Joel Beck
Location: The street
Tags: Professor X who?
When Joel opened his eyes again, he was back in the void. Oh, right, he'd forgotten that this could happen now.
"Nice one. You're gonna' have to rethink your whole strategy now that one bullet to the noggin can put you on your ass."
"Hey Doug." Joel got to his feet to face his not-brother.
"What? No scathing remarks? No scowl?"
"No. I think I actually owe you an apology. You've been right about everything. You saved my ass several times by now."
"You saved your own ass. We're the same person."
"Yeah, why is it that you're my brother? Have we figured that out yet?"
"Well, who the hell else would you have listened to? Certainly not yourself. Me being Rory would have been a whole mess. You don't exactly have a lot of friends. It's kind of sad, actually, you should work on that."
"Maybe later. While we're here, I need to know something. You remember the things I don't, right? You remember everything from before they fucked my brain up."
"Yeah, it's all here somewhere. No amount of mind fuckery can erase memories; just bury them real deep."
"So let's dig them out. There's gotta' be something I can remember about these assholes that can help us!"
"Whoa, easy there boss," Doug held his arms up in a defensive manner. "It's not that simple. You can't just go pulling out all your repressed memories; some of that shit is locked up for a reason."
"Like what?" Joel cocked his head towards Doug suspiciously.
"Like the furnace incident. How much of that do you remember?"
Joel took a moment to think back on it. "I remember that it happened…but the details are pretty hazy."
"Yeah, you're welcome."
Okay, so Doug had a point. Joel couldn't just go diving head first into his personal catalog of memories that his mind had deemed "traumatic". Nothing could be so simple. Had he forgotten whose life he was living here?
"Let's play another memory game," Doug led, "What did Florida Man say was the reason for the freaks being turned loose?"
"A distraction," Joel said. At least he remembered
that."Exactly. And what were you doing when you got distracted?"
"I was going to track down Mindraker."
"Right. The guy with freaky mind powers. Probably the only person in this entire god forsaken city that could go bobbing for apples in your head and find exactly what you're looking for."
"That sounds great, Doug, but in case you forgot, there's an army of mutants and weirdos currently kicking our ass. What the hell am I supposed to do about that? And even if I do get away, I don't even know where to start looking for this guy."
"You don't have to." Joel just about jumped out of his skin. The voice that spoke wasn't Doug. From the darkness of the void, a familiar, thin, emotionless figure emerged.
"How did-"
"They are hunting us, Joel. They took your friend, thinking they were you. I found you because soon, I won't be of much use. I am dying. I've been dying since the moment you freed my mind."
"I didn't-"
"A couple nights ago, when I tried to enter your mind, I saw my own work. I was the one who formed the false memories in your head, while under the doctors' control. Seeing those memories played back to me broke down my own programming. Ever since, I haven't been receiving the medication they were slipping me without my knowledge. I have a very aggressive brain tumor that will kill me in a matter of hours."
"Holy shit. Sorry man, that sucks. Is there anything I can do?"
"You can find them and end their sick experiments. I will unlock the memories you need. Then, you must take the other two powdered ones and go. Don't worry about the army; I'll hold them off. Just know that by the time you finish, I will likely be dead."
Joel nodded in solemn understanding. "Yeah. Okay. We got this, right?"
"I certainly hope so. Now,
wake up."
Joel sat up straight and took in a gasp of air. He expected to be met with chaos, but the battlefield was dead silent. Mindraker was standing in front of him, arms crossed, expectantly. A glance around the scene in front of him gave Joel chills. The police, the mutants, even the androids, were all frozen in place.
"I can't hold them like this for long," Mindraker said,
"You need to get moving.""Right." Joel stood, rubbing his head. He looked across the sea of bodies for the two he needed to get. Somewhere in this mess was a fox girl and a rabbit girl. Why did all the heroes in this city have an animal theme?
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