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Mutants & Masterminds: The Magisterium - [2.T] WMD


Travis Kincaid

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Travis awoke to an unusual level of silence. The temple, with it's thick solid stone walls, hardly tended toward an excess of noise, but it seemed more still than usual. The space beside him was both empty and cold; May had been awake and away for some time it seemed. He sat up and worked his tongue around his mouth as he brought a glass and a pitcher of water to the bed. Such casual use of his powers was so ingrained in him now that it as as unconscious as flying across the room would be to another, or creating the drink from nothing was to Mary. He drank his fill washing away the thirst before stumbling out of bed and into the bathroom. Half an hour later, washed, dressed, and feeling hungry, he shoved aside the door to May's room, their room, and went looking for something to eat.

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In the kitchen, such as it was, he found some fruits and some not entirely stale bread. Travis snatched up a little of each and set them orbiting him as he started on a banana, likely fresh from nearby. Floating through the halls he finally caught up with Sol in one of the larger gathering rooms. The kinetic suppressed a frown, "Hey, where is everybody? It's like a ghost town around here." He really had no idea what to think about Sol at this point. In two weeks he'd more or less gotten over the fact that the other man had been with May while he was frozen. After that he had found himself regarding Sol as one regards a figure of legend or history, but David quickly proved himself entirely more real than that. This was no towering God or Titan, he was just a man and a mutant, the same as Travis, and that meant that he really stood above Travis by way of power and position. Maybe they weren't equals, but this man was certainly not one to worship either. That left Travis unsure of their relationship, and the lack of communication between them had not helped to establish a course.

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David looked up, "They're all on missions, or dealing with the needs of supplies and the like." He went back to reading the sheaf of paper in his hand. "Take the chance to enjoy the quiet," he added as an apparent afterthought.

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Travis' frown deepened. "Why am I here then?"

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"What?" David looked up and seemed to actually notice Travis for the first time. "Come again?"

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"Why I am apparently left to loaf around, if everybody else is out on missions and stuff?" Travis was more than ready, willing, and able to kill humans, especially DEHA agents.

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It was Sol's turn to frown. The expression slid into place like clouds crossing the sun before it melted away in similar fashion. "Because your talents weren't required this time out."

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"Oh." Travis took a deep breath and chewed on a hunk of something that tasted like a pear. "Is this about the thing in Germany?"

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Sol's frown made another cameo, "Kind of, but not entirely." The older man put the papers he was reading to the side, "Listen kid, honestly you weren't needed. A bunch of them were sent into a city to scout and secure some living space, another couple were sent on an infiltration, and I sent Fahrenheit and Grav out to deal with Silberman, mostly cause I didn't figure that Fahrenheit would rest until she did. That's her revenge to get and the two of them are more than enough to deal with him."

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"And?" Travis asked around a mouthful.

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"And, yeah, a little of it is because of Germany. Don't get me wrong, you probably did more to save everybody than not, but you also lost control and put the others at risk in the process. You crippled that kid, he might have joined us otherwise, and ..."

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"And so now none of them trust me right? I'm just the psycho who lost control." TK dropped into a chair, "You know what happened to May and I. You know that that leech was there. It's no different than what Fahrenheit wanted to do to Silberman, I just-"

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"You just put your fellows in harms way in the process." David shook his head, "I get it, I do, but they don't. These people are your people Travis, and I'm sure they'll give you the benefit of the doubt, but try and see it from their side. Heck, try to see it from my side. I, they, need to know that you won't cause as much mayhem to our own as you do to the DEHA. You've got amazing power and potential, but I can't make use of that if all I can do is drop you like a bomb into an area I need blasted into rubble. I need you to be a weapon, but not a WMD. OK?"

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Travis sighed, frowning, and ripped a hunk of bread in half, stuffing a portion into his mouth. He nodded though. "Besides," Sol continued, "by keeping you behind, if the others get into trouble and need extraction, we have somebody ready to lend a hand, and for that you do seem more than capable. Your hatred of captivity, understandable as it is, makes you ideal to keeping our people, and yourself, out of DEHA hands."

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"Ok." Travis left it at that. They sat in silence as he finished his meal. Finally the younger mutant broke the silence once more. "I have a question, and I don't think I can ask May." David looked up, surprise on his face. "What did the DEHA do to me while they had me?"

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David's face was expressionless as he studied the younger man. "I'm not sure I know what you mean," he said finally.

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Travis scowled, "What I mean is that my powers are ... are changing. I'm able to do things I couldn't before, I noticed it almost immediately after you broke me out of that meat locker they had me in. I can feel stuff with my TK, like I was using my hands, but ... not." Travis was studying his hands, then he looked up and shrugged, " I can see better too. Farther. Smaller. Microscopic." The kinetic narrowed his eyes, "And I can do this." Travis dug his fingers into the arm of the stone-hewn chair he was sprawled in, his fingers sinking into it like it were clay. He pulled at the rock twisting a lump of it and separating it from the chair like he was pinching a handful of clay from a larger portion.

