Encrypted

by Weaver, Nicole

  Two Seniors, wedged into place, were trying to force the windows on the left side wider, but they only slid open a few inches. The bus armor, and other after-market add-ons the Chief of Police had installed wouldn't allow them to open the rest of the way.

  One Senior gave up and started pounding uselessly on the glass.

  That isn't going to work. It's all bulletproof and heat resistant.

  Still, they let some of the smoke back out on the other side. Realizing the smoke was getting worse, the two guys coughed their way to the dangerous side and tried to close those windows.

  No one else moved; not to help, or even to escape out of the emergency exit behind Trevor and Samantha. Some of those from the closest seats had actually moved to the middle of the bus with the rest of the terrified students.

  With the windows shut, the slowly clearing smoke left the front of the bus invisible at eye level, but Samantha caught sight of the bus driver crawling down the aisle towards the huddle of students, below the thickest of the smoke.

  You kids think this is scary? Try meeting my therapist. Chills crawled down her spine and she reflexively tried to see behind her. "Damn it Trevor, get off me."

  Gasping and struggling to get to her feet, she couldn't move, couldn't break free. Too much weight. Not enough air.

  After an eternity pressed against the gum encrusted floor, Trevor finally shifted out of the way.

  On hands and knees, she shivered again, not sure what to do next. Don't think about it, focus on escaping. I can do this. Villains cannot be cowed by fear, or the Heroes win.

  Trevor whispered in her ear, adding more goosebumps to her already tingling neck. "We lucked out. The windows seem to be holding up pretty well to the heat. Dad is going to be so proud when he finds his ideas helped...but I don't think they are going to stop another blast like that first one."

  Samantha coughed into her elbow. "Is it Ouroboros? I heard they are active again." Please not them. I like this city.

  Propping Samantha against the edge of the seat until her coughing stopped, both still on the floor, Trevor eyed the windows. "I think it's Scorch. Dad was talking about him yesterday, and lighting everything on fire is definitely his style. There is some sort of shake-up going on in the Villains around town, and Scorch is one of the big players." He frowned. "Don't tell anyone I said that, Dad is keeping what he knows quiet. Says there might be a mole in the department."

  Without warning, he threw himself into her lap and pushed her flat.

  A crumpled length of steel screeched through the right-hand side of the bus, directly above their heads. Sparks and tiny shards of metal rained down on them until the massive metal spear slid to a halt in the opposite seat, wedged all the way through one wall and halfway out the other side of the bus.

  The spear, which might have been half an axle, had missed them by inches. Hot grease dripped out of it to sizzle on the plastic seat. If Trevor hadn't pulled us both out of the way, we'd be a kebab right now.

  Samantha stayed on the floor, well below the path of the crumpled steel, examining the hole it had left in the wall she'd been leaning against earlier.

  Trevor straightened up and stuck his face through the rip in the metal shell of the bus. "Something is still going on out there."

  Obviously. She ran shaking hands through her hair and across her face. Head still attached and no blood. Go me.

  Pulling his shirt up over his mouth and nose to act as a filter, Trevor leaned out further.

  Try not to tear your clothes up, you dumb ox; although maybe the bad guys will swoon over your abs while the rest of us escape. She took a moment to admire his abs. It's a radical plan, but I think it will work.

  He glanced down at her. "There's a pretty big tree and a bunch of tires burning out there, and way more smoke than there should be. It's weird because I can see at least two people moving around, but only the smaller one is coughing."

  "Hey, we, uh, almost died." I did, but maybe you aren't afraid of stab wounds anymore, Mr. High and Mighty Prime.

  "Except we didn't die, but we still might if we don't figure out how to get out of here. Dad always says with Primes you have to know what you are dealing with." Trevor said. "If it's Ouroboros, we should all run right now and hope some of us get away. If it's a random Prime mugging, we can stroll out the back and stop for snacks at the corner store. If it's the mob, which I think it is, we need to move quickly when they are distracted, before they have a chance to deal with any witnesses."

