I place the rubber at the end of the ruler and prepare to flick. I can feel my heart hammering in my chest and I bite at my lip in concentration while I pull the ruler back and line it up with Blizz. Erica, realising what I’m about to do, appears to have gathered a little more strength. Her eyes are focused and intense, her arms held strong in front of her against the barrage of ice. I have to get this right.
I let go. The rubber seems to fly in slow motion through the air in a perfect arc across the vast room. It smacks directly on Blizz’s temple. For just a tiny moment, barely even a second, she pauses to turn and see where it came from. That’s all Erica needs. She charges forward with a burst of energy, and Blizz just can’t recover quickly enough. She staggers backwards, her control slipping, until finally Erica is standing over her, pummelling her with heat until she relents and collapses on the floor.
‘Erica!’ I call out, relieved and proud, but she doesn’t even glance up. The air sparks with energy as she looms over Blizz, who’s now cowering in fear. Erica’s wearing the same expression that she had that time by the tree.
‘Erica!’ I call again. ‘You can stop now!’
She pauses. The heat has stopped but she’s still standing there, stunned and panting, obviously ready for another round. By the time I get over to them she’s managed to relax her fists but I have to actually touch her shoulder – just briefly before I recoil from the heat – to get her to look at me. As soon as she does I realise that she’s back, and she’s not going to cause any unnecessary harm. Blizz lies on the floor, defeated and exhausted.
‘Are you all right?’ I ask Erica.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ she pants. ‘What about you?’
‘I’m good,’ I say.
We stare at each other for a moment, both of us smiling and close to tears, before finally she lunges towards me and clasps me close. Despite the burning heat, I hug her right back.
Having a ‘situation debrief’ isn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was going to be. After a day of frenzied running about, escaping from Jay’s evil clutches, I ought to be relieved. Only thing is, it feels more like an interrogation.
The man opposite me reminds me of my deputy head, Mr Stanley. They both have the same kind of face, pinched in at the eyes and with barely any top lip. The difference is that this guy seems devoid of any sense of humour. He watches me closely, looking for signs of – what exactly? That I might be lying? That I might be one of the bad guys? I’m annoyed that he doesn’t seem to trust me. I use every bit of my teacher’s pet charm, but he sits rigid and unsmiling. Maybe before all this happened I would be scared of him, but right now I’m tired and impatient, and just want to get back outside to Erica.
‘And what can you tell us about Copyboy’s accomplices?’ he asks, slowly like I might not understand him.
‘Blizz and Dozer? We never really got the chance to chat,’ I reply.
‘You said Dozer was on the phone a lot?’
‘Yes …’
‘Who was he talking to?’
‘I have absolutely no idea. Have you asked him?’
‘We think he was talking with Copyboy’s accomplices in Scotland, the ones who sabotaged the power plant. Did you hear anything that might corroborate this?’
‘Nope. Nothing. I didn’t really get a chance to snoop on his conversation. I was really too preoccupied with, you know, being held hostage and very nearly murdered?’
The nameless man, a non-superpowered agent of the Vigil organisation, sneers a little when he looks up at me. I think I’m meant to be intimidated. I’m not.
‘We’d appreciate your cooperation in this matter, Ms Kirby,’ he says, looking back down at his notes.
‘I’ve told you the whole story,’ I insist. ‘And I’ve had a really long day. Plus we’ve been sitting here for over an hour now. Please can you just tell me everything’s going to be fine? You’ve got them all, right?’
He places his pen down on his jotter pad and seems to relax slightly. I guess it’s been a long day for him too.
‘All three are in custody, and we have agents closing in on further accomplices. You’ll be fine, Ms Kirby. We can give you a number to call if you feel that your safety or security are compromised, but we don’t anticipate any repercussions from this incident. Copyboy – Jay – was the primary instigator, and trust me, he’s going to be locked up for a very long time.’
