Battlefield

by J. F. Jenkins

  “It actually is like a bat cave, only without all of the bats. Or anything, actually. But how are we supposed to get in? We can’t just come into your house all of the time. That would be a little weird,” JD said.

  “There’s an entrance on the outside, too. We can get a lock installed and get a secret code. Assuming we do this, of course. Also, you know those tunnels that run through the town for all of the random sanitation stuff they do? They're connected to this, too. There are a lot of ways to get in, and a lot of ways we can make, so you two don’t have to come over to ‘play’ all of the time. After all, I’d hate to tarnish your image.”

  He then escorted them to a massive spiraling stairwell spanning from the basement all the way up to the top, fourth floor.

  JD stared up it in awe. “Can we get a pole? Or an elevator? Or both?”

  “Maybe.”

  The next floor had two rooms and a bathroom. One of the rooms was completely empty with large glass windows looking out toward the forest in the backyard. The other room had a wall containing only books—old, dusty books, at that. The following floor had two more rooms that were slightly smaller to compensate for the larger bathroom complete with a Jacuzzi bath and a large steam shower. The fourth and final floor was similar to an attic, small and only usable for storage space.

  “Can I move here? Seriously, this would be amazing if it wasn’t invaded by dust bunnies,” JD said. The idea was tempting. He’d have peace and quiet here, and he wouldn’t be at the beck and call of his parents all of the time.

  “So you approve? Because if we’re going to do this, then we’re going to need a base of operation,” Orlando said, looking between the two.

  Cadence stared, soaking it all in. “Well, it would meet all of our needs, but are you sure it’s secure? Nobody knows about it?”

  He shrugged and found a spot on the wall to lean against. “My parents and the builders of the house. I’m pretty sure the builders don’t care, and my parents? Well, if you take a look at the state of things, you can see they don’t either. I don’t know why they even built it. My sister doesn’t know it’s here, and as far as I know, it’s secure. We can change the code on the lock easily without any problems. It won’t be hard to work around at all.”

  She nodded and looked around some more. “That’s good. I like it. It seems practical. We can divide the rooms up for all sorts of different things. I don’t know what we’re going to have to do, but I imagine our alien friend will be telling us soon. He did say he’d get in touch with us if anything ‘interesting’ happened soon. Which reminds me of why we were meeting in the first place.”

  “Right, show and tell,” Orlando said. The two of them both faced JD.

  “What? Why are you both looking at me? One of you go first,” he said, shifting slightly where he stood. How was he going to tell them he still didn’t have anything ‘unique’ happen? As far as he knew, he was powerless and didn’t know how they would react to that. More importantly, he didn’t know how Alan would react. He didn’t think the alien would hurt him, but he couldn’t be too sure.

  Orlando gestured at Cadence. “Ladies first, I insist.”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I can’t exactly show you what it is I do, but somehow in the course of the last twenty-four hours my intelligence has increased to the point where I know, basically, everything there is to know.”

  “Nobody knows everything,” Orlando countered. His eyebrow shot up, and he adjusted his long bangs so they were no longer in his face.

  “I do. I mean, I can’t see the future, but somehow I’ve gained a lot of knowledge I didn’t have before,” Cadence said with a shaky voice. JD wouldn’t have believed it himself if she hadn’t seemed so distressed over the idea. He knew her well enough to be able to tell she was scared. Still, she had to prove it.

  “I mean, I like, calculated the value of pi to the one-hundredth decimal last night because I was bored and I could. I, like, even checked it on the Internet, and it was right.”

  Orlando gasped at the news mockingly. “Like, OMG! Really?”

  “I’m being serious here!”

  “And I think I need some more solid proof.” He folded his arms in front of himself. “What’s two plus two?”

  “Oh man, give me a break. Four.” she groaned.

  And he continued to run her through every possible combination of math problem he could think of, though whether or not he knew the correct answer or not, JD didn’t know. Regardless, she answered them all and did so with confidence and grace.

