The Gathering

by Michael Carroll

  As Colin wandered over to the others, Stephanie Cord intercepted him and steered him to the large buffet table at one side of the room. “Just help yourself to whatever you want,” she said.

  None of the food looked very appetizing. “Isn’t there, like, cornflakes or something normal? What’s this stuff?”

  “Corn hash with bacon bits and cream cheese.”

  “People actually eat that? For breakfast?”

  “Some do.”

  Colin made a face. “It looks like it’s been eaten before.”

  “It’s loaded with essential somethings and recommended other things.” Stephanie handed him a plate and began spooning the mixture on to it. “Everything a growing boy needs to build up his strength.”

  “Stephanie, I don’t think I can face it. I think I’ve got jet lag. I woke up about five hours ago and couldn’t get back to sleep.”

  “Danny said the same thing.” She piled more food on to the plate: waffles, strips of bacon, small, round green things that Colin couldn’t identify and slices of raw onion.

  She’s winding me up, he thought. “I’m not that hungry, Stephanie. I can’t eat all this.”

  “So?” She took the plate from him. “This is for me! You thought I was serving your food for you? What am I, your maid?”

  Colin poured himself a large glass of orange juice and followed Stephanie over to the corner table where Renata and Danny were sitting. They were soon joined by Butler, Yvonne, Mina and Stephanie’s sister, Alia. Niall had chosen to stay in his room and watch cartoons.

  Colin couldn’t help noticing that Yvonne was by far the most talkative one at the table. As they ate, she filled them in on the gossip about every one of Sakkara’s technicians and scientists, or “labcoats” as she called them.

  Stephanie whispered to Colin, “We’ve only been here a couple of weeks and I’ve already heard all of her stories. What have you been up to since we last saw you?”

  “Mostly just trying to get used to the idea that I’m a superhuman. So you and Alia didn’t know that your dad was Paragon?”

  “Not until the day you showed up. After Dad took you to California, Mom told us all about it. We were in a safe house that Max set up, but when we heard that Max was behind everything we left the place and went into hiding. We haven’t been back home since that day. My friends probably have no idea what happened to me!”

  “What about, you know, your boyfriend?” Colin found his mouth had suddenly gone dry and he took another sip of his orange juice.

  “You mean Sam? Oh, we brought him with us.” Stephanie pointed to the far side of the room. “That’s him over there.”

  Colin almost swiveled around to look, then stopped himself. “Nice try.”

  “OK, you caught me!” Stephanie smiled. “How could you tell?”

  “I’ve noticed that you bite your bottom lip just after you tell a lie.”

  “I do? Seriously? So that’s how my folks always know!”

  “Actually, I was lying. I just guessed. Now you know what it feels like.”

  At the far end of the table, Danny suddenly whispered, “You love her, Colin! You want to kiss her and marry her!”

  Colin almost coughed his orange juice all over the table.

  “You OK?” Stephanie asked.

  Colin nodded. “I’m fine, thanks.” He quickly looked around the table. If any of the others had heard, they hadn’t reacted. Danny was looking down at his plate, a huge grin on his face.

  “What’s he smiling about?” Stephanie asked.

  “Er…dunno.”

  “So Danny and Renata are an item, are they?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “He’s your best friend! How could you not be sure?”

  “We don’t really talk about stuff like that much.” To change the subject, Colin said, “It doesn’t seem like a lot of fun here.”

  “No, it’s not exactly Disneyland. Josh marches about and tries to order me and Alia to do things. He keeps forgetting that we’re not superhumans.”

  “You could still be a superhero though,” Colin said, risking a quick look at Stephanie’s incredible brown eyes. “Your dad never had any powers. You could take over from him. Or Alia could. Either of you, I mean. Or both.” Shut up! You’re babbling like an idiot!

  Stephanie flashed him another smile.

  God, she’s gorgeous! And not really that much older than me. Only a year.

  Colin suddenly realized that an uncomfortable silence had fallen over the group. He glanced over at Renata; she was staring daggers at Butler, as was Mina.

