by Dee Benson
"There's no time for that," Mom said. "We have to leave. Now!" She ran out of the kitchen.
Dad sighed. "Let's go, girls."
Zanda hurried out of the kitchen. Axel followed. Dad's footsteps thudded behind her.
They followed Mom up the stairs.
"Should we pack?" Axel asked.
"There's no time for packing," Mom said, entering the bedroom she shared with Dad. "Follow me."
They all piled into the room. Mom pushed aside the doors of the walk-in closet.
"You want us to hide in the closet?" Zanda asked. "That's a bit obvious."
"Silence, please," Mom snapped.
Axel noticed that her eyes were haunted and her hands were trembling slightly. Mom's obvious fear increased her own anxiety.
In the closet, Mom brushed aside a bunch of her blouses and the box she and Dad kept their Super suits in, and dropped to the floor. She ripped back the carpet and began to pat the floorboards.
"I'd suspect she's losing her mind," Zanda whispered, "but your dad isn't worried so she must be doing that for a reason."
"They'll be watching the house," Mom muttered. "We're probably already surrounded."
"Relax," Dad said. He knelt beside her and began to pat the floorboards too. There was a faint click as one of them gave way and hung down like a trapdoor.
Zanda's mouth dropped open. "Cool!"
Axel would have considered it cool at any other time. Right now, it was just a means to an end. And that end was escape. "What is this?"
"There are tunnels beneath our house," Dad replied, his face grim. "There have been tunnels beneath every house we've lived in. Thankfully, we've never had to use them before." He nodded at Mom. "You go first."
Mom shuffled to the hole, swung her legs in, and jumped.
Zanda stepped forward. "Me next." She dropped down at the edge of the hole. Mom's hands appeared, reaching upwards to carry Zanda down. Zanda soon disappeared into the darkness.
Next, I lowered myself in. I felt Mom grip my legs, and then find my waist. Once in the tunnel, I looked around. I couldn't see a thing beyond the small pool of light shining in from the closet above.
Dad jumped down and then reached up to shut the trapdoor, plunging us into complete darkness.
There was a knocking sound.
"What's that?" Zanda asked.
"It's me," Mom replied. "Just looking for the little…aha! Found it."
There was a scraping sound. A second later, light filled the tunnel. Mom was holding a flashlight. There was a small hole in the tunnel wall. Another flashlight lay in it. Mom took it out and handed it to Dad. Then, she closed the hole and headed down the tunnel. It was only just wide enough for Axel and Zanda to walk side by side.
"Where does this tunnel lead?" Zanda asked, her voice filled with awe.
"Away," Mom replied. "Axel, tell us what happened while we walk. Start from the beginning and leave nothing out."
As they walked through the tunnel, Axel narrated her conversation with Desmond. By the time she finished, they'd reached a dead end in the tunnel.
"He drew her to that cave," Mom told Dad, contemplating the solid wall before them.
"How?" Dad asked. "He doesn't have mind powers."
"He must have gotten someone with mind powers to help him lure her." Mom drew her gaze away from the wall and looked at Axel. "Did you feel a tickle across your forehead, or an itch?"
Axel froze, remembering. "Yes. Twice. I thought maybe I'd been bitten by an insect in the forest."
"Someone infiltrated your mind and planted instructions subliminally, telling you where to meet Desmond."
Axel stared at her mom. That was beyond freaky.
"Wow," Zanda breathed.
Axel lifted her hand to her head. "Can they see my thoughts? What if they infiltrate my mind again and see everything about these tunnels and find us?"
Mom nodded once. "You just let me know if you feel another itch."
"May I point out that the tunnel seems to have come to an end?" Zanda asked, impatiently. "I thought it was some kind of escape route. Are we just going to hide here until they go away?"
She sounded decidedly disappointed.
Mom turned back to the wall before them and patted it. A chunk of it came loose revealing a keypad.
Zanda grinned as Mom pushed buttons.
"You remember the emergency code?" Dad asked.
"Of course."
"What emergency code?" Zanda asked.
