by Drew Hayes
Scowls and sneers were pulled up short as some Supers realized they were showing too much on their face. Nick continued a steady leer, not so angry as to draw attention but unhappy enough that anyone who glanced at him wouldn't mistake him as sympathetic to the plight of a Powered.
"My ability is teleportation, and it activates every time I sneeze," Jacob said. "I can't control where I go, or how far away I end from where I started out. I seem to have some natural sense of preservation, though, because I never teleport into an object or five miles up in the air. I'm always safe, just horribly inconvenienced. That's more or less all you need to know about me, so why don't we go ahead and let you ask any questions you might have? I'm sure most of you have never had occasion to talk to a Powered, after all."
"If you accidentally teleport when you sneeze, why don't you just teleport back afterward?" Stella blurted out in typical fashion.
"Because I can't," Jacob replied.
"But you just said you had the ability of teleportation," Stella kept probing.
"Yes, when I sneeze I teleport uncontrollably. And that's the only time I can do it. Unless I'm sneezing I can't teleport any more than I can turn lead in gold," Jacob explained.
"I get that you have the accidental thing," Stella continued. "I'm just asking why you never learned to use your power outside of the trigger so you could do it whenever you wanted."
"Let me ask you something, young lady, what's your power?" Jacob asked in response.
"I turn into steel."
"That sounds like a good one," Jacob complimented her. "But why don't you ever try flying instead?"
"Because that's not my power," Stella said slowly. "I told you, I turn into steel."
"And I told you, I teleport when I sneeze. I don't have the power to teleport at will any more than you have the power to fly. There's a common misconception that Powereds are too lazy or stupid to master our gifts, when the reality is that we just don't have that ability. Trust me, this isn't a lifestyle choice."
A well-manicured hand near the front raised slowly in the air.
"Yes?" Jacob said, gesturing to the girl asking the question.
"Do you hate Supers?" Alice asked. The class reacted visibly, and Nick nearly fell out of his chair. What was that crazy bitch doing, drawing attention to herself in this kind of discussion? They needed to slide by and pray for class to end swiftly.
"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you," Jacob said.
"You didn't," Alice said. "I asked if you hated Supers. Your ability must make having any kind of normal life nearly impossible, yet when you look around there are people with all of the gift and none of the burden being idolized and worshiped by society. If not for a variant in your genetic coding, that might very well have been you. So do you hate us?"
"Of course I do," Jacob told her. "Every Powered hates Supers, and not just for the reasons you listed. While you are elite and special, we're looked at as a type of disabled person. We're considered lesser citizens, a social burden that people have to put up with. Most people think of us as nothing more than the price they pay for having Supers and Heroes. So of course I hate you, but not violently, just achingly. Aching for what might have been. I've got one for you now. Do you hate Powereds?"
"Of course I do," Alice echoed.
"And why is that?"
"Same reason. Because when I look at you, I see what might have been if not for a twist of fate," Alice elaborated.
"Wow," Jacob said. "You're a lot more honest with yourself than most Supers."
"Thank you," Alice accepted gracefully.
Another hand rose a few rows over from Alice, this one male.
"Is there any hope for your kind?" Chad asked without waiting to be called on.
"There's always hope, kid; if you take nothing else from this then please take that," Jacob answered. "No, there's no science, or miracle cure in the works that will make me more like you. No one has even been able to figure what the difference between Supers and Powereds is; as far as modern science can tell, we're genetically identical. So I'm not expecting some breaking news tomorrow announcing that we can become Supers, or even that we can just become human. But I have hope, because if I didn't, then I don't know how I would be able to keep pressing on. And besides, in a world where people can dance on the clouds, it isn't so crazy to hope for the impossible."
Chad accepted this explanation with a silent nod.
"Is it true no one knows what causes Powereds?" a dark-haired boy in the front called out.
"We don't even have a clue. Powereds can be born from Supers, regular humans, or other Powereds. The stats are across the board, and no one combination has been proven more likely," Jacob said.
"How did your parents take it?" Vince asked quietly. Nick made a note to whip up some cyanide punch and kill everyone he shared that damned dorm with. Two of them had called attention to themselves. Two!
"My parents?"
"Yeah. I mean, most parents are overjoyed to have a kid who is a Super. What's it like telling them that you're a Powered?" Vince elaborated.
"If you're able to tell them, then you're one of the lucky few," Jacob said. "Most of us get outed by the powers themselves. I sneezed myself right out of a birthday party when I was a kid. When I couldn't do it again by focusing my secret was pretty much out. As for how they took it... well, I was fortunate. They loved me and tried to be supportive of me. It was hard, though, because every time I came back after I vanished, I could see the disappointment they were hiding. Disappointed that they had almost sired greatness, but instead all they got was me. It's such a thin line between Powered and Super, yet that line may as well be a ravine from how separated we are."
Undoubtedly some students wanted to chime in with how they wished that line was bigger so they wouldn't have to talk to or deal with Powereds anymore. One didn't qualify for the HCP by being stupid, though, even if they could make it in despite ignorance. Dean Blaine had laid it clearly on the table before the talk began. This was constructive questions only: anything else would piss off the man who could boot them from the program with nothing more than a word.
"We won't be able to go on much longer," Dean Blaine interrupted from his seat. "Mr. Stuart has an engagement to which I have agreed to accompany him in fulfillment of our bargain. Let's take one more question and then you will be dismissed early."
Several hands went up this time, some last minute flurries of determination for the dean to see their participation and up the grade, others genuine probes of curiosity. Jacob scanned the crowd and selected one hand a few rows up.
"Okay, you in the sunglasses," Jacob announced, pointing up at Nick.
"Do you have any pepper?" Nick asked.
"Pepper?"
"Or a feather, or a thin line of cloth. Really anything along those lines," Nick said, half of him cursing himself for being the third Melbrook member to ask a question and half trusting in himself and his gambit.
Ever so slowly a smile crept across Jacob's face. He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a long case. He popped it open and delicately removed a slender white feather. It was sturdy as well as slim and it looked very well cared for.
"Smart kid," Jacob commented.
"What the hell? How did he know you had a feather?" Stella blurted out.
"Because he's putting himself in my shoes," Jacob replied. "He's wondering, if he were in my situation, how would he use it to his advantage? And he came to the same conclusion as I did. You see, teleporting randomly can still be pretty useful for snapping yourself out of dangerous situations, and just because I can't make myself teleport doesn't mean I can't make myself sneeze."
"Crafty," Stella complimented.
"Dangerous," Nick corrected. "It's easy to get caught up in the pity party of what it must be like to be a Powered, but we're idiots if we forget that they aren't always helpless. Sometimes a power that can't be controlled is even more hazardous to fight than one that can be."
"Mr. Campbel
l," Dean Blaine cautioned, raising his voice in warning.
"No, it's okay," Jacob said. "The boy is right. You are a fool if you forget that the key word of Powered is power. We have it, even if it isn't reigned in, and some of us have stretched our resourcefulness to its limit for even a shred more of control. If you become Heroes you'll have to deal with Powereds sometimes. Never underestimate them or make assumptions. Always be ready to ask yourself, if you had their condition, how would you try to utilize it? Sometimes answering that question will be the difference between winning and losing."
"On that note, I’d like to hear a round of applause to thank our guest for taking time out of his day to speak with us," Dean Blaine said. There was a lukewarm sound of clapping that faded away quickly.
"You can take your time in going to gym," Dean Blaine said as the last lone clapper gave up the fight. "The coaches won't be expecting you until your regular time. I thought you might like to take these extra minutes and talk amongst yourselves about what we covered today. That is your choice, though; just be at gym when the hour arrives." With that, he and Jacob exited the room, and after a minute or two of waiting to make sure he wouldn't come back, the rest of the class began flowing toward the door as well.
Nick gathered up his own things and sighed inwardly. He'd managed to diffuse a lot of the sympathy the class had been building toward Jacob, and in doing so had marked himself as someone with no compassion for Powereds. It was a bit paranoid, admittedly, to worry that someone would make such a leap from Melbrook students being sympathetic toward Powereds to suspecting they had once been Powereds themselves, but Nick often thought of paranoia as nothing more than extreme preparedness. He had done what he had to do, even if it was built on a very unlikely fear. Unlikely was something you learned to account for when you grew up with bipolar luck, though, so Nick reaffirmed that it was necessary to shift the pity toward Jacob partially into suspicion and fear.
Knowing all that, he still felt a sense of guilt rising in his stomach. That, at least, he knew exactly how to deal with though.
52.
“What. The Fuck. Was that?” These were the words that greeted Dean Blaine as he returned to his office some hours after the class and his errand with Jacob had been finished.
“Mr. Campbell,” Dean Blaine said graciously. “My secretary informed me you’d been waiting in my office for some time. I must say I’m impressed at your patience.”
Nick stared back at him stonily. There might have been some emotion in the eyes hidden away by those sunglasses, but the face was an absolute blank. No feeling, no sentiment, no expectation, only an unending resolve in waiting for his answer.
“Fine, then. ‘That’, as you put it, was my attempt to develop some semblance of humane feelings towards Powereds in my class,” Dean Blaine said.
“Have you ever done it before?” Nick asked.
“Well, no,” Dean Blaine admitted.
“Then why in God’s sweet name would you do it this time?” Nick asked, rising to his feet.
“Because it’s more relevant,” Dean Blaine replied.
“No, it isn’t,” Nick corrected him. “There is no relevance to it at all. Powereds are broken products, lesser Supers, a group with an unfortunate disability, and not one person in that class needs to think any differently. We’re all Supers after all, so who is going to get offended?”
