“And the popularity you get as the owner of that channel has nothing to do with it, right?” Skylar asked. “I guess there’s nothing like riding off someone else’s coattails, huh?”
“Hey, you can’t fault me for whatever fringe benefits may come with being your promoter,” Izzy replied with a wide beam. “It’s sorta like how fries come with a Whopper burger at Burger King. Am I supposed to give the fries back just ‘cause I didn’t order them along with the burger?”
“Oh, geez,” Skylar said while shaking her head.
“Let’s give credit where it’s due, Sky!” Gerado said. “You totally did bail us out today, Izzy. How in the name of the Almighty did you access those websites, though? There’s no wi-fi out here, right?”
“There isn’t,” Izzy explained with a proud smile. “I created a whole heap of fake website-looking documents like the one on Fungal Rot and saved them to my phone files. So, I can access them to cover your asses during situations like this. And since you and my sis are always smashing things up by accident with your super-strength . . . ya know, ‘cause you can’t just learn to control it, like you should . . . I came up with Fungal Rot to cover for anything wooden that you carelessly wreck. I have a fake website talking about something I made up called Sulfide Rust to cover for metals, too. So, do I rock or what?”
The sunlight glinted off Izzy’s braces as she beamed another wide smile.
“I say the first choice.” Gerado said with a smile of his own. “You always think ahead, ni’a! But that last sentence in the bogus website was really amazing! How did you think of predicting the picnic table example?”
“I didn’t,” Izzy said. “I typed that into the document really quick when I was pretending to surf the Net.”
“Ha! You go, girl.” Gerado gave Izzy a high-five. “But wait . . . Where did you get all that science-y terminology? Did you do some serious cutting and pasting from a crap load of science websites or something?”
“Um, no,” Izzy huffed. “I do heaps of reading, and I know my stuff. I just don’t like talking that way in regular convo. It makes me sound sorta stuck-up. Or, if you want me to get fancy, it makes me come off as totally pedantic. There, how was that? You didn’t see me look that one up on Dictionary.com, did you?”
“Ha ha! All right.” Gerado high-fived Izzy once more.
Skylar clucked her tongue. “Yeah, well, we better hope your bestie doesn’t start asking about how you got wi-fi out here.”
“Yeah, right.” Izzy laughed. “Like it’d really occur to Kylie to ask. But if she does, I’ll just tell her my phone is satellite-linked, or something like that. She isn’t really heavy on the common sense thing.”
“You can’t argue there, Sky,” Gerado said. “So . . . props for the little sis?”
Skylar rolled her eyes and sighed. “Yeah. Thank you, little sis.”
“Mucho love and coolness all around.” Gerado said. “By the way, Izzy, did you happen to come up with some fake kind of fungi that eats porcelain too? Because last month I got so pissed when I dropped my phone in the toilet I underestimated my super-strength and kicked it before I got the chance to flush it, and, well . . .”
“Dude!” Skylar shouted. “We’re about to eat!”
“Whoops,” he said. “Speaking of which, let’s go get some burgers before they’re all gone.”
* * *
After dinner, Skylar returned to the fragile wooden picnic table alone to finish her final hot dog for the day. Her quiet musings were destroyed by her half-sister’s sudden appearance.
“Caught ya moping!” Izzy shouted.
“Geez!” Skylar yelled. “You’re the only one who can still sneak up on me like that since I got these powers. I have no idea how you do that. Not even Gerado can do it, and he got powers from the Warp Event too.”
Izzy grinned. “I’m just good like that. And I guess his powers didn’t include super-stealth. Anyhoo, sis, why are you here by yourself? Gerado is sitting over on the chairs amusing my dad with those ass-awful jokes of his. Mom and Kylie are finishing off the last of the potato salad. And just think, you’re missing all of that.”
Skylar shrugged off her sister’s well-intentioned irony. “Maybe I need a bit of alone time.”
“Thinkin’ about saving the world again, and all that? Maybe Gerado is right. You need to be a teenager and a member of a family as much as a superhero.”