"Brett will get an alert. He and Vivian will help us to create a portal."
"How?" Axel asked. Brett was a Super who'd been best friends with her parents when they were younger. They'd told her all about how he'd learned to create portals and had enabled the three of them to escape the Super World. His wife, Vivian, was a Nertherling he'd married here after escaping from the Super World. She'd turned out to be a dormant Super. A few months into dating Brett, she'd discovered she had all kinds of powers.
Axel frowned. Was that what activation was? Did Desmond believe her to be a dormant Super?
"How what?" Mom asked, still tapping on the keypad.
"How will they create a portal for us all the way from Rochester?"
"Vivian can project it here to us," Mom replied. "She can teleport objects."
"Let's hope Brett has the strength to create one," Dad muttered. "He finds portal creation particularly taxing."
"Where should the portal take us?" Mom asked him.
"Where is the last place they'll expect us to go?"
Mom frowned, considering it.
"We were supposed to go on vacation," Dad said, after a moment of silence. "They won't expect us to still go."
Mom nodded. "Hawaii it is. I'll ask Vivian to send our bags too."
As she spoke a doorway appeared from thin air on the tunnel wall. Axel stared at it. She knew it wasn't a real door because it was translucent.
Mom took Axel's and Zanda's hands and stepped through it. Close warm air swallowed them up.
"Take another step, girls," Mom said. Her voice was muffled as though it were traveling through thick sludge to reach Axel rather than through normal air.
Axel clutched Mom's hand, fear wrapping around her heart. She could see nothing. She could barely even breathe. The air seemed thick. Too thick to breathe.
"We'll do it at the same time," came Mom's voice. "On three. One, two…three."
Axel stepped forward.
Her foot landed on something squishy. All of a sudden, she could see again. Relief flooded her as her gaze landed on her mom and Zanda.
"Where's dad?" she asked.
He appeared beside them from thin air, along with the two bags he and Mom had packed for their vacation.
"We won't stay in the hotel we'd planned to use," Dad said, "just in case they do check here."
It was then that Axel realized they were on a beach. The squishy thing she'd stepped onto was sand. Other things suddenly flooded her senses: The bright sunlight, the sound of crashing waves. She and her family were behind a rock.
Axel peeked out from behind it. The beach was packed with people. Traditional dancers in brightly colored skirts and headdresses danced before a crowd of spectators. Out in the ocean, surfers rode waves. The sun was high in the sky. Of course. It was still early afternoon here. Axel was beginning to sweat in her pink sweater and jeans.
"You stay here," Dad said. "Wait for me. I'll come and get you when I've found somewhere for us to stay."
Mom nodded.
Axel sucked in a breath.
Mom and Dad looked at her. "Did you get an itch?" Mom asked.
"No, no," Axel said quickly. "But I was just thinking…I don't want them to hurt anyone over my refusal to go. Should I just agree to—"
"No!" Mom snapped. "Whether you go or not they will hurt us. The Firemaster does not forgive. It's a lie. They will kill us whether you go or not. Our best bet is to hide and hope they never find us."
Dad placed a hand on Axel's s
houlder. "She's right. We'll lie low here for a couple of days and then decide where to go next. We may have to leave the country."
Axel licked her lips which had suddenly gone dry. Leave the country?
Zanda raised a hand. "Question."
Mom and Dad looked at her.
"What if The Firemaster has changed?" she asked. "It's been a long time. Maybe he's ready to let bygones be bygones. Seventeen years is plenty of time for a person to change. Don't you two miss the Super Land? Maybe we should all go. Aren't you sick of living among Netherlings and having to repress your powers? Isn't denying who you are painful for you?"
"I'd rather repress my powers and live a good life than use my powers if I'm using them for evil," Mom replied.
"But—"
"But nothing," Mom said firmly, her eyes haunted all of a sudden.
Dad shook his head. "You've never used your powers for evil, honey."
Mom glared at him. She turned back to Zanda. "The Firemaster has not changed. As you know, he was banished. If he wants Axel for an assignment, that means he's planning something evil. We refuse to be a part of his evil agenda."
