by Gann, Myles
Power was forced back inside by Caleb’s will and his body suddenly felt the effect of quickened time with an uppercut smashing against his diaphragm. Caleb doubled over before feeling something much harder than bone smash against his temple. He recoiled with the smell of wet rubber filling his buzzing head as, from a knee, a large boot crashed tread against his face. All of his consciousness was retained in the effort to constrain his power’s forceful attempts at freedom. ‘We’re getting beat. Stop this!’ Caleb kept his eyes open and felt his own muscles aching for a block or reversal, but his arms and legs lay as limp as he could manage despite the constant wail. The non-human instrument struck low multiple times, surging more pain than the repeated blows to his boney face, but his imagination, between whooshing swings, could almost taste the metal striking the length of his legs.
All three whams ceased at once and the pattering of shoes could be heard echoing away. Caleb kept Power back as he willed himself through anger to stand, quickly seeing Benny standing at the opposite opening of the alley the men had just run through. Caleb felt the slight streaming of warm war paint across his face and blew some from his open mouth. Benny stayed where he was. “Alice said you were a good fighter.”
“I didn’t fight.”
Benny took his hands from his pockets. “Why not? They hurt you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Why?”
“Just…because.”
‘Why the hell indeed!’
‘I wasn’t ready to lead them, you’re right. I had to experience the other side of things for a change.’
‘You sanctimonious moron. They could have killed you, all so you could learn what it was like to get your ass kicked?’
“Because they just taught me how to lose. Maybe even that I’m not as strong as I thought. They’ve proved to me that I wasn’t right before when I fought them.”
“You fought them once?”
“They were stealing from Alice, and I was a bit rough when I kicked them out.”
“And now they were rough with you, so it’s even?”
“No, it’s not about even. They didn’t want to be even they wanted to be up, so I let them have what they wanted. No resistance, and yet, I survived.”
“What does that have to do with it?”
“I handled it. It means that every time I think there’s a truth in my fists, I’ll think back to here and remember that I survived. I think I’m almost ready to see every side. To help you guys.”
Caleb smiled a haggard mess before turning and waving back to Benny as he walked away.
---
“What are you and him, officially?”
Alice jammed her hands in her pockets. “You know what we are, David. That’s why you’re always so rotten to him, and he’s always tolerating it because he doesn’t want to hurt me.”
“He’s another warm body, then?”
She jammed her shoulder into him hard enough to cause him to stumble. “No one was ever a warm body. You needed a friend so I was one.”
“I always thought we’d be more.”
“We were more, but now me and Caleb are more than that. I never knew there was something above friendship before he showed it to me. It’s not like I chose for this to happen. I’m not going to run away from it, though. This is just you and I were meant to end up.”
She looked up at his face as they walked. “No, it isn’t. If it was, we’d be together still because you know it makes me happy when we are.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You just said—”
“Real happiness isn’t about putting on a pretend face and laughing at every joke.”
They stopped and looked into each other’s eyes. “That sounds like something he would say.”
“He said it differently, but I couldn’t remember the exact words. It’s true, either way. You can’t dispute something that’s true, and with him, the truth is the only thing that matters.”
“If you weren’t with him, other things could matter.”
She gently rose upon her toes and lowered again. “Truth, truth, truth, truth,” she said rapidly. Her lips tried to pull out the words her mind shoveled. “Your face lies all the time.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know I love faces, and I read faces. You’ve had me calling out people on lies for years, and I never called you out on very many, but I knew when you did. After the military, you lied to me all the time. For a week straight, we talked once a day, and there’d be one lie each day. Your face tremors at the cheeks when you lie the worst and it’s just a slight difference in eye contact at the least. The army trained you to empty your eyes of feeling so nobody could tell when you lied, but you can’t change your heart.”
David swallowed hard. “And you think you’re boy waiting for you is any better?”
Alice looked down and then up with a large smile. “Better’s not the right word, but yes.”
“Well, allow me to break your delusion.” He folded his arms. “He’s damaged goods. I finally got my hands on a psyche profile of him. The entire thing suggests a masochistic, schizophrenic paranoia that is ready to tear out his last seams at any moment. When he does, he’s going to take you—since I know you’ll be cuddled up right next to him like some moronic cub—to hell with him.”
Alice reached her hand out slowly and stopped an inch away from his chest. “You’re pumping out heat. You’re enraged; even worse, you’re lashing out. Worst of all, you’re lying. Caleb was right to begin with.” She began to walk away. “Sorry, David. I wish I could make the anger go away, but I can only be a friend.”
“I don’t need any more friends.”
Alice felt her heart pound and drop. “Thank you for telling me the truth, even if you don’t believe it.”
She walked away quickly while wiping a snow flake from her shoulder. It wasn’t long before her apartment door came into sight. “Finally, home. I hope Caleb’s here. I hope he wants to talk. Please want to talk and to maybe have coffee, and maybe hold my hand again. Just do one small thing so that I’ll forget his face. Let me see yours. Yeah. That’s all I would need to be right as rain. How weird is that? A face making me sad and another making everything all right again.” She opened the door and skipped in. “You were right,” she shouted.
