2013.08.07 - Anomalies, Part 1.1: Aberrant Takes Othello

The messages could not be more clear. A news bulletin on the huge TV in Times Square that talks about a train crash in the London Underground killing four people. At the same time, a homeless man hawking maps of the New York subway system -- he cadged them out of the bins on the train, and while they're free down there, he's selling them for a buck fifty. And then a copy of the Bugle blows by, an old one, with an article linking the Anomaly Killer to Spider-Man -- because, you know, it's the Bugle. How could this be interpreted any other way?

And, as a matter of fact, Aberrant is in the subway, because he is what he is, and he knows what he knows. He is waiting for the man who thinks he is hunting the Anomaly Killer -- but Aberrant is the hunter, and always will be, until his job is done.

Othello remembers when they started the subway system, and still knows how to navigate down the tracks without being seen. After one of the train leave the station, Othello appears from one of the service entry doors. He looks around the platform, and jumps on to the platform. He has been chasing leads about the Anomaly-Killer for a week now. He was delayed by both Deadpool, and Vorpal in his quest to uncover more information, but this is why he deserves to work alone.

From his darkened place in the tunnels, Aberrant watches Othello enter the system -- he sees this as though he were right there, the man's presence like a neon sign to the psychic murderer. And he smiles to himself as he touches his belt, a treasure taken from one of his past victims. The touch does not activate the device -- it's more an affectionate caress.

And then he does activate the belt, though not by touch. It receives his thoughts and responds to them at speed. In the darkness a half dozen yards behind Tousaint, Aberrant appears with only the faintest whisper of displaced air to indicate his arrival.

Othello continues to look around the trains station for clues. Othello's eyes notice someone wearing a "Jane Smith and the Doctor" T-shirt. Othello realizes he is in the right place, "Doctor Who is an alien that regenerates. It all fits. We were sent here for this purpose." Othello starts to look for different spots he would used to set up an ambush, "We hate crowded places. Will cause too many unnecessary casualties"

But here is the thing: the ambush could be anywhere in here. It need not be calculated for some broader locale, because should Othello try anything stupid there is a plethora of innocents who could, and likely would, get hurt. So when the tall young man in the trenchcoat strides up beside the vigilante, he has no fear of Othello's reaction. "Toussaint Walker the fourth," he says, conversationally, if with tones of madness in his voice. "You do not belong."

There is something that Othello remembers when the man speaks to him. It what appears to be an infinity of time, but it only seconds, he tries to think what this feeling is. He remembers it when the slavers stole members of his family, he remembered it during battles of the Civil War, and it has only been for a brief moment, but this time is different. This time the feeling of fear is a lot stronger, and Othello curses himself for building up a life in which would cause him to fear if it was lost. Othello tilts his head and looks at the tall young man, "We are not impressed with your puppets. We could break this puppet's arms." Othello calculates the civilian death toll from this encounter, and wishes this is one of the few times that he had someone like Deadpool around to blame for everything.

"You could break my arms," agrees Aberrant, "but I would still shatter your mind. Can your new bodies function, I wonder, if there is no mind to inhabit them?" He takes a step to the side and turns precisely, his body coming to face Othello.

Around the pair commuters start to look confused, and then blank, and first one, then half a dozen, then a score surround the pair, moving in close and between them. A woman close to Othello whispers to him, "You are nothing. You do not belong."

We will still exist, and we will hunt you down. We would form a new mind. We would hunt you down. We exist to destroy those that prey on the weak, We will teach you humility and folly." Othello finishes his calculations and realizes that any civilian deaths will not be justified, especially against the probability of apprehending Abberant at this time. "We belong. We were sent here for this purpose. We have a mission." Othello states calmly as he peers around the train station for best way to escape. Othello thinks to himself, "Why have you forsaken us? We had a plan to kill him. We get him to come to us, we gut him, then blow him up." Othello looks at the woman and reaches for the handle of his knifes for a brief moment, and turns back to Aberrant. "We are not greater than our cause. We have seen your kind make that mistake so many times in history, and you are always wrongs.

"Are you weak then?" asks a child, tugging at Othello's arm. "That would make this so much more simple. I do not prey on the weak -- I protect them from your ilk, you singularities, you anomalies."

The little girl's voice is replaced by that of a tall black man, deep and gruff, his blank eyes staring at Othello from a point four feet to the left. "It is clear that you have a mission, but it is not a mission of glory. I have thrown off the yoke that held me, made me blind to what I am -- and what you are."

But now the young man, Aberrant himself, speaks, raising a hand toward Othello. "You will see what I see, Othello, and perhaps you will understand." And as he says this, as if from the tip of his fingers, images, sounds, sensations start to flood into the other man's mind, a universe of knowledge, a crushing tsunami of information that could smash a mind to pieces like a body dashed against the shore by countless tons of rushing water.

"Folly" Othello whisper aloud. As Tousaint Walters died, and the clone was created he knew and felt to be greater part of universe, but this is a feeling 10,000 times greater and growing. Aberrant has done something that no one has ever done to Tousaint's clones in overly 150 years. He has created doubt in his doubt in his very being, because if all this information is correct, then Othello's vision cannot be true. His existence is a lie. He has even cause the alien side to feel cheated by being locked outside a human shell. A species of scientist trapped in this human form, and there is an entire universe of knowledge. As the doubt overwhelms him, and the feeling of alien's coldness overtake, along with the continuing pouring of information flooding through his systems, Othello can only whisper again, "Folly", as he slinks down on to the floor in a catatonic state.

"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen," Aberrant tells the people gathered around as he releases them to their confusion. "I will take this monster from your midst and place him where he cannot hurt you again." And with this he presses through the crowd, takes hold of Othello, and in a blink the pair have vanished.