There Zeph was, perched on an examination table, swinging his legs much like a restless kid. The makeshift 'clinic' was simply a basement beneath a bustling laundromat. Overhead pipes hissed with steam, filling the air with the scent of bleach and corroded metal.
Dr. Vex, a woman whose fingers had been replaced with cybernetics and whose face bore a permanent scowl, prodded a scanner into Zeph's ear. "Ouch," Zeph grumbled. "Be careful with your merchandise."
"Silence," Vex retorted. Her mechanical fingers whirred as she fine-tuned the scanner, her gaze trained on the blank screen mounted on her wall.
"Well?" Kaelen inquired tersely from the corner, his arms folded tightly across his chest. "Is he on death's doorstep?"
Vex tapped the screen. "Physically? He's in better shape than you. Pulse steady, blood pressure ideal. But his brain activity..." She paused. "It's off the charts. It's like a data center up there."
A grin spread across Zeph's face. "I told you I was brilliant."
"It's not intelligence," Vex corrected him. "It's interference. There's an alien signal in your temporal lobe. It's rewriting your neural circuitry."
"Speak English, doc," Zeph implored.
"Something has taken up residence in your head," Vex stated bluntly. "And it's consuming your memories to make space for itself."
A chill swept through the room.
"It's doing what?" Kaelen surged forward. "Get it out."
"I can't," Vex confessed, retracting the scanner. "It's fused to his brain stem. If I attempt to remove it, I'll lobotomize him. He'll be a vegetable."
Zeph blinked. "A good-looking vegetable?"
"A dead one," Vex corrected.
Suddenly, Zeph winced, clutching his head.
A burst of static. A voice echoed, "Memory deletion not required. Optimization necessary. Hello, Zephyr."
"Whoa!" Zeph leaped off the table. "It's speaking again! It's not devouring my memories, just... optimizing them!"
Kaelen seized Zeph by the shoulders. "Zeph, look at me. What is it saying?"
Zeph's eyes flitted around the room. To him, the damp basement was overlaid with neon blue text. He saw the chemical makeup of the bleach, the structural fault in the ceiling beam above Vex's head.
"Threat Assessment: Doctor Vex is hiding a plasma pistol under the tray. Probability of betrayal: 78%."
"It's saying she's packing," Zeph blurted out.
Vex froze, her hand inching toward the metal tray of instruments.
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He was lightning-quick, drawing his own pistol and aiming it at Vex's head.
"Show me your hands," Kaelen commanded, his voice frosty.
Vex raised her hands slowly. "Clever boy. But one can't blame a girl for taking precautions."
"Precautions are fine," Kaelen retorted. "Hidden weapons are not."
Zeph gazed at the floating text.
"Recommendation: Neutralize target. Aim for the right shoulder. Non-lethal takedown computed."
"Shut up," Zeph murmured into thin air.
"I didn't say a thing," Kaelen responded, his gaze still locked on Vex.
"Not you," Zeph clarified. "The... entity. It wants me to pull the trigger on her."
"Zeph, don't shoot the doctor," Kaelen said in a composed voice. "We need her."
"Correction: We don't need her. Her medical expertise is outdated. I can formulate a superior treatment protocol using available resources."
"You can cook?" Zeph questioned the voice aloud.
Kaelen and Vex looked at him as though he'd lost his mind.
"I'm going crazy," Zeph chuckled nervously. "I'm really losing it."
Suddenly, the steel door at the top of the stairs swung open with a loud bang.
"ACP! Freeze!" A robotic voice bellowed.
Armored City Police.
"They've located us," Kaelen hissed. He looked at Vex. "You ratted us out?"
"I run a clinic for criminals," Vex retorted. "Why would I call the cops?"
"Analysis: Tracker signal detected in the subject's bloodstream. They tracked me," the voice in Zeph's head announced, sounding oddly nonchalant.
"It's me!" Zeph yelled. "They're tracking the thing in my head!"
The sound of heavy boots pounded down the stairs.
"Back door!" Kaelen roared, grabbing Zeph's arm. He kicked a stack of crates over to obstruct the path.
They sprinted towards a rusting grate in the rear wall. Vex was already there, punching a code into a keypad. The grate slid open.
"Go!" Vex hollered. "And don't return!"
Kaelen shoved Zeph through the hole, leading into the city's sewer system. It was pitch-dark, damp, and smelled worse than the clinic.
"Great," Zeph groaned, landing in ankle-deep muck. "My favorite scent. Eau de Toilette."
"Keep moving," Kaelen directed, landing beside him. "If they have thermal scanners, we're done for."
"Thermal cloaking initiated," the voice announced.
Zeph felt an odd sensation course through his skin. Like cold water.
"Kae," Zeph whispered. "Look at me."
Kaelen flicked on his flashlight, shining it on Zeph.
He gasped.
Zeph was... indistinct. The light seemed to warp around him. He was there, but he was hard to focus on, much like a heat mirage on a scorching road.
"What is that?" Kaelen whispered.
"I think," Zeph began, staring at his transparent hands, "I think I'm invisible to heat sensors."
"Correct," the voice confirmed. "You're welcome."
"Okay," Zeph addressed the empty tunnel. "Thanks, I suppose. But could you give me a heads-up next time?"
Kaelen stared at his friend. The fear in his eyes was replaced by something else. Calculation.
"If you can do that," Kaelen began slowly, "what else are you capable of?"
"Query processed. Loading combat protocols..."
Zeph felt his muscles twitch. He felt stronger. Quicker.
"I don't know," Zeph grinned, the fear giving way to exhilaration. "But I think we're about to discover."
Above them, the police boots stomped on the grate. But down in the darkness, the first piece of the puzzle had clicked into place. The Clown had just become a weapon.