Ticket Escalation

 

Dyna wiped a bit of sweat from her brow as she stepped back into the small hallway.

The apartment was coming along nicely. Dyna had gone out and found a cheap place to rent. It had a single bedroom, a single bathroom, and a tiny kitchen, dining room, and living room that were all basically the same room. It had come with a fridge and stove, but no other furniture. Just a bunch of empty faux-hardwood floor.

That suited Dyna just fine. She didn’t intend to live here. Maybe she could get a cheap couch to crash on just in case she stayed late in town and didn’t have a way to get back to the institute. A stool to eat over the counter might be nice as well, though the only food she had on hand were slow-perishing snack-type foods that didn’t take much preparation.

Dyna was here for the bedroom and the bedroom alone.

She looked over her hard work. Matte-silver foil covered the walls, floor, window, and even the ceiling. It wasn’t a perfect seal. Dyna didn’t want to accidentally suffocate herself. There were cracks in the door and the air vent didn’t have anything over it. The overhead light was still in its place as well. With all the reflective surfaces, the light was actually a bit too bright, but she would have to deal with it.

Time to give it a test.

Dyna headed back to the kitchen, grabbed her things from the counter, and returned to the room. Entering with only her socks on her feet to keep the foil from tearing—it was stronger than regular aluminum foil, but she still didn’t want to damage her requisitioned material—Dyna placed her mirror down on top of a small containment case that was currently the only ‘furniture’ in the room.

Using the randi detector, she took a few quick scans. The mirror, when scanned directly, hit roughly its usual levels at seven-hundred ninety-two. Ambient scans of the room, aimed at random points, varied from fifty to seventy. Much higher now than it had been when she had started—presumably because the psionic energy released into the room from both the mirror and Dyna herself couldn’t escape as easily, causing it to build up. The door was open at the moment.

With the door open, a few ambient scans in the hall gave her levels just a little lower than those in the room. Thirty to sixty randi.

Taking care to avoid ripping and damaging the foil around the doorway, Dyna closed the bedroom door.

Dyna took a breath and waited. There wasn’t much else to do at the moment, so she leaned up against the wall and started browsing through some of the institute’s equipment library on her phone. While there was ongoing research toward replicating Tartarus equipment, namely the disruptor, most of the Carroll Institute’s equipment wasn’t exactly portable. The library listed heavy equipment that could technically be moved, but little that she would be able to toss into a backpack and carry out to the apartment building. Nothing useful for her goals, at least.

Still, it was interesting to know that the Carroll Institute had developed a machine that would turn psionic energy into actual flames. The Pyrokinetic Converter. It was large, cumbersome, and incredibly inefficient, but there was some thought toward developing the concept far enough that something like the Vault could be used as a power source for the institute. A small note mentioned that the project was on hold following the spontaneous combustion of the project lead. Dyna wondered if she could craft an artifact that simply produced constant heat regardless of whether or not it was bound to someone.

But that was getting ahead of herself.

A timer beeped on her phone, signaling a half hour had passed since she closed the door to the bedroom.

Knees a bit stiff—maybe a couch was a higher priority than she had thought—Dyna pushed herself off the wall and set to taking several scans in the hallway.

Fifteen to twenty-five. A significant drop. Dyna wasn’t sure exactly how efficient the room’s insulation was. As a psychic herself, Dyna would always interfere with the measurements unless she went and fully suited up in protective equipment. It might not be a bad idea to store a suit here, but she didn’t have one at the moment.

Still, it worked. That brought a small smile to her face. Maybe she would finally be able to get some progress made.

There had been no progress with Mel and the fog machine. For two weeks, Dyna had been down there with her, in and out of various tests to try to recreate the coffee mug. Or anything, for that matter. It was a frustrating exercise. It had been so easy that first time, doing it completely on accident…

It was even more frustrating in how much time it ate. It would have been a different story if they had anything to show for it. They didn’t. The fog machine and the coffee mug were still locked up down in Psychodynamics. Mel still got called down every other day, but Dyna had been allowed free.

