Collapsing to my knees, I run through everything I know, trying to find a way that I can find Amelia but besides starting a one-man crusade against this place and kicking people’s ass till names start to fall I can’t come up with anything.

  Today I’ve been an abject and total failure. Is all I can do really just run away with my tail between my legs?

  I don’t want that. I don’t want—I need to have something for this. That I did my best and actually managed something.

  With my power amped, I hoped I could just take Amelia with me instead of the two of us fighting our way out like I had originally planned, so maybe I can save someone?

  I instantly think back to the small child missing an eye I had seen the first time I was here. My heart broke that I couldn’t do anything for them.

  I can’t save Amelia, but I can save one person.

  This trip wasn’t a waste.

  Calming my breathing, I focus on narrowing my mind map searching for the small girl I had seen last time she was on the bottom floor in a solo testing chamber and unless she mutated; I didn’t see her in the pods on the storage floor.

  With a start, I realize my mind map is shrinking in on itself.

  I have limited time before the enhancement wears off, and I doubt I can just take another one.

  Moving quickly, I rely on my map to warn me of anyone observers, and take a more direct line to where I had found the small child the first time. I was above them while in the security room, so if I can get there I can drop down, rescue the kiddo and we will somehow get out without any problems?

  That’s more or less of a plan?

  With my abilities enhanced, I am certain that I can take the security guard. Even without it, I’m sure I could have done it too.

  Bolting into the room, I throw a wild haymaker at the guard's head, knocking him off his chair and hopefully breaking any device he uses for communication.

  Not wanting to give him a second, I pounce, going to the ground with him, hoping to take him out quick and easy.

  As he slams a limb into my nose, making my head spin, I face the inevitable conclusion that he’s better than me, even if I think we’re the same strength right now.

  Flexing my will, I phase beginning to fall through the ground, aiming to catch myself with my hands.

  My plan works, and I’m free as I swing on my hands, flipping up and kicking him up.

  I can do the same thing I’m doing with the floor with the other barriers, the walls and ceilings I can hide in too, right?

  Trying to phase through specific attacks against the crab was incredibly difficult, but I’ve been going through walls without trying since I got this power.

  No more grappling for me where I’m going to lose.

  Despite attempts at mid-fight banter, where I try to get Amelia’s information out of him, he doesn’t oblige, continuing to attack wildly.

  He’s a better fighter than me. But I’m a lot stronger. Time to use that.

  I slam him into the wall with a shoulder check before my power flows out of me in a wave, phasing both myself and him.

  As soon as his toes are in the floor, I pull away, watching him fall.

  I have a wicked grin on my face as I watch his face disappear beneath the floor and feel him fall down in a heap.

  That is until I collapse to my knees, dry heaving from the exertion of it. I’m still beyond what I can normally process, but I feel like a lot of it burned up.

  My mind and body are slowing down, but still, the ease I was processing information and channeling power I want that.

  Could be I’m even still getting hit by the rebound of my power, even though I succeeded because it knows I shouldn’t have.

  Breathing heavily, I try to calm my heartbeat and get over the nausea of my awareness being forcibly shrunk. Now I need to find where the kid is so I can try to get them out before my power burns out, and who knows what the aftermath is.

  “Fuck!” I curse, stomping my feet.

  Shit! The kid is down there!

  I’m a dumbass.

  Throwing my power into gear again, I drop through the ground, orienting myself toward the guard who’s slowly getting to his feet and positioning himself to go out the door.

  The little girl’s mouth is opened up in a silent wail, and I’m thankful I can’t hear while using my power.

  This room is incredibly dangerous. I can't let myself get caught in any of the webs of wires. The only true safe space is the first foot off the ground, meaning I can mostly keep my feet solid.

  Moving through the room more incorporeal than corporeal, I reach the guard and kick him into the air as high as possible.

  It is almost certainly a death sentence to put him in the net of wires, but I don’t care. I probably can’t phase him; that ship has most certainly sailed.

  The wires tremble as the little girl’s hands ball into fists, her feet stomping.

  Acting on the assumption she’s about to do something as a super, I drop to the ground in fear, phasing as much of me as I can manage without falling through the floor.

