by Dexx Peay
I walked out the room and Dylan was sitting on the couch. He looked like he just got into a fight with Imani. Worn and sweating profusely. Hadn’t seen him sweat like that since we got our powers. I leaned against the wall near the window.
“Marc have you any idea what you’ve just done?” Dylan cautioned.
“I think I know what I’ve just done,” I joked.
“Marc, I’m serious. Open the window and tell me what you see.”
He got up and started to walk towards me. The flow of the sweat increased and the energy drained out his body.
“Dylan what’s wrong?”
I started to go towards him as he started to stumble over.
“Marc no!” he yelled. “Back up...please.”
I tripped on a shoe on the floor trying to back away from him.
“You need to cool down,” he mumbled.
“What are you talking about?”
I was confused. Dylan wasn’t making any sense to me. He kept telling me to cool down. I ran inside my room to put the rest of my clothes back on. I had to help him get better.
I was scared.
I didn’t have a clue what was wrong or if he would live.
What if this was some weird rare alien disease?
So many thoughts crossed my mind.
I ran back out and picked him up.
When I picked him up, he was about to crash on me. He stopped sweating and started to look pale. He slowly reached his hand up to my face. I started to cry. I didn’t want to lose my best friend. How would I explain this to his family? Every possible question ran through my head. He started to mumble and I couldn’t make out what he saying over all my tears. His hand made his way to my face and right as he made contact, I froze and screamed.
“AHHHHH!!!!!”
My body got colder than I’d ever been before. It felt as if I was being covered in ice. I couldn’t understand why Dylan wanted to hurt me or even kill me. I think he unleashed every ounce of power he had stored up in his body. I suffered more than what I had anticipated. Once he finally let go, he fell to the floor and I joined him.
When I woke up, I looked at the clock first. I’d only been out for a few minutes. I felt normal, no sign of weakness. The floor was soaked and Dylan was lying in the puddle.
Dylan...
I picked him up off the floor and stripped him down to his boxers. I carried him to the couch and wrapped him in a blanket. My first instinct was to call an ambulance but then I remembered that Sam was like an alien doctor, so I called him.
“Sam it’s Marcus,” I flustered.
“Hey Marcus, I thought you guys were coming to the pool,” he said.
“Dylan is in trouble, can you guys get here now,” I cried.
“We’re on the way.”
It was like he was knocking on my door right as I hung up the phone. They got here faster than I could have imagined in their swim gear. I opened the door and they saw right past me. They all ran inside and over to Dylan.
Sam checked his pulse.
“He still has a pulse. Good sign. What on Earth happened here?”
“I didn’t hurt him,” I said.
“Well, what happened?” Hudson charged.
“I have no idea, really, everything happened so fast.”
I started fumbling my fingers. Sam was attending to Dylan and the twins were standing up listening to my story with their arms crossed.
“I came out my room and Dylan was on the couch waiting for me. He looked a little weak and sweaty.”
“Wait, Dylan was sweating?” Hachi interjected.
“He was fine when he left us,” Hudson chimed in.
“Well he was sweating when I first saw him. He was mumbling about how I needed to cool down. He told me to look out the window but I never did. I tried to help him up when he started to fall down, but as I got closer, he told me to back away. He got weaker, and that’s when I just decided to help him. I picked him up and he touched me. I felt like my body was turning to ice. It was so unbearable, I screamed. It was weird. I couldn’t move. Never had I felt so cold in my life. When he took his hand off me we both passed out. I was out for a few minutes and he never woke back up.”
“I think he will be fine,” Sam said. “Seems as if his body is in some sort of hibernation state. Has this ever happened before?”
I looked over at Sam. “Yeah, a few times in the past when he used his powers, he would pass out.”
“This time is no different. Dylan let out a lot of stored power on you, Marcus. You guys must understand that you have to exercise your powers regularly. There could also be something wrong with Dylan if he uses his powers and passes out.”
“What do you mean something wrong?” Hudson worried.
“He gets bad migraines too,” I added.
“Nothing to the extent of what you guys are thinking. Something with his…well…his human side so-to-say. Could be genetic. How long is he normally out for?”
“I’ll take the first shift,” Hudson teased.
“No need to worry guys,” I’ll sit here until he is up. I think it would be easier that way.” I said.
I spent the first hour cleaning up again. I didn’t know how long he was going to be out this time. I needed to keep myself busy so I went in my room and grabbed my journal, sat on the floor next to him and began to write:
Today was a day I’ll never forget. It started out being one of the best moments in my life, until I thought I was gonna lose Dylan. He really had me scared for a moment. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I lost him. He keeps me grounded and thinking straight. I don’t think he knows and I’m not sure how often I tell him, but I’m really grateful for having him in my life and all he does for me. All the times he drove me around, gave me advice, gave me money, supported me in finding you—Dad. He is a real good person. I wish you were still alive so you could meet him. I know you’d like him. I need to read more of the journals you left for us. I want to know if there is any information about my birth mom. I haven’t told Dylan but I want to know her just as bad as I want to know you. I’m very thankful for the family that adopted me. I’m grateful for everything they have taught and instilled in me, and I know that my last name is Peterson but my heart is a Ferrari.
