Nerve

by Kirsten Krueger

  Swearing, Ashna darted out of Louie’s Lenses, and Ackerly scrambled after her, tripping over the discarded frames and bumping into about five different displays. The cold air slapped his skin as he darted onto the road, but the frigid air was soon forgotten when he turned around and saw smoke ballooning above the roofs…specifically above the police station.

  “Adara,” he breathed as confusion and panic paralyzed him. Had she exploded her way out of jail or had Danny? The virulence in Ashna’s glower implied the latter, but Ackerly didn’t have the opportunity to inquire about it before his fuzzy vision settled on a person approaching them.

  At first, he feared it was Danny, but Ashna’s posture was too lax. With the female silhouette and peachy hair, Ackerly was certain it was Naira even before she spoke.

  “Ashna!” With a few worried glances back at the police station, she ran toward them. “I’m sorry—I tried—but I felt like too much of a bitch kissing drunk Seth, and now he’s passed out—I had to lock him up in the cleaner’s—”

  “Naira”—Ashna gripped her shoulders—“relax. Adara didn’t need to know you were kissing Seth to get pissed. Apparently, all she needed was to see me.”

  “So…” Naira’s eyes darted to Ashna’s hands, then over to Ackerly, then back to Ashna’s face. “So you succeeded?”

  “No,” she huffed, dropping her hands to rub her temples. “I…got scared. I feel so pathetic, but…she’s as terrifying as Danny. What happened with Seth?”

  A dark edge entered Naira’s voice. “Jez happened. I was poisoning the air with carbon monoxide to knock him out, but then Seth jumped in, hell-bent on saving me, and I couldn’t manage to subdue Jez without Seth joining him. Seth’s locked in the cleaner’s. I threw Jez in a dumpster.”

  “Locked in the cleaner’s is probably the best place for Seth right now… Is Jez dead?”

  “Probably not, although I wouldn’t really care if he was.” Naira shrugged and then glanced at Ackerly. “Have you told him yet? Please tell me you have. I can’t keep up this ‘we were pathetic prisoners’ act anymore. Nor can I watch you break poor Ackerly’s heart anymore.”

  “I don’t—I wasn’t—” He shook his head and started again. “I want to know what’s really going on. And…shouldn’t we check the police station for Adara? I want to make sure she’s all right.”

  “She’s fine,” Ashna said swiftly. “I can sense she’s not in pain. Danny, though…he’s headed back toward campus.”

  Naira gnawed on her lip. “You want to resort to Plan B, don’t you?”

  “We don’t have much of a choice. I was a coward before; I’ll need to suffer the consequences now.”

  Ashna’s suffering shouldn’t have miffed Ackerly in the slightest, but the thought of her in pain tugged at his heart. He supposed she never really felt pain because of her nociceptor Affinity, but then he remembered the agony on her face back in the lounge, when she’d been tangled beneath the chairs. Perhaps that had been emotional turmoil—fear for Ackerly’s safety as he faced off Nero—and perhaps this would be an emotional consequence as well, something that would affect her with more severity than anything physical could.

  “He still looks perplexed, Ash,” Naira sang. “I think it’s time…”

  Ashna bit her lip now, but after a moment she gazed into Ackerly’s eyes—and then her brow furrowed. “Those aren’t your glasses. Ackerly—you’re bleeding!”

  “Oh.” He touched his temples, where blood was crusted down the sides of his face. “Yeah, kinda. The metal girl bent mine… It doesn’t matter—”

  “What’s your prescription?” She stomped past him toward Louie’s Lenses. “I’ll go find an adequate pair for—”

  “Wait,” he called, but she kept walking, dodging the truth—again.

  He could have chased after her, but the thought of touching his skin to hers made him nervous in a way he didn’t care to explore. Instead, he fished for a bean in his pocket, and then, so rapidly he impressed himself, he forced the roots out of the bean, extending the vine-like stem toward her until it wrapped around her wrist. The tether halted her, and she stared back at the string of flowers between them with trepidation.

  “You…did it without even a seed,” he recalled, thinking back to the Japanese wisteria she’d conjured during her duel with Nero. “You were so impressed when you came into the shop that day and saw the hyacinth…but that was a lie, too, wasn’t it?”