  “Explain quantum physics to me,” Orlando said.

  “For the love of,” JD began to mumble under his breath. “Dude, you’re going to break her brain asking her things like that.”

  Cadence let out a quiet growl. “No, if he wants to discuss quantum physics, we can, but maybe we should wait for a time when it won’t break your brain.” She glared at JD and folded her arms in front of her chest. “I wish you’d have more faith in me.”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind.” She shook her head and returned her attention to Orlando. “Look, I don’t know how to prove it to you, but you’re just going to have to trust me. Why would I lie about something like this anyway? You both know me, or know enough about me to know I don’t lie when it comes to this stuff. It’s freaking me out a lot.”

  JD stared down at the ground because she was right. He shouldn’t have doubted her. Why would she lie, especially to him? Orlando's jaw was slack.

  “Well,” he started, obviously placing a lot of thought into all of his words because he spoke slowly. Normally, Orlando was quick to jab. “I think I’d rather talk more about the meta-physical. I don’t suppose you know a whole lot about telekinesis?”

  “I know a few theories on it, but there isn’t much that’s conclusive on the subject. Why? Are you saying you’re telekinetic?” she asked.

  Orlando nodded. “Something like that.”

  As JD continued to watch the exchange between his two comrades, he couldn’t help but begin to feel lost. Cadence used a large word like ‘conclusive’? And while he was familiar with the term telekinesis, he would never admit out loud that he didn’t know the exact meaning of the word. Especially considering how he prided himself on his vast knowledge of super powers and comic book heroes. He wondered how long he could ride it out and fake his way through the entire conversation before they figured out he had no idea what was going on.

  “Cool. So show us. Come on,” JD said.

  With a deep sigh, Orlando closed his eyes and concentrated hard. Within seconds there were books floating around the room. They were removed, one by one, from their place on the nearby bookshelf and circled the group. Just as quickly as it had begun, it abruptly ended, and they all fell to the ground simultaneously.

  “I won’t say it necessarily hurts, or that it’s hard to do, but it does take a lot of my willpower to stay focused. I think I can figure out how to make it work better,” Orlando said.

  “That’s really cool,” JD said quietly. His jealousy was becoming harder and harder to hide. Of course Orlando would get the best power of the three since he had the best of everything else. “So we have the brains of our operation, and the obligatory awesomely powerful one who can do anything, and me. I didn’t get any powers yesterday. At least, I didn’t get any that I’m aware of.”

  “Oh,” the other two said quietly in unison.

  “It’ll come. We can still talk logistics and strategy, although I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing exactly. I guess we wait for our hot alien friend to fill us in on those details, huh?” Cadence said with a weak smile.

  JD’s jaw tightened, and he was about to say something when, as if on cue, Alan spoke.

  “Yes,” his voice came from nowhere. The trio searched the room for him, but came up dry.

  Chapter Five

  Orlando scowled and a slight growl escaped his lips. “Where are you? Show yourself instead of playing mind games with us.
Especially if you want our help with this ever-precious and important grand mission of peace you’ve chosen us for.”

  “My apologies.” Alan materialized before them in the middle of the room and took a good look around. Much like before, he still appeared in nothing but shades of red. Thankfully though, he wasn’t on fire or glowing. He still, however, needed to put on more clothes.

  “Your home is quite nice. I didn’t mean to startle you or appear deceptive. I thought perhaps my vocal presence would be less frightening than my physical one, considering my previous manifestation seemed to trouble you. I will not make this assumption again,” Alan said.

  “It was scary before because you demolished the roof of the mall and almost killed us. Why didn’t you just poof your way down to begin with?” Orlando said.

  Alan tilted his head to the side. “Poof?”

  “He means teleported, or however it was you got in here. You appeared out of nowhere instead of making a big, messy entrance. We wanted to know why you didn’t keep it simple like this the first time,” Cadence said.

