by Stan Lee
Roxanne grimaced.
“And I’m very much looking forward to having her back home with me,” Mrs. LaFleur added.
“I told you, Maman. I haven’t decided anything yet.”
Mrs. LaFleur smiled. “All in good time, cherie.”
“Mrs. LaFleur,” Steven said slowly, “it’s true that Roxy—that Roxanne has gotten much better at controlling her powers. But that’s only one of the reasons she’s here.”
Roxanne frowned. “You mean Maxwell? But he’s got no powers left.”
“Jasmine thinks he’s still a threat.”
“Maxwell…” Mrs. LaFleur turned to her daughter. “That’s that soldier man you told me about, yes, dear? The one you trounced down in China?” She smiled. “He doesn’t sound very tough.”
A deep voice cut in. “He’s still a danger. Trust me.”
They all turned to see Ox. He’d crept up on them without anyone noticing, including Steven. Pretty sneaky for a big strong guy, Steven thought.
“Ox,” Steven began.
“It’s Malik,” Ox said.
“Malik.” Steven planted himself directly before the imposing Zodiac and forced himself to look Ox in the eye. “Do you have something to tell us?”
“Just that you shouldn’t underestimate Maxwell,” Ox replied. “He’ll never give up trying to steal the Zodiac power.”
“That’s…fascinating.” Mrs. LaFleur pushed forward, smiling. “Roxy, you didn’t tell me about this one. He’s quite…muscular.”
She ran her nails along Ox’s exposed bicep. Ox raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, Maman,” Roxanne said, holding up a hand to cover her eyes. “Really?”
Mrs. LaFleur ignored her daughter. “I could use some more punch,” she said. “Would you care to accompany me, Monsieur…Malik?”
“Ox,” he said, impassive.
“Monsieur Ox. Ooh. Perhaps you could tell me more about this deadly, mysterious Maxwell fellow?”
Roxanne and Steven watched, wide-eyed, as Mrs. LaFleur led Ox toward the punch bowl. Ox seemed unsure, almost dazed.
Roxanne blinked. “Is that just nauseating? Or is it a ginormous problem?”
“I have no idea,” Steven replied.
Roxanne leaned in close. She seemed uncharacteristically serious. “I meant what I said. I haven’t made any decisions. But I do miss my music.”
“And your mother misses you,” Steven said.
“Yeah. That too.”
“That must be nice,” he said.
She looked at him, puzzled. “What?
He turned away. “Nothing.”
He felt a sudden need to get out of there. He mumbled an apology and started across the room. Roxanne watched him go, a strange expression on her face.
He edged past Duane and Dafari, who were arguing about some detail of the complex’s computer systems. At the punch bowl, Ox was rather urgently introducing Mrs. LaFleur to Liam.
“It’s true—nothing can hurt me!” Liam said. As Steven rushed by, Liam reached out and grabbed him by the arm. “Steven! Show the fine lady. Hit me!”
Steven wrenched his arm free and bolted for the door.
Outside, in the hall, he leaned against the wall. His heart was pounding; he was breathing much harder than usual. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself.
Is this a panic attack? he wondered. Mom used to get those. Maybe I have something in common with her after all.
He squeezed his eyes shut, tight enough to see sparkling patterns. One of them looked like a tiger, roaring and growling something he couldn’t understand.
Poof.
He opened his eyes, knowing what he would see. Kim stood before him, the Rabbit energy just fading around her tiny form.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey!” He shook his head to clear it. “It’s good to—I mean, where have you been?”
“I just had to think for a while.”
He peered at her. She seemed very tired, and her eyes looked as if she’d been crying.
“We were all worried,” Steven said.
“I took a walk.” She came right up to him, so her head was almost touching his chest. “Then I started packing.”
“Packing?”
She turned away, very fast, and raised her hands to her eyes. He heard her sobbing.
Steven felt completely helpless. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“My father had a stroke,” she said.