Opening the bedroom door, idly noting an immediate jump in ambient randi levels, Dyna took back her mirror. She immediately opened the containment case it had been sitting on. Inside were a few items she had been collecting. First and foremost were the cosplay glasses that didn’t seem to do much unless November was around. Dyna had gone back to that same photography store and purchased a second fog machine. She hadn’t bothered taking it out of its box yet.

She wanted to call Mel over to try again, but if they hadn’t achieved anything in Psychodynamics, Dyna doubted they would get anything going here. Not to mention, Mel’s frustration with the experiments was apparent every time they sulked back to their dorm room. Bothering her with a makeshift laboratory off in the middle of Idaho Falls after she had been through Psychodynamics would probably feel like a severe downgrade, hurting morale even further.

But regardless of what happened after, Dyna still considered the fog machine a success, if a transient one. But maybe it held some small clue.

The mirror, Dyna felt she had done entirely on her own. She had been given it, then through constant infusion—likely helped by her belief of what it was supposed to do—had crafted it into a proper artifact. Theoretically, she should be able to manage that again. But Mel, and November to a lesser extent, showed her that an alternative might be possible.

There were other psychics at the institute. Dyna, unfortunately, didn’t know too many of them personally. As someone who had no real demonstrable ability, she hadn’t exactly been welcome in most of the cliques that formed up around the campus. After receiving the mirror, she mostly spent her time with the artificers and doctors of Psychodynamics.

But surely there was someone around willing to come try to use their powers around her and a suitable artifact.

Dyna let out a sardonic laugh as she looked around the room she had created.

It didn’t exactly look welcoming. In fact, it looked more like the kind of room a serial killer would have to keep blood off the walls. Convincing someone who didn’t already know her…

Ruby would help in an instant. Emerald probably as well. Maybe she could rope Sapphire into it? Except they were all artificers with their own artifacts already. Would that make it easier to make a second, similar artifact? Or would it interfere?

Why didn’t she know any regular psychics?

Stowing the potential artifacts back into the case, Dyna locked up and headed out. It was getting late and she didn’t want to miss the bus back to the institute. She would figure out who else at the institute might be willing to help later. Until then, she could go back to what she had already been doing in her room—working on a project alone—just with the added security against setting off all the institute’s alarms if she actually managed something.

Maybe the added distance would help keep November from devouring her stray thoughts as well.

Out on the street, Dyna walked along the sidewalk. Her new apartment was in a fairly old section of the town. Lots of brick buildings, most of which were only a single story high. It was roughly on a dividing line between a residential neighborhood and a more commercial district. If commercial meant one small department store, a movie theater that looked like it would still use hand-cranked wheels of film, a few restaurants, and a gym. The latter building was actually a decent amenity, one that Dyna would probably end up making use of if she felt the need to move around while out here.

There were another few shops, much smaller than most around the town. One looked like it dealt in old furniture and appliances. The other was… Dyna honestly wasn’t sure what they sold. It was simply called Tuesdaes and had a wide variety of art supplies in the windows, but it wasn’t solely dedicated to art. There was a large wooden spinning wheel and loom, cubes of clay, presumably for pottery, advertisements for a large walk-in kiln, a foundry for metalwork, and even classes on glass-blowing. It seemed an all-around ‘create-things’ store, but also sold actual creations. Strange malformed statues of twisted wire, giant glass carboys filled with brightly-colored liquid, regular paintings of varying quality, and more besides.

Dyna had been meaning to check it out, but she had been spending all her time prepping her artifice room. Most days she left the apartment too tired or too late to even think about heading over and taking a peek.

But, checking the time on her phone, Dyna decided she could spend a few minutes browsing through shelves. Doctor Cross had said that the more unique the item, the easier she would be able to affect it with her power and turn it into a proper artifact. Dyna doubted she would find anything more unique than the creations of hobbyists.

And it did bring up another interesting idea. If she couldn’t find something that felt like it suited her, perhaps she could just make something herself. Maybe a glass marble that she hand-crafted herself or woven leather stamped in arcane patterns.