“Mr. Campbell, if you’re afraid that my experiment will compromise your secret, I can assure you-”
“Stop,” Nick said, holding up his hand. The gesture was unnecessary: the tone of his voice alone would have frozen water. “Do you fully understand how tenuous our position here is? Do you realize what a ridiculous stroke of luck it is that the only real telepath in our class is one of us? Do you think for one moment you really understand what it will be like if our secret gets out? Let me assure you of something, Dean Blaine. I’m certain your heart is in the right place, but don’t you ever fucking dare believe for an instant you know what it’s like growing up as a Powered. Until you’ve seen the looks of disgust and disappointment on people’s faces, until you’ve been literally terrified out of your mind about what you’ll cause to happen next, and until you’ve seen that same fear of the eyes of those you love, only then you can talk to me about how you’re doing your best to keep our secret.”
“Feel better?” Dean Blaine asked. “That was quite the little monologue.”
“It needed to be said,” Nick replied. “You’re too careless, and I understand today was about trying to help us, but honestly, the best thing you can do to help us is treat us like everyone else.”
“In that case I should probably kick you out since you’ve sworn at the dean of your program twice in last few minutes,” Dean Blaine said.
“Do what you’ve got to do,” Nick shot back. “Just understand that while Mary and Roy, and maybe even Vince, could still hang on if we got outed, Alice and I wouldn’t last a week. We’re not the combat type; the only thing that lets us fly through here is being part of the community of Supers. If we were targeted, or different, there’s no way we’d be able to hold on.”
“I take it that’s why you consistently make grades at almost exactly the median of the class,” Dean Blaine speculated.
“On my best day it’s still tenuous that my power should have gotten me in here,” Nick said. “Not making waves is the best strategy I’ve got.”
“Very well, Mr. Campbell,” Dean Blaine said. “I’ll take what you’ve said under advisement for my future lessons. I’ll do this because this is the first time you’ve actually talked to me as yourself, the bright observant boy we both know you to be, rather than that insipid character you’ve concocted.”
“It made more sense to abandon the pretense, otherwise I couldn’t have had this discussion with you,” Nick confessed.
“A wise choice, though I’m sure you’ll be playing the same part in our future classroom interactions,” Dean Blaine said.
“Of course,” Nick confirmed.
“I can accept that. I do hope you realize my door is always open to you, though, not just when you wish to go on a tirade. Since you’ve already shown your true self to me, there’s no harm in dropping by to talk. If you would like,” Dean Blaine offered.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. I think we’re done then, Mr. Campbell, unless there was anything else?”
“No, as long as there are no more stunts like today, we should be fine,” Nick said, turning to go.
“Oh, and I should point out there were two problems with your argument,” Dean Blaine said. “Firstly, Ms. Smith is not the only telepath in your year, as you should know from having met Mr. Griffen.”
“Alex is a nice guy, but he’s closer to an empath than a telepath. He rarely gets thoughts, mostly emotions,” Nick said.
“As far as you know,” Dean Blaine pointed out. “It would be wise not to underestimate anyone who has made it into my program. That brings up the second problem. Your ‘tenuous power’, as you described it, is not what elevated you into the HCP.”
“Oh?” Nick asked without turning around. He was confident his face was still controlled, but there was no reason to risk giving anything away when it was avoidable.
“Indeed. The power qualifies you as a Super, but in your evaluation it was your intelligence and strategic thinking that made you Hero material,” Dean Blaine said.
“Good to know,” Nick said, walking to the door and swiftly exiting the dean’s office. Somewhere in course of that conversation he’d lost his power and momentum, but he’d gained insight into how the dean worked, and that might prove to be invaluable. Aside from that, he’d gotten a slight idea at what Dean Blaine’s power might be, and that information he knew would be useful. Now he just had to think of a way to test his hypothesis.
After finals, though. Even Nick wasn’t confident enough to try and take on more projects before the semester ended.
53.
"I'm glad you
talked us into coming out," Hershel told Alex as they entered the living room of a two-story house. The couches were wrapped in plastic and it seemed someone had laid a blue tarp down on top of most of the carpet. The house was full, though not bursting like the other clubs and parties they had been to. It was loud enough to see that people were having fun, though it hadn't crossed the line into utter pandemonium yet.
"I think we all needed it after that bummer of a presentation on Tuesday," Alex said. "I mean, I agree with what Dean Blaine was trying to do, but he should have known most people weren't ever going to be sympathetic toward some Powered."
"You are," Vince pointed out.
Alex shrugged. "Nearly everyone thinks I'm crazy or delusional. It's hard for me to get up on my high horse about how I'm so much better than someone else. Besides, that's not the Jedi way."
"The Jedi had better get out of my way," Nick said, shouldering into the room. He and Alice were the last of the group, Mary having opted to stay in and the rest of their friends studying for finals already. In truth, Nick was tempted to use the same excuse; however, after letting himself go and tearing into Dean Blaine, he felt like he needed to recenter his character. Sadly, a social environment full of Supers was the best place for that.
"Welcome, Fish," said a tall blonde girl holding a red plastic cup. She and Alice had a slight similarity, in the way that a dog and wolf can look the same if one isn't paying attention. She wasn't imposing, per se, but the way she walked, smiled, and ever tossed her hair left no doubt in anyone's mind that this woman was a warrior. "I'm glad you guys made it out. My name is Angela and this is my house."
"Thank you for inviting us," Vince said politely.