Kid was the only one who even resembled what one might expect a kind-hearted hero to look like. Her costume gave her the appearance of a werekitten. Her hooded, long-sleeved white shirt was trimmed with fur on the right side. The oversized fur-lined hood had been drawn up, covering parts of the golden-hued mask which peeked out from underneath it. The left side of the mask was styled after a cute kitten head with one feline eye, while the right resembled the face of a smiling little girl.
Chris remembered Kid’s power, extreme empathy extendable to any living creature, in action when they first met in her cell over a week before. Kid was able to think and act like the target, even experience their emotions without ever forgetting what it felt like to be them, and she was able to emulate their voices with perfect accuracy, too.
“Woooo! She’s here!” Kid called out, excitement in her voice. She tipped her head back to glance at Noire, hands keeping her hood in place. “Remember, you promised to be nice to her,” she whispered, but Chris still overheard.
“I promised to try,” Noire corrected.
Chris watched as the formidable Darkshaper sized her up from behind the eyeholes of her monster mask. Alpha female. Beats getting teamed up with a pretty princess, I guess, she thought, fingering the frayed sleeves of her gray hooded sweatshirt. She didn’t plan to get involved in any dramatics over teenage pecking order, so Noire could play the boss if she wanted. Chris just wanted to be left alone.
Overdrive nodded his head in an informal greeting because he wasn’t treating this meeting as a huge deal, and Chris was grateful for it.
“Good morning, Wardens,” Mrs. Clarence said to the trio. “I’m sure you all remember Chris. She’ll join you a little sooner than we had planned. This way we’ll be able to start the investigation right away.”
Mrs. Clarence gave Chris’s shoulder a gentle encouraging squeeze. Chris fought to keep her flight instinct under control since the consequences of running off would be disastrous. Plus, she would never stand a chance of escaping the Covenant—not with Queenie’s tracking powers. She actually did want to help, if anyone let her.
“Hey, guys,” she managed with an awkward little wave.
“Hi!” Kid beamed back at her.
The others remained silent.
“Oh, you poopy heads,” Kid chastised them. “Say hi to Chris,” she instructed, prodding Overdrive with a finger.
“Hey, Chris,” he muttered.
Awkward silence filled the corridor.
“Sorry, I haven’t been handed the team leotard yet.” Chris motioned to her street clothes.
“I heard your new costume’s almost ready,” Kid said with excitement.
“I’m getting a new costume?” Chris glanced at Mrs. Clarence.
“Did I forget to mention it?” the therapist asked, apologetic. “I’m sorry, Chris. Our equipment designers are working on something that will prove more practical than your old costume, but the overall look will remain the same. I hope you don’t mind.”
Do I even have a choice?
Chris shrugged. She didn’t care either way. She just hoped the new ensemble would help her to fit in. Besides, if she really did have to fight a giant tentacle demon lizard like the one from Kid’s drawing, then a more practical costume wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Chris had let her baby brother down, but she would be damned if she let anything happen to Kid. The girl’s kitten costume looked about as protective as a pillow.
“Great,” Mrs. Clarence said, clearly pleased that Chris wasn’t kicking up a fuss. “I’ll make sure you get to see the designers’ progress as soon as possible. Now, are you ready to see your new home?”
I could manage this without supervision, you know. Chris considered the therapist. Jeez, it’s like you think I’m about to go off the deep end or something.
Noire mistook Chris’s expression. “I think I’m scaring her. Maybe I shoulda showed up in civilian stuff, too,” she mocked in her Louisiana drawl.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Chris muttered. Sure, Noire’s menacing powers made her America’s most unpopular Evolved, but Chris had already been exposed to some serious hero business her first day in costume. The Darkshaper didn’t scare her. “Are the Wardens’ quarters in this building?” she asked the therapist.
Noire’s dark eyes narrowed into threatening slits above her chocolate-brown cheeks. She wasn’t used to being brushed off so easily.
“They are,” Mrs. Clarence answered Chris’s question, cheerily glossing over the tension. “They’re a few floors above. If we took the stairs, it would give you a good impression of the various levels.”
“Sure.” Chris made her way to the nearby stairwell.
As they passed through three floors of administration cubicles, security offices and snack shops, she shook more hands and learned more names than she could process. Almost every public area in the building served the secondary purpose of displaying Wardens merchandise, with the cafeteria holding the top position in terms of visitor friendliness. The life-sized hero posters on the walls had been signed by legions of adoring fans. The poster of the most popular Warden—Kid, also known as Emily Bell—was covered in so many signatures that the child’s smiling face was barely recognizable anymore.
The top two levels of the sprawling five-story building had been declared off limits to visitors. The fourth floor contained spacious training rooms, a library and media corner, and an infirmary for emergencies. The fifth housed the quarters of the Wardens themselves.
“Here we are.” Mrs. Clarence stopped in front of the massive metal door guarding the entrance to the top-level apartments. “The door is unlocked with your fingerprints,” she said, indicating a touch panel beside the heavy door. “Your right thumb print, to be precise. Go ahead and try it, Chris. The system should already recognize you.”
