Not Your Sidekick

by C. B. Lee

  Something on Bells’ end crackles and hisses.

  “Is something on fire?” she asks. “Bells?”

  “Ah— I’m fine, I’m fine!”

  “I thought you didn’t have work today. I can’t believe Simon let you in the kitchen.”

  “Uh, he didn’t come back this weekend. I’m… yeah. I’m in charge of cooking today. Gotta go, bye!”

  The call disconnects, and Jess shakes her head.

  She lies back on her bed, closes the comm link, and thinks about the next time she’ll get to hang out with Abby.

  Being with Abby is something to look forward to every day, even if it’s just the twenty-minute ride from school to work. Jess is daydreaming about it during class today, fading in and out of consciousness, practically falling asleep. History is right after lunch, and she can barely concentrate. Mr. Liu’s voice is such a soothing monotone. Jess’ head bobs forward, and when she jerks upright, a few people turn around.

  “Ah, Jessica. Can you tell me who was the first meta-human recognized as a superhero in the North American Collective after the X29 solar flare in 2028?” Mr. Liu looks at Jess expectantly, and she’s grateful that they’re learning a contemporary module on recent history.

  And Jess is nothing if not an expert on heroes and villains.

  “Gravitus, real name Vance Stackson revealed after his death in 2038,” Jess says. “A-class powers of gravity manipulation and was an incredibly formidable hero in the first wave of meta-humans. He was one of the founding members of the Heroes’ League of Heroes.”

  A few of her classmates look bored. Elizabeth is sending a message on her DED and Darryl is nodding, but most people look either confused or ambivalent. Denise is holding back a smirk, as if she knows Jess is wrong.

  “I’m sorry,” Mr. Liu says. “You must have gotten confused. Gravitus was one of the greatest supervillains of his time. Which actually wasn’t that long ago, I mean, my grandfather still remembers that battle between him and—who can tell me the correct answer?”

  Denise raises her hand. “Lieutenant Orion,” she says. “Also known as the famed astronaut James Oliphaous. A-class powers of superstrength and speed, flight, and manipulation of heat. Defeated the villain Gravitus in 2038. Lieutenant Orion is still alive today and attends social functions every now and then. Of his three children, only one was a meta-human and exhibited C-class powers, but his granddaughter, Captain Orion, continues his legacy of hero-work at the A-class level.

  Jess frowns, because she distinctly remembers Gravitus as a hero. Sure, he and Lieutenant Orion had a huge falling out, leading to that eventual battle in 2038 and Gravitus’ death, but Gravitus surely had never been a villain.

  She looks at the holobook she’d been falling asleep in and ignores the trace of drool on the desk, though it shines through the projected text. She scans the summary of the chapter on meta-humans.

  In 2028 an unusually intense solar flare, measured at X29 intensity, swathed the Earth in cosmic radiation, which awakened the latent meta-abilities of humans with the then-unknown meta-gene. The meta-gene is still under scientific investigation but apparently expresses itself naturally in about 0.0001% of the population. Meta-humans who discovered their abilities went through an extreme period of hyper-vigilante acts until Lieutenant James Oliphaous, more commonly known by the name Lieutenant Orion, established the Heroes’ League of Heroes to create a coalition for do-gooders everywhere.

  There’s nothing about Gravitus until she flicks through a few pages and finds a colorful module that details the Battle of 2038. Jess reads the section and then reads it again.

  The bell rings, but Jess moves slowly. She could have sworn she read about Gravitus’ hero work in a textbook. The students pick up their last homework assignments and then pore over their grades as they file out of the classroom.

  “What’d you get on number seventeen?” Darryl asks. “I mean, I know I didn’t completely explain why Australia didn’t join the Global Federation, but I didn’t think you’d need to. It’s common knowledge where they stood on resources after the war.”

  “Uh, I got ten points,” Jess says, looking over Darryl’s shoulder at the holopage still up on his DED, where a big “3” is marked in red over his answer. “Part of the assignment is to explain why; you can’t just regurgitate what the book says.”

