by Gracie Dix
FOURTEEN
In Which There Are Two Losing Fights And An Experiment
The next day, Mrs. Thomas had an announcement. “All right, everyone! We are going back to school,” she said happily.
“Noooo!” Teddy yelled melodramatically.
“Well, it’s safer than being here!” Oliver exclaimed. “But Nick, what are we going to do with you?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” he mumbled.
“He can stay with me if he wants to. My husband left me, and I have no kids,” Mrs. Thomas stated.
Darla just stared at her. “What the . . .”
“That works. As long as I can go to school,” Nick blurted.
“Fine,” Mrs. Thomas grunted.
Nick began walking forward when he suddenly stumbled. Oliver reached out and caught Nick by the arm. Nick’s eyes twitched slightly as he felt a sudden drowsiness, but he managed to stay awake.
“I don’t know what’s happening. I’m going to try and scan myself,” Nick muttered weakly. He lifted his shaking hand and hovered it above his chest. A red and white glowing mist streamed out of his hand.
“I can’t Sense anything,” he grumbled angrily. “I think my Powers are being blocked.”
“That would cause a sudden weakness,” Will stated. Everyone looked at him.
“How would you know that?” Jessica asked, surprised.
“I read in my spare time, and since I didn’t bring any books, I figured I’d look on the Superhero web,” he responded smartly.
“Who could be blocking your Powers?” Ondrea wondered.
“Maybe I am,” someone said as he walked into the room and shut the door.
“Awwww, man! They just keep coming!” Teddy yelled.
“You’re not going anywhere today or tomorrow,” the man said. “And what I just did to your beloved cousin Nick, I can do to all of you.” Suddenly Jessica, Ondrea, and everyone else dropped to the ground except Oliver. He ran over to a large column and hid behind it.
“Why didn’t you block my Power, too?” he asked.
“Do you want me to?” the man questioned.
“Well, no. But . . .” Oliver began.
“I wanted to fight you,” the man growled menacingly. Oliver flinched, then shook it off.
“Let’s dance,” Oliver said.
14.2
Jessica was startled by a man who unexpectedly came in. Suddenly, she felt strange and collapsed to the ground, still fully conscious. She couldn’t move, but she noticed Oliver was still up and moving because he streaked by her. There was some talk exchanged between the two that scared Jessica. Suddenly, a gust of Wind swept the man off his feet.
14.3
Oliver forced a giant gust of Wind out of his hands, blowing The Stranger off his feet. The Stranger hit his head on the floor and closed his eyes.
“Yes!” Oliver shouted.
14.4
Nick knew he had a victory, but then he thought, “We should have our Powers back!” He needed to tell Oliver! But Nick was too weak to move or talk.
14.5
Oliver grabbed The Stranger’s hand and began to drag him out the door, muttering to himself. But suddenly, The Stranger used all his strength and flipped Oliver over on his back, causing him to deactivate the hold on everyone’s Powers. Nick sprung up first, but the stranger grabbed an unconscious Oliver and Super-Sped away. Nick tried to throw a Power Steal at him before he ran off, but it hit Oliver. Nick cursed under his breath. He ran to help Jessica up.
“Jess, are you okay?” Nick asked.
“No! No, no, no! I’m not okay! He took Oliver, HOW COULD I BE OKAY?” she yelled. Everyone began to get up.
“Did you say he took Oliver?” Teddy sighed.
“Everyone calm down!” Nick called out. “If everyone keeps bickering, we don’t find Oliver.”
“I can’t calm down! You didn’t see what the piece of paper said! You never saw what they were going to do to him!” Jessica yelled, tears streaming down her face.
“Jessi, come here,” Nick cooed, wrapping her in a hug. “We will find him before anything happens to him.”
Teddy wrapped Ondrea in a hug too.
“Listen, baby, we will find him, just like Nick said,” Teddy reassured her.
Jessica sunk into Nick’s embrace, suddenly missing her family more than ever. She pulled back with a horrible realization.
“We have to stay in New York! If we go home, Mom and Dad are going to ask where Oliver is,” Jessica cried.
“Then we have to stay here!” Darla exclaimed.
