Super Powereds: Year 1 (83 page)

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” Roy snapped back. He tested his right arm and found it still unresponsive. He knew it would heal eventually, probably within the half hour. That just wasn’t much help at the moment, though. It was a shame, if he’d had both appendages he could have been hammering away on George while in this position; instead he was leaving himself wide open. Roy steeled himself for whatever was about to come. If Hershel could take it so could he.

For his part, George wasn’t feeling particularly creative. He raised his own arm and fired off several bolts of energy into Roy’s torso. The boy’s grip was shaken as the pain rippled through him, but he held on. George readied himself for another volley; however, he was forced to sweep through the air instead to dodge a flurry of fire from Vince on the ground.

“You little pains in the ass,” George swore. “How long do you think you can keep this up? Two more minutes? Maybe five? It doesn’t matter! I’ll catch that girl before the sun is up no matter what you do. I’m a trained, experienced, veteran Hero, and you are just three Powereds who got a little control. The three of you alone could never beat me.”

George’s arms suddenly shot out to his sides and his legs snapped together, locking his whole form into a rigid lower case “t” shape. Though his face was capable of only showing the barest emotion, Roy still recognized the look that swept through his eyes. It was the same one he’d worn on a fall night only a few weeks into the school year. Roy turned his face to George and gave him the biggest smile he could muster.

“Guess it’s a good thing they made five of us, then.” Roy released his grip and fell away as George was sent violently slamming into the ground. The concrete exploded upward at the force of his impact and cracks sprawled outward all the way to the road’s edge. Before the dust could settle, George was airborne again, being lifted up and driven back into the roughly the same spot with ever increasing force.

It was on his third trip up that George finally saw her, the five-foot-tall Valkyrie being lowered to the ground by her blonde escort. Their eyes locked for a moment before he slammed into the earth once more. The next time up he used his thrusters to try and break free, but all that earned him was a faster return to the earth. George was impressed; he’d fought telekinetic Supers before and knew holding onto someone as strong as he was took a whole lot of power.

The others were impressed as well, though that emotion was being steadily passed by fear for the prime position. In all the time they’d known Mary she had always been calm and composed. A bit eccentric at times, certainly; however, her cheerful demeanor had faithfully shone through whatever other fleeting emotions were clouding the surface. That wasn’t the Mary that strode across the concrete, though, moving steadily closer to man who had taken her. This Mary wasn’t cheerful, or kind, or motherly in the slightest.

This Mary was pissed off.

At long last she reached the crater that bore a plethora of George shaped dents in it. She stood over the edge and glared down, increasing the pressure on him so moving even a finger would require tremendous effort.

“You kidnapped me,” she accused.

“Only attempted to kidnap at this point,” George pointed out. He was feeling all those drops - not even he was immune to that kind of assault - but he’d been through worse attacks and survived. He’d get free eventually; Mary couldn’t keep up this level of power indefinitely. Even if she held him down and the others beat him up, George was confident nothing they had could truly put him down for the count.

“You hurt my friends,” Mary continued.

“Now that one I’ll give you. But in fairness, they started it.”

“Do you feel even the slightest remorse for what you’ve done today?”

“Of course,” George replied. “I regret that your friend interrupted me, otherwise I could have been done with this whole mess by now.”

“I supposed asking why you did it is a waste of time,” Mary surmised.

“Why don’t you try reading my mind and see?”

Mary shook her head. “I can’t read you when you’re in that form. Maybe that’s how you hid this from me until it happened. I don’t know and I don’t care. If you’re not going to talk, then I won’t bother asking.”

“So is this the part where you try to kill me?”

“No, this is the part where I make you what you made me: helpless. Vince, drain him.”

“What?” Vince asked.

“What?” George near-yelped.

“He’s not just metallic like Stella; he’s a functional robotic life form. He was quite clear about that during our class. So that means he’s running on some kind of energy. Let’s see what happens when that tap runs dry.”

“But what if it kills him?” Vince asked.

“Then stop before he dies,” Mary instructed.

