//|| //^^\\ || || .|. COHERENT COMICS UNINCORPORATED PRESENTS // || \\ || || --X--------------------------------------------- //======================= '|` ASH UNIVERSE ONE-SHOT // || \\ || || "Spark" // || \\__// || || Copyright 1998 by Dave Van Domelen ___________________________________________________________________________ [cover shows a much younger Contact with energy streaming from his eyes and mouth. Cover copy proclaims, "Burnt Out before he even starts!"] August 23, 2015 - The Academy, Wisconsin Sector Aaron read the numbers on the doors as he walked down the underground corridor. It was odd how this place could seem huge and empty but confined and crowded all at the same time. The place still showed obvious signs of having once been the main containment facility for supernormal criminals in the old United States...it would be a long time before the "Pit" felt like a school. And even longer before it felt like home. "Level 4, room 424," Aaron mumbled to himself as he stopped in front of the door that matched his keycard. Just as he reached up to swipe the card in the lock, the door opened on its own. "Huh?" "Hey, roomie," came a voice from inside. "Welcome to the cell. Pretty roomy once all the restraining equipment's been yanked." "Oh, hi," Aaron stepped through the door, turning to see that one side of the room had already been claimed, with a few books and other possessions set on the work desk. The other young man stepped out from behind the door, his smiling face framed by long black hair, and Aaron awkwardly introduced himself. "I'm Aaron," he blurted out. "Zander, right," the slender young man nodded. "Are you a telepath?" "Well, yes, but our names are written below the room number outside," was the grinning reply. Aaron leaned back out. Sure enough, the names were there. "Mahler, Paul" and "Zander, Aaron." "Now that we've got that worked out," Paul said, grabbing Aaron's bag and tossing it on the unclaimed bed, "what're you in for?" "In for? Like, my class schedule?" Aaron asked. "Nonono...I'm a telepath, and you're obviously not precognitive, so what's your powers?" Paul asked, a little exasperated with Aaron's slowness on the uptake. "Oh. That. Um, super-strength, speed, toughness...the whole ubermensch thing," Aaron shrugged. Paul looked at him skeptically. "Um, Aaron...this may come as a shock to you, but you're nearly as wimpy-looking as I am. Or do you do the 'Set' thing?" he asked, referring to a hero of the 1990s who had been able to morph between 98-lb-weakling and huge-angry-avatar forms. "Um, well, it's kinda like I step outside my body and control it like a puppet. When I do that, I'm a lot stronger and stuff. The doctors called it physiokinesis." "Mind over body, right. So, you've been given a look-over here already then?" "No. The doctors in the hospital I spent the last few months in. Tried to lift a car and tore my body apart." "Ow." * * * * September 3, 2015 - The Academy "...99...100. Okay, my turn to spot while you lift," Paul said, levering himself up from the bench press machine. "You need 200 kilos, right?" "Yep. It's really weird...here we are, still pretty skinny, and we're doing serious reps of serious weight," Aaron noted as he absently wiped Paul's sweat off the headrest before lying down and grabbing the handles. "The joys of being supernormal. No matter what our powers are, we're also a little stronger, tougher and faster than everyone else. Too bad we're not a little smarter, too...pre-calc is murder," Paul sighed as he adjusted the machine's weight setting. "Now, remember...stay inside for this. The whole point is to get your real muscles stronger so that next time you have to use your powers you don't rip them in half." "Yes, mother. 1...2...." A minute or so passed, then Paul said, "Y'know, as strongmen go, you're pretty lucky." "56...how ya figure that? 57...." "Well, look at Napier over there. He's huge all the time. They say that pretty much all superpowers are voluntary in nature, but looking at guys like him you know some of it has to be subconscious. He's still 15, and he's a walking wall. He has to work out on special equipment, over in the next room. You, on the other hand, are only insanely strong when you concentrate on it, so you can get your muscles built up on the regular machines, and work out with the rest of the class. Working out alone is BORING." "...100. Yep. Not to mention, the scenery's a lot nicer out here," Aaron smirked, leering at a young woman doing leg lifts across the room, her hair just a little sweaty and disarrayed. "You can look, but forget about touching," Paul smirked as Aaron got up and the roommates moved to another station. "Carrie's got it bad for Jake over there," he nodded in the direction of a swarthy young man in shorts and a t-shirt, his muscles well-defined yet not so large as to be grotesque. "Whew, now HE'S got the ubermensch thing going." "You read her mind? Isn't that unethical?" Aaron asked, setting up the military press station for Paul. Paul sat down on the stool and grabbed the machine's bar. "Dude, she's practically radiating enough lust at the guy