Burn Out

by R. J. Ross

  “I can get him,” I say, stepping up to the rock and placing my hand on the monitor that shoots up. “Please wait here. Ah, and don’t get too close, por favor, the security is dangerous here.”

  “Gracias,” the man says with a smile. I nod and head onto the campus as I see him glancing upwards, curiously. I wonder if he’s realized about the security field. Also, was that, “Gracias” a jab or did he mean it in earnest? I don’t know, but what I do know is that I don’t trust him. My woman’s intuition is shouting out that he is a bad man. Okay, so I’ll be the first to admit that my instincts about this aren’t always the best, considering the past, but I’m pretty sure about it, now!

  I pull to a stop as I see Davis already stepping out of the dorms, carrying two suitcases. When he sees me, he stops, putting the cases down. “Is someone here to pick me up?” he asks.

  “Davis,” I say, walking over to him, “look, we can fight this! I can speak with Papa and Century, and we’ll show the courts all the information proving that you’re a super. It won’t take long, I swear!”

  “Let him go,” Vinny says, stepping out of the building with a cup of coffee in his hand.

  I flinch, shocked that he would say that. “You have no idea what is going on here, Vinny!” I say. “He needs to be here! He was making so much progress!”

  “Until I blew up the fake nanobytes,” Davis says.

  “You’re not helping,” I hiss at him.

  “I don’t know what you’re freaking out about, Jimmi,” he says, picking his suitcases back up. “I’m merely going back to where I came from. Aren’t you supers all about family ties?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Are they out there, or not?” he asks.

  “There’s a man with your mother,” I tell him quietly, placing my hands on his shoulders. “He’s a super. I don’t know if your mother realizes it or not, but I think he might be dangerous. Supers usually are, especially the ones that aren’t registered, and I don’t know if he’s registered or not, but I doubt he is—”

  “His name is Walter Colleck,” Davis says. “He’s my father.”

  I go still, not because I’m shocked at the revelation, but because I’m shocked by the fact that he already knows all of this.

  “Who—”

  “That’s why you need to let him go,” Vinny says, leaning back against the dorm wall. “Davis has work to do.”

  “But—” I start out.

  “It’s also part of the reason I’m here,” he says. Davis is the one that looks surprised, now. He glances over at Vinny, who reaches into his pocket and pulls out a glasses case. “They stuck me with earrings,” he says, “but it looks like you get a pair of glasses, instead. You’ll have to convince your mother that they add to making you look like a norm.” He tosses the case to Davis, who catches it with a frown. He opens it, taking out a pair of rather bland looking black-rim glasses.

  “Why?” Davis asks, trying them on. “Oh,” he says, “that’s why.”

  “You mean…” I say, looking from Vinny to Davis, “that you and Nico are sending—” I stop myself, abruptly remembering that even if we’re talking quietly, there’s still a risk of being heard by another super. “He’s outside,” I say silently, motioning to the invisible security field. “How good is your hearing, Davis?”

  “My hearing?” Davis asks, looking in the direction I motion to. “Oh. I don’t know? It’s not nearly as good as the other kids in the school.”

  “But he’s also young,” Vinny says. “You haven’t fully come into your powers, have you?”

  “Superior said I might be somewhat passable in ten years,” Davis says, his irritation with that comment creeping into his voice.

  “Try not to mention his name around your father,” Vinny says. “Do you need instructions on how to use them?”

  “No, I can figure it out,” Davis says. “It’s similar to most of Technico’s toys. I just need to keep him from trying them out, correct?”

  “They shouldn’t work for someone else, but I won’t swear to it,” a tiny voice says from the glasses. “According to my little sister, you and your father have very similar power patterns. Keep him thinking they’re dollar store frames as long as you can.”

  “Are they?” Davis asks.

  “I got them out of a car in the junkyard, actually,” Nico says. “But Jimmi, I need you to keep going on with your campaign to get Davis back in school. I wasn’t planning on you finding this out, actually.”

  “And why not?” I demand, glaring at the glasses because Nico isn’t here.

  “Because you’re a lot more effective when you’re righteously indignant. It’s why I sent Vinny,” he says.

  “I am feeling VERY righteously indignant right now, Nico,” I tell him, fighting the urge to yell. “You’re sending a child into a dangerous situation like this! Of course I am angry! It should be someone more experienced! Someone that has been properly trained for espionage! Someone—”

  “He would be involved whether or not we sent someone else,” he says, cutting me off. “At least this way we’re giving him backup.”

  “I’m not a child, Jimmi,” Davis says, visibly bristling. “Although I might be young, I can do intellectual circles around ninety-nine percent of the supers in the world!”

  “But your father is not one of those supers, Davis,” I say, as quietly as I can. “You got your super intellect from somewhere, right? It was probably him.” I can’t help myself, I pull him into a hug. He gasps and taps on my arm, saying it’s too hard. “This is too dangerous, Nico,” I say, only loosening the hug slightly. “He’s just so young.” I look at Vinny, pleadingly.

  “Sure, he’s young,” Vinny says, taking another drink of his coffee, “but you can’t stop them from taking him. They’re waiting, right? They have Hall permission. The Hall is trying to avoid legal suits right now, since they just finished with Sunny’s episode.”

  “Sunny didn’t do anything wrong! It was self defense,” I say. He’s always like this. Oh, sure, he came down here, but he forced me to get myself out of the situation with Tank. He has no sympathy! Why do I still have a crush on this cold-blooded guy?

  “Of course it was,” Vinny says. “Sunny doesn’t even swat bugs unless they’re dangerous to his plants. But the longer we stand here, chatting, the more suspicious his parents are going to be.”

  I look at Davis as I let out a sigh. “You can do this,” I tell him.

  “As I’ve been trying to say for the past ten minutes,” he tells me, in his most haughty tone. He reaches up, pushing his new glasses up his nose with a finger. “Now, I need to go greet my errant father.” I see several emotions cross his face, before a worried look appears. “Okay, I think this should do,” he says as he heads for the exit.

  “He’s good,” Vinny says. “Is he planning on going villain?”

  “Of course I am,” Davis says.

  “Well, that sucks,” Vinny says. “Going up against you is going to be time consuming, I bet. Eh, I’ll let Jimmi do it.”

  “Oh, no, YOU are the one who’ll face him,” I say, smirking, now. “You’re the tactician.” My hands clench before I let out a sigh and take one of the suitcases from Davis. “Come on, I’ll go with you.”

  “Does this mean you agree to this?” he asks me.

  “I have no choice,” I admit. “But no blowing up things that could lead to the destruction of the planet, understand? I do not want to be distracted from getting you out of yet another life-threatening situation.”

  “I would rather avoid that, too, you know,” he says. “One death-defying family related incident is all I plan on.”

  “Davis!” I hear Marisol call from the dorms. We both glance back, seeing all of our classmates standing there, some still in pajamas. “Bye,” she says, lifting a hand slowly.

  “Goodbye,” Davis says. “For now,” he adds under his breath, earning surprised grins from the others. They start waving and calling out their farewells much more enth
usiastically as we head out of the security field. He hesitates as he sees the stunned expression on his mother’s face. “Hello, Mom,” he says. “Is there a problem? Have you talked to the colleges again?”

  “Ah, yes, actually—” she says, turning and looking at the man with her.

  “Hello, Davis,” he says, stepping forward. “My name is Walter Colleck. It’s a pleasure to meet my new son.” He offers his hand and Davis raises an eyebrow slightly before taking it. “I’ll be overseeing your education from here. Although I’m a mere… I believe they call them ‘Norms’? I’m certain that we can get along just fine.”

  Davis looks him straight in the eye. “Well, since I’m a mere ‘norm’ as well, I think we will be able to figure something out.” They shake hands, their lips twitching with suppressed smiles.

  “You are NOT normal!” Davis’s mother says, completely missing the point of that conversation.

  “But, Mother, isn’t that why you’re taking me out of this school?” Davis asks before turning to me. “Thanks,” he says, simply, as he takes his suitcases and heads for the car. I watch him for a second, only to feel someone watching me. Walter Colleck is staring at me with a curious expression.

