Genesis End

By Spinning Demon (Topman) and Gauntlet (Shadowman)

Chapter Five - My Big, Fat, Stupid Mouth

Only short moments after I'd spoken, a vicious roar exploded from the enraged robot across the table from me. Before I could register what had happened, a fist the size of my whole upper body was careening towards me at break-neck speed. Within a second I would have been pulverized, but something shot like a bullet from my left, and in the next instant I was on the floor and the Hard Knuckle smashed into the wall behind me, mere inches above my head. My torso was aching from a blow I didn't remember receiving, but it must have been what knocked me over, and looking down I was surprised to see a large shuriken still poking out of my chest plate.

Hard Man roared again, furious at having been denied the hit, and jumped to standing, throwing the chair back into the wall with a deafening crash. With speed I never knew he had, he was on the table, and even the resilient alloys of the RPD's advanced construction buckled under the sheer weight of him. He moved forward to close the distance on me, when Shadow shot a meaningful look to Magnet, who tensed instantly and thrust forward his hands. Hard and I were both slammed instantly into the respective walls behind us, and blacked out in the seconds ensuing.

I came to consciousness first. The room was newly silent, the shock of this sudden outburst of violence heavy in the the air and stilling all movement. Then Shadow turned to look at me, anger radiating from his slender form, and his voice erupted powerfully from behind his mask.

"Top, what the hell is your PROBLEM?!"

Hard Man stirred again, fighting vainly against the magnetic force which kept him at bay, and he growled ferociously. To my left, all of my teammates were wide-eyed, staring either at Hard or myself as they tried to process what had happened, and what to do about it. In the corner, Mags was straining with the effort of holding both the berserking Hard Man and myself pinned against the wall. Shadow uttered a command as he passed the red android which must have been to let me go, because my body slumped down from the wall where moments ago I'd been completely restrained. But before I could pick myself up from the floor, the ninja lifted me forcefully and slammed me flat against the tabletop, pinning me easily with both girth and gravity on his side.

"Explain yourself," he bellowed. "Immediately."

The strange thing was, I couldn't. I didn't even know why I had said such a horrible thing to one of my teammates, especially one that I was already struggling to get along with. As the reality of what I had said dawned on me, I felt a wave of regret surge over me.

"Oh, god, I don't... I don't know why I even said that, I just... Hard, I'm so sorry, I..."

Even before I looked at him I knew an "I'm sorry" would not suffice. Our eyes met, and his were full of fury and tears- of pain, or worse. Looking at him apologetically seemed to enrage him all the more, and he started screaming "I'm gonna kill ya, ya little PUNK, I'm gonna RIP YER THROAT OUT! Nobody talks about my friends like that, not after-"

"Hard Man!" Shadow shouted, all patience long lost, "Get a hold of yourself. Now."

Nobody had ever questioned what Shadow might do if one of us really pissed him off, and Hard was not foolish enough to be the first to find out. He slowed his struggling and grew a little calmer, until his rage had subsided to a heavy breathing. The murderous look had not left his eyes. Shadow nodded to Sheriff Mags, who retracted his magnetic hold on the large robot and then collapsed with fatigue. Spark paused for a moment, to stare at me with disbelieving eyes, and then crossed over to Hard. Gemini turned towards Shadow Man, who was still pushing me painfully into the table's hard surface.

"Shadow Man, you know as well as I that Top Man would not say such a thing, usually."

He didn't look at Gemini but still stared intently at me, though his impatient rage had cooled to frustration and his eyes bore a look almost of curiosity. His grip on me lessened, though he did not let go. "What's going on, Top?" he asked through gritted teeth.

I wasn't sure how to answer him, since I didn't quite know myself. What perplexed me most is that, at the time, what I said had seemed like a perfectly alright thing to say. I had actually thought it was kind of funny. Now, I knew, it was decidedly not. Truth be told though, if Hard Man hadn't reacted as he had, I might not even have noticed I'd said anything wrong. The words weren't mine now that I'd considered them... but it was like a small stain, that you never would have noticed on your own, but once you know how to look for it you find it every time. A stain on my brain, I'm not sure if that even made sense... but as I repeated it to Shadow he seemed to understand at least well enough to ask his next question.

"Has this happened before, Top, these... thoughts that 'aren't yours'?"

I was about to reply no, but it occurred to me that if it had happened before, I might not even have realized, since it felt so normal to me this time. I sat there meditatively, scanning the past for actions or thoughts of mine that might seem foreign to me now, in hindsight. It was several seconds before the events of this afternoon resurfaced in my memory, and I felt very disturbed to recall the blood lust that had come over me suddenly. "Yes," I said finally, "this afternoon. I was... oh God, I wanted to kill someone, I wanted to... to snap her neck..."