When I’m let go and taken back into the main room – or Mission Room as apparently it’s meant to be called – I feel dizzy. Being underground and under artificial lighting does strange things to your senses, especially when you’re already tired and mentally wiped out. It’s not like a complete catastrophic zone of destruction in here, but Erica and Blizz’s fight hardly left things clean and tidy. There are people all around us checking the computers and moving bits and pieces of wreckage out of the way, some of it singed black, some frozen solid.
‘Toby!’ I practically race down the staircase from the gallery when I see him standing there, his arm appearing to be back at normal body temperature. ‘I was so worried!’
He’s really not prepared for me flinging my arms around him. It’s the awkward cough of a nearby Vigil agent that makes us finally back away from one another, and now I have no idea where to stand or what to do. Neither does Toby. He shoves his hands in his pockets and does that awkward bounce-on-his-heels thing that I’ve seen him do before.
‘How are you feeling?’ I ask.
‘Surprisingly good! Erica warmed everything back up. Arm still stings a little, but otherwise everything seems fine. No need to cut any of my fingers off from frostbite quite yet.’ He sounds nervous. I am nervous.
‘I kind of feel like I was a bit of a coward back there,’ he admits.
‘Why would you think that?’
‘Oh, I don’t know. That pretending to be asleep thing, so that I could fight back, was hardly effective, and you know, completely wimping out on you in that cupboard. Not exactly a move to be proud of.’
‘Tobes, you were injured. There was nothing you could do. Besides, everything has worked out just fine. I honestly don’t know how I would have coped without you today. It’s been epic.’
‘I don’t know. This wasn’t exactly what I imagined visiting Vigil HQ would be like.’
The place is now swarming with Vigil agents. They made their grand entrance soon after Erica and I finished our little battle scene and haven’t left us alone since. They’re busy worker bees all in black, scurrying around and checking computers for any signs of corruption or infiltration. The actual superhero guys are still up in Scotland, but they’re heading home, having made sure that the nuclear power plant is completely safe. I’m secretly hoping that they make it back before we have to go home, but maybe it isn’t the best time to be meeting Quantum and the gang. For starters, I must look like a frazzled mess, and my wrist and hands, although recovered (I’ve already been checked by a Vigil doctor), still feel a little weird. What I want more than anything is to be at home in a nice hot bubble bath. Definitely not the ideal frame of mind to be in when meeting one of the most powerful people on the planet.
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ I ask Toby. He’s still shuffling a bit on his feet and looking pensive.
‘It’s just …’
‘What?’
‘You know how I was so great and calm earlier, and how well I was handling everything back at Jay’s place?’
‘Yeah?’
‘Well, can I freak out now? Like, really actually properly freak out?’
‘It depends on what that entails …’ I say nervously, looking around the vast chamber at all the very important people doing their very important jobs and hoping that he doesn’t make a spectacle of himself.
‘WHAT THE HELL, LOUISE?!’ Apparently Toby doesn’t do freak-outs by half.
‘Calm down …’ I insist.
‘CALM DOWN? WE’RE STANDING IN A VIGIL MISSION ROOM AND YOU’RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?’ His lanky arms flai
l in all directions, and he paces around in a tiny circle.
‘Toby …’ I edge closer to him, blushing with embarrassment, but hoping that somehow he might be able to focus a bit if I can just manage to look him in the eyes.
‘WE WERE KIDNAPPED AND I HIT SOME GUY WITH A VASE AND HE PUT ME TO SLEEP AND THEN WE WERE KIDNAPPED AGAIN AND MY ARM GOT FROZEN SOLID AND YOU LEFT ME IN A CUPBOARD.’ He pauses, staring at the floor for a moment. ‘You have no idea how scared I was when you went away.’
‘Toby.’ I’m right up close to him, looking up because he’s so annoyingly tall, and somehow my hands have found his, and what’s really strange is that this doesn’t feel awkward at all. There have been so many times when I’ve imagined this, just the simple thing of holding his hand, and now here we are, and I’m wondering why it was ever such a big deal.
