literature

A Quandary

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Literature Text

Sensation sat down in the middle of Sinclair city, holding a cup of tea in the middle of a plaza. She had stopped at a place her friend Florence had recommended. She felt the gentle breeze. It was March 21st, the first of spring. She could smell the blooming flowers, the pollen in the air as well and the faint buzzing of bees. She was glad to be able to travel, after her last break she had been outfitted with new devices of make that both Dr. Isaac and Gear had developed, with Roger making a tweak or two.

As she sat down she wished he could have been there. He had been so adamant about making sure to add more protective measures to her new outfit, but he had been ill lately. She worried about him. Her mother was always sickly, so she was uncomfortable whenever someone else was ill.

To busy herself she read a newspaper. There was news of a celebrity getting into some fight or another, a few columns on local news, the economy, a recent string of shootings in Texas, some new businessman named Gerald Kard coming into prominence, and lastly the comic strip. She browsed each of these items, waiting patiently.

“I get the feeling they aren’t coming.” Sensation muttered, hoping Dr. Isaac and Gear could hear via radio on her IRIS visor.  The doctor merely stared at his monitor. It had Sensation’s vitals on as well as a tracer to keep track of her location. Gear monitored the conditions of her equipment and information upload, her four extra limbs working to deliver as much useful information as useful.

“Trust me, a guy who deletes records of his birth, or never had any records, is definitely gonna show up. Just give it time and be careful around…What was his name again?”

“He didn’t leave one.” Gear said looking at the document left on Sensation’s door. It was the house where she and her mother lived, inconspicuously enough. The fact that someone found her home so easily was intimidating, to say the least. Sensation had decided to take a proactive role and asked her friends to do research on the man. They found very little, nothing solid at least. Because of this Sensation just had to wait in the public location. Odds were it wasn’t a set up due to the number of civilians, but she couldn’t be sure. Instead she waited…

“Getting bored miss?” asked a man’s voice. Turning, Sensation saw a man dressed rather casually. He seemed relaxed, but his heartbeat read as excitement, his eyes flicked to the right for a moment, meaning his eye was on at least one or two others; It seemed he had back-up, “I heard rumors that you moved fast, you’re an hour early.”

“Three hours early, I figured I’d just make myself comfortable.” Sensation said, “So you’re…?”

“I am famished,” he said as he sat down and asked a nearby server to bring him an apple from inside the store. She promptly returned and handed it to him before he bit down, eyes on Sensation, “I must say you’re younger than I expected. Most people even my age aren’t as good as you seem to be.”

“Flattering, so can you tell me what you want?”

“Are you always so down to business? Please just relax and talk with me. I get enough of that “strictly business” nonsense.” He said in a bored tone.

“From friends of yours? Like those ones with you?” Sensation asked as she pointed out the two men who the man looked to.

The man seemed startled for a moment, but he merely chuckled as if it was of no consequence.

“You’re clever, I like that. That’s why I’m glad I chose you.” He said before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a deck of cards, playing cards. Deftly, he pulled them out and then he looked at them, “Playing cards are fun, wouldn’t you say? If you gamble you would certainly believe so.”

“I don’t play with them much, nor do I gamble.”

“But your acquaintance, Stella does, doesn’t she? How is the Cerebral Investigator?” the man asked as he began to set down the face cards and Aces of the deck.

“I don’t know, we had an agreement to stay out of one another’s way.” Sensation said as she looked at the man closely, he was utterly nonchalant in how he acted and the cards seemed normal, but the more she looked at his face, the odder it seemed, “Did you already speak with her?”

“I tried, she telekinetically tossed me out of a window after she discovered she couldn’t read my mind. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.”

“She…Couldn’t? But how? Stella’s a powerful telepath.”

“Very, must be helpful when she visits casinos, I assume it’s how she’s paid off her father’s gambling debts and made such a cushy life for herself. Still, I was hoping a wild card like her would be useful in this little game.”

“Why don’t we stop playing games? Tell me who you are?”

“I can’t.” the man said simply, “It’s better if you don’t know, trust me.”

