Resonance Cascade

 

Dyna whipped her head around quick enough to pop her neck. Grafton was gone. He must have spotted her and took off. But where? The doors to the gangway were closed. Even a mind controller couldn’t slip through them without opening them. Dyna had been standing right next to them. She would have noticed.

No. He must have gone the other direction.

Dyna pulled out her mirror, trying to concentrate on the people around her in the hopes that Grafton had view of them. She thought for a moment about pulling out her phone, but Ruby had disconnected and Beatrice wouldn’t be able to help in her limited state. It was up to her.

But the lenses remained dark. That meant he couldn’t see anyone? Or…

It didn’t matter. Dyna rushed away from the gate as fast as she felt she could go without causing a fuss. Grafton’s outfit was distinctive. No one else here wore a tweed suit as far as she could see. His prosthetics stood out as well. He couldn’t just hide.

So he was making an escape.

Just as she thought that, she caught a glimpse of a brown tweed suit heading down the escalator.

As if detecting her gaze, he turned. With his stiff neck, he had to turn his entire upper body. His cool eyes met hers.

Dyna staggered as Grafton’s implant churned. Something slammed into her mind. Unlike the illusion in the storage facility, she felt this one. It was just as the Carroll Institute taught. Detecting the mental intrusion was the first step in throwing it off. This wasn’t subtle at all. She didn’t even have to think about whether or not she was being affected.

The second step was to determine which aspects of the mind the ability was affecting. Mind controller was a catch-all term for a large variety of psychics. Some overpowered neurons, forcing them to trigger. Others changed the chemical balance of the brain to encourage certain actions and discourage others. Still others caused sensations of pain when the target did something against the controller’s will. Some were overt. Some were subtle.

This didn’t feel like anything specifically targeted. He, perhaps in a panic, simply shot out a blast of psionic energy that caused her motor functions to lock. A paralysis of the primary motor cortex of the brain via flooding of electrical signals. Simple. Crude. She doubted it was his full power or an intricate use of it.

He would know that she could probably get out of it thanks to the institute. He was just trying to delay her while he got away.

With a snarl, Dyna threw off the shackles of his power.

How long had she been locked up? It couldn’t have been more than a few seconds.

Sure enough, when she reached the escalator, she saw him at the bottom on his way out of the sliding glass doors. He moved as quickly as he could with the limp slowing him down.

“Stop that man!” Dyna shouted. As long as the airport employees trusted her with the vest on, she might as well try to make use of that trust.

The pair of guards at the bottom first looked up to her, then to Grafton. At the same time, Grafton twisted at the waist.

They didn’t even get a chance to start after him before both jerked. Unfortunately, unlike Dyna, their momentary stagger didn’t end with them shaking off the control and continuing on their way. With slower, robotic movements, both guards turned to Dyna. She could see the fog in their eyes as they started up the escalator.

“Ah… shit.”

Dyna waited, not hesitating, but needing to pause nonetheless. The two guards were clearly not controlled to the same degree that the police officer had been. They were just slowly shuffling up the escalator even as it moved them up. It was honestly a testament to Grafton’s ability that they weren’t tripping over their own feet on the moving staircase.

Though, once again, Dyna had to question the Carroll Institute not giving training to the local population. Especially TSA agents, who would be particularly susceptible to psychics passing through the airports.

With a mental shake of her head, Dyna waited until the guards were about three quarters of the way up the escalator. She jumped on the downward escalator.

One of the guards immediately tried to lunge for her. Both escalators had guard rails and there was a small gap between. Although she ducked down below the level of the guard rail, it was an entirely unnecessary movement. The guard tumbled over the rail, falling into the gap. He hit a sloped wall and started sliding back down toward the ground floor.

The other guard tried turning to follow after Dyna, but his slow, shambling movements weren’t fast enough to overcome the upward-moving escalator.

Dyna hurried down the remainder of the escalator, stepping straight past the guard on the ground. Hopefully he wasn’t too badly hurt, but she didn’t have time to help him at all.

Dyna rushed straight through the security gate, now devoid of guards, and through the exit doors of the airport terminal. She turned left, then scanned to the right.

There he was. Hobbling away as fast as his limp would allow. He was headed straight for a car parked in the white zone for unloading or loading. Despite a suitcase sitting just to the side of the trunk, some old woman was getting into the drivers seat and turning on the engine.

Dyna broke into a run. Heart beating a thousand times a minute, she charged straight after Grafton.

He paused just long enough to turn toward her.

Something slammed into Dyna once again, but ready for it, she shrugged it off with only a slight stagger in her step. “Stay out of my head,” she shouted. Too many people had been rummaging through her head as of late. Id. Hypnotists. Whoever took away her memories. The man with the blacked out face. Probably people she didn’t even know about. She didn’t need this jerk in there as well.