  She shows him her own assignment and shrugs before closing the window.

  Darryl frowns. “But you just rephrased it.”

  Jess chuckles. “Yeah, I mean, not what I would do if I’m writing a paper, but in a pinch it’ll do. Plus, Mr. Liu has a ton of these things to grade. I’m pretty sure he just scans it and makes sure you don’t have what the book says and then he’ll give you full points.”

  “Ah.” Darryl nods. “Are you headed to the B building?”

  “Yeah, chemistry.”

  “Ooh! I have math over there. I’ll go with you.” Darryl falls into step with her. “So what are you doing Thursday afternoon? Some of us are going bowling. It’s a combination party and fundraiser.”

  Jess sighs and turns to look Darryl in the eye. “Look, I like the idea of the thing, but I just… I don’t really fit in, you know? And it is pretty much you and your group of friends, Darryl, it’s all of you, hanging out together, and I don’t—”

  “What do you mean, you don’t fit in?” Darryl says. “You like girls! You’re totally one of us.”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the only— ” Jess sighs. She thought Darryl knew this, but apparently not. “I’m bisexual.”

  “Oh. I thought for some reason—I—you—never mind. But you still totally can come hang out with us!”

  “I’d feel weird,” Jess says, remembering how she’d gone to a meeting before and felt on edge the whole time, as if she wasn’t enough. “Thanks, but sorry, I can’t.”

  “What about your friend Bells? He’s trans, right?”

  “You can ask him if he wants to go, but he usually helps at his family’s restaurant after school.”

  Darryl seems to deflate a little, and Jess remembers what Abby said about the club trying harder; this is Darryl trying. “Thank you for the invite, though, I mean, I do appreciate the reaching out. Maybe next time? I’m kind of swamped with Rhinehart’s assignment and everything.”

  Darryl grins and waves goodbye at her. “Sure! See you later!”

  The Gravitus thing still bugs her when the last bell rings. Jess meets Abby in the parking lot as usual. “Hey, we’re almost done, right?”

  “Yeah,” Abby says. “I figured we could finish today and watch the rest of Vindicated 6. You in?”

  “I actually really wanted to check something at home; it’s gonna bother me all afternoon if I don’t. I can catch the bus, it’s no big deal.”

  Abby shrugs. “Nah, you’re on my way. I can drop you off.”

  Jess nods and gets into the car. Her house isn’t really on the way at all; it’s in the opposite direction from Abby’s house, but she appreciates the air-conditioned comfort of Abby’s car and the company of Abby herself, especially in contrast to the crowded bus and the multiple stops before Jess’ neighborhood.

  When Abby pulls into Jess’ driveway, she says, “I’ll talk to you later, okay? And we’re still on for carpooling to work, and then Tuesday next week, we’ll be finishing the project, right?”

  “Definitely,” Jess says, and thanks Abby with a smile.

  Apparently having finished with her cover job for the day, her mother is at home already. Jess puts her stuff in her room and goes to Claudia’s old bedroom. A thick sheen of dust covers everything. Jess ignores the wall of accolades, ribbons, and trophies from Claudia’s illustrious high school career and heads right for the bookshelf.

  She digs out the old textbook; this must have been the last print edition before the schools switched to all-digital. Jess brings up her holobook on
her DED; the contents look identical, aside from the bright colors and new photo on the holobook cover. Jess compares the table of contents, which is exactly the same. She flips to the module on early meta-humans and reads from Claudia’s textbook:

  Lieutenant Orion and Gravitus were both astronauts on the SS Intrepid during the X29 incident. Longtime stalwart friends who learned the extent of their own meta-abilities together, the partnership of Orion and Gravitus was the precursor organization of the Heroes’ League of Heroes after the formation of the North American Collective. They disagreed on the extent of cooperation with the United States Department of Defense, which ended with them coming to blows and eventually Gravitus’ death at Orion’s hands in 2038.

