Chase and Starmaster followed the little woman down several alleys, turning many times, and even doubling back twice. They hid each time a person might catch sight of them.
Finally, they stopped at a solid brick wall. It was a dead end. Starmaster had turned to leave, assuming it was another double back, but Chase stopped him.
“Wait, she’s doing something.”
They both watched the small woman put a hand on the wall and the bricks vanished one by one, creating an opening large enough for one person to get through if they ducked down. The woman looked back, one hand still on the wall. She motioned quickly with her hand for them to go through. Chase went through first, then Starmaster behind her. The woman came through and the moment she lifted her hand, the bricks reappeared.
“That’s some trick,” Starmaster stated.
The woman said, “It is a weak power.”
Chase was surprised. “You speak!”
“Rarely outside. Silence helps protect us. Come.” She went ahead, leading them down a short corridor that led to a large basement-like area. It was filled with strung up cloth, pots resting on tiny burners, and cots strewn about. The place smelled of old laundry and dirt. In the middle of this mess was a small fire with a large pot simmering. The smell of cooking rice became the first pleasant aroma either of them had smelled since they arrived.
“It’s okay! They are one of us!” The woman called out.
A head popped out from behind a hanging cloth. Then another appeared from under the cot. More and more small faces came from all corners of this dirty, dark place. Each belonged to a small child. Skinny, dirty, and dressed in rags, they all had a look of curiosity and fear on their sad little faces.
“What’s going on here?” Chase asked.
The woman walked over and opened the pot, checking the contents with a long wooden spoon. “I am Shizue, I take care of these children so they are not executed.”
A small boy approached Starmaster and looked up at him with large, quizzical eyes. Starmaster knelt. “Hello. Who are you?”
The boy shyly hid his face behind his hands and backed up. His skin changed so he mimicked what was around him, turning him nearly invisible.
“That is Toki,” Shizue said. “He, like all the others, has powers. They are weak and the state can’t put them to use, so they would be bound to be executed.”
“Executed?” Starmaster asked, horrified at the notion.
Shizue dished out two bowls of steaming rice. “Yes. Our dear leader has ordered all super-powered people to be executed if they don’t have a place in his regime.” She motioned with her hands, each holding a bowl. “Come, come. Sit, eat something. I’m sure you’re hungry. Everyone, come, eat!”
The children pushed aside their nervousness for the pain in their bellies and came closer. Chase and Starmaster joined her and were each given a bowl of plain, cooked rice.
Chase sat down and had several children sit near her. “What do they do with powered people?”
“The state has special technology to locate powered people. If the people resist, the state has them killed by any means necessary. Those that bow to the orders are fitted with special loyalty devices and then put into a small, elite group of powered people.”
“That’s awful,” Starmaster said with a mouthful of rice.
“Yes. It is. I try to help if I can, but I am not powerful.”
“May I ask what your powers are?”
Shizue finished her work and sat down without a bowl. “I can create illusions of bricks that are nearly permanent. Everything, including their horrible devices, read my illusions as real. They don’t know that I am hiding behind it. That is how I protected you. Otherwise, they would have found you. But that is all I can do. When I hear the alarms go off, I see if I can find who they are hunting and protect them. You are the first adults I could protect in a long time.”
“Why?” Chase asked.
“Every adult in Onnotangu works, the state makes sure of that. They force each adult to be scanned daily, to make sure they have not manifested powers. Children... they don’t get the scrutiny. Only when a child uses their new powers do the sensors go off.”
Chase asked, “How come they haven’t found you here?”
Shizue motioned all around them. “My powers are undetectable by their methods. When they scan what I make, they only see the illusion. This is how I can protect these children. Inside here, their powers don’t set off the sensors.”
“I knew it was bad here, I didn’t know how bad,” Starmaster said.
Shizue looked up, a sparkle in her eye. “You are not from here. You come from the outside.”
“Yes,” Chase said. “We are with BADGE.”
“BADGE! Really?”
Starmaster asked, “Why so horrified?”
