The Wounded World, a story of Mantra, Chapter 6

By Aladdin 

Edited by Christopher Leeson

The Wounded World

Originally written 2006

Revised and posted Feb. 21, 2019 

Chapter 6

WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?



"Every house a den, every man bound;
The shadows are filled with specters,
And the windows wove over with curses of iron..." 
 
William Blake

As soon as we got back to Penny's digs, I spread out on the couch to rest. Such a day!

Pinnacle crossed into the kitchen, and when she reappeared, she was balancing coffee cups on a tray. The scientist offered me one, saying, "From all you've said, you're carrying quite a load of trouble. What do you need to fix first?"

I sat up and tasted the beverage before answering. "If I'm ever going to get back to my real home, I'll need to recover my Mantra powers."

She set the tray aside and occupied the chair across from me. "Okay. Do you have any fresh ideas about how they were lost?"

I shrugged. "I wasn't the one who lost them. What Evie said makes me think that Mantra still had her powers even after Gus got his. She was probably taken by surprise by his attack. Maybe Evie is right. Maybe Mantra got hurt fighting with her brother."

"What kind of an attack did Gus make?"

"Search me. Evie used the word 'zapped.' The boy probably released some sort of magical blast. I know how that works. On my first night in Eden Blake's body, I incinerated a street creep who came at me. I wasn't trying to draw up magic; it came up automatically in self-defense.”

“You're tied emotionally to your abilities?”

“I guess so. They're at their strongest when I'm furious.” I took a mouthful of coffee and set down my cup. “Where do ultra powers arise from anyway?”

"There's been a theory, rising in popularity, that ultra powers come from the so-called 'junk DNA' that everyone possesses. It makes up about ninety-seven percent of the whole.”

I cocked my eye. "It comes out of the DNA? Then how does that jive with what I learned on the moon? There was an artificial brain on the moon that had been sending out energy bursts for thousands of years. It created ultras from ordinary human beings. Remember that sky blast that hit that San Francisco trolley? Most of the fifty-nine people inside the vehicle got ultra powers. That was the AI brain – the Entity – that did that."

Pinnacle nodded. "That case has been intensely studied. One of the people on the trolley who didn't seem to get powers was my old boss – my old slave master -- J.D. Hunt. He happened to be on that that streetcar at the faithful moment.”

“A trillionaire riding a public trolley?”

“That's J.D. He likes to go slumming incognito, finding out what real people think – so he can make up new ways to trick them and screw them over. I never saw him use an ultra power, but sometimes, when he was near, I could sense an odd energy field. I couldn't make any sense of it, but when it powered up it made my hair stand on end.”

"Does everyone have the potential to become an ultra? If so, what, exactly, is an ultra?"

“A lot of people who've studied the matter think that an ultra is a person who is able to draw from genetically-granted capabilities beyond what's normal for most people. There are some people who seem to be born with powers. From what you've told me, Eden Blake might have been that kind of ultra. But if that streetcar phenomenon was able empowered a random sample of people, it's clear that the ultra potential can be artificially stimulated. Possibly, most of the people on Earth has some sort of ultra capability. I'm wondering if the ancient gods weren't actually...."

"Ultras?"

She gave me a sort of “not quite” look. "Hercules might have been a sort of B.C. Hardcase, but I think a god-like being is something extra. Our genetic configuration provides us with many different traits. Possibly, the 'higher DNA' that can produce ultras could also provide us with many different abilities all at the same time. The more abilities one displays, the more godlike he seems.”

"I've met a few gods in my day. In ancient times, the Godwheel was crawling with them.”

“That super-sized artificial solar system in deep space?”

I nodded. “The toughest one I ran into was Loki. He could do almost anything, and loved doing it! I'm still not sure why that nut-case let Primeval and me get away with our lives.”

She shook her head. “From the way you live your life, I don't know how you manage to stay alive from day to day.”

“It's not the way I want to live. I died hundreds of times in Archimage's cause, but the next time it happens I'm afraid that it's going to be for keeps.” Suddenly I got a flash. "Wait a minute! How can DNA be responsible for an ultra like Electro-Cute? She's an artificial life form, but still the Entity's energy burst was able to empower her.

"That dicey question has come up in most of the scientific studies. We don't know exactly how Electro-Cute was put together. Possibly UltraTech used human DNA in her construction. Let's consider her case an unanswered question."

