Sound Shifter

Chapter 1

Mateus Carr was an experienced chromatist, one that was heavily sought after by the corporations and paid absurd amounts of money to be a subject of experiments for the rest of the world's benefit. The corp that managed to nab him, Arios, was experimenting on a pair of special nanorobotic laced pair of earbuds that could sound-shift those without the ability. So basically 99.999% of the world's population. Something like that. And Carr was one of the few remaining subjects in Arios's final studies. Those who didn't make it were the ones who got lost in longing. This included a pair of Arios executives who mistakenly put on the earphones as a joke while they're links were still active, resulting in an immediate comatose state.
They would spend the rest of their human lives with their eyes closed in a cry-pod, lost in looping worlds of their mind. This would be their fate. Unless someone knew how to stop longing. Which is where Axis industries came into play. Instead of pouncing on the opportunity to create the invention of the millenia, they decided to spend their resources researching longing and how to pull out those doomed by it out.
Their three years of studies have been inconclusive.
It was an impossible feat.
Nearly. And thus Arios remained at the top of the pecking order.

But back to Mateus. You see, the thing about Mateus was that while he seemed like a kind- soft spoken young man that his casual attire and friendly smiles painted him to be, the man was a power hungry socio path of sorts. And this is how he was one of the few remaining subjects. Arios loved it. His worlds were like nothing they've ever seen, his jump abilities were filled with concentration levels that didn't just blow through the roof, they blew through the entire atmosphere. He was unstoppable in his mind. He was also a former EDM DJ from upper state New York, which influenced his shifting abilities.
He was always craving more from his mind. And Arios wanted more. A good match.

So much more in fact, that the CEO himself decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to start hunting down shifters and taking away their abilities for good. Which often ended in innocent shifters being put into comas. They ranged from older men and women, to boys and girls under the age of ten even. It was a horrifying thing. But like I'm sure you've seen in movies or tv shows, the big bad corporations just don't care.
So there Arios went, Carr at the helm of the power hungry ship, given the right to do whatever he wished with his mind. And so whatever he wished he did.
Day after day, life after life he mentally took. Ending shifters left and right.
But there was one shifter that he would be meeting today that would humble him.
And that shifter's name was none other than Dashiell Arex.

//Arios Trinidad Los Angeles//

Mateus polished off his mess hall meal and took a deep swig of his morning coffee, his eyelids still drooping from the night before. He quickly decided the sooner he finished the coffee the sooner he would feel awake, and proceeded to down the whole cup. Fellow chromatist subject's Amie James, Chris Bradshaw, and Breeze Kennedy sat beside him, steadily eating but at a much slower pace than Mateus.
As they went about their business, chattering about their experiences from the previous day, Mateus could feel the eyes on their table. Practically the whole mess hall was watching them, awed by the sight of the famous Arios chromatists. A few considered grabbing pictures or even a hand-written autograph with the bunch but decided it was best to leave them be. Plus there would always be tomorrow's breakfast, maybe then someone would get the courage. But a quick tip, leaving someone be and staring at them are two very different things.
"Damn tech eng's can't can't mind their business it seems" Breeze spoke a little louder than she needed too. Heads turned back down to their plates. "They afraid of us or something?" Chris asked, before shoving a slab of french toast into his mouth.
"I think they're afraid of the way you eat Chris," Amy responded, raising an eyebrow, "If I saw some random person taking bites the way you do, I would find the furthest seat away. I mean at least cut your food."
Chris sighed, "You know what Amy? I've given it some thought and well... I've found out that I don't give a shit. A man's gotta eat."
Amy forced a fake laugh, "So funny Chris. But you're still glad I sit next to you right?" She gave him a flirtful look that made him blush and he looked away.
Breeze picked up on this, "ooooh what do we have here?" she said with a grin, "a little romance a-brewin? you take her to one of your world's yet Chris? Somewhere nice where it's just the two of–"
"Ok that's enough" Chris cut her off. Amy rolled her eyes and laughed.
Mateus, who had previously been silent, staring over his empty plate and pondering his existence in this world, spoke up. When he spoke the others listened.
"I think I might take the day off today, shit was hard last night."
"What do you mean it was hard?" Breeze prodded, "you have the fastest times out of all of us." She gestured to Chris and Amy, "If anything you were in your rest quarters having sweet little dreams while the rest of us were still working our quotas."
Quotas.
An ugly word for taking lives.
Mateus shook his head, "faced a strong one last night, he had an infinity complexion." At the mention of this the others dropped their silverware, mouths open.
"You gotta be kidding me" Chris said with a shake of his head.
"Yup, pulled me into it too. I think he knew who I was somehow. And he was willing to risk the underground rather than be erased by me."
The underground was a term for the darker side of shifting. Worlds that were hopeless, empty, devoid of life, and most importantly, liminal. Having an infinity complexion meant that whoever Mateus faced had the ability to control the underground, and its seemingly infinite hallways and corridors so to speak.
A rare feat.
"Golly." Amy said as she dropped her last crinkled napkin on her plate, "could've lost you." Mateus nodded, face serious and eyes cold. "I thought I was done for, the places he showed me were... terrible." He realized he seemed emotional and quickly went back to being stoic, "Luckily nabbed the bastard eventually, before he could do any harm. I made sure I didn't hold back on breaking his link, put him somewhere he deserved"
Chris winced, even being an Arios subject and ordered to hunt shifters, he liked to give those unfortunate enough a pleasant world to be lost in longing in. He was merciful. The others not so much.
"Kid deserved it." Breeze said, Mateus nodded firm in agreement.
"So," Chris said, changing the subject, "you guys get your draws yet?"
They all pulled out their phones to check. The daily draw system was how they were able to shift into worlds created by other people and hunt. It basically was a system that found patterns in public music playlists that were common with sound-shifters, and chose the most powerful link-songs that could be used to jump to that person's world. The hunters weren't always on time, but it meant nothing with time dilation abilities. Eventually the shifters showed up. And when they did the hunters would be waiting.
Now speaking of time dilation...