Industrial Strength Magic - Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Junior Varsity Mind-Control

This kid is gonna be the death of me. Chase thought, gritting his teeth. Wraith was the easiest, being all shook up because of her dead dad gave him an easy in.

Hardcase was conventionally-minded, nuclear parents, only incidentally abusive. She was a bit off kilter due to puppy love, but the fixation didn’t provide an in, with how focused she was on it. A tough nut to crack, but a simple one.

Paradox…was weird. The kids’ mind was constantly changing. His brain fired so quickly that it sometimes felt like Chase was hanging on by his fingernails, then it would suddenly slow down, and harden up instead, turning into a mire that could drag him down to the bottom if he relaxed his sphincter for an instant. Shortly afterward, it would change again, not fast or slow, but bearing a scent.

Chase had never experienced a scent in someone’s mind.

It smelled like…emptiness. And it made Chase wildly uncomfortable.

Paradox’s mind shifted gears again, causing Chase’s grip to slip. The Tinker glanced up at Chase with a frown, unraveling the deception at lightning speed.

Adrenaline flowing, Chase blocked the realization an instant before his control unraveled, his sphincter puckering up against the couch.

The kid had pinned an actual demon to a sacrificial circle with their own blade. He was obviously capable of murder. Chase didn’t wanna find out what would happen if he lost control.

When a Minder lost control, getting it back was actually harder than the first time, despite what the comics and politicians would tell you. If someone as slippery as Paradox realized what was going on, Chase would probably be missing half his teeth before he could hope to regain control.

It’s like a roller-coaster with no seatbelts, Chase thought as Paradox shrugged and went back to his illegal tinkering.

Chase didn’t really care about the bureaucrats who’d decided that Tinkers could only do their thing in pre-determined places, or if they had a license. It was a stupid rule that was a knee-jerk reaction to Megacore blowing up part of the wall in the late two thousands.

It didn’t actually stop Tinkers from experimenting on their own. It just made people feel better, which was all the old fogeys really cared about.

At the moment, Hardcase and Paradox were inside, not causing trouble, and Wraith was cackling at a reality TV-show.

Nobody was getting murdered.

As the episode Super Parent Swap ended, Chase checked his watch. It was ten thirty, rapidly approaching eleven. Time for all good teenage crime-fighters to go to bed so uncle Chase could finally take a moment to breath.

Chase gave a long, exaggerated yawn. “Well, it’s getting pretty late. We got a long day on the wall tomorrow. Let’s turn in.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m tired.” Paradox said.

Chase glanced over at the three opulent bedrooms.

Three opulent bedrooms, four people, Chase thought, coming up with a solution in a second.

“I’ll take the center room there, Paradox, you can be on the left, Wraith and Hardcase can share the one on the right…”

Chase touched Hardcase’s surface feelings, blinked a couple times, and reconsidered room placement.

“Actually, Hardcase, you can bunk up with…”

Wow.

“Okay, Wraith can sleep wi-“

Okay…I did not expect sleeping arrangements to be this delicate.

The three of them existed in a delicate balance of denial that could erupt like a goddamn volcano at any moment…and Chase didn’t want to be held responsible for it.

“You know what Paradox? You’re on the couch. Hardcase, you get the right-hand room.”

“You’re the leader, why don’t you sleep on the couch?” Paradox asked.

“Because I’m old and already did my time couch-surfing in the two-thousands,” Chase said, recalling the era of his life where he hermit-crabbed from family to family, inserting himself as a welcomed guest.

It had had its ups and downs.

“Alright, you guys go to bed, I wanted to head out and look for John’s lair again,” Paradox said, putting a bag strap over his shoulders.

“You can do that after your shift on the wall, can’t you?” Chase asked, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead as he struggled to turn Paradox’s opinion.

Unfortunately the kid’s desire to go out wasn’t rooted in idle desires, it had something vaguely to do with his identity and sense of self, which meant getting him to change his mind was like pulling teeth.

“I don’t need sleep that bad,” Paradox said with a shrug, heading for the door with a satchel over his shoulder.

“I hate to pull rank here,” Chase said, “but I need to be sure you’re gonna be in good condition and present tomorrow, or they’ll have my ass. Stay.”