“Maybe. But I like helping others. I believe I was given these powers for a reason Some higher force in the universe arranged for me to be at just the right place when the Warp Event hit the school. I think I saw an image of a scary old man with a gray beard and an eye patch hollering some message to me along those lines when it all went down, but I don’t really remember too clearly.”
“Oh yeah? Cool! Then again, lots of peeps were at the school when the Warp Event happened, and only a few got the powers. I sure didn’t. Real nice of those higher universal forces to play faves like that, am I right?”
“That’s my point. Lots of us were there when the Warp Event hit, but only a few were actually chosen for the powers. Gerado was also one of those few, but he thinks this is all fun and games. Like, the thrill of a lifetime. I want to believe he became Locust Lad to be a real hero, not some try-hard show-off that’s mainly in it for the excitement and the glory.”
“You’re too morose, sis.”
“I’m what, now?”
“Sorry for the big word. I meant, you’re all emo all the time. Is that better? But anyway, Locust Lad has really helped Moth Girl save lives during your tussles with those villains, both in Eastville and in Cleveland. And in his defense, I think becoming a metahuman would be exciting and fun! Maybe you could have seen that if you were a happier person when the Warp Event happened. Gerado may be an annoying assmunch at times, but at least he’s happy. I think you teach him to be more responsible, and he teaches you to be happier. Maybe the forces of the universe brought you two together for that.”
“Maybe. I appreciate the talk, little sis, but I guess I’m just not feeling very philosophical right now. See, I can use big words too.”
“Ha!” Izzy smiled at her half-sister, who returned it warmly.
“There may be hope for my awesome but morose sis yet. Yay!”
The spirited moment came to an abrupt end when the siblings suddenly heard Kylie scream.
“Don’t scream, Kylie!” came the voice of Skylar’s stepdad Neil. “You’ll only provoke it more!”
The Kennedy girls turned to see a black bear standing about a hundred feet from the camp area where the grill, chairs, and the Kennedy’s vehicle were located. Its posterior portion was hidden within a mass of foliage, but enough of its front end was visible to discern that the animal was a particularly large specimen. Most chilling of all, however, was that its teeth were bared, and the animal was growling.
“Oh, fudge,” Izzy murmured. “It must smell the food.”
“Geez . . .” Skylar said as she leaped to her feet. She was a good distance from the section of the camp where the deadly animal faced her family and friends. She knew from her class in wildlife conservation how fast black bears could run, and she had no idea if her superhuman leg muscles could match that speed. She could fly much faster than she could run, but at the expense of revealing her powers to her parents and Kylie.
I can’t be concerned about that anymore! Gerado is there, and he has powers too. He’s Locust Lad. But . . . he’s not quite as strong as I am, and he can’t fly. Is he a match for a black bear? Can he at least stop it before it gets to Neil or my mom? Think, girl, think!
“Izzy?” Skylar whispered just loud enough for her sister to hear.
“Yeah, sis?” Izzy whispered back.
“You know a lot more about these things than me. Don’t black bears avoid people? Do we really have anything to worry about? Do I need to go into action Moth Girl-style in front of the “‘rents and Miss Busybody? I mean, it is growling and all.”
“You’re
right. They usually aren’t a danger to people unless harassed or cornered, but animals in the area have been acting really weird and even mutating in messed up ways since the Warp Events hit the Cleveland area last year.”
“Wonderful. And of course, it would have to pick the day we were camping here to spazz like this.”
“Sis, what do we do?”
Skylar frowned. I hope I can fly fast enough, and I really hope I’m strong enough to handle a bear, if it comes to that. I mean, I did take out that Raging Bull guy with a single hard punch. A bear can’t be stronger than him, right? But then there’s those fangs and those claws. Just focus, Sky! Worry less about being strong enough and more about being fast enough.
“I’m going to try and scare it away,” Neil called, stepping in front of his wife and the kids.
“Neil, don’t do anything stupid,” pleaded the girls’ mother Manuela. She held the horrified and trembling Kylie in her arms. “I mean, it’s a bear, for God’s sake. Not one of Mrs. Plumber’s nasty little poodles!”
“I think you should listen to your better half, Mr. Kennedy,” Gerado slowly stepped towards Neil from behind, ready to act in his defense at a moment’s notice.