“The important thing is that Oliver still has his Powers, so if that man tries anything, Oliver can defend himself,” Ondrea remarked.
Nick suddenly felt guilty. “Yeah, well, about that . . .” Nick said, his voice shaking a bit.
“What did you do?” Teddy accused.
“I, uh, tried to hit the guy with my Power Steal, but accidentally hit Oliver. So, he has no Powers right now, and there’s no way for me to give them back unless I can make contact with his skin,” Nick explained, looking down.
“Oh, no! Nick!” Jessica screeched, “Now he has no way to defend himself!”
14.6
Oliver felt groggy and he was in a lot of pain. He opened his eyes and found himself in a room with a gray ceiling. He was strapped to a weird lab table. He closed his eyes and tried to grasp the situation, but he couldn’t. He remembered what had happened before. His chest felt empty, and he felt short of breath. He kept his eyes closed as he tried to control himself. Then a door opened and closed. Oliver kept his eyes closed hoping the man would think he was still asleep. Two men dressed as doctors stopped in front of him and began to speak.
“We’ve brought the maturing serum so that this test subject doesn’t die when we give him the regular injection,” a gravelly voice said.
“Good,” replied a recognizable voice.
Oliver felt s sharp prick in his chest. He gasped and his eyes shot open. The “doctors” suddenly looked scared.
“What did you do to me?” Oliver yelled.
One of the doctors recovered and spoke. “We gave you a, uh, a health injection for your, uh, chest.”
“Uh huh. Okay, I’m sure you did,” Oliver replied sarcastically. He turned to address the other scientist and found him sneaking out the door.
“Hey! Who are you?” Oliver screamed, struggling in his restraints. He had recognized one of the voices and tried hard to think back to that moment, but his head began to throb, and he felt extremely dizzy. Oliver closed his eyes for a second, accidentally falling asleep—possibly forever.
14.7
“What are we going to do?” Darla questioned, clutching her fists.
“I don’t know!” Nick whined.
“This is all your fault!” Will screamed, losing it. “If you hadn’t stolen his Powers, he would be able to defend himself. But now, they could do anything to him!”
“I wasn’t aiming for him!” Nick yelled back.
“Nick, what were you thinking? You stupid idiot!” Jessica cried. Nick recoiled, not expecting Jessica to be so harsh.
“Sure, I accidentally took Oliver’s Powers,” Nick thought, “but Jess had to have known it was a mistake!”
Jessica suddenly jerked back in surprise. Seeing this snapped Nick out of his slump.
“What’s up?” he asked quietly.
Jessica glared at him. “Oliver is in trouble. I Sensed it,” she mumbled. Nick stood there awkwardly while Jessica continued to glare at him.
“He probably wouldn’t be in trouble if you hadn’t taken his Powers,” Darla murmured.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry. If you don’t want to accept my apology, then I don’t want to be sorry, but I am,” he sighed.
“Guys, lay off! He didn’t mean to do it,” Teddy asserted.
“Shut up, Teddy,” Nick said emphatically.
“What?” Teddy questioned softly.
“We need to go, guys,” Ondrea exclaimed, gr
abbing Teddy’s arm as he was looking back, still puzzled by Nick’s reaction. Everyone went back to their hotel rooms, leaving Nick and Mrs. Thomas in the middle of the hall.
“I’m sorry, Nick, about everything. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. They just don’t know how to deal with this,” Mrs. Thomas explained.
“Yeah, I deserved that, though,” he replied, defeated.
“No, you didn’t. By the way, why did you shut Teddy down like that?” she wondered.
“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Nick said.
“All right, but next time someone asks you, please talk about it. It will make you feel better,” Mrs. Thomas said.
“Okay. Thanks for saying you’ll let me stay with you when we get back home. Now that I’ve pushed Teddy away, I might have no one left. I have you, though!” Nick laughed.
Nick stared at the floor, suddenly embarrassed for laughing. Despite everything that just happened, he felt good. He knew Mrs. Thomas would be there to help him when she could. She came in when he thought he’d lost all his friends. Nick was deep in reflection, not realizing that Mrs. Thomas had walked away.
