Sleepers and Scouts

by Phillip Murrell

  “Long night?” Tina asks.

  “Yeah, but it made Jenny happy, so it was worth it,” Keith answers.

  “You two are really close now.”

  “I love her, Mom.”

  Tina snickers, but quickly ends it.

  “Time for an awkward conversation,” Tina announces.

  Keith senses what’s coming. “Mom, no, please.”

  “We have about a two-hour drive ahead of us, so yes, it’s happening.”

  Keith groans and flops back on his headrest.

  “Simple question up front. Are you a virgin?”

  “Mom!”

  “Answer the question honestly.”

  “Yes, Mom, I’m a virgin. Are you happy?”

  “Partially. Next question, is that your choice or Jenny’s?”

  “Can’t I have this talk with Dad?”

  “No, because he’d probably support you in your conquest.”

  “It’s hers.”

  “I figured as much. You’re only sixteen. I know your prom tonight will feel like this momentous occasion when you should do something special, but don’t. Teenage pregnancy is a real problem.”

  “They have these things called condoms, Mom.”

  “And how many do you have?”

  “Mom! Please, inappropriate.”

  “No it isn’t. Inappropriate would be for me to tell you about the last time I asked a man that question.”

  Keith covers his ears. “Sick, Mom! Gross!”

  “Grow up and answer my questions.”

  Keith removes his hands. “Just trust me, Mom, I’m good there.”

  “That scares me even more.”

  “Can we just drive?”

  “Keith, I understand your curiosity and your desire. I just don’t want you to limit your life, or Jenny’s, because you feel the need to prove yourself.”

  “I said I love her.”

  “I know you do, but you can’t support her with your paycheck as a busboy. Give yourselves time to grow up, then move to the next stage in your relationship.”

  “If you want grandchildren, I have to lose my virginity at some point.”

  Tina briefly closes her eyes.

  “Yes, but ask yourself this. When you’re having the same kind of conversation with your son or daughter, what do you want to leave them with? Do you want to tell them how you did it when you weren’t ready with a girl you ended up hating, or do you want to be able to point to your spouse and say she’s right there?”

  “I don’t know how to answer that.”

  “Which proves my point that you need to wait. Promise me you will.”

  “I promise, Mom. I’ll wait until I’m ready.”

  “Which isn’t tonight. Promise me.”

  “I promise that tonight I won’t be ready.”

  “Thank you. Now, do you want to get some brunch on the way up or lunch with your father?”

  “I want to pretend that the last ten minutes of my life never took place.”

  Keith covers his face. Tina chuckles. Keith wonders if it’s from her memories of a similar conversation with her own mother.

  Nick stands in his combat uniform with a handful of hardened men also dressed in army uniforms. They watch from behind acrylic glass as Ibble’s team of augmented agents train. The agents don’t have the benefit of Templar technology, so they train in tactical attire against pop-up targets, most depicting the likenesses of the Templars.

  Ibbles stands next to Nick and nudges him with his elbow.

  “Watch this,” Ibbles gloats.

  Nick observes an incredibly short man, three and a half feet tall, project white spheres and throw a pair into the training room. The spheres explode and leave a disorienting whine and ringing. Nick is forced to cover his eyes and rub his ears.

  “You could have warned me!” Nick snaps at Ibbles.

  The older man giggles as he removes ear protection.

  “Now we’re even for the other day. That’s Eddie Liston. We call him Flashbang for obvious reasons.”

  Nick blinks repeatedly to get his vision to come back. When it finally does, he sees four other A-Men working together to systematically eliminate the targets.

  The first man, unlike his tactically dressed peers, stands in a pair of underwear only. He widens his arms and screams. This prompts his body to undergo a transformation. The man’s body soon swells to fourteen feet tall and takes on the appearance of a winged alien monster that’s a hybrid of an ant and a crab. Two powerful pincers snap at targets and cut them in two.

  “Roger Cove is our team leader,” Ibbles says about the man. “He goes by Beast Mode in the field.”

  Nick instinctively swallows as he watches the monster demolish the targets surrounding it.

  Aaron taps Nick on the arm.

  “What the hell do they need us for?” he whispers.

  Nick shrugs and shakes his head. “That’s a good point.”

  Nick shifts his focus to a pair of A-Men who work in tandem. The first points his hands at the second. Nick doesn’t observe any lasers or fireballs, but when he looks closely, it does appear as if the air is wavy. The second man appears to focus whatever energy the first is spreading and sends it back at targets. Five paper targets ignite in quick succession.

  “I see you’re watching Carl Sanchez and Jamal Lincoln, Hot Box and Refract respectively.”

  “What are they doing?” Nick asks.

  “Hot Box is sending microwave beams at Refract, who’s redirecting the energy toward the targets.”

  “That could be useful,” Aaron admits.

  The last A-Man is actually a petite woman. She fires aimed shots from her pistol at targets as they pop up. The shots are deliberate and don’t appear to be augmented. In fact, her accuracy is only average for a federal agent.

  “What’s her deal?” Aaron asks.

  Ibbles nods knowingly. “That’s Souyoung Kim, but we call her Moon Glare. Her power doesn’t interact well with paper targets, so she’s improving her marksmanship.”

