“Back off, Macaw.” Keiji spoke cooly, with a slight glare. “While he has been cooperative, our new friend murdered Andree in about 5 seconds not even one hour ago.”
The man, Macaw, backed up pretty quick after that. His hands up in a mock surrender. I was able to get a better look at his costume, which helped explain the name Macaw. From his head to his toes was red. It was covered in a feathery body suit that seemed to match the look of the macaw. His arms were an array of colors, transitioning from red, to orange, yellow, green, and ending at his fingers which were blue. Same style as the rest of his costume, with the feather theme. Although it did end around his feet and hands. His face was covered by white mask which covered his eyes, and a… beak. It was a beak covering his mouth and nose. It didn’t seem to move when he talked. The top of his head was covered by the body suit, keeping his hair a mystery.
“Hey hey hey, no killing please.” He said while staring at me and continuing to back up. “I’m just a big fan of birds, I just got excited is all. No harm meant.”
Keiji and I stepped out of the elevator, allowing me to get a better look at the place. The room we entered was massive, circular in shape, with about 5 doors that led deeper into the facility. This main room we were in seemed to act like the hub. There were desks scattered around, and a massive station set up directly in the middle. It had multiple screens, each large enough to be a living room TV.
I saw another member of my new team sitting at one of the desks. She wore a dark purple body suit covered in little pinpricks of light. Each of those dots were probably no larger than a needle point, and yet the light pushed out through them giving her a glowing aura around her. Her hair was a platinum blonde, and it seemed to have a certain weightlessness to it. Like it was floating without gravity to hold it down.
“See Nebula, they were birds.”
“I can see that Macaw. It’s a shame our friend here is more reserved. I would have killed you for getting in my face like that.”
Macaw mocked a pain to his heart. Nebula just stared him down until he stopped. Their dynamic made me concerned. It seemed like Nebula truly wanted to cause Macaw harm, which couldn’t spell anything good if she got too pissed with me. After all, I was the newbie here.
“Nebula, the boss wanted me to inform you of the situation, so here it is.” Nebula and Macaw both looked to him. I didn’t see anyone else in this room. “This is Ray. He is now your responsibility. The boss wants his powers tested so we know how to use him. Also,” He gave an evil grin. “He has amnesia. So, with that, I’m out of here. Have fun!”
With a quick wave, Keiji made his way to the elevator, got in, and was gone. Nebula’s jaw was hanging open.
“What! THE! HELL!!” Her scream echoed around the whole room. I could see Macaw holding his hands over where his ears would be. She turned to face me, and I flinched at the glare. “The boss said nothing about amnesia. You can’t remember anything??” Her gaze never wavered, and I was having trouble meeting her eyes.
“Maybe,” Macaw interjected. “We should start with the basics. We know your name is Ray, right? What about your villain name?”
“My villain name? I don’t have one.” I manged to speak without stuttering, thankfully. I couldn’t imagine what Nebula would do if I did that. “Umm, if you need one though, I guess Crow works for now.”
“Oh good! I like it! Oh I’m so happy to have another bird themed guy on the team!!” Macaw wrapped his arm around my shoulder. Or at least he tried to. As soon as his arm got close to me, one of the circling crows nipped his finger in passing. “Ouch! Okay okay, I get it. No touching.”
“Well, it a bit belated, but welcome to our hideout! It’s pretty sweet huh? All the teams for The Order have something set up like this, though for some reason, our boss doesn’t bring on as many Exalts as the others. Has it’s perks though, we don’t have to worry about sharing the space with a bunch of people!” Macaw sat down at one of the desk, fiddling with the beak portion of his mask. I had my crows spread out through the room, this time I hopped from one crows vision to the next as quickly as I could to see how fast I could see everything in the room. To my surprise, it seemed to work really well. Despite how quickly I was moving between views, I seemed to be retaining information quite clearly, and more importantly, not getting motion sick.
Nebula was still scowling, but her voice had softened a tad. “Yes, welcome. Macaw covered the big items.” She paused, thinking for a moment, then sternly said. “Crow is just a temp name, right? I won’t be able to deal with two bird brains at the same time.”