-Marcus Ferrari
I turned around to look at Dylan. He started to quiver and grunt a little, but was still out. I went to my room and put my journal up in the closet. I grabbed a pillow and a blanket, and laid on the floor next to him until I fell asleep.
I woke up the next morning a little before ten. I reached over and tried to feel for Dylan before I even took my blanket off my face. I didn’t feel anything at first so I moved my hand up and down to make sure. There was nothing.
I jumped up.
I was worried that something might have happened to him while he was under my watch.
“Dylan,” I gasped.
I looked around and nothing was out of the ordinary. Calm down Marcus, I told myself. I heard the water running from the shower and I relaxed. I went to the bathroom and knocked on the door. I could hear Dylan inside singing. I laughed, walked in, and took a seat on the toilet.
“Yeah, I like this song too,” I said.
“Dude! A little knock next time.”
“I’m glad that you’re doing better than yesterday.”
“Sorry about that. I can’t even remember all that happened. What I do know is I felt great when I woke up this morning. It was like somebody pushed the reset button on my body.”
“Sam said we must exercise our powers regularly. They can basically cause a build up within our bodies and have strange effects. With all that you had built up and the amount of energy you released on me, you passed right out. You need to start using your powers more often Dylan.”
“So feel me in on what happened.”
“You sure you want to know what happened?”
“I know what happened, but tell me what happened?”
“Oh gosh how emba
rrassing.”
My forehead fell into my hand and I shook my head as I laughed.
“So Delilah told me she wanted to come over yesterday and—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah that’s why you didn’t want to come to the mall. You can skip all that, and get your face out your hands. You don’t have to sugarcoat anything with me, I’m your best friend fool.”
I picked my head up and cleared my throat.
“So yesterday I finally became a man.”
“There you go, say it like you mean it.”
I stood up, moved to the mirror and wiped my hand across it. The fog didn’t waste any time consuming it again.
“Yesterday, I, Marcus Peterson, became a man!” I yelled.
Dylan laughed.
The water turned off.
I walked over and grabbed a towel and placed my hand on the side of the curtain. He grabbed it from me.
“Apparently my powers decided to do something just a little crazy. I caused a heat wave. Hudson said it stretched pretty far and it even made the news.”
“I remember it being awfully hot while we were out. So that was you?”
“But don’t you find it odd that Delilah wasn’t affected by it?”
“I do. Maybe your powers protected her or something. Can’t really explain it. There’s so much we still don’t know.”
“That’s why we need you to start training again. Use it or lose it they say.”
“Use it or lose it?”
“Okay I’m sure our powers don’t work like that, but you don’t want what happened to you yesterday happening again. And what if you get attacked? You want to be well trained.”
“You don’t have to sell it to me, count me back in.”
I jumped up like a kid in a candy store. I was excited. I wrapped my arm around his neck and he punched me in the stomach.
“Ouch! I was just a little excited.”
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with school, I think I’ll be alright.”
I couldn’t wait to see what kind of new combinations and moves we could come up with. By ourselves, we’re okay but I know that when Dylan and I are on the same wavelength, we can be an unstoppable force of nature.
“Breath Dylan, relax and focus. Think about your next move. Fighting is fifty percent thinking, fifty percent skill,” Sam called out.
I was huffing and puffing.
I was more out of shape than I realized.
All I could hear was scrap metal clinging and the scorching sizzle of flames behind me as I sat behind an old metal table. We were in a free-for-all battle.
Last man standing won.
“More self-control Hudson. Your attacks are too wild and you’re predictable. Surprise your enemies and use your powers to do so,” Sam continued to coach.
I counted to three in my head. One…two…three I got up and ran to the wall behind me. The three of them were in the air dishing it out that they didn’t notice me, or at least, I didn’t think they did. Marcus took a quick second to launch a fireball in my direction. It hurled at a rapid rate. It got about two feet in front of me. I swiped my left hand and the fireball deflected back, knocking Hachi out of the air. She caught herself before she crashed onto the cemented floor.
I started to run right where I anticipated she would land when the fireball struck. There was so much trash and other obstacles, that I was jumping over everything to avoid tripping. I snuck up behind her, pulled her to me, placed one hand over her mouth and the other around her stomach, as I lowered the temperature. I remembered as a kid when I would put my head in the freezer just how hard it was to breathe. I recreated the same effect while lowering the temperature of her core organs. Within a matter of seconds, she passed out and I placed her body on the ground. As I stood, a rusty metal garbage can came flying towards me. It missed and crashed into a wall. I looked up and Marcus was controlling it.
“That’s the way I want you thinking Dylan,” Sam yelled out.