  The guilt was audible in her tone. “I didn’t want you to know how…advanced my Affinities are. I was worried you might realize who I am and assume the worst.”

  “I…don’t want to assume anything,” Ackerly said softly. He’d assumed she was innocent, and that had been false. All he wanted now were the facts. “Just…tell me, please.”

  To a command, she would have stubbornly yanked her hand free, but to a plea she caved, retreating to him until the hyacinth vine was a limp decoration between them.

  “My father,” she said, eyes fixed on the purple flowers, “was not a good man—or maybe he was, but never when I was alive. I told you my mom died during childbirth, and…she did. My father always blamed it on me, but he took his initial rage out on Danny, by exposing him to an…explosion.

  “It should have killed him, and I don’t know if my father would have cared if it did. Instead, he developed an explosive Affinity, including the ability to generate nuclear reactions. My brother avoids it when he can, but a few times it’s slipped out…”

  “But…nuclear explosions are huge! He must have killed thousands—”

  “His are not as big as typical nuclear explosions, but…they could be, and he has killed people, accidentally and…purposely. He hasn’t killed as many as the media claims, but…he isn’t a good man, either. He was, though,” she implored, toying with the vine around her wrist. “He was my best friend. My father favored Zach, my eldest brother, over either of us, so we always banded together…until my father got sick of our shenanigans and revealed to us the reason he exposed Danny to that first explosion—me.

  “I had no choice in the matter of my mother’s death and my father’s harsh reaction—I was an infant—but Danny hated me for it. He went insane not long after that, killing random Reggs and torturing anyone in any way he could. My father wasn’t one to engage in violence himself, but…he never stopped my brother. He let Danny become a monster; he made Danny a monster. I don’t mourn my father’s death, but Danny will seek vengeance against anyone who ever wronged him—likely as an excuse for bloodshed.

  “Danny put an electric collar on me as soon as he became leader and renamed us the Wackos.” With a bitter expression, she touched the ring of purple around her throat. “I’ve never…harnessed electricity, so it kept me docile. I knew I couldn’t let Danny continue to lead, though. Zach deserves to be the leader; he would be diplomatic—he would actually help Affinities rather than just harm Reggs.

  “So, I conferred with Naira and Cath, who both agreed that Danny couldn’t remain in power. We planned an escape, and we succeeded. Then…we came here, because I’d heard a rumor that there was a girl here with a fire Affinity, and I knew she would be our only hope of matching Danny.”

  Glancing forlornly toward the police station, Ashna puffed out a breath. “That’s why I needed you. As soon as I saw how much Adara cared for you, I knew I’d need to befriend you in order to get closer to her. It was so hard to visit her while she was in jail, though, and Tray was too suspicious for me to make any moves. I was planning to divulge all of this to you when we went to visit her at the police station tonight, but…then the party happened, and then this happened.”

  She gestured lamely toward the town. “Adara won’t be able to stop this. She isn’t trained well enough. I saw her aflame, and she has no control over it. She’s a slave to her emotions, and so is her ability.”

  At least there was one point of her story Ackerly could verify—that Adara was wild.

  There had been distress in Ashna’s inflection when
she’d recounted her family history, but it wasn’t any different from the way she’d told her initial fabrication in the Physicals Building’s basement. This could have easily been a deception as well, another lie to provoke sympathy from gullible Ackerly. But with what purpose? What did she have to hide now—and what could she possibly do that would be worse than blowing up Periculand? If Ashna was against Danny, then Ackerly would have to be with her, whether he believed her or not.

  “So…” he began, scratching his hairline, “if Adara can’t stop Danny…what’s Plan B?”

  “I have to fight Danny,” Ashna said hollowly, staring beyond him.

  “Do you…have a fire Affinity?”

  She closed her eyes, face scrunching with remorse. “No, I don’t. If I do, it hasn’t surfaced yet. I just recently discovered my teleportation abilities. That’s why I was only able to jump from the police station to here, probably a few hundred feet.”

  “That’s still better than Hartman,” Ackerly said weakly, at which both girls snorted.

