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“Get a move on, John. We’re running out of time!”
John huffed, trying to tune out Roger’s whining and focus on his task. “It’s a complicated lock, Rog. They don’t exactly want us in here.” It was some of the most sophisticated computer work John had ever had the pleasure of interacting with, but it certainly didn’t matter to Roger.
“What if John can’t get in?” Freddie worried, partially phased so that he could look out into the hallway to watch for guards without being seen. “They knew we were coming. They knew how to build the door to keep me from getting through. What if they can keep John out too?”
“No one can keep me out,” John said confidently.
And with that, John finally found the connection he was looking for. He told the parts of the harddrive to move where he wished, until a loud click issued out and the door unlocked itself.
Roger let out a quiet cheer and opened the door, letting small tendrils of flame wrap around his fingers in case there were any guards inside and he needed to fight. But there were none, just as Miami had planned it.
Instead, there was only one unconscious man sitting in a large metal chair with about a million wires and tubes stuck into his body and around his head. Just like the picture Miami had managed to get them, the man had a thin face and wild, curly hair. But unlike the picture, where the man had been happy, at a college party of sorts with friends and a wide smile on his face, the man now looked exhausted and broken. Whatever tests BadGuysRUs had been running on him were draining the life out of him.
While Roger and Freddie ran to the poor man, John diligently went to the computers, first the ones the wires and the tubes were connected to. He quickly laid his hands on the main drive, disabling the alarms directly connected to the many wires and tubes. Then he grabbed the saline bag hanging limply from a hook on the metal chair, one of the few things keeping the man alive.
“Keep this in him. The rest can go,” John told Freddie as he handed him the IV bag. Then he turned to the rest of the computers, sifting through the research stored and secured there. The miniature hard drive he invented would be able to copy and delete a large amount of information to keep it from being used for nefarious purposes, and John wasted no time in connecting.
Freddie also was working fast, carefully touching the man until he could phase with him, an efficient and painless way of removing the needles and sticky patches. Roger helped Freddie lift him onto their shoulders, ready to get him out of the building.
Roger would complain later about the mission going exactly to plan. None of them really minded that it happened quite often, they were able to brag that they were just that good at their jobs. But Roger liked to pretend to complain about not getting any real action. He didn’t get to set anything on fire.
Mostly, they were just thankful they were able to get the man out alive.
It was Freddie who was sitting by the bed when the man woke up.They didn’t go on many rescue missions, but there were more and more supers being kidnapped and taken to research facilities like this.
“Where am I?”
Freddie smiled softly. “You’re safe. You’re in a sanctuary, a place where supers can live in peace. My name is Freddie. I’m one of the people who rescued you.”
The man blinked in confusion. “Brian.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Brian.” Freddie reached out to take Brian’s hand but was stopped.
“Wait! Don’t touch me!”
Freddie jerked his hand back in shock, tilting his head at the man in confusion. “What’s wrong? Does something hurt?”
Brian shook his head. “No, it’s just… I don’t want to hurt you.”
“My dear, how could you hurt me? I told you this is a sanctuary. You’re not the only super here.” Freddie let his hand phase through the bed, demonstrating his own power.
“I’ve never…” Brian stuttered over his words a bit, unsure. “I can’t control my powers. Sometimes, when people touch me, they get so sad that they… they just can’t take it anymore. Or they think they love me and it drives them mad. So you can’t… you can’t touch me.”
Freddie nodded in understanding. Brian wasn’t the first person he met to be afraid of himself and he wouldn’t be the last. It wasn’t that long ago that Freddie was locking himself in dark rooms to try to avoid using his powers.
“That’s normal. We can help you here. Help you understand your powers. To control them. To take care of yourself so that people like the ones who kidnapped you can’t hurt you anymore.”
Brian took a deep breath, contemplating Freddie’s words.
With a big grin again, Freddie tried a new tactic. “I think you should meet my friend Roger. He was like you. He couldn’t control his powers. He hurt people he loved by accident. But he is happy now.” Freddie folded one of the sheets over Brian’s hand, creating a barrier and laying his own hand over Brian’s. “Would it be okay if he came here? I think he’d like to see you anyway. He was one of us who rescued you too.”
“Um… sure.” Brian was still looking at their hands in awe. Usually people were too afraid to get this close to him after they knew about his powers.
Freddie smiled. Brian would be okay. They would make sure of it.