I felt suddenly very ill. Gem, Needle and Spark were looking at me with a mixed look of sympathy and horror, Hard still looked like he wanted to Hard Press me into a pancake, and Magnet was looking at me with concern, perhaps wondering if Hard wasn't the only hot head he had to keep in line. Snake hadn't untensed since the fight broke out. Shadow merely nodded, a sign for me to continue. My mind scanned back to the moment earlier when I'd stared at Needle Gal with many of the same thoughts. "I-I think it happened earlier today, too, only I got... it got interrupted." I thought back further but couldn't recall any other incidents, so I shrugged to show that that was all.

"Now Top, this is extremely important," Shadow said delicately. "Did you see, or feel, or otherwise notice anything else strange at the time of these incidents?"

I shook my head. "No, I... wait, yes. At the rally. There was a man, I had thought that he had been a hallucination or something, because he looked sick, or... or just wrong, somehow, but I didn't get a good enough look... one of his eyes was hidden, and he grinned at me, his grin was horrible, it stretched across his whole face, like..." An image from the past rose to my consciousness, and I shuddered as a horrible realization hit me. "Like Mesmerman. The one eye, the grin... It's him, isn't it! It's his mind control that's making me think these horrible thoughts!"

"Think this is him? Didn't you lot develop a kind of resistance to his attacks thanks to him constantly messing with you?" Magnet asked skeptically as he eased himself back into his chair.

"We did and we passed our firewall as best we could to Hard Man and yourself," Snake replied. "We also tried to inoculate the RPD, but that seems to have failed. I suppose Mesmerman could put one over on you or Hard, but the rest of us including Top have a measure of resistance to Mesmerman now. It couldn't be him."

"Snake's right," Needle Gal admitted. "Nothing of this has the reek of Mesmerman's influence. When I was under his control all those years ago it was nothing like what Top described; I felt like a puppet, a prisoner- no will of my own- and it wasn't until Mesmerman was defeated that I snapped out of it. Besides, why would he give his game away by showing himself to you, Top? It doesn't add up."

"Maybe he changed tactics," I argued, "maybe he has some super-agenda to all of this, maybe he just wanted to taunt me, I don't know! But it's Mesmerman, it has to be."

"Top's right," Shadow said authoritatively. "It's definitely Mesmerman."

Needle Gal looked like her brother had slapped her in the face. "Shadow, look at the facts! It doesn't fit his patterns, it doesn't fit his powers, and, oh yeah, we're IMMUNE. It can't be him."

"Who else could it be?" Shadow Man retorted. This led to silence while everyone wracked their brains for an alternative, and came up short. "Like I said, it's Mesmerman."

Usually, Shadow Man planned for all contingencies, plans within plans within plans. Now he was doing just the opposite, and it had everyone staring at him in what I found to be a very uncomfortable silence. Hard - and now Needle too - were fuming, Magnet and Gemini were both about ready to pass out, and Spark and Snake were both eying Shadow with no short amount of skepticism. Not a single one of them met my eyes when I looked at them. In the tension it almost looked as if Shadow's mouth was moving from behind his face mask, and I wondered if he was muttering to himself. Jeez, maybe he was losing it. Eventually he broke the quiet with new orders.

"I do not want any of you to misinterpret my decision- this team and its members will always be of highest priority. But for now, Top, we need to put our attention towards the murder cases."

"But boss!" I pleaded, suddenly scared of how vulnerable I could be at any moment, both in danger and dangerous myself. "I-"

"I'm not saying we're not going to do what we can," Shadow said a little unreassuringly. "Until we track Mesmerman down, I want you to be watched at all times by one of us, in case he tries to pull any tricks while he thinks our backs are turned. But if the murders end up being serial, or the beginning of an outbreak, which are a high possibility given the evidence so far, then the death toll will spread like wildfire until we find a way to stop it. Finding Mesmerman will have to take second priority. Now we've all had a long day, but tomorrow's going to be even longer. Get as much sleep as you can, we meet back here at 0600."

Hard grumbled at the news of an early waking, and sullenly headed out the door without a backward glance at me. I felt horrible for what I'd said, but I still felt a little unjustly treated by him, since he knew by now they were not my words. It occurred to me that I might now be seen more as a villain than as a teammate until Mesmerman was stopped, and of my teammates only Spark seemed to look at me kindly, and even then with some apprehension. I scowled as I mounted the steps up to the hall and into my quarters, and flopped onto the bed, exhausted. A knock on the door made me jump a little in surprise, and Spark Chan entered the room before I even had a chance to say 'come in', or the more likely 'go away'. She offered a look of apology, and said "Guard duty." I winced and motioned to a chair in the corner where she could sit, before falling back onto the bed again. "Don't worry, Toppy," she said comfortingly, "you know Shadow. I'm sure he has a plan to beat Mesmerman already." But as I drifted into a troubled sleep, what stayed in my mind wasn't Spark's soothing words, but the look of complete doubt I saw on her face as she said it.