  “But what does she do?” Nick asks.

  Ibbles bends over and activates the intercom on the display in front of him. “Moon Glare, would you please show the gentlemen to my right what you do?”

  Moon Glare gives the thumbs up sign and stares at Nick and Aaron. Nick feels his skin turn cold, but has literally no care to figure out why.

  “Whatever. I’m out of here. I have to meet my ex and son for lunch in an hour anyway,” Nick says.

  “This is a waste of my time,” Aaron agrees.

  Both men, along with the ODA team leaders, all turn to leave and suddenly stop.

  “Shit! What was that?” Nick asks.

  Ibbles smiles. “I don’t know what to call it exactly, but Moon Glare kind of takes away your give a damn. Did you feel cold?”

  “Both literally and figuratively,” Aaron admits.

  “That’s why she’s Moon Glare. It’ll definitely help with getting peaceful resolutions to any engagements. Now we have a Compel, too.”

  Nick nods and rubs his shoulders to circulate the blood, an unnecessary task.

  “I see,” Nick says. “Where exactly do I drop off my cock and balls?”

  “No shit,” Aaron adds.

  “No reason to feel emasculated, gentlemen. You’re part of the family, too. Would you care to meet the team?”

  Nick and Aaron notice that the range is thoroughly destroyed now. The A-Men mingle below as they wait for the after action review.

  “Absolutely,” Nick says.

  “I’d be afraid to say no,” Aaron states.

  Ibbles leads the Special Forces soldiers down the stairs to meet the team.

  Lottery and Stitch sit on the ledge of a tall building in New Delhi. They swing their legs as
they wait for a reason to act.

  “It feels good to be home,” Lottery admits.

  “Do you come here a lot?” Stitch asks.

  “No. I make it a point to patrol from time to time, but I’m wanted here, and the whole world knows that Lottery is Darsh Johal. I can’t get away with living my normal life.”

  “Then why do you drive the cab?”

  “In India, the police were able to figure out who the man who stole the Sudarshana Chakra was. My family had to publicly denounce me, but in the US, I’m just another Indian guy. Nobody pays too close attention to me, and they’ve already forgotten the name. A shave of the head and a full beard later and I can at least get some takeout.”

  “That’s a shame. I’d hate it if I couldn’t go home to San Francisco.”

  “Well, take a lesson from Votary and make sure you protect your identity. I know the others have a lot of issues with him on that subject, but I fully understand. He’s the only one of us who’s truly free to quit and go back to a normal life.”

  “Do you think Abel would allow it?”

  “I don’t think Abel allows or forbids anything. He just sort of goes with the flow of the universe.”

  Lottery and Stitch hear sirens in the distance.

  “Time to test your equipment,” Lottery announces. “Patch into the emergency services frequency and find out what the problem is.”

  Stitch fusses with controls on the inside of her left gauntlet. After a few minutes and a curse or two, she has the requested information.

  “It looks like there’s a massive fire in one of the residential areas.”

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Really?”

  “People need our help. We don’t have to kill someone every time we go out.”

  “Tell that to my brother.”

  The two kick themselves off the ledge and fly toward the sound of the sirens. They soon find themselves over an inferno spreading through a shanty town in New Delhi. The plywood and sheet metal buildings quickly engulf while a dilapidated hotel nearby leans closer and closer to toppling and crushing the residents beneath.

  Lottery quickly surmises the threats. “Stitch, you get the people out of the immediate danger of the fire. I’m going to make sure that hotel doesn’t compound our problems.”

  “I can’t do it alone!”

  “You don’t have a choice. Use your power to help the wounded. I’m gonna need each of my clones, but if I get a handle on it, I’ll send a few to help you. Now go!”

  Lottery doesn’t wait for another complaint and flies toward the leaning hotel. A dozen clones appear behind him as he flies. Fortune is with Lottery, as one clone has ice powers and another can make it rain. These two complement each other to end the blaze that threatens to overtake a larger portion of the city.

  “Thank you, Vishnu,” Lottery says.

  The remaining clones and Lottery Prime fly to the building. One clone is able to make rope appear. He uses this ability to lash the building. The rope is too thin to permanently hold the hotel in place, but it does slow the inevitable.

  “Get the people out of here,” Lottery orders.

  Stitch lands among frightened parents and small children. She uses her Hindi translator to have the people follow her. The crowd is all too willing to run toward the police and ambulances on the outskirts of the blaze; they just needed the assurance of which direction to run toward.

  As bodies pass Stitch, she looks for any injured people. A man lies on the street with a compound fracture. His femur sticks out of his hamstring. Stitch flies to the man and places her hands on his wound. The body reacts instantly and begins to repair itself. Stitch holds on as the bone re-submerges into his leg. The muscle and skin sew themselves back together. In less than thirty seconds, Stitch helps the man to his feet. He sprints off after his neighbors.

  Stitch hears the shriek of a terrified woman. Stitch flies straight up to get a better vantage point of the blaze and sees a woman encircled by flames. Stitch flies over and scoops the woman up. The woman fights Stitch as she flies her to safety. Stitch mistakes the action for the terror of the situation, but then pays attention to the translation her helmet provides.

