Chapter 1: the strings of fate
A tall man took a sip of his coffee, savoring the warmth as it cascaded down his throat. His fingers encased the mug, appreciating the heat that emanated from it. The barista that had passed him the mug had used her Ability to keep the coffee warm permanently - something she would not have done frequently due to her Limit. However, this man was worth every pain she had to suffer with the use of her Ability.
This man is Reid Greenfield. His cheerful demeanor and chiseled face turned heads. With a subtle glance, he spotted a secluded corner seat and moved towards it, subtly acknowledging the flower-like non-human meticulously slicing a cake next to him.
Reid had a genuine acceptance for non-humans. In the bustling city of Solaris, tolerance was usual while acceptance was rare. He saw the flower dip its petals—a form of a greeting, perhaps? Smiling warmly, he responded with a nod. The flower's leaf gestured towards the cake, a silent offer.
"Thank you, Mr. Flower," Reid replied in a melodic voice. "I'm waiting for a friend."
Seeming to understand, the flower resumed its cake-cutting. Reid curiously observed the creature for a moment, fascinated by its unique way of consuming food. The flower's leaf brushed over the cake and as it did, part of it seemed to nimble away and soon, the portion of the cake disappeared. Did it even need to eat solid food? He wasn't a botanist, after all.
Shaking his head to rid of the thoughts, he focused on the task at hand. Settling into his chair, Reid took a deep breath and momentarily held it, triggering his Ability. Ethereal strings materialized in his vision, linking the man in front of him to an unseen point outside the café. One of the strings vibrated when Reid waved in the air. He released his breath slowly, and the strings vanished as quickly as they had appeared. The string that vibrated was connected with someone in the cafe. Reid found himself staring at a bald man who had taken the seat across from him.
Bingo, he thought.
Reid flicked his wrist, illuminating the screen of his smartwatch. He scrolled through a myriad of apps, finally stopping at the one he had in mind. As he tapped into it, paragraphs of text surfaced. He skimmed the information; he had already read it thoroughly the previous night.
Locating the section he was interested in, he tapped the watch screen to freeze the auto-scroll.
"Jzria Nobilm, an associate at Xtvrim Company, found guilty of theft. Stole three diamond accessories valued at 2 million dollars. Good Ability to hear 10x normal human range helped him crack the vault's passcode.
"Nobilm pleaded guilty, sentenced to 15 years in Solaris Prison, followed by 10 years of counter-Ability tracking, conditional upon behavior."
"Enhanced hearing, huh?" Reid mused to himself. He had spotted the counter-Ability bracelet on Nobilm's wrist, which had prompted him to activate his own Ability. From the way Nobilm had been fidgeting, Reid suspected the bracelet might be faulty. No, Reid knew it was faulty.
Enhanced senses often came with the Limit of sensory overload. It was one of the most common Abilities, second only to physical augmentation. Perhaps, the fidgeting was due to the overload of senses.
With a soft sigh, Reid delved into his coat pocket, sifting through the contents. A smile found its way onto his face when his fingers brushed against a small metal object—a dog whistle. It was slim, almost the length and size of a foldable straw.
But, as luck would have it, or rather, as luck usually didn't have it for Reid, he accidentally grazed the air hole of the whistle just as the café door swung open. A stray breeze drifted in, passing through the whistle's aperture.
Reid himself didn't possess enhanced hearing. But Jzria Nobilm did.
Nobilm felt the shrill pitch resonate through his ears, a frequency painfully heightened by his Good Ability. His skin prickled, a shiver crawling up his spine. As he clamped his hands over his ears, he scanned the café, locking eyes with a young man seated in a dimly lit corner. Reid Greenfield: handsome, draped in an elegant coat that seemed a touch too fashionable for the quaint café setting.
Nobilm might have been inexperienced in the ways of the world, but he was far from foolish. A warning bell rang inside his head: This man is trouble.
Reid sensed the charge in the air, his fingers tightening around the whistle that he had now concealed in his coat. He knew any sudden movements could trigger hostility. Although he had confronted danger multiple times in his freelance detective work, the café-goers were innocents caught in an unfolding drama. Reid found himself hoping that Nobilm possessed enough discernment to understand this as well.
Without warning, Nobilm twisted in his seat and hurled his steaming cup of coffee in Reid's direction. Time seemed to slow as Reid sidestepped, agile as a cat, and the hot liquid splashed onto the table, sending plumes of steam into the air.
Pandemonium erupted.
A cacophony of screams filled the café as humans and non-humans scrambled for the exit. Chairs toppled over, dishes crashed to the floor, and the once tranquil atmosphere was shattered. Seizing the chaos as his window of opportunity, Nobilm bolted out the door, his footsteps pounding on the cobblestone street outside.
Reid sprang into action, knocking against tables and jostling startled patrons in his haste. Reid jumped over obstacles and avoided passers-by, swift and fluid like a cat. What took him off-guard was Nobilm's speed. Nobilm was incredibly swift, surprisingly so for someone with enhanced hearing as his only known Ability. Reid's thoughts raced as his athletic legs propelled him forward: Could Nobilm have a second Ability, one that aided his speed?
Reid followed the vanishing figure through a maze of turns until he found himself standing at the entrance of a narrow, grimy alleyway. A pungent odor of rotting garbage and stale urine permeated the air, causing him to grimace involuntarily.
