Flicker, Fade, Soar

by Zoe Wynns

Part One

  Ugh. It had happened again. A disappearance.

  One minute I was just fine. I was at my desk reading a new book that I was loving. It was easier to read than to talk to people, anyway. My mom had said she would come up to check on me and kiss me goodnight in a few minutes, and I was making the most of my time. I was on an exciting chapter. I gasped as the villain discovered the Super in his closet. I bit my nails as he tied her up and gagged her.

  I fell out of my chair as an invisible force started punching me in the stomach.

  Wait, that wasn’t part of my book. Darn, it was another disappearance. I groaned and curled up in a ball, trying to delay the inevitable.

  My body started fading just like magic. Or, just like the Super in my book. She could turn invisible too.

  Stop, I told myself. Supers are not real. You have an… issue, not a superpower.

  Plus, the girl in my book could eat while invisible. She could talk and people could hear her while invisible. She could stop turning invisible and start turning invisible if she wanted to!

  Oh well. I was already 100% gone now. Nobody could see me, hear me, or feel me. I was like a ghost that couldn’t speak.

  I wondered how many of my few minutes that my mom said I could read during I had left. I tried to sit back in my chair, but I went through it and fell to the floor. Sighing (without a sound), I stood up.

  I peered at my book. Without my hand holding it, it had flipped to a later page. I tried to shield myself from reading it, but I couldn’t help it. I looked.

  The main character had died. I wondered how? That did not seem reassuring for my future. I tried to flip backwards to find out how it had happened. My hand went through the pages.

  Very ghostlike. Also a bad omen.

  I could hear footsteps on the stairs. My mom was coming. I willed myself to turn visible again, for this to be one of my five-minute disappearances and not one of my three-day ones.

  Nothing happened.

  “Rose?” yelled my mother, peering in my bedroom door.

  I took a deep breath and focused on making a sound. “Here,” I said. Or rather, tried to say. Nothing happened. My nonexistent lips just moved soundlessly in the air.

  My mom sighed. “Dave, she’s gone.”

  I heard a thump from the living room. “Rachel, there’s nothing you can do about it,” my dad said heavily, having just sat down on the sofa. “She’ll return when she returns.”

  Unknown to her, I followed my mother into our living room down our narrow hallway. We lived in a one-story three-bedroom house. The three were my bedroom, my parent’s, and a guest room. Not like I ever had any guests over. After I started disappearing, my parents pulled me out of school and started homeschooling me, to avoid questions that they couldn’t answer.

  Because the truth was, they’d taken me to every doctor in the state. Literally. Not a single one could tell them what was wrong with me. Every time a new doctor shook his/her head and said the test results showed nothing, a new spurt of hope that I was a Super flew into my heart. But I crushed my own hopes time after time. There are no Supers. No Supers. No Supers.

  My mom joined my dad on the couch and started sniffling. A tear ran down her cheek. “I hate this part. Waiting for a daughter that could be who-knows-where and could be out getting into all sorts of trouble while we sit here like idiots and believe her story about paralysis and disappearing.”

  That hurt.

  Dad stroked my mom’s hair. “I still think we should consider that woman’s letter.”

  My heart stopped for a moment. I hadn’t heard anything about a letter.

  “Dave, you know I don’t want to send her away,” Mom said sadly. But my Dad and I could both tell she was weakening.

  “She says they could fix her,” whispered Dad. “She says she’ll not have this problem anymore after a five-year course.”

  “But if she’s faking and all she needs is a good punishment?” my mom said softly back, collapsing onto the unused portion of the couch.

  “We’ve got to believe her. She’s not the type to lie, she never has before,” Dad sighed, giving my mom a quick kiss and pulling her up into a sitting position.

  “I guess if she’s just sneaking away, this Tribe of Cushioned Souls, or whatever the heck they called it, will beat that out of her,” My mom said, giving in.

  “It’s the Tribe of Curable Souls, Rachel,” my dad muttered.

  “All right. But if they try to keep her for longer than five years, I’ll take her right back home,” my Mom agreed.

  My dad said nothing.

  “How do we tell her?” Mom said eventually.

  “Rachel, you and I know full-well she’s probably standing right over there,” he pointed to the corner where I was hidden and I jumped, “listening to every word we’ve said, the good and the bad.”

  My mom sighed for what was probably the fourth time. “I guess. If she’s telling the truth.”

  I ran to my room, jumped on my bed (but fell through it), and cried silent tears.