  “My mother is in there. Please save her.”

  “I’ll get her,” Stitch promises.

  Stitch flies back to the destroyed home she saved the woman from. She uses her helmet’s internal sensors to look for anyone else. She quickly locates the elderly woman, but she’s under a collapsed rafter and has third degree burns over her body. Her skin is literally on fire around her legs.

  Stitch uses the augmented strength from her armor to lift the burning beam and grabs the woman’s body. Stitch drags her across the floor, unconcerned with any additional injuries she may cause because her community healing factor will be able to rectify them.

  Stitch flies while holding the woman by both wrists. She watches as the flames quickly expire. The woman’s burned skin is reversed to its normal brown hue. Stitch lands the woman next to an ambulance and signals for the paramedics. They quickly move to grab the unconscious woman, but they move on after a few moments.

  “Hey!” Stitch shouts. “Help her.”

  “She’s already dead!” a paramedic shouts back.

  The daughter of the victim collapses next to her mother’s body. She cradles the undamaged remains, but the woman shows no response. Stitch finds herself staring at the scene. She’s confused and oblivious to the rest of the destruction around her. The sound of the collapsing hotel, finally giving way to gravity, brings her back to the present.

  “Stitch, you still with me?” Lottery asks.

  “Uh, yeah, I guess,” Stitch whispers her response.

  “Good. It looks like the flames are finally out. Work your way through the crowd and help anyone you can.”

  Stitch doesn’t respond. Her attention is once again on the anguished face of the daughter.

  “Stitch!”

  “Sorry,” Stitch says as she jolts from the volume of Lottery’s voice.

  “You won’t be able to save everyone. Go help those you can.”

  “Got it, Lottery.”

  Stitch approaches the nearest paramedics and assists with saving lives.

  Keith, dressed in a tuxedo, walks into the Fort Chamberlain High School gymnasium with Jenny on his arm. The theme for the prom is “outer space,” a popular one across the country for the year because of the Malignant ship sightings.

  Jenny has a modest green and sleeveless prom dress with decorative ribbons attached to a sheer fabric that surrounds the outside of her floor-length gown from the waist down. She wears a matching corsage around her right wrist.

  Mason and Sherry walk with Keith and Jenny. They’re also dressed elegantly for the occasion, although Sherry’s blue dress is significantly shorter than both Jenny’s and the official dress code.

  Gallery’s song If I Gave It in the First Place plays in the background as the couples work their way to the dance floor.

  “It feels strange being in here again,” Keith mentions as he looks around his old school.

  “If you say so,” Mason says.

  Mason grabs Sherry and twirls her around. He then pulls her in and dances awkwardly with her. Sherry looks equally uncomfortable in her moves.

  Keith tries his best to appear more presentable with Jenny. The two move their bodies with each other’s rhythm as they continue their conversation.

  “What’s so funny?” Jenny asks.

  “Nothing,” Keith quickly answers.

  “You have to tell me. It’s our special night.”

  “Funny you should say that.”

  “Why?” Jenny asks with a giggle.

  “Because my mom read me the riot act about not having sex with you tonight.”

  “So sorry for her. You can’t change
your mind on me now. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks.”

  Keith smiles at the admission.

  “Good to know.”

  “What’s so funny about what she said though?”

  “It’s not so much what she said as what your dad said.”

  “Oh God,” Jenny says as she rolls her eyes.

  The song changes to a ballad, so Jenny wraps her arms around Keith’s neck, and he places his hands on her hips. The two slowly circle.

  “Your dad told me to remember to double bag it.”

  “That sounds like him.”

  “Then he said, better yet, triple bag it.”

  Jenny’s jaw drops in her faux shock.

  “Now I’m offended,” Jenny jokes. “Sure, double bag it is our joke, but triple bagging is saved for discount prostitutes.”

  “Tell me again what a free prostitute counts as?”

  Jenny playfully slaps Keith.

  “Watch it, mister, or you’ll have to search post for one.”

  “Hey, Keith, long time no see,” a male student says.

  Keith looks over at the new speaker. “Oh, hey, Al.”

  “Looking good, Keith. You’ve been working out, I see,” Al’s date also mentions.

  “I have. Thanks for noticing.”

  “I’ll hit you up later,” Al says and pulls his date along to a group of friends.

  “I’ve been hearing that a lot,” Jenny mentions. “Apparently you got really big really fast. I don’t need to drug test you, do I?”

  Keith laughs. “No, but maybe it’s a sign that I’m about to activate my augmentation.”

  “You wish.”

  “I really do,” Keith admits. “Of course, with my luck I’d get something stupid like the power of pizza.”

  “Pizza?”

  “Yeah. It’s the fifth and most significant element. I could fight bad guys by hitting them with scalding hot, oozy cheese.”

  Jenny rolls her eyes. “That’s no joke. I burn myself all the time when I pull the pizzas out of the oven and cut them too quickly at work.”

  “So, when do you want to head back to my place? In an hour or so?”

  Jenny leans forward and nibbles on Keith’s ear. “The sooner the better.”