The Grafters - Mind Games Part 2

The Grafters: Mind Games Part 2

Story by Michael A. Pearce
Zoe © Rich W. S.
Heretic and all related characters © General Sci
XenoGirl © TheChitinousTeen AKA JawsFan (Xenomorph © 20th Century Fox)
Frenzy © BiscuitDude (Symbiote © Marvel)
Syn © SymbioteMaskLover
Alfred Bester and all related characters © J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5 © Warner Bros.)


While most of the students spent their time in the cramped and competitive cafeteria, Gwen and company preferred to enjoy lunch in the drama class. The school had no facility to host a play. Space was very much a premium inside the Manhattan area. When the school did fund an annual play, which wasn’t often, it would network with facilities beyond New York City. This usually landed the Mason Ridge drama facility inside of Fairfield. No matter what they did, the drama club productions operated on a shoe-string budget. This still did not dampen the enthusiasm of Gwen’s classmates.

Smith, Vincent and Allan were talented actors (at least as far as high school students went). They usually secured themselves visible roles in the school plays. The play that was being produced this year was titled ‘Guys and Dolls’. It was a comedy set inside the prohibition. Smith and Allan were rehearsing a scene where one of the characters openly cheats with unmarked dice.

“What!? But these dice ain’t got no spots on them!” Smith blurted aloud in character.

Allan was playing the villain holding the other character at gunpoint, “I memorized where the spots are, see? Now roll em’.”

Gwen and Lewis were getting a serious attack of the giggles as the scene progressed. The pair never really appeared in the plays. They were content to hang back and be stage hands for the productions.

After a few moments, the crew finally settled in on a few good takes and sat down for lunch. The topics of discussion slowly drifted from the play onto role-playing games and the like. Gwen had become a competent ‘Dungeon Master’, the person that actually ran the events and story of a role-playing game. The group was wondering what the events for their next adventure might be. It wasn’t long until Allan started bragging about the abilities of his character: A battle-master with divine spell abilities. Smith was quick to remind Allan not to play the character so blindly this time, “When your last character charged that army of orcs Gwen let loose on us, you got stomped on. Remember? You were stomped flat.”

“My alignment says I have to destroy evil at any cost, Gwen shouldn’t have put that army there if she didn’t want me to fight it,” Allan retorted.

Gwen decided to speak up for her adventure, “Yes, you have to destroy evil. There’s nothing in your alignment that says you can’t think about it first.”

The group shared a chuckle. Allan honestly enjoyed throwing wrenches into adventure plans the way he did. Why bother following a narrow movie-like path in story telling when gaming allowed for a myriad of different options?

Soon the topic of discussion drifted to more immediate matters. While Gwen was fondling with Lewis’ hair, the tip of her pinky brushed the side of a bump just behind his ear. She had to turn her head and look at the swollen thing, “What’s this?”

“Oh, that,” Lewis replied as he rubbed the unusual bump with his palm, “I woke up with it this morning. It makes for a nasty itch, but I’ll get over it. I think it’s a bug bite. You’d think I’d remember being bit when it leaves a mark like that.”

“More like a snake bite,” Gwen said as she examined how red and irritated the bump seemed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say one of the vines from my game had poisoned you.”

“Now that gets me in the mood for another gaming adventure,” Lewis replied charmingly.

“I can’t wait for our game this upcoming weekend. It’s too bad that it’s only Monday,” Allan griped. “Did anything interesting happen in the morning for you guys?”

Lewis spoke up, “Well yeah. I saw a couple of telepaths today.”

The group stopped all discussion right then and there.

No one was sure if Lewis was serious or not. There have been plenty of strange things that have happened in the world, but it never ceased to be amazing. For a huddled group of geeks, anything that was once only in their books, games, and films was subject to immediate scrutiny.

“Did any of them read your mind?” Vincent asked.

Lewis, “Well, no. One of them actually put a message inside of my head a couple of times. Two of them were called Psi-Cops. I didn’t like them. They looked at people like they were bugs, or something.”

Gwen turned to her boyfriend, “What were they here for?”

“They were looking for a guy named… Jason… Jason Ironheart,” Lewis replied.

