hydrus said no."
"He told you 'no'?" Kilco asked.
"Actually," Stälth said, "He told Firehouse his answer was no."
"You had Firehouse ask him?" Kilco asked.
"Of course not!" Stälth replied. "Firehouse was tracking a bank robber with Superhuman abilities in the greater Los Angeles area. He came upon a bank that was being robbed by the same Superhuman but also found Hydrus fighting against the robber. Firehouse asked him if he was going to join and Hydrus said 'No thanks' to him."
Kilco grunted. "You should have let me talk to him," he said. "I would have had better luck than you. Did you show up in the limo?"
"Well, how else would I have approached him?"
"Humbly, gently, with less aplomb and more simplicity," Kilco answered. "He doesn't respond favorably to the jet-setting approach. You should have walked up with humility and invited him to tea."
"I'll remember that the next time I go and ask a Superhuman with a history of disgruntling opinions about this business to join our cause. I am still not fully convinced that he should be part of this project."
"I am," Kilco said, "Next time, I'll go. You stay here and write your checks and I will handle the 'peasantry' that you seem not to be able to handle yourself."
Stälth rolled his eyes. "I was merely trying to-"
"Trying," Kilco interrupted him. "You should be 'Doing' instead of 'Trying', Mr. Stälth. This is an important task we have before us. It might behoove you to put a little more heart into it."
"I am putting heart into this!"Stälth complained.
"Not enough, it seems," Kilco said matter-of-factly. "As I said, I will go next time."
"Sounds like you two need the Sweetheart Suite at the Honeymoon Hotel," another man said. It was Quentin Price. He stepped in, wearing his cargo shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt. He seemed relaxed. He strolled in care-free and lackadaisical. "Trouble in paradise?" Price asked. He took up a seat at the table, kicked off his sandals, and put his feet up on another chair.
"Stälth failed to recruit Hydrus," Kilco announced.
"Oh," Price said, "Well, that's unfortunate. On the other hand, I was a bit more successful in my efforts down in the Caribbean."
"Did you find Sequoia?" Stälth asked.
"You betcha," Price answered, "She called me today. She's accepted our offer!"
"It only took you a month," Kilco commented.
"No it didn't!" Price replied, "A few weeks, maybe, but a yes is still a yes! We got another Graduate on our team!"
"That's two," Stälth said. "It's better than none."
"You think it's wise to have that many members of this team influenced and trained by the same man?" Kilco asked. "We're putting our faith into the stock of a very mysterious man whose methods we don't all agree on."
"It's good enough for Mr. Avery," Stälth said.
"I don't care what Mr. Avery wants," Kilco barked. "My concern is the safety of this team and the people they will be interacting with in non-combat situations. Strategically, to have a small group of this team come from the same trainer and mentor means they might stick together during both combat and non-combat situations. We don't need cliques in this unit. They need to be cohesive as a whole first."
"Speaking of cohesion," Price said, "How's the Atomic Kid doing out there?"
"Don't call him names," Kilco reprimanded Price. "He is improving daily in his regimen. His skill level is impressive, considering the time it has taken to hone his power to a level of stability and control."
"That's not what I'm worried about," Price said. "How are his people skills coming along?"
General Kilco grunted again. "He's doing better."
Stälth looked at the general with an inquisitive look. "I must concur with Mr. Price's concern. Is Mr. Sylum getting along better with the staff and the others?"
"He's doing better," Kilco repeated.
"That's not what I heard," Price said. "I heard he broke the arms of two orderlies. I also heard that rogue prototype android-thing Malen's been training gave him some lip and caused a ruckus in the mess hall."
"Those two orderlies deserved it for their teasing of him," Kilco said, "They have since been dismissed. And Sylum didn't break their arms. He simply rearranged the molecular structure and shape of their arms."
"He turned their arms nearly into pretzels, Kilco!" Stälth spoke.
"And as for that Ersatz thing," Kilco continued, "He tried picking a fight with Sylum. That was not Sylum's fault."