Vince thought about questioning her more, then he saw the look in her amber eyes. Not just the rage, but also the fear. She’d been taken from a place she thought was secure by someone she thought she could trust. Now she was just trying to hold it together until it was safe to break down. Vince looked at the face of the man who had done that to her, and he could swear there was a smirk on his robotic face. Vince set his resolve.

He hopped down into the crater and pressed his hand against George’s chest. He was surprised to feel electricity flow up his arm; Vince had half expected some super New Age form of power. Instead it was a good old familiar current, familiar only thanks to the man he was currently depleting. Vince wasn’t sure if that was ironic or not; he’d never been good at figuring out what fit that definition. He knew it made him smile, though.

“Wait, stop,” George said, the first feel hint of worry entering his voice. “You don’t understand what you’re doing.”

“I’m stopping you,” Vince replied. “I think I’ve got a good handle on it.”

“I’m saying there’s more to this than you think. You don’t understand the implications.”

Vince increased the rate he was pulling the energy. George had quite a bit, but sooner or later every well ran dry. He knew he was making progress because George’s voice was growing weaker.

“You stupid kids... you have... no... idea...”

There was a ripple across his body and suddenly the students were staring at their former teacher’s human visage. George looked tired but awake as he stared up at the five faces peering down upon him. He’d been too cocky, too sure they couldn’t hurt him. Now he’d have to wait, recover, and then ambush them when they weren’t expecting it. George was still plotting his next move when a pair of well-manicured hands lifted his head from the rubble and slipped a silver band around it. After that it was some time before he was allowed another conscious thought.

Alice clapped the dirt off her hands and floated back up to the road level. “That should take care of him. Now, who is calling Mr. Transport?”

“If no one objects,” Nick said, plucking his phone from his pocket. “I believe Alice and I are the only ones with non-smashed or melted phones, and since she made it last time, I believe it is my turn.”

The others signaled their agreement, and Nick punched in the number.

“We’re ready to be picked up,” he said. For the first time that year an emotion Nick didn’t intend crept into his next words, happiness bounding free and plain for anyone with sense to discern.

“All of us.”

* * *

Dean Blaine handed Mr. Transport back his phone. The tall man took it and looked at the dean with uncertain eyes.

“It was Mr. Campbell. It seems they’re all safe and are requesting to be picked up,” Dean Blaine informed him. “This adds only more to the heap of explanations you gentlemen owe me.”

Mr. Transport and Mr. Numbers both nodded. The last few minutes had been... unpleasant. Dean Blaine had been significantly displeased with their story so far, and it was only going to get worse as they continued. They'd been fortunate he had consented to picking up Mr. Transport’s phone on the possibility it could be the students in question.

“A heap of explanations, by the way, that you will be providing to me. Tonight. But after you’ve retrieved your charges,” Dean Blaine said. He certainly wasn’t going to make the children wait any longer than they had to. They’d surely had a hard enough night, it was time for things to get easier for them. As for their caretakers, on the other hand, their evening was only just beginning.

154.

Morning found the Melbrook quintet clustered in their living room, a firm lockdown being adamantly enforced. The television was on, but none of those sitting in the room were paying attention. Every now and then Hershel would touch his shoulder, expecting pain to stab through his arm. A healer had been called during the night, so the physical damage had been completely negated. The other kinds were still unwelcomely present. Mary reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing it to both give and receive some comfort.

“How do you think they’ll take it?” Vince asked, breaking the silence that had descended on them since being left alone. After a quick night’s sleep, Dean Blaine had met them at dawn to ask a few questions and outline what was going to happen next for them.

“Badly,” Nick replied. “He’s going to confirm the truth about us, and then tell them we’re not having to take the final with them. That’s not going to help the situation.”

“That’s not our fault, though,” Alice said. “We didn’t ask for our friends to get kidnapped.”

“No, but we did choose to go after them,” Nick pointed out. “I’m not trying to say we should be taking it. We’re all beat to hell in every way but the literal one. I’m just saying they won’t take that news well coupled with they what they learned last night.”

“I wonder who dropped that bomb,” Mary said quietly. “I was already out by then, so I didn’t get to hear.”

