Ch. 15...
Bells hates this. As frustrating as it is, the adults are right about leaving—they can’t.
He volleys ideas back and forth with his friends about leaving on their own, but the first time Jess takes them through the labyrinth of tunnels toward the exit, they’re caught and put on dishwashing duty while being lectured about safety.
Worse, leaving without getting caught by the adults in the Guild is one thing; leaving and not getting caught by the League once they’re out there is another.
All their identities are burned now. Even if they have an idea of where to go, getting there will be a problem without a valid ID. From Emma’s stories about the two days Bells was recovering and they were on the road, there had been a number of near misses, and they had to constantly change cars.
Getting all the way to Aerial City will require a hovertrain and tickets bought by people who aren’t wanted. It would take time and access to the Net to find the resources to generate new citizen IDs, and they don’t have either.
“We should rest here,” Jess says. “Work hard on their projects, and then come up with a solid plan and approach them when we’re ready.”
“Hmm, not gonna work,” Christine says, not looking up from her knitting.
“Really? Why?” Emma asks, raising her eyebrows.
They’re in one of the smaller caverns that’s been set up like a lounge area, with a few couches and chairs. Christine sits up and waves her hand at the bundle of yarn, and it transforms into a scarf. “Trust me. I’ve been here a while. You don’t think I’ve gotten bored at the let’s not change the status quo talk? I mean, I signed up for action, but apparently we kids have a lot more to learn before we can be useful. I haven’t been on any of the missions.”
“Me neither,” Steven pipes up from where he’s playing cards with Maxine, the other teenager staying with the Guild. “But today Michael is doing a lot of tests to see what our power rating is and how we can develop our abilities.”
“Mmhm,” Christine says. “It’s the first time they’ve done it in a while, especially since a lot of the new folks’ powers never warranted them an invitation to the training center.”
It is at least more action than just sitting around and hiding, Bells thinks as they follow Christine into another cavern that’s been sectioned off into small areas by curtains.
“Right behind you!”
Bells sidesteps so Chloe can get past him; she’s carrying a tray of vials of blood and strides past Bells.
There are more people here than Bells has seen so far; he doesn’t know any of them aside from the few they met last week. Genevieve is working on a complicated-looking chart on her DED; these must be the results.
“Thanks, Michael,” another woman says. Bells thinks she has the power to create artificial scents but he doesn’t remember. “Let me know as soon as possible—also if my cholesterol is high, I wanna know that.”
“Of course, Deirdre,” Michael says, nodding at her.
Bells peeks inside the open curtained section; there’s an eye chart and a bench. Michael walks outside, making notes on his DED. “Next!” he calls. He spots Bells. “Oh, good, you’re here. We’re doing physicals for everyone who’s arrived in the last two months. Take a seat.”
Steven points at Bells and clicks his tongue at him before he walks inside and draws the curtain closed. In the other cubicles with open curtains, people are getting their vitals taken.
Genevieve nods at them. “Everyone’s getting a physical today, and we’re measuring gamma protein levels. It’s a good idea to know how much you can use your abilities before you tap out. Some people’s tests from Meta-Human Training are inaccurate. And many people here have never been tested—those who have never been to Meta-Human Training because their abilities didn’t fit the profile. So, a basic physical before we start training, and then we’ll have a baseline to work from.”
Bells thinks of Christine and how her parents bribed the League to take her in—her powers are amazing, but the League didn’t think so. He looks around at the people in the headquarters, every one of them with talents gone unrecognized, unvalued. How many meta-humans have powers considered too insignificant to be of interest to the League?
“Just about done here.” Michael sends Steven on his way and glances at Abby. “You next?”
Abby shrinks back. “I don’t even know if I would—if my powers would register. I’m done with tests, anyway. You guys go ahead.”
Jess gives Abby a look. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve had a lot of physicals. I’m sure,” Abby says. “You do it.”
Michael gestures for Jess to step forward. He hums to himself and then says something Bells is too far away to hear. He steps closer.
Jess blinks. “What?”
“I would say you would have at least six hours a day, if you use your power constantly. But it’s interesting, right, because your gift doesn’t need to be active all the time; it only takes a moment to process the information—you’ll be very helpful, very helpful indeed in the future. It’s an honor to be working with you, Compass.”
“I, er—thanks?” Jess stands up, looking at the lab results.