Gwen’s eyes widened, “I think I just met that guy in history class this morning!”

***

Jason led Talia to the fourth floor of the school. There were a number of classrooms that weren’t currently occupied. Jason and Talia entered one of them and quietly shut the door. The two were now completely alone. Talia then opened up and asked Jason what the heck was going on. She was earnest an emotional, “Do you have any idea what they just did to me!?”

“Yes, I know. That’s why I had to wait until after they scanned you,” Jason replied with compassion and care.

“What is this, Jason? What is going on?” Talia desperately asked.

“Do you remember when I volunteered for that Psi-Corps project?”

Talia nodded, “You said it was an important project. You promised we’d see each other again after you were done.”

“It was a project that attempted to improve the strength of telepaths. They wanted to turn P5’s into P10’s. They were also hoping that it would turn P10’s into… Only God knows what,” Jason trailed off. His memory of the experiments began to flood his mind, “It was painful. There were so many different mixes of drugs. I had to put up with five, ten, and sometimes fifteen injections a day.”

Jason became emotional. His voice was quivering as the intensity of his memory relived those long and dark events in some remote research facility. He then calmed and spoke to Talia with clarity, “Then one day, it happened. I could look inside any mind I wanted. It was as if my own mind had been a seed my entire life to suddenly and beautifully blossom. I could cut through any mental-block as if it weren’t there. All I had to do was to look… Then I could see inside.”

Jason found himself a small section of tiled floor to sit on, “That’s when I learned the truth.”

Talia sat herself down next to Jason, “What was it? What did you learn?”

Jason asked, “Do you remember the old TK tests they gave us in grade-school?”

Talia became nostalgic for her more childish years, “Yes I do! They gave me an old wheat penny. I tried for days and days to move it with my thoughts, but it just wouldn’t happen.”

“Do you remember the statistics for how many humans have telepathic abilities? There is only one out of a thousand. There is only one out of ten-thousand telepaths that are telekinetic. It turns out half of them are clinically insane,” Jason took a deep breath, “That’s what this project was really about. It was about creating a stable telekinetic… But it’s worse than that.”

“What? What’s the big problem?” Talia asked, she was so desperately confused.

“At first, I thought the Corps wanted telekinetics that could move big objects. I imagined using telekinetic shields to protect warships or political leaders. It wasn’t about that. What they really wanted was a telekinetic to control small objects. The smaller the better.”

“Jason,” Talia replied, “That doesn’t even make sense.”

“It doesn’t?” Jason countered, “Think about it. The military wants to assassinate a world leader. So, what they do is bring in a telekinetic. He reaches into the target’s throat with his mind and pinches the carotid artery shut. The blood stops, the brain starves, and then the target dies. Then, then all the telekinetic has to do is let go. Murder without a trace, there are no weapons or poisons to lead back to a culprit.”

“Oh my God,” Talia said, she was completely overwhelmed with the power that the Psi-Corps could suddenly wield.

“That’s why I can’t let them find me,” Jason continued, “No one should ever be allowed to have this kind of power. What’s worse is that my power is still growing. At each new level it takes time to adjust. It’s too-“

Suddenly, objects all over the room began to shake. Sparks of telekinetic lightning bolted across the walls and the ceiling. One of the desks was blasted apart. Jason was gripping the sides of his head, “Go, get out of here! I can’t control this!”

Talia began to slowly back away, but it wasn’t fast enough for Jason.

“Leave!” Jason demanded.

Talia ran out of the empty class and head downstairs.

The school itself began to shake. Students found themselves panicking. Desks and tables were shifting across the floor. The power began to flicker on and off.

Gwen and her friends felt the tremors from the first floor. Specks of dust started to fall from the ceiling, “What the heck is that?”

The shaking could even be felt from outside of the school. Bester and his assistant were returning with their court order to go through the files of the student body only to find the top left corner of the school building being enveloped in a sphere of light. Both Bester and his assistant knew exactly what they were seeing. It was a telekinetic event called a ‘mind quake’.