He swallowed. “Oh.”
Steven looked around. Through the doorway, he could still hear the sounds of the party: laughter, glasses clinking, Liam whacking himself over the head with something. But out there, they were all alone.
“When?” he asked.
Kim turned halfway around, not quite facing him. “He was admitted to the hospital a couple days ago. I knew that when we went on the mission.”
“You should have told me. We could have managed without you.”
“I didn’t know if it was serious. Until I got the call today, right before class.”
He stepped forward, thinking, What should I do? Hug her? Somehow, that didn’t seem like the right move.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“He’s—he seems to be paralyzed on one side. He can talk, but he’s having trouble with words….”
She let out a terrible wail and started to cry again. Steven stepped toward her, but she waved him back.
“I’m okay,” she said. “It’s just…I’ve always kind of taken care of them, and now my mother really needs me.”
Steven nodded. “Of course.”
“But I hate it there. And I’m gonna hate not being here.” She looked up at him. “With you.”
He felt tears rising in his eyes.
“Don’t you cry!” She smiled, wiping away her own tears. “If you start, I’ll never stop.”
He laughed. “Promise.”
He fished in his pocket and pulled out a tissue. She accepted it gratefully and blew her nose loudly.
“Very ladylike,” he said.
“Shut up.” She laughed, then cried a little more.
He reached out, tentatively, and touched her arm. “What do you need?”
“Nothing. I’m all packed and I’ve got a ride.”
“Want to come in and say good-bye to everybody?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I couldn’t stand it. But I had to tell you.”
They stood there for a long moment, sniffling. Steven thought: Neither of us wants her to go.
“Is Jasmine okay?” Kim asked, finally. “Can you handle her?”
“I’ll have to.” Steven grimaced. “Yeah, I can handle it.”
“I’ll come back,” she said. “As soon as I can.”
“Be careful,” he said. “Maxwell’s still on the loose. I worry about you out there alone.”
She gave him a little smile. “I worry about all of you here without me.”
So do I, he realized.
She ran forward, not looking him in the eye, and hugged him tight. When she kissed him on the cheek, he felt a warm tear flowing down her face.
Then, with a faint poof, she was gone.
He stood alone for a long time, listening to the laughter from the party inside. He thought about a girl he liked a little more than he should and a woman who’d walled herself off in a gleaming sphere. This team, he thought. It feels like it’s slipping through my fingers, one person at a time.
He wondered how long he could hold it all together.
THE NEXT MORNING, Steven stood with Duane in the high-tech war room, squinting up at the map of Europe on the big wall screen. It was zoomed in on the eastern half of Germany, with a bit of Poland and the Czech Republic visible, as well.
“I still can’t see it,” Steven said.
Dafari, the programmer, rose from his computer console and crossed over to join them. “Mister Pig,” he said, holding out a hand to Duane. “Allow me?”
Duane frowned and handed over his tabl
et computer. Dafari took it, then pinched at the screen with two fingers and poked it several times.
Up on the wall screen, a faint red glow appeared next to the word BERLIN.
“That’s Zodiac energy?” Steven asked.
“Yes,” Duane said, snatching his tablet back. “But it’s very faint.”
“Some of Maxwell’s agents are still at large,” Steven said. “Snake, Monkey, Rat. Could it be one of them?”
“Maxwell’s people can usually screen themselves from our scans.” Duane shrugged. “But even if this is one of them, it doesn’t match anything we have on file.”
“We cannot yet tell what Zodiac sign it represents,” Dafari explained. “I am attempting to obtain permission to use a NATO satellite, with the goal of acquiring more accurate data for Mister Pig.”
At the words Mister Pig, Duane flinched slightly.
Steven tried not to laugh. Dafari knew the nickname annoyed Duane, but Duane was too shy to ask him to stop. Over the past months, the two had settled into a routine of constant verbal sparring. But they respected each other and worked well together.