“I knew you were awesome,” Abby says with a grin, hugging Jess.
And then it’s Bells’ turn.
“I’m just gonna take your temperature.” Michael slips a thermometer into Bells’ mouth.
“Blood pressure looks normal. Heart rate is rather fast—were you just exercising?”
“Nope,” Bells says, fidgeting.
“Hm. That’s interesting. You should be at rest.” Michael clucks his tongue.
“Is that bad?”
“No, no, just interesting. Meta-humans tend to have slightly different vitals, so it’s not out of range. All right, I’m going to draw blood. We’ll do the usual—cholesterol, mineral levels, electrolytes, and of course, measuring your gamma protein levels.”
“The League told me I was B-class,” Bells says, staring at the machine. It’s a different one than the model Orion had, and he shudders, shaking that memory out of his head. “I’m not really sure.”
Michael brings him his lab results, and he’s smiling. Ever since that first day, he’s been extra flattering to Bells, and Bells isn’t sure if he likes it. “Can I just say this is so incredible? I mean, your parents must be really powerful meta-humans as well.”
“They’re not,” Bells says flatly.
“What?”
“I’m the first meta-human in my family,” Bells says, blinking as people break into whispers around him.
“What does this mean?”
“Oh, I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more natural mutations resulting in powers,” Genevieve says. “It could be that people don’t know that it’s possible. If they don’t have a meta-human parent, they don’t think they’d have the ability either.”
“That’s not the only thing.” Michael hands Bells his results. “I’ve never seen anything like it. You’re… beyond A class. Stronger than Captain Orion, and she’s got the highest documented power level in the country.”
Bells doesn’t know how to react, and he certainly doesn’t know what to say when other adults in the Villain’s Guild congratulate him, telling him what an honor it will be to work with him.
Everyone is looking at their own lab results, and out of the corner of his eye Bells can see Abby’s mouth drawn into a tight, frustrated line.
Many rooms in the network of tunnels and caverns are set aside for activities: lounging, eating, sleeping, even a few with wide space and matted floors and exercise equipment. The Squad is one of the training rooms, trying to come up with another way to convince the adults to get the Registry before Orion does.
Jess and Emma are deep in conversation about the recent tests. As always when Emma gets a new thing to research, she can’t stop talking about it. “It’s so cool, Jess. Like, do you think if you concentrate you can figure out how far away something is?”
“I don’t know,” Jess says with a small smile. “I’ve been trying.”
Abby gets up. “I can’t do this anymore,” she says, biting her lip and stepping back.
“Do what?” Jess asks. “I know it’s annoying but I think we can make a good case for why we can be helpful—”
“You mean how you can be helpful,” Abby snaps, pushing her hands away.
“That’s not what I—”
“Stop trying to make me feel better. I hate it. I hate that even trying to do even a fraction of what I could before put me in the hospital, and I’m broken and I can’t do this,” Abby says, clenching and unclenching her fists.
“Can’t…” Jess repeats, staring at her outstretched hands and then at Abby, who stands an arm’s length away. Abby doesn’t say anything, just makes a noise that’s a cross between a hiccup and a sob, and then runs out of the room. Jess dashes after her.
Jess and Abby are absent at dinner, and Emma nudges Bells.
“You think everything is okay?”
Bells frowns. “I don’t know.”
Jess finally comes into the main cavern, gets her plate, and joins them at their table. She looks dazed and glassy-eyed.
Emma and Bells share a look, and Brendan seems to pick up on the cues and shovels food into his mouth.
“Hey,” Emma says softly. “You wanna talk about it?”
Jess’ lip wobbles. “She wants to go back to Andover. She doesn’t think she’s useful here without her powers, and I was trying to say I didn’t care about that but I think she just— She took it badly. Like I didn’t care about her, but I do, and she—”
Bells draws her into a hug.
Brendan makes a face. “You’re both being dumb,” he says and then gets up from the table.
“It’s going to be okay,” Bells says.
Brendan returns with a plate full of mashed potatoes and sets it in front of Jess.
Abby is nowhere to be seen for the rest of the night, not during dinner or when the adults play charades.
Jess’ shoulders are hunched over when she gets to the room that was assigned to Bells and Brendan. “Genevieve said Abby wanted to be alone,” she sniffs.
“You can stay here,” Bells offers.
“Sleepover?” Emma asks.