Maybe it’s the tiredness, or maybe my adventure today has affected me more than I’d realised, but I’m feeling brave and reckless. For the first time in a heck of a long time, I’m not just Erica’s sidekick, a secondary character in her epic story. Erica has her world, and I’ll always be a part of it somehow, but I have my world too, and maybe it’s time that I started living in it. I look up again at Toby, with his grey eyes and his crazy hair that flies up at impossible angles, and suddenly I don’t care about consequences. All that matters is that I feel it, and even if what happens next doesn’t go the way I want, at least it was something that I made happen all by myself.
I reach up on tiptoes and kiss him.
It’s the tiniest moment, and he barely responds because he’s caught off-guard, but I’ve done it. I’ve wanted to do it for longer than I’d dare to admit. Whatever happens next, at least I’ve done it.
‘What was that for?’ Toby asks, his voice now calm and soft, his lips, the ones that I just touched with mine, tipping into a gentle smile.
‘Well, it was partly to get you to shut up, and partly just because I wanted to.’
‘You just wanted to? Just like that? For absolutely no reason whatsoever? Because I’ll be honest with you, I’m not entirely feeling at my most attractive right now, and I would have much preferred you wanting to when I was in a much more manly and dignified situation, you know?’
‘Shut up, Toby!’ And I reach up to kiss him again, this time longer and more definite, just in case there was any question about what happened before.
‘Ugh, get a room, you guys!’ It’s Erica, slinking up on us from wherever she’s been for the last hour or so, probably being debriefed by agents like I was.
‘Erica!’ I cry, letting Toby go so that I can hug her. ‘How are you?’
‘I’ll be fine. I’m worn out, but the doc has checked me over and I’ve had my first debrief, and it looks like everything is going to be fine. And I mean, actually, properly fine now. Not the Oh, I’m sure everything will turn out OK, probably kind of fine.’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ I say.
‘Still, I think I might have pissed off quite a few people here.’
‘What do you mean?’ Toby asks.
‘Well, being the new kid is hard enough, but when it also turns out that I seem to be accompanied by Trouble with a capital T, I’m not exactly making loads of friends.’
‘But it wasn’t your fault about Jay,’ I insist. ‘He fooled everyone, not just you. This is not your fault, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.’
‘See.’ Erica turns to Toby. ‘This is why she’s such a good friend.’ Turning back to me: ‘You may not realise it, but I swear that Sensible Voice of yours is one hell of a superpower.’
‘It’ll take some time to make new friends here, but it’ll all work out.’ I smile. ‘So what happens now?’
‘I think I have to stay here for a bit, but you two can go. Let me check with someone.’
Erica scurries away, just about managing to dodge the two agents carrying away a charred slab of desk. I see her apologise awkwardly to them, and realise that despite the bravado, inside she must be disappointed about the way things turned out.
A figure up on the gallery catches my eye. She holds onto the railing, peering around the pit in wonder, but her face is blotchy, like she’s been crying.
‘It’s Liza,’ I mumble.
‘Who?’ Toby asks, following my gaze.
‘Erica’s mum is here. She was so worried about Erica going missing that I guess the Vigils decided to bring her in.’
‘Did she know?’
‘About the superpowers? I’m not entirely sure that she knows even now.’
We watch as Liza is escorted down the stairs and into the pit. She sees me and her face freezes. Ignoring the agents on either side of her, she marches right up to me, and I flinch because I’m so certain that she’s going to hurt me.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about this?’ Her eyes are livid with anger. For the first time it occurs to me that there might be a genetic source for Erica’s power.
‘I couldn’t,’ I reply.
‘You should have told me. My own daughter! Somebody should have told me! Why should I find out like this? I’ve been frantic this past week! Going out of my mind!’
‘She should have told you, but we didn’t know how. It was too difficult. We didn’t tell anybody.’
‘Tell me, Louise, does she hate me that much? Does she really think that I wouldn’t still love her, or care? She’s my daughter. We may not have the most typical of relationships, but she’s still my daughter, and she should have told me about this.’
‘Mum.’ Erica’s standing just a little way away, but doesn’t look as if she wants to come any closer.