“Gerado, move back towards the car with my wife and Kylie,” Neil said. “Get in and shut the doors. I’ll distract the bear to give Sky and Izzy enough time to get to the car too.”
The Kennedy patriarch raised his arms overhead to make himself appear bigger than he actually was. The fearsome animal didn’t appear the least bit intimidated by Neil’s attempted ploy and moved several steps closer. In fact, it seemed all the angrier, as if responding to a challenge.
“Whoa-ho,” Gerard said. “So much for that plan.”
“Dammit, Gerado, I told you to get back to the car. I can’t protect you otherwise.”
“No way do I leave you here alone, Mr. Kennedy,” Gerado said. “I’m as stubborn as you are.”
Skylar and Izzy inched toward the car. Gerado turned for a moment and waved at them. Skylar pointed towards the bear and her stepfather and mouthed, “Pay attention!”
Manny and Kylie reached the car, but when they slammed the doors shut, the bear snarled in anger.
“Uh oh . . .” Gerado and Skylar said in unison from their respective vantage points.
“Sis, I’ll try to distract Mom and Kylie,” Izzy said. “So, ya know, they don’t see you do your superhero thing. Be careful, and I love you loads.”
“Thanks, and ditto, little sis.”
“Hey!” Neil shouted at the bear while clapping his hands. “Get out! Go away!”
Izzy rushed for the door on the driver’s side, keeping herself between her mother Kylie so they couldn’t see Skylar. She hit the door window with her palms while feigning a panic attack. Skyler saw her forcibly holding the door shut so Manuela couldn’t open it to get out and help her.
“Mom! Mom! Oh my god, I can’t get the door open!”
“Izzy, the back door!” Manny shouted back. “Open the back door!” She attempted to open the door to help her daughter get in the car but was unable to budge it.
As soon as both Neil and Izzy began their shouting, the bear gave a final angry roar and charged at Neil with unbelievable speed for an animal so huge.
Skylar flew toward the rampaging animal, but she knew right away she wasn’t fast enough. Gerado would have to do something, or all was lost.
With reflexes no Olympic athlete could match, Gerado rushed Neil from behind and grasped him tightly. Though Gerado couldn’t fly, he’d chosen the moniker Locust Lad for good reason.
Gerado leaped almost eighteen feet straight up. He would have gone even higher if not burdened by his passenger’s extra weight. His leap took him just high enough so that the bear passed beneath them. He landed awkwardly on top of Neil, stunning him.
Unfortunately, the bear turned with unexpected speed and rushed at them again. Gerado jumped in front of the reeling Neil to meet the bear’s charge.
As the bear reached Gerado, it rose to its hind legs to maul the teenager with its razor-sharp claws and teeth. Gerado lunged and punched it in the side of its face with enough strength to stop the beast in its tracks. He followed up with a solid punch to the bear’s torso. The robust animal staggered back several feet from the force of the blow. Maddened from the pain, it charged again.
“Ooohh, not good,” Gerado said.
Skylar flew past and the bear, backhanding the side of its skull as she did so. She looped around, landed, and lifted her stepfather as easily as if he were weightless. She knew that Izzy couldn’t hold their mother in the car forever, and moreover, she had no idea how long Gerado could hold out against the bear one-on-one. She had to move fast.
“Gerado, distract it while I get Neil in the car! I’ll be right back.”
“Um . . . okay. And not to rush you, but . . . “
“Yeah, I know, I know!”
Skylar skimed over the ground toward the car as quickly as she could. She’d thought Neil was unconscious, but he murmured sleepily during their speedy flight back to the car. “Huh? Wha? Manny, not now, okay?”
Eww! Skylar thought as she careened through the air.
She saw Izzy was still doing her thing outside the car, so Manny and the petrified Kylie couldn’t see her fly. She was thankful the situation was working out so that she could preserve her secret. Sooner or later her parents would find out the truth, but she hoped that would not happen until she was ready to find a way to tell them on her terms, not on fate’s whims.
Izzy screamed as Skylar landed just behind her with Neil in her arms and tapped on her shoulder. “Geez, give me a heart attack before I’m sixteen, will ya? I thought you were the bear!”