  "Okay. Why isn't it Ouroboros?" she asked.

  "You were right about them being active again, but it isn't in the news yet. They kidnapped a bunch of Prime kids from a training facility over in Seattle and the media thinks they came here because someone demolished the Prime Rehabilitation Center a few days ago. All the patients disappeared."

  "Could it be Ouroboros recruiting?" Samantha asked.

  "No, one of the patients went ballistic and lit the place up," Trevor said. "Dad thinks Ouroboros went to Canada, but he has a team watching out for them and those kids, just in case."

  Brow furrowed, Samantha shivered again. "My therapist works at the Rehabilitation Center." I hope he died. Her hot blood pulsed through her throbbing temples, making it difficult to think clearly. "This doesn't seem like a simple mugging, so you think it's the Mob." She made it a statement.

  "Exactly," Trevor said.

  "Then we need to wait until Scorch is distracted and hope he doesn't decide to burn us when we run." We need to get these kids out of here at the right moment then.

  Trevor didn't respond, still peering through the rip in the wall of the bus.

  "Speaking of fire and people, any idea why we aren't all doing our best cosplay of someone who pissed off Roy Mustang?" she asked.

  Trevor held up a hand, eyes still glued to the scene outside. "Shhh. Not so loud or they might hear you." Absently, he added, "I don't watch your anime stuff. Who's Roy Mustang?"

  The bus rocked to the side as something heavy slammed against it. One of the students whimpered and burst into tears.

  Speaking louder for the kids, Samantha rapped a knuckle against the floor and pretended to speak to Trevor, "It's a good thing this is one of those new armored buses. These things are built to hold up just fine to a Prime fight."

  To Trevor she added, "Roy Mustang was a good guy with fire powers, way better than the Heroes we have around here."

  Seeming to notice the crying, Trevor pulled away from the wall and chimed in. "Wish he was here then. The upgrades Dad installed are keeping us safe, or at least safer. If it is Scorch, and I believe it is, then he won't hurt us unless we get in his way or see something we shouldn't. "

  The other students, faceless in the thinning smoke, launched into a whispered debate, voices scratchy and dry as they spoke over each other.

  Samantha pulled Trevor back so she could put her mouth to his ear. "We are probably safe as long as you don't let on who your dad is, so lie if anyone asks what your last name is." She paused. "You were watching out the window before things blew up, what did you see?" I might not have much of a life right now, but I want to get out of here without a third-degree suntan, and I doubt the other kids want one either.

  Screeching metal on metal echoed from outside, then a horrendous crash...followed by silence.

  Trevor slid down until he was shoulder to shoulder with Samantha. "All I saw was a lady in a black business suit waiting at the curb for our bus to turn. A cat ran in front of the bus, a tree exploded, and a guy in a red outfit and mask ran out from behind it." He pointed out the rip. "He hit her with a pipe or something, then everything else was on fire too. That's another reason I don't think it's Ouroboros. They move in packs and I've never heard of them fighting each other."

  "If it isn't them, then I'm going to take a look." Samantha hopped into the seat and froze. She was staring directly into the piercing dark eyes of a tall masked man standing about twenty feet away.

  Scorch perched above a layer of shift
ing smoke, balanced on the roof of a crumpled brown sedan. The lower half of his extremely pale face was covered by a red paintball mask, a small hose threading down to the thick belt around his waist. He'd been searching the sea of smoke, a pair of smudged goggles pushed high on his forehead. Now he stared directly into the rip at Samantha…and winked.

  Crap, crap, crap. I hope he can't hear us out there. He's so much closer than I thought.

  Trevor put his hand over hers. "Yep, that's Scorch. Um, you wanna get away from the side where the fire comes from? I kinda like your face not on fire."

  "You were looking too, what about your face?" Samantha said.

  Trevor ducked lower and backed away, still looking through the hole.

  The object of their conversation watched them in return for a moment, then the front of the bus lurched and dropped another few feet to the road. Scorch yanked his goggles down as he ducked a half-melted bus tire that shot past his head, close enough to ruffle his hair.

