50. Powerless

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    Midas didn't know how long he'd stayed like that, curled in a ball, freezing from the cold. His fingers, his mind, his lips- They all felt numb.

     How could he have been so ignorant? The battle he had been fighting for nearly his entire life had ended in his defeat.

    It would have been better, he told himself bitterly, If I had never been a hero. If I had never met Sam. Or Nate or Rachel or... Or any of them. Now look what I've done to them.

    His chest felt weighed down when he thought of Taro, Willow, Rachel, Nate and Evan being captured, of the look of disappointment in Sam's eyes. He had thought he had been protecting them in the long run, but it was clear now that nobody had won. Insomnium just couldn't be beat.

    The wind from outside the broken window picked up suddenly and papers from Midas' backpack fluttered out into the room. The black notebook, which had spilled out of the backpack, was pushed open by the strong gust and the pages began to turn rapidly.

    Midas watched the pages turning and turning before finally snapping out of his stupor and grabbing the notebook. He straightened out the pages and was about to close it when he noticed a page full of bright colors flip past him. He squinted and turned back to the page. He hadn't put this here. The words were written in boldly colored markers, sporadically through the page. There were six entries in all, varying in length. Midas read the first one.

I can't believe we're actually doing this. If this all works out, we'll go down in the history books!
Nate

     Midas looked away from the notebook, trying to think straight. Had Sam gotten the other members to sign the book? He continued to read the page.

Let's kick some pretentious ISH butt!!
-Rachel

Willow :)

Taro- aka the Human Black Hole™

Let's all make it back safe
Evan Swartz

Midas felt his eyes fill with tears. He gripped the notebook tightly, until his knuckles turned white. The last entry had to be Sam's. It was much longer than the others. He sniffed once and then forced himself to read it.

If you're reading this, that means that you made it back from ISH alive- Or you're snooping, in which case GET OUT. Anyway, I'm sitting here in B3, wringing my hands, waiting for you guys to get to ISH. I get the feeling something amazing is going to happen tonight, I'm not sure why. Ever since we started the SVE club, insanity and terrible ideas seemed to follow us everywhere, and I guess this is where they've led us. Either way, I don't think I'd change a thing about how the past few months went. I've learned so much, and most importantly, that we don't need powers to be special.
-Sam

Midas stared at the page, his throat feeling tight. He let out a heavy breath and stared up at the ceiling, leaning his head against the door.

But you do have powers, he thought. And you might never find out.

Midas looked back down suddenly. Pierce himself had said that Sam was an insulator- Possibly one of the only people who could block out mentas and take away powers. And possibly the only person who could stop Insomnium.

     Midas frantically grabbed his backpack, dumped it out and sifted through the contents, hoping that Pierce hadn't bothered to take his phone from the bag. He found it, and stood up, pacing the room as he called Sam.

     "Come on, answer!" Midas exclaimed when the call went to voicemail. He immediately called again with the same results. Finally, on the third call, Sam answered.

    "What do you want, Midas?" she said quietly.

     "Sam, listen. I know you don't want to talk to me, but hear me out. Insomnium is about to put his plan into action, but there's still time for you to stop him," Midas said.

The line was silent for a moment. "For me to stop him?" Sam asked.

    "Yes. You. You're the only one who can."

    "Is this a joke? Tell me your joking."

"I'm not. Sam, you have powers!" Midas exclaimed.

      She let out a long, soft sigh. "Midas, don't call me anymore. Okay? That's not funny."

    "I'm not joking!" Midas said. "Insomnium told me himself. You're an Insulator, Sam. You can take away the powers of other supers. That's how you made my powers disappear! That's how Insomnium couldn't get in your mind!"

     "Insomnium tried to get in my mind?" Sam asked, horrified. Midas remembered that Sam still wasn't aware of his guardian's identity.

"That's not what's important right now," Midas said rapidly. "What I'm trying to tell you, is that you might be the one person that can stop Insomnium. All you have to do is touch him and he'll-"

"Wait, I don't get it. I thought you were working with Insomnium. Why would you want me to help stop him?" Sam asked.

