Fire and Thunder

by Bowen Greenwood

  Dead flowers flopped over the lip of a glass vase from the last time she stayed here. One family picture hung over the second-hand couch. In the corner, a bookshelf carried about half-a-dozen volumes, with vacant shelves waiting for more additions.

  “You don’t have to do this,” he said, standing in the middle of her living room looking around.

  Terri blushed, wishing she came here often enough to decorate more.

  “I just… I’m not ready for them to arrest you, Drake. I wanted… I don’t know. I want to know whether it’s the right thing to do before the…the government takes you. Are you really bad or not? I need to know before I can just sit back and let those agents lock you away.”

  She told herself that sneaking him past the agents and police officers averted a disaster. Filled with rage, in the middle of all-out combat with another person with powers, who knew what Drake might have done? Could anyone say for sure that he wouldn’t have just fried every single AAA Agent to a crisp?

  And what if he really did have the potential for a nuclear explosion within him? Might being arrested have set him off? Maybe leaving him to her coworkers would have brought about the very disaster she was trying to prevent.

  Terri constructed a beautiful, elaborate web of might-have-beens to justify what she’d done. But she knew no one else would find it quite as persuasive.

  It was all a massive campaign of self-deception.

  You cannot fall for a man you’re supposed to be investigating, Terri, she told herself silently. You just can’t.

  Watching him saunter over to her couch and sit down, stretching his arms out over the back and displaying the completeness of his strong, elegant frame, she repeated her silent self-warning, going so far as to move her lips.

  Then she went to sit with him.

  ***

  “OK, so back when I was in the Legion… You guys know it wasn’t a nice place, right? Sebastian had this way of looking at things: other people with powers mattered most. Anything we did to government agents, or soldiers, or cops, or really anyone — it was all OK if it was in the service of the ultimate goal: overthrowing the government so they couldn’t hurt anyone else the way they hurt us.”

  Mr. Moses stepped closer and put a hand on her shoulder. “I know, Kila. No one blames you.”

  “It’s just… I like fitting in here. I don’t want you guys looking at me differently.”

  “We won’t. I give you my word.”

  She went on reluctantly. “The Legion barely existed — nothing more than a gang of kids with big ideas. Long before we tried to recruit Connor, we pulled in this guy who was a little older than most of us — in college. Drake. And there was a girl his age that came in not long after he did. Being the only college students in the group drew them together naturally, and… well, they start, you know, going out. Except we lived in a cave in the middle of the desert, so you couldn’t really go out on actual dates.

  “But Sebastian didn’t like the girl very much. Her power didn’t seem very useful for anything we really wanted to do. She could transform one substance into another. It was great for helping build the base and for making meals. Pitch could break stone in the cave to make a room, and then she could turn that stone into a ham sandwich. Pretty amazing, but Sebastian didn’t think it was much good in a fight, so he put her to work in the kitchen.”

  Listening to the story, Anna and Renee winced.

  Kila noticed and said, “Yeah. A woman’s place, right? She — Hope Cameron — didn’t like it any more than you do. Sebastian wouldn’t let her be an enforcer, he wouldn’t let her go to Chojin Ken training… The relationship between the two of them just became toxic.

  “I’m not sure at exactly what point Hope started planning to overthrow Sebastian.”

  Mr. Moses interrupted. “Overthrow? As in, seize control of the Legion?”

  “Yeah, exactly. Spooky knew it, the way she knows the truth. ‘She’ll try to murder Sebastian,’ she said. And Sebastian wasn’t going to take any chances.”

  She stopped talking and stared out the window of the conference room. Outside, a traffic helicopter flew by at about the altitude at which they stood, reporting on the latest jam up on the strip. A tear snuck out of her eye and escaped down her cheek.

  Anna stepped up behind her and put her arms around her. “It’s OK, Kila. You don’t have to tell anymore.”

  She acted as though Anna had said the exact opposite and had commanded her to go on. Kila’s voice became brittle as she forced it out.