"Come out, Nobilm!" Reid's voice reverberated off the graffiti-laden walls, filled with a blend of annoyance and curiosity. "I don't particularly care that you've tampered with your Ability tracker. What I want is information."
His words hung in the air, an offering laced with conditional mercy, as Reid's eyes scanned the darkness. They adjusted to the dim light, taking in the clutter of dumpsters and discarded crates, searching for any sign of the elusive man he had chased into the depths of the hidden alley.
And so he waited, each second stretching taut like a wire, every noise amplified in the shadowy confines. Would Nobilm see reason and come forth? Or had Reid ventured down a rabbit hole with an exit as enigmatic as the Abilities that shaped their world? As Reid stood in the murky corridor, torn between patience and action, he couldn't shake off a singular, chilling thought: In the cat-and-prey game of Abilities and Limits, it was never quite clear who was the predator and who was the prey.
But in Reid's experience, the roles were never ambiguous—as long as he was the one doing the chasing.
Reid, who had honed his intellect studying psychology and criminology, was a master of manipulation. He was adept at zeroing in on his target's vulnerabilities, shattering their defenses with carefully deployed words and calculated actions.
His internal musings were interrupted when Nobilm finally emerged, his face half-concealed in the encroaching darkness of the alley.
"What do you want?" Nobilm's voice quivered in the stagnant air.
Treading cautiously, Reid took a single step forward, and the tension in Nobilm's posture became almost palpable. His footsteps echoed like a distant drumbeat, reverberating off the walls of their grimy arena. A soft breeze slipped through the narrow space, making Reid's coat billow like a dark flag of truce. It was a calculated move, showing Nobilm that he carried no concealed weapons.
While Abilities could tip the balance of a physical confrontation, it didn't render them invulnerable to bullets or blades. Sensing this, Nobilm's rigid shoulders dropped ever so slightly, as if relinquishing a portion of the weight he carried.
"I am Reid Greenfield, a freelance detective," Reid began, his eyes darting past Nobilm to note a second shadow in the deeper darkness behind him. "Tell me, the one who tampered with your tracker, was it… Kirby?"
Nobilm squinted, confirming Reid's suspicion. Though it had been a calculated guess, it was educated nonetheless. If Nobilm's tracker was functioning at its full capacity, his enhanced hearing would have made this rat-infested, foul-smelling alley unbearable.
Nobilm hesitated before speaking, "You should know better if you worked with us before. We don't share such information."
Reid shrugged, "Well, I don't if I'm asking you." Reid knew, of course, but sticking to such rules wouldn't help his investigation.
Retreating a step, Nobilm's voice softened, "The lack of Hearing makes me anxious. I had the tracker looped, not removed."
Reid mulled over this revelation. It explained Nobilm's uneasy demeanor back at the café. He had probably been waiting for his tracker's loop to reset before activating his Ability. Nobilm was fidgeting due to the anxiousness of waiting for the tracker to loop. Reid internally chided himself for bringing out the whistle at such a crucial moment.
As the setting sun painted the skyline with shades of fiery orange and somber purples, Reid felt a ticking clock in the back of his mind. Jill, his partner, would certainly be angry if he didn't return soon.
"I need to find Kirby," Reid announced, "Give me his location, and I'll let you go."
Nobilm chuckled darkly, "Unwritten rules, Mr. Greenfield. We protect our own."
Reid tilted his head, studying Nobilm closely. "Living as a Stray suits you, then?"
Nobilm's eyes narrowed, "How would you know that?"
A wry smile crossed Reid's lips as he advanced, methodically closing the distance between them. "The frayed but new shoes, the too-well-combed, oily hair that has became straight despite being curly in nature—oh, and let's not forget your familiarity with this specific alley, avoiding even the ants underfoot."
He took another step, now close enough to read Nobilm's unease, "And you were meeting your daughter at the café, weren't you?"
Nobilm's eyes widened, a guarded vulnerability breaking through his tough exterior.
"The chocolate cake. Two cups of drinks…" Reid let himself trail off being continuing, "Your daughter would want to hear from you, wouldn't she?" Reid's voice softened, "Tell me what I need to know and you can go."
"Don't you dare threaten her," Nobilm growled, tension resurfacing in his posture.
"Threaten? I have no such intention," Reid reassured, raising his hands up in a mock surrender, "I'm merely offering a solution to your predicament. Now, Kirby's location?"
A weighted silence stretched between them, each man evaluating the other, until Nobilm finally relented. "90 Edwards Street. Third building from the crossroads, second level. Knock seven times, curtly."
"See? Was that so hard?" Reid beamed.
In one fluid motion, Reid extended a collapsible rod from his sleeve and jabbed Nobilm's tracker. It blinked red ominously.
"You promised to let me go!" Nobilm exclaimed, disbelief and fear flooding his eyes.
"I did," Reid agreed, his voice tinged with regret, "But I never said anything about not reporting you."
As Nobilm's eyes widened in dawning realization, Reid turned and began walking out of the alley. Nobilm's shriek reverabated through the alleyway and Reid promptly flicking his wrist to check the time.
He had 25 minutes before Jill would start making a fuss. He entered his current location into the mini map on his watch and saw the route he had to take to get back to his apartment. It was a direct train and he would make it just in time.
Then, his watch lit up again with a new notification and his eyes twinkled In delight.
Well, Jill was going to scream. He re-entered the destination and smiled.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone