Powerless

by Matthew Cody

  Daniel was up next. He spotted Louisa, Rose and Rohan right away, and now all that was left was Simon and the two fliers. Because of her invisibility powers, Rose might have been nearly impossible to find, but luckily she got a case of the giggles whenever she tried to hide.

  “Just three left,” said Rohan, sitting on a nearby stump. “Think you can do it?”

  “Of course he can,” said Louisa. “He found you fast enough, didn’t he?”

  “That’s only because Chuckles here wouldn’t stop following me around.”

  Rose materialized next to him. “I don’t like to hide alone. I get scared!”

  Daniel let the three of them argue. His attention was on Simon, Eric and Mollie. The trick now was to outwait them. He couldn’t match any of them in power, but if they got bored, they might get careless.

  Daniel took a seat next to Rohan and waited. He sat there for at least fifteen minutes. Behind him, Rose was singing a little song of her own creation about hiding and seeking, while Rohan stared off into space, lost in a world only he could see. Louisa smiled at Daniel whenever he looked her way, so he resolved not to.

  After a while longer, a voice from the trees grumbled, “Aw, to heck with this!” Daniel felt his head start to tingle and turned around just in time to see a tiny ball of static electricity, no bigger than a penny, explode just inches from his nose.

  “Ow! Simon! You’re out!”

  “Yeah, I know, but the look on your face was worth it! Besides, my butt’s asleep.”

  “And next time, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your little wisps away from my face.”

  “Man, Corrigan! It was just a little shock. You are such a girl!”

  Daniel turned his back on Simon—it was useless arguing with that kid.

  Four down—that left only Eric and Mollie.

  Daniel wasn’t surprised that it had come down to the two fliers. They were probably floating somewhere above his head, hidden in the leaves, just waiting to make their move. But there was something that Daniel had noticed about fliers—they never thought about not flying; they never considered that sometimes it might be a better idea to just walk. No, they would definitely be airborne, which meant that he didn’t need to worry about looking down. Up was all he had to be concerned with.

  Another fact about those two was that they were very competitive. Always racing each other, always showing off …

  “Hey, guys,” Daniel said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Tell you what: Let’s make it more interesting. Let’s make a side bet—whoever gets to base first can have my dessert at lunch for the next week. No, let’s say for a month! That is, if you’re fast enough …”

  “No contest!” said Simon. “Eric’s going to cream Mollie! She doesn’t have a chance this time.”

  “Nuh-uh,” sang Rose. “Mollie’s fastest. She’s the best flier and everyone knows. Michael was once but now it’s Mollie.”

  This was perfect, thought Daniel. Fuel to the fire.

  Then he heard it—a rustle of wind accompanied by a swooshing sound coming from the treetops. Then another, from the other direction. They were stirring up a breeze, they were flying so fast, both aiming for the same target….

  “Uh-oh,” said Louisa. “I can’t watch….”

  Louisa’s words disappeared in a small thunderclap overhead, and when it cleared, Eric and Mollie were lying on the ground, dazed and startled. Leaves and debris were flying everywhere in the fallout of their midair collision.

  “Ow!” said Mollie, sitting up. “You should really watch where you’re going.”

  “Says you,” answered Eric.

  Daniel strutted over to where the two of them were sitting, rubbing their heads and looking sheepish but otherwise unhurt.

  “Go on, Daniel,” said Eric. “Say it.”

  “Eric and Mollie—you’re out. And I’ll be keeping my desserts, thank you very much.”

  “All right, but this time I get to be It,” said Mollie, brushing the leaves off her backside.

  “This game is a bore,” whined Simon. “Let’s do something fun for a change.”

  “Like what?” asked Daniel. “Play Simon Shocks all afternoon? No thanks.”

  “Quiet, everyone!” said Rohan. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

  They did as they were told. Rohan rarely raised his voice and when he did, everyone knew that he wasn’t fooling around.

  Eric walked over to him and quietly asked, “What’s up? You see something?”