"Either way, mate," Price said, "He did a lot of damage, both to property and to two people."
"Interestingly, not to Ersatz," Stälth said. "Apparently Ersatz is immune to Mr. Sylum's power."
"Sylum is right where the regimen has dictated he should be," Kilco said.
Stälth gave the general a curious look. "You don't seem to like the regimen laid out for him, do you?"
Kilco shook his head. He kept his gaze set on Sylum in the pool. "It does nothing for his psychological health. The counseling sessions are about his power, not about his mental status. It is useless."
"You said it was making him better," Price said. "I'd say that little display with the orderlies says otherwise."
"I said he's right where his regimen is," Kilco clarified. "He's doing better according to that standard, but in my opinion it is not appropriate for him. It is grossly underwhelming and made with very little consideration for who he is."
"He's a Superhuman with the ability to unravel the fabric of reality, mate," Price said. "He's a former supervillain from that wacky group that call themselves the Awesome Eight. He's got one of the most powerful abilities I've ever seen."
"All of that speaks to what he can do and what he has done," Kilco said. "None of that speaks to who he is. He is a person. He is a fragile-minded man who has been brainwashed by those mad fools in the Awesome Eight. He needs positive influences in his life. He won't receive the kind of mental health he needs if he continues to follow Avery's uncompassionate regimen."
"You have something else in mind?" Stälth asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do," Kilco said. He stepped to the file cabinet, unlocked it, and from the middle drawer took out a file in a blue folder. "I want this one to train alongside him."
Stälth and Price looked at the file. "Her?" they both asked.
"Yes," Kilco answered. "She fits the psychological profile best suited to train alongside him. He's lonely. He needs someone who might be a compassionate ear and a partner in rehabilitation. He needs a buddy."
"She's almost as bad as he is!" Price complained. "She's defiant, rebellious, and stubborn! She'll make him angry!"
"I concur with Mr. Price on this," Stälth said, "This 'Dixie' woman, as she calls herself, was part of that failed group of ruffians from Louisiana. She's still in the middle of her own rehabilitation. We would be compromising her rehab for his, or vice versa."
Kilco looked at Stälth with his fierce gaze. "What do you know about Superhumans other than what you've seen on the screen or read in the papers, Mr. Stälth?"
"A good amount, I would say," Stälth replied shakily.
"I have more experience with them than you two combined," Kilco said. "I know them better than they know themselves. I will be integrating the two of them, Dixie and Sylum, into a training program together. You will see the results. I will show you how it is properly done."
"Mr. Avery is not going to like it," Price remarked.
Kilco shot him a look of ferociousness. "Ask me again how much concern I have for Mr. Avery's feelings or opinions. He's not here. I am. We will begin the new regimen tomorrow. You will see. Give me a week and you will be amazed by the results."
Stälth nodded. "I hope you're right," he said to the general. "We're taking an awfully big risk, General. I'm with you in this. I believe his powers are second to his state of mind. But those two things are intertwined. When he lashes out he could completely destroy everything around him. He needs to be able to function not just as a person but also as a member of a team. If he can't do that then they will release him back to the Justice Department and he'll be lost to us. If this doesn't work out they will imprison him for life because of what he's done with the Awesome Eight. You need to be sure of this, Kilco. You need to be sure this will work. He's too powerful not to have as a member on this team but too unstable in his current state to do anyone any good."
Kilco stood at attention once again and looked out at the young man in the pool. He was moving his hands gently from side to side again, watching the ripples move across the surface of the water. "I don't need you to remind me of the gravity of the situation," he muttered. "I need one week. Then you will see that I was right all along."
Price looked to Stälth. They gave each other looks of concern and they both sighed.
General Kilco kept his gaze on Aiden Sylum. The ripples in the water hit the edge of the pool and bounced back. Sylum watched them approach, then waved again to make the ripples bounce back again. "You will see," Kilco repeated.