They already have my fingerprints? Chris thought, realizing that she shouldn’t be so naïve. The government goons had taken her prints when the Covenant brought her in as an unconscious captive.
“Who else has access?” she asked, stepping to the panel, wondering whether she needed to worry about a surprise visit from her parents. It might have been nice, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready to handle it just yet.
“Just the security guards, in case there’s an emergency,” Mrs. Clarence replied.
“I’ve seen them once,” Overdrive said, surprising Chris with his sudden candor. “They’re pretty cool about letting us have our space.”
“Yeah, they only came in when—” Kid stopped herself short and cupped a hand over her mouth.
“Don’tcha go bringing that up, baby girl,” Noire said, using her somber tone.
Kid gave a quick nod, her eyes wide. “Um, sorry. I know we shouldn’t talk about it.”
Chris placed her right thumb on the door’s security panel. The light above the doorway changed from red to green before the metal door retracted into the wall. “Talk about what?” she asked no one in particular. No one answered her.
“The team structure is built on trust,” Mrs. Clarence reminded Noire. “I’ll leave it to all of you to decide whether you will fill your new teammate in, but I want you to know she’s a perceptive girl with a lot of sense.”
“Sense, or scents?” Overdrive joked, waving his hand in front of his nose. “Because some of the smell still sticks to the walls.”
Kid scrunched up her face and pinched her snub nose between two fingers.
What the hell? Did someone die in there? Chris lowered her thumb from the panel. A potential murderer in their midst didn’t exactly help her feel at home.
As if she read her mind, Kid slid her small hand into Chris’s and gazed at her new teammate with the kind of caring smile only an innocent child could pull off. The kind of smile that looked fake on anyone over the age of ten.
Chris smiled back and gave Kid’s small fingers a light squeeze. Just don’t read my mind, you wouldn’t like it in there.
“I’ll let you explore the
rest of the quarters without my supervision,” Mrs. Clarence announced, clearly unconcerned about how the new foursome would get along. “Go ahead and choose any empty room you like. The others can let you in on the house rules, and tell you who to call to order whatever furnishings you want for your new room.”
“We can order anything?” Chris asked. “Seriously?” The deal sounded too good to be true.
“Anything reasonable,” Mrs. Clarence elaborated.
“In other words … no hookers for O.” Noire sneered through her monster mask, elbowing Overdrive in the ribs.
He rolled his eyes at her and stepped through the door. It slid shut behind him, leaving the rest of them outside.
“Aw, did I hurt your feelings? Sorry,” Noire cooed after him, her drawl thick with false sympathy.
Mrs. Clarence ignored the teasing. “Get accustomed to each other, Wardens,” she told the remaining three. “The Counselor will come over soon to fill you in on the details of the upcoming project. There are also a number of government reps attending, including the Secretary of Evolved Affairs, Mr. Turner. This mission could turn out to be more dangerous than anything else you’ve handled so far, so I want you to treat it like the serious matter it is.” She looked hard at Noire as she said these last words.
“Who, me?” Noire asked.
Again, Mrs. Clarence let the girl’s insolence slide. “Chris, if you need someone to talk to, you can contact me any time day or night. I’m sure Emily will offer her support as well.”
“Righty-o!” the girl agreed. “Call Dr. Emily for the awesomest hug therapy ever!” she added, extending her skinny arms for a hug.
Instead of returning the embrace, Chris gave Kid a playful shove. Still, she couldn’t help but to smile. Just looking at the girl was enough to brighten her mood.
Mrs. Clarence passed a look over each of them in turn, her stern countenance leaving little doubt about the seriousness of the project.
As if the mention of governmental authorities wasn’t enough to get the point across, Chris mused.
“The Counselor has received top-level clearance to work with you for the duration of the project, and his time is valuable,” Mrs. Clarence said. “I don’t think I need to stress the importance of the impression you make on the government reps. If you have any questions, ask now. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”
“Doesn’t the Counselor normally work with the FBI?” Chris asked, distractedly scratching her cheek.
She had read about the man. He was technically the leader of the Wardens, but his Visionary powerset worked so well that these days he spent most of his time by solving murder cases across the country. All he had to do was to get hold of enough information or crime scene evidence and his powers formed connections that led right to the prime suspect.
“That’s correct, which should tell you just how important this project is,” Mrs. Clarence replied. “In fact, it’s important enough that the Covenant has asked the President of the United States to take any action necessary to resolve the off-grid disappearances in the US. And we don’t want to disappoint the President.”
“Got it,” Chris mumbled, pressing her right thumb against the security panel to slide the door open.
“Come on. I’ll show you around,” Kid piped up, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the doorway as Noire followed them.
“Remember … if you need anything, just call,” Mrs. Clarence called after them.
Chris looked around at her new surroundings as the door closed behind her. The living quarters were cozier and more personalized than the lower floors because they were off limits to the public and not designed to promote any merchandise.
The space she had stepped into was shaped like a large inverted ‘T’. To her right was a comfortable living room and to her left was a modern kitchen. The far wall at the end of the inverted T was completely made of glass, with huge sliding doors opening onto a large balcony overlooking the bay.