  “No, but I think I smell smoke. I definitely smell smoke. A lot of it. Something’s on fire and I don’t hear any fire trucks.”

  Eric was all action.

  “Okay, then, game’s over. Rohan, I’ll fly—you navigate. And, Simon, you’re with us, too. We need to hurry.”

  “I wanna go!” said Rose.

  “No,” answered Eric. “You’re too young, Rose. You know that.”

  “But we can’t leave her here alone,” said Louisa. “Maybe I should stay here with her.”

  “We might need your phasing powers, Louisa. But you’re right, she can’t stay here alone.” Eric scratched his chin and looked around. “Hey, Daniel! You can watch Rose, right? We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “Guys,” said Rohan, with that faraway look on his face, “we need to hurry….”

  Eric looked pleadingly at Daniel. What else was Daniel going to do? He wouldn’t be any help putting out a fire, anyway. He’d probably just get in the way.

  “Yeah, of course,” he answered. “You guys just get going. Rose’ll be fine with me.”

  “Great! Thanks, man!”

  Louisa stepped up and gave Daniel an unexpected kiss on the cheek. “I know she’ll be in good hands, Daniel.”

  Mollie stamped her foot. “Let’s go, already!”

  Louisa took Mollie’s hand, and Daniel watched as the rest of her body phased into her ghost form. She left her hand solid so that she could hold on, but with the rest of her body incorporeal she weighed next to nothing. As Mollie lifted off the ground, carrying the featherlight Louisa, Daniel could even see flecks of dust passing through Louisa’s body in the sunlight.

  Rohan climbed onto Eric’s back and Simon wrapped his arms around Eric’s waist. Daniel was worried that Eric wouldn’t be able to fly with that much extra weight, but he took off after Mollie with no problem whatsoever.

  As the Supers disappeared past the trees, Daniel felt his earlier euphoria disappear along with them. He might be good at games but when it came to real heroics, he was useless. At times like this he was, at best, a convenient babysitter.

  And to make matters worse, when he looked, Rose was now nowhere to be found. Was it possible that they had been gone all of a few seconds and Daniel had already lost her?

  “Rose?” he called. “Rose, where are you?”

  He heard a small, giggly voice answer him from not too far away. “Come and find me!”

  Daniel took a deep breath and let it out in a long, depressed sigh. While the rest of his friends were off saving lives, he was stuck here, playing hide-and-seek with the Invisible Little Girl.

  Chapter Eight

  Moon-Gazing

  “You know, I totally could have gone in there and saved that baby.”

  “Oh yeah? What would you have done? Shocked the fire away? Your wisps are suddenly fire-retardant?”

  “All I’m saying is that I could have done more if Mr. Superhero here would’ve let me.”

  “Eric just acted on instinct!”

  “Mollie …”

  “No, it’s true.”

  “Well, we all did our part. Good job, team.”

  “I was scared, Eric.”

  “So was I, Louisa. But you didn’t let your fear get the better of you. You did good.”

  “… All I’m saying is that if you had run into a terrorist or some kind of alien bounty hunter in there, you would’ve totally needed my help.”

  “Of course, Simon. Of course.”

  Daniel
and the Supers were sitting in Rohan’s backyard, looking for shooting stars. Or at least Rohan and Daniel were looking for shooting stars. The rest were replaying the events of the big fire—apparently, a house near the edge of town had caught fire and the mother almost died from the smoke. When they got there, Eric rushed in and saved a two-year-old baby, then went back in for the unconscious mother. When the fire trucks arrived, she and her baby were both sitting on the grass, safe. The Supers were nowhere around.

  “Okay, looking for these shooting stars is the lamest of Daniel’s many, many lame ideas,” said Simon. “I’m going home to play Demolition Raceway.”

  “I’m having a good time,” said Louisa, barely stifling a yawn. “But it is getting kind of late … it’s past Rose’s bedtime.” Rose was snoring softly in Louisa’s lap.

