Super Genetics

As they left Mesmer’s office, Terry hesitated just past the threshold.

He knew he should head straight to Dr. Wong. But for some reason, the thought held no appeal.

He stood there in silence, mired with indecision, when Crunch’s teeth began gnashing together. It was a sound like nails down a chalkboard married with the clinking of a metal spoon on teeth. Though it didn’t send shivers down his spine like it once would, it still short circuited his thoughts for a moment.

He turned toward Crunch, knowing it was the ghoulish way of getting someone’s attention, like clearing their throat or a gentle cough.

“Yes, Crunch?”

“Aura no good. Medical?”

He considered the ghoul’s words. What about his aura wasn’t good? Mesmer had said something similar, but Terry didn’t feel different, just…disappointed. Disappointed in the adults he had always admired. His father, for handling his mother’s death the way he had. His grandfather, for condemning his own people to a terrifying death. Mesmer, for defending them both.

Maybe he didn’t want his aura adjusted. Maybe he just needed to seep in this feeling for a while.

He turned the wrong way, heading in the opposite direction of Dr. Wong’s office.

“My prince?” Crunch called at his back.

Terry didn’t miss a step, looking over his shoulder as he strode down the hall.

“I’m not going to Medical. I’ll see Dr. Wong later.”

Crunch’s loping steps were silent as he caught up to Terry. He was thankful that the ghoul didn’t try to convince him to go anyway; he really didn’t feel like arguing right now.

“Back to room?” Crunch asked quietly.

Where am I going? he wondered.

“I don’t know, Crunch. I…I just need to clear my head.”

They walked in silence for another minute, before the ghoul grate his teeth together once more.

“Suggestion,” Crunch said mysteriously.

They stopped and Terry turned toward him expectantly.

“Yeah?”

“Possible not…[appropriate].”

He wanted to say, spit it out, but forced himself instead to take in a deep breath. Maybe his aura was affecting his mood, making him more irritable.

“It’s fine, Crunch. What’s your suggestion?”

The ghoul’s eye stopped tracking up and down the hallway for a moment to turn down toward Terry. Ghoul eyes were predatory, meant for hunting prey on the frozen tundras of the Underworld. And Crunch’s melted over eye amplified the intensity of his gaze. Despite being one of his closest friends, that look sent a shiver up his spine.

“See evolution. Crunch fallen brothers.”

Then his eye was back up, scanning the hallways now that his suggestion had been delivered.

Evolution? Then it hit him.

“You’re inviting me into the Evolution Chamber?”

Crunch turned to stare down at him.

“Obvious.”

Terry chuckled, feeling his mood lighten. Of course, he was being invited to the undead equivalent of a funeral, but he couldn’t help it, he felt incredibly honored.

“I would love to, Crunch. Thank you for inviting me.”

The ghoul didn’t reply, simply leading the way toward the catacombs.

Terry followed in companionable silence, his mind churning over what he could expect.

Did they bury their dead? Burn them? No, dummy, then how could they evolve. Maybe they sent them back to the Underworld and—

He cut off as a maid turned the corner they were rounding, nearly colliding with Terry.

“Oh, excuse me,” he said, skipping to the side.

Her eyes were uncomfortably wide, shifting between Terry and Crunch erratically. A flush of scarlet red suffused her face and were those tear tracks cutting across her cheeks?

“So-sorry, I, uh, didn’t—”

She seemed on the verge of a hysterical breakdown and Terry felt his heart clench. He never wanted to be responsible for the pure terror he saw now in her eyes. It sickened him to think that this might be the culture among the servants.

He held out a hand to steady her, but she flinched away.

“Hey, it’s okay, really—”

He cut off as she turned to leave, practically fleeing from the two of them. Terry looked to Crunch, who seemed just as surprised as him.

“That was odd—”

Snap.

A sound like a foot stepping on a dry twig came from behind, followed by a thud. Crunch’s head twisted sideways, his eyes locking on something over Terry’s shoulder. Before he could look, an arm made of coiled muscle wrapped around his throat, wrenching him backward. Crunch lunged toward Terry as a voice called out.

“Stop or I kill the boy!”

The ghoul froze mid-lunge, his jagged teeth bared silently. Terry instinctively tried to pull the forearm away from his throat, but he might as well have been trying to bend steel. He tried to spot his attacker from his peripherals, but the man had his head locked in place with his grip.

But as Terry looked down at the arm holding him tight, he recognized the detailing on the man’s armored forearm.

“Tenebrous!” Terry croaked, the aforementioned forearm pressing tight across his esophagus.

“Hush now, little prince,” the man whispered into his ear. The hairs on Terry’s neck stood up. “If you do what I say, you’ll live to see another sun.” A harsh chuckle tickled his ear. “Well, I don’t know about seeing the sun again, what with this damned fog. But the point stands. Do what I say or I'll snap your neck.”

As if to punctuate the point, the pressure on his throat tightened hard enough to gag him. A moment later, it relented, and he coughed painfully. The super’s grip never slackened as his whole body shook with wracking hacks.

