by TJ Klune
There was a large fountain in the center of the room, water cascading down a thin sheet of glass. Nick watched as the glass lit up, and Simon Burke’s face appeared in the water. “Welcome to Burke Pharmaceuticals,” he said in a booming voice. “The future begins now.”
“He paid someone six figures to come up with that slogan,” Owen said.
Nick couldn’t comprehend that kind of money. “Seems like he overpaid.”
Owen snorted. “Try telling him that.”
A row of metal detectors stood in the middle of the lobby, darkened. A security guard sat behind a wooden desk on a raised dais. He barely looked older than they did. He arched an eyebrow as they approached. “Mr. Burke,” he said. “You’re here late.” He sat up in his chair, blushing slightly.
“You know how it is, Brett,” Owen said easily. “Dad forgets something in his office, and I have to be the dutiful son and pick it up for him.”
“No rest for the wicked.”
Owen grinned as he leaned forward, elbows on the desk. “You calling me wicked, Brett?”
Brett looked flustered. “That’s not—I’m not trying to—” He looked over Owen’s shoulder at Nick. “Who’s your friend?”
Owen glanced back at him. “Oh, Nicky? He’s here to keep me company.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
Brett scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know if I can let him in with you, Mr. Burke. I don’t think your dad would be too happy about that.”
Owen reached out and straightened Brett’s tie. “Maybe it could be our little secret.”
Brett sighed. “Don’t do anything that’s going to get me fired.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. Not seeing your face would be a travesty of epic proportions.”
“Uh, sure,” Brett said, visibly sweating. “Yeah. Hey, I was thinking. Maybe we could go out for—”
“Can you buzz us in?” Owen asked sweetly.
Brett nodded jerkily, but reached forward and hit a button on the desk. “Just make sure you swipe the card in case anyone asks.”
“Thanks, Brett,” Owen said. He looked back at Nick again. “Ready?”
Nick nodded, unsure of what the hell was going on. It didn’t stop him from following Owen through a metal gate next to the desk. The gate snapped closed behind them.
* * *
Nick figured they’d head toward the bank of elevators, so he was surprised when Owen veered to the left, heading down a long hallway with vaulted ceilings, and dark, wooden doors lining either side. The walls were covered with black screens, a stylized BP spinning lazily in the middle. Through floor-to-ceiling windows, Nick saw a man moving in what looked like a conference room, bopping his head as the tile buffer whirred loudly across the floor.
Now that he was here, Nick wasn’t sure this was the best idea. He thought about finding a way to get out of it, to convince Owen they needed to think this through, but every time he opened his mouth to say just that, he saw his father, unconscious in his hospital bed, the machines beeping and hissing around him, the line of his heartbeat bouncing.
“All right?” Owen asked, glancing back at him.
No. “Yeah.”
They turned left, and then right, and then right again, and Nick wasn’t sure he could find his own way out. Burke Tower was a labyrinth. He didn’t know how anyone found their way around here.
“It’s bigger than it looks,” Nick told Owen. “This whole place.”
A strange look crossed Owen’s face. “It’s all about layers, Nick. My family tends to have a certain … flair for the dramatics. My grandfather built this place from the ground up. And when he died, my father continued his work.” He chuckled bitterly. “And one day, it will all be mine, and I’ll wear the crown, heavy though it is.”
Nick shrugged awkwardly. Owen’s carefully placed mask seemed to be slipping again, and it made him uncomfortable. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“My family isn’t like yours. There are certain expectations. Any choice I would’ve had in this life was taken from me the moment I was born.”
“That … sucks.” Dumb, but he didn’t know what else to say. Vulnerable Owen wasn’t something Nick knew how to deal with.
Owen laughed. “Oh, Nicky. Such a way with words.”
“You’re making a choice here, right?”
“What do you mean?”
Nick shrugged. “Being here. Doing … what we’re doing. You chose to tell me about it. You chose to bring me here.”
Owen shook his head. “This isn’t about choice, Nick. This was inevitable.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know. There’s a lot of things you don’t understand.”
Nick felt a drop of sweat slide down the back of his neck. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You’re going to do this too, aren’t you? Become an Extraordinary? I don’t know if I want to do this by myself.”
“Getting cold feet?”
“No. I just—why would you want to be normal when you can be something more?”
Nick didn’t like the glint in Owen’s eyes. “Exactly what I’ve always thought. This is going to be good, Nick. You’ll see. We’re here.”
* * *
They stopped in front of ornate double doors. There was a black box next to the doors, similar to the one on the outside of Burke Tower. But instead of using the same card, Owen pulled a different one out of his pocket. He swiped it through the thin slot. It beeped … and a little light turned red.
Owen frowned.
He swiped it again.
A beep. A red light.
“Huh,” Owen said.
“What’s wrong?”
“Card’s not working. My father must have had the doors recoded. Can never be too careful these days. Keep an eye out.”
“Maybe we should—”
“It’ll only take a second, Nick.”
Nick turned and looked down the hallway. It was empty.