"Okay, but if there's a jump-start, can't there be an 'anti-jump-start'? Could something have switched off the power-genes inside this body?"

"I'll know more if you allow me to examine you intimately.”

“I'm game, but just don't get too intimate about it.”

The scientist smiled. “If I looked like Rosie O'Donnell, I could understand such reluctance, but....” she made a casual gesture to call my attention to her figure. Then, abruptly, she changed the subject. “How do you fix a malfunctioning computer?”

I blinked. “If you don't know, don't ask me. Remember, I'm from the days before stirrups were invented.”

“I mean, if there's a bad chip, a computer tech doesn't look for the one pinpoint that needs fixing. Instead, he pulls out the board that fails the testing and slots in a factory-certified replacement. Lauren is a witch who's extremely similar to Mantra, isn't she?"

"She seems to be."

"Good. Studying her might let us map a paradigm for how a healthy witch should check out. Wherever we find that you're different from her, that could be the source of your problem. I hope she hero-worships you enough to put up with what could turn into a series of long tests."

I shrugged. "I think she might. She's quite a fan."

"That would be a break. But what about 'Strike -- ah, Warstrike, as you call him? In the car, you said you helped him when his precognitive abilities started to fail."

“I tried transferring a little healing energy into him. It worked like a charm. Afterwards he seemed to be bake in form.”

She eyed me narrowly. “Could his problem have been psychosomatic?”

“I don't know. Maybe. He sure cured easily.”

“Is it possible that Mantra could be suffering from psychosomatic symptoms herself?”

“The other one? How can I know that. I think I've got my own head on pretty straight."

Pinnacle stroked her chin with a thumb. "So you think. But the mind is more powerful than muscle. Thoughts behave like computer programs inside the body. A bad mental attitude can make a person sick. The trauma of what happened on Friday might have thrown some mental switch inside Mantra's head."

"And I have to take the consequences of that hit? Hell! Where does that leave us?"
"Now that the conflicted mind of your double have been removed, your powers might reset on their own. It may take some time. After all, you haven't been in that body for very long.”

"Are you saying that Mantra lost her powers because she thought they did more harm than good?”

"I didn't say that. The hysterically blind don't set out wanting to be sightless. But the subconscious mind may interpret our deep-seated desperation in strange ways."

"So, you're recommending that we wait to see what happens? What next? 'Take two aspirins and call you in the morning?'”

Penny's brows drew together. "If your problem fixes itself, we're home free. But there has been work on how to switch on ultra powers, based on the DNA theory. For instance, the Theta Virus seems to induce ultra powers into people. What if it is not a natural disease, but the infecting microbes are really artificial nanites? ”

“Could be. The records I hacked suggested that the disease may have come from outer space. But the Theta Virus is dangerous. What Aladdin was trying to do in its own ham-handed way killed every person they'd treated.”

“If its tender-loving care, never go to a government black ops outfit. Fortunately, I have a much simplier idea.”

I looked up. “Simple is good.”

“You restored Strike's power by simply squirting a little energy into him. What if we persuaded someone – someone like Lauren – to give you the same treatment?"

"It won't work."

"Why do you suppose that?"

"It's too simple. Too painless. I never get a break.”

"Tsk, tsk. You're just loaded down with negativity, Lu. I've told you that thoughts act like things. The best vitamin shot in the world is a positive attitude. But I'm only throwing out ideas. We'll know more about your case once we've run your molecular profile."

"Just end up by telling me that I'm crazy. I get plenty of that from Mother."

“The poor lady. She doesn't know that she has a complete stranger for a daughter. Do you remember your real mother?”

“How could I forget? She was a Polish tribal princess. To avoid the Huns, she was sent West, where she converted. I was named after one of the Gospel writers.”

Penny smiled. "Another question. What are the drawbacks to being a super-witch?"

“Do you want to write a book?”

“A case study maybe. We can't rule out that there's a psychological component to your condition.”

I shook my head. "I have the same problems that most ultras do, like trying to juggle a private life with a secret one. The tension is bone-crushing. I have to duck out of important responsibilities and cut corners on important things, when I should be doing them whole-heartedly. One of the worst things is to have to lie to people that I care about the most. Living that way is damned lonely. A mystery wrapped in an enigma doesn't make close friends. Evie knows the most about me, but she's too little and too innocent to be the hard-rock confidant that I need. Hardcase knows a lot about me, too, but his idea of dealing with a problem is to make a joke of it."