“Ye-yes. Just a temp name.”
“Good.” Nebula nodded. “Ok, next. What do you know about your powers?”
“My powers… Currently not much. I know I can summon these crows, and I can look through their eyes or hear through their ears if I will it. As for the other… I… It might be easier to just show you. But not here! Umm, somewhere that’s larger. So you can be further away.”
If either of them thought the reason was weird, they didn’t say it.
“Fine. Sooner this is done, the sooner I can get back to the rest of my day.” Nebula said with a sigh.
As we walked down the hall, we didn’t chat. Macaw was doing some light stretching as we walked, and I had my crows spread out down the hall trying to get a feel for the place, every so often hopping between their eyes to see more of this complex. Eventually, we came to an opening on the right side, and I followed Nebula and Macaw in.
The room was massive! It was a huge training room, with dummies, kicking bags, weights, and a large open space for what I assumed was sparring. The room was lit with plenty of overhead lights, that while bright, did cast shadows here and there. Macaw went to a spot to continue stretching, so I figured I should do some light stretches as well. Nebula stood by, doing nothing while she waited.
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“Ok, Crow. Show us what you got!” Macaw said, with great enthusiasm.
I nodded. “Please, just stand back. I’m not sure how much control I have.”
Taking in a deep breath, I found the muscle to flex to release my shadow. With a flex, I felt it detach from me. The gasps from Nebula and Macaw were enough to know that it had worked. So far, it wasn’t doing anything. Just, standing where it had appeared. Almost like it was waiting for a command. Well, there was only one way to try.
“Jump.”
My shadow immediately jumped in the air, quite high as well, and landed softly, without a sound.
“Run eight laps. Jogging pace.”
The shadow moved to the edge of the room and started to run laps around us.
“Ok, I think I have more control then I thought.” I said, feeling the tension leave my body. I had been terrified it would attack one of them outright. “This, thing… It’s how I killed Andree. He pointed a gun at me, and I ended up releasing this. It… Well it protected me.” My stomach churned as I explained what happened, the memories of Andree dying coming back up to haunt me.
Weakness is not befitting. Be proud.
Like hell I’d be proud of that. The shadow moved over to my right side, finishing it’s last lap. Macaw and nebula continued to stare at me, until finally, Macaw spoke up.
“This is super cool Crow!! I totally want to fight it actually. It’s solid?”
I reached up and gently tapped the shadow on the shoulder. “Yup, certainty feels that way.”
“And it did those eight laps really fast too! This is like the perfect sparring partner!” At my confused look, he clarified. “I practice hand to hand combat, unlike some people,” he gave a sidelong glance to Nebula. “I don’t have powers that boost me in that department. Gotta keep myself in shape and well practiced.”
Nebula studied the shadow. I could hear her muttering to herself, but couldn’t make out what she was saying. She nodded, and then turned to me.
“I see why the boss thinks you’ll fit in well with us. We’ll need to test your limits. However it’s late, and I still want to enjoy the rest of the night. We’ll do a full sparring session tomorrow. This will also give you the benefit of learning about our powers. Plus, practice going against enemies whose abilities are unknown to you. It happens more than you might think.”
With that, we left the training room. I released the muscle and the shadow disappeared. With one crow on each shoulder, and a third flying around, I mentally told the others to stay. The space was large enough for 6 other birds. As we returned to the main space, Nebula immediately walked away from us, moving towards one of the doors on the right side, leaving me alone with Macaw. Macaw took a seat and began to fiddle with his beak. I continued to look around the room, taking in anything I hadn’t seen or looked at long enough before.
“You can take a seat Crow, we’re safe here. It’s all good.” Macaw had finally removed the beak, and he had also removed the mask over his eyes. He was an attractive dude, but not a model or anything. His hair was a dirty blond cut short, and he had piercing green eyes. He was probably the heartthrob in high school that all the girls went after. I did feel my throat tighten a little looking at him though, and my palms were sweaty. I did take his advice and pick a seat, though I made sure to put some distance between Macaw and I.