  Jess frowns. The new book never mentions “hero” or “villain” when describing Gravitus, only briefly mentions his death, and does not say why he disagreed with Orion.

  “Mom!” Jess yells.

  She can hear her mom respond, but she’s too far away to make out what she’s saying.

  Jess goes downstairs and finds her mom in the office, typing away at her desk.

  “I’m in the middle of a really good flow here, Mei-Mei,” Li Hua says, but does not look up from the projected display. There are two different word processing documents open; one is filled with notes and the other is her current project. “Is everything all right?”

  “Do you remember Gravitus?”

  “Oh, he was the one with incredible strength, right?” Li Hua nods, tilting her head. “I didn’t arrive in the country until after his death, but I remember hearing a lot about it.”

  “My history textbook says that he was a villain.” Jess shows her the module.

  “Hmm. I remember hearing that he did almost destroy all of Main Street in New Bright City once. And that was before Lieutenant Orion showed up.”

  “What was their disagreement, do you remember?”

  Mom shrugs. “It’s all so long ago, sweetie. Is it important to you? We did cover it in our meta-human history section of training, but I was busy practicing control of my powers and learning—”

  “I know you and dad were in Meta-Human Training together, right after you got to the NAC. But you were in school in China, right? What did you learn about meta-humans? It still must have been pretty new.”

  Li Hua sighs. “China had its own share of meta-humans, and because of the war with Constavia and the conflict over the Kravian Islands, meta-humans were considered a resource. Even when my abilities manifested as a teenager, it took a few years for me to get my strength. And I had to keep it secret. Soldiers were on the lookout for anything strange, expecting us to fight for one side or another: the nationalists who wanted China independent of the Global Federation; the factions that wanted to unify with other countries and the conflicts over which ones. Too many sides. The fighting went on for decades. And my sisters and I just wanted to get to safety.”

  “The refugee camps were crowded. I just… I did what I could, but it wasn’t until I heard on the radio that the Global Federation was discussing meta-human activities, and it was so novel. I mean, we knew about how Lieutenant Orion came back from space with all these powers, but it still seemed so far away. Unreal. And meta-humans in the NAC, the way they talked about them, it was as though they were celebrated. Given jobs, spoken of openly. Not at all like what we were used to, where our abilities had to be kept secret. There was another one of us, at the camp, but he was taken away.”

  There are traces of old fear in her eyes now, and Jess thinks she sees tears welling up. She doesn’t know what to do, has never seen her mother so vulnerable. Li Hua looks at her feet. “I don’t know what happened to him, but I knew that keeping it secret was important. Your father, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to be useful. He disclosed his new powers to the NAC authorities the first chance he got. I didn’t want him to be alone, so I went with him.”

  “We ended up here, and started working with the Heroes’ League, training as best we could. Our power level was never high enough for the government to want us on big missions, but we did want to help. And using our powers, letting them test us, it was helpful. And finally we got the green light to go live our lives, got a little direction on being Shockwave and Smasher, and we settled here and had you kids. It’s been great. The government is good to us. Don’t ask about Gravitus, not outside this house, okay?”

  Jess wasn’t expecting the long story, but nods, grateful for the information. She carries her books back to her room and throws everything on the floor.

  She turns on her desktop projector and syncs her DED. Her fingers dance over the light-up keys projected on her desk as she searches for “Gravitus” and scans the search results. She finds just a few different accounts, some eyewitness perspectives, and clips from an old documentary in which Lieutenant Orion talks about defeating him.

  Jess opens the video, taking in the bright blue mask, the sagging features of the hero of the North American Collective. He still wears the gaudy blue and silver outfit, and the way the camera is softly lit, like a tell-all on a reality show, makes him look smaller than he does in the old holos.

  “Gravitus was a danger to all of us in the North American Collective and the Global Federation,” Lieutenant Orion says on the video, nodding, still handsome with his graying hair and wrinkled face, the effects of years just starting to take root despite his advanced age. He looks away from the camera. His voice is gritty and rough. “My only regret is that I didn’t stop him sooner.”