  “It was fun, though, Daniel,” she said. “I’d do it again!”

  “Thanks, Louisa,” answered Daniel. “I’m sorry, guys. They said there would be a big meteor shower tonight. Maybe it’s just too cloudy down here.”

  “Don’t sweat it, Daniel,” said Eric. “We’ll see them next time around. Race you home, Mollie?”

  Eric turned but Mollie was already up in the air. “You’re toast!” she shouted, disappearing into the distance.

  “Darn it,” said Eric, calling after her, “give me half a chance, why don’t you….”

  The rest of them waved goodbye as they got on their bikes. Daniel looked over at his friend, but Rohan’s attention was focused intently on one part of the sky. The two of them were alone now and it had gotten very quiet. It was a nice change.

  “Whatcha looking at?”

  “There,” said Rohan, pointing. “See, the moon’s rising.”

  “Oh yeah. I can see it.”

  “Not like I can.”

  Daniel mulled this over for a minute. He knew his friend could see things at far distances, but the moon was hundreds of thousands of miles away.

  “You mean you can see all that way? Details and everything?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then how come you wear glasses?”

  “I’m farsighted. I need these for reading.”

  “So you can see craters on the surface of the moon, but you need your glasses to read a book?”

  “Yep.”

  “That’s weird.”

  “Yeah, well.”

  Daniel smiled and looked back at the night sky. The waxing moon hung low in the sky like a sliver, barely a fingernail to Daniel’s eyes.

  “So … what’s it look like? To you, I mean.”

  “Remember the star show we saw at the planetarium?” Rohan asked, his eyes never leaving the sky. “Those pictures they took with the big telescope?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I don’t need a telescope. Right now I am looking at the Sea of Tranquility.”

  “There’s a sea on the moon? You’re nuts.”

  “It’s not a real sea. It’s just what they call it. It’s actually a huge desert where the sand never shifts, never moves—because, of course, there isn’t any wind on the moon.”

  “Spooky,” said Daniel.

  “Kind of. But it’s beautiful, too.”

  “Rohan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you ever get afraid of losing your powers? Afraid of … you know, what happens when you turn thirteen?”

  “Sure I do,” answered Rohan. “We all do, but there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s going to happen to all of us, no matter what Mollie says.”

  “Mollie? What does Mollie say?”

  Rohan sighed. “Mollie’s one of my best friends, but she’s a troublemaker. She’s always questioning the Rules, especially that one. The Third Rule: It Ends at Thirteen. She just won’t accept that some good things are destined to come to an end.”

  “But you do? You can just accept that when you turn thirteen, you’ll lose … all of this?”

  “Eric believes that we can change our future by doing good deeds now. He thinks that, like Johnny Noble, we can grow up and become superheroes or something. I think that it’s a nice thought, and it sure would be great if that were true….”

  “But….,” said Daniel.

  “My family believes in duty, Daniel. And I know the rest of you make fun of me for being a ‘good kid,’ but I can’t help it; it’s who I am. I think we’ve been given these powers for a reason, and the trade-off is to be responsible and follow the Rules. To do our duty.

  “Maybe it’s just our destiny to give up our powers when we turn thirteen,” said Rohan, finally taking his eyes off the bright moon. “You can’t fight fate, Daniel. And you won’t be happy as long as you keep trying.”

  Daniel looked at his friend in a whole new way. Rohan had always seemed a little strange, what with his tiny ties and loafers, but now he seemed … almost wise.

  “Wow,” said Daniel. “Maybe you should have Mollie over for dinner sometime, explain all that to her.”

  “It would never work,” answered Rohan. “Mollie hates curry.”

  Daniel laughed and Rohan said good night as he went inside. As Daniel pulled his Windbreaker tight around his neck, a voice startled him from the dark.

  “Hey, New Kid.”

  Daniel looked up to see Mollie standing by the edge of the yard.

  “Oh, hey,” answered Daniel. “I didn’t see you there.”