Jess is red-eyed, and dirty tear tracks smudge her face. “Okay,” she says.
Brendan is already snoozing in his blanket burrito in the corner, but Bells lays out the rest of the sleeping bags in the middle of the room, making a wide, comfortable space for them. They change into their pajamas—the spare tees and sweatpants the Guild gave them—and brush their teeth and lie down. Jess is moving as if on autopilot. Emma tugs her into the middle, and Bells curls up around her. He pulls the covers over their heads, just like old times, creating a fort and shutting out the rest of the world. It’s almost as if they’re in middle school again, giggling about crushes.
“I thought we were more important,” Jess hiccups.
“You are,” Bells says. “If she doesn’t see that, then she doesn’t deserve you.”
“I said some dumb things, but she—”
“You can talk to her later,” Emma says.
“She’s so mad at me, though.”
“I think she’s mad at the situation, not you, and the relationship got dragged into it.”
Jess sniffles. “I just— It was so hard to get used to, but I liked it. I liked being part of a couple, and we just— I don’t want to—” She sighs.
Bells locks eyes with Emma and raises his eyebrows, silently asking, you got something to distract her? Bells doesn’t think Jess wants to hear about how itchy his feet are. He shakes his head.
Yeah, I got something, Emma nods.
“I broke up with Carlos,” she says.
“What? Why?”
Emma shrugs. “I dunno. I was tired of making up excuses when I was doing Sidekick Squad stuff, and then he didn’t get it when I said I was dropping out of school. I mean, I left out a lot of details, but said Bells had gone missing, and I was going to find him, and it was very stressful, okay? None of us knew what happened to you, Bells, and he was just like, ‘Why not just let the Authorities handle it, babe?’ And I was just done.
“I mean, there was a lot of stuff that I wasn’t ever gonna tell him about, and I didn’t want to tell him about, you know?” Emma strokes Jess’ hair. “I liked making out with him and everything and maybe I’d be interested in being friends, too, but he wanted to tell his friends we were boyfriend-girlfriend, and he made a big deal about me meeting his parents, and he made this comment about how he wished he could have been my escort for my quinceañera, which was ages ago.” She makes a face. “I guess I didn’t really like him that much after all.”
Bells puts his hand on Emma’s shoulder and doesn’t say anything; he doesn’t need to speak, just wants her to know he’s here for her.
Jess is definitely distracted, and they chat a little more about Carlos, and then Bells finds a saved copy of Vindicated on his DED, and they watch it together, just like old times, and fall asleep to the sound of car chases and explosions.
Emma is quiet the next day and she pokes listlessly at her breakfast and doesn’t even talk when Brendan brings up ideas. “I’m gonna take a walk; I’ll see you guys later.”
Jess and Brendan are caught up in discussion, and Abby is still holed up in her quarters, so Bells excuses himself and goes to look for Emma.
Early in their exploration of the headquarters they found a spot that offers a view of the outside world. A narrow ladder goes up an access chute and out onto a cliffside observation deck. The original residents of the bunker must have only used it as a lookout. Bells hasn’t gone up there, just heard from the others how cool it was.
Bells takes a deep breath, climbs the ladder a step at a time, and finds Emma at the top, sitting and watching the sky.
She turns and raises a questioning eyebrow. “What are you doing up here?”
“Thought you would want some company.”
“Not really, but I’ll make an exception for you.” Emma scoots back from the edge and sits next to the wall.
Bells sits next to her, far from the deck’s edge. The snow is glistening in the morning sun, the wind sweeps through the trees, and the clouds slowly puff across the sky.
Emma hugs her knees, and Bells leans against her. Sighing, she puts her head on his shoulder. He doesn’t know how long they sit there, watching the sun race across the sky, but he doesn’t question it, just lets Emma take her time.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” Emma says. “I mean, when I think about it, there was nothing wrong with Carlos, you know?”
Bells shrugs. “But you didn’t like him like that. It’s a good enough reason to break up, I think.”
“Look, I thought I— I never really got the relationship stuff. I know that you’re supposed to, that’s what normal people do, but I’ve never felt…” Emma trails off, lost in thought. “I mean, I’ve researched it a lot, but I never thought it fit exactly, but sometimes I think I really could be… but what if I’m not?”
Bells throws his arm around her shoulders, waiting.