“It was some person from the DJ booth,” Alice said.

“It was Michael,” Vince corrected. The others turned to look at him. He merely shrugged. “I know what his crazy screaming voice sounds like. I heard it when he attacked me on Halloween.”

“He attacked you on Halloween?” Hershel asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew who it was?” Nick tossed out as well.

“Yes, and it didn’t seem important at the time,” Vince answered in order.

“Not important? How is that not important?” Nick demanded.

“The secret was already out; what mattered at the time was getting us together and safe. Then when the whole... thing happened, it sort of slipped my mind,” Vince explained.

“Michael, huh? I wonder how he found out. Or why he bothered to out us like that,” Alice speculated.

“He had something against me; even though he won our first match he felt like I made him look bad. That’s the only motivation I ever knew about,” Vince replied.

“We’ll make sure to give him a special thank you some time,” Nick said. “On the subject, though, why didn’t any of us know about the Halloween attack?”

Vince shrugged again. “I got out of it fine. I guess I just didn’t want to worry anyone.”

“Given the events of the past twenty-four hours, I fear we’re going to need to adopt a policy of more information and worry rather than less,” Hershel noted.

“Agreed. On the plus side, we’re all okay. And we all get to come back next year,” Alice pointed out.

“I’d feel a lot safer if we knew what all it was about, though,” Mary said. “Or where Persephone snuck off to.”

The collection process of the students and the former Coach George had turned up a passenger cab coated in blood but absent the blonde kidnapper. Given all the distractions of dealing with George, there was no way to estimate when she’d made her escape, though all five said a silent prayer of thanks she’d chosen flight rather than fight. They’d barely coped with just one coach to subdue. Two would have annihilated them.

“She’ll turn up eventually,” Nick assured her. “Even the wiliest rat has to come out for food.”

“I’ll feel better when she does,” Mary said. “My telepathy will give me a heads up if she’s approaching me now that I’m on guard, but I still don’t know how safe I’ll feel in my woods all summer.”

“Good thing you’re not going off to the woods alone, then,” Alice told her. “You’re spending the summer with me.”

“Am I?”

“Mary, you were the target of this whole debacle. The last one of us to be off on their own should be you,” Vince said.

“I don’t think endangering Alice is the right way to address that problem,” Mary replied.

“Endangering me? Mary, did you forget the whole my dad is worth more than some countries thing? We don’t have a security guard in my home, we have security battalions. Several of them. My father might be an ass but he takes safety seriously. If Persephone wants to take you from my home, she’d better bring an entire army of Supers or it will be an insult,” Alice said firmly.

“I’ll... um... I’ll have to check with my parents,” Mary said lamely as she struggled to find another excuse.

“Be persuasive,” Nick instructed her. “I don’t particularly feel like repeating tonight’s performance anytime soon.”

“All of you are welcome, too,” Alice added. “I have a whole wing of the house to myself, so you won’t be imposing.”

“It’s a generous offer,” Hershel said. “But I think I’ll be okay at home. I’m looking forward to getting back to Chicago for a little while.”

“Any of us could be targets, though. You should take her offer seriously,” Vince said.

“I am. And trust me when I say I’m perfectly safe at home. My dad wasn’t a billionaire, but he was a renowned Hero. Lots of his old partners and friends live on the same street as us and keep an eye out for his family. The neighborhood might look like Sunday picnics and barbeques, but it’s got more spandex and laser vision than anyone would suspect.”

“I suppose that’s a pretty safe place then,” Vince conceded.

“Agreed,” Nick said. “And while I appreciate the offer, I’ll be declining as well. This year produced an ending I really wasn’t expecting. I need to go home and figure out what that means for me as well as my future at Lander.”

“You are coming back, though,” Vince said.

“It’s sad that I know you well enough to assume that wasn’t a question,” Nick sighed. “I’ll probably be back, if for no other reason than this little nuthouse has proven to be excellent training for expecting the unexpected. I’ll also add that my place is quite safe in its own regard. Can we take me at my word on that one?”