“About what?”
She skipped across the living room and halfway through the kitchen. “Bathroom?”
“Yep. Freshening up.”
“You were right about David being jealous. He got mad at me when I told him I was with you.” She heard a racket from inside the bathroom. “What’s he doing in there?”
“He didn’t already know we were together?”
“He’s in pain. Go.” She pushed open the door, seeing Caleb standing with his head turned and his arm extended. “Blood on the sink. What happened?”
“Nothing important. Just don’t look at my face.”
Alice tried to push past his arm but succeeded only in pushing him to the edge of the bathtub. “Tell me what happened. And show me.”
“She sounds serious, doggie.”
Alice ignored the glowering voice as best she could and waited for Caleb’s reply. It came in the lowering of his arm and the turning of his head, to which she recoiled and immediately looked away. “It’s okay, his face is fine. Oh my…this hurts, so bad….” He walked forward to keep her balanced and held under her arms. “His face, his face, his face, his face, no—”
“Alice, look at my eyes. Look at my face but into my eyes. They’re fine. I’m fine.”
She barely braved the look at his pleading, and felt the dulling pain waft away. Her heart grew quicker for a familiar reason. “You look different. What happened? Don’t hide things from me.”
“I was going to tell you once I bandaged myself. The guys that robbed you found me.”
“They beat you? How? How could they beat you?”
The mirror smashed in suddenly and Caleb’s power shrieked, “He let the
m! Let them run their dirty shoes across his face and ribs and balls over and over until he was near death! I will find them. Next time you sleep, I swear my vengeance will rain on full.”
Alice reached out and touched the blue outline between her and Caleb. “No you won’t. You’re going to tell me what happened.”
Power steamed and was only shades from its most luminous showing. “Nothing happened to me. Nobody touched me. This coward wouldn’t fight back just to prove a point with me.”
Alice turned. “What point could you make with your face getting punched in?”
Caleb smiled and chuckled. “I told you, I don’t talk about half-formed ideas.”
She smiled at the ground before moving into his chest. His arms carefully draped around her to warm her frozen frame through the scratchy coat. “Face bleeding, bruised. Why not just heal?”
“Benny saw the fight. It’ll be suspicious if I’m magically healed.”
“Isn’t that lying?”
“No, I’ll be healing either way. This will be more slowly, but all the same.”
“What if you get a scar?”
“I’ll never be healed from this!” Power continued to fume. “You’ve debased me, made me a weakling in a fearful shell.”
“This had nothing to do with you, remember?”
Power glared at the back of Caleb’s head. “You did this in spite of me. You drug me into this.”
Alice released her face from his chest, but made sure not to escape his arms. “He thinks he failed because he couldn’t overpower you.”
Caleb kept his face up. “I know, but this wasn’t about it. I needed to learn, and I have.”
“Walk outside, talk to him from there as he cleans his face.” Alice winced downwards as his smile turned to her. “Is that okay?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”
She walked all the way out of the room before breathing again. “I’m glad you told me the truth, and I actually feel…better. When I walked in I said I wanted to see your face since David’s looked so angry and that it would make me feel better, but I saw your face and it made me feel horrible, but then you made me feel twice as good as I thought because you taught me a new trick. Speaking of tricks, are you trying to trick your little blue prince, or make him feel bad?”
“No, honestly, it’s blowing this out of proportion.” The towel rack suddenly snapped off the wall. “It’ll be fixing that don’t worry.” Caleb could be heard inhaling sharply. “David seriously didn’t put it together that we were dating?”
“He did, but he thought it would be like when me and him were dating. I guess he saw us kiss today, or hold hands.”
“Or smile, which you never did around him.”
“Really? You never saw me smile with him?”
“Granted I only saw you two together a couple of times, but I suppose I’m a little like David in that I see two sides of you.” The sound of tape being torn interrupted him for a moment. “Did you move your lips to form something resembling a smile while you were around David? Yes, but did he ever once show you the sunrise from the shade? No.”
“Sunrise?”
“Yeah, he never made one plus one equal one, or showed you the sunrise from the shade, or even what a person can really be if they push themselves. He never showed you something rationally impossible, something you can only see from one angle, from one certain way, for it to be absolutely perfect. He seemed content to leave you in the shade until the sun found you. I don’t work that way.”
Alice let her back fall against the wall. “Do you think that’s why I’m with you?”
“I can’t say why you’re with me. Only you know that.”
“Why are you with me?”
“Heh, in what context? We’ve used both in our time together.”
Alice smiled. “What attracts you to me?”
“Honestly, I can’t put my finger on it. You are blindingly beautiful and smarter than anyone around you gives you credit for, and…I’m sorry you have to settle for me.”
Alice bounced off the wall. “Are you kidding me? You’re practically a freakin’ superhero and I’m the one that’s settling?”