  “Sebastian got Spooky and Pitch and me together and we went to confront her. Of course, it came to a fight. Drake took her side. Throwing fire is a pretty nasty fighting ability, but it’s hard to beat Pitch’s ability to hold someone in mid-air with his mind. The fight went crazy. I was terrified. I tried to fight like we trained in Chojin Ken class, but it didn’t take long before I panicked and was just going on instinct. It was so scary being in the middle of a full-on powers-battle between Pitch and Drake. Half the place was burning down and the other half was flying through the air at whoever Pitch threw it at. I just tried to stay out of the way, waving my fists in the general direction of anything that got in front of me and screaming. Pitch must have thrown every table in the room at them. It was… It was…

  “Hope died.

  “And Drake has wanted to kill Pitch ever since.”

  ***

  Mr. Moses stayed with Connor to take care of him until he woke up and learned about his fight with Sebastian. Anna wrapped her arm around Renee and Kila, pulled them close, and said, “Lord, please take us back to the parking lot at the Star of Fortune.”

  By now, Anna knew the parking garage quite well. This marked her third visit in one day so when they winked into the middle of it, she simply scanned for threats. Sebastian had hidden nearby on both previous visits but if he was present this time, she couldn’t see him.

  What she could see was a huge commotion at the opposite end of the parking lot. Firetrucks, police cars, and a crowd of onlookers made it impossible to miss. The three young women traded looks, then turned and strode toward the hubbub to investigate. They were all wearing jeans and T-shirts. They appeared almost like Legion Enforcers, as if they were wearing a slightly less militant uniform.

  Drawing near, they observed what looked like a burned down structure. According to the sign by the side of the road, it had been a coffee shop. Firemen still worked on the remains. Police manned a barricade. A crowd of gawkers pressed up to the edge of the barricade, staring. Kila, Anna, and Renee joined the crowd and worked their way up to where they could see the blackened chaos.

  “Drake has been here,” Kila muttered. “That much is obvious.”

  Smoke still poured off the smoldering ruin. A foul mixture of the smell of a campfire, burnt coffee grounds, and melted plastic assaulted their nostrils. A van bearing the four letter call sign of a local TV station, with a big antenna on top for live broadcasting, was parked nearby. A reporter and camera crew mingled with the onlookers, listening to eyewitness accounts.

  “I don’t know how it happened, a fire broke out…”

  “…telling you, there was a guy who could shoot fire out of his hands…”

  “…stuff flew through the air like a tornado…”

  “…you can’t say that on TV; people will think you’re crazy!”

  Kila took Anna’s hand and squeezed it. Anna gave a reassuring squeeze back.

  “I’m sure he’s alright,” she whispered.

  Kila’s only response was to sniffle. They passed some police officers and overheard flashes of their conversation.

  “…didn’t get which agency they were with, but they sure acted like they owned the place.”

  “Typical Feds. It sounds like they didn’t even get the main guy. They hauled off some fat kid and didn’t do anything about the guy who caused the fire.”

  Kila’s face looked like she wanted to march right up to the policeman and confront him for saying that about
Pitch, but Anna pulled her back. They drew a safe distance away from the crowd.

  “Kila, they have Pitch. That’s what it sounds like. The government I mean.”

  “I know, but it’s not nice to make fun of him…”

  “That’s not the most important thing right now. They have Pitch, and they don’t have Drake. That probably means Pitch is safe from him. We can go back and tell the others Pitch is OK, but he’s in the hands of the government.”

  Kila stared at her. “What? That’s OK to you? Now that we know he’s in jail, we just walk away? That’s nuts. We have to go get him!”

  “Yeah, I’m sure when Connor’s back on his feet—”

  “So we’re just going to let the government run their experiments on him while Connor takes a nap? Come on, Anna! He’s my friend.”

  “He’s my friend, too. We’re all like family in the Sons.”

  “Not like me. Pitch and I went through a lot together at the Legion. You guys weren’t there. I’m not going to leave him there to suffer.”

  Anna and Renee looked at each other. The older sister frowned.

  Anna turned back to Kila and asked, “What do you plan to do about it?”

  “You can teleport us to the cell where they’re holding him, and we’ll just teleport right back out to the tower. It’s easy.”

  Anna stared at her. “Easy? Kila, he’s in a cell. A government cell!”

  “So? Connor told me you teleported into his cell when he was in government custody. You can do it.”

  “Not me. God. God moves me; I just ask. And yes, I’m sure God could do it. But I’ve actually tried this before — teleporting into a cell to get someone out. Other than Connor I mean. And it turned out to be a bit harder than you’re describing. What if there are guards, Kila?”

