by Drew Hayes
“It isn’t bonus time. It’s your life.” Helen paused as a trio of kids bolted past, eyes on the diminishing mound of homemade cookies, many of which bore Ivan’s favored recipe. She touched Ivan’s shoulder, drawing his attention over to Tori, who’d accepted a dart challenge from one of the scout teams and was proceeding to miss wildly. One even managed to land on a particularly fuzzy jacket of a nearby reveler, the Velcro hooking in on impact. “At least Tori’s taking to the vibe well.”
Looking at her, Ivan imagined the hard-faced young woman he’d first met in that cell. She never would have been able to blend in like this, her entire focus had been on the next move in front of her face. Now, she was not only thriving as a civilian, she was building up an entire new identity with history and contacts. One day, he truly hoped Tori would see a way out of this life for herself. Sadly, that was a journey she’d have to take on her own. Ivan couldn’t light a path he’d never traveled.
“She’s the adaptable sort. High intelligence doesn’t hurt, either.”
Another round of kids passing caused a pause, only this time, the conversation didn’t start right up again when they cleared. Instead, Helen lingered at his side. “You know, given the context of the situation, I’m sure no one would bat an eye at two cluster leaders hitting the dance floor together in a fun, friendly dance. How about like when you-know-who dealt with the... okay, I actually don’t remember the name of this one. Red thing, lots of ooze and tentacles, plus it ate small chunks of time?”
“Krondabbler,” Ivan supplied.
The triumphant slap on her knee was so loud it drew looks from some of the nearby scouts, forcing Helen to wave at them awkwardly. “Krondabbler! Right. Like with Krondabbler—you go right, I go left, except, when we meet in the middle, we flip punches for box steps.”
“I know how to dance, enough to realize you might be a few decades out of sync with that box step idea.”
“Nah, everything is cyclical. It’s either back already, or we’ll get it there. Also, way to go blowing the whole ‘brooding silent guy’ thing by admitting you’ve danced. Keep the glower going. The rest of us are using your presence to lightly scare any of the rowdier kids.”
The truth was, Ivan had been to many bars and clubs in his villain days where idly moving in some semblance of time with the beat was enough to qualify as dancing, but it had been his wedding that had forced him to learn some actual steps. As small and simple as the ceremony was, they still went through the major hallmarks: first dance, bouquet, cake-cutting, all to fill the scrapbook with photographic evidence of normalcy. Yet for some reason… no... for a reason Ivan recognized instantly but chose not to acknowledge, he didn’t want to mention that fact to Helen.
“I can put on my annoyed face if anyone gets truly troublesome. Were I to go as far as vexed, I might end up giving them nightmares, however.”
To his surprise, that didn’t garner any sort of laugh or chuckle. Looking down, he noticed Helen’s gaze wasn’t on the scene around them currently; it was aimed off somewhere in her brain that only she could see. He didn’t have to wonder what was on her mind for long. Helen was never one to draw things out.
“Seeing all these kids... do you ever imagine what your life would have been like if you’d gotten a more normal childhood? What sort of person you’d have grown into with a different start?”
“No.” With almost anyone else, he’d have left it there. “I don’t dream about the impossible. If I’d ended up somewhere else, then whoever came out of that wouldn’t be me. He’d probably be better in a lot of ways, but even as a concept, that other me is so far removed from who I actually am that he’s a stranger.”
“I wonder about that. I think some of this Ivan might be deeper rooted than you realize.”
Not wanting to let things settle there, Ivan turned the question around. “How about you?”
Helen shook her head. “We’re in different boats. I made it to nineteen living normally. I had time to develop and engage with mundane life. Remove that one night where it all changed, and a whole lot about my life would be different, but I think I’d still be more or less the same person. Probably less confident.”
“Oh my, a Helen with more modesty? Perish the very concept.” In spite of the heady topic, Ivan laughed. Something about being around her just made it hard for his mood not to stay light. “Aside from the obvious two child-shaped reasons I would never change my past, you realize that version of Ivan wouldn’t have met you, right?”
“Huh. You know, I genuinely hadn’t considered it. You’ve been around so long, I guess I just automatically picture you in my life.”
The long stretch that went between them then had nothing to do with more kids, and far more to do with the unspoken line that Helen had just come dangerously close to slipping over. Both found something to occupy their attention elsewhere, avoiding eye contact.
When the song changed and two of the dancing kids exited the floor, Helen saw her opportunity for as graceful an exit as she could hope to manage. “Okay, now we’re down to four. It is definitely time someone got it started.”
Unsure whether to roll his eyes or smirk, Ivan did neither, opting instead to play along. “But where will we find a cluster leader with the self-confidence to—”
“Of course I will!” Helen charged onto the dance floor, clearly not having actually listened to Ivan’s reply, busting out such classics as the Lawnmower and Driving the Bus before the song’s first chorus had even been reached. It was a performance of pure cringe, made all the stranger for Ivan since he had firsthand knowledge that not only was Helen incredibly graceful, she’d taken multiple types of professional dance instruction. None of which could be seen in the display of her grabbing one knee and bouncing with it as she spun slowly around on one leg.
