Rosa lunged at Ian. She moved at blinding speed. Ian could only watch as she came towards him, faster than he could react. The shock of what he did—of Doppelganger’s suddenly emaciated form—was too much.
She didn’t strike fast enough. Ian watched Marilyn move, or rather flow, faster than he could ever imagine. It flowed up and between himself and the speedster to cut off her path.
Rosa struck Marilyn with every ounce of speed and strength, but it was like striking gum. Ian saw each blow as it struck Marilyn’s body, but her elastic skin only absorbed it with a ripple of amorphous flesh. Nothing Rosa did could slip past Marilyn’s super-elastic skin. Marilyn body flowed down and over Rosa, even as the speedster delivered more ineffective strikes. Within seconds, Marilyn’s body wrapped around Rosa’s, locking her in place like a vice.
Ian could only watch. He still couldn’t begin to understand how he beat Doppelganger. How he left Doppelganger unmoving on the floor, unconscious or worse.
“Calm down,” Cyrus said. “Ian isn’t your enemy. He brought us here to rescue you.”
“Rescue me? I know El Sanguijuelo’s mark. That beast has killed hundreds. You think he’s here to rescue us? He is a bloodsucker, a destroyer of metahumans around the world. He wants to kill us all. It is his nature.”
“The Leech,” Stomp said. “That’s what El Sanguijuelo means, right? Is that how he stopped Doppelganger, some kind of energy draining power?”
“Your supposed friend is the greatest murder of metahumans in the history of the world.”
All eyes fell on Ian. He could feel them looking at him, but his focus remained down in front of him. He stared at his hands, still unsure of what power they held. He said nothing. He didn’t know what to say.
“Ian, are you alright?” Stomp’s voice echoed through Ian’s head, but he didn’t—couldn’t—respond.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be all right again, he thought. I feel more alive now than I ever thought possible. I feel as strong as a dozen men, like I could run a thousand miles. It’s wonderful, so amazing.
So intoxicating.
“Ian!”
Alli grabbed him by the shoulder, pushed him. “Answer us. What’s going on?”
“I—I don’t know. I killed him, didn’t I? He’s dead. I just—I just wanted him to stop. And then—then it was all so easy. All so natural. I—what am I?”
“You’re a monster,” Rosa spit. “A creature of pure evil that deserves only destruction. If these people were smart, they would kill you right now.”
“Hold on,” Stomp said. “Everyone is way too hot now. Way too much adrenaline flowing through here. We need to get to the bottom of this, but we sure as heck ain’t killing nobody. Rosa, we barely know you, but Ian has saved my life. He brought us all here in the first place. If he wanted us dead, he wouldn’t have gathered us all here. He would have picked us off one by one. But he didn’t.”
“I don’t understand,” Rosa said. “He’s a killer. He leaves no one he touches alive. There’s a reason why we know so little about him, just a few accounts from normal humans that happen to see his crimes. But I would recognize his signature anywhere. He leaves all his victims the same way.”
“And I’m telling you, he let us live. Obviously. Make of it what you will, but I say it makes Ian my friend no matter what he is or what he was. We will find out the truth either way. We will help Ian discover who he used to be before his amnesia. I promised I would help Ian and that is what I plan to do. Now if you want to keep fighting, that’s fine. But you will have to go through all of us. You’re fast, but you’re not that fast. I don’t want to fight, but it’s up to you, Rosa. Make your move.”
Marilyn released her grip on the speedster and resumed the form of her namesake movie idol. She slowly backed away. Ian watched Rosa’s line of vision move back and forth between Stomp and himself. Ian braced himself for her strike.
She dropped her hands and shook her head. “I don’t want a fight. I came here to leave all that behind. But I still don’t trust that man.”
“What would you have me do?” Ian said. While Stomp’s words helped make him feel like he at least had friends, he couldn’t get over the feeling that Rosa was all too right about him. He was a monster, but how or why was he this thing?
“I wish I could give you answers, Rosa. But I really don’t have any memories of my time before this Lab. I could have been this Leech of yours. Or I could have just been a normal kid. Now I’m scared to ever go back to that, in case you are right. So what would you have me do?”
Ian panted, out of breath. He realized the rage he felt inside boiled out in his words as the others looked at him. But his focus remained on Rosa.
She just shook her head.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Cyrus said, finally breaking his silence. “We’re going to manage to nothing but get arrested if we stay here and argue.”
“That’s strange,” Alli said. “Where are the cops? They can’t be this slow.”
“Unless they were paid off,” Stomp said. “Maybe Ian was right about that too.”
Ian said nothing. There seemed no point now. He couldn’t even begin to consider his life, let alone anything else. Only the gnawing sensation that he was a beast, a horrible killer of dozens, maybe hundreds of people.
“I think it’s time we split up,” Cyrus said.
He turned to Rosa. “This Leech, could he steal energy, life, whatever from humans?”
Rosa shook her head.
“All right then.” Cyrus turned to Alli. “I would like you to take Ian in the Spirit-Mobile. Since you are a non-meta, he won’t be able to hurt you. Take him somewhere secure: your headquarters, your apartment, whatever.”
“We can see what we can dig up on this El Sanguijuelo,” Alli said. Ian saw she already had her cell out. She quickly entered and sent a text. Ian wondered what the heck it could be about.
“Rosa, I know you’re new to town,” Cyrus continued. “I want you to go with Stomp. He knows River City. He can show you around and keep close to you in case more of these goons are out there. We still don’t know what they wanted any of us for, but it couldn’t have been good.”
“What about me?” Marilyn said.
“You can come with me. I have a few ideas I want to cover with you.”
She looked around the destruction and back into the office.
“I hoped we could find out something about where I came from here.”
“We don’t need to find it here,” Alli said. “I had Peach copy Ian’s flash drive while he was out. She’s working on the decryption now. Hopefully we will find out what they know before they can come after us again.”
“That will work,” Cyrus said. “You and Ian can get to work on that.”
“I—” Ian looked at the others. He wanted to say something to comfort them, to allay their fears of him. But he didn’t even know how to calm himself.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I didn’t mean to kill him.”
“We know,” Marilyn said. She looked past him, to Alli. “Take good care of Alli for me, okay?”
Ian could only nod as Alli grabbed his arm. She pulled him towards the door and away from the others. Away from everything.
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