  Speaking slowly and deliberately, Renata said, “What did you just call him?”

  Butler shrugged and resumed shoveling scrambled eggs into his mouth. “Just kidding.”

  Stephanie whispered, “Butler has the superhuman ability to put both feet in his mouth at the same time.”

  Yvonne stared at Butler. “Apologize. Right now.”

  Butler turned to Danny. “Sorry I called you ‘Stumpy.’” He glanced at Yvonne. “Happy now?”

  “You don’t sound sorry,” Renata said.

  “I have trouble expressing my emotions. Trust me, I’m crying on the inside.”

  Renata leaned close to the large boy and whispered, so softly that no one but Colin could hear, “You ever say anything like that to him again and you’ll be bleeding on the inside. Get it?”

  Butler nodded, the smirk vanished from his face.

  The uncomfortable silence continued for a few moments until Yvonne said cheerfully, “So. Let’s compare powers then! Colin? How much can you bench-press?”

  “I have absolutely no idea.”

  “On a good day, Mina can lift over five hundred pounds. But it’s not reliable, is it, Mina?”

  The girl shook her head.

  “It sort of comes and goes spontaneously,” Yvonne explained. “The labcoats here have been trying to figure out a way to make it happen all the time, but nothing seems to work.”

  “What about yourself?” Danny asked Yvonne.

  “I’m a little stronger and faster than a normal person, but my IQ is off the charts. Or so they tell me. They keep giving me tests and I keep passing them.”

  Butler laughed. “Yeah, you don’t want to play poker with this one. She can always figure out who’s holding which cards. And she can remember things. She can read a book once and recite it back word for word.”

  “How long have you been here, Mina?” Colin asked.

  Yvonne answered for her. “Oh, we’ve been here forever.”

  “Which is?”

  “We’ve never lived anywhere else.”

  “You’re serious? What about your families?”

  “We’re the only family we have,” Yvonne said.

  Renata said, “For sisters, you don’t look that much alike.”

  “That’s just because of our hair. Mina says we’re very closely related. She can sense these things.”

  “Auras,” Mina said. It was the first thing Colin had heard the blond-haired girl say.

  “She can see them,” Yvonne explained. “That’s how she knew immediately that Façade wasn’t Danny’s real father. But he is Niall’s father.”

  “You can see auras,” Danny said to Mina. “Sorry, but that’s…”

  “A big pile of crap,” Butler finished for him.

  “I was going to say it was strange.”

  “It’s a big pile of strange crap then,” Butler said, ignoring Mina’s glare. “There is no such thing as an aura. What Mina’s seeing is probably caused by a sort of low-grade telepathy that somehow triggers a visual manifestation.”

  Yvonne said, “God, those big words must get lonely rattling around in that empty skull of yours.” To the others, she said, “He was drummed out of a military academy in Alaska because of what they called ‘unsatisfactory performance.’”

  “That is a lie,” Butler said, jabbing his finger at her. “And it’s none of your damn business.”

  They
all stopped talking when Solomon Cord approached the table. “All right, boys and girls. You might have noticed that you’re the only people left in this room. No one—no matter how special they think they are—needs a two-hour breakfast. Time to hit the gym, troops.”

  “Aw, Dad!” Alia said.

  “Move it. Now. And everyone has to clean up their own mess, Danny Cooper!” he added as Danny walked away from the table.

  “I was going to!” Danny said and walked back.

  “Alia, you take care of Colin’s tray. Colin, you’re with me…Now, Colin! Front and center, son! Get the lead out!”

  As Colin got up from the table, he whispered to Stephanie, “Is he like this at home?”

  She replied, “From now on, this is home.”

  “I’m relying on you to hold them together,” Solomon said as he led Colin down a wide staircase.

  “Why me? I’m the youngest one here, except for Niall.”

  “Danny’s got enough troubles of his own, as does Renata. That guy Butler is a real handful; he’s got a big ego and an even bigger mouth. Yvonne and Mina…The jury’s still out on them. You’re the only one of the new heroes I know I can trust.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “The machine room. There’s someone you have to meet and then you’re going to the gym with the others.”

