Imaginary - Book 2 - Chapter 30 - Emergency Response (Patreon)

I could literally feel waves of relief rolling off my friends when we finally stepped into the BEI office. I knew that everyone had been on edge, but I hadn’t realized how much until we finally reached safety. 

The twins immediately sagged, leaning on each other for support; Amelia clenched her fists in an attempt to suppress her shaking; and Olivia pitched forward, nearly falling face-first on the floor. Thankfully, the two of us had linked arms, so I was able to keep her upright.

“Sorry,” she said, giving me a guilty smile. “My legs gave out there for a moment.”

“It’s okay, I completely understand,” I replied quietly. “How about we take a seat for a minute? I think everyone could use it.”

The two of us had just barely begun lowering ourselves into a couple of the lobby chairs when I was surprised a loud cry of “Tammy!”

I didn’t even have a chance to turn before my mother wrapped me in a bone-crushing hug. “I was so worried!” 

“Mom? What are you doing here?” I asked blankly. 

“Since you and your friends decided to come into town today, I thought I’d come into the office and try to get through some extra paperwork, so I’d be able to take some extra time off later, once the rush finished,” she explained, stroking my cheek. “I’m so glad you’re all okay,” she said, patting Olivia on the head and giving Amelia, Kyle and Kira a concerned look. 

“We probably wouldn’t be if Mr. Adwell hadn’t intervened,” Olivia said with a small smile. 

“It was my pleasure,” the man grunted as he stepped into the office. “It’s not that often I get a chance to put that prick in his place.”

“What happened?” Mac asked as he came around the front desk, a couple of agents I didn’t recognize behind him. “I’m guessing, based on the kid’s condition, they weren’t just imagining things.”

“No, that asshole Michael Grey was stalking them down Main Street,” Adwell explained. 

“What?” Mac said, dumbfounded. “How is that possible? We sent him back to the Archfall Enclave under guard and required him to check in daily after that stunt he pulled earlier. We should have received an alert if he’d run off again.”

He frowned for a second, then glanced at the rugged-looking man with spectacles behind him. “Johnson, can you call the Archfall office and check what’s going on over there?”

“On it,” the other man grunted.

“He looks so cool in all the videos, but up close in person…” Kira said before trailing off.

“The man scares me,” Kyle finished. “He only managed to get within a few feet of us, and he never talked to us directly, but I could feel this… malevolence rolling off him.” 

“Part of that is due to his power,” Adwell grunted. “Part of it is because the man is a world-class asshole.”

“What is his power anyway?” I asked. “I’ve heard that he runs the suppression teams around Arcfall, but what makes him so powerful?”

“He has the ability to create solid illusions,” Kyle explained. “He’s shown off all sorts of uses for it in his videos. Creating armour and barriers, manifesting weapons, even creating illusory creatures.”

“He only used to be able to create static illusions,” Adwell muttered. “But his power evolved over time, as he helped close Ruptures around his Enclave.”

“He used to help close Ruptures with nothing more than basic illusions?” Olivia gasped.

“That man’s always been a nutcase. He’s just become more powerful, and unhinged, as time has gone on. Now he believes that pretty much every new Empowered person should follow his lead, and worship the land he walks on.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Kyle grumbled. “He didn’t talk to us directly, but I could still tell he was bad news. Plus he decked Amelia in the face.”

“Why hasn’t anyone done something about him?” Amelia asked shakily. 

“Because the man may be a menace; he hasn’t broken any major laws doing it,” Mac explained. “A lot of misdemeanours, which is why he’s supposed to be restricted to the Enclave, but nothing truly illegal.”

“At least until now,” Johnson announced as he came jogging back from his desk. “Seems like Grey has picked up some new tricks. He DID check in with the Archfell office this morning, or so they thought. However, when they went to check on him a couple of minutes ago, they found that what was walking around the Enclave was an illusion.”

“Call the head office,” Mac growled. “Grey received a written warning the last time he snuck out of Archfall. Not only has he ignored that warning, but now he’s gone out of his way to fool the Agents assigned to monitor him. The man has absorbed so many particles over the years that he’ll be a serious threat if he ever pops off in a public area.”

“What are the chances of that?” Amelia asked.

“Well, thankfully it doesn’t seem like absorbing more particles doesn't increase or decrease the chances of someone causing a Rupture,” Mac replied. “So even though the chances of him destabilizing are extremely small, it could still happen at any time.”

“Should we go after him?” the other agent asked Mac.

“And do what? It’s obvious that he’s not willing to listen to us anymore,” Mac grumbled. “Actually, you know what? We should still keep track of him, even if we can’t contain him. Grab Mackenzie and Walters, and see if you can locate him.”

“We should call the response team, and maybe consider evacuating the town if he sticks around,” the agent said.

“Leave that to me, Mike,” Mac replied. “Just find him before something happens.”

“Is it really that bad that this man is walking around unmonitored?” my mother asked.

“Absolutely,” Mac immediately replied. “The reason why we isolate Empowered people from the general public is that every single one of them has the potential to cause extreme damage if they create a Rupture in a public place. A weak Rupture has the potential to result in dozens of casualties; a Rupture caused by someone like Grey? Well, the BEI’s projections say ninety percent casualties within ten miles.”

My mother immediately paled. “But if that’s the case, wouldn’t gathering a bunch of Empowered in a single place make the situation far more dangerous, guaranteeing casualties?”

“Empowered are the only ones that can actually fight off strong manifestations,” Mac replied. “So while there are more Ruptures, they’re overall less threatening because there are more people around that can deal with them. It’s far from ideal, but it provides the best chances for everyone to survive.” He gave my mother an awkward smile. “I’m sorry; we’ve kept you so busy you haven’t been able to join any of the primer seminars we hold for the students’ families. Once this situation is under control, I’ll sit down with you and run through some of the most important details.”

“Uh, I hate to interrupt, but what should we do now?” Kyle asked. “I think I speak for all of us when I say: I don’t want to go back out there while that guy’s running around. Although he claimed that he just wanted to talk to us, I’m not sure I believe him.”

“For now, you’ll stay here,” Mac replied. “The one thing we’ve got going for us is that, while Empowered people become more capable of dealing with manifestations than normal people, most Empowered don’t get any tougher. We can tranquillize Grey if he refuses to cooperate or, in the worst-case scenario, shoot him. Once we locate him, we’ll use one of the bureau vans to move you back to your houses, and we’ll assign an agent to stay with you.”

“What about Mr. Adwell? Can’t you send him out? it seemed like Grey was afraid of him?” Amelia asked.

“I’m not going anywhere,” the man grumbled. “I understand the risks of breaking the rules, unlike the idiot running around out there. I’m staying here until my ride arrives, then I’m going back to my Enclave. It’s safest for everyone. On the positive side, at least for you kids, is that means I’ll be sitting here with you until that happens, and Grey won’t come anywhere near me. So you don’t have to worry about him until I leave.”

“That’s… actually fairly comforting,” Kira said. “At least to me.”

“I think it’s comforting to all of us,” Amelia agreed, before raising a hand. “See? I stopped shaking.”

“Good,” Kira replied, patting her on the back. “We were worried about you.”

I looked around the small foyer, and all the people squeezed inside, and sighed. “Well, I guess we’re going to be stuck here for awhile. What shall we do while we wait?”