Tweak

Heart pounding in his ears, Shin sipped the water in the little teacup and looked out over the garden. Joral had explained that the council of six had released reports on accusations, one of which being Shin’s murdering his parents with power. They had found him not guilty but the government’s reaction hadn’t been what the council had expected.

Someone had tipped over the reports on stubbed toes and broken locks and had found the one on Shin stuffed in the middle of the pile. Knowing the government as the council of six did, as the genetics did, they were coming for Shin.

Because all power users had to be branded. And if they took Shin, they would take Ash and brand him as well. A little sex done while high on drugs and Ash was pulled into being branded and used by the government as they saw fit.

“Joral! We’ve a bone.”

“Of course,” Joral said verbally as his hands seemed to tell the man to cut the crap.

Joral stood and faced the man who spoke. Thus Shin, Ash and Layaent stood as well. There was a bureaucratic man in a black suit and fourteen well armed men behind him. Each armed man had a riffle aimed at either Shin or Ash.

They had come with their minds made up, it seemed to Shin, but he let the man speak.

“We’ve come for the ones named Shin and Ash. We were willing to overlook certain. Aspects. Of Ash’s condition given that he remained neutral and obeying the law. But harbouring a fugitive is beyond forgivable.”

“I beg your pardon,” Joral said, motioning his irritability. The motion was completely lost on the bureaucrat, who simply blinked at Joral as if the head of house was some kind of idiot. “but what fugitive and why are you taking Shin on today of all days? He is about to sign a breeding contract.”

“Shin has power and must be branded as all those with the condition.”

“Condition?” Shin asked, looking down, holding his hands away from his sides. “what condition is that?”

“The condition of power.”

“Power is not a condition,” Shin muttered, straightening his shirt, “conditions are genetic anomalies that can be coded out and fixed before birth. Power is something else entirely. I, of course, deny having power and ask what evidence you have to support it.”

“This,” the man raised a paper file, “and the words of multiple people quoting you as using power or referring to a ring. Which I assume has something to do with the extra security at the National Museum and the fake ring that has just been accepted into the safe.”

Joral’s scent changed. Shin noticed the change a moment before he felt Layaent nudge him with a finger. Layaent pulled Shin to the side and stepped around the young man.

“Are you accusing my brother of theft, as well as being a power user?” he snapped as he made himself seem twice as large.

Layaent had that way about him. Made the armed men second guess who they should be pointing their weapons at and made Joral shift his weight away. Layaent was built to be an alpha, out in the wilds, Shin understood a bit better. He knew that Layaent would be the alpha dog, the one that other dogs back away from. His very scent would warn off opponents.

Shin had never seen Layaent use muscle to back his warnings. He had tossed Shin a little but it wasn’t full on fighting and Shin hadn’t been armed at the time.

“If he would kindly take off the ring on his finger, the one with the six, six pointed stars,” the man jabbed the file at Shin’s hand, “then we can all go home without any problems.”

“I’m wearing a six, six pointed ring just like the one on Shin’s finger. So is nearly everyone in the tenth generation. Perhaps you would like to tell us all to take off our rings. While you are at it, why not demand strip searches? Why not violate our cavities?” Layaent snapped, jabbing a hand downward, “there was a time when being a genetic meant that you didn’t have to give in to absurd accusations without a warrant. As citizens of this nation it is our right to be presented with a warrant before we have to hand over any part of our persons.”

“Power users haven’t got rights.”

“I beg to differ,” Ash growled over Shin’s shoulder, “power users are entitled to stricter rights and those spare rights that are granted to them by the government.”

“And none have been granted to you, shut your mouth.”

“My contract is still active.”

“Terminated as of this morning,” the man snarled back.

“Fine, his contract was terminated,” Joral said, more to Ash than to the man, “but I have no such contract and I know the rights and privileges of power users. They do not allow you to control them to the point of slavery, nor do you have the right to demand that he hand over a piece of his own property.”

“Take it by force, then take them both to be branded.”

“I don’t want to be branded,” Shin squeaked.

Ash grabbed Shin and dragged him close, bending to whisper, “what was that?”

“I don’t want to be branded!”

