A Strange Encounter

[CJWrites]

Morgan sat huddled in a corner. The door crept open. She peeked over her arms, tears streaming down her face. In front of her, her laptop, her dolls, her books swirled around the room. They sped up as she saw them, panic setting in.


"Mom. Everything's floating again. Can you make it stop?"


-- 20 years later --


"Are you sure you want to go out?" Anna asked.


Morgan straightened her dress, overlaying the leather and kevlar bodysuit.


"I'll be fine" she insisted.


"I know I shouldn't be encouraging you to bring kids into vigilantism, but I worry about you without backup. You've come to rely on them"


"I did fine without them at the beginning" she said. "I'll do fine without them now"


Anna didn't seem convinced, but nevertheless let her sister step out onto the balcony. "Be careful."


"Of course, how would you run the company without me?" Morgan smiled.


"Efficiently"


"Haha. Very funny."


"Just go."


Clairvoyant's hair, dress and cape billowed in the wind as she jumped, concentrating on levitating herself.


"HARII, tap into the police radar." She said, telepathically bringing out the screen projector from her pocket.


"Miss. There's a bank robbery in progress at Mission and Freemont." A robotic voice spoke into her ear.


A blinking red dot appeared on the map projected in front of her.


"On it." She said, turning midair and speeding off in the direction indicated.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

A dark room. Erie chanting. A pentagram carved in the ground. A flash of light. The darkness kept growing, shadows cutting deeper. This experiment was very, very interesting indeed.


~125 years later~


A figure sat in an alleyway, quietly singing to itself.


"Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear-" The speaker cut itself off, as police sirens blared in the distance. "Oh come on" It muttered darkly. "Can't one celebrate ones 125th birthday in peace?" Standing up, the figure could be seen in dim light. It rolled it's glowing orbs, before collapsing into a cloud, and darting silently off towards the source of the noise.

 

[CJWrites]

The moonlight cast her shadow over the thieves, they looked up and blindly shoot bullets at the figure.


She outstretcched her hand eerily, stopping the bullets midair and with a flick of her wrist, sent them back towards her attackers, narrowly missing them.


They were scared now, she raised her hand again and lifted one of them up, slamming him into the others.


She glanced around as the police arrived and she floated up and out of sight.


Morgan landed on the rooftop to take a rest. Flying was like running and lifting people was like lifting weights. It could be tiring.


She sat on the ledge, listening to the police radio being fed into her ear.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

The figure arrived at the place it heard the sirens coming from. It reformed behind a police officer who was busy handcuffing a struggling man. It started investigating.


"Hey, looks like something went down here huh?"


Without turning around, the officer responded with " yeah, didn't you hear? Clairvoyant came through here. Stopped these robbers dead in their tracks. Still can't believe she can move things with her mind. Then again, I've seen a billionare with a robo-suit that flies and shoots lasers, so not the strangest thing I've ever seen." Finally managing to cuff the robber, he turned around to see...nothing but a paper blowing in the wind. Meanwhile the figure had dashed off, reforming on top of a roof a few feet away. "Clairvoyant huh?"

 

[CJWrites]

Morgan blinked. She must not have seen right. That man had just melted out of the shadows. Of course, the police would think nothing of it. She herself had spent years building up her reputation as a supernatural, rather than scientific force. Apart from telekinesis, everything was smoke and mirrors.


"Madam. May I remind you that you have a meeting tomorrow morning at 9 with Logres Incorporated. You should sleep soon to get a full 8 hours of rest."


Morgan groaned "When did I program you to take care of my health?"


"Last check in matching description was performed by User Drake Wu"


"That little shit." She muttered, but inside she was sort of proud. He'd hacked her system again. This time, it only took him 10 days.


"Right, triage the breach." She told HARII. "I'll take care of it in the morning"


----


"Morgan. Wonderful to see you again." Arthur Aurelianus smiled and shook her hand. "Glad you were able to make it this time."


"Oh there is no place I'd rather be." Morgan put on an equally fake smile, her voice dripping with sarcasm.