  “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Voltdrain, would you?” he asks.

  I turn and head into the school, again, not bothering to answer.

  ***

  “I have a fight this afternoon,” I complain as I sit on the stool in the dorm’s kitchen. Vinny is cooking, and I would be yelling at him for messing around with my kitchen’s layout, if I wasn’t so distracted. “I was also planning on showing you around, but how can I concentrate on that when I know he’s in that situation?” Why, yes, I AM feeling dramatic right now. I have every right to act dramatically. This CALLS for drama!

  “Who are you fighting?” he asks.

  “Who do you think?” I say. “The only gig they have me doing is the Nemeses.” I’ve only been a Nemeses for a couple of weeks, and I only started doing the actual fights last week. “Not that it isn’t fun! Skye and the girls are hysterical, but they’re constantly picking ridiculous places to work at. We’re going to crash a movie shoot today.”

  “What movie?” he asks.

  “The Deadly Darlin’s movie,” she says. “Century had to pay out a TON of money to interrupt their filming for half an hour. He’s still complaining about it, but Skye wants to meet the actress that’s playing her.”

  “Will you be in the movie?” he asks as he places something in the oven.

  “Nah, I’m too new for the script. This is more of a, ‘How they were formed’ thing. It’s completely inaccurate, except for the base having Doris, and Ariel starting out as a cloud.” I lean back, slightly, thinking for a moment. “Isn’t the Liberty family movie coming out soon?”

  “Yeah, it’ll be coming out next month.”

  “So?” I prompt, when that’s all he says.

  “Who knows if I’ll be in Central at that time? Nico’s been talking about sending me back and forth to make a name.”

  “Vinny, you can FLY,” I point out. “You’ll need a date, right?”

  He looks at me as I flutter my eyelashes at him, teasingly. “Ah… about that,” he says, slowly. “You should be over the rebound thing by now, right?”

  I stare at him, my mind going blank for all of a second before things snap into place. I lose my temper, and my eyes glow so brightly that I can see the reflection in his. “Do I LOOK like I’m still suffering over dumping Tank?” I ask him. “And I didn’t fall in love with Justin, either, I would like to point out. But honestly, I’m growing tired of throwing myself at you, only to be shoved away, so I take back my offer. I have better things to do than chase someone who isn’t into me!” The words come tumbling out, almost surprising me. Oh, sure, I’ve had this thought in the back of my mind for a while, now, but then he would do something nice, and I’d forget I was thinking it. Well, I’m a school leader, now. I’m possibly a future Hall Leader, as well. I don’t have time to chase someone who doesn’t want to be caught, I have real work to do!

  I stand, storming out the door. For a moment, I’m certain he’s going to chase me, but it swings shut with no resistance at all, and I just keep going. Forget him. I have a busy schedule today, and I still want to check in with Davis as soon as I can!

  I see Whitney out of the corner of my eye, and realize that she’s close enough to have heard all of that. Even if she wasn’t, there are enough reflective surfaces in the kitchen for her to peek in from anywhere. She’s watching me with a worried expression. “Are you okay?” she asks me. I look around the cafeteria, and then glare at the kitchen door before grabbing her hand and pulling her out of there. He can hear us, I’m sure.

  “Don’t ever fall for a boy like him,” I tell her once we’re in the rec room. “He might turn into fire, but he has ice in his veins. Now! You and I are going to go visit your Noni!” I declare, cheering up, slightly.

  “Noni? Why? It’s her day off,” she says.

  “Because I would like to introduce her to my papá,” I say. “She’ll be the perfect first date for him, unless she’s seeing someone?”

  “You want to set your dad up with my grandmother?” she says, stunned. The look changes as she thinks about it, “But if it works, it would make you my aunt, right? That would be both awesome and REALLY strange…”

  “If nothing else, they’ll enjoy cooking together,” I explain. “I’ll be moving out, soon, and I don’t want him to be lonely when I’m gone. He needs friends, chica, and I adore your Noni, so she’s the perfect place to start!”

