The Nictus

A dark blot moved against the night sky over Kings Row. Like a hungry mosquito it crisscrossed the human landscape following a scent. Closer, farther, closer, closer still... There. The scent of power. It paused over the roof of a squalid brick tenement. Sprockets were busily disassembling what was left of the ductwork. Below, two intoxicated humans threw inept punches in front of the sputtering sign of a neglected bar. Three young men in grey jackets loitered in the shadow of the alleyway waiting to roll the winner.

The shape moved down, a bit more, to a fourth floor window and phased through the sooty brick wall. A small apartment, timeworn and crumbling but clean. The source was over... yes, here.

Two human bodies occupied the bed, the taller curled protectively around the smaller. No, not human. The Nictus stroked a sensory tentacle across the body of the smaller one and tasted his energy. A young Mutant, weak and immature. The Nictus dismissed him with no further thought. The other... <taste> Metahuman. Normal base DNA with significant chemically-induced distortions. And powerful, very powerful...

The Nictus hesitated. He had arrived (after long consideration) to the belief that it was better to have the hosts permission but part of him shivered with the old urge to force his will. It would be so easy to just take this one. There was the taste of willingness here, an ingrained habit of receptiveness that would make it so easy. This host wouldn’t struggle much, he might even enjoy it.

The instinct that tells a human when he is being stalked made Rain open his eyes and throw back the stifling bed sheet. Rolling onto his back he struggled to adjust to the blackness of the room. Too black. Where was the sodium glow of the streetlights, the radiant light pollution of the Garment Works, the flickering neon of the gun shop downstairs? As he shook off sleep he registered the black “hole” in the room hovering right over him in the bed not two feet away. A Nictus.

<Ye Gods.> A satisfied smile fluttered through his mind, dying before it reached his lips. <Finally.>

The being spoke to his mind with a voice as cold as space, deep and resonant.

*You want this.* It was a statement, not a question.

<Oh good, it’s male.> He whispered: “Yes.”

*Why?*

“New power? New frontiers? New challenges?”

The Nictus drifted a bit lower. *Not helping others? Protecting the weak?* The voice slithered with contempt.

“That’s never been my motivation.”

*Which is... ?*

Rain raised his chin in a small gesture of challenge and defiance. “Come and see...”

The Nictus chuckled. Utterly perfect.

“And now my dark friend...” the human whispered, “Your motivation?”

The Nictus hesitated. It was not his habit to explain himself to his hosts. This one did not have the spirit of a slave however. <I am so weary of being the master. so... lonely.>

*I desire Freedom. Conquest is slavery. Control becomes drudgery.* He hovered lower, almost touching Rain’s face. *We will have power and the freedom to use it as we please. Those who oppose us shall submit or be crushed.*

“We were Caesars, being nobody to contradict us.”

*?*

“Pierre Radisson, 1661.”

Rain reached up and tried to touch the Nictus. The dark form resisted his hand with a magnetic repulsion. Pure energy, very cohesive.

“I’m ready.”

The Nictus wrapped his dark tentacles around the human and lifted him effortlessly about a foot above the bed. The delicate sensoria on the tips played up and down the humans body sensing ley lines and seeking out the swirling portals of the seven chakra points. Seven chakras, the Nictus chuckled to itself. These humans had no idea how unusual that was, or how perfectly suitable that made them.

Rain closed his eyes, his breath catching in mingled anticipation and rising animal panic.

<Dear Goddess, what am I doing?>

He began to tremble with a jolt of adrenaline as the tendrals of energy tightened inexorably around him. Stark awareness of the situation triggered the primitive instinct to flee. Deep in his bones he felt the Short Circuit building that would drive away the black inhuman thing that had taken hold of him.

“Wait, let’s discuss thi... ”

Sensing his hosts hesitation the Nictus acted, pouring himself into his new body’s energy exchange centres and collapsing into his new form as a staple snaps shut into a ream of paper. Rain’s body convulsed as the dark form pierced his spinal column, his pelvis, his skull, pouring black frozen fire into his flesh and his soul. Opening his eyes and mouth in a silent scream, umbral light poured out and ran across his naked form in coruscating ripples of deep purple piercing into the ultraviolet with a bass thrum.