“I like you, Nick,” Owen said. “I always have. I know—I know things were weird between us for a little while. And I know I haven’t been as good a friend as I could be, but there’s a reason for that.”
Nick looked back over his shoulder. Owen hunched over the black box. Nick couldn’t see what he was doing to it, but he could see Owen’s arms moving. “Because you’re a stuck-up jerk?”
“A little. But I don’t suppose it matters now, does it? You’ve got Seth.”
“I don’t know about that,” Nick muttered. “He’s … Something’s going on with him, and I don’t know what.”
“Life,” Owen said airily. “We’re teenagers. Everything is unnecessarily complicated. We’re told we have to be a certain way, even if we know it’s wrong. We’re not taken seriously. Our ideas are cast aside as though they’re without merit. Sometimes, we need to act out so that people pay attention to us. So that people know we mean what we say. That we’re capable. That we shouldn’t be dismissed.”
Nick didn’t know what he was talking about. “I thought putting a cricket into a microwave was going to make me into a superhero. I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be allowed to have ideas of my own anymore.”
Owen shook his head. “Maybe it wasn’t the most well thought-out plan, but your heart was in the right place. You made a decision to become something greater than what you were.”
“Because I had a crush on an Extraordinary. It’s stupid, if you think about it.”
“But it’s not just because of that anymore, is it?”
“I … No. It’s not. But I don’t think—”
Nick saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eyes. He whirled around in time to see one of the doors swing open. “How did you do that?”
Owen grinned, sharp. “I have my ways. Come on. We’re almost there.”
Nick looked back over his shoulder.
The hallway was still empty.
; He turned toward the door …
… and went inside.
* * *
The office was extravagant, more than anything Nick had seen so far. Three of the four walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, the shelves filled with tomes bound in bright colors. A ladder sat attached to a rail system that wrapped around the front of the bookshelves.
The fourth wall was a gigantic screen, the same BP symbol spinning in the middle.
A large wooden desk sat in front of the screen. There were three separate computer monitors on the desk, but Owen ignored them.
“I thought you said it was in the basement,” Nick said.
“It is.”
“Then why are we—”
“Watch.”
Nick took a step back when Owen touched the spines of three different books in quick succession, each one lighting up under his fingertips. There was a deep, concussive sound, and then part of the bookshelf moved backward before sliding out of sight, revealing an elevator.
“Whoa,” Nick breathed. He hadn’t known until that exact moment that a bookcase hiding a secret entrance was one of his kinks. It definitely was now.
“Pretty cool, right?” Owen asked. “Like I said. Dramatic.” He pressed a panel near the elevator doors. They opened.
Nick hesitated.
Owen saw it. “What is it?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Owen looked surprised. “I told you before. I want to help you—”
Nick shook his head. “You don’t help anyone but yourself.”
“Yikes.”
Nick winced. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Yeah, you did. But that’s fair.” Owen sighed. “Think of this as me trying to better myself. Being selfless, even.”
“Owen.”
“Okay, maybe not selfless, but you get the idea. Can’t a guy help a friend out?”
“What’s in it for you?” Nick asked suspiciously.
“I get to say I know a kick-ass Extraordinary.” Owen took a step back toward the elevator. “We’re going to change the world, Nick. Of course I’d want to be a part of that. Don’t you? Think about it. If you were given the power to make sure your dad would never be hurt again, wouldn’t you take it? Why would you want to go through the experience of losing a parent all over again? You couldn’t save your mother but—”
“Don’t,” Nick growled. “Don’t bring her into this.”
Owen held up his hands. “Sorry. I didn’t—that wasn’t what I meant. I’m just saying that this will keep those you love safe. And isn’t that the most important thing of all?”
Nick was moving before he even realized it. He shoved past Owen and walked into the elevator. He turned around, arched an eyebrow, and said, “You coming?”
Owen smiled, eyes alight with mischief.
* * *
They didn’t speak as the elevator descended. It was a longer trip than Nick expected it to be, lasting almost a full minute. There were no numbers counting up or down inside the elevator, only a single green button that Owen had pressed. Nick tried to clear his head, taking deep, even breaths. He was so close, so close to having what he’d wanted for the longest time. He couldn’t back out now.
The elevator slowed to a halt.
The doors slid open.
In front of them was a wide-open space, sectioned off by walls of glass. Tiny lights lined the floor, illuminating the walkway that stretched in front of them, much longer than Nick expected it to be.
“Okay,” Owen said. “This is it. The overhead lights will stay off. There aren’t any security cameras down here. They wanted to keep it off the main security grid. Anything recorded is done closed circuit. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. Always remember to keep to the shadows.”
And that … that gave Nick pause. “What?”
Owen glanced back at him as he stepped out of the elevator. “Stay low and quiet, Nick. It’s … what? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Nick shook his head slowly. “Uh. Nothing. Never mind. Déjà vu, I guess.”
“That’s the strangest feeling, isn’t it? Like you’ve been here before. Or it’s precognition. I think my father has a pill for that too, to be honest. Maybe that’s the one you’d like to take?”
Nick blanched. “That’s … I can’t—”
“Let’s go.”