to pick up on a ham radio. It's giving me a headache trying to block her out. Not that I blame her...if I thought Jake swung that way, I'd be on him in a second." He grinned and started lifting the weights. "Um...what?" Paul stopped and rested against the bar. "Come on, Aaron. I know you're not the world's most observant person, and it's been a hectic couple of weeks, but I can't believe you haven't figured it out yet. I thought I was being obvious about it." "Well, I wondered a couple of times, but I've never really..." Aaron stammered. "Look. About the time I hit puberty, I also discovered my powers. Forgive me for finding that the fact I could jump over buildings was more fascinating than sex...and then I put myself in the hospital for a while. I just...haven't given the whole relationship thing a lot of thought, period. Sorry if I'm being dense, but I didn't really know how to read the signals you were sending." Paul sighed and shook his head. "No, I'm the one who should be sorry. I should have realized you might have been a little sheltered lately. And I guess I tend to forget that not everywhere is as open about sexuality as Oregon Sector. Look...if you're really uncomfortable with it, I'm sure we can get different room assignments. It's not like there's a shortage of space around here." "No...it's not a problem. Just a surprise, I guess," Aaron shrugged. "Hey, lift or leave," demanded a young hispanic woman who stood there tapping her foot. "Some of us have routines to finish, pendejos." * * * * November 12, 2015 - The Academy "...and remember, everyone: go to the main auditorium in half an hour, there's an important announcement the administration wishes to make," concluded the teacher. The usual post-class movement then hit, with a handful of students mobbing the teacher to ask questions about the homework while the rest bolted for the door and the illusion of freedom. As usual, Aaron and Paul were near the head of the pack. Between Paul's telepathy letting him know where his classmates were heading and Aaron's agility, they quickly cut to the head of the milling crowd in the hallway. "Well, that's weird," Aaron commented once they'd broken into open hallway and started heading for the Core, the large vertical shaft in the center of the Academy. "What? We've had assemblies before, you know." Aaron shook his head. "Those were all planned things. Orientation. Meet the celebrity. Monthly honors. That sort of stuff. This one's not on the schedule. It must be important news." Paul shrugged as they entered the Core and started walking up the corkscrewing ramps to their dorm level. "Back home we had community meetings for lots of little things. Heh. Maybe they caught M'kembe skipping class and want to make an example of him." "Hm. Maybe...I was wondering where he was. But, like you keep telling me, 'back home' for you was kinda weird. This is the information age, after all...little things they'll just send out a mass email or break into the entertainment channels. Face time is a big deal in most of Ohio Sector, and I'm pretty sure that's the way it is for most of the Combine. Except for Mexico, I guess. They're big on the mass meeting thing too." Paul pulled out his passcard as they left the Core and headed down the corridor towards their room. "True. Still getting used to the idea that people would *want* to stay at arm's length rather than talk face to face. C'mon, let's ditch our books and grab some 'mests before the Big Important Meeting." "Paul, nobody outside Oregon calls 'em 'mests. Munchies, man." Paul turned up his nose haughtily. "Slang is part of my cultural identity. Stop oppressing me. Plllbbbt," he finished with a raspberry. A few minutes later, comestibles in hand, the roommates headed for the main auditorium, along with a slowly increasing influx of students and faculty. "Paul, something's been bugging me lately." "What, the Rodriguez chick put a listening device in your shorts?" "Not that kind of bugging. I mean...no offense, but you're not really the physical type. You're a telepath. Why aren't you at MetaPsych instead?" Paul munched on a curiously reddish-violet snack chip for a moment, then swallowed and answered, "Short answer? Triage." "Long answer, please." "Well, I grew up pretty well-adjusted, all things considered. And my hometown didn't have a lot of the usual privacy hangups, so when my telepathy started to kick in, I didn't get all neurotic about it. Oh, home wasn't perfect, especially after the government started relocating all the loners and mountain men into town to keep them from going feral. But I managed to learn to keep from using my telepathy when I didn't want to. Most of the time, anyway. Still kinda hard to block intense thoughts aimed at me or in my area. But this puts me ahead of 90% of the developing telepaths in the country. There's some so bad off that they withdraw into comas when the voices get too loud in their heads, or who have to be shipped off to isolated places because they can't stop 'screaming' their thoughts at maximum volume to everyone in town. I hear there's a facility out in New York Sector for