“Now, here’s the deal,” Tenebrous hissed. “Take me to the dungeons and you walk.” There was a flash of black metal and a tiny prick of pain at his neck. “Fuck around and I’ll bleed you. Rotter, grab the body and shove it into that room.”

His mind raced. How had the Shadow infiltrated the palace? Was he kidnapping Terry? And why did he want to go to the dungeons of all places? Then, his thoughts tripped up as he parsed the man’s words.

Wait, body?

Terry’s stomach clenched as the man shifted him around. The panicked maid lay in a limp heap, her head twisted at an unnatural angle. Bile burned the back of his throat.

The knife suddenly pricked his neck, pulling him from the sight.

“Tell the rotter to do what I say!”

“Okay, okay,” Terry squeaked through the painful pressure on his throat. “Whatever you want. Crunch, do what he says.”

“That’s right, boy. Good attitude.”

Crunch’s single eye seemed to stab into the man, but he didn’t hesitate to move the body. He picked her up weightlessly, her limbs limp as he deposited her into the nearby room.

“Now tell the dead thing to walk two paces in front of you. No more, no less.”

“Go ahead, Crunch.”

How do I get out of this? How do I get out of this! We were bound to come across someone. Had to! There was no way we would make it to the dungeons without crossing some guards.

The arm across his neck squeezed, the blade moving down to press against his lower back. He took the hint, turning toward the hall that would lead them down into the catacombs where he knew the dungeons were, even if he’d never seen them himself.

As they walked, his thoughts felt battered, like leaves in a storm.

What if we did come across someone? Tenebrous would just kill them. How many ghouls would it take to beat the A-ranker? Maybe Mesmer could take him, but they were heading the wrong way! If we could loop back around somehow—

They turned a corner and Terry froze, the knife pressing harder into his back.

At the end of the hall, another maid was walking toward them, a basket of laundry on her hip. The knife prompted him forward and he gulped painfully past the pressure on his throat.

“What do you want me to do?” he hissed at the Shadow.

“Just keep walking, little prince.” His voice was laced with acidic humor. “Just act…casual.”

Please don’t kill her. Please don’t kill her.

He would have bucked against Tenebrous’ hold if he thought it would save the woman. But the Shadow was an A-ranker—he had more strength in his pinky finger than Terry had in his whole body. Doing anything other than exactly what the Shadow wanted would just be killing the woman.

He stepped forward, prompting Crunch to continue down the hall. The laundry woman noticed the ghoul first, thinking nothing of him, then did a double-take as she spotted Terry.

He waited for her to cry out in surprise, raise the alarm, do…anything. Instead, her eyes went wide and she immediately bent into a curtsy, gluing her gaze to the floor.

It couldn’t be that easy…How had she missed the full-grown man with his forearm wrapped around my throat?

He wracked his brain, trying to recall Tenebrous’ powerset. He knew everything there was to know about the Knights of Sol, but that was only the publicly available info on HeroWatch and similar sites. But from what was available on the Shadow, he shouldn’t be able to turn invisible in plain sight.

Not to say an Elementalist class couldn’t turn invisible—usually through the bending of light—but Tenebrous’ powers were shadow based. He could hide in shadows of course, but the hallway was well-lit without a shadow in sight. Everything he remembered from HeroWatch suggested that he needed actual shadows to work his powers.

As they passed by the woman, she risked a glance up and Terry carefully schooled his expression so that the terror he felt for her wasn’t plain on his face. He tried for a casual nod, but it felt stilted with the pressure of Tenebrous’ arm around his neck.

She quickly bowed her head again, then they were past. As they walked down the hall, he glanced back once more to see only her back as she carried her laundry away.

How…

He risked a question, partially out of his own curiosity as a die-hard super fan, but mostly because if he wanted to escape, he needed to know everything he could about the super’s powers.

“You have invisibility? Last I checked, that wasn’t in your powerset.”

A quiet chuckle came from the man.

“Oh, you’re a fan?”

Terry affected a casual shrug, doing his best to keep the man off-guard, even though all he wanted to do was curl up into a ball and wipe this entire week from his mind.

“I had posters of all the Knights up on my wall. Though, that was before they kidnapped me…twice.”

The man snorted.

“I like you, kid. Keep—”

The grip around his throat pulled him up short and he coughed at the sudden pressure on his esophagus.

Tenebrous’ tone flipped instantly, his cold voice dripping with violent promise.

“That healer is coming—”

Terry’s eyes went wide. Dr. Wong would recognize the danger and save him. No, idiot. Dr. Wong is no match for the Shadow.

“—play it cool or I’ll gut him. Clear?”

Before Terry could respond, Dr. Wong turned the corner—with Tania in tow! He had been sure he could keep his composure but something about the girl heightened the panic in his mind. An image of her head twisted unnaturally flashed in his mind.

“My prince!” Dr. Wong called out. “Just the person I was coming to see.”

Terry raised a hand in greeting but his words caught on a dry throat. He attempted a dry swallow, forcing the words out with what he hoped was a natural tone.

“Hey, doctor. Hey, Tania.” She narrowed her eyes at him and his heart skipped a beat. Please, don’t say anything. Please, don’t say anything.

