Great. There’s one escape plan gone.
But, there’s no time to cry. The Drone is still lumbering after us, and I can tell he’ll be upon us any second. I manage to squint my eyes behind me and see a group of people fleeing in all directions while the mechanized suit that’s powering The Drone slams its way across the street, sending cracks like spiderwebs stretching every which way.
For a moment, all the cameras have turned away from me and Kimberly and are focused solely on The Drone. This is my chance.
I spot a street vendor with a tent of hanging sweatshirts. Darting forward I snatch one of the largest ones I can see and yank it over my head.
“What are you doing?” asks Kimberly as she watches me with wide eyes.
I pull the hood over my head, shrouding my face in shadow, and grab her by the shoulders.
“Just trust me!” I say.
The Drone is about to launch across the street at us. I can hear his servos and gears winding up, preparing to propel him like a nuclear bomb at us. There’s no choice but to fly now. Running on foot against a mechanized suit is getting us nowhere.
I tighten my grip on Kimberly’s shoulders and instruct her to wrap her arms around my neck, when suddenly a streak of purple comes flying in between us and The Drone.
My eyes widen as I register a familiar female figure clad in jeans, a purple graphic tee, and cropped black hair with pink streaks. I can’t see her face, but from behind I can see that she’s hidden her identity with an infinity scarf.
“Leave them alone!” the girl yells, and at the sound of the voice I can tell it’s Mae.
She must have been practicing a lot, I think, to be able to fly like that already.
The Drone stops, his expression amused at first. Then his brows twist into annoyance.
“You again?” he says. “I should have known if I found one, the other wouldn’t be too far off. The scarf doesn’t do much for you.”
Mae grunts, gritting her teeth. She glances over her shoulder at me.
“Take Kimberly and get our of here!” she says.
“No!” I say. It would be stupid to have Mae go up against The Drone since she doesn’t have any attack powers. I can pulse blast him as long as I don’t have Kimberly to worry about. I push her back. “You take Kim, and I’ll handle this guy!”
Mae is about to reply when The Drone throws himself forward and wraps his hand around her neck. Her arms flail about, grasping for anything, until they come to rest on the mechanized suit. She tries to push herself away from him, but then her head is thrown back and her eyes light up.
“She’s having a vision…” I mutter.
There isn’t much time to stand there and watch.
I rush to the side and aim my hands at The Drone. A blast of energy, one of the strongest I’ve ever done, erupts from between my fingers and hurtles into the lower half of The Drone. His grip on Mae falters and she tumbles to the ground, landing on her back.
As for Flagrant, some of the moving parts of his left leg have become damaged. He begins to limp towards me, but I blast at him again, this time aiming for his other leg. He dodges the blast, just barely, and sends another rocket at me out of a pack on his lower arm. I duck and the rocket explodes into a storefront behind me.
The destruction is just enough of a distraction for me to grab Mae from the ground, pull her to her feet, and return to where Kimberly stands. Her eyes are wide and she doesn’t say anything, though her mouth hangs open.
“Hold onto me!” I order, and she does so as if in a daze.
I now have Mae on one shoulder and Kimberly holding onto the other.
The Drone tries to activate his propulsion in his legs, but one side won’t work because of my attack. This means that he can’t follow me in the air.
“Nice try!” I call out, getting a growl of anger from The Drone.
Then I send the three of us hurtling into the air.
The ground drops away from us and the buildings quickly become the size of tiny miniature toys. The reds, purples, and oranges of the evening sky fill our vision and I bring us as far away from Chinatown as possible.
Mae groans against my neck.
“Don’t you dare drop me…”
I chuckle, despite all the terror we just witnessed.
“We’ll be on the ground soon,” I say. “You could always save yourself if you wanted. It’s Kim who should be worried.”
“There,” says Mae, motioning to a parking lot nestled between a bunch of buildings. “There’s my car.”
I make sure that there’s nobody around to witness our approach, then when the coast is clear, I land us next to Mae’s car.
She’s begun to come back to her senses and leans against the car as her vision headache wears off.
Kimberly, on the other hand, just stands back a few steps, her mouth hanging open, and her eyes locked on the two of us.
“What in the world just happened?” she asks.
19
The Drop-off
I’m about to explain what just happened when Mae pushes me out of the way, getting right into Kimberly’s face.
“Listen,” she says, jabbing a finger at Kimberly. “If you tell anyone what just happened - what we just did - then I will personally make sure that you regret it.”
Kimberly blinks, beginning to frown.
“You two just saved me from an obvious maniac,” she says. “With superpowers! That’s not normal. I think you owe me a real explanation.”
“If we do explain, you tell nobody,” Mae reiterates.
Kimberly scoffs.
“Please. Do you know how many people were recording videos of what happened on their phones? I won’t be the first person to say something to the media about what happened out there. I might not even be the twentieth!”
“Mae,” I say, placing a hand on her shoulder. “She’s right. People have video of what happened, and I’m sure it’s already online. We can only hope that nobody caught our faces.”
“Well, I know that nobody caught my face,” says Mae, flipping her hair out of her eyes. “I had the sense to put on a scarf. It’s you we have to be worried about.”