‘Erica!’ Liza says, throwing her hands down in futility. It’s the first time she’s seen her daughter in her costume, the first time she’s been able to see her for who she really is.
‘Please don’t shout at my friends,’ Erica says, her voice soft and scared.
‘Why couldn’t you tell me about this?’ Liza pleads. She takes a step closer, but it’s not close enough.
‘Seriously, how was I meant to tell you, Mum? Every time we talk we end up fighting. I could never know how you were going to react.’
‘You should have told me,’ Liza repeats, her words broken up by sobs.
Toby comes to stand behind me and places a hand on my shoulder.
‘I didn’t know they were bringing you in,’ Erica says. ‘I mean, I knew that you were going to have to come in eventually, but I didn’t know that it was going to be now. What have they told you?’
‘They told me you have powers. Like those people on the telly.’
‘That’s right.’
‘They said that you were in danger.’
‘I was, but it’s all fine now. Louise saved me.’
‘Is that right?’ Liza turns to look at me, but I look away, embarrassed.
‘Maybe we should go somewhere quiet and talk about this,’ Erica suggests. Liza nods in agreement, and after Erica signals to a nearby agent, they’re both led away to one of the debrief rooms.
‘Are they going be all right?’ Toby asks me.
‘I hope so,’ I reply.
It’s time to leave, and Toby and I are accompanied back up the staircase to the gallery, and then through the maze of corridors and to a lift that will take us back up to street level. One of them presses the button to call the lift. The agents don’t talk to us. They’re probably really annoyed at all the hassle we’ve caused.
The lift arrives, and Toby is the one who gasps when the doors open, because I’m too busy staring down at my feet. But when I finally do look up I have one of those moments where I wonder if my brain is able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy any more. Because this can’t possibly be real. For starters, he’s huge. He’s a megalith of a human being, all height and breadth and arms and torso. And the mask is off. Good God, the mask is off.
‘Good evening, sir,’ one of the agents says as Quantum steps out of the lift. ‘We weren’t expecting you until much later.’
‘I took the jet. Because apparently you kids can’t look after the place properly when Daddy’s gone. Who are these two?’
Quantum has short, dirty-blond hair. Nobody else knows that – nobody outside of this base anyway. Because how would they know, when he goes around saving the world in a mask all the time? He has dirty-blond hair that’s cut military short, but with enough height at the front to make a nice tuft above his forehead. He has eyebrows. I can’t believe this, but Quantum actually has eyebrows. Not that I didn’t think he would have eyebrows, because he is a person after all, but in all the footage and all the photos I’ve researched over the last few years, how could I ever have known for sure? He has eyebrows, and cheeks, and the tiniest hint of a hook in his hawk-like nose. It’s Quantum. Right here. Right now. And he’s asking who I am.
‘These are the kids who saved the day,’ the agent replies. And there I was thinking that they hated us!
‘What are your names?’ He looks to Toby first, but Toby can’t speak. Toby looks like he’s been totally frozen solid all over again.
‘I’m Louise, and this is Toby. We’re Erica’s friends,’ I just about manage to gurgle out.
‘Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Louise and Toby. And thanks for saving the day. Usually that’s our job, but it’s nice to know that you’ve got our backs.’ He runs his fingers through his hair, mussing it up. He looks normal, and kind, and OH MY GOD, HE KNOWS MY NAME.
He starts to move away, and the agents either side of us move around him to get into the lift. Toby, jaw still locked in awe, shuffles in after them, keeping his gaze fixed on Quantum. The doors are just about to close, and he’s walking away, and who knows what’s got into me, but I can’t let him just leave.
‘Mr Quantum!’ I call out, jamming the lift doors back open with my hand.
He turns.
‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance I could get some work experience here, could I?’
I’m lying on my bed, and there’s a book propped open on my chest that I’m meant to be reading for school on Monday, except that it’s impossible to read when there’s a boy sitting cross-legged on the floor next to you, biting his lip while he doodles in his sketchpad. I keep stopping mid-sentence.
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