All support gone, he fell back into the bed weak and drained, an infant Kheldian. They opened their eyes. Rains bedmate, alerted by some old instinct had stirred in his sleep. They reached out and stroked the warm skin of his shoulder, soothing him back to slumber. They smiled at the unexpected sensation of warm physicality and their new body’s pleasant response. Snuggling closer they allowed the soft unaccustomed muzziness of sweet sleep to descend.

Oh yes, they thought. This is going to be fun.

Creepy.

I liked it, I can't wait to see where this goes.

Thanks Hermod. I wrote this in honour of Rainbow Avenger dinging 50. I wanted to capture the moment he became a Kheldian. I want to to do some more writing and the logical sequel would be the following morning when Rains boyfriend wakes up next to a Warshade with an urge to explore human sensation and emotion for the first time. Unfortunately I can't think of any way of keeping it PG13.

very well written rainbow. You are motivating me to refine my own story and write something. I don't have much writing talent but we'll see how it goes.

Very well written, I'll be watching this thread with interest.

I too have often felt the limitations of PG-13 writing. Don't be frustrated, take it as a challenge to convey your story in less-obvious ways.

Shakespeare wrote one of the most moving romantic scenes (the hand scene in "Romeo and Juliet" by trying to work outside of the box. At the time, only male actors were on the stage, and he was seeking a way to write a romantic scene between a girl and a boy that wasn't skewed by the audience's knowledge that the female lead was played by a man in a wig. He succeeed, and I think the results are probably better than if he'd gone with the obvious.

Note: This a chapter in the Blasters Open RP thread located here. I have crossposted because it is part of the same story.

Rain sat in, or rather over, a pair of seats at the back of the room one leg flung with casual insouciance over the arm rest, the other on the back of the seat in front of him. The warm Spring day had given birth to a cold Spring night and he was beginning to regret not having changed out of his old Summer whites and into his heavier but warmer body armour. Nic (oh how he hated being called that) was sleeping and only the shadow in Rains eyes, a shade blacker then they once had been, betrayed that he was no longer alone behind them.

It was official: Ennui had set in. Boredom, Weltschmertz. A gaggle of young Blasters walked past the back of his head chattering excitedly about the insights they had gained. Green voices, he could almost hear their pimples. They made him feel old and a little bitter.

His tac belt vibrated. Phone. He fished out the small unit and checked the call display: Kid Clockwork.

"Yes Kace, it's breaking up. I'll be home in an hour."

*I like Kace.*

"You're awake."

*I like when he...*

"I know what you like."

*?*

"It was the sub-etheric screaming..."

*Ah*

"And the way I lost control of my left leg."

*...*

"Am I your first human host?"

*Yes*

"And your first willing one?"

His heart caught in a subvocal wince of discomfort.

"You don't have to tell me that... yet."

He flipped through the steno pad on his lap and scribbled a few more notes for the Electric Blast guide he was writing. Is "doodyhead" a word? No, too judgmental. Scratch. Somewhere backstage a custodian began dimming the stage lights. Rain unfolded himself from the auditorium furniture and tucked the notepad into his belt.

Too bloody cold and starting to drizzle. He started to walk the hundred yards back to the tram. A couple of Outcasts huddled under a building overhang turned their backs as he passed, waiting for easier meat. He flicked a hand out toward them. Nothing. The rancid light of the street lamps reflecting off of his now wet arms caught the white puckered flaw of the scar on his wrist where his torturers electrodes had once burnt through his flesh. He wiped the drops off and gazed at the old burn. How many were there again? Only Kase ever saw most of them. Sick, prurient, hypocritical bastards.

*Why are you agitated?*

"I could have blasted them once." he said, looking at the gang members. "My smallest charged output could have fried them. Gone."

*I cured you. Your body was distorted by drugs, by torture. I don't understand. I wanted to hel...*

"It was the only good thing that came out of that horror. The only meaning I could find in it. Can't you understand? Without my powers it was all for nothing. Without my powers... they won."