I didn’t do anything.
Marcus was just horrible with his telekinesis.
I needed to find a way to get Hudson and Marcus out of the sky. They had a huge advantage over me. I extended both arms over my head, each facing the two and shot an ice beam to provoke them. Hudson fell for it. He dodged left and flew right towards me. Sam was right. He was predictable. I timed my next attack. As I waited, my right hand slowly started to ball into a fist. He was flying fast and low. When he got to where I needed him, he was smacked out the sky by the same trashcan Marcus threw at me.
He was out.
“Just you and me now Marc!” I yelled out to him.
He floated in the air staring at me.
“So come on up and let’s finish this...Oh, I forgot, you can’t fly.”
“Why don’t you come down and face me then.”
He gently lowered himself until his feet met the ground. We stood about fifteen feet apart from each other. I knew Marcus was stronger with his fire wielding and he could fly, but there was one trump card I was carrying…I was stronger with telekinesis.
“Make a move Dylan,” he said.
He smiled.
In his head, he’d already won. I nodded. I knew what to do. I extended my feet apart and clinched both hands into a fist. Right when I did, random pieces of scrap metal and dust started to shake and rumble on the ground. The walls started to chatter and the air started to sing.
I grunted.
Everything flew off the ground and started to circle in the air around Marcus. He lost it and started hurling fireballs left and right trying to attack me, but the metal stopped them. I didn’t want to hurt him but I had to win the match.
A metal pipe swiped from behind his legs and tripped him. I knelt down and placed one hand on the ground. A stream of ice flowed from my hands over to Marcus. The metal stopped flying and all came together to build a cage that looked like an igloo over Marcus. Right when it was finish, the stream of ice caught up and covered the outside of the cage. I stood up and dusted my hands.
“And the winner is…” Sam said.
I turned around to face Sam and smiled. I was excited. I turned back around and with one wave of my hand, the cage disassembled. Marcus stood up and brushed himself off.
“Niceee…” he said.
He walked over to Hachi to warmed her up.
“Okay everybody, gather round’ gather round’,” Sam called out. “That was a very impressive show you put on Dylan.”
“I’m not going to lie Dylan, I didn’t think you had it in you,” Hudson chimed in.
“Let’s review,” Sam continued. “I will start with Hachi. I hate to say it, but you need help. You’re a good fighter but you’re nothing when you’re not on the same team as your brother. That’s why I did this. You must all learn to stop relying on the other in battle. You guys too.”
Sam pointed to Marcus and I, then continued.
“Learn to trust yourself Hachi. I need you confident in what you know you can do. Marcus, you’re too cocky. You think you’re unstoppable and it reads in your fighting technique. When you take a hit, you lose focus. Your enemies will use that against you. None of you guys are invulnerable. Remember, you can die.”
Sam was right on. He was telling us everything we didn’t want to hear. I wasn’t ready for what he had to say about me.
“Hudson,” he laughed. “You’re all over the place. Like I said, you’re wild and I can easily pick out what you are going to do before you even think about it. Don’t be the big guy who can’t fight. Calm down, think about what you’re doing and then change it up right before you do it. It will come in handy, trust me.”
Everyone had their heads down and lips poked out.
He looked at me.
“Dylan. You started off rocky and I thought you were going to get yourself hurt out there. Hell, I had no idea you were going to take everyone out. You listened to what I had to say, you analyzed the situation, and you used it to your advantage. You took your disability and adap
ted to the situation. You did things I would not have thought of if I were in your shoes. You did a good job. Keep fighting like that and you will be one force to reckon with.”
“Thank you Sam,” I said.
Hudson stepped towards me. He grabbed me and gave me one of his famous bear hugs.
“Congrats Dylan, you almost killed us all,” he joked.
That’s all he did was joke. Marcus and Hachi both came over and we all grouped hugged me.
“Welcome back,” Hachi whispered.
“We are going to knock them Qihar dead,” Hudson yelled in his macho voice.
“Can we stop hugging and go shower? We all stink.” I said.
Everyone broke free, then started to cleaned up a bit. It was an old abandoned warehouse outside the City, so there wasn’t too much to do. Once we were done, we all went outside and walked to my car.
“What do you guys want to do for the rest of the day? It is a Saturday and it’s only noon,” Sam asked.
“Well I’m sleepy so can we pencil in a nap somewhere?” Marcus said.
“I’m with Marcus,” Hachi said. “I’m beat.”
“We should all get some sleep since I had everyone up early on a Saturday,” Sam said.
We agreed then drove back to campus.
I dropped off the twins and Sam. Marcus and I went back to Greenwich, and ran into Mayson in the parking garage.
“M&M, hey how’s it going?”
Marcus’s deep sluggish voice took her aback. He yawned and rested against her truck.
“Is he okay?” Mayson asked.
“He’s fine, just a bit beat down. We’re coming from the gym.”