“I don’t trust people I don’t know.”

“My my, that puts us in a bit of a quandary, doesn’t it?” he asked cooly, before he had a moment of realization overcome him, “There we go, call me Quandary.”

“Alright then Quandary, tell me what you want?”

“To inform you. People use tarots to predict the future, but I can use these playing cards to predict the present. Diamonds, Clubs, Hearts, Spades….You know there’s this thing called the Bartle test. It shows archetypes people in a videogame fall into, using playing cards. In order following each suit I’ve named, they are achievers, killers, socializers, and explorers…That’s only part of what DECK truly is.”

“Deck? The way you talk about it, it isn’t playing cards…Is it?”

“No, but they are whimsically fashioned after them, not openly though.” Quandary said, “At anyrate I need your help Sensation, I have some power, but physically I can do nothing to bring these people down. They’re a group of criminals who are gaining power behind the scenes, benefitting from crimes both big and small.”

“Sounds like a conspiracy.”

“Trust me, it is no conspiracy. I think you and your associates should take an interest in stopping them.”

“Why?”

“For the greater good.” He said, before he stood. Sensation noticed time seemed to hold still for a moment, everything slowing down and graying, save the two of them. From nowhere, a black fedora had appeared in Quandary’s hand. He soon donned it, as he did he grabbed his face, ripping it off to reveal it was a synthetic mask. Whatever ace was truly beneath was obscured by shadows, no features or eyes visible. His outfit changed to be a suit and tie combination, his hands gloved and his outfit having silver cuffs and buttons, “I am a friend Ms. Sensation, one with a bit of power, but only so much influence. Let me help you help the world…”

As these words echoed, the man’s underlings in the background disappeared before he did as well. She was only left with the deck of cards on the table, all 52 of them no different from a normal deck.

“Sensation? Come in Sensation!” Dr. Isaac shouted, getting her attention again. She felt as if something had made her zone out momentarily, “Lysanna, do you read?”

“I do, I’m sorry, did you guys catch any of that?”

“No, he was talking to you, the last thing we caught was him mentioning ‘the greater good’ before he disappeared. Who was that guy?”

“I suppose we’ll have to call him Quandary for now.” Sensation said before standing and walking off towards an alley. She would wait for Dr. Isaac to teleport her back home, but when she tried to call him, there was static.

“Hello miss, we’d like a word with you.” Said a female voice as a woman in a black coat walked out, her eyes obscured by sun glasses. She had a few others with her, five in all, in her hand was an electro magnetic pulse generator, it had disabled most of Sensation’s technology.

“You just gave me seven and a letter.” Sensation said to her, “Tell me what you want.”

“To interview you. You see I’m part of an organization that is interested in people like you. You have a gift and I’ve been asked to invite you to become one of our members.”

“I’m sorry, but now isn’t a good time. I’ll contact you later if I feel like I want the job.”

“I’m sorry, this is a bit of a now or never deal.” The woman said as her followers advanced, “You can come with us now, or the police will never find your body.”

Sensation sighed and put her hands up. With the electro magnetic pulse, many of her gadgets were disabled, but not all of them. Her Arsenal gloves had their own internal generators, unaffected by EMPs, and her shoes had a power source of it’s own too. Pulling one hand down, she shot with hologram gun, bullets already formed within.

Her shots killed the men before her, sending their number from five to three in all, including the woman in charge.

This attack caught the others off guard and enabled her to generate a blade in her free hand. She advanced on the others, using the weapon’s edge to cut the guns to ribbons before she shot them, each bullet piercing their bodies. Holding both weapons, she stared at the  woman, the only one left.

“Clever, but not quite good enough. The woman said before sending shocks at Sensation, sent out in straight bolts. Sensation managed to move in the nick of time, barely avoiding such a shock. She could hear the device gearing up and see a slight flash before the lightning emerged. Sensation knew she could only get lucky so many times, so she pressed a button on her belt.  Moving in. she shot the hand where the bolts were coming from, damaging the device there and then Sensation came in for a stab.