The male pushed Shin behind him and spread his feet. “Law,” Layaent turned to face Ash. Something passed between the two of them, some body language that Shin didn’t catch. Ash spun as Layaent turned back to the bureaucrat and raised his hands, protesting.

“Run,” Ash hissed in Shin’s ear.

Shin bolted, knowing that Ash was right behind him. They leaped over hedges as some sort of scuffle broke out behind them. Shin didn’t look back. His pace was ground eating, he was at the wall of the estate before he realised it. Shin stopped, hands up, and bounced off the wall, too startled to figure out what to do.

Ash pulled to a stop beside Shin and huffed out as he looked up, “meant to keep people in. And out. Smooth wall all the way up, there that joint where the two meet.” a pillar running upward was what Ash was pointing at, “bounce up high as you can and off the pillar, catch the edge. Go. Now. Men are coming this way and they’re armed.”

Shin backed up several steps and ran up to the wall, jumping up and then bouncing off of the pillar. He reached up and caught the edge of the wall with the middle finger of his right hand. Amusing, almost. Shin squeaked and reached with his other hand, catching the lip and hauling himself up to the top and dropped to the other side.

Ash didn’t bounce, he leapt over the wall and landed beside Shin.

“Think wilds, only smarter beasts,” Ash murmured to Shin, “run.”

He took off. Around the estate was a small covering of forest and then a city. There was an hour or so of plains before the next city and then an hour or so before the wilds began. An hour of driving. On foot it would be a good deal longer.

Trees brushed passed and Shin slowed his pace to Ash’s. This stretched his stamina and allowed them to reach the outskirts of the first city before they had to slow. Shin walked, panting as Ash fell in line beside him.

“We need money,” Shin huffed, “I need to sit down. Get a cab and drive some. How much do cabs cost?”

Ash winced and wrapped a hand around his stomach, “we need food.”

“Food, I’m not-” Shin’s stomach growled loudly, “oh.”

Ash glanced at Shin, then down at himself, “hey, give me your belt.”

“Seriously?” Shin asked, “this is like a five hundred belt.”

“Seriously, hand it over.” Ash growled.

Shin sighed and undid the buckle, handing it to Ash there in the street. Ash took the belt into the nearby store and Shin followed in closely behind. What partook inside the shop was pawning. Ash sold Shin’s belt for a hundred, growled that he was being robbed and made to walk out, looking pointedly at his watch as he opened the door for Shin.

They got another four hundred for the watch.

With that money in Ash’s pocket, they stopped by a street vendor and Shin learned how terrible commoner food was. No wonder the commoners were always so cranky. Shin would be pissy as well, if he had to eat ‘hot dogs’ of questionable nutritional value.

“Can’t cab it,” Ash said, wiping his mouth with a disposable napkin, “cabs get the officer notes. Means our faces are in every cab, look away from the road Shin, in every cab, bus, train and plane between here and the end of the world.”

“We just have to use our adaptation genes.”

“Right, use our adaptation genes and we have a problem,” Ash tossed the disposable napkin into an available garbage bin, “the aftermath, being the problem. And the beginnings of such adaptation. We’re partners in this and we’ve got to work together. I know the system, you’ve got the ring.”

“Like my ring is any use? It’s like a movie and then the sequel to the movie. At first it‘s great, but then it just sucks to hell and back.”

“It’ll come in use, just remember, you have control over your powers,” Ash muttered, “come on. We’ve got to get moving. Otherwise Layaent will be making his children our namesakes because we’ll be dead and gone.”

“Right, so how do we get through two cities and two more plains without being caught by the cops?” Shin asked, breathing normally as a bus blew past him.

“Ah,” Ash pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and looked at the caller id, “shit, they’ve gotten to Bri,” he handed the phone to a bum begging for coins on the side of the road, then continued on with Shin, “she never calls me from the office phone, that’s our code.”

“Your code?”

Ash sighed, “it means that something’s happened. Commoners are revolting, the officers are gearing up for something. It’s how I know not to not answer the phone. Since we’re being chased, Bri wouldn’t call me from the office. She would call from her cell the moment she heard about it.”

“Alright…” Shin glanced about, “that’s an officer car.”