Before Grafton could reach the car, Dyna tackled him. A full-contact tackle taking both of them to the ground. Pain lanced up her right arm as her hand scraped on the rough sidewalk, but Dyna just grit her teeth through it.

He tried to turn under her. Probably to make eye contact again. Given how he twisted around every time he used his ability, it had to require eye contact.

Dyna didn’t let him. With her skinned hand, she gripped the train wheel-like prosthetic on the side of his head. It pinched. With the rest of her hand throbbing already, she barely felt it.

He, on the other hand…

He immediately started screaming. Horrible, visceral screams of a man in extreme pain. He thrashed and squirmed underneath her, growing more and more desperate with every passing second. His legs kicked and his elbow found the pit of her stomach, but Dyna didn’t let go until she felt a snap.

Something in the implant broke. One of the wheels spun out of control, but the rod connecting it to the other wheel just flipped about loose in the air. The wheel it had been attached to jerked back and forth, loose and limp.

Hands clamped around Dyna’s arm. The old woman who had been in the car, with surprising force, ripped her off Grafton. Dyna managed to pull her arm back to herself, but the opening did let Grafton scramble out from directly under her. He managed to turn over, looking her in the eyes.

This time, he didn’t try hitting her with a psychic attack. He simply stared. She wasn’t sure if he was trying but the implant damage made it fail or if he just wanted a good look at his assaulter. A bit of blood dripped from his nose which could have been from the damage to his implant, but his cheek clearly got scraped in the fall, so he could have hit his nose as well.

Dyna made to grab for him again, but the old lady snatched her arm right out of the air. The implant apparently didn’t affect people he already had controlled.

“My employer was supposed to keep you for ten minutes,” he whispered as Dyna wrenched her hand out of the old woman’s grip once again. “She couldn’t manage that?”

Dyna didn’t say anything. Grafton was getting to his feet. She reached forward, grabbing his jacket to stop him. Seams in his jacket snapped and popped as she put her whole weight into trying to keep him where he was. The old woman planted a hand on her face at the same time, digging her fingers into Dyna’s nose and mouth.

But…

Everything stopped.

The woman stopped moving.

A look of fear and terror crossed Grafton’s face.

And Dyna felt an unnatural calm wash over her.

She pulled back, looking down at something caught on her fingers. A bit of silvery metal, thin and flexible like aluminum foil. It fell from her fingers, wafting through the air until it hit the ground. When it did, Grafton burst into a flurry of movement. He tore at the buttons holding his tweed jacket closed. Throwing it on the ground, Grafton backed away as fast as he could manage. He planted a hand on the trunk of the car and got himself back to his feet.

Dyna made to follow. Her head felt clear despite that unnatural calm. Or perhaps because of it. It was the same sensation she had felt when choosing the mirror as her artifact. A feeling that everything was going to be fine. She was aware that she needed to stop Grafton from escaping, but didn’t feel the knotted tension in her stomach that she had up to this point. She felt better.

She could do this. She could stop him and…

Dyna took a step over his discarded jacket and paused.

The old woman stopped her. Not physically, as she had previously. Rather, it was the sudden outburst of sobbing that made Dyna stop. The old woman had fallen to the ground. She slowly crawled away, dragging herself along the ground like her legs no longer worked. For a moment, Dyna thought that Grafton was trying a new trick to get away from her…

Except it wasn’t just the old woman. While the woman was the only other person outside, Dyna could see through the windows of the airport terminal. One of the guards must have been up at the second floor, but the one who lunged at Dyna was lying on the ground with his hands clutched to his face. It looked like a few people had come over to see what the commotion was about. A woman, uniformed like the TSA agents in blue shirts and black ties, was keeled over the x-ray machine while one of the ticket counter attendants sat on the floor in the fetal position.

Dyna slowly looked back at the sound of a slamming car door. Grafton’s eyes met hers in the car’s rear view mirror. She could still chase him. Two steps forward and she would be at the rear door. She could jump inside and grab hold of him from the backseat.

But Dyna looked down at the tweed suit. Nudging it with her foot, she felt something heavy. Lifting it up and shaking it out, a hard disc fell from the interior and clattered against the sidewalk. Mostly sheathed in a silvery foil, the green stone of the Aztec calendar peeked through a small tear.

Grafton sped off.

Dyna didn’t move to follow. She reached down to her pocket and calmly took out her phone.

“Beatrice. The foil around the artifact ripped and now everyone is freaking out. What do I do? I think it is hurting them.”

“Understood. Psionic contamination team has been dispatched. Avoid physical contact with the artifact. Can the psionic shielding be restored?”

Dyna held the phone against her ear with her shoulder to free both her hands. She pinched both ends of the foil’s rip together and tried to close the gap. It didn’t quite make it, though the hole did shrink.