Gwen shot to her feet. Any chaotic event was a call to action for her. She knew this to be true of her other grafted compatriots. Lewis was perplexed why Gwen bolted out of the room and seemingly toward the source of the action. Vincent simply smirked as he hid himself under one of the desks.

Gwen did her best to push past the hundreds of fleeing students. The student body was filled with so much panic that they were basically trampling each other to get out onto the street. Gwen would surely be crushed if she continued pushing against the current of terrified kids. So Gwen improvised. She threw herself up onto the ceiling with her passive enhanced-strength, and gripped through the panels at whatever she could to keep herself above the flow. Not one of the panicked kids could busy themselves with simply looking up. They were too busy working their way to the street.

Gwen crawled along the ceiling until she got the end of the flow. There were no more students hindering her approach now. She dropped to the floor and continued her way up the stairs. She pulled the armor pod from her book bag and transformed into the Heretic before she reached the second floor. Along the way, the Heretic came across Zoe in the form of her alter-ego known as Perversion.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Perversion stated, “But I know it’s big!”

Perversion offered the Heretic a lift up the remaining flights of stairs by the use of a web-sling. The two of them were confronted with a distorting and enveloping curtain that closed off nearly a quarter of the school. Gwen couldn’t see any way to get past the thing.

“What is this?” the Heretic asked, “Not even my enhanced senses can tell what kind of energy this is.”

Talia was hiding around a corner to stay safe. She finally gathered the nerve to peek out from one of the staircases to see Perversion and the Heretic in the hallway looking at the sphere of light. She never thought she’d ever have the chance to meet them. She wasn’t sure if they could help with the perilous situation involving Ironheart. She, none-the-less, gathered her nerve and spoke up.

Before she could speak, the Heretic pointed in Talia’s direction without even turning her own head, “I know you’re there.”

Perversion turned to see who Gwen was pointing at, “Who’s that?”

“I’m… I’m Talia Winters, and my friend is behind that sphere,” She said.

***

The school had evacuated out onto the street. That made for two-thousand displaced students clogging the already strained streets of Manhattan. Emergency vehicles were also responding to the scene. No one was sure what the sphere of light was, but it seemed appropriate to throw a fire-engine at the problem.

Both of the Psi-Cops stood at the center of the commotion. Hundreds of individuals were trying their best to understand the barrier that suddenly appeared. The school principal found her way over to the Psi-Cops, “It might have behooved you to tell me that this is the kind of threat this person posed.”

“Knowing what Ironheart is capable of was a strictly need to know basis,” Bester replied, “A lowly school principal like you did not need to know.”

“Alright, so what can you do about it?” Mrs. Furlan asked, “I think it’s very clear that Ironheart’s psi-level is well above your own.”

“Jason Ironheart was programmed with a hypnotic password that can shut him down,” Bester replied, “It has to be delivered telepathically and directly into his brain. Between my associate and I, we should be able to burrow past his defenses and take him down. But we have to be on a line of sight to do it.”

***

Up on the fourth floor, the rest of the Grafters gathered. Talia stood idly by as they each arrived. Frenzy looked over and saw the telepath, “I sure hope everyone knows that the girl over there is a telepath. I recognize the badge. There’s nothing our living costumes can do to protect our identities.”

“I’m only a latent telepath, I can only pick up on emotions,” Talia replied.

Xeno-Girl hissed, “That’s just what we’d expect you to say.”

Heretic, “Guys, bigger problem?” Heretic gestured at the huge curtain of lightning.

Syn stepped forward to touch the curtain of lighting with her hand. Gwen couldn’t help but notice that even when Syn was investigating something, she still managed to look seductive. As soon as her clawed fingertips brushed its surface, her whole arm was shot backwards. Syn was surprised to see that she wasn’t harmed. Perhaps the entity making the sphere had no desire to hurt anyone.

Gwen looked over to Talia, “You’re that girl that was in the office today, aren’t you?”

Talia nodded, “I was brought to be scanned by a pair of Psi-Cops.”

“I don’t know what a Psi-Cop is,” the Heretic began, “But I’m guessing they are telepaths. They were looking for someone named Jason Ironheart?” the Heretic asked. Talia nodded. Gwen could see that Jason was special to this girl somehow.