He thought about the fact that he couldn’t be with his parents, or his aunt and uncle. Oliver was Powerless and missing because of him. He didn’t have anywhere to go, everyone hated him, he’d shut down Teddy, he felt like his only friend was a middle-aged teacher, and his own cousin yelled at him.
Nick was just standing there feeling sorry for himself when he heard a shout of agony. His head snapped up, and he instinctively ran toward the shout—which sounded like it came from Mrs. Thomas. Then he saw the blade in her chest. Nick gasped and knelt by her side, tears already beginning to form.
“Don’t . . . ” she began.
Mrs. Thomas died.
FIFTEEN
In Which A Mourner Remembers And Then Disappears
Nick screamed. He could feel pain piercing his heart like the blade that had just killed his friend. The pain he was feeling brought a memory he had tried so hard to forget . . .
Six years earlier: Nick was dodging bullets left and right. The other side knew to target him because of his strange reviving abilities. He looked around. There were bodies everywhere amongst the dust and smoke. Nick stopped to blink some dust from his eyes when he heard a loud explosion. He flew backwards, hitting a wall and almost losing consciousness.
One of his best friends at the time, Spencer, came sprinting toward him with his bullet-proof shield. Bullets were flying everywhere. One hit Nick in the shoulder, and he yelled. His friend arrived and stood in front of him, put up his shield, and began throwing grenades toward the enemy ranks. Just as Nick Healed his shoulder, he heard a gunshot, and Nick ducked down. Spencer, thinking Nick was still going to get hit, jumped in front of him and extended his shield to protect Nick, leaving himself dangerously exposed. A bullet tore through Spencer’s heart. Out of all the deaths he had witnessed, that one hurt the most. Overcome with the darkest pain and the deepest despair, Nick blacked out.
Now, Nick had just lost Mrs. Thomas, and he had already put his cousin in danger. He knew what he had to do. He was about to go do it when, suddenly, he felt a hand go over his mouth and a knife go to his throat.
A voice whispered, “Don’t scream or you’ll die.”
As Nick felt himself being dragged away, he slipped his hand unnoticed into his pocket and pulled out a note meant for this very situation. He dropped it on the ground. They’re not going to help me anyway. They hate my guts.
15.2
Teddy broke his girlfriend’s grip on his arm and sulked off to his room. He walked in, and Will was sitting on the bed, eyes red.
“Hey buddy, what’s wrong?” Teddy questioned wearily.
“Man, I feel so bad for yelling at Nick like that. I mean, it wasn’t his fault. I just wanted to yell, I guess. Especially after everything that just happened. I mean, Oliver’s gone,” Will blurted.
“I stuck up for him, but he shut me down,” Teddy exclaimed. “He’s your problem.”
“I want to apologize. Can you go with me?” Will asked, hopefully.
“Yeah sure, he has some apologizing to do to me, too.” Teddy agreed.
They hopped off the beds and walked through the doorway. Teddy and Will walked to Mrs. Thomas’s room where Nick was staying, since Rachel was sleeping in Oliver and Jess’s room.
They walked through the door, but no one was there.
“What the . . .”
Just then, they heard a loud shout. Will and Teddy looked at each other, then sprinted out the door. They ran to Jessica’s room and yelled for the girls to open the door.
“Open up! We heard a yell!” Teddy screamed.
“Come on!” Will begged.
The door opened. The boys ran inside.
“Why didn’t you go check it out!” Jessica wondered, angrily.
“Did you want us to die?” Will hissed.
“What’s going on?” Rachel asked.
“We heard a scream,” Teddy breathed.
“Let’s go!” Jessica yelled.
She raced out the door.
“Jess!” Will screamed.
Teddy followed Jessica, Rachel followed Teddy, and Will followed Rachel. Jessica screamed. Everyone ran to her aid, thinking there was something wrong—and there was.
There, lying on the floor, was the body of Mrs. Thomas.
Will dropped to his knees. Teddy put a hand on his shoulder. Rachel stood there and stared, horrified because she had never seen anything like this before. Jessica began to cry.
Teddy went right to the case. He began to examine the area around the body to see who could have done this. He was about to get on his hands and knees when he saw a note. He pointed it out to the rest of the group.
“Maybe the killer left a note,” he said, feeling numb.