  Three days later, after a good amount of crying, fighting, and finally forgiving (not wanting the weight of hating both my parents on my chest for five years), I waved a sullen goodbye to my mom and dad. Dad’s eyes were shining. Sadness, or joy?

  “Now, remember, be polite, work hard, and I’ll miss you a lot,” Mom gave some last minute advice and comforts as a green bus pulled up to our driveway. She gave me a quick hug and my bad mood seemed to melt. “I’ll always love you, Rosey.”

  My dad gave me a clap on the back but said nothing like my mother. “Try to fix that problem of yours,” he said gruffly. “See you.”

  My sullenness reignited, I gave a last wave to Mom and boarded the bus, dragging my huge suitcase up the stairs.

  The bus driver got up and helped me. “Let me get that for ya,” he growled, not unkindly. I supposed it was just his manner. I let him help me, and then trudged to an empty seat behind a teenage girl that was examining her fingernail color, in front of a boy about my age, I’d guess, and across from a girl with shockingly blonde hair.

  I pretended the other three weren’t there and opened my book. It wasn’t as good now that I knew that Trillian Thymes, the Super with invisibility, was going to die.

  But it was better than talking.

  Luckily, I managed not to disappear during the ride. But I didn’t avoid talking. The blonde haired girl leaned across the aisle and tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped so high I lost my place in my book. Again.

  “Oh, sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you,” she said brightly. She stuck out her hand. “Winnie, Winnie Joy.”

  I awkwardly returned the handshake. “I’m Rose.”

  “What’s your last name? I believe last names are an important part of who you are,” she told me.

  “Rose Soar,” I muttered.

  Winnie stuck out her tongue. “I would not want to see that.”

  “See what?” I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.

  “A Rose Sore, silly!” Winnie giggled. “That’s ok, though! There are worst last names. Like Butts. My best friend back home’s name is Mya Butts.”

  “No, it’s spelled S-O-A-R,” I corrected her, giggling in spite of myself.

  Winnie beamed. “Even better! Is that your issue? Do you spontaneously lift off the ground?”

  “Nah, I disappear,” I blurted without thinking.

  Winnie nodded seriously. “I storm.”

  I didn’t know storm could be used as a verb in that way. “Uh, wow.”

  Feeling like this conversation was one of the weirdest I’d had in a while, I opened my book again.

  “Ooh! Trillian Thymes! I love her! But she dies.” Winnie covered her mouth. “Oopsie. Hope you already knew that.”

  “Yeah, I did,” I muttered, trying to find the last page I’d read.

  “Ok, since you like books so much, I’ll let you read,” Winnie smiled, settling back into her sea
t.

  I felt a bit bad. I had kind of blown Winnie off.

  Oh well. I’d have five long years to make up for my mistake.

  We’d arrived at a place labeled “LOS.” It didn’t say TOCS anywhere.

  Huh.

  A large woman had met us in the lobby. “Hello, TOCS kiddos,” she smiled. “I’m Ms. Walker.”

  “Welcome to TOCS,” murmured the bus driver, then gave a wave and returned through the doors we came in from.

  Ms. Walker led us up three winding flights of marble staircases. “Don’t worry,” she called, “the place I’m taking you is where you’ll spend the majority of your time here, so don’t think you need to climb these staircases every day!”

  Ms. Walker opened a nice glass double door, and led us into a large room.

  It was basically a huge dome. Sparkling sunlight poured in from the ceiling, giving the whole room a warm glow. Marble floors glittered, reflecting the golden walls.

  “This will be your practice area,” she told us.

  “Practicing what?” Winnie asked. “Getting rid of our problems?”

  Ms. Walker looked at us and gave a sigh. “It is that time again… the time where a new TOCS troop marches through those glass doors… to learn of their destiny…”

  So far, Ms. Walker seemed nice, but a bit odd.

  We all looked confused. She gave a laugh. “You’re not the Tribe of Curable Souls,” she said with disgust, shaking her head. Huh? If we weren’t TOCS, what were we? She came down the raggedy row we’d formed that led to the entrance to look all of us in our eyes. “No. No Cures here. Only practice.”

  “Welcome to the Team of Challenged Supers.”

  O. M. G.

  I momentarily stopped breathing. I was a Super. A challenged Super, yes, but a SUPER! All my dreams of being part of this obscure and secret world had become a reality! And we were still TOCS. The words just stood for something entirely different.

  “Shall we all demonstrate our Powers? At least, what we have shown so far?” Ms. Walker raised her eyebrows at our shocked faces, seemingly unaware of the excitement and disbelief in the air.

