by Dexx Peay
My face flew left and he swung again. I grabbed his wrist with both hands and pushed him to the side. My hands ignited and I punched with my left. He punched with his right and my flame died. Clouds of smoke formed at our hands.
“Ouch,” I cried.
I took a few steps back and cradled my right hand with my left. His hands frosted as he started to walk towards me. I extended my left and froze him in place. He eyes wandered around looking for an explanation. He tried to walk again. He couldn’t. He tried to move his arms. They hardly wiggled.
I smiled.
I had him.
“Nice trick right?” I teased.
“Why can’t I move?”
“Who are you and why are you attacking me?”
“Why can’t I move?”
He continued to try and break the psychic barrier I created as his hands still smoldered at the fingers.
“Who sent you after me?”
“I won’t say anything,” he said.
I looked at his arm and he caught me. I rolled up my burnt sleeve to expose mine.
“We’re on the same team. Why would you want to hurt your own kind?”
He didn’t answer; he just observed me with his dark devious eyes.
“We aren’t on the same team.”
I drew my hand back and punched him in the jawbone.
“Look at this!” I waved my arm in his face.
I started to circle him.
My temper started to boil and I knew I had to cool down. I walked behind him and gripped him with my good hand around the neck and chin, transferring heat from my hands to his body. He moaned and when I felt he was weak enough, I let his body collapse and pass out. I lifted up into the sky and his body lifted off the ground, trailing me as I flew back to campus.
I landed on the side of my tall building. I put his arm around my neck and started walking back to campus. I had to concentrate the whole way back so I could telekinetically make his feet walk to keep the strain off my body. It was uncomfortable having so many people stare or make comments about how he couldn’t handle his liquor. Especially when I knew that wasn’t the case.
I got back to Greenwich and the RA at the front desk just shook his head as I walked inside. I couldn’t believe I really just brought this guy back to my dorm. I walked over to the elevator and Mayson was waiting for it to come down.
“Marcus,” she smiled.
She ducked down and tried to get a glimpse of his face that was buried in his chest.
“Ugh,” she giggled. “Is he going to be okay?”
“Yep, couldn’t handle his liquor, know how that can be,” I said.
The elevator dinged and opened. I dragged him inside and she followed. I stood straight up, transition his arm off my neck and I held him up with my arm around his lower back. He started to moan.
He was beginning to wake up.
It wasn’t time.
I released more heat and the moaning stopped.
“You sure he’s going to be okay?” Mayson asked.
“I’m sure. Fourth floor please.”
“You do know we stay across the hall right?”
“Oh yeah. Sorry. Long night.”
“Are you positive you guys are okay cause I can—”
“I promise M&M, we’ll be fine, just need to get some rest.”
This girl had to be the daughter of Sherlock Holmes. She was about to blow this into an all-out investigation. The elevator stopped and opened. I let her out first. I wanted her to walk off but she didn’t.
“What kind of party did you guys attend?” she asked.
“Why?”
“You sweatshirt is… well, burnt.”
I looked down and failed to realize that. “Wild party.”
“Ahh… I see. How’s Dylan? You know I haven’t really seen him much these days.”
And there it was confirmed, she was Sherlock Holmes’s daughter. I just wanted to get to my room before this guy wakes up and turns this building into the Arctic.
“I’ll let him know you’ve been asking about him.”
“Okay cause the guys from Kappa said they haven’t really seen or talk to him since the semester started. Most guys are dying to be active their first real semester. It just all seems a little weird don’t cha think?”
“Yeah.”
I started walking hoping she would just drop the conversation, but she jumped in front of me. I almost wanted to punch her in the throat, then I remembered I don’t hit girls. At least the ones who aren’t Qihar.
“So you agree that it’s a little weird?”
“Mayson listen, I’ll call Dylan in the morning and tell him to spend more time with his fraternity, right now I just need some sleep.”
“Okay.”
I started walking to the door. She walked towards hers then paused.
“Marcus.”
I sighed.
I really just wished she stopped asking me questions.
“Your eyes are a little hazel. Aren’t they normally dark?”
Crap.
They were changing colors. I’m sure they were well on their way to red. I wouldn’t have had that problem if she weren’t all down my back.
“I’m sure it’s from lack of sleep. Goodnight Mayson.”
I opened the door. Monica, Sam and Hudson all stood and took a break from biting their nails. I limped, carrying the body and put him on the floor near the couch.
“Pass me a pillow.”
Sam tossed me one and I put it under his head. I stood up and Monica hugged me. My arm fell across her shoulder and down her back. Checked to make sure Dylan didn’t make a special guest appearance.
“You guys all alright?” I asked.
“Monica told us you guys got attacked. Who is this?” Hudson said.
