Microstory 116: Upton Starr

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Upton Starr was one of the few anomalies who grew up with an inherent understanding of their ability without ever having used it accidentally. He always knew that he could easily be immortal, and how he could achieve this. All he needs to do is take an object and bond with it so that his lifeforce is connected to it. If he dies, his consciousness uploads itself to the nearest of his objects, and he will be resurrected in a brand new body. Without ever having attempted this, he knew that the body attached to each of what would later be referred to as starr stones would appear at the same point of development as he was when he created it. He started making starr stones every week since he was a child, and later learned to control which stone he ended up coming out of following any given death. There is no telling how many stones are hidden around the globe, but he uses them more often than is probably psychologically healthy. He purposely puts himself in physical danger so that he can quickly learn skills that would otherwise take a lot of caution and patience. It’s also unclear how old Upton is. He has admitted to having pushed his life into a stone that was made when he was very young, so he has grown up at least twice. No records from his life before Bellevue remain today, so no one is even certain whether Upton Starr is his real name. It took some convincing, but Upton eventually agreed to join Bellevue, but with some conditions. He works with a small team at an offsite location within a department ominously referred to as Special Projects. Throughout the decades, the team members refused to divulge their inventions until they were perfected. However, once these inventions were ready, they proved to be extremely useful to society. One particular invention took centuries to develop, and was instrumental in the salvation of the entire planet, though Upton was not around to see it come to fruition.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 10, 2034

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When Mateo awoke, he found himself being carried by The Doctor and his father, Mario. They were whispering to each other, but he was too weak to speak up. “We have to hurry,” Mario said. “It’s almost midnight. We’re about to lose him.”

“I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m the doctor. I’m not supposed to be on any other kind of missions.”

“The powers that be are obviously all right with it,” Mario snapped. “Otherwise, they would have already snatched you up. Besides, it’s your job to get your patients out of danger. If we leave him in this basement, Reaver will know exactly where he is again and be able to exploit that. He’ll have an entire year to prepare for his arrival.”

“What happened?” Mateo managed to eke out.

“You blew up a house, son. I’m impressed. We’re trying to get you as far from it as possible.”

“Where is my family?”

“They’re probably not allowed past the barrier. Reaver Enterprises stepped in and took control of the situation. The two of us timeslipped in at the same time to get you out.” His watch began to beep urgently. “Damn it!”

“It’s too late. We have to break proximity,” the doctor said, gently laying Mateo’s shoulders on the ground. Mario was forced to do the same with his legs.

“Where am I going to end up next year?” He struggled to his feet. It still hurt a little, but he could also feel his wounds healing due to the doctor’s works.

“We have no idea,” Mario shook his head. “But it can’t be good. We didn’t get you far enough away.”

Mateo left them behind and made the jump to 2034. The scene changed dramatically, reminding him of the time he wound up centuries in the future. He was standing in a brightly lit hallway. He could see several doors down the hall, each a dull shade of green. He cautiously began to walk in one direction but quickly slipped through one of the doors after spotting a guard. He turned on the light to find that he was lucky enough to have stumbled upon a storage room. There were plenty of extra guard uniforms from which to choose. While he was changing out of his torn and wet clothes, he could hear footsteps from the hall. It was a ruckus. They must have detected his arrival. The uniform indicated that it belonged to Reaver Enterprise’s security division, which meant that the electronic security measures were likely sensitive to time travelers.

He heard some of the footsteps stop cold, and then a voice. “There’s a light on in here. What is this?”

“It’s just a storage room. No reason for anyone to be in there right now,” another voice replied. They sounded familiar.

Mateo closed his eyes from fatigue and pulled his hat on. When the door opened, he did his best to play a part. “I was just checking this room. Everything appears to be fine, though. We can go now.”

“It’s you,” one of the men said. Mateo reluctantly looked up. It was the two guards who had sent him to the police station after he jumped into the Reaver warehouse. That was six years ago, yet they still recognized him.