Across the room, interest turned to laughter, as one would expect in such an equation. Except afterwards, the process wasn’t over. By whatever strange alchemy of charisma Helen possessed, the amusement turned into fun. From the fringes, more kids wandered onto the dance floor, confident that nothing they did could possibly be as ridiculous as the moves Helen was busting out. She’d turned herself into the attention target, letting everyone else feel freer for the distraction. He even caught sight of Beth’s group migrating toward the music.
Tori wandered over, having soundly lost her game of darts, and examined Helen’s performance with an uncertain eye. “Well that’s... something. Don’t take this wrong, I like Helen, she’s nice and all, but the lady kind of does her own thing, doesn’t she?”
In a weekend filled with double-speak and subterfuge, it was a pleasant break to be able to answer with complete honestly. “Helen has the surety of someone who knows exactly who they are, and is comfortable with it. Obviously, she’s a total weirdo. That’s what happens when you lose all fear of what other people think.”
Taking one brief moment to stretch, Ivan started off toward the dance floor, resolved to hanging back at the edges. She was meant for the spotlight, he for the shadows; they both knew where they worked best.
“Um, what are you doing?” Tori asked, unable to believe what the context clues were suggesting.
Ivan didn’t stop, but he did turn back to answer, an equal mix of amusement and exasperation in his tone. “Probably a box step, sooner or later. She has a habit of getting her way.”
Lozora hadn’t expected approaching the Starscout site to be easy—Lodestar would never let this many vulnerable kids be gathered in one place under her name without protections in place. It was that openness to being challenged that led her to accept her employer’s tech. It galled her, needing something as external as his tools, but the call had proven to be prudent.
The external energy barrier would have sliced her clean in half without the disruptor blade, and the mechanical sentries she’d battled would have radioed in about an intruder if not for her signal jammer. Supposedly, even the dark material clinging roughly to her skin was helping, warping the view of an
y electronic surveillance device that happened to pick her up.
Her handiest tool was unquestionably the mapping device, however. What had started life as a simple Indigo Technologies tablet, the itPad as they were commonly known, had little save for the screen still in common with its original configuration. Lozora’s employer had incorporated scanning utilities, along with some hacked satellite feeds, to build a mobile map-generation utility. Just by walking around, the area was revealing itself to her.
Tonight was all about reconnaissance. Targeting Fornax meant getting him nearly alone, down to just his cluster. They wanted pure data on how long he’d be held; the more unplanned factors introduced, the greater the chance they got faulty information. Tomorrow, when the games started, there would be chances. So long as Lozora knew the terrain, she had a fair shot at maneuvering around without being caught. Once the orb was thrown, that would steal everyone’s attention while she holed up out of sight.
Stalking through the woods was hardly her idea of a fun weekend, but Lozora bore the task without complaint. Roughly a week to go until the real fun started, and all her work would pay off. One step at a time, though.
First, she had a legendary super-villain to piss off.
Chapter 74
The End of Summer Shindig schedule was clearly not here to fuck around. Before even sunrise, Tori was up with her cluster, dealing with poor sleep thanks to a combination of laying on the dirt and excessive sugar after all her snacking. There was no respite to be had upon waking, as it turned out children needed managing in the morning. Armand and Caden had to be shooed away from messing with their sleeping bags, both certain that two bags could be combined into an uber slumber cocoon, while Mallory sat to the side, explaining the flaws in their logic. For a moment, they thought Newton had vanished, but he turned out to merely be running around the campground, burning off some extra energy. Loyce and Trudy were trying to grill pine cones on the embers of a low fire, but at least they’d gotten ready first. Most of guiding the kids was on Helen and Ivan, who managed it well; however, with this many to track, they definitely needed the extra help.
Once the kids were on the right track, Tori managed to stumble through a shower at one of the facilities, getting in before the lines turned unmanageable, then forcing herself to throw down some food in the mess. On her own, she might have skipped the firm flapjacks and runny eggs, but this was not a day to be running on half a tank. By the time she’d finished slamming her breakfast, it was time to hustle to the lake for her cluster’s first event.
Due to the number of scouts present, there was no way for the entire gathering to do the same activities concurrently. Instead, a rotating schedule had been established weeks prior, noting where each cluster would go through the day. They might tackle a task in the morning that others wouldn’t face until that evening, yet by the end of the celebration, every group would have scores to be tallied. While not all of the events were competitive in nature, they were common enough that no one would forget they were playing for stakes. Mostly small trophies and bragging rights, but stakes all the same.
First Aid Relay was her cluster’s starting activity, a test of their education in semi-realistic environments. Each cluster would see a “victim” fall over at the opposite end of the lake’s beach. It would be on them to check the dummy’s vitals, perform CPR, and find a way to move it safely back across the rough terrain of sand. A Starscout leader was on hand to make sure they handled every step properly, taking notes on the details that would ultimately become their score.
She watched at Ivan’s side as the kids tore down the beach, kicking up plumes of sand that spun along on the wind, then drifted out over the water before finally settling back down. Newton got there first, with Beth close on his heels. To Tori’s surprise, Ivan’s daughter took the lead on checking vitals and executing CPR. Beth hadn’t ever mentioned either subject, yet she looked like an aspiring EMT as she assessed the dummy’s condition.