Syn picked up on the Heretic’s body language, “Yeap, the good ones are always taken. I should know.” Gwen didn’t like how forward Syn could be. She wished there was a way to dilute Rachel and Syn together to be someone who was more outward but not an exploitive bitch.

“Never mind that, we have to find a way inside of that thing!” Frenzy declared, “The police and firefighters will be up here any second.”

Talia noticed that the shaking had basically come to a stop. She remembered that just before the event, Jason mentioned that it takes him time to adjust to each new level of power that he had to control. Talia gathered her nerve and approached the curtain, “Jason? Jason, I haven’t left you. There are people here that could help you.”

It seemed like the lightning field was going to stay up. Then a hole formed in the middle of the field. It was a perfectly circular entrance into what was a no-man’s land of telekinetic energy. Talia stepped through first. The doorway remained open for the other five alternatively-human ladies in the corridor. As soon as the last one stepped through, the hole closed behind them. Talia then led them to Jason Ironheart.

Talia and the Grafters entered the ruined class room. Bits of paper were strewn across the floor. Ceiling tiles had fallen onto desks and other surfaces. Metal cabinets had fallen over on their sides. There was nothing left untouched. The room was a complete mess. Like the eye of a storm, Jason was in the center of the room sitting as if to meditate.

Frenzy thought about just severing the man’s head to end the problem. Jason turned to look her in the symbiotic eye, “I’ve thought about ending my life already. However, not even my dead body should be in the hands of the Corps.”

Jason stood up. He seemed calmer now. The telekinetic rumblings were no longer present. Jason then looked to the Heretic as she stood in the center of the group, “Telepaths can make for the ultimate black-mailers, and the Psi Corps stands for only one thing: Control. It wants control over telepaths, the economy, the courts, over matter, and even thought itself. There is one thing that even they never thought possible, until I crossed the line. It’s not about mind over matter. It’s about mind over energy. I look at each of you in this room and I see not women subsumed in alien skins. I see whole galaxies of sub-atomic particles. I can even pull apart and re-arrange them with just a casual thought. This is not a power any of us were ever meant to have.”

Talia spoke up now, “If the Psi Cops downstairs get to him, they’ll take him to a lab and dissect him. They’ll try to find the combination of drugs that caused this awakening.”

“So we should we trust him with it?” Xeno-Girl hissed, “For all we know he’s killed people. He already basically caused an earthquake.”

“Every time my powers grow, it takes me time to adjust,” Jason replied, “I don’t mean any of you harm.”

“So what is it you want?” Perversion asked.

“I need time. I need time to finish… becoming.”

“Well,” the Heretic spoke, “Can you just stay here and do that? I don’t think anyone can break through your field.”

“No,” Jason replied, “It takes a lot of effort to keep the field up. If I’m distracted when growing in power again, for even a moment, I might destroy a large portion of the city.”

“We can’t have that,” the Heretic thought aloud. She tried to think of a solution and remembered her late night game with her friends. Allan was an aggressive player, but his hubris would often land him in trouble. After everything she heard, Gwen figured the Psi-Cops might have a similar problem, “I guess it’s time to bait the Psi-Cops.”

***

Outside of the school, a large shudder was heard. The sphere of light suddenly dissipated. A telekinetic blast shot through the building leaving wreckage and a large plum of dust. From out of the dust emerged Xeno-Girl and Frenzy.

Xeno-Girl looked to the police and pointed down the street, “Jason Ironheart went this way!” The police officers were quick to pile in their cars and give chase to a culprit they haven’t even seen. The Psi-Cops didn’t see a reason to doubt the pursuit initially. They boarded their own slick-black big-brother-styled vehicle and gave chase.

The Heretic lay low on the roof of the school to make sure it was clear to bring Jason out. Once she was reasonably sure it was safe, she gave the signal to the rest of the grafters to start moving Jason out of the building. They helped Jason out the door as he struggled to stay on his feet. The gaps of time between each growth shrank at an increasing rate. He was already doubling over with another burst of energy.

“Talia,” he cried.