    "I'm not working with him. Not any more. And I know you don't have any reason to trust me, but this isn't about you and me. This is about stopping this guy once and for-"

Midas suddenly gasped for breath and crumpled to the floor, dropping the phone.

"What happened? Midas? Are you still there?" Sam asked.

Midas could only stare silently at the ceiling- It was as if he'd been paralyzed. He couldn't even speak. His vision began to slowly fade to black until he couldn't see anything and all of his senses were gone.

Is this... Am I dead? Midas wondered. He was not aware of anything going on outside his body or even able to tell if he was still breathing.

"No, Midas," someone chuckled. "You're not dead. Far from it, actually."

Pierce. How are you doing this?

     "You should really try out some of this super serum," Pierce continued, his voice as clear as if he were standing right next to Midas. "It's amazing the things you can accomplish with a little push."

     He's already starting, Midas thought. I'm too late!

     "You were too late from the time you stepped into my office," Pierce said. "But don't worry, I'll save some serum for you. Until then, sleep tight."

      Midas felt his consciousness slowly slip away, like a leaf falling from a tree. He didn't try to fight it.

     You win, Pierce.

     He let himself surrender.

<><><><><><>

"Midas. Midas, can you hear me?"

The world was still black. Midas felt nothing. But sound had returned.

"Midas, can you say anything?"

Midas could not. He couldn't even think how to speak.

"He's not saying anything. What do you think happened to him?"

Midas heard no response. All was quiet again for a moment.

     "Yeah, he's breathing just fine, I think," the same voice said. "Maybe we should take him to the hospital... No... No, you're right... How soon can you get here?"

    Midas' vision grew gradually lighter. Blurs of color were all he could see. He knew he had to get up, but his brain did not seem to have control of his body quite yet.

     "Okay. Hurry," the voice said. Now directed at Midas, it said, "Midas, you need to get up. Come on, say something. Can you hear me?"

    Midas tried as hard as he could to form words, but all that came out was a quiet, incoherent murmur.

    "That's good," the voice said, somewhat relieved. "You're coming out of it now. It's alright."

     Midas blinked his eyes several times, trying to see clearly. The shapes in the vision cleared a bit, but were still blurry. Someone was kneeled next to him, watching him. He'd know that blur anywhere.

     "Sam," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

      "Yeah, it's me. It's Sam," she answered. "Can you tell me what happened?"

     "No," Midas managed.

    Sam sighed scornfully. "Good to see you're still the same old you, I guess."

    The memories of that night suddenly slammed into Midas like a truck. Insomnium was putting his plan into action. They needed to stop him.

     "You... You need to go," Midas said. "Stop... him."

    "Unfortunately for both of us, I'm not going anywhere."

    Midas' sight began to crispen and he could see Sam clearly. She wore her normal clothes now and her eyes looked tired. She locked eyes with him for a moment before frowning. "Can you move?"

    Midas tried to shake his head but found that he couldn't. "No. I don't know what he did." He looked down at his useless legs, trying to move them before his eyes roved over to his left hand. Sam held it tightly.

    Sam saw that he was looking and reddened slightly. "Don't read anything into that," she advised coldly. "I guess you were right about me being an insulator. As soon as I touched you, you started coming out of it... Don't think I forgot about what you did, though. I wouldn't even be here right now if it wasn't for all the weird stuff happening."

    "What's going on?" Midas asked. "How long was I out?"

    "About an hour," Sam said. "Last I checked, there's a bunch of helicopters flying overhead. There's a villain advisory going on- most people are trying to evacuate the city."

    "It's Insomnium," Midas said. "He's about to use all of ISH's supers to take over the world or something."

"How do you know all of this?" Sam asked. She eyed him suspiciously. "Are you... Were you working with him?"

"It's kind of complicated." Midas sighed, trying to move again. No dice. He glanced up at Sam. "Well, since I'm going nowhere fast... You should know the truth. The whole truth, this time."

Sam said nothing, only waited.

Midas took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, he thought.

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