Steven stared up at the screen, watching the red dot pulse and flicker. There were several possibilities, but none of them made much sense. It wasn’t Kim; she’d already reached America. It could be a Vanguard operative—Rat, maybe, or Snake—with a defective screening device. But that seemed too sloppy for Maxwell.
“Is it Horse again, or Dog?” he asked. “They might not have Maxwell’s screening tech anymore.”
“We obtained new scans of Horse and Dog in Dubai,” Duane said. “This doesn’t match either of their signatures.”
Then Duane started fidgeting, shifting from foot to foot. He was glancing at Steven with a desperate look in his eyes.
“Duane,” Steven said. “You want to talk to me alone?”
Duane nodded.
Steven mumbled apologies to Dafari and led Duane away from the main cluster of computers. Over in the corner, a few old wooden desks stood beneath a bulletin board.
“What is it?” Steven asked, perching on a desk.
“About Dubai.” Duane looked away. “I—I—I got knocked out. I failed the team.”
“Are you still worried about that?” Steven sighed. Sometimes Duane needed a lot of reassurance. “It’s not your fault. We didn’t know Horse and Dog were going to show up—we didn’t know there was going to be fighting at all!”
Duane didn’t move.
“Your powers are just less physical than the others’,” Steven continued. “But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Duane nodded.
“Something else?” Steven asked.
When Duane spoke, Steven could barely make out the words.
“I miss Kim.”
Steven paused, unsure what to do. He reached out a hand to touch Duane’s shoulder, then remembered that Duane didn’t like to be touched.
“Me too,” Steven said.
Duane hung his head.
“Hang in there,” Steven continued. “We have to hold this together. You and me, and Liam and Roxanne.”
“If Roxanne doesn’t leave, too.”
Steven swallowed. “Yeah,” he said. “If.”
Roxanne wasn’t answering Steven’s texts, so he decided to try the lounge. The computer terminal sat empty, and the wall TV was dark. But a large figure lay sprawled out on the central sofa.
“Liam,” Steven called. “Have you seen…?”
Something in Liam’s expression made Steven stop. The Irishman was staring at a pair of metal objects on a chain, shifting them back and forth in his hand.
“What are those?” Steven looked closer. “Dog tags?”
“Aye,” Liam said. He didn’t look up.
“Whose are they?”
“Mine.”
Steven looked at him sharply.
Liam grimaced and straightened up on the couch. “They used to be, anyway.”
“I didn’t know you were in the army.”
“I wanted to learn to fly planes,” Liam said. “But I hated taking orders. The officers were so full of themselves.”
“When did you get your discharge?”
“Ah. That, y’see, is the thing.” He looked at Steven, and his eyes seemed tired. “I wasn’t exactly discharged.”
Steven frowned. “You just…left?”
“Couldn’t stand it a minute longer, so I walked right out of basic training.” Liam sighed. “Aye, it sounds bad, I know. But I didn’t leave anybody in danger or anything. I would’ve made a lousy soldier anyway.”
Steven shook his head, struggling to process the information. He’d never suspected that Liam, of all the team members, had a secret in his past. He had always seemed unflappable, cheerful, and rock solid—in more ways than one.
“You never told us this before,” Steven said.
“Aye, well. I’m not proud of it.”
“Did they come after you, when you left? The British Army?”
“I went back home. People in my town protect me.” He let out a little laugh. “I think the army were happy t’ see me go.”
A thought struck Steven. He hesitated before asking, “Is that why you joined up with us?”
Liam looked away. “It was a factor.”
“Why now? Why are you telling me this now?”
“I dunno. It’s just…the team seems pretty fragile.” Liam fingered the dog tags. “Maybe it’s time I gave myself up, faced the marching-band music.”
“Liam, whatever you’ve done in the past, you’re doing your service now. You helped save thousands of people back in Dubai.”
“Jasmine saved the people, mate. We were just traffic cops.”