It was a veiled threat. Ilya was Evanescence and Arthur knew all about her night life.


"In a manner of speaking." Morgan said shortly. Thinking of Ilya made her blood boil.


"Right this way" Anna gestured putting a hand on her sister's shoulder and a disapproving look already trained on her.


Wisely the other executives stayed silent. It always turned out like this. There was no way this wasn't going to turn into a petty shouting match by the end.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

The figure was hiding under a cardboard box. Damn these Summer's with their short nights. They make it so hard to get much done. The figure was patient however. A skill one learns over many, many years. It could wait.


Suddenly, the figure heard a scream coming from the building right next to the alley it was hiding in. "Whelp, looks like I'm going to get a little sunburnt today. Darn, there goes my goal of going 12 hours without being hit by bright light. Well, as the humans would say, GERONIMO!" With a shout the figure dashed out from under the box, moving around to the top of the apparent apartment and dashing under the roof door. Reforming on the other side, the figure started glitching out. Parts of its body were crystallizing, while others were simply flickering around wildly. After a moment, it returned to normal, and the figure collapsed once again. He started slithering around on the ground, so as not to be seen. One of his more passive abilities was a sort of mental misdirection. When he got near people would end up not looking his way. Of course, if he passed by their line of sight, they would notice him. Much like the police officer, no one happened to look his way.


Of course, those who either truly believed he existed or those who had incredibly strong metal abilities were not affected by this talent. Which was why he had to make an effort to find this Clairvoyant and establish himself as an ally. Hmm, when did he start referring to himself as a he? He really has no gender, being a shadow and all. Well, better than it he supposes. After a while of searching, he found a room with the door busted wide open. Reforming outside the room, he peeked around the corner. God damnit, not again. What he saw was a man holding a long, wicked looking curved dagger, and a guy who couldn't have been older than 17 who was tied up with limbs spread outward. The man was saying something in Russian, which was one of the few languages the figure did not know. He was quick to act, walking into the room, he spread shadows all over the walls, ceiling, and floor, as well as the windows and the door. All in all, the room now appeared as a void with shifting walls and black vapor rising off the ground. The Russian man turned around to see a figure, as black as the walls staring at him, with two glowing orbs with white wisps emenating off of them staring into his own green eyes. The figure spoke with the calmness and finality of Death itself.


"I suggest you drop your weapon, or buddy?" The man watched as the same white glow that made up its eyes grow into a wide, menacing grin." Your gonna have a bad time."


The Russian man stared for a moment, before charging at the figure with his knife. He didn't make two steps before spikes shot up out of the ground, impaling him. Strangely however, there was no blood. Instead, a cartoon style yellow heart appeared, shook, and finally broke in half. The halves then shattered into multiple shards, that then vanished all together. The mans body was left there, impaled on a spike for any who walked by to see. The shadows melted off of the walls, and were absorbed back into the figure. As for the tied up man, the shadow removed his bonds with a flick of his wrist. He bowed, putting one hand where his heart would be, and dropping down onto one knee. He then stood, gave a mock salute, and dashed out of the room. He was going back to his box.

 

[CJWrites]

The meeting actually finished without much incident and as everyone filed out into their corperate cars, a sigh of relief. Sure, they got nothing done but at least the building wasn't


"You are both invited to the Charity Ball for Troubled Youth this Saturday of course."


"Sounds wonderful" Morgan smiled at Arthur. "And you will be attending my codathon for open source disaster relief technology next week?"


"Of course I will." Arthur


"Okay" Anna stepped between them. "Let's not get into my donation box is bigger than your donation box, shall we?"


"At least my donation box is filled with my own money." Arthur hissed. "You wouldn't be here today if not for your inheritance. Please do try not to bed any of my employees this time Miss Bates."


"At least I didn't have to trample on other's careers to get to where I am today"


Arthur's unnatural emerald eyes pierced Morgan's blue ones as they stared each other down. Then Arthur drew up to his full height and nodded in Anna's direction before taking his leave.