  A woman's ragged voice floated out of the smoke. "There you are asshole. You can only hide for so long before I get my hands on you." She broke into a heavy coughing fit, but Scorch just stood there until she was able to continue. "I am going to fucking crush you. Rip out your spine and hang it on my wall...Or you can let me walk away. I'm done with the Family."

  Wait, they're a family?

  A loud clang was followed by a manhole cover ripping through the sedan beneath Scorch. He jumped before it hit and landed confidently on another parked car. The one she hit skidded away in two pieces.

  His voice rumbled through a speaker in his mask, muffled, but loud enough to be heard. "Calm the fuck down Honeydew. We'd have let you go, if you were just running away. No one was watching the buses out of town, but here you are, a few blocks from the police station. GG is going to be pissed- I know I am."

  He hefted a large metal bar. "You ready to dance?"

  Honeydew's scratchy voice came after another coughing fit. "You should have let me go errand boy." She staggered out of the smoke to scoop up another wheel by the rim.

  The woman was slender, blonde, and pissed off. Shredded business suit flapping in the wind, she put the first tire through the center mass of the car Scorch was standing on.

  He leapt free of the car, this time landing on the steaming asphalt.

  The sedan screeched across the concrete a few feet, crumpled around the rim embedded in its side.

  Wearily, he put the demolished car between them, and the air around the tip of his metal bar ignited. It left shimmering trails as he waved it lazily in a circle.

  Right outside the rip in the bus, Honeydew spoke. "Hey, you kids might want to get out of here while you still can. I don't know how much longer I can- " She broke into a coughing fit.

  Trevor and Samantha both realized she was talking to them at the same moment. Before they could respond, she charged the car Scorch had moved behind.

  His deep voice carried, not from the car, but from the front of the bus. He'd moved as soon as the smoke made him invisible. "You can't escape. You knew they would send us all after you, and it was your good luck I found you, instead of Mnemonic or Blood Clown. They'd ruin you, and you know it."

  A crash interrupted him, then his voice came from another place in the smoke. Small fires danced against the wind whenever he spoke. "Why don't you make this easy on yourself and give up. Who knows, he might even have Good Touch fix those burns for you."

  Another long metallic screech echoed from the front of the bus as the portly bus driver, Miss Clarke, forced open the door. Before today, Samantha would have said the woman was the most timid adult in the whole school, but here she was, stepping into the middle of a Prime fight without the slightest hesitation.

  Oh no, I really liked her. She was always kind to me.

  A gust of wind blew the smoke back for a moment, revealing a scene from the apocalypse. Shredded asphalt, torn vehicles, burning trees, and air thick with ash. Complete with a brave civil servant in her soot-covered uniform, standing up to an enemy of civilization.

  Portly Miss Clarke seemed taller as she defiantly picked her way towards Scorch, while Honeydew hunched down behind the rear half of the demolished sedan. She had the trunk torn open and was working it into some kind of over-sized shield. She coughed with every breath now.

  Scorch didn't seem to have a care in the world. He was chuckling to himself and waving his blazing staff randomly. Everywhere he pointed, the fires rose higher and hotter.

  Nevertheless, the bus driver squared her shoulders and stepped into the fight. Wavering at first, she grew firm as she spoke. "That's enough. You guys go kill each other somewhere else. I'm responsible for these kids, and we have nothing to do with your fight!"

  I wish I could save you, but us Nulls should never challenge a Villain during a rampage. I don’t want Trevor to watch though. Samantha grabbed his arm. "Hey Mr. Hero, any chance you have some badass Manifestation? A force field, or a legion of attack squirrels hiding up your butt? 'Cause Miss Clarke is about to be flambé."

  "Shh, I have a secret identity," he protested, eyes glued to the scene outside.

  Samantha sighed. You've been a hero since the day I met you, it's not a secret. Especially if you are going to call yourself something stupid, like Quarterback. She pulled harder on his arm.

  "Hey." He pulled back from the hole to look her in the eyes.

