No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) (17 page)

“Kale.” Dad holds me back from slamming my fist into Scar’s face. “You’re upset. We’re all upset.” He looks at Scar with a hint of anger. “My son has a right to feel this way, Scar.” Now he turns to me. “Why didn’t you come to me?”

I cross my arms over my chest. “You didn’t believe us.”

Dad sighs. Rubs his hand down his face. “I should have believed you, Kale.”

I
just stare straight ahead at nothing. At the plain white wall.

“Pri
zm came to me,” Dad says, “after I returned from Washington. He was distressed. He muttered incoherently.”

“Pri
zm?”

Dad nods. “He followed the...
three of you into the Weaponry. He overheard your plans to attack the Blades.”

He was there? How didn’t we—oh, crap. He must have camouflaged his body to blend into the wall. The little sneak.

“He told us everything he heard,” Dad continues. “And we quickly prepared to rescue you.”

That is when I paid a visit to the Tower
, Scar says.
Using my ability, I tried to locate you, but I could not. I realized you had been captured. However, I did not know your location. Vlayne had concealed your minds from me.

“It was Pri
zm who led us to you,” Dad says. “He overheard each detail and knew where you had gone.”

Oh, man. Why did I treat the little guy like a piece of crap? All he ever wanted was to hang out with me and the guys.

I came to offer my services to your father
, Scar says
. To protect the Elite members from detection once they approached the Blades’ hideout.

That’s probably why Vlayne and Lightning didn’t know Dad came with an army before it was too late. If only they came five minutes earlier.

Stretch would still be here.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” I say. “Why did the Blades go through so much trouble? Why didn’t Vlayne control your mind, Dad? Get you to go to their place or fry your brain or something.”

Your father’s mind is untouchable, Kale
, Scar tells me.

Yeah, he mentioned this before, but what the hell does it mean? I raise my eyebrows at Dad.

“Years ago, your mother placed a fortification on me. It can only be destroyed if your mother takes it down, or dies. Because she is alive, the fortification is still strong.”

This fortification is like no other,
Scar says
. It was created out of love, thus it is impenetrable to even the strongest telepaths.

“Why didn’t Mom put one on me?” I ask.

“In case you were in danger and telepaths needed access to your thoughts,” Dad says.

“What if you’re in trouble and need help?”

He pats my back. “I’m strong enough and can take care of myself.”

And I’m just normal
. Weak. I get it. “Vlayne told me she had been controlling Mom’s mind. Is that true?”

Scar shakes his head.
Do not worry, Kale. Your mother’s mind was only controlled in regards to Lightning. She was programmed not to read Lightning’s mind and if asked whether Lightning was performing suspiciously, she would deny.

“I don’t get it. Why not control her mind? Use her to get info on the League instead of using Lightning.”

Scar shakes his head again.
A telepath cannot remain in the head of another telepath for too long. She would sense the other telepath in her mind, and it would be a constant battle between the two. It was more practical to use Lightning.

“Then why not control a non-telepath from the League?” I ask.

“Because I only trusted your mother and my first officer with highly classified information,” Dad says. “Vlayne’s best option was to use Lightning.”

“So are we safe now? No more Blades?”

“Unfortunately, Vlayne escaped,” Dad says. Which probably means she’s gathering a new army as we speak. Great. Dad wraps an arm over my shoulder and kisses my temple. “We’ll be okay, Kale. I promise you I will do everything in my power to keep us all safe.” His gaze on me gets strong. “Although we lost someone dear to us, we have to move on. We are here to stay, and we will be stronger than ever. If you ever see or hear anything, come to me. Tell me anything. I’m always here to listen to you.”

I nod.

“Kale,” Dad says. “Go out and get some fresh air. I need to talk with Scar privately.”

I leave Dad’s office and go down to the
foyer. Lots of people are walking around. It’s like an ordinary day. Kind of. There’s a gloomy atmosphere around the place. Like a gray cloud hovering above.