Paradox frowned, his mind squirming inhumanly in Chase’s grasp, in a way that sent goosebumps up the Minder’s neck.

“I’ll help you look on your next day off,” Chase said, fully intending to kick the problem down to Future Chase.

“Alright,” Paradox said, his mind returning to a semblance of normalcy.

Chase heaved a sigh of relief.

“I’m gonna grab something from the corner store,” Wraith said, standing.

“You don’t need makeup to sleep,” Chase said.

“You’re right. I need moisturizer to sleep.” Wraith shot back.

“There’s some in the bathroom.” Chase said.

“I don’t like that kind,” Wraith said.

Chase rubbed his temples as Wraith began bucking against his control. Over moisturizer.

“I’m gonna go pick up some pizza from the plaza.” Hardcase said.

“It’s ten-thirty-seven,” Chase said, checking his watch. “What are you eating pizza that late for anyway? Didn’t we just decide we were going to bed?”

“Could be dead tomorrow.” Paradox said with a shrug. “Might as well.”

“They deliver,” Chase said, grabbing the laminated restaurant list next to the room phone and shoving it into Hardcase’s hands.

“Do they deliver moisturizer?” Wraith asked, arms crossed.

“You never heard of Instacart?” Chase said before signing up for the app and painfully attaching his credit card to the account. He handed Wraith his phone as Paradox’s mind started roiling again, nearly tugging itself away from him while he was distracted by the buxom redhead.

Chase wrestled Paradox’s suspicions back down while Wraith went to town on his credit card, handing him back an order of nearly five hundred dollars, including FREAKING jewelry!

“Why are these earrings in the cart!?” Chase demanded, scrolling through the heinous list of ‘necessities’.

“I can’t sleep without gold-plated earrings,” Wraith fed him a bald-faced lie so audacious that Chase was momentarily shocked into silence.

“That’s three family sized pizzas, one with breakfast sausage, peperoni, pineapple, green peppers and onions. Another with peas, Breakfast sausage, corn and the gravy sauce…” Hardcase said into the room phone.

Chase’s eyes widened as he spotted the tiny girl holding his credit card.

As his attention wavered, Paradox’s mind began squirming again, rendering Chase silent as he diverted the Tinker’s train of thought. There was barely room to breathe, let alone yell at her.

“What did you want?” Hardcase asked innocently, holding the landline away from her ear.

“Just…get me…a Western,” Chase gritted as Paradox’s mind almost wriggled out of his control.

Is it too much to ask for you brats to stay in one place for a single night!?

Chase felt like he was playing defense all by himself against the Washington Hornets.

If he could keep them behaving themselves until they got to the wall tomorrow, he could do a soft release, which would allow him to pick up where he left off when they got off the wall.

That was where a lot of the misconceptions about Minders getting into people’s brains easier and easier came from. If mind-control was broken, it was BROKEN.

But if the Minder just put it on pause, that was a completely different ball-game.

I swear to God, I’m gonna sleep the entire time they’re on the wall.

Finally, finally, after eating pizza and joking around for another hour, the brats went to bed, leaving him alone.

Once he felt all three of their minds fall asleep, Chase set a five hour timer and collapsed into bed.

It was a bit risky. If one of them woke up and stumbled across him while he was asleep, he was screwed, but he’d be even more screwed if he didn’t get some sleep between now and tomorrow morning.

Chase passed out almost instantly.

The next thing he remembered was a harsh beeping coming from his watch, wrenching a plaintive groan out of him as he dragged himself out of his bed.

He checked his watch and scratched his head, touching each of the three minds.

Hardcase was having a lewd dream, Wraith was having a nightmare about family, and Paradox’s mind seemed to fold in on itself infinitely, like some kind of bionic meatgrinder or the monster from that one movie.

Kid gives me the heeby-jeebies, Chase thought, running his fingers through his hair and yawning. Two hours until they had to be at the wall, and one hour till he woke them up.

Enough time to get some coffee.

Chase found the coffee that came with the room and got it going while reheating some of the pizza in the oven, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he worked.

Sure enough, the smell woke the three up and one-by-one Chase imprinted his narrative on their sleep-clouded minds.

