by H. L. Burke
“Yeah, that’s what I’m into. Museums,” Jake snarked.
“Don’t be dumb.” Laleh poked his arm. “I’ve been to San Diego. They have a lot of cool stuff that even someone as lame as you would like. The zoo, for instance. I mean, what kind of human being doesn’t like pandas?”
“I have no opinion on pandas one way or the other,” Jake said.
“Well, they have venomous snakes and crocodiles too, if you want something that suits your personality more.” Laleh stuck her nose in the air.
“There are other things to do, too.” Prism pulled out her phone and scrolled for a second. “I might be able to get us free tickets to a theme park or something if I play the non-profit angle—either way, you won’t be sitting around waiting. I’ll make sure of it, okay?” She shot Jake a motherly smile that further made his stomach sicken.
What’s wrong with me? I should be jumping at the chance to get closer to the gang and get out of here. That’s the whole plan. Dang, though ... why does it have to end so soon?
Chapter Twenty
Jake lay in a grassy spot some ways away from the cabin. Above him the pine trees seemed to reach inwards, circling him. Blue sky peeked through the spaces between the pines and their sparse branches. He inhaled, savoring the scent of earth, pine needles, and damp, rotting wood. If he did somehow manage to get back to the Sand Foxes, he’d miss the forest and also moments like this when it was calm and no one expected anything of him. He let out a breath and allowed himself a contented smile.
Footsteps vibrated into his skull as someone approached. He winced and shut his eyes.
“Are you sleeping?” Laleh asked.
“If I say yes, will you go away?”
“Don’t be lame.” She settled next to him, dried needles crackling beneath her. “What are you even doing out here?”
“Well, I was enjoying my alone time.” He pushed himself up on his elbows.
“Deal with it.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re part of a team now. Sometimes we need to talk.”
“No, we really don’t.”
They sat in silence for a minute, her glaring at him, him hoping she’d get the not so subtle hint and scram. When she didn’t he sighed.
“Okay, whatever you want to talk about, out with it then leave.”
“It’s about the trip next week,” she said.
His stomach tied itself in a knot, but he kept his expression placid. “What about it?”
“It’s just ... I’m worried Marco is going to want to stay with his mom after he sees her again.” The words escaped her in a rush.
“Would that be such a bad thing? I mean, you hear how he talks about her. He already misses her, and it’s not like the kid’s in danger of setting anything on fire anymore. He’s done really well during the last few exercises.”
“Yeah, but he needs more training if he wants to stick it out with DOSA. I mean, DOSA isn’t going to let him join until he’s eighteen, anyway—”
“Do you really think he’s going to stay away from his mom for four more years?” Jake raised his eyebrows. “He won’t want that.”
“But he needs more time, right? Like, you say he’s gotten better, but that’s in training situations.” Laleh’s tone grew more pleading, as if desperate for Jake to agree with her. “What if there was a truly stressful situation like the break in that set his powers off the first time? For that matter, is it really responsible to send a kid into a situation where his apartment could be broken into?”
“You’re right, we should bubble wrap him and keep him here against his will until he’s at least thirty,” Jake said dryly.
Her eyes flashed. “Fine, I guess I’m the only one who cares about protecting Marco—”
Irritation flared within Jake, but he counted to ten. “Do you want to tell me what this is really about?”
“I told you. I want Marco—”
“No.” Jake held up his hand. “Marco’s not nearly as helpless as you’re trying to make him out to be, and Prism and Fade wouldn’t put him in a situation where he was in danger. You know they wouldn’t. So what are you really after, Laleh?”
She sighed. “I just know my mom is itching to pull me out of camp.”
“You said that after your video call.” Jake nodded slowly.
“Yeah. I just—I want to tell her that we’re forming a team together, and I can’t leave.”
“Okay, well, then talk to Marco about it.” Jake shrugged. “If he knows you two could form some sort of dynamite duo, he’ll keep that in mind when making his choices. He wants to be a DOSA hero just as much as you do.”