  Jess finishes the video and looks at the date. This was aired last year.

  In her search results, she can’t find anything news-related published from that time. There’s one article from 2038, but it’s very brief and vague, only speaks about Gravitus’ death.

  Jess ignores her pile of homework and calls out that she’s going to the public library. She takes the minivan. The main room of the library is crowded, filled with students doing homework or using the desktop projectors and elderly people reading newspapers in Chinese or Vietnamese.

  “Do you have any news reports from the 2030s?”

  The librarian says, “We’d have to request it from the Central NAC Database; we don’t have that here. You’re welcome to browse our online catalog, to see what was converted into holos, but you’ll need special permission and an archival DVD player to view anything before 2041.”

  Jess thanks him and uses a library console to see if there are any original reports of the fight between Orion and Gravitus. She finds the same article she found online; a short article that doesn’t make sense and calls Gravitus a mastermind of nefarious plots. It doesn’t have a publication date.

  She sighs, logs off, and then drives home.

  Jess has messages from Abby. Her spirits lighten as she flicks through them. Abby is looking forward to finishing their project together. Jess takes a bit too long to look at the series of happy faces Abby sends her; she watches them float above her wrist as she tries to decipher the emoticons. This winky face isn’t flirty. Abby’s just enthusiastic.

  Jess messages her back that she is looking forward to finishing, too, and then bites her lip and goes out on a limb.

  To: Abby Jones 6:34 pm

  hey, do you know who gravitus was?

  From: Abby Jones 6:35 pm

  yeah, why

  To: Abby Jones 6:37 pm

  he wasn’t a villain, right? or am i remembering things wrong?

  The DED chimes with a new comm link. Jess picks up. “Hey.”

  “Gravitus, huh?” Abby says.

  Jess explains what happened at school and what she found in Claudia’s old textbook.

  “So you figured out that the history books change all the time. I’m surprised you had an old one to refer to; usually the feds are really good about getting rid of whatever narrative they’re trying to change. I guess it’s easier now that they stopped us
ing print textbooks.”

  “What? No way, they wouldn’t do that. Why would they cover up that Gravitus used to be a hero?”

  “No idea. Do you want me to come over? I’ve got something to show you if you’re interested in this stuff.”

  Jess looks at the time. It’s almost dinnertime, and she usually tries to shoo Emma and Bells out the door before her parents get all awkward with them, but her curiosity is getting the better of her.

  “Sure, you can come over,” Jess says.

  She looks at herself and considers changing out of her school outfit. Would it be too obvious if she changed into something more flattering? Abby would probably notice, and then Jess would be all out of luck.

  Jess looks at her crumpled T-shirt and jeans: there’s a stain from the dismal school spaghetti on her shirtfront.

  Okay, changing it is.

  She digs through her closet, pushes aside things that are too formal and clothes that don’t fit anymore, grabs a few options. She tries on shirt after shirt.

  This shirt’s V-neck dips too low, and Jess blushes at how much cleavage shows; this shirt is out. She picks another tank top and throws over it a loose-fitting lace top, an impulse buy she’s never worn; no, she can’t pull this off. Jess scowls and finally settles on the last clean, and normal-ish shirt of hers—the “Master Mischief Was Right About the Cheese” graphic tee.

  Ugh, she should have called Emma; she’s always good at whipping up outfits from whatever’s around.

  The doorbell rings, and Jess races past her mother, who is just standing up from her chair in the office. “I got it, I got it!” Jess hurls herself down the stairs and flings the door open. “Hi,” she says, breathlessly.

  “Hey, Jess.” Abby’s changed from her school outfit, too, and looks comfortable in an old AHHS volleyball T-shirt and a loose pair of basketball shorts. She’s carrying a large portfolio, the kind artists use to haul around paintings.

  “Oh, hello, I don’t think I’ve met you before,” Li Hua says from the top of the stairs.

  “Mom, this is Abby, Abby, this is my mom, we’re just gonna go study—bye!”