The older woman crawled away, still crying. The smaller hole didn’t seem to change her condition in the slightest. If anything, it made it worse. The calm around Dyna wavered as she noticed the old woman not just crying, but leaking blood from the corners of her eyes.

This took a few months to track down? If anyone who got close burst into bloody tears and broke down, it seemed like Ruby and Emerald would have been able to locate it instantly. Unless, of course, it had been out in a low population area. Maybe the open desert or somewhere else where people didn’t often go. That had to be it.

“I don’t think so,” Dyna said, letting go of the foil. The small strip she had inadvertently torn off could bridge the hole, but it wouldn’t seal it. “And it’s definitely hurting them. This person started crying blood.”

“Understood. Can the artifact be removed from the presence of affected minds?”

Dyna glanced back through the large glass windows of the terminal where individuals inside were still writhing. “It seems to have a pretty big range to it. I don’t know how far it goes, actually.” For all she knew, people up on the second floor near the gate were being affected. It was a good thing this wasn’t a busy airport or even aircraft could be in range. “If I drive down the street with it, it’s probably going to hurt a whole lot more people. And some of those people might also be driving. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Understood. Please listen carefully. Artifact emissions can be nullified through the use of personal psionic emissions.”

“Doctor Cross and Harold were talking about that one time. That requires binding with the artifact.”

“Correct.”

“This is a portent of apocalypse.”

“My file on the artifact does not use such dramatic terms.”

“You want me to touch it? I thought artificers weren’t supposed to have more than one artifact.”

“I cannot authorize or suggest that you should make physical contact with the artifact. I must reiterate that you must not make physical contact with the artifact. This system is operating in a limited capacity.”

“You’re saying no, but you mean yes, is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

“This system cannot authorize—”

“I get it. I get it.”

Dyna bit her lip. The unnatural calm she felt wasn’t quite enough to wash away all her doubts and fears. As far as she could tell, despite her claims otherwise, Beatrice really was implying that she should touch the artifact. But a portent of apocalypse? What kind of power would that have? Dyna wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Her espionage-themed compact mirror gave her the ability to sometimes see through other people’s eyes. What would this disc do? Give her the ability to end the world?

Dyna didn’t want that. The world had gone through enough close calls in her lifetime.

Then again, perhaps that made it alright. At least it would be her binding with it and not some wacko nutjob like Id or Grafton. Though Grafton had seemed afraid of it enough that he probably wouldn’t do it. But there were people out there who would. Probably people who would use it rather than offer it back to the Carroll Institute for burial deep within their vault.

A series of loud yet distant cracks split the air, able to be heard even over the old woman’s crying. That made Dyna look up for a moment. Was that gunfire? Someone was fighting? Ruby?

A spark of hope lit up that Ruby might have a solution to this problem. If she was on her way…

The act of looking away from the artifact gave Dyna a moment to realize that there wouldn’t be time. The people in the airport were not doing any better than the old woman. Worse, even. It looked like someone had fallen down the stairs. They were twitching and squirming at the bottom. The person in the fetal position was ripping at her hair and the guard that had tried to attack her was apparently trying to rip out his own jaw.

Dyna wasn’t feeling any negative effects herself. Just that unnatural calm that was slowly being eroded away by the sight before her.

Gritting her teeth, Dyna looked down to the innocuous artifact. It was just like the one her mother had hanging up in the living room, right next to two venetian masks that she got during a vacation to Europe.

“I’m touching the Aztec calendar.”

“I must advise against this course of action. I cannot tell you to make physical contact. This system is operating in a limited capacity.”

“I get it. I’m doing it.”

Biting her lip, Dyna bent down, closed her eyes, stretched out her hand, and felt the carved stone underneath her fingertips.

The feeling of calm vanished instantly, making Dyna tense and suck in a breath, but nothing else happened.

She had her finger right between the gap in the silvery foil, firmly pressed against the greenish stone. And the world hadn’t ended.

Binding didn’t happen instantly. If it did, Doctor Cross wouldn’t have sent her off to be on her own while binding with it. And yet, the whimpering of the older woman almost immediately diminished. It didn’t vanish, but the volume dipped and she stopped crawling.

Hopefully that was a good sign and not her keeling over dead.

“I made contact.”

“Understood.”

“It takes time to bind, right? How will—”

“Current analysis indicates counter-resonance begins immediately upon making contact. Do be careful. It would be unwise to actualize any abilities of the artifact.”

A chill ran up Dyna’s spine. “I… I’m going to sit down right here at the airport. I’m going to sit still. And I’m going to try not to think about too many things. I don’t want to accidentally activate it.”

“Understood.”

Dyna fell backward, landing on her rear. She slowly scooted back, dragging the Aztec disc along with her, until she felt the building behind her. Keeping it as far as she could while still touching it, Dyna leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes.

“Psionic containment team will arrive in twenty-five minutes.”

“Good. Good. I’m… just going to sit here.”

“Understood.”