  Alan nodded slowly. “Yes, I understand now. I was not yet in your atmosphere. My teleportation abilities, as you called them, are limited.”

  Orlando asked the most important question of them all. “So what now?”

  “Now I will explain your mission,” Alan said. His tone grew more serious as he spoke in a slow, quiet voice. “Everything happening between my people will not only affect our world, but your own. You see, the two warring tribes are manipulating your species into doing their bidding, and it is much more than just talking to them and telling them about their ‘special abilities’. It involves illegal and unethical things as well.

  “What we would like for you to do is find the instruments of these tribes and stop them from doing their work. While you are not law enforcement of any kind as of yet, you can still do everything in your power to make sure they are punished for their crimes.”

  “I’m not quite sure how well that’s going to work. Even if we gain the skills to do what you’re asking, it sounds dangerous,” Orlando said, and rubbed at his arms. This sounded more complex and frightening by the minute. He didn’t know if he wanted to do it.

  JD shook his head. “You need to relax, man. We’ll be trained in how to do all of this, right?”

  Alan nodded. “Yes, of course.”

  “See?” JD said as if that was supposed to make everything better. Orlando wanted to stick a needle into his bubble and give him a small dose of reality. This wasn’t a comic book, a movie, or a video game. Still, Orlando found himself wanting to at least hear their visitor out. He had powers now, and the only people he could turn to were in the room with him. Alan was by far the most knowledgeable in the matter, and a little training in how to control what he did would be useful. How long he planned to stick around was another story entirely. He’d ignore JD for now.

  “I don’t know about where you’re from, Alan, but here we have things called surveillance videos, cell phones, and the Internet, which make staying incognito difficult. I personally don’t want to get arrested,” Orlando said.

  Alan handed each of them a simple, plain, black mask that only covered the eyes. “These have always been a way of protecting one’s identity. No one will recognize you, not even your mothers. There is one condition to this rule, however. Anyone who sees you remove this mask will forever know who you are. Be wary of those you show the truth to.”

  Orlando stared at the mask, trying to make sense of Alan’s attempt at sounding like some kind of wise guru. To him, it felt a little forced, as if the young man were trying to prove something, and that made him all the more wary. “You’re not serious, are you? I put on this mask, and all of a sudden no one is going to know who I am? You’re nuts.”

  “By all means, give it a try. Put it on, right here, in front of your friends.” Alan gestured at Orlando with a smirk.

  Hesitantly, Orlando did as he was told. “All right, it’s on.”

  All three of them stared at him blankly.

  “All right, funny. Someone else give this whole thing a try,” he said while folding his arms. He gestured for JD or Cadence to go next. After a moment’s pause, Cadence scoffed and rolled her eyes before placing her mask on as well.

  He watched her put the mask on, and the moment it was placed over her eyes, it was as if every one of his senses became disoriented. Where Cadence had once stood was now a girl who appeared as nothing more than fuzz. The most he could make out was that she was tall, dark-skinned, and a girl, but he couldn’t recognize her face. Almost as if each of his senses experienced static whenever they tried to tune in to her features. Just when he thought he had something figured out, he’d become even more confused. Where did he know her from?

  “Okay, who are you?” he asked.

  “You’re one to ask. You’re the one who’s just standing around like he owns the place, and now you’re demanding answers?” she snapped back at him.

  “I only asked who you were. I didn’t realize it was such an offensive question. And I do own this place. Got it? So tell me who you are now.”

  “This isn’t your house.”

  “What are you talking about? I—”

  Alan waved them quiet with a hand gesture. “Remove them.”

  Both of them stared at the alien before looking back at one another. Slowly, they removed the masks. As he watched her pull off her mask, Orlando saw everything about her become focused and clear as day. Instantly he recognized Cadence.

  JD stood off to the side with wide eyes. “Awesome.”

  “I’m...” Orlando started, but he couldn’t quite figure out how to say what was on his mind. What just happened? How is it even possible?

  “Wow, speechless. That’s new. I thought you had something witty to say about everything,” JD said.