*You have others now. And more when you're strong enough.*

"Your powers."

*Our powers. Ours. Not the accidental power of untested chemicals. Our will. Not the will of your tormentors. You took the power they gave you and perverted it as they tried to pervert you.*

Rain shivered as the Nictus shuddered with painful memory.

*I know about control. Power stolen from others is an acknowledgment of slavery. Throw it away and strip the last electrode from your spirit.*

"Oi! What are you staring at?" One of the Outcasts had stepped out of the shadows.

*Do as thou wilt Rain. Do it*

The Outcast pulled a knife out of his sleeve. Two darker gashes in the black night struck him in the chest, flinging him against a wall. The clatter of cutlery echoed across the street as the knife bounced into a culvert. He picked himself up and ran.

"I should have taken him out."

*You will. You're getting stronger.*

((Another bit from the Blasters Open RP thread))


Rain rolled over and opened his eyes. Kid Clockwork was sitting on the edge of the bed playing with his new city issued communicator.The sound was turned down to a murmuring whisper and the blue light of the screen flickered across his face.

"Kace? What's going on?"

The young Outcast started and jerked his attention from the glowing screen.

"Something big Rain. The channels are all lit up. A big Freak attack in Creys Folly is heading for the city. Heroes are responding from all over town."

Rain flung himself out of bed and stated fumbling in the dark room.

"And you didn't TELL ME? Goddammit Kace what were you thinking?"

Kace dropped the comm unit on the bed. "It's in Creys, dude. CREYS. You can't go there - neither of us can..."

"Bullsh-t!" he growled. The walls of the little room shook as he dug throught the closet in the dark, tumbling aside boxes and odd shoes looking for uniform parts. "My armor. Where's my body armour?"

"Off being retailored..."

Rain punched the wall angrily.

"You changed costumes remember?"

Rain fell rather then sat on the bed and started buckling his gloves and boots. The much abused springs in the old mattress squeaked and bounced the comm unit onto the floor with a clatter.

Kace leaned across the bed and grabbed his shoulder. "Rain you can't control your new powers well enough yet. You're going to get killed!"

Rain pushed the hand away and bounded toward the door. "Ow, sh-t!" Navigating the dark room he cracked his knee on a sidetable sending the bedside alarm clock flying with a tinny ring against the window sill.

"Christ Rain, you can't even defend yourself from the furniture!"

"I'll be fine. Someone will help me out, watch my back..."

"You don't know that.."

"Yes I do."

"How?"

Rain picked up the comm unit. Rolling his shoulders to shrug his crossbelt into position, he tucked the unit into his tac belt and snapped it into position.

"They're Blasters."


(to be continued)

(Next chaper from Blasters Open RP) How could we leave Sgt. Paine dead on the ground? Shame, shame.


The migration of the battle to the streets of Brickstown had saved Rain the dilemma of how he was going to get into Crey's Folly with a security card with the number "50" marked VOID in red and "26" stamped underneath. It didn't make him any safer. Slipping silently around the edges of battle shrouded in Shadow Cloak, he gave Respites to some, Enrages to others. He picked off the weakest of the fleeing wounded. Emboldened by the presence of warriors stronger then himself he darted into the field to tend to another fallen hero. He took the last pale blue vial from his belt and snapped it over the mans face, pouring the contents over his blue tinged lips. He held the young heroes chin and forced the liquid down his throat as he gagged and coughed back to life.

"Better? Now kite it kid. This is too big for you."

"Sgt. Paine looked over the Warshade with surprise. "You're one to talk! You're ..."

"An idiot. Yes, I know. But a good-looking one. Now retreat and regroup."

Rain checked his belt pouches. Empty. Time to retreat and stock up. His head spun with fatigue. <Just a quick rest.> Transforming to the glowing shape of a Nova he ghosted to the roof of a nearby building and slumped wearily against the air conditioning vent. <Just 5 minutes - need to close my eyes.> He bobbed gently in place for a moment before condensing back into human shape.

Nic?" Rain fumbled for the last few drops of water in his canteen.

*Yes?*

"When "I'm dead, will you take my form?"