“Right, since a bear would tap you on the shoulder before attacking,” Skylar jibed as quietly as she could. “Get your dad in the car and keep them distracted just another minute or two. Gerado and I can totally unload on the bear now.”
“Well, geez . . .” But before Izzy could say anything else, Skylar shoved her stepdad into his Izzy’s arms and took to the air again, heading back to aid her friend and ally against the mighty beast.
Behind her, her mom screamed, “Izzy, get in the car with your dad! Where’s Skylar and Gerado!”
“Oh my god oh my god oh my god! A bear! A bear!” Izzy cried, flailing about to continue feigning panic. “Oh, and I think they“re on their way to the car now, Mom. Help! Bear!”
Skylar returned to the fight just as Gerado made an incredible leap above the ursine menace to successfully evade its claws and fangs. This time, though, he timed and angled his jump to land not on the opposite side of the bear, but directly on its back. With practiced precision he twisted in mid-air, so he landed astride the animal’s shoulders. He wrapped his super-strong arms around its massive neck and attempted to strangle it into unconsciousness.
Though the bear choked and gasped under Gerado’s iron grip, it refused to concede the battle. It jumped about and shook itself furiously, and as hard as Gerado held on, it would only be a matter of seconds before he was flung off.
“Whoa shit! Now I know how those rodeo performers feel!” he shouted as he clung to the beast’s fur for dear life.
Skylar swooped down, grabbed him underneath both arms, and pulled him off the bear’s hirsute brownish back.
“I knew you’d come through, novia!” Gerado exclaimed. “You rock!”
“I gotta get you back to the car,” she said, “Because that bear is coming at us again, and Izzy is risking her life out there to keep the ‘rents and the nosy girl distracted for sake of our secret IDs. Get Izzy and Neil into the car, then stand guard in case the bear gets past me.”
“Huh? Wait, what?”
Skylar ran several feet in front of her partner to stand her ground with her fists clenched as the bear rushed at them like a hound straight out of the legendary Wild Hunt.
Gerado pushed Izzy and Neil into the car before slamming the driver’s door shut.
“
Gerado! What are you doing?” Manny hollered as her husband and daughter were piled onto her lap. “Get in!”
“I gotta get Skylar in first, Mrs. Kennedy!” he insisted. “Give me a minute!”
“Gerado!”
Between Izzy’s writhing in mock panic and Gerado’s feigned incompetence, Skylar knew she was safe to act.
Get ready, Sky, get ready . . . She planted her feet in the dirt for maximum traction and prepared to strike the bear as hard as she could. Skylar didn’t want to kill an endangered animal—or anything at all for that matter—but she had to protect her family.
As the bear came at her and rose up on its hind legs to attack, Skylar unleashed her intended haymaker. Her small but superhumanly strong fist struck the bulky animal in the side of its jaw with the force of a piledriver. She heard the cracking sound even over the bear’s agonized yelp. Two pointed teeth accompanied by a thin stream of blood flew from its maw as the great beast went down in a huge furry heap, throwing a thick cloud of dirt in the air.
“Whoa-ho, girl!” Gerado cheered. “Completamente asombroso!”
Skylar took no time to bask in her friend and teammate’s adulation, however. Instead, she turned and shouted another directive. “All right, dude, get in the car! I have no idea how long Smokey there is gonna stay down!”
“Skylar!” Manny called.
“Yeah, Mom,” she shouted back. “I’ll be right in.”
“But, the bear?” Manny asked.
Gerado’s eyes suddenly looked as if they would pop from their sockets. “Skylar, behind you!”
She spun just as the injured bear stood and lumbered at her on its hind legs again, snarling in pain-maddened rage with blood dripping from the side of its fractured jaw.
“Stay down, damn you!” Skylar struck the bear again.
Her blow sent the animal rolling through the dirt for several feet after it went down, wailing in agony the entire time. The pain-wracked creature lay on its back flailing its limbs and head around in a series of spasms, and it seemed to have serious difficulty getting up again.
The Good Fight 4: Homefront Page 26