  “I see that no matter what happens, you’re never startled enough to grow a brain.” Not his best comeback, but Orlando wasn’t going to let JD get away with thinking he could out-snark him. His sarcasm was always a good way to deflect what he was actually feeling. The others didn’t need to know how disturbed all of this was making him feel.

  “JD, you better do your thing now, so that way we can all know who the other is even when we’re ‘in costume’,” Cadence said.

  He nodded, taking his turn. “Okay, now it’s on.” Again, everything about him became blurry and distorted. “And now it’s off.”

  Cadence blinked. “Why is this happening? It makes no sense.”

  “Does any of this? While your planet’s ideas of logic are greatly developed, there are still a few aspects of it you have not quite uncovered yet. It will make perfect sense in the future. For now, just accept it for what it is. The others you will be up against will be wearing the same sorts of masks, perhaps different in style but the same in function. Try your hardest to expose the other warriors,” Alan said.

  “I’m still not sure if I want to do this, but I’m willing to try since it seems like it’s the right thing to do, I think,” Orlando said. He glanced over at the others.

  JD grinned. “I always wanted to be Batman.”

  “Right now, that’s appropriate. So we save the world one day at a time?” Orlando said. He still wasn’t sure he understood it all, but he was trusting Alan to keep them informed. Hopefully, the more he knew, the more he’d start believing in the cause.

  Cadence nodded at him with a smile. “This is crazy. I don’t know why I’m even agreeing to do it, but saying no feels wrong.”

  “We have a lot of cleaning and planning to do.”

  “Nope, I’m not doing any cleaning or anything until we have costumes,” JD said.

  “If you think I’m going to prance around in spandex and tights, then I’m going to have to punch you. I think costumes can wait. Do you have priorities?” Orlando said.

  JD rolled his eyes. “Pfft, you don’t have to wear spandex or tights, but it’s super hero law to have a costume so no one recognizes y
ou.”

  “But that’s what—” Orlando exchanged a glance with Cadence. She shook her head at him. “Right. Don’t bother arguing. Fine, we’ll get costumes, but we’re picking out our own and we’re not coordinating because I know you’re going to do something ridiculous.” He’d go along with JD’s stupid ideas for the time being. Humoring the guy would at least get him to shut up.

  He motioned for the rest of them to follow him out of the room. “I have stuff in the attic to browse through if you want.”

  “You are seriously no fun. What kind of stuff do you have anyway?” JD mumbled with an eye roll.

  Orlando replied with an innocent shrug and a coy smile. “My dress-up hobby. Actually, my parents have a lot of clothes. They don’t believe in throwing things out, so they packrat everything into the attic, claiming it has sentimental value or something.” He paused and looked JD’s cut frame over. “You’re about Dad’s size. I’m sure you’ll find something.”

  The four of them trekked through the dark, narrow hall leading back to the main house.

  “Just keep it casual until we get up there. Lyssa could be anywhere. She’s pretty cool most of the time, but when she hears something interesting, she sticks with it,” Orlando warned. He paused at a closet door in his dark and practically empty basement. “Do you want to go up the normal way or the fun way?”

  “Is it another secret?” JD asked with wide, glittering eyes. Orlando opened the door to show him a ladder. “So cool.”

  “Have at it. It goes all the way up to the top, but there are exits on each floor, too. So don’t get lost, all right? Just go all the way up and try not to kill yourself on it either.” He stressed the point.

  “If you wish, I can follow behind him, and I will use my abilities to protect him,” Alan offered with about as bright of a smile as JD. They were a lot more excited by this than they should have been.

  “Sure.” He shook his head as he watched the two disappear up the ladder.

  “Come on.” He motioned for Cadence to continue following him up the stairs. Silently they moved through the house; she was too busy staring at everything to muster up much conversation. Orlando preferred it this way. He walked with his head down and his hands in his front jeans pockets, classic signs to leave him alone.