The fluorescent lights of BEA interrogation room 3 buzzed like angry wasps. I rubbed my throat where Lydia had nearly crushed my windpipe.
My shoulder hurt more. She'd practically had to drag my screaming body into this chair (my ego would never be able to live the embarrassment down).
Pardon me for picturing her standing over my anaesthesia induced body, cutting me open like a crazy surgeon.
Dissection turned out, and furtunately for all elements involved, to be an interrogation session with the boss.
Director Vance, the man-in-charge of the BEA, Earth branch.
I offered him a serious nod. "I believe we've met before."
About an hour ago to be precise. Right here, different setting. It seemed my disrupted life was developing a pattern. A not convenient one, unfortunately.
His shaggy beard was now styled around his chin, the sides shaved just enough to make him look less primal. His bald head glistened under the overhead lighting of the room, the reflections almost too decipherable for comfort.
A pristine white suit clung to his voluminous size. Guess the director of such an active agency didn't need to pass physical examinations.
Director Vance stared at me from across the table, his fingers splayed out. "You accessed a restricted debug dimension."
"Yep," I said, popping the 'p'. "Cute place. Needs better decor. Cube-monster needs eyes."
Lydia's pen snapped in half. "How did you override Custodian protocols?"
I grinned. "Maybe I'm just special. You're one tight ball of tension, Lyds. You stress too much."
She chose to ignore me. Pretending to be of the best behaviour in the presence of her boss. Hypocrite.
Vance slid a tablet toward me. The screen showed security footage—my portal glitching blue during the bank heist, then shifting to BEA's signature gold mid-fall.
"Your power adapted to bypass dimensional locks," Vance said. "That shouldn't be possible."
Jason, still cuffed beside me, gasped. "Are you a super spy?"
I spared him a glance. "Shouldn't you be in therapy?"
"My session starts in an hour. Super spy?"
I leaned back. "Nah. Just really bad at following rules."
Vance's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Or someone programmed you with backdoor access."
"Backdoor access to what? The cookie jar?" I sighed. "My abilities permits me to create portals to anywhere I can imagine. As long as I picture it, the portal makes it accessible. Simple as ABD."
Jason shook his head. "ABC, dude. C comes before D in the English alphabets."
"Just making a point. Why are you here?" I referred the question to Vance. "Why is he here? Someone said something about an octopus therapist."
Vance remained unfazed. "Jason Copycat isn't the problem. And from my knowledge of interdimensional portals, their essence remains constant. BEA portals, the ones we've been able to create to seven dimensions and the universes in between, were engineered through stringent measures you can't even imagine."
"I create portals in my sleep. Natural's always best."
"And your occasional…glitches?" Vance raised a knowing brow.
I shrugged. "Still getting the hangs of things. Should be fine soon."
Vance nodded, a smile on his face. "Take him to the lab, Lydia."
"I won't willingly submit to dissection!"
"Relax, Kai Mercer. We just want to understand you better. I promise you won't come to any harm. Trust me."
I didn't trust him one bit. Not even if my life depended on it.
My gut screamed at me to flee. I reached for a portal, not minding wherever it went. Anywhere but here would be ok.
But Lydia appeared by my side.
"Don't try it. This dimension has been programmed by Custodian to go one way."
"Where?"
"Jason would tell you about it if you ever met again."
Therapy was a no no. Been there. Done that. Despised it. Couldn't imagine an octopus digging into my mind to reveal my demons.
--- —- —-
[Bug's Lab (Where Tech Goes to Cry)]
The lab turned out to be of the more technical than biological kind. I mean, humanoid robots still roamed the halls, but I didn't notice any nefarious activity of the bloody kind.
Lydia dragged me to the tech hub –a small room at the back of the lab where Bug sat surrounded by holograms. One screen showed my portal's energy signature—with weird black spikes in the data.
Bug was a little distracted when we arrived.
"...you've run a scatter analysis with all recorded portals created within the accessible dimensions."
The wingless drone hovering close to his head buzzed for a minute. It had BEA written in bold letters over the top of the two blue orbs it called eyes. More like scanners.
Bug nodded, his fingers prodding points on the screens. "Translate the codes into relatable data. Cross-reference them with the analysis of today's dimensional portal in the vault."
"Is he talking to the robot?" I asked Lydia as she pulled me forward.
"You're not the only weird person around here."
"You included on that list?"
She deposited me into a chair. "He's all yours."
Bug whistled. "Dude. Your power's got malware."
I snatched a donut from his desk. "Flattering."
"No, I mean—" He zoomed in. "These patterns? They match Weaver-class incursions."
The room went cold.
I looked between them. "Again, who is weaver?"
"The world's greatest corruption. Reality is his plaything," replied Bug deadpan.
Lydia's hand hovered near her time-freeze device. "You're saying Mercer's infected?"
"More like… preloaded." Bug pulled up a file labeled PROJECT BACKDOOR "Two years ago, BEA found a way to hack into the Weaver's dimensions. They needed a human carrier."
The donut turned to ash in my mouth.
"And let me guess," I said. "They picked the guy whose power already breaks reality?"
Bug nodded. "Your 'glitches'? Probably test runs."
"Test runs? I'm not a robot."
"No, not precisely. Your biological coding has been tempered with, though."
--- —- —--
[Flashback: Six Months Earlier]
The world around me was reduced to only a few factors.
Darkness. The smell of antiseptic. Straps biting my wrists. Pain from the deepest part of my core.
"Subject is responding to imprinting," a voice said from everywhere.
The pain crackled like lightning in my skull. Blinding. Consuming.
Then—nothing.
--- —-- —--
[Present Time–(Strangeness Overload)]
I came back to reality with Lydia shaking me. "Mercer! Breathe."
I gasped. "What… what happened?"
"Panic attack. Didn't think you had it in you."
"I aim to surprise." Something felt oddly wrong with my senses, like I was experiencing everything around me in reverse order.
Sparks clouded the edges of my vision as I stared down at my tingling palms. My hands were glowing black at the edges, like dense flames rising from my fingertips.
"Cool," I wheezed. "So I'm basically a Trojan horse?"
Bug leaned towards the holograms, his face concerned. "Your 'panic attack' triggered something, Kai. It's messing with BEA HQ configurations."
An alarm blared. Red lights flashed from hidden sensors in the steel ceiling.
>> SECURITY BREACH: SUBLEVEL 5 <<
>> LEVEL 5 THREAT ACTIVE <<
Vance's voice came through the comms. For the first time, he seemed disturbed. "Chen. Mercer. Bug. Contain whatever just woke up."
Lydia grabbed my arm. "You owe me for this."
I let her drag me toward the elevators. "Would you believe me if I said I didn't do it?"
Her glare answered for her.
---
[Sublevel 5 (Where BEA Keeps Its Worst Mistakes)]
The hallway looked like a futurustic prison crossed with a lab. Containment cells lined the walls, each labeled with threat levels.
Cell 5D's door was bent outward, as if recovering from a collision with asteroids.
Something shuffled in the darkness of the cell.
Lydia activated her time-freeze. "On my mark—"
The figure stepped into the light.
We froze.
It took a moment for me to recover. I glanced at Lydia. "I came to the world alone."
Such declaration was made necessary because the figure was me in every considerable way.
Tall, athletically lithe from days as a pro swimmer, dark brown hair rising from a reasonably proportioned face.
The only differences were muted: Tattered BEA fatigues. Hollow eyes. Pale, lifeless skin. And black veins crawling up his—my—neck.
Fake-Kai smiled."Host located."