  Any amusement was quenched with Naira’s whispered question. “Can you sense Danny?”

  “He’s close to campus now. We need to intercept him before he hurts anyone else. I’ll need you two to move people as far away from the school grounds as possible.” Ashna looked between them grimly. “But if this doesn’t go well…maybe nowhere in Periculand will be exempt from demolition.”

  “Are any of our allies here?” Naira noticed Ackerly’s puzzled expression and added, “We have a large group of Wackos who are loyal to Ashna—and Zach, consequently.”

  Ackerly blinked in disbelief—and then wondered if he should believe it. Ashna’s story was convincing, but there was a barrier between them now, one that would endlessly question every word she said.

  “A few of them are here, but they won’t act until I tell them to,” Ashna explained as she disentangled her wrist from the vines. “I don’t want them getting killed if I fail. Just because I’m dead doesn’t mean Zach is. There’s still a chance he can rise up from within the compound and overthrow Danny even if I’m gone. Honestly, I hope he’s doing that now, since he’s not here. I instructed enough of our allies to hang behind that they could easily form a coup.”

  “Knowing Zach, he’ll chicken out,” Naira retorted dryly. “He’s always wanted to get on Danny’s good side—and never has.”

  “I’m aware,” Ashna replied with years of pent-up resentment. “We need to get going. A sneak attack will work best, so stay stealthy. Oh, and we should really get you a new pair of glasses, Ackerly. You’ve been staring at my forehead instead of my eyes this whole time and it’s starting to freak me out.”

  In reality, he’d purposely stared at her forehead to avoid the attractive quality of her eyes, but he couldn’t tell her that, nor could he refuse a better pair of glasses. This time he would have to ensure they weren’t made of metal.

  “So, Stark,” Lavisa mused as she punched a Wacko in the face, “what’s that secret suit about?”

  From the corner of her eye, she saw him splutter, but then a Wacko charged toward him, and his seriousness resumed. “It’s just an extra layer of fleece,” he grunted as he hurled the Wacko to the side. Lavisa rolled her eyes as she grabbed her opponent’s shoulders and kneed him in the stomach.

  For how long they’d fended off incoming Wackos, Lavisa didn’t know. There seemed to be an endless supply of them, and with her focus on the fight, everything else had drifted into the distant corners of her mind. Like the fact that her brother was somewhere within the pandemonium, likely doing something stupid to get himself hurt. Or the fact that, though Floretta had claimed Ashna would save them all, the mysterious girl was nowhere in sight. Or the fact that Hartman’s last known location was the Physicals Building, which now resembled a graveyard of blazing rubble.

  Eliana had immediately sprinted toward the building upon its detonation, insisting she would be able to detect him with her mind. Lavisa didn’t really enjoy the thought of her plunging into a burning building, but there was no one else to volunteer. Any able fighters were needed at the front of the battle, especially since that Wacko Josh had subdued so many with his sleep-inducing Affinity.

  Than had fallen prey to it a few minutes ago, and Floretta struggled to combat Wackos with her flowering vines. Officer Telum had joined the fray soon after the invasion began, and his ability to absorb and then project whatever penetrated his skin proved useful against the Wackos who had brought guns instead of superpowers. The ammo was tranquilizer darts, meaning Danny didn’t want all of Periculand’s Affinities dying tonight, but the Regg soldiers had perished.

  Apparently those Affinity-proof suits weren’t completely immune to damage.

  Even though she’d never known any of the Reggs personally, it was still difficult for Lavisa to go on knowing someone in the vicinity had just breathed their last breath.

  Many of the adults who lived in the town’s neighborhoods had come to the school’s campus to defend their homes and families, but the Periculanders were poorly trained compared to the Wackos. Every one of the terrorists was also a soldier. There were many who even Lavisa knew she couldn’t beat.

  Then there were others who didn’t need to lift a finger to be effective—like Josh, or the green-haired man sauntering through the crowd, simply telling students to “halt” and they would instantly freeze. Lavisa avoided those two more than anyone. The last thing she needed was to be stupidly incapacitated by those with unfair Affinities.