The individual bedrooms were designed to look like college dorm rooms. Doors were interspersed along the length of the long beige corridor, four on each side. Most doors were adorned with posters or funny messages sprawled across small dry erase boards. She assumed Overdrive was behind the closed door with the hero poster on it. Kittens and Bible verses didn’t match his style.
“Bathrooms are there,” Kid commented, gesturing to the end of the hallway. “And the kitchen’s over there, but no one ever cooks in it because we either order stuff or go out.”
Chris nodded. She hated cooking, too. “Nice living room,” she noted, pointing at the mismatched couches, armchairs, and beanbags scattered across the colorful patchwork carpet in front of a huge flat screen TV. There were so many competing styles and tastes that Chris figured it must have been decorated by more than just the three current Wardens.
At that point, she remembered that there had been three other Wardens over the past two years. One had deserted, two had died.
Kid noticed the direction of her gaze, and broke into a huge grin. “That’s where all the fun stuff happens. We hang out, play video games, and watch movies. The superhero comic book shelf is called the comedy corner. It’s great if you ever wanna crack up over stupid villains. Almost makes you wish the Covenant hadn’t killed all of ours.”
Chris didn’t find the humor. “I don’t think the ones they’ve killed have been funny at all,” she said.
The cheer was gone from Kid’s face, replaced by a frown. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Chris was about to say something else when a voice startled her from behind.
“The couch by the window is mine,” Noire drawled into her ear. Chris had forgotten that she was standing there. “So is the bedroom closest to the kitchen, so hands off.”
Kid grabbed Chris’s arm and led her down the hallway, away from the unfriendly Darkshaper. “She’s not so bad once you get to know her,” she whispered. “She’s just all walled in, kind of like you.”
Chris didn’t know what to say. Being around Kid always made her feel so exposed.
“How about I help you pick a room?” the girl asked. “They’re all kinda the same, but you can ask for all the Chinese doohickeys you need to make yours awesome.”
Chris wasn’t into traditional Chinese furnishings, but she didn’t say anything. Her room at home had been sparsely decorated at best. Typical for an outdoorsy person, she supposed. Maybe she would ask for a film poster from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It was her favorite movie and covered the extent of her identification with Chinese culture.
She stopped in front of a closed bare door which suggested a vacant bedroom on the other side. “What about this one?” she asked.
“Um, better not. That’s where Nato … kinda, um … blew himself up,” Kid explained, giving Chris’s arm a tug to urge her along the hallway.
Chris stopped dead in her tracks. “What?” she asked. The press had reported that Nato had been killed in action while trying to subdue some runaway pyromaniac villain. He actually killed himself instead? It was a saddening thought.
“They fixed his room after, kinda, but … I dunno. What if there’s an angry ghost in there or something?”
Chris furrowed her brow. Her feet remained planted in front of the ominous door as she tried to remember everything she could about the short-lived hero. He had been a material-altering, temperature-changing Transmuter. According to Mrs. Clarence, his potential to affect nearby items had been influenced by his emotions. And not just inanimate things. People, too, from the sound of it.
This new piece of information confirmed something that Chris had suspected for a few days now. As far as she could tell, hero teams—at least in part— were made up of the most dangerous and unstable Evolved out there. Hero teams were places for people like her, who got coerced into joining up because leaving them unchecked may have been a security risk.
As for all the talk about heroism and fighting for a greater good? Save it for the comic books.
“He didn’t get along with girls, so I don’t think he would want one taking over his room. They made him sad,” Kid told her.
“And because he was sad, he….”
Kid nodded furtively, putting a finger to her lips.
I’ll bet they’re not allowed to talk about how Nato died because it’s bad PR, Chris realized. Makes a better impression if he died as a hero.
“Don’t be mad, okay?” Kid wrapped her skinny arms around herself as she watched Chris.
“Why would I be mad?” Chris asked. The question caught her off guard. There was something disconcerting about child Empaths.
Kid just shrugged, and pointed to the two bare doors closest to the bathrooms. “You can take either one of these. Once you decide, I’ll help you get some furniture.”
And with that, she walked off to the door with the kitten poster on it.
***
The mission briefing took place in one of the fourth-floor conference rooms. About two dozen government officials were already seated when the Wardens arrived, with several bodyguards scattered around the perimeter. The air was heavy with an atmosphere of upper-echelon decision- making.
Chris recognized Mrs. Clarence’s familiar face among the strangers, and she noticed that she stood out as the only person to greet the Wardens with a smile. From the looks on the others’ faces, Chris realized that this was not going to be an ordinary meeting. These people were here to demand solutions.
She watched as Mrs. Clarence whispered something into the ear of the well-dressed forty-something man seated to her right. He glanced over at the Wardens before returning his attention to the laptop in front of him.
“That’s the Counselor,” Emily whispered, taking note of the direction of Chris’s gaze. The Counselor fit right into this meeting with his dress shirt and tie. Emily wasn’t in costume now, either. None of the Wardens were wearing their costumes to this meeting.
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