Stretch’s smiling picture is hanging above the fireplace. My hand waves up at him. “Miss you,” I whisper. “Doing okay, wherever you are?”

I hope he’s happy.

There’s Kale
, a girl’s voice says in my head. One of the triplets.
He looks so sad.
I turn around and see the three of them standing before me. Did I just hear H
2
O’s thoughts? They smile sadly and continue to wherever they were going.
Poor Kale
.

H
2
O’s thoughts aren’t the only ones I hear.

Wonder if we’re going to have training today. God that would suck. Maybe Premo
nition will cut us some slack? With the death and everything
.

Dude, my sneakers need a serious wash. God, that’s embarrassing. Did Frizz see them?

When’s that punk gonna wax my car like he promised?

There’s no buzz as these thoughts swirl around, but my head throbs. Like a pulsing vein. What the hell is wrong with me?

Green light shines behind one of the couches. A ball bounces up and down. Prizm’s here. He looks up at me as I stand over him. Ever since the time I told him to get lost, he hasn’t glanced my way. I guess I miss having him around.

“Hey,” I say.

Kale’s talking to me?
“Hey.” He bounces the ball. I catch it.

“Heard you kinda saved the day.”

He shrugs.
He thinks
I
saved the day? Awesome!

From the day he joined the League, he was always trying to attach himself to me and my friends. Wanted to become the fourth badass musketeer. Each time I told him to hang out with kids his own age. I guess I’m glad he stuck around. If not for him, Dad wouldn’t have been able to rescue us. Who knows? Maybe Lightning planned to kill me and X, too.

“Thanks,” I say. “For your help.”

“Yeah.”
I wish he’d be friends with me again
.

Yeah, we really should be friends again. “We cool?”

His face brightens with a smile. “Sure!”

Wow, so cool! Maybe he’ll let me hang out with him more
.

I need to find out what the heck’s going on with this mind reading thing. There’s only one person who
can help me. And he’s upstairs talking to the traitor who’s at fault for my best friend’s death.

“I’ll catch you later, Priz.” I toss him back his ball.

“Sure!”

After fist bumping him, I get into the elevator, then barge into Dad’s office. “Dad! Something’s seriously wrong with me.”

He looks at me. The static and ringing return, pounding.

“I hear thoughts,” I say, rubbing my temples.

Do not be alarmed
, Scar tells me.
Samson, it seems as though your son has developed telepathic abilities
.

Holy crap. What?

Dad stares at me. Then he turns to Scar. “Are you sure?”

Yes
.
The question is, how?

Dad leans back. “The possibility of Kale developing
an ability has crossed my mind. Kale, Lindsay wasn’t clear of the events that night. Did she exert anything on you?”

Perhaps this has nothing to do with the girl. Perhaps his ability has arrived.

Dad shakes his head. “Lindsay was near explosion. I believe the energy she emitted altered Kale’s genes, giving him an ability.”

Perhaps the girl activated his dormant telepathy
.

I don’t care how or why I have powers. I can’t believe I finally have something! “This is so cool,” I say. “I’m a telepath like Mom. She—”

A flash of pain flies across Dad’s face, and I stop talking. He pushes a smile through his lips. “That’s great, son. I’m proud of you.”

“Dad, I can’t read your mind. All I get is this static.”

That is due to the fortification
,” Scar says.
You are unable to access your father’s thoughts
.

Wow, that’s a bummer. “Then how can Dad hear you if you can’t talk to him telepathically?”

Your mother left an opening for me. To communicate only.

“Just you?” I ask.

Your parents and I have worked together in the past. Your mother believed it was not wise to close your father’s mind to me. In the event that something would befall her, Samson could seek my assistance, if needed.

So let me get this straight. When I saved Lindsay, she released some sort of
energy that gave me a power—telepathy like Mom. Okay, cool. And I can’t read Dad’s thoughts because Mom has this protection on him. And the only reason Scar can talk to Dad is because Mom lets him. And the reason I can’t read Scar’s mind is because he shielded himself.

“Oh...
” is all I can say.

“Is there anything else?” Dad asks.