“This is my attacker, he has the power of ice,” I said.
“And you bought him hear whyyy?” Hudson fussed.
I bent down and picked up his arm.
“Cause he’s Xarponian.”
“You got attacked by a Xarponian?” Hudson screeched.
I was hungry and weak.
Using all that power tonight must have thrown off my sugar levels.
I fixed a cup of orange juice and grabbed a granola bar out the cabinet.
I walked over to the resting body and took a seat next to him.
“Why would a Xarponian attack you?” Hudson fussed again.
“Only one reason I can think of that would cause a Xarponian to attack their own people,” I said.
“You think whatever happened to Dylan, Hachi and the others happened to him?” Sam asked.
I looked at the body.
“Yeah, I do. Who knows how many Xarponians and Qihar are being hunted and taken over.”
“What are you going to do with him?” Monica asked. “I don’t know too much about, anything,” she said.
She looked tired.
Her eyes were puffy and her hair was just on her head trying to figure out which direction to go.
I needed to get her to bed.
“What if someone busts through these doors looking for him?” Monica continued.
“She’s right Marcus,” Hudson affirmed. “Right now you’re the only one with powers. If someone or a group of people come looking for him or if he wakes up, how do you plan on protecting the three of us as well as yourself?”
I guess they were right. Wasn’t sure what I was thinking bringing him back with me. I took another bite of the granola and finished the orange juice. We all sat in silence—individually trying to make sense of the situation.
“You’re right Hudson!” Sam blurted. “Oh crap,” he laughed.
“What?” we all said.
“We all said it. What if someone comes looking this guy.”
Sam was too amped. We all just looked at him, trying to figure out where he was going with this.
“Think about it guys, how would anyone know where to find him? For all we know he was just sent to ki
ll Marcus, not be captured by him.”
“So you think he has a tracking device on him?” Monica asked.
“It only make senses,” Sam confirmed.
“Sam I think you’re right. Hudson, lift him up.”
I followed up. Hudson interlocked his hands behind our ice friend’s back underneath his armpits and stood him up. We all stood.
“Take his shirt off Hudson.”
Hudson propped the body against his own and pulled his shirt over his head. Sam and I started to examine the body. We scanned the waistline up. I covered the sides and Sam took the back.
“Look right here,” Sam said. He ran his finger back and forth over his skin right at the lower left of the neck. “Feel this.”
I started to rub and the skin was raised. I rubbed again to make sure. I rubbed my finger on the opposite side of the neck.
It was smooth.
“Something is in there,” Sam said. Sam backed up from the body. His demeanor changed. “Get me a knife, some towels and alcohol.”
“Hell yeah! Now this is what I’m talking about,” Hudson yelled, still hugging the body to hold it up.
I didn’t ask any questions, I hustled around to get him what he needed. Hudson put the body face down on the floor with his face on the pillow.
“I’m gonna be sick,” Monica said.
“Just go in my room babe.”
Sam laid everything to his right side. He knelt down at the head, picked up the knife and looked at it. He took the alcohol and poured it on one of the towels, then ran the towel on the blade.
“Marcus,” he said.
I knew he needed my powers to sterilize the knife. I held my hand out and oranges flames rose from my palm. Sam ran the knife back and forth through the fire.
We were about to witness Sam at his greatest.
He used the thumb of his left hand to stabilize the object under his skin. I watched closely. I wanted to be a doctor one day and this was fascinating to see. I wondered how he’d learned all this already. The twins did say that Sam always patched them up after their battles. I needed to hang around Sam more to pick his brain before he graduated.
He sliced the skin to the right of the indention. Thick red blood started to seep out. Sam rolled his thumb to push what was inside out the opening. A small thick square chip started to protrude. Sam pulled it out, then placed a towel over the wound.
“You have some gauze Marcus?” Sam asked.
“Yeah we keep plenty of that around here now.”
I walked to the bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit from under the sink. I handed it Sam and he taped a piece of gauze over the cut. The chip had a small needle on the bottom and a flashing green light on top. Sam wiped the blood off of it.
“What now?” Hudson asked.
“I have a friend who’s real tech-savvy. Maybe he can reverse the GPS signal, which can lead us to who’s behind this, and we can save everyone; assuming this a GPS tracker in the first place.”
“What about this guy?” I asked.
“Keep an eye on him. I’m going to run to my dorm to grab my kit and stitch him up,” Sam said. “Need anything Hudson?”
“No, I’m good,” Hudson confirmed.
“Okay Sam. Hurry,” I said.
He headed out and I began to clean up everything. Hudson suggested I get some sleep. It really had been a long night.
“I’ll keep an eye on him. I have a feeling he isn’t waking up anytime soon and if he does, one to the face should knock him back out.”
