Chapter 18: THE ARTILLERY

As Travis and Tarana Rain fly across the border of the Eastern Fringes, Travis catches the smallest trace of a flash in his peripheral vision.

Karla Yuu.

He didn't see a flash like this at all last night, so he wasn't sure whether Karla was still following him. Obviously she is—and she must have some pretty advanced camouflaging abilities to boot. He's not sure he'd be able to find Karla even if he tried. She seems intent on following him, despite his direct refusal. At this point, the best he can do is give her some good things to report.

Though the fact that Karla can be watching him at any time without his knowledge is quite jarring. Travis just hopes that no matter what, she keeps her promise not to reveal his secret identity.

On the fly-ride over, Tarana Rain does not stop asking questions about her idol, Ellaine (in between chugs from her flask, no less).

After recounting the color of Ellaine's lipstick (which Travis made up), they finally arrive at the address, which is all the way up on HC's northern shore, near the shipyard docks. It's located in the middle of several warehouses and appears to be a very large storage space with no windows and only one door.

Which makes his options for entrance rather limited. Travis and Tarana Rain land next to the front entrance.

"Yo, old man," Tarana Rain grunts, "you do realize walking through the front door will definitely lead to a trap, right?"

"If there's a stealthier option," Travis say, "I'm happy to follow your lead."

Tarana Rain has no answer, so Travis turn back toward the door. There's a massive electronic lock on it with a password screen, but he assumes the code will be impossible to crack.

"I'll try to surge it with my power." Travis says, the last few times he tried his Powers on technology, things didn't go too well—but he's hoping those were just isolated incidents. He reaches forward and places his hand on the lock, feeling an energy surge trickle down his forearm.

With a gentle whoosh, the lock shorts out and the screen goes blank. He turn back to look at Tarana Rain, who nods, impressed.

That is, until the lock suddenly explodes.

Luckily, it only singes his hand a bit, but he don't turn around to look at Tarana Rain again, instead pushing the door open. What is it with his energy Powers and electronics?

But then as he entered the warehouse, he gasped at what he find inside….

Shelf upon shelf of unactivated pool-killer robots—the same ones sent by The Splice Circle after him and Black Magic. There must be thousands lining the shelves in this warehouse.

Travis mind begins to race—what does Veta have to do with these pool-killers? Did she supply them to Madame Vice as a peace offering? Or did Madame Vice just put Veta's name on the building deed to frame her, out of revenge?

Then he considered how, if these robots were suddenly to activate, he and Tarana Rain would be completely outnumbered. Him and Black Magic had trouble handling four of these things, let alone four thousand. He hopes that The Hoshi Group shutting down the pool-killer mainframe at Ace's High last night put these things out of commission….

But everything else clears from his mind when he see a massive sign in the back of the warehouse that reads "THE ARTILLERY."

His blood runs cold.

Miss Artillery is the name of the heroine who his parents killed… "What the hell? Is this a bizarre coincidence? Or is someone out there toying with-"

"Gravitate," Tarana Rain says, tugging on his arm, "I want to get out of here. This doesn't feel right."

He can't help but agree—a deep pit of dread overtook his stomach the moment he stepped into this place. He'd like nothing more than to get the hell out of here, but he know there's work to be done.

"I know," Travis says, "but I need to check for clues. While I look around, you get clear of the building and call Jenny."

"All right," Tarana Rain says, "But what if those things come to life?"

Travis turn to look over the gleaming metal cores of the dormant pool-killers, deadly tentacles wrapped around their bases.

"Then let's just hope we fly faster than they do…."

Once Tarana Rain is clear, he creeps farther into the warehouse, looking for anything that might lead him to finding Veta. His mind just won't stop spinning—something about all of this is very, very wrong.

So wrong that he doesn't even notice as a soft strip of fabric slides around his waist….

At first, a warm feeling overcomes him, almost like slipping into a blanket. It isn't until two new strands of pearly, ivory fabric wrap around his arms that he snap out of it.

He spins to find an enchanting—yet eerie—figure standing about ten feet from him. The creature looks almost human but somehow more ethereal. He (at least Travis thinks it's a he) is bone thin and wrapped in never-ending silken strands of fabric, wisping as if in the wind. He looks like some kind of sheer mannequin mummy.

Travis can't help but get lost in the movement of the fabric, which billows like flowing water. But somewhere deep inside, an instinct screams in his head—fight back!