“My God, it is.” The other guard came in the room and closed the door. “You must be the one we’re all running around looking for.”

Mateo looked around at the shelves for anything that he could use as a weapon, or better yet, a distraction.

Guard Number One turned to his partner. “This kid is what he wants. This is personal. He’s obsessed, and obviously unwell.”

“Well, what do we do?” Guard Number Two asked of him.

“I think it’s time we finally quit; like we’ve been saying.”

“We’ll have to change our names.”

“Everyone knows that Reaver is one sick puppy. If he wants to capture a guy like this, we have no choice but to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

A voice boomed from the ceiling. “Mateo?” He began to stretch out his words for effect. “Mateeeeeeeeo. I know you’re iiiiin heeere. You were supposed to wake up in the basement. The entire bottom floor of this facility is a jail cell. What are you doing out of your cage, MONKEY!”

“See what I mean?” Guard Number One asked rhetorically.

His partner nodded his head overdramatically. “Yeah. We gotta get the hell out of here. The man’s nuts.”

Mateo thought it was best to keep his head down and mouth shut. He had no idea what other security equipment Reaver would have, so blending was the word of the day. They walked down the halls together, careful to look like they were doing exactly what they were supposed to. The lower floors had too many people, so they could only head towards the roof, even without a plan. They encountered another team on the stairwell, and Mateo was paranoid that they were suspicious of him, but they soon moved on to their own assignments.

Reaver’s voice returned. “That’s it! I’m calling in the cavalry. Boys, this is who we’re looking for!” Mateo’s face appeared on the wall. The three of them looked around. His face could be seen over and over again on the screens along the entire wall, a continuous pattern that was putting him in danger. “Bring him to me and I will literally write you a blank check!”

Mateo turned to his two new friends. “We’re not turning you in,” Number Two insisted.

“But now we run,” his partner said.

They ran through the maze of hallways, as far from the sounds of the team they had just passed as they could get. One of them tried to go one way, but the other pulled them in the opposite direction. “This way.”

Mateo pulled out his magic cell phone and called Leona with it. “Leona, are you safe? Did he get to you?”

I’m all right, she answered. They thought you were dead, but I knew you would survive. Where are you?

“I never made it out of the mansion.”

Mateo! That’s a Reaver building now.

“You’ll notice I’m out of breath from running!”

We were getting ready to do a bird’s eye survey of the surrounding area to find you, so we’re not too terribly far.

“South side of the southwest corner!” Number Two exclaimed.

“What!” Mateo yelled back.

“That’s where we’ll be.” He directed them into a room that turned out to be an armory.

“We’re not going to hurt anyone,” Number One argued.

“No, we’re not,” Number Two agreed. He went straight for a large weapon that looked like a cannon. “We’re breaking out. He grabbed the cannon and ran out. They followed him as Mateo relayed the rendezvous point to Leona.

A security team came out of nowhere and blocked their path. Number Two held the cannon up threateningly. “I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“What are you doing?” the team leader asked. “Why is Reaver so interested in him?”

“Stop us and you’ll never find out,” Number One answered.

The team leader crooked his head. “That sounds like the opposite of the truth.”

Before the argument could continue, Vearden appeared from one door while Saga came out of the door on the other side. They each pushed one of the enemy security guards forward and ushered them through the opposite door, like they had rehearsed it. The doors closed and no one tried to get back out of them.

“What the hell was that?” The leader opened the doors angrily and looked around for them, proving that Saga and Vearden had taken his team somewhere through time. He raised his weapon again and pointed it at Mateo’s leg.

“Excuse me?” came the voice of a man who only the leader could see. “Have you ever been to Stonehenge?”

The leader instinctively rerouted his attention towards the new threat. He disappeared around down the hallway. By the time Mateo looked around the corner, the portal was fading. He could see The Delegator resting his hand on the leader’s shoulder and smiling comfortingly.