“Now that you mention it, yeah. The Weaponry. Cool stuff.”

“I was going to tell you about that when you were older. You do know that you’re going to take over after me as leader of the Keepers of Justice.”

Wow. I mean, I never figured this, because I had no power. I have one now, but Dad was going to hand the League down to me anyway? “That’s a crapload of responsibility,” I say.

“It is, but you’re young and I don’t plan on going anywhere for a while. I don’t want you to worry about that now. Just know that the Weaponry will be yours. You have access to it all, and I trust you will be responsible.”

Hell yeah! “Cool.”

Dad laughs a little. “Anything else?”

I stand up. “I’m good for now, but I’ll let you know.”

It’s time for me to pay Mom a visit. Someone’s got to update her on what’
s happened these last few days.

I walk down the hall to Mom’s room. Pushing a chair to her bed, I sit down and take her hand. “Hey, Mom. Been a while. I’m sorry. Just
went through a lot of stuff.”

Dad must have visited recently because the dead flowers in the vase on the nightstand near her bed have been replaced with fresh roses. “Apparently I can read minds now.” I puff out some air. “Stretch is dead. I don’t know if Dad told you. Lightning murdered him. There are a lot of people to blame, I guess. But I feel like I’m the one who’s most responsible.” I shake my head. “It sucks. I wish my powers were time travel. Wouldn’t that be sweet? I could stop you from falling into this coma, and I could save Stretch’s life.”

I push some loose strands away from her forehead. Then I bend forward and press my forehead to hers. A rush of cool air passes over me, and I feel kind of dizzy. When I pull back away from Mom, I stare at my surroundings.

What the—?

Where am I?

I’m no longer sitting near Mom in the hospital. She’s not even
here
. I’m standing in some sort of tunnel, like a big cave or something. It’s really dark, but I can see the walls of the cave and the muddy ground.

I’ll say this again: what the—?

This has to be some sort of joke. I mean, one minute I’m with my mom and the next I’m in some sort of tunnel? Is Scar screwing with me or something? True I tried to kill him a few minutes ago, but come on. This is starting to freak me out.

I touch the walls of the tunnel
for a way out of this place. But there’s nothing. I walk further and further down. Can’t see much, but my eyes are starting to adjust to the darkness. It looks like the walls stretch and stretch and stretch. No sign of an exit anywhere.

A voice. It’s a kid singing. It sounds like a song I heard on Barney or Sesame Street when I was little. It’s coming from down the tunnel. Is an exit there? I guess I should head over to the kid and see what’s going on. Maybe things will make sense.

There’s a light coming from the direction where the kid is. I remember having nightmares years ago, about being lost in a cave. I remember there always being light at the spot I was in. Wait a second, is this my dream? Have I gotten lost in my own memories?

The kid continues to sing.

I’m at the end of the tunnel now. The kid is sitting in the corner at a small table. Three more chairs are placed around the table, occupied by stuffed animals. She’s holding a pink teapot and tilting it over to pour into the teacups sitting in front of the stuffed animals.

She stops singing and stares at me. I take a few steps i
nto the room and smile down at her. She returns it, deep dimples buried in her cheeks. She must be about five years old. She looks a little familiar, but I don’t know where I could have seen her before. Maybe on the street?

“Hello,” she says.

“Hello.”

“Do you want to join my tea party? Mr. Fuzzy Brown
needs a new friend.”

This brings me back to when I was about ten years old and all the little girls at the Tower begged me to play tea party with them. I hated it then, and I’m not so keyed up about playing now.

“Okay. Sure.” I take a seat next to this big brown teddy bear with a missing left eye. Mr. Fuzzy Brown, I presume. I tip my head to him. “Howya do,” I say and she giggles.

She slides over an empty tea cup and saucer to the spot in fron
t of me and raises the tea pot. She starts to sing again, pouring the tea into my cup. I expect nothing to come out, because that’s what’s supposed to happen when you play pretend tea party—unless your parents agreed to let you play with real tea. The adults at the Tower never let us kids near the stove. But this brownish liquid spills out of the spout into my cup.