  Solomon opened the double doors to the machine room and ushered Colin inside. They were on a narrow platform overlooking a room that was three stories high. Colin was impressed; he’d seen smaller shopping centers. Below, at least two dozen people in white coats were working on various pieces of machinery.

  Suspended from the ceiling by huge chains was what looked like a two-seater version of the StratoTruck. “Still in the design stage,” Solomon explained as they descended the metal staircase. “We don’t have the time to work on it right now.”

  Against one wall was an unfinished steel skeleton, over two meters tall. “What’s that?” Colin asked.

  “The framework for the new Paragon armor.”

  “But it’s huge!”

  “It’ll be a powered exoskeleton. We’re designing a new kind of lightweight armor plating to go over it. Wearing that, I’m going to be much stronger and faster than a normal man. It’s not so much a suit of armor; it’s more a robot that you wear.” He shrugged. “If we can ever get the damn thing to work.”

  “What’s wrong with it?”

  “The mechanics are coming along fine, but a machine like that needs a lot of computer technology to control all the functions. But that’s not why I brought you here.” He pointed to one of the technicians who was hunched over a circuit board. “That young man is turning out to be a real asset. He has a natural aptitude for mechanics. He didn’t even realize it himself until I put him to work on the weapons for the new armor.”

  Solomon picked up a rubber band from the nearest workbench and flicked it at the technician’s head. The man jumped and looked around, then grinned when he spotted Colin. “I do not believe it!” He dropped the circuit board and almost ran over to them. “Colin Wagner, son of Titan!”

  Colin frowned at this stranger, then suddenly realized. The last time he’d seen him, the man had had long, ragged, bleached-blond hair and a goatee beard. Now, he was clean-shaven, his hair neatly tied back. “Razor?”

  10

  “I DON’T KNOW WHY SOL KEEPS MAKING me do this,” Razor said. “I’m just a labcoat. I don’t need to go to the gym!”

  Razor and Colin were both wearing white T-shirts, shorts and sneakers. As slowly as they could manage, they walked in the direction of Sakkara’s gymnasium.

  “Maybe he thinks you’re out of shape,” Colin said. “So how did he persuade Josh to take you on? I mean, with your track record…”

  “Just because I boosted a few cars doesn’t mean I’m a bad guy,” Razor said, then laughed. “This is a sweet deal, Col. I owe you. If you hadn’t tricked me into driving you all the way to Sol’s house in Virginia, I’d probably be living on the streets now. I turned eighteen two weeks ago. They don’t let you stay in the runaways’ shelter once you’re officially an adult.”

  “Actually, I owe you,” Colin said as they approached the doors to the gym. “I’d never have found Sol without you, and then Max Dalton’s plan would have worked and I’d be dead, and so would Danny and Renata, and thousands and thousands of other people.”

  Solomon Cord stepped out of the doorway and yelled at them: “What is this? A mutual admiration society? Get in here!”

  Colin looked around; Renata was lying on her back on a bench, lifting weights. He couldn’t see how much she was lifting, but it looked like a lot. Butler Redmond was standing behind her, ready to catch the weights if necessary. Danny, Yvonne and Mina were taking turns using a springboard to leap over a vaulting horse. Colin was surprised to find that Cord’s daughters were also in the gym; they were wearing karate suits and sparring with each other. They looked like they knew what they were doing.

  “Razor, do your warm-ups. Colin, see that rope?” Cord asked.

  “I see it.”

  “Climb up it, using only your hands.”

  “OK.”

  Colin walked over to the rope suspended from the middle of the ceiling and began to climb, hand over hand, his legs swinging free. He quickly reached the top and looked down. The floor was five meters below. “No problem!” he shouted to Cord.

  “Now let go!”

  “What?”

  “Let go!”

  “Are you nuts?” Colin yelled. “My powers still aren’t completely reliable! Suppose they disappear when I’m halfway down?”