"I feel like punching him right in his perfect little teeth" Morgan hissed to her sister.


"Please don't do that." Anna rubbed her forhead, as if already dealing with the PR nightmare.


"You know the worst thing?" Morgan muttered. "He's right."


Anna didn't argue. She might've made it but Morgan? A woman of colour with a penchant for promiscuity and scandal? She would never have made it to the top.


After the emotion died down, something Arthur had said seemed odd. Aurelianus had never brought up her past before. Why would he drag that out?

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

The figure was having a good time. Not insomuch as it was night time, but more the fact that he thinks he has a lead on Clairvoyant. Apparently, she must be connected to some kind of computer system, as when he retraced his steps back to the robbery where he first learned of Clairvoyant, he could taste the metallic tang and acrid smell of wireless signals. Strong ones, strong enough to notice. Humans could not notice any sort of signal with their own senses, but he was more in tune with his own senses that humans. He still could not detect all signals, which he was glad for. There were a lot of them nowadays. However, particularly strong ones stood out to him. This must be Clairvoyant, unless there was another at the scene. The cops were ruled out, and so were the robbers. Walkie-Talkies and cell phones were too weak to detect. It wasn't much, but it was all he had. Now to capitalize on this lead.


He kept following the signal, tracing it to a large corporate building. Avalon Corp if he was not mistaken. So, Clairvoyant was someone from this building. That narrowed it down a small bit. Probably one of the richer people as well, computers with that kind of signal are rather expensive after all. Narrowed down even further. That still left quite a few people who frequented the building. Oh well. Impulsive, cocky, and a lover of bad puns though he may be, but he was also very patient. Also kind of a megalomaniac, but what did that matter? He would wait. He would listen, and he would watch. Who knows? Perhaps he could find a friend in Clairvoyant. Perhaps, although he would be lucky if he wasn't attacked on sight. His appearance, coupled with his rather bad rep across various media sources, lead to just about anyone who actually noticed him to either run away, call the police, attack him, or all of the above. He just needed to make sure that Clairvoyant wasn't going to be a thorn in his side. Then, he would leave. He would outlive her anyway. He always outlives his friends.

 

[CJWrites]

Morgan and Anna lived on the top floors of their company building and instead of taking the elevator down towards the parking lot, they took it back up.


"We would have a bit of time on your hand after the launch of IDA right?"


Morgan groaned "Please don't drag me out to another celebration, and I don't care how private this one is. We'll be attending plenty of launch parties and I'll be sick of food and dresses by the end."


"I was just thinking you, me and Drake. We'll order Chinese takeout! It'll be fun!"


Morgan pursed her lips. "Does Drake have the time? He must be pretty busy in college, and it's halfway across the country."


"We'll be touring the world promoting ADA"


"I still don't feel like it."


Anna frowned, "Listen, I know that time is needed to heal, but you've been doing nothing but being cooped up in your workshop and roaming the streets. You need to relax. This city's not going to fall into ruin because Clairvoyant's not around for a couple of days, you've done it plenty before."


Morgan glanced around, but nobody was paying them any attention. "Yes declare that to the world why don't you?"


"Please, anyone with a brain can figure out who you are. It's simply because they like having you around. " The elevator dinged and Anna got out.


"I'll see you later, I'll be in my office."


Morgan stayed silent and looked outside the glass elevator. She had no doubt that most police officers and anyone who thought about it hard enough had them suspicions. Still most people didn't think of her as a person but a supernatural force. She, a celebrity in her own right, could go outside with her hair down and sunglasses without being spotted. Nobody saw Clairvoyant's face clearly enough to recognize her and nobody was looking for Clairvoyant in everyday life. It wasn't an open secret.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

The figure, 'Deus' he thought to himself, was lost. Not lost in the sense that he did not know where he was, but rather lost in the sense that he could not single out the signal anymore. Turns out Avalon Corp has a lot of high-strength wireless signals going to and from it. He would have to single out certain people and examine their computer signals to narrow down which one was Clairvoyant's. He growled under his breath, and for a moment his eyes glowed brighter. Fortunately, he was well hidden, and the sudden light was not observed by anyone walking by. He stalked off into even darker hallways. He would have to wait until nighttime. He would wait. First however, he needed to find an a less frequented area to hide in until nightfall. Eventually he by some miracle stumbled across what looked like a cleared out lab. Good. He collapsed, and slithered underneath a desk. Cramped, but he would manage. Time to get some rest. Soon, he was out like a light, awaiting the time to begin his investigation.

