Collaborative Fiction The Greatest Day

Catalyst lifted his datapad close to his mouth. "Lurch. Sentry protocol 7. Isolate and contain outbound target."

Outside the Star Force headquarters, the HQ Sentinel launched up into the air with rockets built into its back and feet. It shot into the sky after the morphing body of Highlander. It closed the distance quickly and fired a encapsulated electro-shock net at Highlander. A series of acoustic tracking "beeps" rang out in the air as it closed to activation range. Once it was close enough, the capsule broke and mini-rockets carried the net over and around Highlander's body.

"Discharge electostatic charge at this amplitude," Catalyst said as he followed the Sentinel's actions on his tablet while the others moved through the hole in the ceiling to assist their technological guardian. Catalyst informed his team of his actions. "Having just done a full scan of Highlander, I can synchronize the discharge to his specific bio-currents and paralyze him temporarily."

As he said it, the net sparked with blue-white electricity and hyper-stimulated every muscle in Highlander's altered form. His body stiffened and began to fall to the ground.

"Enable Soft Landing Protocol," Catalyst said while sliding digital controls on his tablet. Five miles from the HQ, the net's mini-rockets activated again in specific patterns to slow the decent of its captive.

Chained Angel and Infinite Tempest reached Highlander while still descending over the city. Together, they both grabbed an appendage and maneuvered the paralyzed man back to the HQ.

The cement pad the Sentinel stood upon split open and revealed a different entrance to the HQ. "Take him to containment cell Alpha. I'll engage the sedative nebulizer to keep him unconscious until we can figure out why he changed."

"Your Sentinel is pretty amazing," Astra said.

"If you're going to have one, might as well have the best possible one," Catalyst said. "We've been attacked often enough that we've learned a thing or two about making good use of Lurch's presence."

Catalyst and Astra watched as Chained Angel and Infinite Tempest dragged Highlander into the containment cell. They stepped out and engaged the locking mechanism as a fine mist filled the air inside the cell. The enlarged Highlander's breathing became easier and less labored while his muscles relaxed. Within half-a-minute, he was snoring.

   As Astra and Starmaster settled in to begin the Astral Projection process.  Their psionic energies began to rise.  Astra's astral body emerged into the Mindscape.  She was shortly joined by Starmaster.

    "Do I appear different?" she asked.  "Your power seems stronger."

    "Oddly yes, your third eye is radiating," he replied.  "It's like your psionic powers have grown."  The Mindscape around them changed as he looked at the others.

    "So, what's this experiment you want to try?"  She asked.

Fiona and Ricochet arrived at Star Force HQ, courtesy of a power of Teleportation that Ric had acquired. It had enough juice left to get her into the building, but left him to bounce off the roof.

“At least he didn’t get halfway in and get stuck,” Tempest observed.

Goodness, what happened,” Fiona asked with a look of bewilderment.

“Your hubby happened,” replied Ace. “He changed big time. Emphasis on BIG.”

“Well, he does possess some limited shape-shifting abilities, but very limited,” Fiona said.

“Maybe not a limit,” Catalyst said. “Major change, he have more than thought, appears.”

“He could never control them,” Fiona said softly. “He tried, but just couldn’t.”

Ricochet stepped into the med room, but exited quickly, literally jumping back through the door.

“In addition to appropriating powers, I can sense them. His shape-shifting power has grown considerably; probably temporarily, but definitely quickly and out-of-control, likely.”

“If out-of-control, mind probably shifted same way. Out-of-control, now dangerous, very dangerous,” said Catalyst.

“If that changed, could his temper now be out of control, also,” wondered Fiona. “He normally has a short fuse, at best.”

Fiona looked upon her now sleeping husband.

“Duncan,” she whispered.

Chained Angel put her arm around her and led her from the cell area.

“Let’s let him rest, hopefully he’ll get back to normal."

It’s not enough,” Ricochet said. “He’s not to stay in that cell, I’m sure.”