“I don’t know what’s happening here,” Number One said, “but we have to go.”

“This way,” Number Two urged them.

They continued to follow him. Once he reached his destination, he lifted the cannon and blew a hole in the surprisingly thick wall. They could hear footsteps headed for them once more. A flying vehicle of some kind was heading for them.

“We have to jump!” Number Two yelled.

“They’re not here yet!”

Number Two looked back towards the sound of the oncoming horde of enemies. “I know. It’ll be tight, but I can estimate the timing.”

“Did you hear that?” Mateo called into the phone.

The horde was upon them, guns pointed to their backs. Reaver’s voice came on, “it’s over. Mateo. I have you. I finally found my loophole.”

“Would you shut up already!” Mateo yelled to the ceiling.

“Now!” Number Two yelled. They complied without hesitation. Mateo and Number One jumped out of the hole at the same time, but Number Two wasn’t so lucky. One of the enemies had gotten off one shot that hit him in the leg, causing him to lose his balance and miss his timing. After Mateo landed on the hood of the aircraft, he looked back up to see Number Two clinging to the edge. Leona flipped around quickly and began flying back to the hole, but Number Two lost his grip and started falling towards the ground.

“No!” Mateo cried.

While they were still too far away, the figure of Daria appeared long enough to grab him before he hit the ground and jump him away.

“Hold on!” he could hear Leona yell from inside what he could only describe as a flying car. He exchanged a look of both fear and relief with Number One as they rose up into the air and increased speed.

They stopped briefly on the ground a few miles from the building. Leona and Aura were using the front row, so the two stowaways scrunched in next to Samsonite. They took off after a moment and made the short trip back to Lebanon. Danica, Theo, and a young woman he did not bother to introduce himself to greeted them at the bottom of the elevator. They spent the rest of Mateo and Leona’s year in the safety of The Constant, doing as little as possible.

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Crossed Off: Gateway (Part IV)

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Denton followed professor Shapiro back to Hudson during the break while Starla and Alec started their trip towards Kansas City with Kathleen. Alec was supposed to give up the reigns to Kathleen halfway through so that he could rest, but she ended up falling asleep, and didn’t wake up until he had gone over twelve hours straight. She immediately forced him to pull over. They hadn’t left as early as they wanted so they decided to stay the night in St. Louis instead of trying to make it all the way.
Right out of college, Tristan found a high-paying executive position at a medical technology company. He liked to give his sister, Kathleen money, and he considered it an insult to not take it. Eventually, she got used to this, and stopped the modest refusals. He hooked them up with a pretty fancy hotel suite. Each of their rooms had its own television set, and the larger television in the communal area had a video tape recorder. They wouldn’t have time to use it, but it was nice to have around.

One side effect from Starla’s ability was that her dreams were entirely lucid, and she could remember every detail about it upon waking. This allowed her to tell the difference between a dream of her own and a body jump. She had developed laser focus and never jumped when she didn’t want to, except, of course, with Alec. This time was different. She had no choice but to jump over to Denton’s body. It was like he was summoning her to him. Did you somehow bring me here? she asked him with her thoughts.

Not on a conscious level, he replied. I think we’re connected. I think the more of us that come together, the easier it is to find even more.

Why do you say that? Starla asked.

Do you know where we are?

He was in an elevator, so she had no way of knowing exactly where. You have to think it to me. I can read your mind without you knowing it when we’re in proximity, but I only have surface access remotely.

This is the Confederacy Building. I came here as a tourist, but now I have the urge to go up to the twenty-fourth floor. The closer I get, the stronger the feeling of familiarity. It’s the same thing I felt when I first met you. Initially, I thought it was just because I was sexually attracted to you, but I felt the same thing around Magnus Shapiro, and I’m not that attracted to him. There’s some sort of scientific phenomenon we do not understand that binds us together. We’re all different, but there must be some kind of trait that we all share, that others do not possess.

So you think there’s another one of us in this building?