  “That’s ’cause I just got here,” said Mollie, pointing to the sky.

  “Oh, got it,” said Daniel. Man, she really is fast. “Thought you were headed home?”

  Mollie wrinkled her nose. “I wasted Eric and then got bored. Thought I’d see if you guys were still here.”

  “Oh. Well, I was just heading home, actually.”

  “Cool. I’ll walk with you.”

  Daniel did a quick double take, surprised. Mollie usually had only the bare minimum of contact with him, and this was certainly the first time she’d offered to spend time with him alone. He was immediately suspicious.

  They walked together in silence for the first few minutes. Daniel didn’t understand why he always found it so hard to talk to Mollie, but it had something to do with the way she looked at him—as if she was examining him, or waiting for him to do or say something. Whatever it was, it was about as much fun as watching Georgie clap.

  Daniel decided to use this opportunity to say something he had been meaning to say for a long time.

  “I never thanked you.”

  Mollie made a face. “You never thanked me for what?”

  “That first day, when we were moving in. You saved Georgie from being hit by that car.”

  Mollie just shrugged. “It was no big deal.”

  “Yes, it was! And I didn’t even see you do it! Are you really that fast?”

  This made Mollie smile a bit. “When I need to be—yeah, I’m that fast.”

  “Well, anyway. I just wanted to say thanks. I should’ve said it a long time ago.”

  Mollie chewed on her lip. It looked as if she was thinking something over. “Why don’t we just say that you owe me one?”

  “Sure. Deal.”

  They walked a little farther without saying anything more. Daniel decided that talking was certainly better than silence, so he tried to strike up a little more conversation.

  “Boy, Rohan sure sucks at hide-and-seek.”

  “Tell me about it. He’s too busy listening to the leaves grow or some other weird thing.”

  Daniel laughed. “Yeah, but at least he’s not a jerk like Simon. The hair on the top of my head’s still singed!”

  Mollie stopped walking. “Just lay off Simon, okay?”

  “I didn’t mean anything by it,” he muttered.

  “You don’t know anything about anything, New Kid.” Mollie suddenly bristled with anger.

  Daniel had had enough. “What is that supposed to mean? All I said was that Simon can be a jerk sometimes, because it’s true! How many times have I gotten shocked in the face for no reason? And why you go
out of your way to defend him when you are such a pain to everyone else, especially me …”

  “It’s Simon’s birthday next week,” she said.

  “So what? Does that mean you’ll be nice to me when my birthday comes around?”

  Mollie turned to Daniel and he was shocked to see tears in her eyes. But the tears didn’t stop her from shouting, “Don’t you get it? He’s turning thirteen! We are all being nice to Simon because in a week we won’t even know him anymore!”

  Daniel was stunned. He’d never even wondered about Simon’s age before. Now he knew.

  “Oh,” he said. “I’m … I’m sorry.” What else was there to say?

  Mollie rubbed at her eyes, angrily brushing away the tears that had pooled there.

  “Michael was the last one, and he was my best friend. He was the best flier there ever was, and then one morning he just wakes up and forgets it all! He was so determined not to, he even wrote himself notes, he drew pictures, so that he would remember, but it didn’t work. Nothing ever works. He stopped hanging out with us right after that. Now, at school, he doesn’t even look at me. Eric and Rohan will tell you that it’s just the way things are, that we all need to accept it. But that’s not true. Something bad happens when we turn thirteen, and I won’t just accept it!”

  Daniel didn’t know what to say. After all, if it had been him with those powers, he would never want to be ordinary, not ever.

  Mollie had calmed down somewhat and was done shouting. But she hadn’t let go of her anger, either, Daniel could tell. She was simply holding it back, keeping it in check.

  “And you know who’s next after that, don’t you?” she asked.

  Daniel shook his head, but he could guess.

  “Eric,” she answered. “And you know what this town will be like without him? What Clay and Bud will be like? Without Eric around, no one can stop Clay. He’s just too strong … too strong.”