*I don't understand.*

"The other shapes you taught me: the Nova, the Dwarf. They're the forms of other hosts you had long ago, right?"

*Yes, but...?*

"When I'm gone you'll have other hosts, other bodies. Will you teach them my shape?"

Rains eyelids were growing dangerously heavy as dusk bruised the sky. How long had he been fighting? 18 hrs? 20? "Thousands of years from now perhaps you'll have another host, another species. "When you do, will you remember me or walk in my body again?"

*!?!* The Nictus' emotions fed back into his own twisting in palpable shock. *They were different Rain, nothing to me. Bodies I wore, shapes I use. But you? I can't. I never thought of it. You ... you are...*

"Different?"

*Special. I cannot use you like that. You are my friend.*

Rain smiled sleepily, a ray of happiness in that field of hate and death. "I am?"

*I think so. I've never had a friend.*

Rain chuckled at the quiver of doubt in the aliens voice. "Yes, you are my friend." The warm feeling nudged him closer to deadly sleep. His chin nodded onto his chest. His weary frame betrayed him to slumber.

He was jerked awake by the sounds of raucous shouts. He snapped his eyes open to full darkness "Dammit, how long did I sleep? Of all the stupid, careless..." He peered around the edge of the vent. Freaks, about ten or twelve of them and scarcely six feet away. Three were fighting over a prize, a heroes battered helmet. The two Tanks were grunting primitive strategies for the next assault. Rain cringed back into the shadows as a Swiper walked over toward his hiding place. There was the mingled rustle of clothing and the jingling of chains, then the pattering of liquid against brick and the sour smell of ill-nourished male urine. Rain curled tighter with mingled fear and disgust as the trail of steaming liquid ran around the edge of the flue inching slowly toward him.

Nic whispered, *How do Swipers do that?*

"I have no idea and I don't want to find out."

*But don't you want to see?*

"Nic, a man does things like that to his body, I don't care how big it is anymore. Just keep it away from me."

He edged slowly away from the mob, crawling along the darker line of the shadow cast by the vents in the bright moonlight. Just thirty feet to the edge and out of sight. Twenty-five... He jumped as a round object landed with a loud thud by his head, spraying gravel into his face. He looked into the broken visor of a blue and white helmet. There was a wicked dent in the cranium.

"MINE! I got the first blow! ME!!

"F-ck you! I got the LAST blow! D'ja see her face? I'll smash you for it!

A heavy figure leapt with surprising agility over the vent chased closely by the glowing form of a Stunner. The big Freak ran to retrieve his prize. Scooping up the smashed helmet in one good hand he looked right into Rain's eyes a few feet away and grinned with insane glee.

"HERO! And this one's MINE!"

"Jeezuz, they've seen us. Bailing..." Invoking the swift and delicate shape of the Nova he sped away from the shouting mob of gangsters, trying to zig-zag out of range between the buildings. Bolts, bullets, a grenade narrowly missed him. "Luck is favouring us Nic." As the rooftop receded a Buckshot on the leading edge of the mob raised a heavy misshapen weapon. It's tip glowed with ugly red energy....

*Quant...!*

The pain ripped through Rain like a hot knife through his soul. Nic's wail of agony tore through his mind like a psychic attack. Stunned, he fell limp and helpless into the street below, into a seething crowd of confused, retreating Freaks. A panicked Smasher swung at his head flinging him into the air and onto his back with a sickening crunch of broken bone. The quantum weapon whined its deadly cry somewhere above and Rain flung his arm across his chest in a futile gesture of protection, as if the few extra inches of human flesh would stop the energy that would shred the Kheldian's being like a bullet shreds flesh.

Trying to get up, his left arm dragged weakly through a mess of gravel and sticky blood. Some automatic system registered his broken leg. Through the dizzy shock <why is there no pain?> Rain felt his spirit and body unraveling.

"For Gods' sake Nic, GO! This is over. Go now if you can! Go, and remember me!"

There was no answer, only a weak and fading touch, pale on his heart, slipping its grip. Nic was dying.