Things had moved so fast, I was still trying to catch up with everything that had happened. I was a villain now. A super powered villain with a shadow that kills people and crows that I can see and hear through.
Nebula returned to the main room. She was in normal clothes and the glow around her was gone. Her hair no longer seemed to defy gravity, it acted like any longer hair would. It also had lost the glow surrounding it, now appearing as black. She was very pretty, had the curves in all the right spots. It made me wonder, how did a girl like her end up working for a villain organization. She walked past us towards the elevator, and without a word spoken, she was gone.
“Ehhh, don’t mind her. She’s just pissed her day was interrupted with work. It sucks, but it happens. She’ll get over it.”
“You’re not upset your day was interrupted?”
Macaw gave me an odd look, thinking for a moment. “No, I’m not upset at all. With you, I have another bird lover on the team! Maybe I can finally pressure Nebula into changing her name, then we could call ourselves The Flock!” He gave me a cheesy grin “Really though, I’m just used to it, so it doesn’t bother me nearly as much. I think she is still getting used to the fact that despite how well it pays, the hours can get in the way of a regular life. Which is funny, since I started after her! She should be more used to it at this point, it didn’t take me very long.”
I nodded my head in understanding. I felt the pull of another memory from Andree, it seemed to react to what Macaw had said. Focusing on it, I watched as it unfolded.
The ringing of the cell phone startled me... Andree... awake.
He answered the phone with a gruff "What?"
"Andree, thank you for answering." The boss's voice came through. "I have a job for you."
"A job?" Andree looked at the clock. "It's 3 in the damn morning, can't it wait?!"
"I'm afraid not."
"Fine. Send me the details. I'll leave in 5." Grumbling, Andree hung up the phone and got out of bed.
Once again, I felt a feeling of disdain for my now new employer after viewing Andree’s memory. Macaw was looking at me a bit confused, so I quickly spoke before he could ask a question.
“I told you, Crow was just a temporary name for me. I don’t think it’s going to be the one I stick with.” I hastily added. “Sorry to kill that dream. Besides, I’d like to learn more about what my powers do before I name myself.” I looked over at my crows. I was having a tough time figuring out how they would be useful in a fight.
“I’d be careful of going down that road.” Macaw seemed to get pretty serious for the first time since I met him. “Naming yourself based on your powers too well, and everyone will know what you do before the fight even starts. I’ve seen too many good…. well, too many people die because of that.” Macaw walked around the space, and began removing the rest of his costume. As he pulled his arms out of the sleeves, and pulled the feathery bodysuit down, it revealed body armor and arm guards. He had a thin shirt and shorts on as well, and I could see the toned muscles on his arms. “See, I have this bird aesthetic, and the name Macaw makes people really think I do stuff with birds. Misdirection. When I actually use my power, it catches everyone by surprise!” Just like that, the serious Macaw was gone, as he pumped his fists in triumph.
“Then I can’t wait to see it in action tomorrow.” The closest thing to a smile crossed my face as I said it. I was looking forward to it. As my body seemed to relax, A sudden wave of exhaustion hit me.
“Hey Macaw, where am I going to be sleeping here?”
“Hmm, oh yeah. Kinda important that. Follow me.”
We got up and walked down the hallway Nebula had disappeared down for a bit. We walked down the hallway, passing 4 other doors, until we reached the one at the end.
“This’ll be your room! Seeing as we are gonna spar tomorrow morning, I think I’ll sleep in the base tonight. Usually, both Nebula and I go to our own homes. If you need anything, I’m two doors down from you on the left side. Well, g’night!”
Macaw walked off to his room, and I entered mine. It was decently spacious, had a nice looking bed and a dresser. There were lamps to keep it well lit along, with a table and chair. The walls were the same standard white that the rest of this facility had. Overall, not much to look at, but it was mine. I also noticed the speaker in here as well. They must be littered throughout the place so that our boss could reach us at any time.
The crows hopped from my shoulder, and landed on the dresser. I only had two in here with me, the third must still be outside. I can deal with that in the morning.
I didn’t even bother undressing before laying on the bed.