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. Denton cautiously stepped out. Yes, I do. A part of me can’t imagine there not being someone else. Denton walked down the halls like one would a labyrinth. He would step in one direction, only to realize that it was the wrong way, so he’d step back and go another way. He ended up in the middle of a large collection of cubicles. It was so late that only a few people were still there. He scanned the room, looking for some sign, but saw nothing obvious. He took one more step forward.

A woman in the middle of the room stood up and curiously turned around to lock eyes with him. She quickly maneuvered around the cubicles and approached him. “What language do you speak?”

“Standard C,” he answered.

“What’s happening here?”

“You brought me here. Rather, something brought us together.” Denton stopped and tilted his head. “What department is this?”

“Interpretation and Translation,” the woman replied.

“Language. Why didn’t I think to immerse myself in that before.” He swayed back and forth, reveling in the flood of data being sent to his brain. “I’m getting so many different languages from you. Dozens. Ones I couldn’t even name. How do you know so many? And how am I absorbing it so quickly?”

The woman was shocked, but excited. “I don’t know how you’re doing it at all. I can’t absorb a language unless someone is speaking it.”

“But it’s just language with you. You don’t gain any other information?”

“No, of course not. But you do. Why are we how we are?”

“I have someone I think you should meet. He and I are trying to figure that out. There are others. We all do something different.”

“I thought I was just...” she tried to find her words, “just different. Smarter, maybe. Some form of hyperthymesia.”

Denton laughed. “That’s pretty much what Magnus Shapiro thought.” He turned his attention inward. You’re awfully quiet, Starla. I know you’re still there, though.

I was letting you do whatever it is you wanted to do. But you should probably ask her name, at the very least.

Good point. He extended his arm. “I’m Denton Wescott.”

She shook his hand. “Ling Guo.”

“Are you done with work?” He put his head down like a child with his first crush. He definitely didn’t act like that around Starla, and he was still with Kathleen, as far as she knew. “Do you wanna go grab some coffee and talk? Ya know, for research purposes.”

“Research, of course. Yes.”

I’m leaving. Best of luck to you with whatever the hell this is.

‘Kay byee, Denton thought back to her. “Wait,” he accidentally said out loud.

“What?” Ling asked.

“Oh, sorry, not you.”

“Do what now?”

Starla, can you understand the thoughts of any language?

Thoughts are thoughts, Starla explained. People think in abstracts, not sentences. It doesn’t matter what language they speak; they think the same way. That’s how I communicate with people all over the world.

“Are you doing something?” Ling pressed. “Blink twice if something is wrong.”

Denton closed his eyes once and held them down deliberately before opening again. Now that there are four of us, we need to get together and gather more data. You should come here to Hudson.

Alec and Kathleen are never going to agree to that, and I can’t exactly leave on my own.

We’ll figure something out. Maybe we’ll come down to Kansas City instead.

Goodnight, Denton. Be careful.

He ignored her final remark. “Night, Starla.” This time he knew full well that he was saying it aloud.

“Are you talking to someone else?”

Denton smiled. “Let’s go. I’ll tell you all about it.” He let slip a few stray thoughts about his sudden feelings for Ling. It was clear that being around someone who could alone provide him with so much knowledge was intoxicating to him.

Should Starla tell Kathleen, or no? She was his gracie, after all. Did she not have the right to know? She went back to her own private dreams and decided to sleep on it.