He hover off the ground and begin to spin. As he does, the fabric wraps around him in great loops, but doesn't seem to unravel from his attacker at all. He quickly stops, realizing that he's only tangling himself further in a limitless strip….

He tries to move his arms but the moment he does, the fabric constricts even more tightly around his body. The wispy figure then begins to hum a low, guttural chant.

Travis screams as the fabric squeezes against his bones.

Though it's not a scream of pain. Even though his skin blisters from the constriction, the sensation feels almost like scratching an itch. Or sneezing. As the fabric's hold grows tighter, the feeling builds into something closer to pleasure.

And when his bones finally do crack, it feels like an explosion. His whole body quivers with shock waves of satisfaction. It's the best feeling he ever had.

Then, as suddenly as the feeling started, it stops.

He opened his eyes to find Tarana Rain blasting the Wisp with a concentrated stream of water.

The Wisp recoils from the attack, beginning to reel in his strands. And as they leave Travis body, jolts of excruciating pain begin to rocket through him. The Wisp's fabric must have had some kind of poisonous effect on his nerve endings, because once the strips are fully gone, he feels the crush of it all, his broken arm and leg bones, his splintered rib cage, his shattered hips….

Within seconds, he begin to black out, overwhelmed by the unimaginable pain. The moment before he does, he manages to clear his brain enough to scream. "Tarana, save yourself!" Then everything goes black.

He finds himself in a dream, jumping up into the sky, climbing higher and higher…until fear grips him. What will happen when he stops rising? How will he stop himself from falling? Can he even fly anymore?

As he drifts into a bank of clouds, the fear wells up in his stomach…

Until finally he begins to plummet down to the ground, picking up speed as he fall, the ground racing up to meet him….

When he finally opened his eyes again, he grinded his teeth together, bracing for a fresh wave of pain.

But all he feels is sore, like he just run a marathon. Wait—how are he even opening his eyes to begin with? That Wisp thing broke almost every bone in his body.

Tarana Rain! Where is she? Is she alive?

Travis bolt upright, causing a nasty head rush that clouds hid vision. He rubs his eyes and when he can finally see again, he finds both the Wisp and Tarana Rain lying on the ground next to him.

"Oh sh*t," Travis says, rushing to Tarana Rain's side as fast as his sore body will take him. Please don't be dead, please don't be…

But Tarana Rain's eyes flutter open just as he reaches her side.

"Did it work?" Tarana Rain croaks, looking exhausted.

"What did you do?"

"I heard you screaming, so I didn't make the call and came back inside instead. I saw that…thing attacking you, so I hit it hard and knocked it out. You were in such bad shape, but I've never healed anyone before. Still, you were about to die…."

"Whatever you did, it worked," Travis say.

"Looks like I can generate some kind of healing water," Tarana Rain says, grimacing. "Though you don't want to know where the secretion comes from. I could only stand it for a couple of seconds before passing out."

One evolutionary side effect of Powered individuals is that they are not only tougher than normal humans, they also tend to have healing properties to their Powers (like Travis do). It's a good thing "mother nature" foresaw increasing violence accompanying the addition of Powers, otherwise Powered Heroes would be dying far more often.

Though knowing how strenuous healing can be, he's not surprised that Tarana Rain passed out. He's just thankful that she went the extra mile.

"That's twice you've saved my life," Travis say.

"It was nothing," Tarana Rain says, trying to hide her satisfaction. Then, for a moment, a worried look comes over Tarana Rain's face, almost as if she's considering something terrible.

"Are you all right, Tarana?"

As Travis says this, Tarana Rain seems to snap out of it, nodding at him.

"What do you think that wispy thing was?" Travis ask

"It probably defends the warehouse, right?" Tarana Rain says as he help her to her feet.

But suddenly, Travis H-Chip buzzes with a call. Before Aphrodite even has a chance to ask if he want to answer, Black Magic appears in holographic form, evidently having placed an urgent priority call.

"Gravitate, please help!" Black Magic screams. "Get to the headquarters now!"

With that, the call goes dead. He try to call back, but get immediately bumped to holo-mail.

He turned to Tarana Rain, his adrenaline already pumping. "Can you get home on your own?"

"I want to come-"

"Go home now and I promise I'll introduce you to The Hoshi Group later. But if you follow, I'll just pretend you're a deranged stalker fan."

It may be harsh, but if someone as Powerful as Black Magic is really in trouble, it's bound to be serious. He can't be putting Tarana Rain in (yet another) dangerous situation.

So he take to the sky, leaving Tarana Rain to pout.