“That’s not true.” Steven paused, then shook his head. “What’s going on around here today? Is everybody ready to quit?”
“This isn’t a lifetime job, Steven. Not necessarily. Ask our little Rabbit.”
He misses her, too, Steven realized.
“She didn’t even say good-bye,” Liam said.
“She said she couldn’t.”
“Aye.” Liam stared at the dog tags. “I get that.”
“Look—”
Roxanne burst in, waving her phone in Steven’s face. “Okay, man, I’m here,” she said. “Enough with the texts!”
Liam rose to his feet. As he trudged to the door, he seemed different from his normal jaunty self.
“Don’t do anything crazy, okay?” Steven called after him. “Okay?”
“Aye.” Liam flashed Steven a sad smile. “Just feeling moody, I guess.”
As Steven and Roxanne watched, he walked out.
“What was that about?” she asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Steven replied.
“What’s so important? You interrupted my guitar practice.”
“I need to know. Are you gonna leave or not?”
Roxanne’s gaze moved from the door to the TV, then all around the room. She looked at Steven, frowned, and plopped down onto the couch. She rubbed her eyes.
“I dunno,” she said. “I showed my maman what I can do now, all the ways I’ve learned to use the Rooster power. She says I don’t need any more training. She says I’ve got it under control.” She looked up at Steven, almost pleading. “That’s a big step for her. You were there—you remember how freaked she was, the first time she saw me blow a lamp apart with my voice.”
Steven nodded. “She ran away. Practically left a maman-shaped hole in the wall.”
Despite herself, Roxanne laughed. “She’s…demonstrative.”
Steven smiled.
“She might be right,” Roxanne continued. “That I can control my power, I mean. But I didn’t do so well against Horse and Dog.”
“None of us were ready for that.”
Just like Duane, Steven thought, she’s blaming herself. But this is tricky. I don’t want her to lose confidence in herself, but I don’t want her to leave, either.
“Straight talk?” he asked.
She nodded. “Always.”
“Please don’t go.”
Roxanne blinked. “Huh?”
“I mean, there’re reasons for you to go. I know you want to get back to your music and your mom. But there’re reasons for you to stay, too. We can all learn to use our powers better—and Maxwell’s still out there. He might come after us again.”
She frowned. “Is this supposed to be helping me make up my mind?”
“Yeah, because none of that matters. What matters is, I’m beggin’ you. Don’t go right now.”
She looked at him, surprised. “Oh.”
“Kim’s gone. I just found out Liam’s got some stuff to deal with, too. And Jasmine…”
“What?” Roxanne asked. “What about Jasmine?”
“She’s absolutely determined to mount a head-on attack on Maxwell’s headquarters.”
Roxanne stared at him. “She does know about Kim? That we’re shorthanded?”
“I don’t think she cares anymore.” Steven shook his head. “All that matters to her is finding Carlos.”
“Yeah,” Roxanne said. “I was thinking about him.”
“The point is, I need you to back me up. I can’t talk sense into Jasmine by myself—I tried a couple days ago and she practically turned her Dragon power on me.”
She frowned. “What if we can’t talk her out of this?”
“Then I need you to help make sure she doesn’t get killed.”
Roxanne exhaled loudly. She turned away and tapped her foot on the floor. She started to sing under her breath, very low. Steven couldn’t make out the words.
“You gotta keep trying,” Roxanne said finally. “To convince Jasmine, I mean. I wanna find Carlos as much as anybody, but Maxwell’s got an army.”
Steven nodded. He smiled gratefully.
“I’m not promising to stay forever,” she continued. “But I’ll see this Jasmine business through. Hey, how ’bout you tell my mother?”
Steven shook his head right away.
“Just kidding.” She got up and started toward the door. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks,” Steven said. “I mean it.”
“Don’t worry, kid.” She turned back and flashed him a wry smile. “After I take care of Maman, facing off with Maxwell oughta be easy.”