Ash grabbed Shin, pushed him up against the side of a building and thrust his tongue into the younger man’s mouth. Hands roamed down his sides and the tongue delved deeper. Shin heard the vehicle pass but still those lips lingered against his. Ash finally pulled away and pecked Shin’s forehead.

“You’re getting better at that kissing thing,” Ash murmured, “Subway. It’s an old system, tunnels down below and the subs don’t run anymore, come on.”

“Down where-” Shin was tugged down an alleyway and to a back street.

A set of steps ran downward, marked off and a wire mesh across the opening. Ash paused at the doors and pressed his hand against the lock, melting the lock off. Pulling the door open, Ash motioned for Shin to go in. Ash followed behind and closed the metal door behind them.

“Can see in dark.” Ash muttered, taking the steps two at a time.

Shin’s eyes adjusted as they moved down. By the time they were at the bottom of the steps he could kind of see. In the tunnel, he could see. Outlines, off shapes, the look of the tunnel itself and the trash that was collected along the bottom.

“Now, there are people down here,” Ash said quietly, “don’t be afraid of them and don’t give them a reason to be afraid.”

“Why?” Shin asked quickly.

“Because, this is where the unregistered power users hide. They live down here like rats and it was my job to hunt them down when they go to the surface,” Ash said, advancing down the tunnel, “these tunnels run down the length of the city and then across it. If we can take up a pace, we can make it to the other side of the city in a few hours.”

“How long to the wilds?”

“If nothing goes wrong?” Ash said, “we can make it there by morning. Travel the plains at night and city once the day begins. Going through a city is best while it’s overcrowded, while the officers are busy with everyone else.”

“Morning. As in. We’re walking all night?”

“No. If we walk all night, we won’t get there for two days,” Ash sighed, “we’ve got to run and ignore our stomachs. Get to the wilds and make it to your estate out there.”

“Wait. Why the estate?”

“That’s where Layaent ordered us to go. We will be meeting him there in a few weeks. This might be difficult for you to understand, Shin, but you can have an entire conversations with your hands. I was told to get you to the wilds. I can only assume that he meant to the estate.”

“Something doesn’t feel right about going to the estate,” Shin responded quietly, “just doesn’t feel right.”

***

The ring knew what it was talking about, what it made Shin say. Standing in a great big tree, almost at the top, Ash watched the military swarm over the Ishteshtin compound. The trip to the wilds had been quicker than they had originally thought it would be. At the edge of the wilds, Gomesh Genetics was waiting for them.

Evera, saying nothing and only smiling, took them up in a hovercraft and to a piece of tameable land that Gomesh Genetics owned and was by the Ishteshtin estate. She had flown off without a word and Shin and Ash had trekked half an hour across the wilds.

To see men trampling the gardens and someone shouting at Layaent. The oldest had his arms crossed and a look on his face that Ash could only translate as the military having Layaent by the balls. Layaent would permit the men to overrun his territory but only for so long before ‘accidents’ started happening.

“Maybe. I can call in a giant bird.” Shin muttered, setting his chin on Ash’s shoulder to get a better look.

“Giant birds don’t hunt over tameable-” Ash tried to duck his head instinctually as a shadow flowed overhead. The bird swooped down, crying out defiantly as it plucked up a military man. The others fired at the bird, but the creature flew off to the wilds, “Shin, careful, please?”

“I didn’t think. I mean. I just saw Layaent so upset and figured. Why not?”

Ash made a sound at the back of his throat and turned back to the estate. He could understand Shin’s desire to get rid of the military men. He could even understand his own annoyance at Layaent being hassled about them. But he couldn’t quite understand why Shin was wanting to help his brother. Certainly, they were actual blood related siblings, but Shin didn’t appear that attached to Layaent.

Someone walked out of the estate, dressed all in white, a stark contrast to the military men. The man, Ash’s eyes focused on him immediately, was a government possession. The pride and joy of the government funded programs that specialized in controlling those with power. As Ash watched, the man reached up and rubbed his temple, eyebrows drawing down in a frown.

What was that, that thing off in the corner of his mind, that reminder? Ash frowned himself.

Until the man looked right at him. Ash almost fell out of the tree, when the man in white pointed directly at them. He managed to keep his hold on the branch but he didn’t manage to stifle the sound he made at the back of his throat. He and Shin were too far away to see, only a genetic could spot them and genetics were excused from government programs.

