Science Fiction Multi-Feature Picture Show

Infliction Part 4: Truths

"Damn, Shaz, I think you made me break a sweat today." Rice leaned his head back, his dreads brushing the ground. She fought the urging to play with them, to run her fingers through them. There was something freeing in the way they didn't have to hold back with each other. They'd been one on one sparring partners for months. They knew each others moves inside and out, testing the limits of his strength and speed, and the range and focus of her ability. They worked in perfect tandem to each other. It couldn't last forever.

Shaz sighed, summoning a small smile for him. "Well, you certainly stink," she said, shoving him. "How long are they going to let us do this?"

"What, spar one another?"

"You know what I mean."

It wasn't just the sparring. Outside the training room, Rice shadowed her. He kept the other kids from attacking her at random, kept the aggression down. The others wanted to tangle with him even less than they wanted to tangle with her but with Rice there was a twisted admiration to it. The other kids treated him like some sort of god. Truthfully, she felt a bit like that about him herself. The more time she spent in his company, the less flaws she saw. It was the attention he gave her too, the inside jokes between them, the way he slung his arm around her as they walked the halls. She was a tiny bit in love with him. What happened when all the training ended? When the Center felt she was ready to reconnect with society?

"Oh you mean graduation day?"

Shaz nodded, staring at her hands in her lap until Rice lifted her chin. "I think we'll find a way to stay together," he said. He leaned in further, brushing his lips over hers.

The door opened. Shaz jumped away like a spooked cat as Agent Cresswell's wide frame filled the doorway.

"A word with you, Rice."

Rice stood. Shaz felt a jolt at the expression on his face. He looked murderous.

"Excuse me," he said, the lean edges of his jaw flexing with unconcealed anger. She waited until he walked away to brush her fingers over her lips, pondering the anger she saw in his face. She rose to her feet, following them as silently as possible.

***

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Rice?" Agent Cresswell got in his face, spitting mad. "You were instructed to teach her control, to test her limits. Not to seduce her."

Rice's knuckles cracked at his sides. "It's not like that."

"Not like that? You know your end objective, Rice. Your hero was picked out months ago. You should be out in the field by now! You going to blow your whole mission so you can get in her pants?"

Rice blurred, shoving Cresswell against the wall. He lifted the beefy man up by his lapels, peering into his red face. "I know my mission. I just don't care. I'm sick of your rules, your parameters."

"Son, listen to me," Cresswell wheezed. Rice's hold constricted his air. He tugged at the hands holding him in place to no avail. "You knew when you joined up we had plans for you. With-"

"Oh don't give me the bullshit speech. What? With great power comes great responsibility.You're grooming us to be villains, tailor made nemeses for the roster of heroes." Rice leaned in, glaring at the gasping man. "I think I am done playing your game, and come graduation day, I think the others will be too."

"What--what are you going to do?" Cresswell gasped.

"Nothing you have to worry about," said Rice. He snapped the agent's neck. Cresswell slumped to the floor, his head lolling at an unnatural angle. Rice sighed at the gasp behind him. "How much did you hear, Shaz?"

"What have you done?" She sobbed, holding herself. Rice blurred in front of her, pinning her to the wall.

"How much did you hear?"

She looked up at him, at the hard angles of his face, and didn't recognize him. "All of it."

He reached out, brushing his fingers down the side of her face. She flinched instinctively from his touch. "I wouldn't never hurt you."

"You can't hurt me," she hissed. "What did you mean? They are training us to be villains?"

He stayed hovering over her, his expression remote. "What do you think we are doing here Shaz? People like us? People like you? Think someone who hurts people like you do is hero material?"

"I don't want to be a hero," she snapped. "I just want to be normal, to be left alone."

"They would never leave someone like you alone. One way or another they would have forced you into the program." Rice stepped back, thumping his chest. "We are the dangerous ones, Shaz, the volatile, unstoppable powers. There are heroes in this world, and we are the ones meant to give them a purpose."

"Tailor made nemeses," Shaz whispered, the truth of it creeping up on her. "They're crazy."

"Mad but brilliant. A hero is measured against his villain, Shaz. The government knows it, that's why the Center was created. They want incredible heroes for this world, so they created incredible villains."

"Villains kill people! Innocent people! The Center just unleashes them onto the world? No leash? No boundaries? What happens when there is no hero to match the villain? When they go on a killing spree without end?" Shaz clenched her fists, fighting for breath. What did they Center expect of her?

"There is always collateral," said Rice.

She shoved him. It was like shoving a concrete wall. "Who are you?"

"I am Devastation," Rice looked up at her, his green eyes full of cold rage. "If you can't stand with me, Shaz, stay out of my way."