  A boy raised his hand. He had sat behind me on the bus! He looked to be about my age. He had short, curly brown hair, and matching brown eyes. He was dressed in a sports jersey and bright blue tennis shoes. “Um, I’m Josef. Not like Stalin. Like J-O-S-E-F.”

  A girl looked at him. She had dark skin, and tightly braided black hair that reached partway down her back. She yanked on the end of her braid when she spoke. “That’s exactly like Stalin.”

  Josef grew irritated. “But I’m not like Stalin! I’m WAY NICER. Except for when I get angry. Then bad things happen.” He looked alarmingly delighted.

  “Could you demonstrate, but take caution?” Ms. Walker prompted again, decidedly ignoring the debate.

  “I can’t just…” he made a wide gesture, “…do it like that. Somebody has to make me angry.”

  The girl who had made the “just like Stalin” comment raised her hand. Her braid swung from side to side. I didn’t recognize her. “I’m Lily. And I’m pretty good at making people angry.”

  Ms. Walker smiled. “Go for it.”

  Lily stared at Josef. Just stared at him. But suddenly Josef was fuming. “You make me SO MAD!” he yelled out of thin air.

  A ball of fire formed between his hands. He threw it at her. She squealed and jumped out of the way, and it barreled towards a small boy that couldn’t have been six. He squeaked and toppled over. For some reason, the smallest girl fell over too.

  “Oh, dear.” Ms. Walker shuffled over. She put her hands on the boy and closed her eyes. About five seconds later, the boy opened his eyes and stood up, a gaping hole in his shirt. The tiny girl stood up, looking fine too.

  “Now I guess you’ve seen my power, healing even the most mortally wounded, unless they are already dead. Then I’m afraid I’m no help,” Ms. Walker told us with a touch of pride.

  “That’s fabulous!” called Winnie. There were murmurs of agreement.

  Ms. Walker laughed modestly. “Oh, don’t go saying all that. Now Josef, that’s quite the power. It seems it might be hard to control, though.” She turned towards Lily. “Especially trying to fend off an Emotionater that strong! Remind me why you are challenged…?”

  “Oh, my anger Emotionation is perfected,” Lily said earnestly. “But the others… when I try to make someone laugh, they laugh hysterically and hyperventilate and die. When I make someone cry, they cry for five hours straight and either end up in the hospital with severe dehydration or die. When I try to make someone anxious, they are afraid of everything for the rest of their lives, even drinking or eating, and die. When I try to -”

  “Ohhhh-kay, Lily, I think that’s more than enough,” said Ms. Walker testily, as the two youngest kids in the room, the fireballed boy and a tiny girl were crying and the others looked like they were going to develop lifetime anxiety just by hearing Lily speak. “Let’s move on to…” she scanned the room and I tried to hide, but I was lucky, her eyes landed on the tiny fireballed boy, “Tyler.”

  “First of all, my name is Ty. Second of all, my power only works with my sissy,” Tyler said all in one breath.

  “My name is Tylerette!” squeaked his sister. There was some laughter. “No, she is!” Tyler said defensively, putting an arm around his sister. His sister’s arm flew up too.

  “I wouldn’t call that a power,” sniggered Josef.

  “As you see, we can speak alone,” Tylerette (I had to agree with the laughers on that one) said, “but we have to share any actions.”

  “So you won’t laugh every time you say Tylerette,” there was more laughter, “You can call me Etty,” the newly crowned Etty said.

  “You know, Ty plus Etty equals Tyleretty! Wow! You both are the same person!” shouted Josef.

  “Like, just shut up!” One of the older girls said.

  “Someone have a crush on Ty?” crowed Josef.

  “I thought you said you were nice!” Lily called.

  “Like, I can stick up for myself!” The girl scoffed.

  “Leave us alone!” Ty shouted. Etty nodded strongly.

  Ms. Walker intervened. “Alright, chill, all you fiery little kids,” she chuckled at her own joke, looking at Josef when she said it. He scowled. “It’s time for either Rose -” she looked at me and I shuddered - “Elias, Jonah -” she looked at the remaining medium boys - “Sandra -” an older girl - “or Winnie, to show us your stuff.”

  I hoped someone would volunteer and save me. Luckily, Winnie did. Her hair swished around and her blue eyes blinked innocently. “I’ll go!” she said cheerfully. “I can make it rain! But it usually pours! So beware!” She said this all as casually and as happily as if she had just been given a piece of pie.

  “Can you demonstrate without drowning us all?” Ms. Walker chirruped equally cheerfully.