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Microstory 115: Wilma Vann

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Wilma Vann was born in Germany as one member of a set of quadruplets. Her brothers were identical to each other while she was identical to her sister. Their story is an interesting case because, though each set of twins shared the same DNA, they presented different abilities. An unknown number of mutations occurred some time after their splits that caused them to come out dramatically more different than one might expect. Their family belonged to a rare but insidious sect of the evil religious order of Amadesis. Generations are charged to adhere to a “rule of three”. Each couple is supposed to ultimately have three children; no more, no less. It was the parents’ intention to kill one of their four children so that they could abide by the rules. Fortunately, an organization that specialized in the protection and deprogramming of Amadesins stepped in and kidnapped one of the Vann children. She was taken to a family in Ireland and grew up having no idea where she came from. The remaining children, known from them on as The Triplets, were raised under the dark laws. They were taught important lessons on murder, rape, and the concept of soul-squeezing. Soul-squeezing was a form of physical and psychological torture wherein the victim is ridiculed and manipulated to the point that they take on the characteristics of their torturers. They become so twisted and damaged that they ultimately choose to enact this evil on other victims. The majority of people who go through this do not survive, but the ones that do usually increase the danger of the world. Wilma went through this along with her brothers when she was a child, but she was both stronger and smarter than them. She not only stayed out of trouble, but also managed to pretend to continue the tradition of torture, convincing her family that she was just like them. Her soul was twisted enough to turn her into a killer, but not a psychopathic one. She used her skills and urges to kill violent and deadly criminals. Then she used them as proof that she was carrying out her family’s responsibilities, right up until the point that The Triplets were captured by an associate of a Bellevue member. Like her brothers, she almost never used her ability, seeing it as irrelevant to her goals. She could control water to an incredibly low degree. The three of them were probably the least powerful anomalies of all, which informed the age-old question of nature versus nurture, because their estranged sister turned out to be one of the most powerful anomalies. She was captured by the same man, and was locked in the same facility, but it was a while before anyone learned of their connection.

Microstory 114: Persius Xylander

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Persius ‘Percy’ Xylander’s ability might have been the most unusual one on a practical level. When he was nine years old, a group of bullies dared/forced him to eat a bullet cartridge they had found in the alley on their way home from school. In order to freak them out even more, he chose to not only swallow the cartridge, but to also chew it. They were horrified by this and a few ran away, but others were frozen. He swallowed and smiled, showing them the metal shards that were stuck between his teeth. He continued to taunt them by rabidly grabbing their backpacks, gnawing them to shreds, and swallowing the pieces. After he was finished with his meal, he wrenched back and threw up on a fence nearby. His vomit burned a large hole in the wood in a matter of seconds. All but one of the remaining bullies finally found the strength to escape. A boy named Blaise was fascinated by Percy’s ability, so he stayed behind, and they became fast friends. He was a bit of a science geek, so he performed experiments on Percy. As they grew older and bolder, the experiments became more dangerous. Blaise ultimately became a medical technician, primarily to gain access to hospital facilities. They continued to run their tests, even one time performing invasive surgery in a hospital wing that was under construction. They discovered that all of his bones, including his teeth, were made of a powerful type of carbon fiber that was somehow capable of healing itself. His skin and muscles were just as susceptible to injury, but he was still stronger and faster than the average human. His stomach produced an incredibly potent type of acid that was able to break down virtually anything, allowing Percy to consume normally unsafe materials. Both of them joined Bellevue when the time came. Blaise worked on the medical team, most of whom were normal people. Percy used his flair for the dramatic to go out in the field as a recruiter, working with Bernard Maly and one other.

Microstory 113: Clarity Garner

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Following Bellevue’s decision to go public, other historical truths came to light. Ancient and alien technologies were revealed to exist to the world at large. But before this happened, there were a few who already knew the truth. A family had been keeping the secret for many, many generations. It was tradition that the youngest child born was told the secrets so that they could protect a large cache of artifacts. Clarity Garner was the youngest sibling, however, she was born as an accident, and her brother had already been given the responsibility. She was, therefore, purposely left in the dark. Unfortunately, her entire family, including her brother, was killed in a major catastrophe. She grew up in foster care, but maintained a suspicion regarding her family. Eventually, she learned the truths on her own. She made her way to the artifact warehouse and began experimenting with what she found there. Most of these highly advanced inventions were completely nonfunctional, but a few still worked magnificently. She began to train on her own, as well as with various professionals, but she kept the secrets to herself. She wore a suit that protected her from a host of hostile environments, special bands that enhanced her agility, mumble activated augmented reality glasses, a belt that allowed her to pass through walls, and a ring that shielded her from physical attacks. She carried special weapons she referred to as her clubs. They had a variety of different functions, not all of which were designed to be harmful, but they were entirely indestructible. She had no superhuman ability—though she had to inject herself with a special formula on a regular basis that allowed her shield ring to hold a charge—but she was a capable fighter even without her gadgets. She went on secret missions to help those in need. Inspired by the very public good works of Candelabra, she decided to come out of the shadows and become a full-fledged vigilante, eventually forming her own Bellevue team that was responsible for field operations in all of North America.