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David watched and listened, face impassive at first but slowly betraying more shock. "I see," he breathed quietly, staring at the lump of stone. "I'm afraid I don't have any easy answers for you. The records that May had access to were frustratingly incomplete, enough that it was clear they were keeping a second set of eyes only data. I don't know that they did anything to you, apart from using you as a test subject for their cryo procedure."

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Sol pointed to the misshapen lump of rock Travis had dropped onto the arm of the chair. "I have my guesses about that however. That's all they are though, guesses. I think that maybe the scope of your powers is more than you have yet discovered. You're reaching another plateau of power. Going from passive protection to active telekinesis when you were a child, to being able to directly manipulate molecular motion now." Sol shrugged, "Of course I don't know why. Nor do I know if that is your limit. One supposes that if your control of motion were to develop far enough you might even be able to manipulate atomic or subatomic levels, though likely nowhere near to the level that somebody like Mary can.

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"When the DEHA took you you only had the one power, a complete physical immunity. You telekinetic powers didn't develop until you hit puberty and-"

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"And they pissed me off. I know that already. It is a rather fond memory of mine."

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David chuckled, "Yes, well. Still you may have already been at a transition point, or maybe the change was brought about by that emotional catalyst. Were you younger it might have been easily linked to additional puberty changes, like a growth spurt, but you were too old for that to make sense. So the latter would seem more plausible. Alternately, perhaps the cryogenic testing process is to blame. You were frozen for an extended time after all, and subconsciously perhaps your kinetic powers began to adapt to it; to develop a way to protect you. It may also mean that their cryo process isn't perfect, and another mutant might not survive.

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"Then again, maybe they did experiment on you, to try and figure out the way your powers worked. I would imagine that the DEHA would be more than happy to gain somebody with your power that they could control. A weapon that they could wield against us rather than the other way around." The older mutant shook his head, "I just don't know the answer to your question."

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  • 7 months later...

Travis' lip curled into a scowl. After a moment he sighed. "I suppose it doesn't matter. Either way I can't stop it, can't fight it, and either way I'll use it as best I can." At that he smiled ghoulishly, "Might be fun to reshape somebody's bones like clay."

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David shook his head, "Some of the others, they may not understand, or approve, of the casual way you kill. The way you enjoy your vengeance."

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"Real shocker there," Travis snarled derisively. "Half of these people still don't get what the world has done to me, to us. The other half, they probably want to hold onto the idea that that's some kind of isolated case." He shrugged spinning the misshapen clump of stone through arcs in the air. "They'll learn the truth in time, and if they still think me a monster," he paused, letting the thought linger, then looked up with a grim grin. "They'd be right."

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"You aren't exactly making a strong case for me to put you out with the others here kid."

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"Meh."

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David chuckled, "You really don't care about much of anything do you?"

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"Outside of my freedom, May, and a little bit of mayhem? No, not really I suppose. I haven't been given much cause to." David nodded. "I'm broken I guess. A sociopath or something maybe?"

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The older man shook his head, "No, I don't think so. I think maybe if that were really true you'd not have included May in that list. You'd have stayed alone after your first escape, and you'd likely have blown us all off when we broke you out. No, I think you're just scared." Travis just looked at him silently, the rock continued its dance through the air. "If you let yourself care then you have more to lose, and you've lost everything you've cared about in one way or another, at one time or another. But if you don't care, you may as well be dead already. What's the point of continuing?"

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"Umm ..." Travis frowned, loosing a heavy sigh, "Fine, yeah, whatever. Maybe you have a point."

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"How gracious of you to concede my victory."

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"Shut it bright boy."

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"That's more like it."

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The two sat in silence for a time, Sol resuming his reading, Travis running the malformed lump of stone through aerial acrobatics in a fit of boredom. Finally he swiped the lump from the air, squeezing it in his hand and feeling the primal stone flow around his fingers like modeling clay. "Soooo," he drawled the word out long, "when are people getting back?"

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David looked up slowly, "Bored?" The tone betrayed his utter lack of surprise.

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"Only entirely."

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Sol dug into his pocket and tossed something at Travis. The object neared the telekinetic then slowed to a halt, floating and tumbling lazily through all three axes. Travis recognized it as a memory stick, though it was smaller than those he had seen before his capture. "Your DEHA files are on there, those we could get anyways. Like I said, there appear to have been some number of highly controlled files that May wasn't able to gain access to. Read them if you like, though you may not like what you read."

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Travis considered the other man, the drive floating between then in a no-man's-land. "You read them?" it was less a question than it was a statement. Sol nodded. "May?" Again the older man nodded. "Doing your homework before you committed to freeing me?"

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"May had me fairly well convinced beforehand, but ... yes. The fact that you were held in the same location as Gold, Mary, and Lamia certainly made it all but a foregone conclusion, but ..." David spread his hands as if to say that Travis could fill in the blanks.

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Travis nodded, "Always a but right? It's like I heard somebody say once, 'Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one and they all stink.' There's always a 'but', and they always stink, no matter how reasonable, or understandable." It was David's turn to shrug. "Well ... okay then." Travis propelled himself to his feet, then paused. "What about the others?"