  “Unlikely!” Winnie chirped back. “But I can try!”

  Suddenly rain poured from the ceiling. I shouted, but it was lost in the downpour. Everyone covered their heads. Sandra and Etty screamed. Lily looked delighted.

  I tried to turn myself invisible, but as usual, my efforts went unnoticed by whatever force controlled our Powers.

  “Winnie, why?” Sandra moaned, attempting to shield her head from the storm but failing desperately. “I just did my hair this morning! Now I’ll have to style it again tonight in whatever bathroom this place has.”

  “A pretty good one, Sandra,” Ms. Walker waded over to us. “Winnie, can you stop now?”

  Winnie’s hands were up in the air and she seemed to be engaged in a battle with herself. “I’m trying, I swear I’m trying!” she yelled, succeeding in pulling one hand down and half-heartedly trying to yank her remaining one.

  “Uh oh, watch out, Winnie!” I said urgently. Josef was staring at Winnie, and his eyes seemed to be glaring a crater into her.

  Winnie looked over at him, but it w
as too late.

  Josef shot a fireball at her, yelling, “It makes me mad when you try to drown us!” As soon as it hit its mark, (Winnie’s chest) the rain stopped, Winnie gave a little gasp and crumpled.

  “Josef! Self-control, self-control, self-control!” Ms. Walker scolded, shuffling over to Winnie and healing her. But there was a gaping hole in Winnie’s shirt, right over her chest, and it wasn’t as easy to ignore this as it was with Ty, for… reasons. Girl reasons.

  Josef started to giggle. Winnie just beamed and sloshed around in the water until her back was to him. “No problem. I’ll move.”

  I gaped at his nerve.

  Ms. Walker ran to a nearby room to find Winnie a shirt. I stared at the ground, watching the ankle-high water slowly filter out through a few floor drains. Poor Winnie. So positive, so weird, so… interesting. Maybe we could be friends. Her confidence could rub off on me.

  I still didn’t want to go next, so when Ms. Walker turned to me, I gave her a pleading glance with my piercing gray eyes. She hesitated, then gave me the smallest of nods.

  Ms. Walker turned towards the boys. “Let’s have Elias go, or Jonah,” she said. Elias nodded. He was an extremely skinny boy, with curly blonde hair that made him look a bit like an oversized baby. His eyes were deep brown. He had on, in my opinion, quite dressy clothes for the occasion, a nice polo tee and crisp khaki pants. “Alright, I’ll go. I shrink when I get nervous, and I grow when I feel confident. But unless I’m feeling those feelings, I can’t shrink or grow.” He looked horrified at Lily’s look of excitement. “Um, sorry, Lily, I don’t really want you to make me nervous because…” no more words were necessary.

  Lily just looked even more excited. “I know, but I’m good at making people feel confident. About three-fourths of the time, they feel just perfectly confident and like they can do anything and nothing more. One-fourth of the time, they get overconfident, think they can fly, and d -” she cut herself off, not wanting to ruin her chances. Lily blinked irresistibly at Elias. “Please? You know Ms. Walker can heal you if need be.”’

  Elias sighed. “Alright. Fine. Ms. Walker, can you be ready?” Ms. Walker nodded.

  Lily clapped her hands together. “Yay!” She looked earnestly at Elias.

  About ten seconds later, Elias had a grin on his face, and he started to grow. A lot. When he stopped, he was just as skinny, but also as tall as the domed ceiling.

  Ms. Walker looked equally delighted with Lily and Elias. “Fabulous job, both of you!” she said. “Now Elias, come down now.”

  He just kept grinning.

  Lily said tentatively, “Um… yeah… my Emotionation takes about twenty minutes to wear off.”

  Ms. Walker sighed. “Elias?”

  Nothing.

  She sighed again. “I guess we’ll just have to… keep going with the demonstrations.”

  She looked up at Elias on the ceiling briefly, then turned to Sandra and the remaining boy. “Sandra or Jonah?”

  Jonah, a bit of a plump boy with dark brown, straight, spiked up hair rolled his eyes dramatically. Not to judge a book by its cover (I loved books, so I loved that expression), but Jonah did not seem my type at all. Already.

  He shoved his hands into his jean pockets before speaking. Did he think that looked cool? It looked dumb. He seemed to think he was too cool for school. Not to judge a book by its cover.