  “Don’t you have a show to do?” she asks, but she’s following me through the school. “I mean, I think it would be AMAZING to have Voltdrain as a grandpa, and all, but today’s super busy, right?”

  “It is, which is why we need to spend less time talking and more time walking!” I say, heading through the security field. “Or we could find a mirror!”

  “Ah, um, but—” she says as she focuses on her steps through the field, “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be taking people in with me? Noni said that recently there’s been a super villain using the Mirrorlands, and that she doesn’t THINK he’ll be a problem, but I should still be cautious—”

  “Oh, that’s just Reaper,” I say, waving it off. “He’s been coming down to visit the Darlin’s. They really hit it off.”

  “Reaper?” she asks. “I… don’t think I’ve ever heard of him.”

  “He’s a killer for hire,” I say.

  “A KILLER?” she yelps.

  “Not a REAL killer! A photo-op killer! When the older supers want to retire to a nice little island, they hire him for a lot of money to stage their deaths,” I explain, starting to run. I have to keep it somewhat slow, since she’s still really young, but she’s gotten faster! All of our training has been paying off!

  “Oh… yeah, I guess that makes sense,” she says, “But why can he walk through the Mirrorlands?”

  “He can go through all of the sub-dimensions like that,” I explain. “It’s part of his Grim Reaper power set. He’s also Sandra’s Papa.”

  “Oh… that’s pretty cool,” she says. “Jimmi?”

  “Yes, chica?” I ask.

  “Did he break your heart?”

  “No, chica, I broke my own,” I say. “But it’s mine to break, and mine to fix, and I don’t have time to pine for a boy that never liked me that much, to begin with.”

  “He doesn’t like you? What is he, an idiot?” she says. “I mean, you’re the coolest person in the entire school, and it’s a school of SUPERS.”

  “Yes, but I’m not the coolest in his,” I admit as we reach the town. I look around, and then at her.

  “There,” she says, pointing to a grimy looking gas station. “That’ll work.” This time she’s the one pulling me. She heads through the gas station and into the women’s bathroom, checking the stalls before taking my hand again and pulling me through the full-length mirror a
nd into the Mirrorlands.

  ***

  Back in the kitchen Vinny leans against the counter, frowning. Oh, sure, he’d expected her to do something like that earlier. He had never said or done anything that would get her hopes up, right? Well… no. He’d been trying to be more open, lately. He’d asked her about her day, held her hand, that sort of thing. And he had been TRYING to lead up to asking her out, just now, but she just jumped to the wrong conclusion… he starts digging through the fridge to find something to make for snack time, trying to shove the thoughts aside. It’s better for everyone that she got over this. Relationships in the workplace are bad business, right? Oh, well, sure the Liberties do all right, but they’re one of those strange families that actually like working together. No, if they’re going to be working together, what just happened is for the best.

  Except…

  He pulls out a box of fruit, setting it on the counter and going to look for a knife. The kitchen is set up differently from his, so he keeps fighting the urge to move things. She’s already mad enough, as it is, right?

  “Um…” He turns as someone peeks into the kitchen. “You busy?” Jonas asks.

  “Not if you don’t mind me working while we talk,” Vinny says.

  “That’s fine,” Jonas says. The healer teen steps into the kitchen and looks around for a few moments before speaking. “How’s Alyssa?”

  Vinny looks at him, a tiny bit surprised. “Alyssa? Not Aubrey?” he asks.

  “Bobby’s the one with the crush on Aubrey,” Jonas says as he heads for the stool Jimmi had been sitting on earlier. “Which is pretty sad, and even he knows it.”

  “Alyssa…” Vinny says, thinking about it for a moment. “I guess she’s fine? I think I heard something about her spending a lot of time with Sandra, lately. Why don’t you just ask her?”

  “She’s…” he starts out, only to shake his head, “well… I mean, I check in on the chat-line, but I don’t really feel like talking, that much. And it’s not like I can call her out in the middle of that group, anyway… But I’m not surprised about her and Sandra. They seemed to really click when we went up to the North Pole.” The room falls silent, since Vinny and Jonas were never the closest pair, but Jonas seems to be chewing on an idea, still.