Talia reached down and held his hand, “What is it?”

“The only reason I came here,” Jason had to steady himself before continuing, “Was to see you one last time.”

Talia leaned in close to Jason and the two shared a kiss. As they kissed, the background sounds of everyone else’s thoughts slowly melted away. Neither of them could hear the crowds below. Slowly, even the surface thoughts of the Grafters faded away. They were soon seeing reflections of themselves in their own thoughts. Finally, all of the background thoughts were silent. It was just them in their singular moment of pure love.

Jason said as he finally pulled out of the kiss, “In memory of love, I give you a gift. It is the only gift I have to give.” He then touched Talia’s forehead. A strand of light traveled across his arm and into Talia’s head. She nearly fell backward from being overwhelmed by whatever Jason did to her mind.

The Heretic was now impatient, “If we’re going to do this, we have to do it now!”

Perversion acknowledged and scooped Jason into her arms. Jason and Talia kept eye contact for as long as they could. Soon, Perversion spurt out a glob of webbing and swung away, carrying Jason with her.

The Heretic leaned over Talia and offered her a hand. Talia accepted and lifted herself to her feet, “Thanks for letting us have that last moment, Gwen.”

The Heretic  and Syn were confused. The Heretic asked, “I thought you could only pick up on emotions.”

“It was Lewis that met me at the office,” Talia gently replied, “He does have strong feelings for you. It’s just that both of you are confused about what you really mean to each other.”

Syn came up behind the Heretic, “We have to leave if we’re going to meet back up with the team.”

The Heretic acknowledged and left Talia on the rooftop of the school. Gwen then started thinking about how she could be more open with Lewis. What she did not know was that Talia had scanned the surface thoughts of Syn as well. Syn didn’t know that Gwen’s boyfriend and a man she had been regularly seeing were one in the same.

The Psi-Cops were on the tail of Frenzy and Xeno-Girl. Bester was getting impatient with what seemed to be a fruitless pursuit. So he implanted in Xeno-Girl’s mind that a ledge was just a little further than she thought it was. Xeno-Girl found herself making an embarrassing and dangerous fall off of a building. She fell to the street without any knowledge of how such a mistake could have been made.

The Psi-Cops pulled up in their car and Bester quickly dismounted, “Where is he? Where’s Ironheart?”

“He must be heading for the bridge,” Xeno-Girl hissed, hoping that Bester would buy the story. She unfortunately didn’t anticipate that Bester was scanning her surface thoughts for his actual location. He now knew that Perversion would be taking Jason to the docks to board his stolen yacht.

“Thank you,” Bester said, “You’ve been a great help.”

Xeno-Girl didn’t exactly know what happened, but she knew it was bad. She couldn’t help but think about the horrible and nasty things she would like to do to Bester. He had to be responsible for her fall somehow. Natasha thought about grabbing Bester’s spine and ripping his head out of his ass.

“Anatomically impossible, Natasha Xander,” Bester said as he got into his car, “But you’re welcome to try, anytime and anywhere.”

Bester sped off in his vehicle. Xeno-Girl tried to get up to pursue, but even a Xeno occasionally experiences injuries. Frenzy returned to help Xeno-Girl to her feet.

“He knows my name,” Natasha desperately said, “That damn telepath knows who I am… They know who we are!”

Perversion frantically swung through the city with Jason wrapped in her one free arm. His bursts of energy were becoming more unpredictable. Zoe had yet to have much experience web-slinging with her suit, she had no idea she’d be putting it to the ultimate test. Bolts of lightning seemed to form out of nothing. Finally, she reached the docks where Ironheart’s boat was.

Perversion landed on the yacht’s deck, only to find Bester and his assistant waiting there for Jason.

“No,” Jason said as soon as he saw them, “I’m not going back!”

Bester and his assistant began to plant the hypnotic password. Jason was having an increasingly difficult time trying to keep the password out of his mind. Perversion had no idea what was taking place, but she had the sudden urge to stop it. She formed a mallet out of her arm and swatted Bester. The Psi-Cop was sent flying across the deck. He hit his head on a railing and was stunned. The assistant broke contact with Jason, and pulled her sidearm on Zoe. She shot twice and clipped Perversion in one of her arms. Perversion jolted at the sudden and immense sharp pain of the gun shots and fell over the side of the yacht and into the freezing water.