The woman tried to shoot Sensation again with lightning, but the belt managed to redirect it back to the attacker, destroying her electrical equipment and rendering her unconscious.

Looking around at all the fallen enemies, Sensation sighed. They were either dead or unconscious, but she didn’t  know what to do aside from restrain them. The police would likely come in and arrest them, at least getting them temporarily out of the way.

“Alright Isaac, take me home.” Sensation said as she walked away to a place the teleporter could work. Within an instant she was elsewhere, but it wasn’t where she expected.

It was a dark room, there was a table with several chairs in the center. Sensation could hear other heartbeats, breathing, some patterns familiar.

“Stella. You’re here.”

“That I am.” The psionic investigator said as she stepped into the light, her bright blue eyes shining, meeting Sensation’s. “Still, I’m not the only one here.”

“Though I wish she had asked before abducting me.” Another voice said as a tall, blonde woman with a scar came out, wearing a massive beige coat and a scarf. She was named Ivory, a bone manipulator.

“Believe it or not, I’m not the one who called us all here.”

“Then who did?” Ivory questioned.

“Excellent question.” A male voice said. Looking to the source, everyone saw a pair of red eyes glaring at them from the shadows.  Walking out into the light, a dark skinned young man with gray hair in a leather coat looked around, his canine teeth looking particularly sharp, he stared at the others, the three of them seemingly unimpressed. “I’m guessing I’m the only unfamiliar face.”

“That you are…And I can’t read your mind.” Stella said, intrigued. “What are you exactly?”

“A vampire.” The young man said, “My name is Miles Hern, if that matters.”

“Odd, you aren’t sparkling.”

“Shut up. That joke is dumb and insensitive to actual vampires.” He said with an annoyed glare, “Do you want me to prove it to you?”

“Sure. Walk out into the sun, we’ll see if you fry.” Stella replied, waving her hand at him dismissively. He merely rolled his own eyes and looked back at the shadows. “We still have two others here.”

“Yes, one smells like flowers.” Ivory stated, “Who is it?”

“My name is Gaea.” Another young woman said as she came out, her body chubby. She was the shortest one there with short hair and a cute face. Her clothin, from her shoes to jacket were made of leaves, grass and wood. She had a crown of daisies with a single metal coin in the center. On her forearms were metal bands. She gave them a friendly smile. “It’s nice to meet you all, except for Sensation. She and I are already friends.”

“Yeah.” Sensation said with a smile. She placed a hand on Gaea’s shoulder to which Gaea smirked too. “I thought you were living off on your own.”

“I was, until whatever nabbed you four got me.”

“That was me.” Said Quandary’s voice. “I decided it’d be best if I put together a little team for this plan.”

“And who are you, exactly?”

“An enigma. I can’t tell you who I am because it’s too dangerous, but if I don’t tell you it makes me less trustworthy. That puts me in a quandary, so you can call me just that, Quandary.”

“And you took us because?” Stella asked, trying to read the stranger’s mind but failing. The masked man looked directly at her. Sensation noticed his body language read as amusement before he responded.

“Because I need you, and the world may need you.”
A story featuring Sensation meeting a strange man and a few of her acqauintances after a quick battle

Sketch Commission:Sensation by Sageblk Sensation: The human girl with near super senses and hi-tech gear

Dr. Isaac by General-RADIX Dr. Isaac: The goofy inventor, loosely authoratative figure and half of Sensation's tech support.

sta.sh/0n00pjycse7 Gear: Sensation's close friend and half of the tech support.

AdventurerFemale Adoptable [Closed] by eguana Ivory: Lady with a bone to pick. Bone manipulator and mercenary who abhors superheroes and villains.

sta.sh/0fajnk504f3: Gaea: Mother Nature Jr. 

sta.sh/0xxdrdgb6b5 Hern: The Vampire

sta.sh/0635v36fro1 Stella: The psychic detective and gambler.

That's the cast, save Quandary. Even pictures of this guy are a mystery.
© 2014 - 2024 Benji-Blacksky
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