“I’m not thinking of a duo, Jake.” She gazed at him pointedly.
He recoiled. “I already told you, I’m not the DOSA type.”
“But you’re so great at this!” she protested. “I mean, you give maybe fifty percent of your effort, and you’re still better at the exercises than me and Marco—”
“Can I get that in writing?” he teased.
“Don’t be a jerk.” She frowned at him. “You were supposed to say, ‘oh, no, you’re just as good as I am’ or something like that. That’s what normal, well-adjusted people do when someone compliments them.”
“I’ve never been great at lying.”
“Now that is a lie.” She shook her head in disgust. “Either way, Jake. I’m not even asking to be the team leader. You’re older. You’re technically more experienced, if only on the villain side of things, but the skills translate. I want you to help me start a real team, so I can tell my mom about what an awesome opportunity this is and how she should let me stay.”
“Me? Lead a DOSA team? Did you hit your head?”
“I’m serious!” She grabbed his arm. “Look, I know you said you’re only here until you can run away, but you haven’t tried since that one night, and I know because you know I can deactivate your anklet and you haven’t asked me to—”
“You can deactivate the anklets?”
Laleh winced, and Jake hopped to his feet. Marco stared at them from behind the nearest tree.
“How long have you been there?” Laleh stammered.
Marco’s chin dropped towards his chest. “Uh, a few minutes, I guess. I heard you talking about me, and I wanted to see where it went.”
Laleh’s face flushed.
“I’m not going to leave the camp yet, by the way.” He shifted from foot to foot. “Yeah, I miss my mom, but I have a lot to learn if I’m going to be a hero someday. I won’t be able to do that if I stop training now.”
Pride swelled in Jake’s chest. Good for Marco.
“What about the anklets though?” Marco persisted. “Can you really do that?”
Jake and Laleh exchanged a glance before Laleh sighed.
“Okay, you need to promise not to tell Prism or Fade.”
“Cross my heart.” Marco traced an x over his chest.
Laleh surveyed the area around them then walked over, crouched beside Marco, and hovered her hand over his disruptor cuff. There was a click, and Marco’s eyes widened.
“Oh. Wow.” He held up his hand. A flame sprang to life in his palm, flickering and dancing. “How did you do that?”
“Powers,” Laleh answered, her smile ever so slightly smug.
“Him but not me?” Jake held his leg out.
“I like Marco better than you.” She stuck her tongue out at Jake.
“I like Jake, though. You could do it for me?” Marco’s eyes seemed to grow even bigger. Man, that kid had perfected the puppy dog thing.
Laleh moaned and turned to Jake. “You’re not going to run, are you? I won’t do it if you’re going to try that. You don’t have anything over me now.”
Jake frowned at her. She did realize he could just lie, right? Sure, he could cross his heart or whatever kindergarten baloney Marco had done, but it wasn’t like that had any real power over him.
Here was his chance. Say yes, then run for it. By the time they fetched Fade and Prism, he’d have a good he
adstart—but somehow the idea emptied his chest.
“I promise I’ll stay,” he said, and to his own surprise, he meant it.
A faint smile crossed her lips, and she deactivated his anklet.
Jake’s powers trickled into his lower leg and foot, a sensation like life returning to a numb limb after it had fallen asleep. He laughed and dematerialized fully, spreading himself into a thin mist. The wind rippled through his body. It cooled and tickled him.
“Cool!” Marco sent a blast of fire into the air. He circled his hands, and the flames followed suit, like a mini-ferris wheel of heat and light. “It’s like that old song!”
“Cut it out you two! What if Prism sees us?” Laleh cast an anxious glance back towards the house then motioned deeper into the woods. “Come on. I know a place.”
Jake and Marco followed Laleh through the trees. She brought them to a narrow trail—or at least a place where the undergrowth and grass had been worn down—that wound down a steep slope.