“We have to move,” Shin sighed, pulling away from Ash, “I swear, he just lit up like a. A. Bright exploding light.”

Ash remained where he was for a moment longer and watched the man in white struggle with himself. Sliding into his own power, Ash refocused on the man. The man was burning up from the inside out, his body was overreacting to something.

Ash’s power. The main feature, the reason he was permitted to become an officer of the law in the first place. Because his power made other users go crazy. Nuts.

“Odd how that doesn’t work on genetics,” Ash muttered.

“What doesn’t work on genetics?” Shin muttered as he slid towards the trunk of the tree.

Ash slid behind Shin, caught the next branch on his way down and dropped to the ground with a thump, “One of my powers, it makes other power users go a bit crazy.”

“You mean that virus thing of yours?”

“No, just my power in general.”

Shin hit the ground beside Ash and straightened, giving the older man a look of disbelief, “let me get this straight, you have the power to make power users go crazy. You forgot about it and then you got infected with something that… makes power users go crazy. And since then, neither of them has really worked? Not to mention the fact that you never lit me up like you lit that man up.”

“I don’t know why.”

“Everything can be explained with the ring,” Shin muttered, motioning deeper into the forest.

They walked at an easy pace. Having not slept in over a day, neither of their bodies were willing to be pushed to the extreme. The military was hours away unless they lit the whole forest on fire and that couldn’t very well happen. Forest or not, the wilds just didn’t like going up in flames.

“Not everything can be explained by the ring.”

“If I hadn’t picked up the ring and gotten cocky, I wouldn’t have turned down the Meita family who made me question them. Which means I wouldn’t have spoken to Evera at Gomesh Genetics enough that she’s considering me on friendly terms with her, which meant that when the government came for me, I’d have no where else to go.”

“Oh please, that’s not true and you know it. If you hadn’t stolen the ring, no one would be after us!”

“See, even our bad luck is caused by the ring! Have to break a few eggs to get food, Meshnan always said.”

“Break a few eggs to make an omelette, Shin.”

“However that goes. Why ever people have food based sayings is beyond me.” Shin skittered around a trap door spider without even looking down.

Ash stepped around and the spider opened his little trap and peaked at Ash. The spider let out a hiss or a growl or something and retreated back into it’s den. Ash didn’t like how Shin was fine, didn’t exist to the creatures around them, but Ash did. Not only did Ash exist, the creatures and animals liked snarling, spitting and snipping at him.

Before long they crossed into the territory owned by the wild male. His markings were new and seemed different to Ash. More annoyed or. Something. Ash could almost picture the male giving him an exasperated look as he crossed into the territory.

Of course, someone had figured out how to empower his urine. Who in all the world would think to put power, and thus a message, into piss of all things?

“Ash?” Shin asked, pausing past the line, “you’ve been glaring at it, now step over it.”

“Sorry,” Ash gave himself a shake and stepped over the invisible line.

The wilds went about its daily business. Creatures hunted one another, ate one another and mated. Ash and Shin ignored the animals around them and skittered around the blooming man-eating plants. With summer in full swing everything seemed obsessed with one thing: sex.

Everything except the intruders, that was.

Ash could hear the military men behind them, giving out startled orders. It started with a rattle of gunfire that made Shin and Ash duck. But they were far away from the guns, the sound of the shots had been amplified by their hearing. After that it was just a matter of knowing which way to cock one’s head to listen for miles behind them.

Through the forest, Ash began noticing more and more signs. The first was a snare, laid across the path. This snare did not spring when Shin stepped on it and Ash had spotted it at the last moment. He managed to shift his weight and do an odd little hop over the snare.

The next sign was a trap door spider, nailed to a tree. The miserable arachnid was still alive, nail driven through its abdomen. There was no doubt about the warning. Any creature capable of nailing a spider the size of a man hole cover to a tree was able enough to kill any animal, or person, stupid enough to walk into its territory.

Little scratches and scrapes on trees, a footprint there and a fishing trap build over a small portion of a creek.

The final warning was not a sign at all, it was a male standing in the pathway. Ash stared at the male and couldn’t quite put his finger on the oddity of the male.