Axel thought of everything her parents had told her about The Firemaster. He was a prince in the Super Land. He'd been appointed as Commander of the Armies. Axel's own father was an army General. The Firemaster's brother had been crowned after their father died, but The Firemaster didn't want to play second fiddle to his brother. Being the Commander of the Armies, he used the army to overthrow his brother and establish himself as king. A few months later, his brother, the rightful king, regrouped and fought back. It was during that battle that her parents had escaped the Land of the Supers. Their friend, Brett, escaped with them. Brett kept himself informed of the goings on in the Super Land, and told them that The Firemaster was overthrown. He was banished from the Super Land and hadn't been seen by anybody since.
So why did he want Axel?
Something wasn't quite adding up. "Why does he want me?" Axel asked her parents. "I don't understand."
"He's using you to get to us," Mom replied.
"Desmond seems to think that Axel is a dormant Super and can activate powers," Zanda piped up. "I suggest that you help her to do so. And me as well, as I have a feeling I'm a dormant too."
Mom's gaze narrowed. "Zanda, now is not the time for—"
"If our survival depends on escaping The Firemaster, then don't we need all the powers we can get?" Zanda demanded. "If only you two have powers, we'll be easier to attack. But if Axel and I have powers too, we'll be much stronger as a unit. We can even work out how to put our powers together and keep us fortified."
Mom and Dad were both quiet.
"The Firemaster knows what powers you both have," Zanda continued. "But he thinks Axel and I haven't discovered ours. They'll be unprepared for mine and Axel's attack if they come after us."
Dad was looking at Mom.
Axel was confused. Why weren't they saying anything? They'd always said that Axel and Zanda didn't have powers and were not dormant Supers. Had they been lying?
Mom shook her head. "Superpowers are inherited on a recessive gene. People born with one dominant and one recessive gene, like your father and I were, can activate, as Desmond put it. But you both have two dominant genes. You're not dormant Supers and you can't activate."
Axel relaxed. That made sense.
Zanda looked put out. She grunted. "Well, you two better get honing your powers. You haven't used them in combat for years. You can't protect us with rusty powers."
Mom and Dad exchanged a look. They always did that whenever Zanda told them not to let their powers get rusty.
"I wish you had more useful powers," Zanda said with a sigh. "Like super strength, or solar power." She looked at Mom. "I guess remote touch is pretty useful in a situation like this, though."
Mom's brows lifted. "It came in handy for slapping his butt when we were younger," she said, inclining her head towards Dad. "He was always confused as to who was doing it. It was pretty amusing until he busted me."
Dad's brows lifted. "What do you mean, 'When we were younger?' You still do it now."
"Eww," Axel muttered.
"You can keep that to yourselves," Zanda said.
"Dad's force field is handy," Axel told Zanda. "He can protect us if anyone shows up."
"But we're hoping that nobody will," Mom said, "because we're going to hide." She turned to Dad. "You were on your way to find us a new hotel."
"I was." He dropped a kiss onto her lips. "Be right back."
Zanda looked put out.
Axel wondered why. Personally, she would prefer it if they were able to hide rather than Mom and Dad having to confront other Supers.
Zanda thought life was one of her comic book stories.
Chapter 4
TWO DAYS PASSED, AND nothing happened.
Axel began to relax. Dad was making arrangements for them to move to Canada. It wasn't the other side of the world, but Mom and Dad considered it far enough to be safe. They said The Firemaster would expect them to move far away. He would anticipate that. He wouldn't expect them to move to a neighboring country.
Mom and Dad were still trying to decide between a town and a big city. They hadn't talked about how Axel was going to complete her finals yet. Her finals were just a few months away. This move couldn't have come at a worse time for her.
"What's for dinner tonight?" Zanda asked grouchily from the couch where she'd spent most of the day watching movies.
Axel had found her some stories about Chameleon Girl and Remodel online that she hadn't read. Zanda had devoured them in a matter of hours, so Axel was back to searching for more.