“Careful. It’s a deer path, I think.” She angled herself to the side so she could half-walk, half-hop downward, clinging to the side of the hill and occasionally grabbing onto one of the spindly trees that grew along the way for support.
Jake let out a breath then copied her descent, Marco right behind. After a few steps, Marco wobbled and yelped. He lunged forward, grabbing Jake’s jacket. Jake stumbled and caught himself on a branch.
“Watch it!” Jake snapped.
“Sorry,” Marco mumbled.
“Next time I’ll fragment and let you fall through me.” Jake glowered before turning his focus back to the walk.
“That’s what you call it? Fragmenting?” Marco asked, his tone springing back up to excited and happy like a superball dropped from a second story balcony.
“Uh, yeah.” Jake watched the path. One foot in front of the other. The sound of water rose to meet them, growing louder the further down the path they went.
“So can you go through anything?” Marco asked.
“It’s complicated. I can manipulate my particles to go through the space in objects, but I can’t really make those spaces bigger. I can channel my power into an object so it also fragments, but only while I’m touching it. The moment I let go, it snaps back.” He wiped his hand across his forehead, surprised to find he was sweating already. Laleh bounced down the path as if she’d done it a hundred times, though, and he couldn’t let her show him up. “I can use it to push people through, but when I try to go through myself, I can get caught in it if I’m not careful, so I usually prefer to go through cracks or gaps. Usually there’s at least a small one. Getting caught hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”
Laleh looked over her shoulder. “You trapped me in the floor during our last exercise, though. That didn’t hurt.”
“I trapped your shoes in the floor,” he corrected. “If I’d trapped you, the molecules of the floor would’ve collided into your molecules when they rematerialized and trust me, it hurts.”
“Huh.” They broke through the last line of trees and found themselves on the edge of a small ravine, only about ten feet deep with a stony bottom and steep, muddy sides. At the bottom a small creek rushed over the rocks. Jake craned his neck out over the edge. It wasn’t that long a drop, but it looked like it could be a hard landing.
“I can kind of float down if I fragment, but what about you two?”
“This way.” Laleh led them along the top of the ravine until they came to a place where a tree had toppled into it, the trunk sticking up above the edge and the branches creating almost ladder-like steps down into it. “Be careful. Not all the branches are as strong as they look.” Laleh scrambled onto the tree then started to shimmy down.
Marco swallowed. “That looks ... hard.”
Jake squared his shoulders. He could easily use his powers to get down, but Marco couldn’t. “I’ll go first,” he said. “Just watch what I do and use the branches I use. I’m heavier than you so if it can hold me, it can hold you.”
Relief passed over Marco’s face. “Thanks.”
Jake picked his way down the tree. Pausing halfway, he waved to Marco. “It’s strong enough to support both of us. Come on. I’ll catch you if you slip.”
Within a few tense minutes, both boys stood on the ground next to Laleh who sat on a boulder by the creek, channeling her electric shock powers into the water to get it to glow softly for a few seconds at a time.
“Water plus not a lot of vegetation to catch fire—and what there is is wet.” She motioned to the space around them. “You can go crazy with the fire here, and nothing will happen.”
“Thanks!” Marco walked a little ways. Once he’d gotten clear of the other two, he punched the air over and over in front of himself, sending a burst of flame out each time.
“When’d you find this place?” Jake asked, standing over Laleh.
“A week or two ago,” she answered. “Sometimes when we have free time I’ll just explore. I’ve lived in cities all my life, so this sort of place is interesting to me.”
“Me too.” Jake nodded. “Well, not the ‘always lived in cities’ part, but the southwest is nothing like this, and I like it here.”
Laleh shut her eyes, her face lifted as if absorbing something from the sky. “Sometimes I never want to leave.”