Then he realised that the male was Mysh, dressed in some sort of hide shorts and with three parallel scars moving from his shoulder and towards his well chiselled chest. The big male’s blue-green eyes were large and clear of medicine or madness. His hair was loose and about his head as if he had just awakened.

“What wanting here?” Mysh growled roughly.

“Running from a man in white,” Shin said quickly, “they want to brand me and we ran and so they’re looking for us.”

Mysh frowned, watching Shin’s hands but the young man was obviously not making his hands say what his words were also saying. Instead of dismissing Shin as annoying or as an enemy, Mysh looked over Shin’s shoulder and to Ash.

“Commoner this one?” Mysh asked.

“No,” Ash responded.

“Broked like Mysh?”

“No,” Ash shook his head, “he just hasn’t learned yet.”

“Ahhhh,” Mysh turned his attention to Shin and smiled, “Mysh,” he smacked his own chest over his heart and winced, rubbing his hand over the scars there. “come, Ahhhhyahhh meet and speak. Mysh not speak well, proper.”

Mysh motioned and stepped off the path. Shin glanced back at Ash before he followed after Mysh. As Ash stepped off the path, he glanced back and noticed.

Trapdoor spiders, well hidden along the path and even off the path. Ash swallowed hard and turned, focusing on Shin’s back and where the young man was stepping. He followed in Shin’s footsteps and trusted that Mysh, and thus Shin, would not lead him astray.

When they brushed between two trees that were nearly touching, Ash was certain that everything was about to go wrong. But instead of stepping into a trap, they stepped into tameable land, encircled by smaller versions of the giant tree that Shin and Ash had spent a night in. The canopy of the trees stretched overhead and blotted out the sky, even as it allowed sunlight to filter in. Hollows were dug out and small huts mounds were being constructed for shelter.

At the center of the tameable land was a communal fire, where three women were tending the flames silently. Children ran about them, five in total of varying ages.

Mysh walked past the women and so Shin and Ash walked past the women. No one looked at them or paid them any heed. No one seemed to care.

The males were collected by the shelters, taking a break, it seemed from building. There were three males to each of the females. This number worried Ash, because the females were the less likely to be allowed to ‘wander’ away from home. Females were more important in the wild, more protected.

Which meant more males would not be welcomed. There were few enough females to go around.

Mysh stopped in front of a male that was larger than the rest, but smaller than himself. The man bobbed his head several times and slid behind the male, hunching down so that he was smaller than the male.

“Meesh,” pronouncing the name differently, “tells me that you two are of the outside world, smell of metals and bad things. Men are after you? Very odd, that men would come after ones who seek refuge here. Tell me…” the male’s eyes focused on Ash and Ash felt the odd tugging and then the frightening slide as the male ‘hacked’ into Ash’s mind and peered at the information that he wanted, “ah. So.” the male sighed out and turned his head back, towards Mysh, “Meesh thinks make new tribe. Thinks that too many males will cause problems. Hmm. Considering,” the male closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, “other males agree, too many fights as it is, for females not yet old enough to take a mate.”

Too fast. Ash took Shin’s wrist carefully in his hand. Shin glanced his way, then looked down at the star ring. Shin looked up at the male and held up his hands to stop him from speaking.

“This isn’t necessary.”

“Female spirit,” the male motioned around them, “says you know how to get females for males to breed with. Take Meesh and male of younger blood to my own-”

Shin frowned.

“Brother,” Mysh chirped over the male’s shoulder and glanced at one of the males, cheeks going just a little red.

Which meant that Mysh had found himself a lover. That would cut down on how many females were needed and distracted two males from the competition over females.

“Female spirit?” Shin asked, as if that had been his question all along.

“Eh,” the male looked over his shoulder at Mysh, “Meesh says outsiders might call female spirit God or… Mother of nature.”

Mother nature, that was a term that Ash hadn’t heard in ten years. Learning about old religions was part of the learning process for any tweaker and Mother Nature had been one of those terms given to God, before she was God. The oldest civilizations had worshiped this Mother Nature like a god, respected the land and had a relationship with the trees and animals they encountered in every day life.

“You speak to God?”

“No, she,” the male said, smiling at Shin, “speaks to us.”

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