I sigh.
“Odds are good that any video of me is too blurry or shaky to make out my identity. I was able to hide my face after we started running, though.”
Kimberly watches us as we go back and forth, and I feel self-conscious now that she’s just looking at me.
“Okay,” I say. “I’ll explain. But, let’s get in the car so that nobody hears us.”
We all agree - Mae reluctantly - and get in the car. I turn in my seat so that my back rests against the dashboard, looking into the back seat at Kimberly.
“You’re right. You deserve an explanation, but Mae is right as well. You can’t tell anyone about who we are, or what we can do. Only a few people know about our powers, and that doesn’t even include my mother.”
This gets a laugh out of Kimberly.
“You didn’t tell you mother that you can fly?” She crosses her arms. “That doesn’t sound like a very trusting relationship.”
“Excuse me,” I shoot back. “Telling my mother is my decision, and I choose not to tell her to protect her. Don’t think that if you go blabbing to the media that The Drone won’t figure out who you are and torture you until you give him the information that he’s looking for.”
“The Drone?” says Kimberly, softening her expression. “Isn’t that a character from your father’s comic books?”
“Yes,” I explain. “But, he’s also that guy who just attacked us.”
She holds up her hands and squeezes her eyes shut. “That doesn’t make any sense. Your father’s books were fiction. Made up.”
Mae gives a frustrated sigh.
“None of it makes sense right off the bat,” she says. “Shaun and I have been living with this information for over a month. It’s stupid to think that explaining everything in five minutes is going to be digestible for you, so let’s j
ust say that the long and short of it is that Shaun and I have super powers and The Drone is trying to take them away from us.”
“But - take them away?” says Kimberly. “How can he take your powers away from you?”
Mae glances at me, and I take the lead.
“It’s really best if you don’t know that information,” I say. “The less you know, the better. At least The Drone didn’t get your full name. He hunted me down at my grandparent’s house last month and tried to kill them.”
The color drains a bit from Kimberly’s face and the gravity of the situation seems to finally settle on her.
“Okay,” she says, leaning back in her seat. “So, I won’t tell anyone what I saw. Just don’t blame me for everyone else uploading their videos.”
Mae slams her hands against the steering wheel.
“This is not good!” she says. She jabs a finger into my chest and I yelp as her nail stabs me. “You need to be more careful!”
“Hey!” I say, pulling back until I’m practically against the window. “How was I supposed to know that The Drone was back? He just appeared out of nowhere!”
“Well, now we know he’s back. The only question I have now is, why didn’t he just take the you-know-what from you and be done with it?” Mae looks at me. “Did he even make a try for it?”
“I didn’t give him a chance to try for it,” I reply. “He was never close enough.”
Kimberly rubs her forehead in the back seat.
“This is all really interesting…and mysterious,” she says, “But, if it’s alright with you, I really need to make sure I don’t miss my train back to Maine. I will be in deep trouble if I don’t show up when my Dad comes to get me at the station.”
Mae sighs once more. She’s dropped the whole intimidation tactic now as she looks over her shoulder at Kimberly.
“Just, please don’t tell anyone what you saw.”
“Don’t worry,” Kimberly replies. “I won’t. Nobody would believe me if I did tell them anyway.”
This seems to be good enough for Mae. We can’t really do much else to ensure that Kimberly keeps quiet.
Mae starts the car and within moments we’re on our way towards North Station to drop off Kimberly.
20
Boiling Point
At the station Mae pulls over, her flashers blinking. Kimberly gets out and I follow her, trying to be quick. The sun has almost completely set behind the buildings and the lights of the city illuminate everything. It is hard to imagine that not a half hour earlier we were in the middle of destruction, being pulled out by Mae.
A gust of wind tugs at our clothing and hair. Kimberly stops on the sidewalk and turns to face me. She glances at the car. Mae does not get out, but remains seated with her back rigid and her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Kimberly pulls her hair behind her ear.
“Thank-you for showing me around this afternoon,” she says. “And saving me. Mae, too.” Again, she glances at the car, but there is no humor in Mae, so she looks back to me. “I can’t believe I’m taking it this easily - finding out that Aberrants exist.”
“Believe me,” I say with a slight smile. “It was a hard pill to swallow for me, and I was the one getting the powers.”
This gets her to laugh, and I’m thankful for the light-heartedness. Things become more somber, though, as we prepare to say our goodbyes.
“I promise I won’t tell anyone,” says Kimberly, not meeting my eyes.
“Hopefully you’re telling the truth,” I say. “Otherwise I can’t be held responsible for Mae. She’s very secretive…” I reach out and touch Kimberly on the arm to get her to look up at me. “As am I.”
Kimberly nods.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” she says.
I shrug.
“It’s not like I’m in Maine very often,” I reply. “This was sort of a fluke. I don’t want to get your hopes up.”
“But, you do want to see me again?” she asks, an eyebrow raised.
My hands become clammy and my pulse quickens at the question. Even though we only knew each other for a short time before, I still harbor those feelings for Kimberly. She’s attractive, and she holds herself like no other girl I’ve ever met.