How much he agreed with that statement fell over him like a wet blanket. Jake settled onto a boulder a few feet from her, picked up a smaller stone, and tossed it into a nearby pool. This one was deep and still compared to the rest of the brook. The bubbling water fell over a small step to reach it. It frothed for a bit right below the tiny falls before swirling in a gentle circle and exiting through another narrow outlet to continue rushing along its way. Twigs and leaves lazily floated on the top of the pool, disturbed only briefly by the ripples from Jake’s stone.
“We have to eventually, you know,” he said. “This is a place for kids. We’re not gonna be that much longer. I’ve got maybe two years tops before I age out of this place.”
And then what? If he escaped now, the gang might overlook his unapproved vacation, but if he waited the full time, would there be any place for him there? Did he even want to go back to that? But without it what prospects did he have? He still didn’t want anything to do with DOSA. He had no training. It wasn’t like he could get into college—heck, he was sixteen and struggling with middle school math. Maybe he could disappear into the normie world. Hide his abilities. Take on some sort of average dude job—but he didn’t even know what those would be like or if he would be able to stand one.
Man, disappearing into the forest might be the way to go. People used to do that, didn’t they? I swear I saw it in a movie once.
“I guess.” Laleh’s disappointed response shook him out of his funk, and he looked at her.
“You want the DOSA life now, though, right? I thought you were pulling at the leash to get your own team and be a big damn hero and all that crap.”
“Yeah, but at the same time, I want to enjoy this. Whatever path I choose to follow, whether it’s the one my mom has mapped out for me or the one I want, I don’t think I’ll stay here very long. I mean, we’re sables. We’ve got extraordinary powers. That comes with extraordinary expectations to live extraordinary lives, doesn’t it? We can’t just hide away in the woods and let that go to waste.”
“I’m used to disappointing people.” Jake kept his tone flippant, even though his chest was tightening.
“Laleh! Jake! Look!” Marco called out. They turned, and Marco faced the water. He flailed his hands around wildly, fire crackling at his fingertips, then let out a belch of flames. A dragon the size of a small car rushed from him and flew a loop-the-loop before crashing into the creek with a hiss of steam.
“Dang.” Jake gave a low whistle. “You’re getting good, kid.”
“If this superhero thing doesn’t work out, you can get into pyrotechnics,” Laleh said.
“Everything changed when the fire nation attacked!”
Marco crowed, shooting out several more bursts.
“He’s such a nerd,” Jake murmured under his breath, though he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.
“Says the guy who dropped a Firefly reference not three minutes ago.” Laleh sniffed.
Jake swallowed. He didn’t think she’d caught that. The whole series had been on the drive of pirated entertainment the gang shared. Jake had watched and rewatched it so many times. “It’s a classic.”
“Meh. Overrated.” Laleh shook her head.
“I knew I didn’t like you for a reason.” Desperately needing quiet and solitude, he glanced around. “I’m going to see where this leads.” He motioned down the ravine. It curved to the right just ahead, taking the water out of sight.
“Nowhere interesting.” Laleh frowned. “I walked it when I first found it until I got bored.”
“I want to see for myself.” Jake started off, following the water.
Laleh called after him. “Knock yourself out, but remember, the tracking device is temporarily disabled in your anklet. If you get yourself lost, no one is coming for you except the bears.”
“Whatever.” Jake had never seen any sign of bears around here. Just deer and the occasional coyote—the latter of which he’d seen all the time in Arizona and didn’t find all that scary. Around the bend, the water pooled against the cliff face. The ravine walls here were of smooth stone rather than dirt. Jake paused to toss a few more rocks before ambling further down the creek bed.
Ahead a tree had fallen across the stream, creating a dam of debris and a deep pool that stretched from one side of the ravine to the other. Jake paused. He’d worn jeans and sneakers as he always did. Not exactly dressed for wading, but if he turned back now, it’d feel like Laleh had shown him up. Clinging to the wall, he splashed ahead. While it appeared far deeper in the middle, towards the edge, the water came up to just below his knees. Finally he reached a group of boulders he could scramble on top of to get over the dam. He paused at the top, shaking out his wet shoes.