  After the dramatic intro, Jonah finally spoke. “So, hi. I’m Jonah. And my dad was a Sparker for the League of Supers,” he said proudly. “I love my dad. He’s my best friend. But I hate my mom,” he scowled darkly. “Just because it takes me a little longer to Spark than most people, she insisted I go to this class full of losers.”

  Like I said…

  “Let me tell you how Sparking works,” he said before Ms. Walker could rebuke him. “I first turn my hands to the light.” He turned his hands to the sparkling sun that was shining through the glass of the dome. “Next, I close my fists.” He did this.

  “And now, we wait for twenty minutes,” he said, keeping his fists tightly closed.

  “You know, dear Jonah, to get into the League of Supers, you have to be fully charged in two seconds or less?” Ms. Walker said sweetly.

  Jonah looked shocked. “But… but this is what happens if I even try after one minute!” He pushed his open palms outward, and there was a sizzle, a small yellow glow, and a pop. Nothing happened and the glow faded.

  “Now, if you don’t think you belong here, and you want to go next door to where the other ten-year-old Sparkers are practicing, most of them can complete a Spark in twenty seconds. But if you think you’ll fit in, go right ahead!” Ms. Walker said cunningly.

  Jonah, still shocked, shook his head.

  I couldn’t help but hide a grin at his dismay.

  Ms. Walker moved on. “Sandra?”

  Sandra, a teenage girl with light brown skin and darkish, but super-long hair, scoffed. “Like, fine. I don’t even want to, like, be here, like, at all.”

  “If you think we, like, like this place any more than you do, think again, Miss. Like!” Josef called, to laughter.

  “Josef! Stop the constant teasing!” Ms. Walker shouted. Josef grumbled but did shut up.

  “My name is Sandra, not, like, Miss. Like. So, chill, Josef, I won’t call you, like, Mr. Like if you don’t call me, like, Miss. Like.” She stuck her tongue out at him. I almost applauded.

  “So, like, my power is Glamour. Sort of like, like - “Like, like?” Josef interrupted, grinning. Then he looked sheepish. “Sorry. Go ahead.”

  Sandra shot him a glare and tossed her hair. “As I was saying before I was, like, rudely interrupted, about, like, half the time, it works perfectly. I can, like, make myself look like anything else to other, like, people. I, like, can make myself look, like, beautiful, or like a man-“You don’t need Glamour to look like that!” Josef said untruly.

  Ms. Walker stalked over to Josef angrily. “Now you see here!” she barked. “You make one more rude comment and I will see to it that you never return to TOCS. Let the girl speak!”

  Josef rolled his eyes, looking quite like Jonah when he first spoke. “I just want to have a little fun,” he muttered.

  “Or I can, like, make other people look like whatever I, like, want,” Sandra said icily, staring at Josef the whole time. Josef mumbled something and backed down.

  “But, like, the other half of the time, I try to make something look, like, pretty and it looks ugly, or, like, make someone look like the opposite of, like, whatever I’m trying to make them, like, look like,” Sandra admitted. “Should I, like, try on someone?”

  Nobody volunteered. Finally Winnie raised a tentative hand. “Can you just try to make my fingernails pink or something? I mean, what’s the opposite of pink?”

  Sandra shrugged. “The worst that could, like, happen is that your fingernails turn a color you don’t want. But it’ll, like, come out after a couple of like, hours. It always does.”

  Winnie nodded. “Ok.”

  Sandra concentrated. She lifted her left hand, made a sweeping motion, and in one smooth motion, pressed it towards Winnie. Ten little jets of pink light hopped from Sandra’s palm and settled themselves on Winnie’s fingernails perfectly.

  Winnie squealed excitedly. Ms. Walker looked impressed. “Nice!”

  “Can I try on, like, Josef?” Sandra smirked. Ms. Walker looked amused and said, “Sure.”

  “Aw, no! She’s gonna try to make me bald or something!” Josef protested, looking truly terrified.

  “Naw. I mean, like, do you want black hair?” Sandra asked. “I can try that.”

  Josef looked a little better. “Maybe. Sure. I mean, it will come out if it’s bad, right?”

  Sandra nodded.

  She did the same motion, but one jet of white light jumped onto Josef’s hair. His hair turned completely and utterly white.

  “Oops. Sorry. Like, opposite of black,” Sandra did not look one bit sorry.
/>
  “I look like an old man!” Josef screeched, patting his whiteness.

  “You act like one,” Lily snorted. “A really senile one.”

  “Ok, you all need to calm down. Good try, Sandra.”

  I gulped. I knew what was coming. “Rose? Your power?”

  I gulped again. “Um, yeah, hi. Uh, I’m Rose.”