From somewhere behind him the blue torrent of a defending Blaster lashed through the wave of Freaks surrounding him, tossing them back and away from the fallen man like puppets on a string. They broke and ran. Through a half-lidded eye in his crushed skull Rain watched as the Buckshot on the rooftop above him raised his quantum gun again to fire. The gleam of the weapons muzzle pulsed violet against the full moon that rose behind the gunman casting his misshapen silhouette into shadow as dark as the Nictus.

With helpless, hynotised passivity he waited for his deathblow, a tear welling in his eye.

"Oh Nic" he whispered "The moon is beautiful tonight."

(Final chapter of this thread. More to come. Special thanks to ChaosJuice!) Apologies to all for the delay but especially to CJ. Hope the result was worth the wait



White Light. Soft, welcoming sleep. Like an enormous, loving hug...

"Get up!"

No, make the voice go away...

"Get up and Run, Squiddy!"

"Oh what now?" Rainbow thought, his mind snapping into focus with absurd clarity. Gazing towards the heavens the white light shrank to a great, bright star in the dark night twinkling impossibly huge in his bleary vision. His other eye inched open and the blurry impression resolved into a tall figure in midnight blue. Glasses, starry chest, white flames. His eyes travelled down. Waist, hips... "Oh my" he thought, "Nice package!" Deep in Rains abdomen a muscle twitched. His failing heart gave a great answering thump as the wounded man felt a sudden urge to be alive again. Through the pain he broke into a wide, silly grin.

"Can you move, Rain?"

The face snapped into mental focus. ChaosJuice, one of the cities most powerful Fire Blasters. Rain had always wondered just how chaotic his juices were but had never found the right time to pop the question. This certainly wasn't it. Damn.

"You really shouldn't be here, y'know."

*He's right Rain.*

"Nic!? You're alive?" His heart bounded again.

*Barely.* The aliens voice was weak, even humbled in tone. *This isn't our place. Not now. Not yet.*

"I know why you came," ChaosJuice continued, "and I have to respect that, but you can't do much against these guys as you are. Get safe. I gotta get back to the front."

Rain watched as the Blaster nervously watched him, glancing away constantly around him with mingled concern and fear. He felt a twinge of guilt. "I'm endangering him, wasting his time." he thought. He struggled to find the breath to say a few little words. "Heck" He thought "Might never get another chance."

"...k you... could maybe look me up sometime?"

ChaosJuice grinned and launched himself into the sky.

Rain watched as he vanished into the haze. "Was that a yes I wonder?"

Alone, he crawled slowly and painfully into the shadow of a wall. His whole body was a well of pain. From the west footsteps approached. Three or four sets of heavy shod boots, running in his direction. "Oh Goddess, more Freaks." A pang of fear chilled his heart, then a rising, red wave of anger. Summoning all the meager strength left in his shattered body he summoned the looming hulk of a Black Dwarf. Gravely wounded but still formidable, he waited.

Three Freak minions, one injured, ran into his face as they dodged around the corner. They recoiled, then snarled and drew their weapons. The huge alien lashed out with blind terrified fury.

"I...!"

-WHAM- He slammed his massive arms into the largest, tossing him head over heels.

"Have had ENOUGH...!"

-SLAM- A haymaker from a massive clawed fist stunned another of the gangsters.

"Of YOU!"

-RIP-

He reached deep into the wounded thugs soul and tore away his life force, dropping him to the ground. The throbbing in his head eased. His leg strengthened.

"THAT is for getting me out of bed!"

-WHAM-

"THAT is for peeing on me!"

-SLAM-

"THAT is for hurting Nic!"

-RIP- The great hole of pain suffusing his body faded. Strength flowed into him. He stopped, panting from effort.

The red haze of fury subsided and Rain found himself standing in a heap of crumpled Freak bodies, any one of which could get up again at any moment. He summoned the Nova and darted up, past the rooftops, farther, to the roots of the clouds and floated as light as the crosswinds.

