by Jon Davis
Alan looked at his sister. Angela looked away from all of us for a moment, and then looked at me. “He was too fast for me. I didn’t have a chance to stop him.”
I heard something in her voice. Something was off with what she had said. I started to say something, but just then, Alan coughed.
I looked at him and said, “And where were you?”
Alan shrugged. “I wasn’t in town. Sorry. If I had been, I’d have sent him to the bottom of the ocean. I didn’t know anything about Riverlite until Angela called and told me to come running.”
Dana’s voice was tense as she said, “No, that’s not good enough. You knew it was coming, and all you did was stand and wait for Yasmine’s thug to attack?”
Angela sat back and stared at me. I winced at the hurt in her eyes. But her voice was strong when she said, “No. I got there right before it happened. And I didn’t know she’d found a new Empowered pyrokinetic speedster. Parry didn’t, either. And by the time Alan got there, the explosions had already started.”
Putting a hand on Angela’s arm to calm her, Alan said, “Back off, Hagen. We aren’t perfect. Besides, Yasmine’s plans didn’t work, obviously. Parry refused to help her, and that attack on you today was precisely because they didn’t get the information.”
I glared at him. “Great, you realize that this means they’ll go after Ryan Tech again. Fine, you sent speed boy off to the desert, but Yasmine has other people, right?”
Alan sighed. “Yeah.”
“Well ain’t that wonderful?” I said. “Is she going to attack Riverlite again as a distraction? Or will she just go straight for Ryan Tech?”
Angela shrugged with an apologetic expression on her face. “We don’t know.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
With that bit of unhelpfulness, Dana ended our San Francisco adventure. However, before we left, as Dana paid at the front, she gave a high-pitched squeal and hugged a tall, gruff man who had come out from the kitchen. This was our introduction to the owner of Vaughners. Proudly, he showed us his place and especially his baseball pictures.
An avid baseball fan, he had signed bats from many professional players, along with pictures of him and the players set next to each bat. To my surprise, Alan got into a discussion over games and players. It seemed that the arrogant jerk was a baseball aficionado. Go figure.
Oddly enough, despite the worries I had about Riverlite, I was having a good time, and it gave me the mental break I needed to recover my emotional balance. I was also healing fast. When I mentioned this to the twins, they told me that it was normal for Empowered. I took that little bit of news in stride.
With food and coffee in us, we walked back to the alleyway. In the alleyway, Alan teleported in normal clothing for him and Angela to wear for winter temperatures. Dana and I changed to the clothes we wore in Riverlite.
Once we were ready to go, I said, “Beam us home, Twinkle Boy.”
“I’m Lightray…I don’t twinkle!”
“Do,” I retorted.
“Don’t.”
“Do!”
“Children!” Dana said with a hard voice. With a mutter, Alan looked pointedly away from me and began to concentrate. Suddenly, with a twinkling flash of yellow light, I was alone in the alleyway, and everyone else was gone.
After a few seconds, I yelled, “Oh, come on! You big baby!”
Then the world turned white, and I was in the backyard of Dana’s home. Alan chuckled, ignoring Dana’s annoyance and Angela’s rolling eyes. I just did the same thing his sister had and brushed a shoulder as I went past him. I looked around and took in a large yard with two trees to each side. There was an arch next to the garage with strands of lights wrapping around the wooden structure.
I looked back to Dana as she opened up a patio door to the back of her home. She nodded to me and said, “I’m going in. I need to call BJ and tell him he needs to rent a car.”
Glancing at Alan, she said, “Thanks for the trip, Alan—and the save. You can all come in, if you want.”
Huh, that was rather blithely said. I would’ve thought that she’d be more active about dealing with this. But I guessed she needed to figure things out. Bah, who knew? I knew I needed to think this out, so maybe some alone time would be good. Or maybe I needed some time to get to know Angela? My breath quickened for a moment. Then I saw Alan glaring at me. Uh oh, big brother slash protector of little sister, now on duty. Meh.