 

[CJWrites]

A gentle shove on her shoulder woke Morgan from her restful sleep.


She blinked and yawned as pieces of paper were peeled off her face by gravity.


"Huh?"


"Its 3 am, Miss" her AI addressed her, but HARII didn't have arms that could push her.


She looked up to see the disapproving scowl of her elder sister towering over her.


"Did you eat at all today?"


"I had those mints they gave out at the meeting with Aurelianus?" She answered, her voice rising in pitch. As if in a cartoon, her stomach growled.


Anna didn't seem convinced. "I know you slept 6 hours last night, but how much did you sleep this week in total?"


Morgan hung her head. The motion could have been mistaken for shame if she had any. Instead, it came off as more of a dismissive jerk.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

The figure came to slowly, slithering out from under the desk. Reforming and standing at his full height, he looked out a nearby window to see that it was pitch black outside. You could not even see the stars or the moon. Perfect. He collapsed again, slithering around, looking for an office. For where there is an office, there is most likely a computer. And that was all he needed. After about 15 minutes or so, he came across an office with the lights still on. Upon further inspection, there was two people in the office, one sitting at a desk of sorts, and another standing next to her, arms crossed and a scowl on her face. They seemed to be talking. After a moment, the one in the chair hung her head. Perfect!


He slid underneath the door, darting up the wall and slithering along the ceiling. He stopped, still collapsed, clinging to the ceiling and waiting for the people to leave. He could only hope that Clairvoyant wasn't one of the people he was observing, because if she was here, she would most likely sense him soon. He just had to hope he lucked out. He had to get to that computer.

 

[CJWrites]

Anna saw the light flicker in the corner of her eye. Quickly, she spun around.


"What the?"


"Huh?" Morgan glanced over but there was nothing there.


"I thought I saw a shadow... creeping over... Must've been my imagination."


"I'm not the only one who has long days" Morgan noted. "I guess your time with Aurelianus without me was more productive?"


"Definitely. I don't know why we keep making you come to them."


"Hey! I still need to be informed of the going ons in my company."


"Then shut up and stay quiet, besides its OUR company."


Anna made to drag Morgan out of the room.


"Hold on. Let me push these changes."


"What? Drake hacked into the system again?"


"Its because he has his own admin account" Morgan scowled "He scouts the changes from the inside and then takes a stab at the system. And he's made it so I can't remove them."


Anna highly doubted that. Morgan was just too proud to admit she could be hacked. Most world governments used her systems, as did most law enforcement and many, many companies.


"By next launch, the entire system generates new keys for every user, every new session. And it doesn't affect performance at all. Well... admin accounts have more failsafes placed within. I know Aurelianus is up to something so I've lowered their password try count to 5. It'll network your data and wipe the machine clean. Of course, you have to get a new password too. HARII: Lock-up."


"As you wish Miss."


With that, the computer gave a final hum and went silent.

 

[TheShadowyFigure]

Deus was most certainly having a good night now. He just learned that the computer..."HARII" if he was not mistaken, was often hacked from a singular source. If this Drake could do it, with the knowledge stored away in his very much human mind, then he, with knowledge far exceeding any humans, could most certainly manage. The figure dropped down from the ceiling, reforming in front of the computer. He tried to turn it on, but nothing happened.Why was it still off? He remembered the computer speaking in response to a voice command. He tried speaking to the computer. His voice was tinged with irritation. "HARII:Activate". He waited to see if that did anything.