It was only afterward, when she had a moment to ask Ivan, that Tori got greater understanding. Part of Beth’s ability-control training incorporated enhanced emergency education; the idea being that, if they knew what to do in an emergency, there would be less chance of panic and unintended flare-ups. In the moment, though, all Tori knew was that Beth had flown through the medical stuff, finishing just as Caden finally plodded his way up to join the rest of the cluster.
With Mallory calling out positions, the cluster dispersed the dummy’s weight amongst themselves, while Armand and Trudy were dedicated to keeping the neck steady in case of injury during the fall. A touch excessive, given the short drop and soft landing material, but more concern typically fared better than less when it came to the practice of medicine. They kept a steady pace, moving with swiftness and surety, balancing the need for speed against the precarious balance of walking along sand. The fact that they stayed together so well spoke to excellent coordination and teamwork, far better than loads of adult teams Tori had seen throughout her life.
Of the three clusters, theirs was easily the first to return, stoking an unexpected spark of pride in Tori. That didn’t necessarily mean they’d done the best—speed was only a single piece of the overall assessment—but it damn sure wouldn’t hurt. Cheers and high-fives were passed around freely in celebration. Then, once the jubilation had faded, minds turned to the next task on their docket. The kids were old pros at this, changing from one challenge to the next without so much as a missed step. The exuberance and adaptability of youth were marvelous qualities; Tori wondered if any meta had found a way to bottle that. Then she realized the sorts of steps and ingredients that would probably go into such a concoction and figured if that meta had existed, the guild would have sent Kristoph calling almost immediately.
Being less flexible, Tori had to mentally shift gears as they wandered away from the lake, heading out to a wooded area. No more running on sand. Next up, they had to make and break down a campfire safely, a notion that still tickled Tori even days after learning about it. Then, there was the first crafting challenge, a relay race, and then finally, after the nature hike, they’d get to break for lunch.
Thinking about the long day ahead, Tori almost wished she’d forced down a few more of those stiff pancakes. Almost, but not quite.
“When you said you wanted to up your training after that last fight, I was on board. When you asked me to find a remote location with lots of high, sheer surfaces, I obliged. Even once you told us you’d be bringing along weights from the gym, we rolled with it. But at this point, I think we’re going to need an explanation.”
Cyber Geek nodded to the pile of chains resting in the dirt next to the weights, all of it sitting in the shadow of the rocky outgrowth looming over them. Cold Shoulder seemed less concerned, whereas Hat Trick wore a comically puzzled face, a slight sliver of tongue poking out the side of her mouth, seemingly unnoticed.
“I’ve been doing a lot of weights and sparring, but Hephaestus didn’t just get stronger since the last time—he got smoother. The guy was crazy light on his feet for how heavy that suit was. I thought long and hard about what exercise would help me the most.” As he spoke, Medley began to loop the first chain around his torso.
“The act of free-climbing will strengthen my hands and feet while I use my claws to dig into the rock. Hauling the extra weight makes it harder, meaning I’ll also get stronger. But I don’t just want to be heavy, I want to be unwieldly. Hence the chain.”
Medley picked up a weight and tied off a section of chain; however, it wasn’t bound close to his body. Instead, it landed several feet away. Given the slack, it would dangle from Medley once he started ascending, yanking him to and fro. “Different weights at different lengths is going to make it incredibly hard to move with any sense of fluidity. I’ve never really trained full-body dexterity before, but I figure pushing myself is a good place to start.”
“You’re sure this is safe, right?” Hat Trick asked.
“Definitely not. That�
��s why I asked you all to come along. Hardy as I am, that summit is a good ways up. Good to have friends around, just in case.”
“There are other ways to get stronger, you know.” Cyber Geek expected the words to fall on deaf ears, yet he had to speak them, all the same. They had decided to stick him in the leadership role, and saying what everyone already knew was part of the gig.
Medley kept on working with his chain, tying off the second weight. “Maybe for you. You’re still growing like you were at the start. Some of us are starting to plateau. We’re getting passed, by villains and fellow superheroes alike. If I want to keep up, it means taking things to the next level, so I hope you’ve got a healing item on hand.”
“Still no luck with consumables,” Cyber Geek reported. He’d tried summoning a variety of potions and power-ups, all of which came over fine, but turned back to sparks and numbers when he tried to ingest them. “The hunt continues, though I could summon a set of attack-ribbons that wind tight on impact to contain bleeding. Between that and your speed-healing, we should have time to get you help.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Cold Shoulder was already beginning to form her ice-construct—a huge body that might be able to catch Medley, depending on where he hypothetically tumbled from.
Adding the last two weights, Medley moved across the ground, feeling them drag like the anchors they were. He ran his claws along the rough stone surface, locating purchase, and then hauled his body up from the dirt. That was the easy part; Medley could more than handle his own heft. When the first hundred-pound weight came off the ground, it was an inconvenience. By the fourth, Medley could feel the strain running along his arms and legs. It was a good pain, the ache of strength to come, the price of getting stronger.