“Tania’s all patched up,” the doctor said cheerily. “Let’s take a look at you—”

“No!” He flinched at the panic in his own voice. The point pressing into his back increased in pressure. He coughed into his hand to give him time to recover. “Not yet, I mean.” Crunch stood to the side at rigid attention, but he could feel the wave of anger rolling off the ghoul like a heatwave. Distantly, he realized he could sense Crunch’s aura, before he snapped himself back to the reality of the imminent danger. “Crunch invited me t-to the Evolution Chamber,” he stammered. Come on, get yourself together! “I-I want to do that first. Please.”

Dr. Wong’s eyebrows rose and he bit his lip in thought. Then he shrugged, and Terry could barely mask the relieved sigh that left his body. The doctor held up a finger like a stern teacher.

“Report to my office right afterward. Prince or no, if you die on my watch, the Emperor will flay me alive.”

Terry chuckled nervously, eliciting a small smile from the doctor. Beside him though, Tania still had a quizzical look on her face.

“Why’re ya acting weird?”

Shutupshutupshutup!

The knife at his back broke skin and Terry bit his cheek to keep from reacting.

Tania turned to Dr. Wong and waved her hand toward Terry.

“He’s acting weird, innit he?”

The knife dug deeper, the arm around his throat tighter. It was all he could do to keep his mind from blanking in the panic. Then, a thought came to him, and he knew what to do—even though it would hurt the girl.

“We can’t all just lose a parent and go about our day.” He injected as much venom as he could muster into his voice. “Some of us are still grieving.”

Her mouth hung open, her eyes bugging out. Then, she arced her fist back and Terry braced.

“You son of a—”

Dr. Wong’s hand snaked forward, catching her wrist effortlessly. She bucked against his grip, then reached out to kick at Terry when it proved hopeless. The doctor pulled her back and held her tight.

“That, young lady, is unacceptable. Striking the prince? In his own palace.” He shook his head in reproach. He cast a glance toward Terry, who on any other occasion, would have wanted to shrivel up and die.

Take her out of here, he tried to say with his eyes. Take her and go!

“I don’t care whose palace it is!” Tania shrieked, her eyes wild. “Screw you, you pompous brat.”

Dr. Wong began dragging her away, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Come away now, Tania. Don’t dig yourself into an even deeper hole.”

In response, the girl spat toward Terry, who didn’t even flinch.

I deserved that. That and more.

He tried to think how he would react if someone had said those words to him. At least that bad.

“I’ll come straight to Medical afterward,” Terry said as calmly as his pounding heart would allow.

Dr. Wong nodded. “See that you do.”

Then, he dragged a spitting, kicking Tania away. The moment they went around a corner and out of sight, Terry sagged.

A harsh chuckle in his ear made him flinch.

“Cold, my prince. Ice cold.”

Everything in him wanted to whirl around and punch Tenebrous in the face. He wasn’t afraid anymore—only angry. But he knew that would get him nothing but a beat down. The super might even hurt Crunch to send a message. So he shoved down the bile surging up his chest and said nothing as he started walking forward. Crunch eyed him once, giving a slight nod before turning to lead the way.

“You should be proud,” the Shadow continued, his grip loosening casually. “You saved both of their lives. A true…hero. Just like your mother—”

Now, Terry did spin around, coming face-to-face with Tenebrous for the first time. He was gearing up to tell the super off, but was too stunned to speak.

The edges of the man’s silhouette shimmered, invisible at first, then materializing before his eyes. The invisibility slid off the man like water, until he was completely exposed before Terry. The super looked nothing like his poster. Week-old stubble shadowed his face and dark circles ringed his eyes. His hair was oily and disheveled and the smell appeared out of nowhere, hitting Terry’s nostrils like a one-two punch.

The super’s own surprise registered on his face, his eyes widening briefly before narrowing in anger. He roughly gripped Terry’s shoulders and spun him back around. The knife swapping positions from his back to his throat.

“Do that again and I’ll ram this up your ass,” he hissed. “Then chase down your girlfriend and do the same to her. You got it?”

Terry was too distracted in his own thoughts to be intimidated.

It’s my shadow. He’s invisible in my shadow!

The knife pressed tighter to his throat.

“Got it?” he growled, punctuating the question by pressing the knife hard enough to draw blood.

“I got it,” Terry replied. “And you don’t talk about my mom. You got that?”

He felt energized at the realization, one step closer to getting out of this mess. It filled his chest with courage and though he was afraid, it wasn’t for himself, but for Crunch, Tania, Dr. Wong, and the other innocents that might get in Tenebrous’ way.

“Boy, you better watch your mouth. I’m tempted just to gut you and be done.”

“Please, we both know you can’t. The moment you kill me, Crunch will eviscerate you.” As if to punctuate the statement, the ghoul’s teeth clacked audibly. “And even if you did beat him, without my shadow, you’re screwed.”

It was a guess, but one he was almost certain about. And judging by the super’s silence, he had nailed it. A tense moment passed, where Terry wondered if the Shadow might not just gut him anyway and find a new victim. That moment turned into three, then five.

Finally, Tenebrous switched the knife to his lower back and used it to push Terry forward.

“Shut your mouth and move it.”