Just as someone wakes up or falls asleep is the easiest time to make more drastic, permanent changes to a person’s mind. Make them admire you, find you attractive, change the object of their crush. Dictate their behavior. Make them stop using your credit card for fuckin’ everything.

Chase didn’t. He simply applied a narrative and allowed them to retain free will and remain wholly themselves within that narrative.

It wasn’t out of any moral consideration, or because it was against the law. Chase had about as much respect for the law as these kids had for him.

There were only two reasons he didn’t:

#1 Mental violation of that magnitude was a fantastic way to get murdered days, weeks, or years down the road when the victim unraveled the change. A wise Minder paid much, if not more, consideration to how a victim would react if they broke control. Especially if aforementioned victim was a super.

#2 Chase was approaching his forties. He’d already lost his taste for that sort of thing.

“I have prepared a sumptuous feast,” Chase said, pulling the single combined multi-pizza out of the oven and placed it in the middle of the room as the three teens dragged themselves out of bed, looking a bit rough around the edges.

“I told you you should’a went to bed at ten-thirty.”

“We’re not geriatrics like you,” Paradox muttered, staring at the pizza for a good thirty seconds before he figured out what he was supposed to do with it.

“Alright, pizza first, then showers, then we gotta get to the wall,” Chase said, checking his watch. An hour and a half, meaning they had plenty of time to get suited up on the lower levels before catching the bus to the wall.

There was a shuttle that ran back and forth between the hotel and the wall for obvious reasons.

Chase watched Hardcase’s eyes follow Wraith, who’d called the shower before anyone else. He couldn’t help but read Hardcase’s surface impulse, which was quickly quashed as she turned away and returned to eating her pizza, taking a slice each from Paradox and Wraith.

Huh.It’s always the quiet ones with the most active imaginations. Damn.I really hope I don’t get blamed for that. I’m sensing a lot of repression.

Another favorite pastime of…pretty much everyone…was blaming their own desires on the spooky mind-controllers.

Yeah, I’ll bet that bites me in the ass, Chase thought sourly as Hardcase watched Paradox enter the shower room after Wraith, practically drooling into her plate before she caught herself and beat herself up about it internally for a good five minutes.

Chase couldn’t tell exactly what was happening in someone’s head, but he could read the broad strokes. And Hardcase’s brain wasn’t exactly quiet, or alien like Paradox’s.

Chase considered giving his worldly advice, but again, anything that came out of his mouth would be suspect once they realized they’d been under mental house arrest on the train-ride home.

Anything he did would likely have the opposite effect in the long run. Best to play it hands-off.

Which was uncomfortable when someone was actively hating themselves across the table from him for stupid-ass reasons.

Chase pushed his empathy way down in the pit of his stomach where it belonged and ignored it. He had plenty of practice at that.

Soon enough, all three of them were ready for work, and they all took a trip down to the armory, joking and goofing around to cover the ever-present fear of death, mostly for Hardcase’s benefit.

The bite-sized Tinker was a normie, and hadn’t quite developed that hardened mental state that comes with seeing a lot of death.

“Admit it, you just wanted Hardcase to wear the mox clothes so you could gawk at her through the plexiglass,” Wraith joked, using sexual tension and humor to divert her thoughts from mortality.

“Not true,” Paradox said, shaking his head.

Not entirely true, Chase corrected mentally, glancing over at Hardcase. His jaw dropped a bit at the surface thoughts thrashing around wildly as she calmly readied her mechsuit.

Hardcase might be good at poker, actually.

“Multiple, redundant layers of defense are vital to a long career as a super,” Paradox continued, his armor unfolding in front of him.

The Tinker turned around and stepped backward into the dull grey suit, allowing it to close around him.

Crack.

Chase’s head whipped around to look directly at Paradox. The instant the helmet had come down over his head, his mind had suddenly changed from a murky bog to wet cement. An order of magnitude more difficult to penetrate. Chase’s control had been shattered instantly.

The game was up.

The suit of armor paused, seemingly losing his train of thought as Paradox unraveled the last twenty or so hours.

Seems like as good a time as any to bail, Chase thought, putting his hands in his pockets and walking away at a casual pace, so as not to attract undue attention.

A iron grip clamped down over the back of his neck.

“Hey Chase, can I ask you a question?” Paradox’s modulated voice reverberated in his ear.

Crap.