  Josef snorted.

  I tried to ignore him. “So, yeah. I can turn invisible. Well, I can try. Whenever I try, I can’t do it, and when I don’t want it to happen, it randomly does. Um, and I can’t eat or feel or stuff. I can see and hear, but nobody else knows I’m there. And, uh, nobody can see me.”

  “Obviously,” Josef rolled his eyes.

  “Josef, shush your mouth. Rose, can you try to turn invisible?” Ms. Walker asked encouragingly.

  “I can try…” I said uncertainly.

  I focused on turning invisible. Very, very invisible. Can’t feel. Can’t be seen.

  Nothing happened.

  After an awkward five minutes, where absolutely nothing happened, Ms. Walker sighed. “Ok. We’ll try again later.”

  But as she said that, the feeling came on that happened when I was about to turn invisible. But the punches felt about ten times harder than normal. “Wait…” I said. I was trying to say, “Wait, I feel it!” But I was too breathless from the punches.

  At least the “Wait” was enough to get everyone to look at me. But instead of the norm, where I felt my body slowly fading into the background, my body faded into the background, but didn’t stop. It kept fading, and fading, and fading, and I felt myself falling, falling, falling, and the darkness started coming, coming, coming…

  I woke up with a jolt. I sat up, breathing heavily. Winnie was standing over me, a worried expression on her face that changed to relief as I arose. “What happened?” I asked. I know, very movie-like, but I was feeling kind of muddled and that was all I could come up with.

  Winnie started talking a mile a minute. “Well, Ms. Walker, after you fainted or passed out or whatever, Ms. Walker’s face went white, pale white, because you turned invisible for like one second and everyone was clapping but then you turned back and collapsed and everyone gasped.” She stopped to take a breath, but then she was off again. “And so, uh, yeah, she said, ‘Oh, no. Winnie, sit with her until she awakes. If she awakes.’ Like you were going to die or something!” Winnie laughed nervously. “But obviously you’re fine now, right! No need to worry! Don’t worry!”

  Well, that was utterly useless because all I caught was the word ‘die’ and the nervous laugh. So, my inference? Not looking too good for me. I shuddered.

  Winnie looked at me apologetically. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you. So, go see Ms. Walker.”

  I grimaced. I had a feeling that more bad news was soon to come my way.

  Winnie walked off to her trainer, and I walked to Ms. Walker (ha).

  Ms. Walker was sitting. She motioned to a chair next to hers. It was squishy and red. It felt unfitting for what was obviously going to be a painful talk.

  “Sit,” she invited me.

  I sat.

  Ms. Walker took a deep breath. “So. You have Invisible Paralysis. Rare condition, Rose. I’ve only ever seen two others with it.”

  I nodded. My condition did seem rare, and if it had to be summed up in two words, Invisible Paralysis would be the two.

  Ms. Walker continued. “You have a small organ inside your brain. It is called your Power Core. It is the control center for your power,” Ms. Walker explained. “A failing Power Core is the cause of some unexplained deaths for non-supers. Their scientists have been stumped for centuries on what exactly killed them. We know, but Supers must stay hidden, so we kept our knowledge to ourselves.”

  “The Power Core is made perfectly so that a power always makes just enough work for the Core. For example, did you have flying dreams before you knew you were a Super?”

  I nodded.

  “That’s your Power Core at work. It feeds on doing work, but not too much work. That’s why Invisible Paralysis is deadly. Your Power Core can sense that you can’t control your bouts of invisibility, so it goes into overdrive, trying to get you back in balance. It makes you ghost-like with all the effort. The fainting starts when it has nearly reached its limit. Soon after, it just gives up. Too much hard work. You know it’s given up when you start feeling utterly hopeless. After that, you probably don’t have a day to live. The only way is to find an exact Power Core match. You don’t have to have the same Power as the matcher, but they have to be your exact age, gender, and… not alive,” she finished solemnly.

  “So, I’m dead,” I shuddered again.

  “There is a treatment. It’s usually too late after you start fainting. But you look like a feisty one!” Ms. Walker encouraged.

  I nodded determinately. “Ok. What are we waiting for? Let’s invisblefy - yes, I know that’s not a word - me! Who’s my trainer?”

  “I’m your trainer.”

  “Oh.”