“Just, scream, I guess, if you need anything,” I said.
I didn’t want to say scream if he wakes up and punches you in the face. I walked inside the room. Monica was sitting on the bed shuffling through her phone.
“Is everything going to be okay?” she asked.
“Not sure, but at least now we have some hope.”
I took my shoes off followed by my scorched sweatshirt and dirty jeans. I sat on the edge of the bed next to her, put my hand on her thigh and started to rub up and down. I inhaled the good and exhaled the bad. My head fell to the side landing on top of hers.
“Can I show you something?” I asked.
“What is it?”
“Me.”
“What do you mean?”
I tapped her shoulder and pointed to the closet. She turned to look and the satchel floated out and landed next to her.
“Open it.”
She reached in and pulled out one of the journals.
“What is this?”
“Last year when I went looking for my birth parents I didn’t find them, instead, I found this. It was left for me by my birth father. It has information about my family’s history: the powers, the people, the war, everything. All the families started to write down their lives when the few escaped off my home planet to protect the future generations… to protect me.”
“You see this symbol?” I took her pointer finger with my hand and ran it across the cover. “This mean Shangaleese, it’s the family in which I come from. My bloodline.”
“I still can’t believe that this… this… this world exist.”
“A world I’m happy to share with you.” I held her.
“So do you write in them too?” she asked. I leaned back on the bed and reached for the desk. I pulled my book out.
“Dylan got this for me. I don’t write in it as much as I should but I do write in it.”
We talked for a little longer before we put the books up. I took a shower because Monica said I was starting to smell burnt again, then we both passed out.
I woke up when I heard Hudson talking through the walls. It was right before six in the morning. I got up and put a blanket over Monica. She didn’t like sleeping with one when she stayed the night. She’d sweat heavily when I held her. I put on a shirt and walked into the common area.
Sam was knocked out on the floor with drool running out the side of his mouth. Hudson was drinking a soda with his back leaned against a wall—laughing, but not loud enough to wake Sam. The dark brown-skinned man dressed in black pants and white socks with a matching piece of gauze over his neck was standing over him laughing too.
I flamed up.
He turned around and stopped laughing.
Hudson jumped up. “Marcus no!” He jumped between the two of us. “He isn’t a threat anymore.”
“Who is this guy?” The man asked.
“Marcus, he bought you here. If it weren’t for him you’d still be a slave. Or… dead,” Hudson said with his hands between the two of us.
My fire died.
Walked to the sofa and took a seat.
Sam started to mumbled.
I ignored him.
“My name is Quentin.” His baritone voice could have taken the building down it was so deep. “Quen is what I go by. So I have you to thank for saving me?”
“I need to figure out what is going on first.” I said.
Hudson and Quen walked over and stood next to me. Hudson kicked Sam in the leg. He finally stopped mumbling and started to wake up.
“That thing Sam took from his neck, that was controlling him, and what’s controlling them too,” Hudson said.
“Serious?” I said in slight disbelief. “Quen, do you remember fighting me?”
“No I don’t. I somewhat remember being in a fight, lots of fights to be exact, but all the details are unclear.”
“What do you remember?” I asked.
“I was leaving work walking to my car and… it’s just a blur after that. There are flashes of stuff but nothing makes sense. I’m ready to get the fuck out of here and back to my little man. I know he misses me. I had dreads too. They’re gone now. I’m probably unrecognizable to my family, who probably thinks I ran out on them. I don’t need the label of ‘dead-beat dad’.”
“You changed your hair too?” I mumbled.
“No. I didn’t change my hair. I’d been growing them for six years. When I woke up, I just now realized they were gone.”
/> “Dylan had long hair too and he cut it once he was taken.” I said.
“My sister too,” Hudson added.
“So we got a bunch of mind-controlling barbers? Nice.” Quen said facetiously.
“Your pretty strong.” I nodded to his marking that ran up to his elbow. “How did anybody get close enough to you?”
“Like I said, I can’t remember much. I need to get going back to DC. I thank you for saving me.”
He picked his boots up and started putting them on. He was the piece of the puzzle I was missing. For my plan to work I needed five… I needed ice.
He had to stay.
“How about you stay here and help us take down whoever’s behind this?”
“Wish I could but what part of my son needs me don’t you understand?” He laced up his boots. “I’m sure my family is worried sick about me. They don’t fully understand this so I know they’re freaked out right now.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Twenty-four. Why?” he said.
“Nothing. I’m nineteen.” I twiddled my fingers. “My girlfriend is human too and I just want to know if it can work.”
“What can work?” He got up and threw his shirt on.
“Being and doing what we do and having a stable relationship with a human—a family.”