The vacation hadn't turned out to be much of a vacation since Mom and Dad wouldn't let Axel and Zanda go out or do anything.
"I was thinking maybe we could have some local food today," Dad said, looking at Mom. "We could try that restaurant a few blocks away. Wahu or whatever it's called."
Mom's eyes tensed. "You want us to go out?"
The first day they'd arrived, Vivian had teleported some groceries to them. Mom had been cooking.
Dad shrugged. "I doubt we're in any immediate danger."
Mom's lips tightened.
"We're leaving tomorrow. We should enjoy our last night here."
Mom didn't look convinced, but she nodded. "Okay."
Zanda jumped up from the couch with a squeal. "Get dressed, Axel. Time to turn the island boys' heads."
Axel rose from the bamboo seat she'd been sitting in. It'd become her favorite spot in the lounge area since it was directly under the air conditioning vent. She laughed as Zanda danced into the room they were sharing.
The highlight of the past few days had been going to use the hotel gym and ogling the hotel staff who, with their caramel toned skin and dark good looks, were much hotter than the vacationing dudes working out in the gym.
Axel entered the bedroom. Zanda was already holding a belly top and a sarong skirt against her body. "What do you think?"
"You'd turn heads in a garbage bag, so does it really matter?"
I was going to wear my yellow bikini top, but your mom will just make me change.
"Put it in your purse. Maybe we'll be able to persuade them to let us go to the beach after dinner."
Zanda's eyes lit up. "Yeah. What are you wearing?"
Zanda had bought clothes from a nearby shop on their first night. She was supposed to buy for both of them, but apparently hadn't found anything in Axel's size. Axel had been making do with the clothes Zanda had bought for herself, but Zanda was so small, Axel looked like a squashed sausage in her clothes.
Zanda took out a tiny floral print dress from the suitcase.
"That will never fit me."
"Try it on, now," Zanda ordered, tossing it at her.
Two minutes later, Axel stood before the mirror in the dress and eyed her reflection. "Exactly. Squashed sausage."
"What?" Zanda asked.
"I
look like a squashed sausage in your clothes."
"Are you nuts? You look hot. Now get that pony tail out before I yank it out."
Axel removed her hair band and then held still while Zanda did her makeup. Zanda was good at that kind of stuff. Axel, on the other hand, preferred jeans and sweats to dresses. And she always seemed to smudge her makeup whenever she wore it.
"My eye is itching," she said as they were all walking to the elevators twenty minutes later.
Mom and Dad stopped. Looks of pure panic crossed their faces.
"My eye," Axel said quickly. "Not my head."
They still looked dubious.
"And I can't rub it because I'm wearing mascara," Axel rushed to add.
Mom and Dad seemed to relax.
Axel nudged Zanda who looked like a regular goddess right now with her hair teased into loose waves and her immaculate makeup. "This is why I hate makeup. You can't even touch your own face, or scratch itches."
Mom looked panicked again.
"Itches of your eyes," Axel clarified.
Mom looked at Dad. "I don't think this is a good idea." She glanced back at the door to their suite.
"Oh, please don't make us go back," Zanda begged, punching the button for the elevator.
Dad placed an arm around Mom's shoulders. "Relax, Katie."
Mom nodded too quickly.
"But if you really don't want us to go out, that's fine. We'll stay in."
The doors to the elevator slid open with a ping.
Mom looked at the elevator while Axel, Zanda, and Dad looked at her.
She nodded again. "No. I'm sure we'll be fine. We can't keep the girls cooped up the whole time we're here. Let's go."
Zanda whooped. She shimmied into the elevator. Axel danced in after her, not quite as excited, but finding her cousin's excitement infectious.
They rode down to the first floor and then stepped out.
Zanda twirled around. "I feel so free."
Axel chuckled.
The lobby was empty apart from a couple of people cleaning the area, and the guy at the reception desk.
There was a whistle as they approached the entranceway. Axel turned. The gaze of the guy at the reception desk was on his computer screen but she was pretty sure it was him who'd whistled. And she was pretty sure the whistle had been for Zanda.