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"When they get back, we're gonna have a big pow wow, let everybody look at their own files, if they want. Nobody is forcing anybody to do so of course."

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"Yeah, sure." Travis gingerly took the drive from the air before him. "Maybe I'll wait 'till May gets back, might be good ..."

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"We all need a shoulder to cry on, or to help us channel the pain, I think that's a good idea. You're not a monster kid, no matter the front you put up, or the way you've been treated. Trust me, I've been there." Sol, shook his head, "I had to see the past for what it was before I moved forward, once you do the same, you can change ... if that's what you want to do."

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Travis nodded and walked out of the room. There was nothing more to say.

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** Later ...**

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Travis heard the door grind open and glanced up from where he half sprawled half slumped in an old arm chair. May slipped in quietly and closed the door. Turning she saw Travis prodding at tablet computer, a small USB drive protruding from the side. She felt her stomach sour, a knot forming in the center of her gut because she knew what was on that drive. "David gave you your files," she said with resignation.

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Travis nodded, continuing to poke at the screen in near silence. May glided over, and, leaning over the back of the chair, put her arms around him. She could see the file open on the tablet, "I'm sorry. Not that he gave these to you, but, well ..." After a moment she turned to look at him directly and for the first time noticed the tears and red rimmed eyes. Concern gripped the knot in here stomach and twisted it, she could never recall seeing Travis look so forlorn as he did right then. "What's wrong?" she asked, unsure what in his file could have done this, nothing in there was information that would be terribly new to him.

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Travis shuddered, drawing in a ragged breath. "I ... I'd f-forgotten ..." His head sagged till his chin rested on his chest, and his eyes squeezed shut for a moment, forcing the tears out. He opened them again and stabbed at the screen, loading an image, a picture from his file. May bowed her head; it was Travis' mother. "I couldn't ... I didn't even recognize the picture at first. I'd forgotten what my own mother looked like. They took me away from her, and took her away from me." Anger now tinged his voice, and May could feel the odd pricking sensation as Travis' TK began to bleed randomly around him. Tugs and pushes, and tiny motes of stillness.

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May released Travis and came around to the front of the chair. Taking the tablet from him she put it on the table nearby and climbed into the seat with him, drawing him close. "It's not your fault, you were just a child."

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"I know," Travis finally replied after some time. "I was only six, I didn't even know what was going on. I didn't understand what I was doing as I fought back." He shook his head, staring off into nothing. "Glad to know at least that those bastards died." He laughed bitterly. "It's ironic, ya know? Without them I might have never become the killer they fear. I guess karma really is a bitch."

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They sat in silence for a while, May resting her head on Travis' chest, the room quiet thanks to the thick stone walls blocking out the activity beyond them. "At least now I can get a picture of her. Keep it with me."

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"That'd be nice, your mom would like that," May said. "Maybe you can ask Mary to make a locket with the picture inside it, she could probably whip that up with barely a thought."

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"Maybe. I ... I'm not sure I want to share this with them ... with the others I mean."

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"Why not?"

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"Because it would change how they look at me. I'm not sure if that would be a good thing or not."

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"You're not the monster they think you are. You know that, right?"

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Travis chuckled, "If you say so. I don't mind copping to it, and that probably means that it's not so ill a fit."

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May sat up, pulling away from Travis a little in doing so. She jabbed a finger into his chest, a futile act, but the point was made regardless, "Listen mister, you have done horrible things, and, sure, you are violent-"

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"I think you've confused which side of the argument you're on dear."

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"BUT!" she said, grinding her finger into his chest, "I have seen what you seem to actively avoid admitting. You've gone out of your way more than once to help another mutant from the DEHA. Sure, you claim that you did it for the violence, to get the chance to rack up the body count and take another payment on the debt of vengeance, but I don't think that;s they truth of it. I know that's not the whole truth of it."

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Travis scowled, "Maybe. Maybe not. Even a weapon can be used to protect."

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"You're not a weapon, you're a person. I don't need a weapon, I need a person. I need you."

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"That's where you are wrong, I am a weapon. I'm a person too, though they don't see it as such, but to be sure I am a weapon." He chuckled, wryly it seemed. "Sol told me he doesn't need a weapon of mass destruction, but I think he's wrong about that. I think that in the end the only way to deal with the DEHA will be scorched earth and utter destruction. Nothing short of that will suffice. They've earned it, and they won't go away any other way.

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"I'm that weapon. One of them anyway. Fahrenheit is one too. Sol may be, in the end, if I'm right. Maybe Mary, though I don't think so, not after Germany. She has the ability, but not the mindset, not the temperament. Grav, probably. Maybe some of the others, I don't know. When all is said and done when the war is over, regardless of how it ends for us, maybe then we can stop being weapons, but until then ..."

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"I'd slap you if there was any point to it. For saying that."

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"I know. It's true though, and sometimes the truth hurts more than anything else."

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May fell forward into his embrace again, her muffled voice followed, "I know."

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