A loud roar came from within and the big, now bigger man burst through containment and to everyone’s astonishment, overpowered the Sentry, damaged it in the process and blasted his way through the building and into the sky once more.

Fiona was the first to recover her senses. “Call BADGE. Get Nova on the line. My god, you need more than us to stop him now.”

“Get yourself ready. I was close enough to absorb his power of flight. It’s very limited, but combined with some others I’ve got from you folks, I can trail him. I’ll stay with him. Later.”

Ricochet shot through the massive hole Highlander created and goton the big man’s trail, observing from a distance and staying in contact with Fiona.

Being in the Mindscape was like swimming in an ocean of stars. There were areas where a vast collection of pinpoints of lights glowed like being in a galaxy of their own. Others moved like shooting stars around them in random directions. If Astra focused her attention on one particular point of light, she could see a halo of a person form around it and new points of light would appear within, indicating pathways within that one particular mind. Pathways that lead to memories, dreams, and various beliefs.

It was amazingly beautiful.

"That's not right," Starmaster said as he pointed at a tiny light moving away from his and Astra's position.

Astra turned her attention to the light and found that it was Highlander, but the pinpoints of light within his aura flickered and flashed in a discordant patter to how she normally observed. "It's Highlander, but it isn't."

"Something has changed him. His mental sense of self is being overwhelmed by a new physiology." He drifted to the small point of light and touched it with one of his astral body's fingers. "Sleep, big guy. Nobody needs you out on a rampage this time of day."

******
Highlander's new form slumped and he struck the ground unconscious yet again, leaving a large trench in the road he crashed onto.

"Somedays people just don't know when they need a nap," Wyldfyre said. "Or a Snickers."
******
Keeping his finger on Highlander's astral aura for a moment, Starmaster bolstered a constellation of thoughts near the core of his essence. "There. I've fortified his normal synaptic functions. When he wakes, his normal mental processes will be in charge again. Hopefully that will be enough to keep him under his own control instead of flying off the handle."

"He sort of based his career on flying off the handle, didn't he?" Astra said.

Starmaster kept his thoughts on the subject to himself. "Since you're third eye seems to be more active, I figured we might try to test your divination abilities. Have you ever used remote senses before. You know, like psychometry or remote viewing?"

Astra shrugged. His terminology was more scientific that Futurina used, so she didn't want to embarrass herself by saying no only to find out she had performed the activity.

Starmaster nodded. "Why don't you try how you are as a finder? Think about some object you shared a strong connection to as a child. Envision it in your thoughts, and then look for it on the Mindscape."

    Astra thought for a moment, an object with an emotional connection from childhood.  That would have been when she was a he.  When she was Kevin.  She thought of the B.B. rifle that was a present from her real father.  The Archery set from her real mother.  The baseball glove and baseball that Doug gave her.  That's what she decided to focus on.

    She turned in the Mindscape and pointed.  "Over there, my old glove and baseball.  Doug and I would play for hours without keeping score," She told Starmaster.  She saw her real mother holding it with tears streaming down her face.  She really believed her son was dead.  This saddened Astra.  She wanted to console her real mother.

    "Good, try to see the past," Starmaster instructed.  Astra knew that all psionicists had some ESP.  Futurina had taught her that was how a telepath mapped the mind, and how a telekinetic could move objects without breaking them.  ESPers used it to see the past, the present, and future.  It was the most undervalued ability while being the most important.  Astra didn't know how to see the past.  She would have to try.

    She reached out with her mind knowing that there is no time on the Astral Plane.  She needed to think of a past event and she could see it.  She went back to see himself as Kevin playing on the dirt roads near their homes.  Gloves on their hands as they practiced different types of pitches.  She could see auras of happiness from them both.  She smiled.

"I can tell you that this took me quite some time to learn," Starmaster said. "Relax your mind. Don't force the images. Instead of trying to see the past, think about the object and imagine listening to it instead."

Astra spared Starmaster a sideways glance. "LISTEN to it?"