“So what’s your name?” I ask her.

“Cindy.” She slurps down her tea.

Cindy. I bring the cup to my
lips and slurp mine down. Tasty. “My name is Kale. My mom’s name is Cindy,” I tell her.

Her eyes widen. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

She giggles. “I love my name. Want more tea?”

“Uh, sure.”

She leans forward to pour the tea, then sits back. Then she starts to slurp again.

“Uh, Cindy?”

“What?”

I glance around, trying to figure out how to ask this question. “What are you doing here?”

She gives me a face like I fell out of a UFO. “What do you mean?”

“Is this what you usually dream about?”

“I’m gonna go to sleep soon,” she says, licking the inside of the cup.

This doesn't make any more sense than it did before. I’ve got no clue why I’m here, and why this kid is here. Is she trapped in here and it’s my job to get her out? Was I thrown into another mission or something? I don’t remember asking for extra credit.

I say, “How about we look for a way out of this cave?”

Her eyes spring wide open, like I asked her to jump into a fire pit. “We can’t go out there!” she yells.

“Why not?”

“It’s scary.”

“Have you ever tried?” I ask.

She nods, her body shivering. Damn, I didn’t mean to scare her. I just don’t get any of this.

“My mommy and daddy are on the other side.” She starts to sob. “Sometimes I hear them talking. They call my name. But I’m too scared to leave.”

“What makes you so scared?”

“I get lost. Monsters come to eat me. I run back to my tea party.”

I think I’m starting to get this. I think this girl is trapped in a nightmare or something. So I was brought here to help get her out? I don’t get it. I mean, I was talking with Mom before and—

Holy crap. Cindy. Mom.

I stare at the girl again. Then I think back to the photo album Mom showed me a few years back. Her pictures growing up. That’s why this Cindy looks so familiar. Is this where Mom’s been all this time? As her five year old self, stuck in her own mind? But how did I get here when none of the telepaths were able to reach her?

Mom, I think it’s about time we get you out of that coma. I get up and walk over to the girl—I m
ean Cindy, I mean Mom. Her sobs have died down, but her eyes are still wet.

I hold out my hand. “Do you want to find your mommy and daddy?” I ask.

She nods eagerly.

“I might know the way. Come on.”

Her eyes are wary. They stare at my outstretched hand, then around the cave, then at the tea party. “I’m scared,” she says.

“I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

She twists her lips. Then she hesitantly puts her hand in mine.

I smile down at her. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay? I don’t break my promises.”

“Okay,” she says, returning the smile. “Can I take Mr. Fuzzy Brown and Miss. Lillyflower and Mrs. Sponge?”

“Of course.”

She scoops them up and hugs them to her chest. Then she returns her hand to mine and skips along with me as we head toward...I don’t know exactly. The area gets darker as we move further and further away from her corner, and her fingers squeeze the life out of mine. “It’s cool,” I tell her. “You’re with me and you’ll be okay.”

This is kind of awkward. I mean, this is my
mom
. I’m trying to calm her down like I’m the parent and she’s the kid. But she
is
the kid. Her five year old self. To her, I am the adult, the parent. The only one who can get her out of this. I’m the only one who can save my mother.

I hear voices in the distance. I can’t make them out, can’t figure out if they’re male or female, but I know they’re voices. Cindy’s hand tightens on mine again. “That’s them,” she says. “My mommy and daddy.”

Could they be the voices of the people in the hospital room? All those times I was talking to her, she heard me. She couldn’t understand me, but she knew I was there, talking to her. Making her feel not so alone. Is that Dad talking? Is he freaking out about what happened to me? I wonder if I passed out in the hospital or something.

“We’ll get to them,” I tell her.

It’s really freaky walking in this dark tunnel. I can’t see much, just the outlines of the walls, the outlines of our bodies. All I hear are our footsteps. No wonder Mom’s always been petrified to leave. Are we going the right way? Is there even an exit to this place?