dealing with the coma cases, and they tend to stick the screamers up in Baffin Island near the main MetaPsych base. "Anyway, while I certainly could use their training, I don't NEED it. And they're swamped, so those of us who can function reasonably well on our own get to go to the Academy. At least we can learn some of the basics of how our powers work, and be around experts in supernormal stuff. That," he dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "and I think they're planning to use us as some sort of psi police. Teach us how to fight, how to make the most of our non-telepathic talents, and then send us to track down telepathic criminals once those start to emerge." "Then ya better put on some more muscle," Aaron teased, pinching Paul's left bicep and twisting the skin between his fingers. "Bean-Paul," he chuckled. "Leggo, thou cruel scarecrow," Paul smacked Aaron on the back of the head. "C'mon, let's see if there's any good seats left near the exits. I still don't think this is anything important. Why break a streak, after all?" The two took seats and waited as the rest of the residents of the Academy filled the room. Some of the faculty had worried looks on their faces, which didn't do anything to help Aaron's sense of impending doom. "Look, there in the wings," Aaron pointed. "It's Dr. Zou." "Head of the medical section?" Paul asked, straining to see. "Hey, no fair...you're enhancing your vision, aren't you?" "Only a little. Anyway, if *he's* giving the talk, that's bad." Paul nodded. Pathologists rarely came with good news. A few minutes more of nervous waiting passed. More students had spotted Dr. Zou, and the atmosphere was getting tense. Paul creased his brow with the effort of keeping out the nearby mental impressions. One of the teachers whose name Aaron didn't remember stepped up to the podium in front of the audience and was immediately bathed in a spotlight. "Students, teachers, assorted personnel, we called you here because a member of the student body was found dead this morning." A gasp ran through the room. "M'kembe Simonson was found dead in one of the training rooms, and the preliminary cause of death seems to have been Neurological Overload Syndrome." It took a fraction of a second for the term to register, then the room suddenly felt a lot colder as the implication sank in. It had only happened twice before, but there was already a non-technical term for it. Burnout. * * * * November 12, 2015 - The Academy's Grounds Aaron skimmed over the transcript of Dr. Zou's talk, which had passed by him like a blur earlier in the day. He'd heard rumors, and knew about the deaths last year, but it hadn't seemed quite real to him until today. Class had been cancelled for the rest of the day. Students who knew M'kembe closely were already with counselors, and everyone in the Academy would get their turn with the shrinks eventually. The staff had it really hard...a lot of them still remembered losing young relatives during the Millenium Riots. For his part, Aaron had to get outside. Sure, it was cold, but better than the suffocating heat and presence underground. He needed to see the sky above him right now...too many impressions of being entombed or roasted alive. Just getting outside seemed to help, though. It was like he was picking up a contact "high" from all the emotions running wild in there. Paul seemed to be coping okay, though, and he was the telepath. He turned back to some of the advice Dr. Zou had given. Never work out alone, even if you're just doing it to blow off some steam. Always stop if you feel yourself getting dizzy or stretched thin. Not a whole lot more, though. Burnout seemed to go from zero to fatal too fast to follow, and so far hadn't happened in any monitored area. Great. A mysterious condition that killed quickly and their best guess was that the victims simply pushed themselves too far. But others who had pushed themselves even farther seemed to have avoided Burnout. Aaron put away the transcript and lay back on the brown, dead grass, staring at the cloudy sky until he fell asleep. * * * * December 14, 2015 - The Academy "AAAAAA!" Aaron shouted as he sat bolt upright in bed. The underground room was still dark except for the faint safety lighting rimming the doors and lightswitch. He was all tangled in his bedsheets, both shiveringly cold and drenched in sweat at the same time. "Whatwhatwhat?" Paul snapped to alertness, his eyes darting around for the threat. If Aaron hadn't been busy trying to force his heart back into his chest, he might have chuckled at the sight. Paul looked at his wristwatch. "Four in the morning. Another Burnout nightmare?" Aaron nodded, turning on the small light over his bed. "This one was weirder than normal. I was a woman in it, flying high in the sky before Burning Out and falling to the ground like a meteor." "A woman, eh? Maybe your anxiety is about more than Burnout?" Paul smirked. "Not funny," Aaron snapped, irritable from lack of sleep and the nightmare. "I don't get it. The counselors said I seemed to be dealing with it pretty well on a conscious level, that the nightmares