The first glimmering of dawn's light illuminated the battlefield below. Smoke curled from torched and wounded buildings. Everyhere there was the flickering of lightning, or fire, or energy bolts. Gunfire crackled and echoed off the walls of Brickstown. Freaks were everywhere in the streets below, but they were running. Sometimes in organised retreat, mostly in anarchic disorder, but fleeing westward towards the Folly. They were broken. It was over.

Two clusters of flashing light marked where pitched battles still raged. He dipped a bit lower to survey the scene. "Babbage and the Paladin? What the ..." He pushed back his first impulse, his resolve hardened by anger and regret.

"Nic, whatever's going on down there they don't need us. There's more then enough heroes to deal with those two tin cans. We are so out of here." With a flick of his tail he turned and headed north to the tram.

Rainbow reflected on his fate. He had been soundly defeated. He was running but not, in his career as a Blaster, for the first time. He was hurt. He was humiliated. But he was alive. He had kept the faith, made a difference. And deep in his heart Nic was humming in that odd subvocal way he had, like the buzzing purr of an black alien kitten. Rain realised just how much he would miss it if it ceased.

"So my friend, it's a long trip home across four city zones. What do you want to talk about?"

*Talk?*

"That's what friends do Nic. They talk about anything and everything. They share their thoughts, their dreams, their secrets."

*What would you like to know, friend?* Nic's voice warmed.

A wicked smile crossed Rain's face. "Tell me where little Kheldians come from."

*Excuse me?*

"How do you reproduce? You have gender so you don't use budding or mitosis. But you spend all your time in physical hosts. So how do you do it?"

*That's very personal Rain.*

"Ok."

They flew in silence for a time. Transferring at the tram he decided to take the long way home. The early morning light over Talos Island lit diamonds far below them in the waters of the bay. The beauty of the site was well worth the detour.

"Nic?"

*Yes Rain?*

"Is it possible for you to unfuse, to leave my body without harm?"

*Yes, for short periods.* His mental voice carried a subvocal flavour of suspicion.

"Is it possible for you to manipulate physical objects in that form?"

*Small ones, yes.*

"Ah. In that case remind me to give you a quarter and send you to the movies next time Kace and I ...

*Oh alright! I'll tell you!*

Rain smiled.

*It starts when a Mummy Kheldian and a Daddy Kheldian love each other very, very much...*


----------------------------------------------


Kid Clockwork shook his head as he heard the laughter from the stairwell. He had become accustomed to Rains new habit of talking to himself but laughing to himself was a new one. A muffled voice traveled through the door. "Well, when you're ready I'll be more than happy to help out...What? Sure, whatever species, I'm game. No, of course I won't laugh. Well not much anyway."

The young Outcast ran to the door to greet his mate. Shocked, he recoiled from the sight that greeted him. "Rain you have a black eye! You're covered in... oh my god is that blood?"

"It's nothing Babe. I'm fine." Rain said, unbuckling his tac belt and tossing it onto the armchair.

"The Freakshow invasion?"

"Under control. The big boys are cleaning up." he wandered past, pulling off his gloves and slapping them in a heap on the top of the television.

"Why did they invade?" the Kid asked, his voice raising with impatience. He hated having to follow Rain around prying bits of information out of him. It was frustrating enough when he didn't come home looking like he had been severely beaten.

"Who knows, who cares?" Rain said, kicking off his boots. "Who knows why Freaks do anything? Let the city reps figure it out." He lifted off the crossbelt and tossed it on the floor. The dirty leather uniform tunic followed it, flung into a corner.

"Speaking of Big Boys," he said, wrapping his arms around the younger mans waist and pulling him closer, "Did you miss me?"

Kace smiled. Looking into Rains eyes he saw peace. Whatever ordeal, whatever horrors he had endured in that place of death, he was obviously ok now. "Yeah, I missed you. Couldn't sleep." he whispered, leaning into the embrace and allowing their lips to brush together just slightly as he spoke.

"That sounds good Kace, because I'm ready to spend about a week in bed."

"God, Rain what an ordeal. You must be tired as death."

Rainbow took his lovers hands in his and moved them down to the zip on his leather pants. "Oh Babe." he purred, laying his hands on Kace's shoulders and pushing him down onto the bed, "Who said anything about tired?"


The End