“I could be asexual,” Emma says slowly. “I’ve thought about it. And then I think, well that doesn’t… I mean, I find people attractive, you know. Like, a lot.”
Bells turns to look at her. “Doesn’t mean you’re not somewhere on the spectrum, you know. Look, it’s a pretty broad term. You could be ace or aro or both or somewhere in between—”
“I’ve thought of that too, being aromantic, and that makes a lot of sense?” Emma pauses, looking back at Bells through her lashes, and then her cheeks flush. “Not all the time, though. I mean… I still don’t know.”
“And that’s okay too,” Bells says.
“Okay,” Emma says.
The clouds tumble across the sky, and for a long moment the world outside doesn’t matter. Emma interlaces their fingers, and they sit, watching the forest sway.
“When we get back, you could talk to Sean,” Bells says. “He’s asexual and aromantic. He figured it out before he got to college, but he knows a lot more about it now.”
Emma nods and takes a deep, contemplative breath.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
Bells leans over and swings his arm around her. “Are you okay?” he asks. “I mean, it’s a lot to process.”
“Yeah, it’s… kind of a relief to talk about it, honestly. I thought there was something wrong with me, that I couldn’t want any of those things with Carlos. Like he was talking about anniversaries and doing something special and I… I didn’t get it, you know? I didn’t like him that much as a person. I thought I was—well, he was cute, and I liked kissing him and I thought everything else would just fall into place, you know?”
Bells makes a noncommital hm noise and strokes Emma’s hair.
“I just— It’s normal for people to date. I just wanted to feel normal,” she says quietly.
“There’s no such thing as normal,” Bells says. “I mean, there’s what we think people are like, but everyone has a different experience, you know?”
“What do you think? About me. Being ace or aro.” Emma looks up at him, eyes widening. She twitches.
A lot of this is new to Bells too; he had no idea Emma felt this way, that she always felt this way. If she doesn’t do romantic attraction, there’s no possibility of her being attracted to him—and that’s okay. It doesn’t matter, in the long run. He squeezes her shoulder. “You’re my best friend. I love you. Nothing’s gonna change that.”
Emma sniffles and buries her face in Bells’ shoulder, and he holds on to her, and they both pretend that Emma isn’t crying.
It’s not the way he pictured telling her that he loves her, but this moment isn’t about Bells. He can offer her friendship, and if that’s all he ever gives her, it’ll be more than enough.
* * *
The next day Abby pulls Bells aside after breakfast. She doesn’t press him for information about Jess. Instead, she takes Bells to a training room and asks him how he protected them from the MonRobots. “What you did out there— You saved our lives,” Abby says. “And you’ve never done anything like that before?”
Bells rubs the back of his neck. He tells her about the motorcycle crash when he was learning to ride, how he changed, somehow. His skin had turned to stone. He tells her about changing mud into an iron pillar when the robots chased him. “I don’t know how I did it, but it happened. Same when we were being attacked by robots.”
Abby nods. “That makes sense, you know. I mean, when I was first practicing with my powers, I did everything to test the range and strength of my telekinesis. The technopath stuff didn’t come until later, but even with that I experimented to see what I could and couldn’t do. Reading datachips I figured out by accident. I think you have a lot of potential.”
Bells nods.
“Could you try it again? Turn your skin into armor?”
Bells tries. He reaches inside him for the shift and tries to remember what he was thinking when he turned into stone. Stone and rock and toughness, he wills himself. “Anything?”
“Hmm. Your hair turned white for a second,” Abby says. “Guess that’s not what you were going for. Maybe you’re trying too much. Think of it as changing into another person, maybe? Or getting bigger? ”
Bells can do that. He thinks about being tall and can feel himself stretch until he’s twice as tall as Abby and his head touches the ceiling. He laughs and waves at her.
“Okay, do you think about different things when you shift yourself and when you shift your clothes? Because your clothes got bigger too.”
“Yeah,” Bells says, but he’s done it so often it’s hard to tease out the differences. He shifts into what Abby’s wearing, a sleek black workout top and pants, and then, for the hell of it, shifts into Abby, complete with the same braided hairstyle.
“Okay, very funny, you’re a taller version of me,” Abby says.
Bells shrinks to her size so he can stick his tongue out at her.
The door opens, and Jess walks in. “Hey, Abby, do you have—” She looks up from her DED, faltering at the sight of two Abbys. She blinks and freezes. “Um. What…”
“We’re testing Bells’ powers,” Abby says.