  So began a tough week of practicing. The “treatment” she’d been talking about was basically getting myself to try and control my invisibility so my Power Core could stop overexerting itself. To do this, I had to focus on the punchy-in-the-stomach feeling. It wasn’t pleasant, to say the least. But when I twice managed to focus on the feeling and turn invisible on my control, it was worth it for the victory in both our eyes as I turned visible again. But I also fainted twice. That was embarrassing, especially because one was in front of Winnie and Josef. Josef had stopped being full-out mean to me when he learned I might die, but a snicker still escaped after I awoke in a tizzy.

  After my first week of practicing, I was headed to bed after a successful day. “You did well today, Rosey.” Ms. Walker smiled at me affectionately. “I think, if we work hard, very hard, for the next month or so, you’ll pull through!”

  I smiled and hugged her. Without my mom around, Ms. Walker had really become like a mother to me. It was only a week into the program, but I already couldn’t imagine leaving her after five years.

  “Is Trillian Thymes real?” I blurted without thinking. Somehow, my thoughts had gone straight from Ms. Walker to the book I was currently reading. I had almost finished it now.

  Ms. Walker managed to turn her expression of shock smoothly into curiosity. “Why, yes. She was killed by the villain Zedyr, though.”

  I gaped. That was the villain in the books!

  “Did you know that non-supers know all this but they are publishing it as a book? A not-true book?” I told her breathlessly.

  Ms. Walker shook her head, shrugging. “As long as they aren’t trying to get people to believe it, I think it’s harmless.”

  With a grin on my face as I imagined my brave hero in real life (I tried to ignore the fact that she died), I walked to my bed with a bit of an extra spring in my step. I loved Ms. Walker (and Trillian Thymes), I was going to survive (probably, provided there were no distractions to my training), and I knew things were going to start looking up soon.

  Uh, no.

  A couple weeks later, I had a particularly bad practice day. I had fainted once that morning, and never been able to control my invisibility turning on or off that day. On top of that, Ms. Walker was the opposite of focused. She kept nervously checking the door, and glancing at the messages on her cellphone-like device.

  When I finally managed to stop being invisible on command, I glanced at her, expecting praise. But she was anxiously checking the door again.

  “Fine!” I exploded. “Fine! If you don’t care about my well-being enough to pay attention, then I don’t think I need to stay here any longer.”

  Ms. Walker immediately focused on me. “Oh, Rosey, I’m so sorry. I just am so worried about the League of Fighting Supers!” she burst out. “They’re on a dangerous mission fighting a tough villain called Abomination. Some are close to death and could use my healing power, but all the Flyers around are on a vacation
, and I’m not legally allowed to ask a non-League of Supers Super to fly me there!”

  My annoyance vanished, to be replaced with sympathy. “Oh, I’m so sorry! Have any died?”

  Ms. Walker sighed. “I’m not sure. Every time they manage to get a message through, it’s all fuzzy, and I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Can I do anything to help?” I asked anxiously.

  She sighed again. “Thanks, Rose, but you’re not ready yet. But once we practice a little more, I know you’re going to be a great Super.”

  If I survive that long, I knew we were both thinking.

  I noticed everyone’s friendships were developing and leaving me behind. Josef and Jonah, the bratty J boys, were becoming fast friends. So were Winnie and Sandra. Lily and Elias, who could hardly be more different, were also tentatively becoming friends. Ty and Etty, well, they’d been together a while, and were so young, it was obviously hard for them to branch out.

  And then there was me. I kind of liked Elias. He was sweet and polite and had a cool power. Maybe I should try to get closer to him. But I didn’t want to be rude to Lily. Ugh. Complicated. But I think Elias just liked Lily as a friend. Over the weeks, Elias had done some sweet stuff for me. He had brought me chocolate once after a tough day of training, and he was good for a heart-to-heart talk. Maybe there was hope for us yet.

  That night after dinner Ms. Walker called a TOCS meeting. “We’re going to show our progress as a group. We haven’t had much group bonding time over the last couple weeks. Jonah, I know you’ve got your Spark time down to ten minutes, and I’m very impressed with Rose’s progress,” she said, smiling at me.

  Well, alright. At least I’d get to go last.

  “To be fair, we’re going to go in opposite order from the introductions. Rose?”

  Crud.

  Suddenly, an alarm sounded. Relief shot through me, followed by panic as Ms. Walker tensed up and shouted, “That’s the all hands on deck signal. The League of Fighting Supers has been captured!”

  Everyone gasped simultaneously. Josef started to say, “What…” But the crazed Ms. Walker interrupted him, speaking directly to one of the trainers. “Cat, the emergency instructions are sent to your LeagueMessenger. Make sure you take special care for the directions for Rose!” Ms. Walker, not even bothering to wave, ran out into hall to join the floods of people rushing to save the League. Most of our trainers followed her, leaving only the one she called Cat, who maybe looked 16.