  My mind map gives me perfect clarity to what happens. The wires expand before contracting rapidly, the former security guard falling to the ground in pieces.

  Rescuing the kid now seems a lot harder, but I have to try.

  Despite everything telling me it’s a bad idea, I release my ability.

  “I’m going to stand up now and move towards you. I’m here to save you, okay?” I say, keeping my voice gentle as I slowly pick myself up.

  The little child doesn’t respond beyond curling up in the corner, her mouth still open in a horrendous scream, and yet no sound comes out.

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  I won’t give up yet.

  And on the bright side, the wires are gone.

  “It’s okay. I promise I’m here to save you, to take you away from all the bad guys.” I assure them as I get closer before dropping to a knee to reach a hand out to them.

  I don’t want to push them into having to accept me, so I would rather let them have the power in this situation to choose. I can’t imagine what they went through.

  The small kid looks at me, turning their face so that the one eye not bandaged up can look at me straight. There’s a hint of recognition in those eyes as they reach out to me, grabbing my hand.

  Why would they recognize me?

  “Do you want to get out of here?” I whisper gently as I slowly begin to stand up, holding them in my arms.

  She nods, her body trembling. Even for a little kid, she’s worryingly small.

  “Are those wires yours?” I ask, trying to make out the features of the kid better. My map gives me a great amount of information, but I still don’t quite get what she looks like.

  She nods again, one hand clinging to my jacket.

  Hopefully, I’ll have enough juice to phase us out of here.

  Thankfully, this door isn’t locked, and even if it alerts them, that’s not a problem because we’re getting out of here.

  Aiming for the direction I ran all those nights ago, I trundle forward, doing my best to not jostle the kid.

  While I had to phase multiple times to get out if I go this way there’ll be a chance to move into the sewer system where we can move to a manhole and just get out that way and I can run far enough and fast enough they can’t track us.

  At least that’s the hope, but as I’m approaching what I hope will be the one and only phase I have to do tonight before I can collapse and begin recovering.

  I should probably warn her about what is going to happen with my powers before I use them, right? I don’t want to scare her; that would be counterintuitive to my goals.

  Will they even have air in there while we walk through? I don’t seem to run out of breath, but will they be okay?

  I will just tell them to hold their breath.

  “You know that magic trick I did to fall into the room? We’re going to use that to escape, but I need you to be brave, okay?” I warn them as we’re approaching the wall. “Just take a big breath for me like we’re going through a tunnel, okay?” I assure them slowing down so they have a chance to breathe.

  I hear a little intake of breath and call that good enough as I pump my legs as fast as I can, launching myself at the wall before phasing as we fly through it.

  I phase the kid with me, and we clear the other side without issue.

  Touching down on the ground, the wave of nausea from the power blowback slams into me, but I manage to stay upright as I keep running.

  Call it being used to it, call it having been ready for it or what have you, but as I feel my body weaken to below normal levels and my map shrink to normal, I can feel the energy in my system fully dissipate.

  I really hope that I didn’t permanently decrease my ability.

  I haven’t felt them breathe since we got out of the wall. Shit! “Hey it’s okay to breathe again. I know it’s dark, but we’re almost out of here, okay?” I promise trying to line up the mind map of this place with my internal map of the city.

  Originally my plan was to use my phone to help me figure out where I was and then hop out near my car with Amelia in tow, but being unable to get to my phone at the moment makes it a lot harder for me to do that.

  “It’s just going to be a little bit longer, okay?” I say, not sure what else I can say as I scour the area with my mind looking for a spot where we can break through without my powers.

  Yes, the kid is really light, and I guess if I have to, I might be able to lift them and use my powers to get them out, but I’m not going to bet on it.

  One day I’m finally going to remember to order some weights so I can see just how much I can carry.

  Screw that. When I get up and in my car, I will order some weights to be delivered so I'll have that information soon.

  It's not my mind map that reveals to me the way out, but with my regular eyes a way ahead of me. There's a small pinprick of light coming out of a small hole in the ceiling.

  That's going to be our way out.