"Yeah. In the everyday world, sight is our primary method of interpreting the environment around us. You need to think differently on the astral plane. How people have memories isn't the same as remembering what happened at one location. Fifty people can see the same incident and remember it differently for a variety of reasons. Their position. Their beliefs. Their past experiences. When you use our gifts to interpret the past, or future, you need to open your perceptions up to new ways of absorbing that information. For instance, bats use echolocation, or sound, to navigate."

    Astra relaxed while thinking of her baseball glove.  She could hear the ball as it was caught.  She could feel the leather on her hand.  She could smell the oil she used to clean and soften it.  She could trace the creases in it.  She felt her astral form take a step back.

    She saw the factory where the glove was being made.  She was amazed by the skill the factory workers had.  She saw them cut and stitch the leather with precision.  They joked and laughed while working, though serious about their craft.  She could feel their love, joy and passion.

    "What was that?" She asked Starmaster.  "How could I see something I wouldn't have knowledge of?"

    "That is psychometry," Starmaster explained.  "It's not seeing your memories, but seeing the past of an object or individual."

    "That was amazing!" Astra exclaimed.  "Futurina can do this easily?  How long did she need to practice?"

"I'm sure Futurina struggled with learning the skill at first as well. You have to remember, she has had quite a bit of time to practice," Starmaster said. "From what I have gathered since meeting her, I don't believe she had the benefit of a mentor. I think with practice and training, you will grow in skill quickly."

Astra thought on Futurina and the time they spent together. It was a different relationship than she had with her former family. Her new mother had moments she could be extremely helpful and other, quieter moments that Astra knew carried the burden of her experience of being exiled. She always accepted Astra for what she had become and helped the transition from her past self into the person she now was. If only her natural parents could have been like that.

It is hard to accept change that is out of your own control. Astra had no choice but to adjust to the change in her physical body. But she had to do it. If only her parents could have realized there was no going back, only going forward.

At least Astra came back to the world. Doug never had resurfaced, or at least not to Astra's knowledge. And Astra had spent a fair amount of time searching for answers about what happened to him. Part of her wondered how he would have coped with her transition from boy to girl. She sometimes imagined that Doug would be amused and slightly pleased. He always had the worst taste in girlfriends, or at least in Kevin's opinions. Kevin always thought Doug could have done better.

A wash of loneliness came over Astra. She sensed something familiar. She sensed Doug out somewhere in the world.

    Astra thought she sensed Doug somewhere in the world, but then realized it was on the Mindscape.  "Oh my god, he's here!" she exclaimed.

    "Who is here?"  Starmaster asked.

    "Doug!" she exclaimed as she took off Starmaster quickly followed.

    "It's all so vast," Doug stated.  "Why can't I touch anyone?  My parents think I'm missing, and I yell 'I'm right here'."

    "Doug?" Astra reached out, "It's me, Kevin.  I know I look different.  I'll explain later."

    "I tried to reach out to Kevin.  I could sense him.  He was a girl who could see me," Doug claimed.

    "I remember," Astra replied.  "That's why I'm here.  To find you.  What happened to you the night we were abducted?"

    "Kevin and I were separated.  Aliens experimented on me.  My body disappeared and I was here.  I don't think that was the plan.  They were confused," Doug explained.

"Astra. You need to hold on for a second," Starmaster said. "Remember, the Mindscape is an adjacent part of the Astral Plane. We need to think for a second before blindly searching for him.

"He's been lost for so long, I'm not going to give up on the first solid chance I've had to find him in years." Astra kept moving.

"And we're not going to. Forgive me, but when you said he was here, I got a flash of what you were thinking. There isn't sound on the astral plane, so your communications are still mental projections of what you experience in real life. If he is here, or as I gather, has been here, you need to be prepared for how we might find him. He may have discorperated."

"Discorperated?" Astra paused her astral flight.

"People exist within human bodies. Think of them as a tactile container. The longer you are within the Astral Domain without a physical form to give structure, a consciousness can separate. Think of it as water being poured out of a glass onto a table. It stretches out into a much larger area, but thinning as it spreads."

