The Society of Guardians Ch. 04

It wasn't quite so great anymore.

Becoming a superhero seemed like it'd be the greatest thing that could ever happen to a geek. Getting stronger, faster and tougher was great... made me feel like Captain America. Taking down Clyde had been easy. His powers had been simple to counter. Once I muted him, he was pretty much neutralized... So much so, that I didn't feel too much compunction about letting him go.

The bonus of 'saving' Tracy was so far beyond just 'great'!

But I should have heeded Arman's warnings regarding this... this thing. I knew it was something sinister. I knew it wouldn't always be so easy. After finishing cleaning up after Clyde, I thought I might have a little while to relax before dealing with something else. Plenty of time to relax and train. Training was probably the biggest thing at this point.

I certainly understood that now!

Suddenly finding myself outnumbered and nearly overwhelmed will do that. Following a feeling of something happening down in the subway led me to the gang of punks molesting a woman on a crowded subway.

I thought one of the punks would have been the one I was after. I dispatched them all easily enough and after I saved the red-haired woman from being raped, I expected that maybe she'd be grateful.

Don't think that's asking too much, is it?!

No. Instead she tries to claw my eyes out!

WTF?!?

Turns out the new guy I had to deal with was controlling her... Worse, he was controlling all the bystanders that hadn't done a thing to help her. They were all suddenly up and ready to rip me a new one!

I still had the redhead in my arms as the group of men approached me. I considered using her struggling body as a shield, but quickly discarded that. No matter what she'd done to me, she'd been through enough already.

I mentally pushed against the other presence it her mind trying to force it out. It felt like focusing on one instrument in an orchestra, forcing the sounds of the others down until you could hear the one clearly. I felt the pressure build and like a popping balloon the pressure released, and the presence vanished. The redhead suddenly stopped squirming and gasped.

"Oh, god! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it!" She cried, allowing me to retreat with her from the men closing on me.

"Not your fault." I assured her, "Listen quickly. When you get out of here, go to Bellemar's ER. They'll take care of you... but I need you to stay down for now while I deal with these guys." I guided her towards the back of the subway car as I turned to face the oncoming men.

The first guy rushed me trying to tackle me. I gave him a hard hit to the chest stopping him in his tracks, followed by a strong shove back into the other men coming at me. It gave me a moment to take a quick look at what I had to deal with.

There were the six guys that had been in the car with more coming through the doors. I noticed there were a few women cowering in the car looking terrified and confused. I saw one woman staring shocked as the man she was with was suddenly coming at me with ill intentions.

I heard a screech behind me just as the redhead jumped on my shoulders from behind, once again trying to claw my eyes out... and once again, my fast reflexes saved me from losing an eye or two. I was barely able to block her swipes, protecting my face with my arm, but another guy jumped on me before I could dislodge her. Together they tried to restrain me until more could jump on.

I didn't give them the chance.

One shot to the guy's chest knocked the wind out of him, leaving him gasping. Grabbing both the redhead's arms, I pulled her over my shoulders, using her swinging body to knock the guy back into the other oncoming men.

I dropped her down to the ground and stared into her hate-filled eyes, "I'm coming for you, bastard!" I didn't want to hurt her... or any of them really. They were merely pawns. The one who's hate was emanating through her eyes however... That's the one I wanted! The redhead's eyes glared back for a moment, but the hate disappeared, and a bewildered woman gazing fearfully up at me.

I jumped to the back of the subway car and crashed against the locked door, blowing it clean off its hinges. I hopped out into the space between the cars and lifted myself up to the top of the car. Before anyone inside the car could react, I crawled across the top of the next car. Like a crouching tiger, keeping my head and hips low and moving as fast as I could, I jumped across the gaps in the cars quickly making my way to the back of the train.

Before I could make it, the cap of a police officer rose from the back of the last car. As the cap flew off in the wind, he lifted his gun and took aim at me. I knew I was tougher, but I really had no idea how much of a beating I could take. I was pretty certain bullets were something I couldn't take!

