Although skeptical at first that it was a trick, I was now convinced that the current Paramount was indeed a separate and distinct individual from the person I’d known before. Thus, I had mostly let go of the past and now treated him as my brother, even going so far as to visit him in the pokey (as I was doing now).
“Hey!” Paramount blurted out as he finally noted my presence, thereby bringing me out of my reverie. He practically jumped to his feet and began walking towards me, saying, “You’re back.”
“Back?” I muttered in surprise as we shared a brotherly hug.
Paramount nodded. “Yeah. You were just here this morning.”
I frowned. Paramount had been subject to random seizures since his injury. It was an indication that he still wasn’t fully healed, and his doctors had warned that the spasms could affect his memories. Based on the statement he’d just made (and the fact that my last visit had been weeks ago), it was possible he’d had an episode very recently.
“You don’t remember?” Paramount asked with a worried look on his face, plainly bothered by my silence.
“I guess it slipped my mind,” I stated with a dismissive wave, deciding not to worry about it. “Anyway, how have you been?”
“Same as I said when I saw you earlier: good. No issues. If this keeps up, they’ll probably put me back in a nullifier soon.”
I nodded in understanding. Paramount’s power set was what had saved his life after the explosion. (Medical science certainly wasn’t advanced enough to have helped him.) In order to fully heal, however, he couldn’t go back into a nullifier just yet. He had to stay “free” in that context until his health was back to one hundred percent (or close enough that it wouldn’t matter). Once that happened, however, the powers that be were likely to toss him into a nullifier cell and weld the door shut. (After all, he was still guilty of horrific crimes.)
But in the meantime, his need to recover from his injuries had made guarding him problematic. Keeping him out of a nullifier meant that he’d have his full slate of powers and could break out any time he liked. Thankfully, our father had called in a few favors, and the end result was that – while he was being held at a black ops site – Paramount wasn’t required to spend any time in a nullifier. (It probably helped that he was – as I understood it – a model prisoner as well. It was a sure bet that the second he gave his handlers any trouble, the deal was off.)
“So what happens after that?” Paramount asked as we walked back towards the easy chairs.
“Hmmm?” I muttered as we sat down, not understanding his question.
“When they put me back in the nullifier,” he explained, “what happens then?”
I felt deep-rooted anxiety emanating from him, a tight ball of apprehension and concern. He was really worried about this.
“You won’t have your powers,” I explained. “You’ll be like a normal person, but it’s not so bad. Billions of people manage without super powers every day.”
Paramount let out a depressed sigh. “I’m not worried about that. I can deal with not having my powers. It’s not like I’m using them anyway.”
“Then what is it?” I asked, plainly curious.
He stared at me for a moment, and I sensed him struggling for words as a deep-welled sadness grew within him. After a few seconds, he lowered his eyes and softly said, “If they put me in a nullifier, I probably won’t get any more visitors.”
I blinked, caught by surprise but now understanding what was bothering him. He had no issue with being put in a nullifier himself, but that meant that anyone visiting him would have to enter a nullifier, too. In other words, if it was a super, visiting Paramount would mean willingly giving up their powers (if only temporarily).
The thought was disturbing, to say the least. For most supers, their powers are an intimate part of who they are; losing your abilities is like losing a limb. Moreover, from my personal point of view, having my powers stripped from me would leave me vulnerable in a way that I had a tough time contemplating – especially since it had happened to me before. (And I had vowed to myself that it would never happen again.)
I glanced at Paramount, who was watching me with sorrowful eyes. His expression made me wonder if my misgivings about being in a nullifier were an overreaction, so I spent a moment reflecting on what Alpha Prime and Electra would do in that situation. (To the best of my knowledge, they were the only other people who ever came to see Paramount, but because of some obscure rule about super-powered visitors, only one of us was allowed on the premises at any given time.)
I already knew that Alpha Prime, who had raised Paramount as a single parent, would enter a nullifier without hesitation to spend time with his son. Likewise, I felt the same was true of Electra; as an orphan adopted by the Alpha League, she and Paramount had grown up like brother and sister. She, too, would have no qualms about visiting Paramount in a nullifier. That left me as the odd man out.
Paramount was still looking at me with a melancholy expression, and empathically I could sense a pool of dread in him as he waited for me to say something. He was clearly more astute than I’d given him credit for, because he was vividly aware of how difficult it would be for me to socialize with him in a nullifier. In essence, he plainly expected me to say that I wouldn’t be visiting him after he got better.
Surprising myself, I laid a hand on his shoulder and said, “Look, I can’t say that I like the idea of visiting you in a nullifier. The very idea makes my stomach flip. But that said,