Shizue said, “Our news speaks of the superpower organization called BADGE. They say that it is a military designed to crush any nation that doesn’t accept Imperialism from the west.”
This stunned both Chase and Starmaster. Chase said, “Not at all. BADGE fights against threats to this world that are too big for normal military to handle.”
“Like what happened in Turkey earlier this year,” Starmaster added. “Didn’t you see all those ghost things and the sky go dark? We helped stop that.”
Shizue said, “Our media said that a nation had fought back against BADGE and the super-powered people destroyed the place. The darkness and ghosts we saw outside, those were just more of BADGE’s things used to hurt their enemies.”
Chase spent a moment explaining BADGE to her.
Shizue asked, “Is BADGE here to rescue us? To stop our dear leader from his horrible actions?”
Chase spent a moment looking down, pondering how to say this. “I...I am sorry. Really, I am. But we weren’t sent to overthrow this nation. We just need to get something that is dangerous that your leader has.”
The children’s enchanted eyes turned to sorrow as she said this. Shizue smiled. “Anything to hurt him is fine by me. We will help you however we can. All I ask is that you see and learn everything you can about this place and then tell the world what is really going on inside North Onnotangu.”
Starmaster said, “We will.”
***
The palatial office of Supreme Leader Shoju looked like a cross between the Oval Office and Buckingham Throne room. Opulence seeped out of every corner. Nothing wasn’t beautiful and expensive.
Seated behind an elegant desk was a short, rotund man with a bowl haircut, horn-rimmed glasses, and a furious scowl on his face. He appeared as a toddler who was just deprived of a toy he had stolen from someone else.
In a bitter voice, Shoju said, “I don’t see why not!”
Men dressed in extravagant military uniforms, lathered in medals, stood around his desk. The eldest leaned over and said, “I am sorry, sir, but we cannot shoot down the BADGE space station. We don’t have the kind of firepower we would need for that.”
“We have the most powerful, best weapons on Earth! Shoot them at that stupid station. I want to see it blow up!”
The generals all looked to each other, hoping one would dare answer this tantrum. Finally, the eldest said, “We will look into how this might be possible. However, I cannot make promises.”
“I say it can happen, so make it happen! NOW!” The little fat man pounded his fist against the table.
Just then a woman entered the room. She carried with her a stack of papers. First, she gave a deep bow, and when the Supreme Leader acknowledged her, she approached the desk. “It is ready, sir. I have sent all the invitations out.”
He took the gold-lined sheet of paper with names all over it. “Will this be bigger than that stupid party on the BADGE station?”
“Oh, yes, sir. We will have all the finest guests from every part of Onnotangu there, all worshiping you. And every television will be tuned in to watch you as you address the world.”
Supreme Leader Shoju gave one of his generals a severe look. “Will it be ready?”
The man gulped and then weakly nodded, “Yes, leader.”
“Don’t disappoint me.” He waved at them with a shooing motion. “Go. I’m going to eat lunch now.”
Everyone bowed deeply and then left in various directions. The generals split up in the hall and went to fulfill their dear leader's every whim.
The general over the science department walked out of the main palace and to a large building on the same grounds. Inside were many scientists working diligently on various projects. He stopped by a table where they were currently building strange looking large ring devices.
“Are they ready?” He asked.
The man working on the wiring inside one of these rings looked up. “General Kaukatsu, they should be. We need more test subjects to try them on, but as far as our limited tests have shown, they will work.”
“Good. We don’t have time to run any more extensive tests. Just get them ready.”
“Yes, sir.”
A buzzer sounded, and everyone looked around in a panic. Kaukatsu rolled his eyes, “Someone opened a secure door again. I’ll take care of it.”
He left the scientist and walked to the back of the lab. A security door was ajar and a light above it flashed to warn of intruders. He pulled his gun and looked around for a moment. Finding nothing, he went to the door to close it. There was someone on the other side. He held his gun at the ready and pushed the door open. A red hand grabbed him by his uniform and yanked him through the door, slamming it shut.
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