I glance back at Mae to see her frowning at me. I don’t know what her deal is, but the anger is starting to get old.
I ignore her and turn back to Kimberly, taking her hands.
“I’d love to see you again,” I say. “Maybe we can do this again sometime...minus the whole Drone attack.”
Kimberly lets out a full laugh, her eyes squinting shut as she smiles broadly.
“That sounds nice,” she says. “Who knows? If I end up going to Boston University, I’d be closer to you. Perhaps we’ll see a lot more of each other in the future.”
I want to say, “I’d like that,” but, decide it’s too cheesy. Instead I settle for a nod and motion to the car.
“I should get going. My ride isn’t going to wait forever.”
I start to head back to the car when Kimberly grabs my arm and pulls me back. With her hand behind my neck she stands up on her toes and plants her lips onto mine. I’m taken by surprise and fumble a bit - my mouth opening in shock. But, she doesn’t seem to mind and quickly I settle into a soft, warm kiss.
We part just as quickly and Kimberly walks to the glass doors leading into the station.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” she says over her shoulder. Then she disappears into the station.
I stand there in a trancelike state for a few moments until Mae honks her horn at me. Jumping in place, I turn on my heel and make a bee-line for the car. I’m barely buckled in before Mae pulls away from the curb and out into traffic. Her back is still rigid and her knuckles are white.
I decide to hit this argument head-on since I know there’s no way to avoid it.
“What the heck is your problem?” I ask.
“What do you think is my problem?” Mae shoots back, the venom so detectable in her voice that if it were real it would poison me to death. “You are so oblivious. So, so oblivious.”
“If you think that I asked for The Drone to be back, attacking me in Chinatown, then you’re crazy,” I say. “I had no control over that.”
“But, you had control over using your powers!” she says. “You just put both of us in jeopardy by letting Kimberly know that we are Aberrants! You couldn’t have just run away? Found someplace to hide?”
“There wasn’t anywhere we could have hidden!” I shoot back. “He had his sights set on us, and no matter how fast we ran, he was always two steps behind. What was I supposed to do?” I ask. “Was I supposed to just let The Drone take Kimberly? Let him crush her and then, oh well! At least I made it out alive. We made it out alive. Come on, Mae. I could never live with myself if I let something like that happen to Kimberly.” I pause. “Or you.”
This isn’t good enough for Mae. She’s breathing heavily and her nostrils are flaring.
“I still can’t believe that you think you can just trust her with this information,” she says. “You’ve read all the comic books, and you’ve seen the movies. Nothing good can come from trusting just anyone with your Aberrant identity!”
“But, this isn’t a movie,” I say. “This isn’t any old comic book. This is real life, and Kimberly stuck up for me when I was being bullied in Pine Grove. She was one of the people who I could trust at school, and I’m pretty sure I can trust her now. Like she said, even if she did go and tell someone about my powers, would they really believe her? It’s kind of a crazy idea. If Grandpa had come to me and told me that my father was able to fly and shoot energy out of his hands, I would have thought he was playing a practical joke on me.” I shake my head. “That’s the sort of thing they do on hidden camera shows. Really, I’m not that worried.”
At last Mae holds up a hand, and her expression tells me that she’s not agreeing with me, but there’s no way that she’ll win this one.
/> “Alright,” she says. “You’re the hero here. I’m just the sidekick. Whatever you say.”
That statement stabs me in the gut. I fix my stare on her, not taking my eyes away from her profile. Her face is illuminated every few seconds by passing headlights and I can see that her expression is steeled.
“That’s the first time you’ve ever voluntarily called yourself a sidekick,” I say. “That’s not normal.”
Mae sighs.
“Nothing about this is normal, Shaun. I’m trying to get that through your thick skull.”
I roll my eyes.
“Well, it is a pretty thick skull,” I say, trying to diffuse the tension. Though my admittance that I’m a really stubborn guy doesn’t get the smile that I am hoping to get, I do notice that Mae seems to soften a bit. I lean back in my seat and cross my arms. “I’m sorry,” I say quietly. “I know there’s a lot going on right now - a lot of things out of our control. You didn’t sign up for this.”
“But, that’s the point,” says Mae, glancing over at me. “I did sign up for this. I’m the one who wanted to be an Aberrant, to help you out when things got dangerous. Last time I checked, things got pretty dangerous this afternoon.”
“I’m lucky that you were there,” I say.
“Yeah,” says Mae. “I saved your butt back there with a distraction. I gave you enough time to get us out of there - but you need to start trusting me. We need to start trusting each other.”
“I’m trying to do that,” I explain. “It’s just that I’m not used to having to worry about you when a battle comes up.”
Mae scoffs.
“Shaun, it’s no different than when we’re at school. Just think of the villains as bullies, and us as the same...except we have superpowers.”
This makes me laugh. Thinking of The Drone as a bully is kind of amusing.
“A bully…” I mutter. “A very powerful, dangerous bully who wants to kill us and steal the medallions around our necks. Sounds like a football player.” This gets us both to chuckle. Then another thought comes to mind and I frown. “By the way, how did you know where I was?”
The Aberrant Series (Book 2): Super Vision Page 10