Zeph sat on the exam table, swinging his legs like a bored child. The "clinic" was a basement under a laundromat. Steam hissed from overhead pipes, smelling of bleach and rust.
Dr. Vex, a woman with cybernetic fingers and a perpetual scowl, poked a scanner into Zeph's ear.
"Ow," Zeph complained. "Watch the merchandise."
"Quiet," Vex snapped. Her metal fingers whirred as she adjusted the scanner. She looked at the screen on her wall. It was blank.
"Well?" Kaelen asked from the corner, arms crossed tight. "Is he dying?"
Vex tapped the screen. "Physically? He's healthier than you are. Heart rate steady, blood pressure optimal. But neurologically..." She hesitated. "His brain activity is off the charts. It looks like a server farm in there."
Zeph grinned. " told you I was smart."
"It's not intelligence," Vex corrected dryly. "It's interference. There's a foreign signal in your temporal lobe. It's rewriting your neural pathways."
"English, doc," Zeph said.
"Something is living in your head," Vex said bluntly. "And it's eating your memories to make room for itself."
The room went cold.
"Eating?" Kaelen stepped forward. "Get it out."
"I can't," Vex said, pulling the scanner away. "It's fused to his brain stem. If I try to remove it, I'll lobotomize him. He'll be a vegetable."
Zeph blinked. "A handsome vegetable?"
"A dead one," Vex said.
Suddenly, Zeph flinched. He grabbed his head.
Sound of static.
Voice: "Memory deletion unnecessary. Optimization required. Hello, Zephyr."
"Whoa!" Zeph jumped off the table. "It's talking again! It says it's not eating my memories, it's just… optimizing!"
Kaelen grabbed Zeph by the shoulders. "Zeph, look at me. What is it saying?"
Zeph's eyes darted around the room. To him, the damp basement was overlaid with blue text. He saw the chemical composition of the bleach. He saw the structural weakness in the ceiling beam above Vex's head.
"Threat Assessment: Doctor Vex is concealing a plasma pistol under the tray. Probability of betrayal: 78%."
"It says she has a gun," Zeph blurted out.
Vex froze. Her hand drifted toward the metal tray of instruments.
Kaelen didn't hesitate. He was faster than thought. He drew his own pistol and leveled it at Vex's head.
"Hands where I can see them," Kaelen ordered, his voice ice cold.
Vex raised her hands slowly. "Smart kid. But you can't blame a girl for being careful."
"Careful is fine," Kaelen said. "Hidden weapons are not."
Zeph stared at the floating text.
"Recommendation: Pacify target. Aim for the right shoulder. Non-lethal takedown calculated."
"Shut up," Zeph whispered to the air.
"I didn't say anything," Kaelen said, eyes still on Vex.
"Not you," Zeph muttered. "The… thing. It wants me to shoot her."
"Don't shoot the doctor, Zeph," Kaelen said calmly. "We need her."
"Correction: We do not need her. Her medical knowledge is obsolete. I can synthesize a better treatment protocol using available resources."
"You can cook?" Zeph asked the voice aloud.
Kaelen and Vex stared at him like he was insane.
"I'm losing my mind," Zeph laughed nervously. "I'm actually losing it."
Suddenly, the steel door at the top of the stairs banged open.
"ACP! Nobody move!" A robotic voice boomed.
Armored City Police.
"They found us," Kaelen hissed. He looked at Vex. "You called them?"
"I run a clinic for criminals," Vex spat. "Why would I call the cops?"
"Analysis: Tracker signal detected in the subject's bloodstream. They tracked me." The voice in Zeph's head was calm, almost bored.
"It's me!" Zeph yelled. "They're tracking the thing in my head!"
Heavy boots thundered down the stairs.
"Back door!" Kaelen shouted, grabbing Zeph's arm. He kicked a stack of crates over to block the path.
They ran toward a rusted grate in the back wall. Vex was already there, punching a code into a keypad. The grate slid open.
"Go!" Vex yelled. "And don't come back!"
Kaelen shoved Zeph through the hole. It led into the city's sewer system. It was dark, wet, and smelled worse than the clinic.
"Great," Zeph groaned, landing in ankle-deep sludge. "My favorite perfume. Eau de Toilette."
"Keep moving," Kaelen ordered, dropping down beside him. "If they have thermal scanners, we're dead."
"Thermal cloaking engaged," the voice said.
Zeph felt a strange sensation wash over his skin. Like cold water.
"Kae," Zeph whispered. "Look at me."
Kaelen turned on his flashlight. He shined it on Zeph.
He gasped.
Zeph was… blurry. The light seemed to bend around him. He was there, but he was hard to focus on, like a heat mirage on a hot road.
"What is that?" Kaelen whispered.
"I think," Zeph said, looking at his translucent hands, "I think I'm invisible to heat sensors."
"Correct," the voice said. "You are welcome."
"Okay," Zeph said to the empty tunnel. "Thanks, I guess. But could you warn me next time?"
Kaelen stared at his friend. The fear in his eyes was replaced by something else. Calculation.
"If you can do that," Kaelen said slowly, "what else can you do?"
"Query processed. Loading combat protocols..."
Zeph felt his muscles twitch. He felt stronger. Faster.
"I don't know," Zeph grinned, the fear fading into excitement. "But I think we're about to find out."
Above them, the police boots stomped on the grate. But down in the dark, the first piece of the puzzle had clicked into place. The Clown had just become a weapon.