“Are you stupid?” Jessica cried.
“Open it,” Will stated.
Teddy opened the paper. He began to read out loud. “Dear friends, this is a note just in case something bad happens. If you find it, something bad has most likely happened. I most likely have been kidnapped. Unless you find this note hanging out of my dead body, please come save me.”
“Oh no!” Jessica sobbed. “He could be dead! Or something must have happened to him! Why was I so mean?”
“We . . . we can’t lose our heads, Jess,” Will sighed.
Teddy walked over to the wall and leaned against it. Suddenly, Ondrea and Darla came running down the hall.
“I told you they were in this hall,” Ondrea scolded Darla.
“Oh, no,” Teddy mumbled into his hands.
Ondrea looked up, straight forward, then gasped and covered Darla’s eyes.
“I smell death,” Darla whispered strangely.
“I can . . .” Ondrea says.
“No, no, no, keep your hands there,” Darla affirmed, pushing her hands on top of Ondrea’s. Suddenly Darla shook off her hands and gasped at the bloody sight before her.
“Why did you take my hands off?” Ondrea hissed.
“Well, I . . . we need to get rid of this body, right?” Darla asked, recovering slightly.
“What are you implying?” Jessica whispered, sniffing.
“First, pay your respects, say goodbye, or whatever,” Darla huffed.
Jessica took her hands away from her eyes and said a small prayer for her now-dead teacher. Ondrea bowed her head and mumbled a prayer saying how sorry she was and how much she had respected and loved Mrs. Thomas. Teddy stood still, facing the wall. He didn’t turn around as he said something that echoed in the miserable silence. “We will find them. Nick. Oliver. Have a ceremony. Later.”
Darla made eye contact with everyone as a ball of Fire appeared in her hand.
“Ashes. That’d be easier to clean up I guess,” Darla whispered. The ball of Fire whirled at their beloved teacher, engulfing her body in flames. Jessica used her Wind Powers above the burning body to disguise the smell of burning flesh. W
hen it was done, only ashes remained.
“See, ashes,” Darla repeated.
She pulled out a little container as Ondrea used her Telekinesis to float the ashes into the tiny box. Darla sealed it, then used Fire to seal it even more.
“Guys,” Teddy said hoarsely, “we need to have a meeting.” Everyone, without a word, walked up the hall into Teddy and Will’s room for a meeting.
“I know Nick and Oliver have been kidnapped, but we need this. Someone just died. We need to just let it out. You go first, Ondrea,” Teddy sighed.
“I, I just feel like Mrs. Thomas was such a great person. I don’t know how she died, but Nick knows, right?” she stated somberly.
“Is that all?” Teddy asked. She nodded her head.
“Okay, speaking of Nick, what are we going to do?” Teddy gasped.
“I know you just met him, but I just feel like Nick was the co-leader, you know? But now he’s gone too. What are they going to do next, kill our whole family?” Jessica cried.
Ondrea put her arm around Jessica, who recoiled, not wanting to be touched while she was so upset.
“Wait! Nick’s gone! What happened?” Darla and Ondrea spoke quickly at the same time.
Will explained everything. Then the girls got quiet when he explained how he thought Nick could have been kidnapped by Mrs. Thomas’s killer.
“Oh, no!” Darla shouted.
“Why were you guys so hard on him?” Teddy blurted.
“He messed up. He could have killed Oliver!” Darla exclaimed stubbornly.
“Yeah. COULD HAVE! But, didn’t! Meanwhile he could be dead now,” Teddy emphasized.
Jessica’s eyes began to tear up again.
“But he’s NOT!” Teddy said quickly.
15.3
Nick woke up in a lab, staring at a gray ceiling. He felt dizzy but turned his head around anyway. He saw he was in a small room with one door. The sign on the door read, “Test Subject 1.”
“Where have I seen that before, if I even have?” Nick asked himself. He continued to look around and saw the room was filled with equipment. It all looked really dangerous.
“What am I going to do?” Nick sighed.
Suddenly, he got an idea. He activated his Super Strength and pushed up as hard as he possibly could. The restraints bent and screeched under his force. Nick pushed harder. The metal suddenly broke. But just then, the door opened and two scientists walked in.