  “Over there. Can you see the light? We are almost out of here and we can go get us some ice cream. How does that sound?” I ask, holding up a free hand to point at the light on the off chance the kid can make out my arm.

  I can feel her twist around to look to see at the light where they mimic me, also pointing at the small beacon of light that is ever so closer, drawing closer.

  Thankfully, the ladder is actually there, so I don't have to climb up, slam the manhole cover open and then leap up carrying the kid.

  “Just a ladder and then we gotta remove the disk and we can go, right?” I ask as I slowly ascend the ladder with one of my hands currently unavailable as I carry them.

  As we climb up, the kid reaches both of their hands up, and I watch in wonder as azure wires shoot out of their hands before pushing the manhole cover up before I've even gotten halfway up the ladder.

  “That's amazing. Thank you so much.” I compliment, picking up the pace to get both of us outside.

  Both of us really need either a shower or a bath after this adventure, but getting outside is more important than that.

  With a bit of effort, both of us are above ground, staring up at the moon.

  “Do you think you could put that back, or do you want me to?” I ask, pointing at the manhole cover so they know what I’m referring to.

  She nods, shifting their hands around the wires, putting the manhole cover back before vanishing back into their body.

  “Alright, let’s get to my car and then we’re going to go visit my friend because I’m almost running late.” I laugh as I check my phone. I can make it on time, but it’ll be close.

  Hopefully, Reyna isn’t going to ask too many questions, though if we’re going to be entirely honest tonight, I would probably answer them, regardless.

  I no longer feel comfortable hiding everything from my friends, especially after tonight, so I’m going to be clearing the air.

  The shivering in my arms distracts me, and I realize I can actually see my wayward passenger now.

  Small, long white hair, wearing nothing but bandages and rags and what isn’t covered often seems to have scars. Her one eye keeps flicking around as she looks at everything, trying to take it all in.

  “I’m going to set you down for a moment, okay?” I say, setting them down before they can respond and then wrapping them in my jacket. “I have some hoodies and a blanket in my car you can borrow, but for now, this will help you stay warm.” I assure them, picking up the bundle of jacket and holding them close.

  She seems to doze off in my arms as I run to my car, which I’m glad for. I don’t want them to have to think about that place anymore.

  I also don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this kid? Do they even have a home? And if they do, can their parents take care of them? How many people have the ability to not get turned into mincemeat by razor wires?

  And how could we tell who their parents are? If they mutated from normal person to super, do they have enough of their DNA the same that a genetic test would tell us anything?

  That’s a problem for future Jason.

  Getting to my car, I quickly grab a blanket from the back and a spare hoodie before gently slipping them into the hoodie. Despite the vast amount of way too big, any form of clothes has to be better than the rags and bandages?

  Not that they’re out of those, just that it’s covered by something a lot softer now.

  With them still asleep, I wrap them in the blanket before buckling their seatbelt.

  Promising to drive slowly, I make my way to Reyna’s.

  I wince at the sight of Ben and Caleb’s cars. Not that they shouldn’t be here.

  Makes sense to be together during trying times, but explaining all of this is going to be a pain.

  Checking the rearview mirror, I see that the kid is awake staring at the rearview mirror with a toothy grin.

  “You ready to go in?” I ask gently, getting out and moving to get them out of the backseat.

  They give me a little nod before I pick them up.

  The kid squirms for a moment before wrestling a hand out of their jacket blanket bundle and grabbing a finger with my hand, clutching tightly.

  “It’s going to be okay. My friends are nice. I’ll keep you safe.” I promise before closing the door and making my way up to the front door.

  Not having a hand free, I kick the door gently thrice instead of knocking and wait for fate to meet me.

  “Jason?” Reyna asks, opening the door, looking at me with an incredulous expression. “Why do you have a child? Why do you have a Force Guardian mask on? And why do your eyes look like the pit of the abyss waiting to swallow up all who would take a look at you?”

  “It’s a long story.” I admit, as the small child buries their face in my shoulder, afraid of Reyna. “Which I will be explaining in detail, but can we come in first? It's been a long day.” I say, taking a furtive glance around. I know that this is all suspicious, but come on, I’m trying my best here!

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