Rolling off to the side and nearly falling off train, I caught myself right on the edge as the walls raced by beside me. The cop's hands seemed to move in slow motion as he followed me with his gun. I saw the flash from the muzzle shortly before hearing it. Shockingly, I could actually see the bullet as it flew by me. It was still fast, but it seemed more like a fastball than a bullet!

I grinned and headed towards the cop as fast as I could. His gun trained on me a moment later and the muzzle flashed again. I slipped to the side as the sound reached me and the bullet passed harmlessly by.

Before he could get off another shot off, I was on him. I considered knocking him out, but I just needed to get away right now. I ripped the gun from his grasp and jumped over him and off the train.

I pushed myself so hard off the back of the train that I was able to nearly completely arrest my momentum and was able to land on my feet... awkwardly, but I stayed up. I took a quick look behind as the train continued away. The police officer stared angrily at me, along with five or six other men at the back of the train as it faded into the darkness.

I stared after it for a moment, considering the event. The attack of the woman on a crowded subway in the early evening had been enough of a strange occurrence to draw me. Once I saved her, I was stuck in the middle of a train filled with controlled minions. If I had tried to fight my way through them, I might have been able to make it out, but I would have had to hurt and maim quite a few innocent pawns.

The whole thing had been a trap. A bait to pull me into a kill zone. Hoping someone would get a lucky shot in and maim me or possibly completely take me out. The redhead came close a couple times to blinding me!

Luckily, I don't think this controller contemplated I'd go to the top of the train... I didn't expect him to make the same mistake again.

I turned and started running down the tunnel, but something occurred to me... How'd he know I was in the area? The subway wasn't exactly something I could get onto once it was moving. He had to know I was in the area.

Suddenly, it dawned on me... The hospital! Everyone watching me. All those strange looks. This manipulator had been watching me from the hospital. Even saw me with...

CECELIA!

OH, SHIT!! Dr Shepherd was in trouble!

I pulled out my phone and tried to call her. Naturally, no signal in the middle of a damn subway tunnel!

I quickly found a maintenance tunnel and crashed through the door. I raced up until I was close to the surface and my phone had some signal bars. Priorities... I called Tracy first.

"Hey, Ba-..." She answered after the first ring, excitedly.

"Tracy, listen to me." I cut her off quickly, "I need you to lock up the house completely, close up everything, bolt the door and hide in the closet. Do NOT move for anything or anyone! Your life may depend on it!!"

She knew what I was up against, so she didn't argue.

"Ok. Be careful!" she breathed quietly, her voice tense with worry.

"I will! Go! Now!" I hung up with her and called Dr Shepherd. Unfortunately, she didn't pick up. I guess I didn't expect her to, but I went ahead and left her a message.

"Cecilia, it's Jacob. Something big is happening and I need you to call me as soon as you get this." I sent her a similar text. I thought about calling her again, but I knew she normally didn't have her phone on her during shifts. She had said she didn't like being distracted.

I needed to make sure she was okay. I took a deep breath and stepped out onto the street. The noises and smells of the street washed over me like a wave. I went from near silence to a cacophony of motors, horns and screeching of tires. The intermittent screams of drivers and pedestrians added to the symphony of the city street.

It took me a moment to realize where I was. The hospital was quite a few miles away. The idea of running through the streets drawing attention to myself didn't appeal to me, so I immediately flagged down a cab.

Getting off the street before I was spotted by this new deviant was a priority.

A yellow cab screeched to a stop a little down the street. I quickly ran to it before anyone else stole it. Opening the door and slipping in, I gave the cabby my destination and immediately tried calling Dr Shepherd again.

"Hello?" Her voice surprised me.

"Cecelia! You need to find someplace to hide! Someplace where no one will know... where no one will see you."

"Are you sure?" She sounded nervous, "What's going on?"

"Something has happened, much like that last guy. Someone is controlling people. I have no idea who he's controlled or how to stop him. I think he may know about you, so I need you to get some place safe!" I spoke quickly, hoping she'd understand her danger.