"What does that mean exactly?" Astra shouted. Frustration and fear nipped at her heels, making her words sharper than she meant.

"The more spread out he is, the easier his psyche is to damage. I don't know exactly how we will find him, but use restraint. Don't let your eagerness overwhelm your true objective." Starmaster said. "Let's be smart here. Do you mind if we telepathically link so I can hear what he says to you?"

    Astra thought for a moment.  She linked her mind with Starmaster.  "What if he was transported body and all to the Mindscape?  Wouldn't he be trapped here?"

    Starmaster pondered the questions, "It is possible, but more likely his mind was just trapped here and his body destroyed."

    Astra replayed what Doug had told her for Starmaster to get his take on what had happened.  "If his body was destroyed how do we get him out of here?"

    "He would have to have a new vessel.  A body to inhabit," Starmaster explained.

    "I don't think he would want to possess somebody.  What are our options after that?" Astra questioned.

    "Let's find out what is going on here and then we'll decide on what to do.  Maybe a robotic body or cloned body?" Starmaster suggested.

The Mindscape was slightly less chaotic than the full Astral Plane, in Astra's perception. In the physical realm, where she spent most of her life, there were laws and physics that explained most things. Up and down, distance, settings, locations, and dozens of other certainties of how the world around her worked. The Astral Plane had entirely different rules.

First off, you had no physical body on the Astral Plane. Your consciousness shaped the astral body with the power of your self identity, but since most humans that experienced the Astral Plane spent most of their time on the Physical Plane, the preset notions of arms, legs, torso, and everything else carried over. A newcomer might thing they were touching another object, but it was simply a mental mirage. Spend any amount of time on the Astral Plane and you might notice that you don't breath or get hungry. Without a set of lungs or a stomach to have a need to be utilized, there isn't any need for the sensation. The problem it caused is that your body, without your core self in control, it is possible to die because of lack of oxygen to the brain or hunger or thirst.

Second, travel and distance was completely different. The mathematical preconceptions of typical geometry and structure didn't exist here. Everything was dependent on the framework of the conscious and unconscious minds and beings that touched it. It reminded Astra of being in an extremely beautiful soap bubble in sunlight, with swirls and colors that moved and shifted with a vast darkness beyond the non-Euclidian structure of the dimension. You didn't actually move in the astral plane. It moved around you.

Her mind was filled with many thoughts as she continued to search for Doug's conscious mind. A large part of her worried about how he survived. Such a foreign environment, filled with beauty, horror, and sensation, could eat away at a person. Futurina had always been very cautious about her training of Astra. How did Doug survive without anyone to help him.

Starmaster remained beside her, a fortunate calmness to her eagerness to finally know what happened to Doug. He guided as they sought a stronger connection to whatever part of her old friend that she sensed.

Out of nothingness, her imagined movement forward ceased as she felt a pressure against her astral body. A barrier kept her and Starmaster from going any further.

    Astra was confused as to what could stop her.  "Why can't we go further?  What's this barrier?" she asked.  She looked to Starmaster and then remembered what Futurina told her about the Astral plane, that there are many different and dangerous entities that reside there.  The eyes of her astral form went wide.

    Starmaster looked at the entity.  It was a giant face of a man.  Not one he recognized.  Something was different.  Something was dangerous.  He wanted to tell her to run, but knew she wouldn't.  Like himself, she was a hero.  Whatever this was it would face the both of them.

    "Who are you, and why are you here?" The entity asked.  "You tiny ones look tasty.  Are you?"

    "I think you'll find us most disagreeable," Astra retorted.  Her red psionic energy grew.

    "Yes, very," Starmaster concurred.

The big man struggled inwardly against the control Star Force had placed upon him. He couldn’t move physically, but he felt himself traveling.

How?

Where?

What was he feeling?

Was this what Fions felt when using her powers?

He had never felt this strong, this big, this … it was an undefinable felling. More power than he had ever felt … or imagined.