  Surprisingly, many students had returned from their hiding places to help. Once Danny had stalked away from campus, the severity of the mayhem decreased, and the teenagers clearly felt more comfortable without the fear that the ground would suddenly erupt beneath their feet. Lavisa wished Nero and Calder were here, and maybe even Adara and Angor. None were particularly trustworthy, but she would have accepted any form of aid at this point.

  That was why she actually cracked a grin at the sight of Nixie, Demira, boulder-boy, and the acid-spitter strolling out of the Residence Tower.

  Nixie swiftly formed orbs of water around five different Wackos’ faces, while Demira wielded an even more lethal chain than before, choking and whipping any Wacko within range. Dave was doused in acid, his own clothes sizzling as he spewed the harmful liquid in every direction. Then the humanoid rock, Haldor, hurled stones at Wackos’ heads, knocking them unconscious before they could process what had happened. Lavisa actually let out a triumphant laugh when boulder-boy managed to immobilize the green-haired paralyzer, at which Tray gaped at her.

  “I thought you were only a fan of self-defense,” he said, his disbelief unwavering even when a gust of supernatural air nearly swept him off his feet. A girl with a wind Affinity approached them, but Tray was too flabbergasted to care.

  “I don’t think any amount of force seems unnecessary right now.” Lavisa ducked as a dart whizzed past her head. When she stood straight again, there weren’t any Wackos traveling directly for her, but a person stood at her left, her pigtails perfectly preserved despite the blood caking her face.

  Nixie’s eyebrows jumped spitefully, and even as she thwarted Wackos with forceful jets of water, she maintained eye contact with Lavisa. “I should drown you for knocking me out.”

  “Can’t say I would blame you.” Cutting toward the right, Lavisa tripped the girl with the wind Affinity. The Wacko had managed to throw Tray a few yards back, but now she plummeted to the pavement, her head of bluish-white hair going limp when her face collided with the ground. “Although, now seems like a bad time.”

  “I think any time seems like a bad time,” Nixie countered, snapping her fingers and drenching a man dashing toward them. Water must have flooded his lungs, because he collapsed to his knees and retched fluid into the grass. “You’re skilled, Dispus, and I need talented people at my back when I declare Periculand as my own.”

  “You really wanna be the one in charge during the aftermath of this—if there’s anything left to be in c
harge of?”

  “None of this would have happened if the Rosses hadn’t been in charge. Why didn’t the Wackos host an invasion of this scale before now? Because Periculy had a strong hold of this town, and the Wackos were smart enough to fear him. Someone with power needs to rule this town, and I think after tonight, the Wackos will have a healthy amount of apprehension for me.”

  With a wild smile, Nixie waltzed away, making a show of torturing any Wacko who crossed her path. She might have been crazy, but Lavisa couldn’t say that she was wholly wrong.

  “I never thought we’d find ourselves fighting on the same side as Nixie,” Tray said as he dusted off that strange, white suit. The fabric looked like miniscule scales, and it clung to his muscles in a way that made Lavisa feel awkward about observing it for too long. She’d felt it resting beneath his sweater when she’d patted his shoulder earlier, and even then she’d known it was more than a fleece undergarment. It made his muscles pulse with energy, poised for action.

  “I never thought I’d find you brawling with such ease.” A wry smirk inched onto her face. “You’ve improved, Stark. Now you’ve got brains and brawn.”

  To anyone else, it would have been a compliment, but Tray’s lips curled with distaste at the notion, which was exactly why Lavisa had said it.

  Straightening his posture, he glanced around at the bedlam and shook his head. Various scratches speckled his face, and his normally neat hair was an utter disaster, but somehow he’d remained relatively calm throughout this entire ordeal. Lavisa actually was a little impressed.

  “We need to find Ashna. Guilty or not, we need to hand her over to the Wackos. Too many people are getting hurt. I wouldn’t even be opposed to sacrificing Floretta if I thought it would end—What the…”

  As Tray trailed off, Lavisa followed his line of vision to a small white dog darting through the crowd, dodging exploded mounds of dirt and feet that could have easily crushed his tiny body. Lavisa did have a soft spot for animals, but she soon realized there would be no mercy for this creature when shards of glass started shooting from its fur, targeting only the Periculanders.