I just grinned at him. His eyes narrowed down to slits. Then a second later, he turned to Angela and said, “I’m going to check things out. All joking aside, that last attack worries me. See if you can get a hold of Paradoxis.”
She nodded and said, “I’ll keep calling, but I tried her when we were in San Francisco and she didn’t pick up.”
I raised an eyebrow, asking, “She can talk to you on the phone?”
Alan laughed and said, “Dude, she could probably use Morse code through a stoplight.”
I chuckled and said, “Well, that might improve traffic in some cities.”
Angela laughed, and I smiled. Alan caught the smile and grunted. Then, he said, “Don’t get any ideas.”
He sparkled for a second, flashed bright, and popped out of existence. I cocked my head. “Huh?”
“It’s nothing, Vaughn. It’s just the way he is.” She said. Then she pulled out her phone again. I waited while she listened for an answer. After a few more moments, she clicked the cell phone shut and slipped it in a pocket. “She’s not answering. I’m getting worried. And Shield’s number is going straight to voicemail.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked. Angela glanced at me and smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes.
She said, “Oh, it’s just that Parry is out of touch for some reason. We haven’t heard from her since just after the second attack by that speedster. She said something was going on, and she would get back to us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Not really, though. Paradoxis had made me feel so paranoid over the last few months that having her around in any sense gave me the shivers.
Angela shook her head, waving away her worry as she said, “Ah well, she’s probably busy scrambling stories about us on the Net. She’s had to do a lot of that since we came out!”
My jaw dropped. Suddenly, something began to make sense. “Did she put a lot of Avatar stories in place of sightings of Empowered?”
Angela had the decency to look embarrassed. “Err, yes, she did. I know you had some problems because of that during the interviews. But Parry wanted to make sure no one discovered us until we could make certain it was under controlled circumstances. So whenever a story popped up on YouTube or in the news, she edited. She shifted the slant of the story to make it sound more ridiculous and cynical. Or she made it into another sighting of the Avatar.”
I looked at her with an expression of annoyance. Then, with a shrug I said, “Well, tell her not to do that anymore. I am so sick of reading about the newest Avatar sighting.”
Angela looked guilty for some reason. I wondered if the whole thing had been her idea. I didn’t want her feeling bad, though. So I changed the subject. “So, who is the speedster? You didn’t mention him when you talked about the conclave. Oh wait, Alan said he was new.”
She nodded. “Oh yeah, he’s totally new! We didn’t tell you about every person we found, but we never ran into anybody like him!”
I sighed. “Great. That means he’s so new that when you do find Paradoxis, she won’t be able to help with background information about him.”
Angela looked worried for a moment, and then said, “Probably not. But come on. I need to walk. That food was rich!”
“Agreed. Let me go tell Dana what we’re doing.” I said. And a few minutes later, we began walking around the town. I definitely noticed the slight wind. Yep, back to the cold again. Hilarious. After only a few hours in the California sunshine and I come back, feeling like I’m freezing to death. Yay.
Well at least I had someone to enjoy walking with.
Now if I could just get past the angst I started feeling about Angela. A part of me was wondering if I had a chance with her. I mean, she had popped up in the oddest places to watch me. Well, if I wanted to know how she felt, I’d just have to ask her. The first thing I needed to do was to show some interest in her, instead of just talking about all this Empowered stuff. Oh, yeah, and be interested in her personality, too—right.
I said, “Um, so, what’s Canada like, Angela? I mean, in the hospital, you told me that you were from Canada. It was Toronto, right?”
She looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. “Hmm, I’m not sure I should give away everything. I like being mysterious. It adds to the fun!”
Oh my, did the temperature suddenly gone up? Yes, yes it did. To cover the feelings she was firing off, I raised a brow and said wryly, “Yeah, let’s leave the mysteriousness to Paradoxis, okay? Come on, I’m not going to bite. I just want to know something about you, is all. I mean, seriously, are you really a reporter?”