  Thank you. No one needs to see what's coming next.

  "My power isn't useful here. I can change things about people, like making them stronger, faster, harder to hurt, but I have to touch them first," he said. "I really do want to keep it a secret though."

  They both flinched as a muffled cry of pain came from outside. Most of the other students were already crying.

  Only Trevor tried to see what was happening. His shoulders slumped, but he leaned further out anyway. "Dad always says it's the times you know you can't help, but have to try anyway, that hurt the most."

  I know that look, he's going to do something stupid. I can't lose him like this. "Well, your power isn't going to help us, or Miss Clarke, if you have to touch someone to use it. You'll be cooked before you can get close enough."

  "Don't you think I know that?" He heaved himself to his feet, "But I still have to try."

  "Well, Scorch is distracted, so help me get these kids out of here." She hopped up to block his way. You don't want to see what Scorch did. Please don't go. "You might want to think of another code name. Quarterback is going to make people wonder why Arbor City's favorite player is never in the same place as the town's newest Hero."

  He pulled her out of his way by one arm. "Whatever Gray, listen to me. The smoke is starting to clear up, and the Heroes have to know that something is going down. Starstuff is on alert, so it shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes until the whole team shows up. It's already been more than half of that. They can deal with Scorch, and the Police will be here to extract any civilians, meaning us."

  "That's great, but sooner or later, Scorch is going to start killing everyone else. We need an exit plan now." She glanced pointedly at the other students.

  He stopped for a second, brow furrowed. "Miss Clarke is on the ground, and Honeydew chased off Scorch. I think we are clear at this end, for a minute at least." He glanced at the hole, as if to harden his resolve, then back to Samantha. "I need you to get these kids off the bus and under cover until help gets here."

  "Good, let’s get out of here." She paused, assessing the look on his face. "What are you going to do?"

  He pushed past her and started towards the front of the bus. The smoke had thinned out but was still thick near the ceiling. "I'm going to save Miss Clarke."

  You are going to die, you magnificent idiot. I kinda love you for it, but I can't watch.

  The sound of metal crumpling came from outside, followed by splintering wood and a tree crashing to the ground.

  "Hey!" She waved to get everyone's attention. I hope Honeydew is really letting Scorch have it
right now.

  Some of the students stared at her, the rest silently watched Trevor as he stepped over some, and pushed past others. He disappeared into the gloom where Miss Clarke had gone.

  By gesturing and hissing for attention, more students noticed Samantha.

  The biggest crash so far was followed by a roaring fire outside the front windows. Heat blasted through the bus, blowing paper and bits of ash into a whirling dust devil.

  Time to go.

  She yanked the emergency door lever as hard as she could. The squealing metal door popping open was drowned out by the sounds of battle. She hoped.

  Samantha faced the rest of the bus. She held a finger up to her dry lips and waved with her other hand at the open door.

  Chapter 4

  Wednesday May 19th, 2010

  The battle outside fell silent as the two Primes hunted each other through the gloom.

  Half the students still waited inside the bus, all now crammed into the last few rows next to the emergency exit. They watched intently while Samantha scanned the area through the rip in the bus wall.

  "The smoke is thick enough you won't be an easy target." She said.

  The nearest kid shifted uneasily and reached for the door. Samantha stuck her leg out, blocking his way.

  Addressing the group, she continued. "You need to move fast and quietly. Scatter while you cross the street, then hide among the temple buildings. That place is big enough for you all to be able to hide away from the other kids. If you can see someone else, you are too close together. If you see any Heroes, get away from them so they can fight. If you see the cops, go to them so they can get you out."

  "Go!" She popped the door open and held it while they rushed out.

  I need a code name. Laserbird might work, but it makes it sound like I have feathers. What about Super Exit? This could be my break-out moment that makes my name a household word...except that would make me a Hero, apart from with the problem of my having no powers.

  Terrified teenagers tumbled through the door, scattering across the street. Samantha watched long enough to make sure no one burst into flames or tripped on a melted tire, then turned to the next problem: Trevor.