“I've been wondering. Does Evie know that her mother used to be a man?”

I winced. “I'm not sure. You over heard it didn't you, the day that Eden died? I thought Evie understood that I'd been the strange man who'd come in with you to save them both from Necromantra. But, so far, she hasn't acted like she remembers what I'd admitted to her.”

"I see. Is there anything else you'd like to get off your chest? No double entendre intended."

I sighed. "I always feel under pressure. Being an ultra seems to attract enemies and danger. It's not just paranoia. A lot of ultras have lost loved ones from sudden attacks. I lost Eden that way. Warstrike lost his family. Hardcase's Squad was wiped out by a mechanical assassin called NM-E. Maybe Gus's life has been ruined only because he caught some of my incoming.”

"That's good.”

“Good?”

“You're not joking around anymore. You're baring your soul. The more I know about you, the easier it will be to find the cure you need."

I nodded resignedly. "If you want to hear about pain, I've got plenty to share. I'm haunted by the specter of the kids being harmed. I know how it would hurt them if they suddenly lost me. I watched Evie suffering from the death her mother last January. She suddenly hated the world; she even acted like she hated me. How much worse would it have been if I didn't look, sound, and act like her mother? She's too young to have to go through the loss thing again."

"Is it possible that after that bad thing that happened Friday, your deeper consciousness may have simply decided that you've have finally had it with being an ultra?”

“But it wasn't me who lost the powers. It was the other Mantra.”

“Yes, but the two of you may be so much alike that you have the same mental configuration.”

“Isn't that a piece of luck?”

“I get how stressed you are. You live three lives, not just two like most ultras. Each fragment of your personality has its own needs. Which one could you most easily give up?"

I thought about that. "I can't let go of Lukasz," I said at last. "He's my core. I'd be a basket case if I lost my basic identity. When Eden tried to be Mantra, she couldn't pull it off. To be Mantra, a person has to be a fighter by instinct, and a fighter is what Lukasz has always been."

"And Eden?"

"I'm living her life. Everything I have, I have because she had it first. I'd have no life of my own without Eden, nothing that could pass for normality. On top of that, being Eden has given me a family, and real friends. What I used to think of as my friends were only guys in the same foxhole. When I saw the last of them die, I didn't care that much. It was like I was emotionally dead on the inside. But Eden's life was so different from the one I'd been living. Things that had seemed important I could see were unimportant; what had seemed unimportant became vital. I found out how much a child's hug can mean. I realized how different it feels to be a protector, not just a killer. I don't think I'm the same person anymore; it's like a lump of ice has been melting inside my chest. What I have now I can't give up willingly, but I need Eden to hold on to it."

"And Mantra?"

I scowled. "Mantra is important, too. This is a rotten world. Everyone is out to get the other guy, and governments are no help, because the world's worst predators took over them over a long time ago. Whenever the world pushes too hard on Eden, or on people she cares about, Mantra kicks in and starts kicking ass. Lukasz can't fix the problems around us; he's just a thought in my head. Eden Blake can't do anything either; she's as fragile as porcelain. But Mantra can do it all." I looked up suddenly. "Are you getting anything?"

"I think so. But I would really like to know what exactly happened to you last Friday in every detail.”

"I don't have every detail. I wasn't there. Evie and Gus were the only ones with their mother that night. Whenever Evie tries to remember things, they terrify her. Remember those trembling hands?" Then, suddenly, I got an idea. "Say, Penny, you were able to turn off Evie's grief before. Could you do the same thing again, long enough to question her about what she saw on Friday?"

Pinnacle frowned again. "Possibly. There's always a risk when playing with children's minds, though. They're so...breakable."

I squared my shoulders. “Here we are, talking about how my life is a hell. What about your own?”

“What do you mean?”

“How are you going to deal with that – that thing you told me about...the...?”

She smiled, grimly perhaps. “I think it will help me a lot to talk about that when we're not so busy. I have to stop thinking that I'll all along. When you look at me the way you do, talk to me the way you do, somehow the mental chemistry changes, and being a freak doesn't seem to be quite so much a dagger between my ribs.”

#

It was almost 1 a.m. when the phone rang. 

"Hi, Eden, what's up?" Lauren asked.

"Laurie, I've been eager to talk to you all day. This is going to sound strange, but I've somehow lost my memory – the recent stuff, I mean. You know things that I've forgotten.”