should fade over time. But they're getting worse. It's like I'm dreaming for everyone in the building." Paul cocked an eyebrow. "What?" Aaron asked. "Probably nothing. Anyway, we have that pre-calc final in the morning, we better get some more sleep while we can," Paul plopped his head back down on the pillow and rolled over. "IF we can," Aaron sighed and turned out the light. * * * * December 21, 2015 - The Academy "Can I just put it up to 210 kilos?" Paul asked from behind the bench press machine. "I know you're worried about Burnout, but if you don't start lifting a little more you won't get any benefit from the workout. It's just ten more kilos." "I...guess. I dunno why, but I just get a lot more nervous in the gym than anywhere else," Aaron admitted. "Maybe I'd do better somewhere without all the negative associations." "Hey, just because you scored better than I did on the psychology final doesn't mean you get to throw psychobabble at me," Paul mock-frowned. "Besides, this isn't even the room M'kembe was working out in...he was in one of the 'strongman' rooms for privacy." Shouldn't be a problem, Aaron told himself. He wouldn't even be using his powers, just exercising his own muscles. He started counting the lifts, falling into the easy rhythm of up and down, breathe in and breathe out. Something wrong. Getting dizzy. Why? It was like he was outside himself, even though he wasn't using his physiokinesis powers. He wanted to scream that he was Burning Out, but his mouth stayed closed, his arms continued to pump up and down, faster and faster. His vision swam. The world started to turn red. And his body still wouldn't stop. It was locked onto its road to destruction. Terrified, he screamed in his mind, ++HELP ME!++ For an awful moment, nothing changed. Then he suddenly felt a cool touch on his mind. --I'm here/present to help/aid.-- Aaron's pace slowed. With incredible effort, he turned his eyes to look at his roommate. ++P-paul?++ he thought. Paul stepped around the weight machine and placed his fingertips on Aaron's forehead. "You're not Burning Out," he whispered, calmingly. "You just think you are. You're a telepath, Aaron! Or at least an empath... you've been sucking in everyone's anxiety about Burnout, and your powers are feeding on that!" And like something had snapped, Aaron was back in control of himself again. The weight plates slammed down heavily as he let go of the bar. Aaron was only vaguely aware of the frenzied activity around him as Paul alerted the medical branch. As he sank into an exhausted haze, the only thing he could think of was how beautiful Paul's voice had sounded in his mind.... * * * * August 23, 2025 - The Academy, Wisconsin Sector Aaron read the numbers on the doors as he walked down the underground corridor. So much had changed in ten short years, although he had to admit that despite the conversion of Level 4 into library cubicles, he'd changed far more than this corridor had. It had taken a while, but this place had become more than just a school, it had become home. He reached the door to the room where he and Paul had spent their first few years together. The panel indicated it was unoccupied, so he reached out to open the door. Then he stopped. He half-expected to hear Paul's voice greeting him, inviting him in while opening the door for him. After a long pause filled only with the background hum of a school getting ready for a new term, Aaron opened the door and stepped into the room. The beds were gone, the dressers and shelves and desks replaced by computer terminals and group work tables. The place where he'd punched a dent in the wall back in '17 had been paneled over. To any casual observer, there was no sign this had ever been anything but a study room. But Aaron could feel how the echoing of his heartbeat was the same...how some of the faint scents lingered under the antiseptic and paint...the familiar thrum of the geothermal tap vibrating through the walls and floor too faintly for normal people to detect. "It's been ten years, Paul," Aaron said to the empty room. "Ten years since I got stuck with an annoying skinny kid from Oregon as a roommate. Some of the best years of my life...and the worst." He paused, listening to the faint echo of his own voice that the acoustic tiles couldn't fully mask from him. "Happy anniversary." ============================================================================ Author's Notes: This story arose out of some discussions with Tony Pi about various relationships in the ASH Universe and where they might go. I decided that I wanted to tell a short story of how Aaron Zander and Paul Mahler ended up together, or at least about the beginning of their relationship. As has been hinted at or pointed out in several other stories, Aaron is basically heterosexual, but the special nature of relationships between telepaths bypassed that whole issue. And I wanted to show at least a little of how it did this. The last scene is deliberately vague, since it's set a year and a half ahead of the current continuity. It should become clearer as time goes by and the relationship evolves....