"I'll see if I can hide somewhere in the hospital. There are a number of rooms that are empty." There was something strange about her voice. She didn't sound quite as concerned as I'd expected she would. Almost as if she didn't believe me. "Are you coming for me?"

It was a perfectly reasonable question, but for some reason it completely struck me as odd. She wasn't the type of woman that would want or expect someone to come rescue her. She was normally perfectly capable of taking care of herself. I would expect her to be more concerned for the public. Wondering if people had been hurt or if they could expect future casualties.

"Who are you?" I asked knowing she'd give a truthful response to hearing my voice even over the phone.

"Tony J-..."

The phone cut off before she completed her answer.

I stared at my phone in utter dismay. This creep, this fucking deviant, Tony... had Cecilia. She was his. He could do what he wanted with her. She... and God know how much of the city... was under his complete control.

"FUCK!"

I was so distraught with that realization I wasn't paying attention to anything.

Like where the cabby was taking me. I looked around in panic, noting a sign as we turned the corner.

The Police Station.

Police cars filled the road ahead and I quickly picked out officers crouched behind their cars, taking aim at the cab as it pulled closer. More officers were pouring out of the building ahead, their faces all hot with anger.

I was moving before I even realized it. I threw my shoulder into the door opposite the station knocking it completely off its hinges, dumping me onto the pavement. The crashing and banging of the broken door was lost in the sudden explosions of guns going off. I didn't even look to see what happened to the cab. I rolled on the ground between two cars. I jumped to my feet and ran forward, slipping around the corner and took off down the street. I sprinted down the street and ducked into an alley. I quickly jumped up the walls back and forth like I was Jackie Chan until I bounded up to the roof six stories up. All the while with a massive grin on my face.

Although, I felt I'd just barely gotten away with my life from another ambush and worry for Cecelia gnawed at me, I knew I'd found something.

In the momentary glance I'd taken out the window from the doomed cab. The quick glimpse of all the cops lined up ready to light me up with handguns, rifles and shotguns and turn me into swiss cheese. There was one cop in the back, just stepping out of his car, that stared at his compatriots in complete dismay.

There was one cop that wasn't under control.

I really needed to talk to that guy!

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I sighed thinking about everything that had happened the last few hours. Although, I'd gotten away from the attack at the police station, that was the second time this guy, Tony, had tried to ambush me. First the subway, then the police station. I didn't think I was going to be lucky enough to get out of another one.

I needed to figure out a way to remove his influence from all the people he'd been able to control... and figure out how he was able to control everyone. Something about that stuck with me. He didn't seem to control everyone. Just the men. Well, mainly men. The redhead from the subway and Cecilia showed he could control women too.

Why didn't he control everyone? Was it some sort of limitation? Something he just wasn't able to do? Or was it something about the people? Certain people were resistant or something?

I considered entering a trance to talk with Arman, but I needed to figure this out on my own. My first clue was that cop.

Which is what led me to being here.

I was at the sight of my last ambush. At least, over it. I was hidden in the building across the street from the police station, watching through a window. I knew the man I needed to speak with was still inside. It hadn't been difficult to follow a single officer exiting the building. I slipped in behind him as he made it to his car. Once I touched him, I froze him in place and searched through his memories for the officer I had seen. Playing the memories was a little strange. Like fast-forwarding a video, but instead of just hearing the high-pitched squeal of the voice track it all somehow made sense.

I was able to quickly learn the officer, Steve Webb, had been put on probation and was dealing with all the paperwork and crap that went with it. It seemed they were giving him a load of training videos and other busy work to keep him in the building. After gleaning all the information I could from the officer, I made him completely forget the encounter and continue on his way as I slipped away unseen and forgotten.

I had been watching the building for almost an hour now. Just waiting... and brooding. I really needed to work on my abilities. Not being able to permanently remove Tony's influence from people was beyond aggravating. I was supposed to be able to fight these guys. To prevent them from controlling people like this. If I couldn't even keep this guy out, how the hell was I supposed to be able to protect them?

I'd been about as effective as an umbrella in a hurricane.

That ended now.