Jason was now on the boat alone against a Psi Cop.

The assistant brought her pistol to bear on Jason. Before she could pull the trigger, Jason reached into her mind and stopped her. It was now a battle of telepathy. The assistant continued to will her index finger to depress the trigger. Jason kept stepping up his abilities to deny the order from reaching her hand. Finally, the stress became too much. The assistant was vaporized as Jason lost control of his abilities. Bester saw what remained of her ash blowing away in the wind-funnel forming around Jason.

Enraged, Bester drew his own sidearm and managed to clip Jason in the arm. Despite the injury, Jason had enough of killing this day. He telekinetically pushed Bester off of the boat and into the drink. Perversion was already pulling herself out of the water when she saw Bester fall in. She had no sympathy for the man. Bester had to find his own way out of the freezing cold water.

Jason used his abilities to untie the boat from the dock. Without even bothering to start the engines, he used his abilities again to push the boat away from the shore. Perversion managed to pull herself together enough to climb in order to get to a higher vantage point to watch Jason leave. She settled for one of the buildings over-looking the harbor. Perversion was steadily joined by the rest of the Grafters. First Xeno-Girl and Frenzy, then Syn, with the Heretic arriving last.

“What’s he doing out there?” the Heretic asked urgently.

Perversion responded, “He’s just sitting out there by the Statue of Liberty. He’s not making his way to the open sea.”

“Wait,” the Heretic said, “The energy reading from the boat suddenly jumped off the scale!”

Just as the Heretic said that, the boat burst into a brilliant and blinding white light. People from across the entire city found themselves temporarily blinded. As the light dwindled, everyone could make out a giant humanoid form made in pure white light. The giant was easily four or five times larger than the statue it resided over. Inside the thoughts of the Grafters, they could hear Jason speak to them, “I have finished becoming.”

“Wow, he’s a real Doctor Manhattan!” exclaimed Xeno-Girl.

Jason continued, “I will see you all again… In a million years.” The figure of Jason then raised high into the sky. The light was streaking out behind him as he vanished into the deep blue.

“So,” Syn began, “does anyone have a guess as to what Jason did to Talia before he left?”

Bester was picking himself out of the water and onto the dock’s surface. He looked at the event as Jason vanished into the sky, “My superiors aren’t going to believe any of this.”

***

It was now weeks later since Jason Ironheart disappeared. Talia was back in her Psi-Corps school located somewhere in the city. There were dozens of other children there of varying ages. All of them were wearing black gloves and Psi-Corps badges. Even children of kindergarten age were made to wear the gloves and symbol.

Along the walls of the school were various propaganda posters. “Trust the Corps,” one poster said. Another read, “The Corps is Mother. The Corps is Father.”

During her lunch break, Mr. Bester visited Talia Winters. He asked her how she felt after the disappearance of Jason. Talia realized that Bester was scanning her thoughts to verify the truth. To her surprise, she realized that she shouldn't be powerful enough to even know that Bester was scanning her. She put up a mental decoy and told the psi cop that she was glad that Jason was gone. She concealed her vulnerable emotions about missing the only person that she ever loved. She concealed her pain and loss. She camouflaged her anger. She managed to lie to Mr. Bester, perhaps the most ferocious and dedicated Psi Cop of all.

To Talia's surprise, Bester bought her story. He never once suspected that his scan was successfully blocked. He walked away from Talia as she tried to take her lunch thinking that all was well with the Psi Corp's latest pupil. He didn't know that she had taken the first step to stand against them.

Talia wondered how she was able to pull of such a mental stunt like that. She then remembered her last moments with Jason and wondered what else he had gifted her. She pulled out a penny and placed it on the lunch table out of view of her instructors. She looked at it intently. At first the coinage did nothing but sit there, flat against the surface of the table. Then, it seemed to slide across the surface. Talia was moving it with her thoughts.

Talia was now a telekinetic.