Angela said, “Oh! No! That was just a cover. Vaughn, I’m seventeen. I haven’t even graduated high school yet.”
I grinned. “Heh, sorry, I have this personal problem where reporters are concerned. I could barely stand doing the interviews because of it. Reporters screwed with the reputation of one of my friends after he died.”
Angela looked at me with sympathy. “Huh, I watched your interviews, and I would never have guessed. Although, that last major interview with the religious nut was a bad one. But still, you did pretty good, overall. But what did the reporters do to make you hate them?”
I made the effort to sound relaxed about it as I told her about Kyle. I told her how the Housemans had reacted, and how I kept Brand from going over the edge. I told her all of it. I had to stop talking about it after a while, though. The tension in my voice was obvious, so I quieted and we walked on for a bit in silence. Angela took my hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. She didn’t let go.
I took a breath and said, “Kyle treated me like a little brother. I really, really looked up to him. I mean, he wasn’t an angel. He was always getting into trouble, and he was rebellious and angry with his dad after Kyle and Brand’s mom died. But even though he was running with the bad kids, he’d would also warn Brand and me not to go near certain people. And he made sure we listened. Then he joined the Army, got his life turned around, and turned into an even better person.”
I sighed. “He was just so cool.”
Angela kept her arm around my waist while we walked. She said, “I don’t really have anyone like that in my life. I have friends, but no one that close—except Alan. But you should always honor his memory, Vaughn. That’s all you can do.”
I looked at this girl, this short, pert, blond hair girl, wondering what it was about her that enthralled me. She had a strength about her that was quiet and hidden, yet, in her eyes, in her smile, I could see something more, something I couldn’t put a name to. I marveled over that mystery as I said, “Thanks, I will. Who are you?”
She smiled and looked up at me. “Where’d that come from?”
“You know just what to say to make me feel better, but I don’t even know you. I mean, you look so small! Yet, when you fight, it’s like you’re a wild cat that’s literally using the sword from the Lord of the Rings as your claws! And where in the world did you learn martial arts?”
Angela turned pink and looked away for a moment before saying, “Well believe it or not, I used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got into martial arts and fencing because of the stunts done on that show. I study every type of fighting that I can, and I adapted that and the fencing to work in tandem with the sword.”
I looked at her, surprised. I said, “Seriously? A TV show got you into learning how to fight?”
She said, “What? It was a fun show! And I liked Sarah Michelle Gellar! It was the only show I really watched, and, well, David Boreanaz is a god!”
I had this irrational urge to find said actor and throttle him. Eh, I couldn’t. He was a pretty good actor on that other show about forensics. Or so I’d heard. Still, I ended up making a wry comment. “Well, I suppose, if you like well-muscled, brawny types with no brains…”
She gave me an annoyed look, and for the next few blocks, I found myself hearing all about the actor and his budding career as a producer. At one point, I asked her, “And who exactly runs his fan site?”
She stopped at that, and then turned an even darker pink. After a moment, she said flatly, “I only moderated for a year. So, where are we?”
I looked around; we’d been going north and east, for the most part. I knew the neighborhood. The houses were old style homes that had been built in the early 1900s. They all had large porches and patios looking out over large fenced in front yards. I realized that we were actually walking toward the hospital.
That reminded me of Kular and the things said about her. But I didn’t want to end the fun I was having, so I gave her a mock look of confusion. I said, “I haven’t got a clue. What town are we in—Sunnydale?”
Angela hit me lightly on my arm and grinned. “Excuse me, I know all about your comic collection! I bet you have every comic book that Joss Whedon did about the series!”
I acted innocent for a moment before giving up and saying, “Touché.”
She looked at me and laughed. “Oh, aren’t we a pair!”
I shivered at that possibility, but before I could say anything to the comment, Angela’s cell phone rang. Answering, she listened for a moment, and then said, “Yes, Alan. No, Alan, he’s right here. Yes, he’s behaving. Stop, wait—what in the world are you thinking?”