“Is that what you find attractive in me?”
“No!”
‘What do you then?”
“His voice sounds closer…I told you I’m no good at this.”
“I have faith in you.”
“Definitely closer…,” she took a quick breath, “how would I ever be able to describe that? I can’t just say you’re cute or smart or funny. Those say nothing.” She suddenly felt a vibration on the wall, and looked down to see his hand searching for hers. Alice smiled widely before grasping it. “I can’t say nothing with you. Everyone else is smart and funny or cute and thoughtful, but you’re not any of them a hundred percent. Not even half. You’re asking me to pin down something that isn’t at one end or the other.”
“It makes you feel as though there are more than two choices in the world. Like there’s suddenly an area between. A third choice.”
She heard him slide down the bathroom wall. “How did you know?”
“You’re whispering again.”
“Because I can’t believe how perfect that sounds.” He snickered in the other room, and Alice’s eyes closed. “A small smile to accent the twinkle in his blue eyes, a double curve at each corner of his lips with both incisors shining white and bright….”
“It’s how I feel too. It’s…completely perfect.” His arm moved upward as he adjusted, causing her arm to flail in unison. “How far do you think this can go?”
“Don’t ask questions like that. Don’t look for the end.”
“You’re right.” More of his arm came from around the corner. “David hates me even more now doesn’t he?”
“I think he just didn’t like you before. Now, yeah probably.”
“Why didn’t you ever try to work it out with him?”
She moved her head towards the unmolded corner. “He knew lying got to me all the time. It’s one of the only things that get to me, and he used it against me all the time. I was his little lie detector, and that’s it. Then he’d turn around and use complex lies with me and I’d want to hip lock him to the street.”
Caleb laughed. “A complex lie?”
“Yeah, it’s like a lie that isn’t…I don’t know. Direct?”
“Like ‘I’m a purple elephant?’”
“No, that’s an easy lie. It’s like I was saying before about your sarcasm.”
“Oh, yeah I’m with you now.”
“See? It’s complex.”
“No, I follow….” He went comfortably silent for a few seconds. “Like when I asked for sugar?”
“Holy crap yes! But I was happy with that one. Really, really….”
“I’ll have to remember that.”
“Ask him…. Could you help me learn about complex lies?”
“You’re the one that just taught me.”
“But you’re creative. You can think of new ones and see if I catch on.”
“Ha, all right I can cook something up I’m sure.” He moved right to the threshold of the door. “Should I bring my pillow and blanket in here?”
“That floor’s nasty; you shouldn’t even be sitting on it.”
“I will all night if my face bothers you that much.”
“Can I deal with it? I need to. I want him to come out of there…I’ll be okay, I think.”
“And if not?”
“Then you might just have to hold me all night.”
Caleb laughed again before standing from the tile and pulling Alice from the wood mold. She looked up then down quickly. “Still blue eyes. Always those blue eyes.”
- - -
“Feels like my back has shrapnel from my neck to my ass.”
Doctor Ancel pushed a button and sent a jolt through Stephen’s system. “The grenade will only blow when you tell it to now.”
“Damn, Ancel, I don’t feel a
thing now. It’s numb on my back.”
“Would you rather have pain?”
“I might need my full range of motion at some point.”
“If you stayed in bed to heal for another month, you’d have it. Regardless, you will be able to re-enroll in yoga classes in no time.”
“Tae-Bo’s my sport, Doc.” Another jolt brought Stephen’s attention back to his body in the mirror. Every front muscle was flexed, but the measurements all remained the same. “I thought this stuff was to make me stronger?”
“We didn’t make this machine to pump you full of more hot air. The power is there in a small dosage now. We have to slowly allow your body to integrate the new cells through the blood stream, or the apparatus will be rejected and you’ll be dead.”
“Cheery as always. How long will this integration take?”
“Depends on your body. If your will to succeed is any ruler, you’ll be integrated completely around spring.”
Stephen looked hard towards him. “We both know it won’t take that long.”
There was a long silence between the two as they stared. “The Major warned me about this earlier, as it turns out. He knew you’d want to push beyond the envelope and be ready ahead of what even I considered ahead of schedule.”
“And we’re going to be.”
Doctor Ancel set down the small control in his hand and removed his glasses. “I ran into the General today as well, before you woke up. He told me the story of how your file came to his desk.”
Stephen averted most of his attention to the mirror. “Because I was connected to Caleb.”
“The General’s department heading…placement of injured soldiers. Strange coincidence that your name came across the same time as this Whitmor came around.”
He clenched his fists. ‘Son of a bitch did completely rat me out.’
“I don’t plan on revealing anything to the Major. It actually re-enforces what I said about you to him during your surgery. You won’t be stopped here. Not now. You’re the only one that’s going to destroy you, and you won’t face that until the end. Still,” he picked the small switch back up, “a baggy heart is probably too obvious for the military to be fooled forever. How did you do it?”