  “Yeah? And suppose your powers disappear when you’re in the middle of fighting some bad guys and, say, they knock you out and someone takes a photo of you without your mask?”

  Under his breath, Colin muttered, “You’re not such a nice guy now, are you?”

  “Let go! I want you to land on your toes, knees bent slightly.”

  Here goes, Colin thought. He opened his hands, and the floor suddenly rushed up to meet him. He landed lightly on his feet and remained standing. That wasn’t too bad!

  “That was terrible,” Cord said. “Now do it again. But this time, when you land, I want you to bounce, OK? The moment your toes touch the ground, somersault forward and land on your feet.”

  Again and again, Colin climbed the rope, allowed himself to drop and tried to somersault. It took him twelve attempts to master it.

  Cord seemed satisfied. “You’re getting better. That’ll do for today, but within a week I want you to be able to flip over as you’re falling and land on your hands.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  Cord didn’t respond to that. He called out, “Everyone? Stop what you’re doing and gather in the center of the room, please! Anyone who’s wearing sneakers, take them off!”

  When they had all gathered, Cord said, “We’re going to try some simple hand-to-hand combat. Alia?”

  The girl walked forward and stopped in front of him.

  “Block!” Cord said and swung his fist at his daughter’s head.

  She swung up her left arm and blocked the punch.

  “It’s a simple move,” Cord said. “Just sweep your arm up and knock your opponent’s hand aside. If they punch with their right, you block with your left, sweeping to the right. Why? Because that’ll move your opponent to their left, which means that they can’t then throw another jab with their left hand. But it also means that you can’t easily hit them with your right hand. Later, we’ll look at ways around that. Now pair off: Renata and Butler, Steph and Razor, Yvonne and Colin, Alia and Mina. Danny, you’re with me. Take turns punching and blocking. And don’t actually try to hit your opponent—we don’t want any casualties!”

  As he sparred with Yvonne, Colin kept glancing over at Danny; with only one arm, Danny was finding it tough.

  Sol’s not going any easier on him, Colin thought. You’d think that—

  Wham! Yvonne’s
fist collided with Colin’s jaw, sending him staggering backward.

  “Oh my God! Are you OK?”

  Colin could see spots in front of his eyes. “Yeah, I’m all right. I think. My fault—I wasn’t paying attention.”

  They were interrupted by the arrival of Niall Cooper, who was wearing a karate suit that had been cut down to size.

  “I’m ready!” he announced cheerfully.

  Cord said, “Sorry, Niall. You’ll have to sit this one out.”

  “Aw! Just teach me some of the moves!”

  Butler laughed. “Who feels brave enough to take on the shrimp?”

  Niall gave him a dirty look. “I know I’m small, but I won’t always be! One day I’ll be a superhuman too, like my dad was!”

  “Yeah, but your dad was one of the bad guys. How do we know you won’t be just as evil as he was?”

  “That’s enough, Butler!” Cord shouted.

  Oh hell, Colin thought. To Yvonne, he whispered, “Didn’t anyone tell him that Niall doesn’t know?”

  “Josh told us yesterday.”

  “What are you saying?” Niall demanded, marching over to Butler. “My dad used to be Quantum! He was the best!”

  “Kid, that man you call your dad was never Quantum. He was Façade. He worked for the bad guys.”

  Niall clenched his tiny fists and made a run at Butler, but Danny stood in his way.

  He put out his hand to calm his brother, then turned to Butler. “Tell him that’s not true.”

  Butler smirked. “But it is true. He’s got a villain for a father and a murdering cripple for a half brother.”

  “Redmond!” Cord said, advancing on him.

  Butler turned to Cord and gave him a look of contempt. “Stay out of this, Solomon. This is between me and Lefty here.”

  Colin moved closer to them. If Butler’s as strong as he says he is, he could knock Sol’s head clean off his shoulders. He knows it, too. They both know it.

  “What is your problem with me?” Danny demanded.

  Butler’s force field suddenly appeared around him and expanded outward, forcing Danny to step back.