“Yeah, we think he can replicate what he did the other day, with the skin armor,” Bells says in Abby’s voice, mimicking her stance. She does a bit of a hip thrust, he observes, so he throws out his hip, and then, for good measure, tries to do a hairflip. Long hair is heavy. Good thing I’m not going to be like this forever. He watches Jess for her reaction.
“Really funny. This looks nothing like skin armor and more like you guys were gonna play a joke on me.” Jess rolls her eyes at Bells and then smiles at Abby without hesitation.
He shifts back to himself, pouting. “What? I thought it was a perfect copy!”
Both Jess and Abby laugh, and then they look at each other, awkward and hesitant.
“I was looking for you,” Jess says softly.
Bells excuses himself to hop on the treadmill and watches as Jess and Abby, talking in close, hushed whispers, leave the gym. They aren’t even at the door when Abby shakes her head and throws her arms around Jess, and both girls laugh in relief.
Brendan is convinced he can override the lock system on the exits, and Emma and Jess stockpile supplies so, when the moment is right, they can leave headquarters and get the Registry. It becomes a new routine, everyone working on their parts of the plan while Bells and Abby work on developing their powers together. Today Bells has an idea for Abby he wants to try, but she hasn’t taken to meditation well.
Abby cracks her knuckles, concentrating hard.
“Anything?” Bells asks.
Her eyes are closed, and her fingers are pressed to her temples. The DED in front of her seems to flicker.
“I know it’s there,” she says, frowning. “I can feel it, I just can’t— I can’t do anything!”
Abby looks across the room, where Jess and Emma are deep in conversation.
“She’s not going to think any less of you if you can’t get them back,” Bells says quietly.
“I know,” Abby says. “It just… and I feel doubly guilty, you know, that I want it so bad.”
“But you can feel your power,” Bells says. “How much is there? Is it the same as it normally is?”
“I don’t understand.” Abby frowns. “What do you mean, feel your power?”
“When I think about shifting, I imagine there’s a fire inside me—that’s my power. It changes, depending on how I’m feeling or what I’ve done that day, but if I think about it, I can see how much energy I have left before I’m tapped out.” Bells can see his power now, a tall flickering flame.
“You can see your power? I’ve never heard of that—did they teach you that at the training center?”
“Nope. Just something I like to do. At training, once they hand you your power rating, people pretty much stick to that, the four hours, two hours, one hour thing. No one really tries to last beyond that. Guess I just like to push the boundaries.”
“But that made you stronger,” Abby says, eyes widening. “All right, I’ll try it. What do you do? Just—imagine a fire?”
Bells is at a loss. He doesn’t really know how to explain it—it just is. He reaches for his power, and he can see his fire, but doesn’t know how to help Abby see hers.
“You know the difference when you just woke up and you feel really refreshed and ready to go, right? Like you know how much energy you have? It’s kind of like that, and I just try to get a sense of how big it is, you know?”
Abby takes a deep breath. “I just don’t know what I’m doing. This all feels very—weird.”
Okay, so the fire imagery isn’t working for Abby. She’s logical and her power is all about connecting with tech, things flowing from one circuit to another…
“Can you think of it like… If you’re a solar panel or something, like can you tell how much of a charge you have?”
“I am not a solar panel, Bells,” Abby says flatly.
He chuckles. “Okay, not a solar panel. What about a computer? I mean, you know tech better than I do, you know, the thinky part—”
“Motherboard.”
“Close your eyes, think about what you feel. Can you feel your power?” He feels silly saying it, but he doesn’t have a better way to describe it.
“Yes, Bells, I can feel my power,” Abby says, amused. “Actually, yeah. Like I know I have it, I just—can’t do anything about it.”
“Okay, don’t worry about that. I mean, we figured that the serum is doing something, like blocking your ability to access it. But you can still feel your power, that’s great!”
Abby winces. “All right, so if I was a solar panel, it’s covered in dust, and I just need to clean it.”
Bells grins. “Exactly!”
“… and how do I do that? It’s not as simple as believe it and it magically happens. Maybe we should just focus on developing your new skills. I mean, this was interesting and all, but I don’t really see the point in having me imagine what my powers look like inside me.”
“Hmm, but you know you still have them,” Bells says, smirking at her.
She offers him a slow smile. “Oh. I guess I do.”