  I was in shock. What just happened? Mostly, (no disrespect to Ms. Walker or Cat) I was wondering why Ms. Walker would leave us with this teenager while she ran out on us.

  “Because all the members of the League of Supers need to leave and fight Abomination to save the League of Fighting Supers,” Cat said directly to me.

  Wait, what?

  Cat laughed at the shocked look on my face. “Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to freak you out. I’m a mind-reader.”

  Oh. I nodded. “It’s all good. Cool power!”

  Cat smiled. “Thanks!” She took us all in at a glance. “So. The Team of Challenged Supers, eh?” We nodded.

  She held up a cell-phone like device. “This is my LeagueMessenger. As you may have heard, Ms. Walker sent me instructions on here on how to care for you guys until she gets back.”

  Jonah raised his hand. “Wait. If you’re in the League of Supers and able to have that Messenger-thing, why aren’t you out there fighting?”

  “I’m fifteen. You have to be sixteen to try out for the League of Supers, but since I want to try out for the League of Teaching Supers, I can start my training now by teaching you guys,” Cat explained.

  “Wait. I thought there was only one League of Supers: the fighting one!” Winnie said, confused.

  “Oh no. There is one overall League of Supers, which about 30% of the Super population is in. But there are lots of categories under it, The League of Teaching Supers, Fighting Supers, Scientist Supers, and even Mining Supers. I want to teach, so this is how I’m getting experience,” Cat told us. “30% of the Super Population is in the LOS, but only 6% of the Supers that try out for the League of Fighting Supers make it in.”

  Well, that made more sense.

  Cat made a shooing motion with her hand. “Everyone but Rose, go off to your dormitory. You can hang and talk or practice until 9:30, then lights out. I’ll send Rose up in an hour at 9.”

  Josef shot me a look as he walked off that I couldn’t read.

  Cat sat down on Ms. Walker’s normal chair and beckoned for me to sit beside her. I did.

  “So,” she said. “Invisible Paralysis, huh?”

  I was surprised. She was one of the only people I knew so far that didn’t act like I was a fragile china doll when she learned of my condition.

  “Yeah, I’ve seen a case of this before. It’s kind of old news to me,” Cat said.

  I had to remember to keep my mental guard up with Cat around.

  “Yes, you do. Now, for the actual practicing part!” Cat said with an overly enthusiastic clap.

  We had a good forty-five minute practice session. I turned invisible on command twice, and turned it off on command once. Cat congratulated me, and I was about to go up to my dorm when I heard a buzzing noise. Cat pulled out her LeagueMessenger. The screen said, “Incoming video chat from Jenna Walker.” So that’s what Ms. Walker’s first name was.

  Cat clicked accept. “Hey, J. How’s it going over there?” she said with concern.

  I heard crashing noises and screams from the screen. “Not… good,” a heavily panting voice that I could hardly recognize as Ms. Walkers came from the screen. “We are all captured now. An entire third of the population.”

  Jeez. There were a thousand Supers in the population… so that meant Abomination had captured three hundred.

  “Abomination is… so strong,” Ms. Walker panted. “He knows… how to drain the life out of us. I am… weak.”

  “Jen? What do you want us to do, Jen?” Cat asked frantically.

  “TOCS… only hope…” she gasped. “Don’t trust… girl…” I heard a crash, and a groan, and the screen went black with an error message.

  “Jenna?”

  “Jen?”

  “J!”

  Cat finally gave up and broke down sobbing. I was surprised and shocked at her strong reaction and that Ms. Walker was in that much trouble. I patted her on the back a bit as she got control of herself.

  “She was my aunt,” Cat whispered eventually.

  “Is. She is your aunt,” I said firmly, “And TOCS is going to save her.”

  “Rose, it’s hopeless,” Cat said wearily. “Nine challenged kids taking on a villain that captured three hundred trained adults?”

  I pushed above my own despair and shouted, “All TOCS kids who want to save the world and are willing to possibly sacrifice their own lives for it, come gather in the main room!”

  Shuffling noises came from upstairs, but nobody emerged from the dorms.

  I put my head in my knees. Cat was right. It was hopeless.

  Suddenly, I felt a hand lift my head up. Cat, with hope in her eyes, directed my vision towards the living room, where an avalanche of bravery, in the form of eight little humans, stood strong, ready for whatever lay ahead.