“Wow! What do you need me to help you remember for you?”

The first thing I have to know is...is whether you've found out something -- important -- about me."

"Do you mean me the fact that you're...” Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “You're my greatest hero ever? Or are you afraid I've figured out those sneaky hints that Necromantra was dropping about you?"

I chilled. "Did you say Necromantra? You met her?"

"Yeah, I did. And she was one bitch of a witch, too! But honestly, Eden, you were there with me. She tried to kill the both of us!"

Why couldn't I ever get Necromantra off my back? When I had attacked her in the moment of vengeance after she killed Eden, I had turned one of her own weapons against her, and I thought it had killed her. Of all the living enemies I had, she was most dangerous. She who knew exactly who I was and where to find me. Now, without my powers, it would be like a god fighting a tabby cat!

"Eden? Eden? Are you still there?"

"I'm sorry.

"What else do you need to know?"

"A thousand things! I've spent the whole day trying to find out what happened last Friday evening."

"I get you, lady. The last time we were together was after school on Monday. You seemed fine then, except that you'd lost your magic."

"My memory problem only came on this morning. Could you tell me about what happened at the mall, the one on Sherman Way? You fought some sort of robot."

"You were there, too! You showed up at the end of the action."

“All that is a total blank.”

“Well, maybe you're lucky. Those two days give me nightmares. Do you remember that the robot had a name? It was called NM-E.” 


NM-E? That was the "big robot" that Evie had mentioned? Aye-yi-yi! It was big, all right – and bad to the nth degree! "Fighting that thing it isn't for kids," I said, aghast. "What happened?"

"I won, naturally, or else we wouldn't be talking, right?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. This isn't an easy thing to wrap my mind around."

Unbelievable! An inexperienced ultra kid had beaten NM-E! How? I wouldn't have wanted to go against that killing machine without a dozen other ultras backing me up. Either Lauren was incredibly powerful, or else she was incredibly lucky. I could only hope that such a one-in-a-million escape hadn't made the teen too cocky. One reckless move in battle could put an end to both her luck and her life.

"Eden, can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"Ever since these powers switched on, it's like I've become a marked woman. Things have been coming at me from every direction. Gus, the Coven, Necromantra, all in one night. And then NM-E piled on the next day. It's crazy. And it hasn't stopped yet. Last night I ran into an ultra-powered thief. What's going to hit on me next?"

"I know the feeling," I commiserated. "If you want my advice, I'd say get out of the ultra business.”

"That doesn't compute. What good would hiding do? It isn't like I've been walking around with a 'Hi, I'm an ultra. Attack me,' sign on my back.”

"I'm sorry, Lauren. I don't know why these things happen to people. I'd be glad to become Mantra again and let you go back to your old life.”

“Now wait a minute! I don't want to go back to that kind of life. I just don't want to be living inside a shooting gallery.”

“I'll give you all the advice I can, once things settle down. But for now, can you tell me, step by step, what's been happening – to me especially – since Thursday?"

"Nothing much happened on Thursday," the teen replied. "On Friday, I called you up about getting payment on my last babysitting job. You said I could come right over.”

“Did I sound normal?”

“Yeah! But by the time I got to your house, all hell had broken loose. I found out that Gus had attacked you, shrunk you down to the size of a figurine, and put you into a cracker box.”

“Shrunk me?”

How had he done that? I'd been Mantra for two years and hadn't discovered any such capability. How had Gus learned to do something like that in two minutes?

“When did your powers come alive?” I asked. “Did anything strange happen to you?”

“Plenty of strange things happened, but not until Gus let me into the house.”

“Did he look – unusual?” I asked.

“He looked even scarier than usual! He was glowing green, and levitating!”

“Lauren, do you remember what happened to his...appearance... last spring?

“Of course! Have you forgotten that, too?”

“Yes, I have.”

“But it happened long before last Thursday!”

“It's too complex to explain right now. “Did Gus attack you?”

“Not at first. He smiled and made a kind of little boy's pass at me, but when I reminded him about the differences in our age he went berserk!

Lauren went on to tell me an amazing story. It involved getting magical armor and finding out that her body had come alive with magic. Was it possible that being next to Gus's magical aura, that green glow that she mentioned, had her own magic been jump-started?

“I took a magical shot at him,” the girl said, “but he shook it right off. That's when you shouted something from that cracker box he'd put you in. That was a bad move; he was so angry that he killed you.”

Killed me?

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7