But he was restrained physically. He wanted to call for help, but could not. He struggled to reach out mentally. He didn’t know how. Would anyone hear him?

The stress was enormous. He was becoming more and more frustrated, he fought .. his mind cried out for help, then in desperation. Then in anger.

Where was everyone? What was holding him back. Why would no one communicate with him?

WHY COULDN’T HE MOVE?!?

"So impudent. I don't think I want to taste you anymore. Be gone." The face sneered at the two of them before a wave of psionic energy washed over them like a strong tide.

Both Starmaster and Astra were forced away before they braced themselves with their own abilities, Astra retreating a slightly greater amount until Starmaster bolstered her strength.

"What is that?" Astra thought to Starmaster.

"I'm not entirely sure," he thought back. "Whatever it is, it seems to be between us and your impression of Doug's location."

Mentioning Doug's name triggered a memory within Astra. She did know the face that blocked the two of them. Once, when she and Doug were around eight years old, they went to a carnival. The entrance to the fun house looked exactly like the face before them, except it wasn't transparent and colorless. It was decorated to look like an enormous clown and you needed to walk up the tongue to enter the first part of the maze within. She and Doug joked for days about how the clown face had to taste everyone who went inside of it on their way in. "I don't believe it."

"Believe what?" Starmaster said in her mind. "That this could be a projection made to protect Doug? I've seen stranger things."

"I don't think I've seen many." Astra shuddered. It took her and Doug day's to get up the courage to enter the big mouth before the carnival left town. The Astral Plane was well known for creating phantasmal recreations of what people experienced in real life. It could be Doug doing this, or it could be some unknown foe that used one of her latent memories as well to lure her in.

She needed to figure out which this was.

The big man hadn’t moved in hours. Or was it days?

Fiona was distraught. She wanted to take the big Scotsman home so he could recuperate there. After consultation with Nova from BADGE, Krystal Fae had made the decision that MacGregor would remain where he was – in the holding cell at Star Force HQ.

“Ric, I have to take him home,” Fiona said, the stress and misery of her husband’s condition showing on her face. For the first time since he had met her, Fiona was looking her age. She was obviously using her powers to maintain the youthful appearance everyone was accustomed to seeing, but the strain was too much. What had once been easy for her to accomplish was now becoming a burden.

“We’ll take him home. They told you to go home and rest,” Ric O’Shea said. Project an image of Highlander in his cell. I can use the powers I’ve gained to get him out and I’ll get him to the castle, somehow. If they come after him, I’ll deal with them.”

“But, Ric, you couldn’t fight them alone even if you could appropriate all of their powers.”

“Fiona, I won’t be alone, You’ll be there, and I’ve got Ace and Tempest to at least agree to look the other way if I take him out. They may even join us; I don’t know for sure that they would, but …”

Fiona hugged the young man, who was willing to risk his position in the Force’s junior division to help her.

“Thank you, Ric. We better hurry.”

As Fiona went through the Central Command center to let Krystal Fae know she was returning to the castle, Ric put his plan into action. There was Highlander’s image, overlaying the spot whee his body lay in repose.

Ric garnered his various powers, lifted the big man (even possessing Highlander’s strength was almost not enough in the man’s current state), and called on  his powers of intangibility and teleportation to whisk the huge Scotsman across the Atlantic to the MacGregor clan castle.

It nearly worked, Ric and Highlander came crashing down into the Atlantic about three or four miles from shore. Fortunately, a fishing trawler saw them plunge into the water and was quick to rescue them. One had been reading a newspaper account of the Vegas incident and recognized Highlander’s insignia on his dual leather gear, one of the few items to survive the transformation. Eager to help, they had the pair on the road to the castle before Fiona reached home.

A relieved Fiona arrived shortly and after attending to her husband, told Ric, “I’m disgusted with the way they treated him. Dumped him in the cell and ignored his condition. Only Tempest and Ace showed any concern. I don’t know if we belong with Star Force.”