Nick followed.
Owen led them toward the other side of the room, ignoring the walls of glass on either side of them. Inside, large machines sat silent. There were microscopes and computers and what Nick thought was an oversized centrifuge, though he couldn’t see inside it.
They stopped in front of a sheet of glass.
“There,” Owen said. “There it is.”
Nick stepped forward.
There were seven different tubes on the inside.
In each of the tubes, hung suspended in midair, was a pill.
Green.
Yellow
Violet.
Blue.
Orange.
Black.
White.
“That’s it?” Nick whispered.
“That’s it,” Owen said somewhere near Nick’s ear. “Tiny things, aren’t they? Though they’ll surely pack a wallop.”
“What … what do they do?”
“Green is super strength, capable of turning you into a human wrecking ball. Yellow is the power of flight. Violet is the ability to summon storms. Blue can make you become a conductor of electricity. Orange is fire. Black is smoke. Or maybe shadow. I’d stay away from that one if I were you. I’m told it’s … intense. I wouldn’t want that for you. Perhaps the blue. Or the green.”
Shadow. “And the white?”
Owen shook his head regretfully. “The white one is off-limits. Even for you, Nicky. It’s the most unstable. It’s telekinesis. The power to move things with your mind. We can’t touch that one. According to my father’s tests, the last person who was given the white pill lost their mind. It’s not quite there yet. One day. This isn’t even all of them, just the ones currently being tested.”
Everything felt too big, too wild. Unreal. “Oh,” he said dumbly.
Owen put a hand on his shoulder. “So. Which one will it be?”
“I don’t know,” Nick admitted. “It’s … a lot.” A choice, finally, here at last, if Owen was to be believed, and Nick didn’t know why he’d lie. Not about this. Owen could be an asshole, but Nick didn’t think he’d try and pull something over on Nick, not when he was hurting. “You said I’d have to keep taking them in order to stay an Extraordinary?”
Owen nodded gravely. “Yes, but let’s not worry about that yet. Choose one, Nick, and see how it goes. If you don’t like it, you can try another. And another. I’ll make sure of it. One pill to make everything go away, to protect all those you love the most. My father thinks … well. In addition to the military applications, he thinks these things should only be for the people who can afford them. The elite, willing to part with their riches in order to have the upper hand on those beneath them. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? They should be for everyone. Anyone who wants to fight back against those who would take from them.” He sighed, a long whispery sound that crawled along Nick’s skin, leaving gooseflesh prickling in its wake. “Someone like you wouldn’t even be given a chance. And how is that fair? After all, it’s your father who suffered.”
It’s easier to stand together than it is to struggle apart. Dad had taught him that. It’d been close, hadn’t it? Dad had been so close to dying, and where would Nick be then?
Alone. He’d be alone.
Still, he hesitated. “Are they addictive?” They had to be. If they gave the power Owen claimed, then why would anyone want to stop?
Owen laughed, but there was a harder edge to it. “Addictive isn’t quite the right word for it. I don’t mean to rush you, but we’re running out of time. You need to decide, Nicky.”
Nick pressed a hand against the glass encasing
the tubes, staring at the pills. “Aren’t you going to do this too?”
“This is for you,” Owen said. “Don’t worry about me.”
Green. Yellow. Violet. Blue. Orange. Black. White.
Nick’s mind raced.
He thought of the way the machines beeped around his father, his skin mottled with bruises. He thought of his mother smiling near a lighthouse, forever frozen in a moment in time. Anything. He would do anything to keep his people safe.
Including this, even if it was temporary. Being a temporary hero was better than being nothing at all.
“I think … I think I’ll—”
“That’s enough,” another voice said from behind them.
They whirled around.
There, standing near the elevator, was Pyro Storm. Nick froze at the sight of him.
Owen chuckled. “Well, well, well. Isn’t this a surprise?”
“Is it?” Pyro Storm asked. “Because I think this is exactly what you wanted.”
“Oh? How do you figure that?”
Pyro Storm glanced at Nick. “Because you think you’re forcing my hand.”
Owen took a step forward. “Someone had to. You can’t hide behind the mask forever.”
“And you can?”
Owen spread his hands. “I’m not the one wearing a mask here, am I? That would be you.”
“Um,” Nick said in a thin voice. “I have no idea what’s going on right now, but I think I’d like to leave.”
They ignored him. “I do it because I have to,” Pyro Storm said, teeth bared. “So I can keep the ones I love from harm.”
Nick blinked at that. Pyro Storm was a villain. Why would he be worried about people getting hurt? He’d hurt Nick’s dad. He’d—
“See,” Owen said, voice filled with contempt, “that’s always been your problem. You’re so sanctimonious. And where has it gotten you? You’ve been vilified for everything you’ve done. You’re Public Enemy Number One. Nothing you’ve done has changed that.”
Pyro Storm took a step forward. “Only because you’ve done everything you can to get in my way. You’ve spun these lies in order to elevate yourself. I allowed it because I didn’t know what else to do. But now you’ve brought Nick into this, and I won’t play your games anymore.”