Getting up to the top of the building I was in was easy enough. The fifty-foot gap four hundred feet above the ground was a little intimidating, but I cleared it easily enough. I didn't even bother glancing down to see if anyone saw me sailing through the air. I'll leave that for the tabloids to decipher.

I ran to the maintenance door that led down into the building. I grabbed the locked handle and twisted it hard using my enhanced strength. The lock groaned then snapped with a sharp metal crack.

I opened the door quickly into a stairwell, ducked inside pulling the door closed behind me and listened to see if anyone was there to have heard the noise.

Silence.

Yay. Hopefully, I'll at least have an element of surprise before everyone starts shooting at me!

I made my way down the stairwell. I knew from my glimpse into the officer's memories that Steve was on the second floor or the building.

I had no idea what Tony's limitations were, so I didn't know if he would automatically know when one of his minions saw me or if he needed to consciously take control to see what they saw... but I did know he'd have Steve under close watch. As soon as I tried to contact him, all hell was going to break loose... Unless I was able to contact him without anyone knowing...

I had a plan... and it was crazy, but I thought it might just work.

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"Officer Webb! Could I speak to you in my office?" Captain Murphy hollered loudly to him from his desk in the corner office.

Steve groaned inwardly, but quickly answered, "Yessir. Of course."

Captain Ed Murphy was seated comfortably at his desk... while I was crotched under it, holding his ankle. I was in his mind, encouraging his senses to ignore me while I rode along beside him. It was similar to what I'd done to the officer to get the information about Steve. I was just sitting right in front of him while I was doing it.

It was a little nerve wracking!

And as I suspected would happen, I received a massive test.

I felt Tony take control of Captain Murphy.

Captain Murphy (or Tony, I suppose) looked around the office for a moment, confused. Then the moment of truth... he pushed his chair back and looked under the desk.

I held onto his ankle as his slipped back, continuing to encourage him to ignore my existence. Trying to prevent his eyes from seeing me... as he stared right at me!

And Captain Murphy's eyes seemed to look right past me.

Still not seeing me.

Evidently, Tony didn't take complete control of them. He just inhabited their minds. He was still limited by what the body saw. The body that I was able to influence.

I almost breathed a massive sigh of relief, but I realized I hadn't encouraged him to not hear me!

I just held my breath as I tried to bend my will to doing that too... This hero shit was tricky!!

"I know you're here. Somehow. Cecelia is a lot of fun. She's keeping all sorts of people entertained. It's a shame you had to get her involved."

I grit my teeth in anger. I wanted to fire something back, but something held me back. Giving away my hand right now wouldn't help me or Cecelia.

"Did you need me, Cap'n?" Steve asked from the door.

"Uh... yeah. Sit down."

Steve quickly closed the door and sat.

"Uh... well, look. You've been doing much better today, but you really just need to... uh... Aw, fuck this!" I felt Tony's presence leave the captain's mind.

I could feel the captain's confusion on what had just happened as he'd somehow lost control of his body. Like the redhead on the train, he was aware of what was going on, he just wasn't controlling anything. I didn't know how long Tony would be gone, but I couldn't take any chances. I had a moment and I needed to take it.

I rose up from under the desk, with my finger to my lips in the classic motion for silence to Steve and allowed the captain to see me. I switched to holding the captain's wrist to maintain contact in case Tony came back.

"What the fuck?!" "What the hell?!" They both exclaimed.

"Shhhh. Look, I don't have much time here. There's someone out there that can control people to do his bidding. He just had control of the captain and can do it again at any moment." I glanced at the captain, "Sorry, I have some powers of my own. Like I can hide myself from your vision and make you ignore my holding your arm, but I have to keep physical contact with you to maintain my illusion. I'm trying to do the right thing. I need you to trust me for a bit."

The captain had felt the loss of control already and my explanation fit well with the evidence he'd seen, but at the moment he was just too stunned by things to speak. I didn't wait for him. I looked over at Steve.

"Somehow you aren't under his control... How? How the hell were you able to not be controlled?" Sometimes having the ability for people to tell you the truth was really handy.