"What do you mean that Highlander's gone again. When did he wake up?" Chained Angel asked.

Catalyst shook his head. "He didn't. Fiona and their friend Rick took him. Infinite Tempest and Ace said she wanted to get him back to their castle."

"Why did they break him out then? All she had to do was ask and we could have taken him there."

Catalyst shrugged. "I hope he doesn't wake up and destroy their home."

"Fiona is your typical fiery redhead," Arcane Ace said. "She is passionate about wanting to take care of her husband. There are still many secrets to him that I think she is still afraid of. I can't blame her. He has the worst luck, it seems. Every time we've been on a mission with him, something seems to target him."

"Are you calling him a jinx?" Chained Angel asked.

"There are some people who fate does not favor. I don't think he is true jinx but his temper and rash action do seem to hurt him more than help him sometimes," Arcane Ace said.

"If Fiona doesn't want our help restraining him, that's her prerogative. Why don't you go and keep an eye on their castle with Prysmatica and Catalyst, just in case they end up needing some help." Chained Angel said while washing the last of the dinner plates. "Starmaster and Astra are busy doing some training, so let's try not to disturb them."

"Serves 'em right if he huffs and puffs and knocks their little castle down," Wyldfyre said as he heated the air around the washed dishes in the rack. Steam rose off of them as the moisture evaporated in a fine cloud. "He ain't the god-damned center of the universe. He needs to learn how to work with others instead of always going off like a pig-headed, stubborn brute. Teamwork works when everyone is on the same page."

Everyone else in the room turned to stare at Wylfyre with open mouths and pure shock on their faces. Chained Angel turned and took a step back away from him. "You ever heard of the pot calling the kettle black, mister? When's the last time you've ever worked well with anyone?"

"It's not because I can't, sweetheart." Wyldfyre gave her a sly smile and hung up his apron on a hook beside the door leading out of the kitchen. "I choose not to. Keeps you all humble."

Wyldfyre laughed as he left the room, his guffaws and chortles continuing as he moved deeper into the building.

    "I guess we should let it taste us?" Astra wasn't sure but a leap of faith may be just what's needed.  She didn't know what would happen.  Futurina would tell her to follow her instincts, just be careful.

    "As long as you are sure, I'll let you do so," Starmaster agreed.

    "I'm not.  It's a leap of faith, like the day we entered that clown's mouth at the carnival," She admitted.  

    She moved back towards the face.  She was nervous.  She had to have faith this was the right move.  If she were wrong they would be in for a fight.

    "Who are you and what do you want?" the face asked again.  "You tiny ones look so tasty.  Are you?"

    "I am Astra.  This is Starmaster," she introduced them.  "I used to be Kevin before the aliens changed me.  I'm looking for my friend Doug."

    "I'm here to help her," Starmaster admitted.

    "If what you say is true, by tasting you I will lead you to him," The face said.  "If what you say is false then you will die."  It opened it's mouth.

Starmaster sent a psychic message to Astra. "I don't want to seem the coward, but I think you should go first. I want to help you find Doug, but my motive is to help you as well as rescue him. Your desire is more pure than my own."

"I wish you weren't, but I think you're right," Astra replied. Astral and psychic entities were sensitive to nuance. If they were going to make it past this barrier, she needed to take the lead despite Starmaster's greater experience and skill. "Here goes..."

Astra made contact with the tongue lolling out before her. The instant she did, a vortex opened deeper within the open mouth, a spiraling maelstrom of mental energy. She felt herself being drawn toward it.

Welcome, one and all, the voice of the clown face radiated into her mind. Doug has been waiting long for a visitor, but beware. You must still prove yourself true friend or foe. If foe you be, then you shall never escape.

"Here we go," Astra thought, her mind an equal mix of dread and hope. She'd sought out Doug for so long, it was almost hard to believe that she might actually find him. "We have to enter the portal if we are going to find him."

"Where does it lead?" Starmaster asked in her mind.

The two of them disappeared before she could answer.