I just looked at her, grinning at the exasperation in her voice, and mouthed the word, “What?”
She shook her head, waving a finger while she listened. She tensed momentarily, but then she sighed. “Okay, fine. Be careful. And don’t get yourself caught! If Kular sees you, then we’re gonna have a problem!”
She snapped the phone shut and looked at it. “He always hangs up on me like that. Damn him and his crazy ideas!”
I glanced at her, confused, and she said, “He checked Ryan Tech, and they have the whole place locked down. The fires to the south have them scared. So far, it’s still mainly FBI and hired guards out there. But he overheard some guards talking about the military coming in. He got worried about being caught so Alan decided to go and check out Kular’s office to see if he can find something there.”
I stated the obvious. “Is that a problem? He can teleport.”
She gave me a worried look. “Yes, it’s a problem. Yasmine has some dangerous power, and she’s already mad at us. If she’s nearby… Damn it! He’s always doing this. Going off half-cocked, because he can just pop out if he’s about to be caught!”
I looked at her, trying not to smile, but failing miserably. She looked at me, curious. “What?”
“You did the same thing at the hospital. And Kular caught you. It must be in the blood,” I commented.
She turned pink as she gave me a mock glare. “That’s different. Well, kinda…”
I just kept looking at her. Finally, she surrendered with a gesture. “Fine! Yes—are you happy now? And I didn’t even have problems with Kular back then! That came later, after our problems started with Yasmine. It’s just that she was being so possessive of you two. I mean, she acted like you were her personal lab rats!”
That prompted me to ask, “Yes, well if Kular is a real doctor, wouldn’t she naturally be protective of her patients?”
Angela sighed. “She is. She’s good, too. Once she met with Paradoxis and they disseminated the treatment, we thought things would be good. I mean, she didn’t get to everyone she was caring for. And I saw how that affected her. I know it affected me…”
I caught the pain in her voice. “You knew someone who died from becoming an Empowered?”
She looked away for a moment. Then nodding, she said, “His name was Jake. He was in Toronto with us. Look, Vaughn, the way Alan talked so
blithely, it seemed like it was all fun and games, right? But it wasn’t. We were all slowly getting sick. And nothing helped until Kirksten figured out about the loss of magnesium in our bodies, and developed his therapy. I mean, without it, burning up so much magnesium was killing us.”
I cocked my head, skepticism was in my next words. “Killing us? Okay, sure, the magnesium being absent makes us sick, but—”
Giving me a troubled look, Angela said, “Vaughn, if you don’t keep up with a regimen of magnesium, you die. In fact, all of the Empowered would die without regular doses of magnesium. Some slowly, some quickly—it depends on how fast it’s being used up by the person. Even the normal wear and tear of simply living would be fatal, eventually.”
I hesitated to say something. Angela asked. “And you were never told this before?”
I shrugged slightly and said, “No. Kular and Kirksten made it clear we had to stay on it, but neither of them ever said it was that important. I figured once we rebalanced, we’d be fine.”
Angela sighed. “No, you wouldn’t have been. Jake died from magnesium burnout because he kept using his ability to create sustained energy bursts to power Toronto after the Day. Something had disrupted the power grid during the chaos on the Day. He kept pushing himself. We found him at the power plant, unconscious and exhausted. We took him to an emergency room, claiming that it was delayed radiation sickness from that burst in the sky. They tried to help, but it was too late.”
I said, “I’m sorry.”
I reached out to hold her hand, and she took it. She told me more about Jake. From the way she talked, he sounded like a party-loving wild guy; he had liked his new powers and he knew he was getting sicker from using them. But he kept going right up until the day he died. And the man sounded like he would have hated what was going on with Yasmine and Paradoxis.
Giving me a smile tinged with sadness, Angela said, “I think you would have had fun with him. Jake loved to be on the building rooftops of the city, and he and Alan would spend all night talking up there.”