Then I see something. Not sure what it is, but it looks like a person, or an animal. Cindy’s fingers squeeze mine so tight I yelp. “The monsters!” she shrieks, and tries to run away, yanking on my hand.

Wait a second. This is not real. All of this isn’t real. We’re in a world created by that master mind controller who put Mom in here. If we will our minds to believe this is all fake, will those creatures disappear? This is my mom’s
mind
. She has the ability to control it.

I get down on my knees and face her. “Listen, Cindy,” I say. “Those monsters aren’t real. They want you to
think
they’re real. If you close your eyes and tell them to go away, they will go away. Can you do that? Close your eyes and tell the monsters to go away.”

“They’re real!”

“You can do it, Cindy,” I say. “You have the power to make the monsters go away. Close your eyes. Come on, trust me.”

Through the darkness, I see her close her eyes, see her squish her lips together like she’s concentrating hard. “Go away,” she says.

The figures are still there, staring at us. Ready to pounce? Maybe this isn’t going to work. Maybe that master mind controller was just too strong.

“Go away!” Cindy yells again.

The creatures growl. I can see their sharp teeth.

Oh, crap.

“We have to go.” I throw her onto my back and tell her told hold on tight. Then I run like hell. I run like I’m being chased down by three hungry-looking creatures with big, sharp teeth. They growl behind us, and Cindy screams, holding onto me so tightly she’s choking me. If they get us, will we die? This is all supposed to be fake. We’re in a fake world. But the mind is such a force to be reckoned with. If our minds
think
we’re dying, then our bodies will think so, too. We might really die.

No, I’m not going to let that happen. I didn’t come all this way to get sucked in
to my mom’s head, so we could get eaten alive by monsters. How would Dad handle it if he lost both me and Mom?

And X. We just lost Stretch and he can’t lose me
, too.

I’m getting really tired. Cindy’s not heavy, but running like hell in a cave where I can’t see a thing and carrying a sack of flour on my back is starting to pay its toll. I don’t think I can make it.

“They’re gone,” she says. Phew. I’m about to lower Cindy to the ground, but she tightens her arms and legs. “No, please.”

Okay, then.

I hope we’re going the right way. It would suck if we’d have to go back and face all that again—those
things
. And I’m sweating, really sweating. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated this much before.

“What’s that?” Cindy asks, pointing to the spot in front of her. There is something there, but I can’t see. As I step closer, I get it.
A big gap in the ground. Oh, great.

“Looks like we’ll have to jump,” I say. Geez, am I Indiana Jones?

“Jump?” she squeaks. Man, Mom’s afraid of heights.

“I got you,” I tell her. “Nothing is going to happen to you, okay?”

I feel her nod.

Okay.

It can’t be too hard, right? Things will be more complicated because of the sack of flour on my back, but I should be able to do it. Just need to get enough momentum and jump. Simple. I can do it. I think. I hope. I’ve
got
to.

“On the count of three,” I tell her. “
Hold on tight.” She squeezes me. “Gah! You’re choking me!”

“Sorry.”

On the count of three. I jump in my spot. One. Two. Thr...Um, two and three quarters. Okay, I’ll start over. I was so not ready for that. One...Two...

Three!

I’m soaring. Flying. Wow, this is amazing. I’m like a bird, a hawk, flying in slow motion. The adrenaline is pumping through me.

Ouch. Crap,
that was a hard fall. We land right at the edge of the gap.

“Kale!” Cindy yells.

Oh no. The earth near the opening is eroding. We’re falling
in
.

I grab onto something, anything. We can’t die like this! My fingers close around a big rock sticking out of the ground. I heave myself up. Cindy’s arms tighten around my neck again. This kid—well, Mom—is going to strangle me before I get the chance to save us.

Finally, I pull myself up and lay flat on my stomach, breathing in and out. Hard. Mom lies on my back, breathing just as hard.

“You’re so brave,” she says after a few minutes. “Are you my big brother? I’m not supposed to have any brothers or sisters.”

I’m your son.