Ignoring the light chime of a metal bell over the door as she entered, Dyna looked around and decided to stick near the front of the store. The back looked like where they kept all the supplies and equipment—which could be useful, but she was more interested in the unique creations on display around the front half of the store.

Most items she passed by without too much thought. Paintings, glass pipes, and large sculptures didn’t warrant too much thought. Dyna was trying to make equipment that she could carry around and use. Paintings perhaps could be rolled up and made portable that way, sculptures could not. Pipes went ignored simply because there were so many of them.

Other things, Dyna tried to consider what concepts they might embody. A small glass tiger might be aggressive fragility while its red color could be hunger or blood? What kind of powers would that translate to? Or the over-sized tie pin shaped like a stylized art deco Empire State building? What would that be? Rigidity? Geometric patterns? Man-made structures?

The fog machine had felt right to her. And it actually did something, if only once. But for that, she had been going about in the opposite direction. Rather than browsing aimlessly and wondering what something might do, she had a power in mind—illusions—and had been searching for something that would fit that. Doing things that way again might be easier than her current method.

A small part of her wondered if the Carroll Institute offered instructional courses on art history. Identifying concepts of random pieces of art sounded a whole lot easier than it was. Then she needed a class on relating concepts to artifact abilities.

Dyna didn’t exactly have a whole lot of artifacts to pull inspiration from. Her own mirror, described as a tool of a legendary spy, allowed her to know when she was being spied upon. Emerald’s pocket watch allowed her to step outside the flow of time—which seemed quite straightforward. Then there were things like Ruby’s gemstone, which appeared to be a simple ruby. How did that relate to letting her heal her body while storing her mind? Maybe her artifact shouldn’t count given that Ruby had been experimented upon by her parents until the ruby functioned for her.

Sapphire was the owner of the Control Rod, a puppet master’s tool of manipulation. It did something to his natural psychic power, though Dyna wasn’t sure what, exactly. Beyond that, it also let him float? To control his own body as if it were a dancing marionette.

Alex had the Music Box. What it did, exactly, Dyna couldn’t say. She hadn’t asked and had never been told. The same applied to the other two artificers, Aquamarine and Hematite. Dyna had no idea what they did or even what their artifacts were.

The only other artifacts that she actually knew about were the glass vase and conical brown stone covered in hieroglyphs from her artifact selection—neither of which she knew their function—and the Aztec Calendar. The latter, she didn’t know what it would do in the hands of an artificer, but it did create an aura of harm and pain while unbound.

Maybe that was the actual problem. It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to turn a wooden carving of Fenrir into an artifact, it was that she didn’t know what artifacts could actually do.

Stopping abruptly in the middle of the woodwork aisle, Dyna pulled out her phone. She connected to the Carroll Institute Internal Database and attempted to pull up a list of all the artifacts in the vault.

A bright red banner saying that she lacked permissions to view the content covered the screen.

With a scowl, Dyna dialed a number.

“This is Beatrice.”

“I’m an artificer, right?”

“Confirmation code?”

Dyna sighed. “Onyx three-five-five-five. You know who I am.”

“Confirmation accepted,” Beatrice responded, ignoring the latter part of what Dyna said. “You are classified as an artificer.”

“Then shouldn’t I have access to the artifact database?”

“Please hold.”

Dyna scowled. Picking up the carving of Fenrir, she moved along. Maybe it wouldn’t be an artifact, but it might still liven up the apartment. The utterly bare walls and lack of furniture really was disheartening at times. While she was holding, she picked up a few other things as well for the same reason. A glass ball whose insides looked like a galaxy, a laser etched sheet of metal with some magical circle on it, a completely dull knife made from glass but designed to look like crystal, and a small wooden puzzle box.

After thinking about it for a moment, Dyna put the puzzle box back. There were enough creatures from beyond running around. She didn’t need her vast knowledge of horror movies bringing more.