Microstory 112: Catriona Rice

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Catriona Rice, daughter of anomaly Shaun Rice, was born with an aura of majestic light all around her body. Her mother reported feeling no pain during labor. As an infant, Catriona would replicate her toys as holographic images naturally. Her abilities presented themselves at the second earliest age of all anomalies, besides the mutants; the first being Francis Deering who spontaneously switched between male and female while still in the womb. Catriona was kept away from others until she was old enough to recognize the need to hide her abilities from anyone outside of her family. She grew up as a very independent child, learning life skills quickly. She was the polar opposite of her much older half-brother, Claude who remained annoyingly immature for his whole life. When Catriona was a teenager, she was hanging out with some of the younger members of Bellevue. Not all of them were fellow Generation Twos. In fact, not all of them were anomalies. A mysterious force came upon them, designed to take Catriona away, for a reason that her mother would be able to explain. But due to a logistical error, the force ended up sweeping several of the other children with her. They ended up being taken far across time and space against their will. Catriona later had the chance to return home, but made the decision not to. She went on many great adventures, and saved the world a number of times with her friends. She was marked down in the history books as one of the greatest heroes of all time, and became a household name across the universe.

Microstory 111: Serenity Theodo

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When an honorary member of Bellevue first laid eyes on a list of anomalies that was compiled by someone who was once able to sense and track people, he found out that one of his former patients was on it. Serenity Theodo was five years old when she was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of leukemia that had, until then, not been seen in a child. The doctor gave her one month to live. Her parents agreed to treat the symptoms with drugs, not to prolong her life, but to make her as comfortable as possible. Still, she remained bedridden in the hospital throughout the barrage of treatment, and was unable to enjoy her life during those times. To the surprise of the medical community, the cancer never went away completely, but the symptoms lessened over the years. For some of the pain, Serenity simply learned to deal with it better than most people. When she was a teenager, she discovered that she had the ability to phase through objects. Her parents were horrified, especially after her recovery. They belonged to a religious order that treated what others might call a miracle as a curse, so they were already frightened and suspicious of their daughter for having survived a deadly disease. It is, however, the Amadesin way to playact at all times; to hide hate for others behind a mask of overexaggerated compassion. They pretended to be learning about her ability by testing her limits. Instead, they were searching for her weakness. They found it. For an unknown reason, anomalies have difficulty using their abilities around the metallic element of bellmei. Jaklyn Simonds cannot teleport from a room lined with bellmei, Jayson Casy cannot disintegrate bellmei, and Bernard Maly would not be able to climb up a wall made of bellmei. Once Serenity’s parents discovered this trick, they built a cage under the garage in their basement made entirely of bellmei, and even claimed to their neighbors that she had succumbed to her disease. After more than a year of being trapped, Serenity was able to communicate long enough to the neighbor boy so that they could make a plan to break her out. He smuggled tools into her cell and provided a distraction by crashing his car into her house. She managed to pull enough bellmei down to phase through the wall and escape. She remained in the safety of a facility designed to protect Amadesin defectors for years before her family caught up with her. Fortunately, the Bellevue member she once knew as her doctor was keeping tabs on them, and was able to intercept before her parents had the chance to take her back to hell.