She did, however, pick up a crochet voodoo doll. It was clearly designed to look cute with its button eyes and cross-stitched smile. It was probably an insult to actual voodoo practitioners everywhere, but Dyna well knew that artifacts didn’t need to be genuine or even realistic to work. Her mirror wouldn’t have ever done anything if that was the case.

The voodoo doll actually got her thinking about other paranormal items. Would a Ouija board let her communicate with dead people? Or maybe just read the minds of psychics in text format? Maybe tarot cards would let her become some kind of precognitive?

Unfortunately, despite walking aisle to aisle, Dyna didn’t find anything like either. So, she headed up to the checkout stand with her small collection of mostly-decorative but maybe-artifact items and quickly paid for them.

It wasn’t until she got out of the store that Beatrice finally got back to her.

“I apologize. Your access to many parts of the CIID has been restricted. Attempts to restore access are restricted.”

“Great.” Dyna walked down the street toward the closest bus stop. It was a bit further from her apartment than she would have liked—the Carroll Institute bus really only stopped at a handful of locations throughout the city—but it was still close enough that she didn’t mind the walk. Exercise was good, after all. “Who do I have to talk to in order to get that fixed? Walter? Doctor Cross?”

“Access is restricted by order of the administrative council.”

“Them again,” Dyna said with a mild groan. “And how do I meet one of them? Is that even possible? I’ve got like ten bones to pick with them. Probably more if I sat down and thought about it for a few minutes.”

“To maintain objective control over the Carroll Institute and related functions, the administrative council avoids interactions with known psychics.”

“I’m not going to mind control them. I literally can’t. That’s not my power.” Dyna paused a moment and thought. “And what if an psychic goes to the same grocery store as them? How do they avoid that? What do they do, hide out in a bunker all day and never leave?”

Dyna could just imagine a dozen old men seated around a large wooden table in a dimly lit room. They were probably never seen in full, even to each other. They would start up video calls with their faces entirely cloaked in shadow, only giving off a vague outline on the screen. Some cigarette-smoking man probably annoyed the rest of them given how unpopular smoking was these days.

“Beatrice?” Dyna said, trying to avoid laughing at her mental image of the Carroll Institute’s own little Syndicate. “Are there some forms I can fill out or something?”

“Please hold.”

“Hold? You should know if there are forms—”

“Codename: Onyx,” a silky smooth voice cut in. It was deep and masculine, a far cry from the somewhat clipped tones that Beatrice spoke in. “I am told you wished to meet?”

Blinking twice, Dyna’s fingers fished her mirror from her pocket. She didn’t like strange things happening all of a sudden. “Who is this?” she asked, flipping the mirror open. Everything looked normal for the moment.

“Administrator Theta. Would you kindly come to my office upon your return to the Carroll Institute?”

Dyna’s mouth went dry. Had Beatrice called him? Or how did he know? And what happened to not meeting with psychics? She had a whole list of grievances, but for some reason, that list shriveled up as she thought more about this sudden intrusion into the call. This was one of the heads of the institute. Doctor Cross and Walter’s superior. The one they reported to and the one who gave them orders. Dyna… actually wasn’t sure if she really wanted to meet with one. Her asking Beatrice had been half a joke, not expecting anything to come out of it.

Somehow, he had heard about her request to meet and had agreed to it. All in the span of a single phone call. The Syndicate-like picture she had in her head didn’t go away at that. In fact, this only strengthened that image. This was a man who could probably make her pretty miserable at the institute. Assuming he didn’t give her the boot.

No. They wouldn’t do that. It would be too easy to imagine that Dyna would sign up with Id almost immediately.

Still, it was unnerving. Here he was, wanting to meet with her the second she got back? At the very least, Dyna figured the administrators were busy sorts of people and a meeting would have to be scheduled weeks if not months in advance.

“Miss Onyx?”

“Ah… Yeah. Sure.” It was probably best to not ignore him or avoid the meeting. Besides, she really did have grievances that the administrators probably wouldn’t resolve, but at least she could bring them up. “I was just heading to the bus stop now. Be there… soon?” she said, butterflies swarming through her stomach.

“I will look forward to it.”