  “We know how to fight.”

  Anna’s eyes went wide, and she stared at Kila. “Know how to fight? We’ve been training with Connor for like a month. And you want to fight trained government operatives?”

  “I studied Chojin Ken with the Legion before I came here.”

  Anna looked at her crossways. “That’s an evil art, Kila. Connor told me about it. It’s all about dominating your enemy and complete destruction.”

  “Oh sure, Sebastian says all that garbage, but it’s all in how you use it. At heart, Chojin Ken is about mixing your powers into the martial arts. Like me. Chojin Ken for me is about knowing where your opponent is going to kick before he does. I take my gift for knowing the future and blend it in with fighting.”

  “So you feel like you’re a good enough fighter to win if we come up against federal agents?”

  Kila said, “I’m not Connor, with two black belts and inventing my own martial arts style. I just know that my friend’s in danger and everything I have, I’ll give it to get him out. I don’t want to have to walk up to the cops and get them to arrest me too, but I will if that’s the only way to get where Pitch is. I’d rather you get me there though.”

  Anna sighed. She remembered her own argument with Mr. Moses, back before they had formed the Sons of Thunder. He hadn’t wanted to go back to the Legion base and save her sister, but Anna had insisted just as Kila was now.

  She took her sister’s and Kila’s hands.

  “Lord, we’d really like to be where Pitch is right now.”

  ***

  Drake watched as Terri found a couple teabags and made them something to drink. She came and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from him, handing him one of the two mugs. To his surprise, he felt a bit disappointed when she sat all the way at the other end.

  “Thanks again for helping me get away from the cops,” he said.

  He didn’t understand the funny look that flashed across her face when she said it was no problem.

  Drake tried to avoid staring at her, but having noticed, it became hard not to take in her appearance. Her athletic figure, shiny hair, and the delicate lines of her face made him interested in a woman for the first time in… Well, since Hope died.

  “I saw the fire this morning,” she said. “It was frightening even then. But in the coffee shop? With all those people around? And the look on your face when you saw Pitch? Drake, you can be a scary man.”

  He looked away from her. He knew she would be thinking that he had been wrong to start that fight. But she didn’t know. She couldn’t know.

  “I would never hurt you.”

  “But Drake, this power you have… It’s not right to use it like that. I don’t claim to understand everything about…”

  She stopped herself before she said abnormal abilities, not wanting to give away how much she knew. She settled on the term the Sons of Thunder used, since she could more easily explain why she used it.

  “I don’t know everything about these miraculous gifts, but I know it’s a serious responsibility to have that much power. You shouldn’t abuse it just because you’re mad at someone.”

  “Look, Terri. When you came back, and we talked in the coffee shop, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Sebastian told me to wait for you so we could see if Pitch came with you. I didn’t really care what Sebastian said; I just wanted revenge against Pitch. But then…

  “I don’t know. It was relaxing to talk to you.”

  He wanted to say something about her dark eyes and darker hair. He wanted to say something about the way her thin nose and high cheekbones made her seem fragile and drew out his desire to protect her. The words caught in his throat, though, and wouldn’t come out.

  Terri took a long time answering. She stared at him and looked away from him in equal measure. She stretched the silence out until it almost snapped.

  “It turns out I kind of like you, too, Drake. More than I should. I have to tell you something.”

  Drake almost said something noncommittal, like “OK,” but the look in her eyes made him pause and turn to face her.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I should have told you this at the start. I shouldn’t have kept it from you. I’m sorry.”

  “Now you’re really making me nervous. What is it?”

  “Drake, I work for the government.”

  He stood up from the couch and backed away from her. He felt the old familiar tingle of flames tickling the edges of his fingertips. The same anger he’d felt at Pitch bubbled deep down inside him, boiling toward the surface.

  Alarm on her face, Terri rushed out, “I’m sorry. I know I should have told you.”

  “You bet you should have!”

  Drake squeezed his hands tightly into fists, more to keep the fire from crackling between his fingers than from any actual thought of hitting anyone. He glared at her.

  Terri sucked in a deep breath before continuing. “It’s my job to investigate people with abnormal abilities. I came to Las Vegas looking for something specific. Instead of my actual case, when I got here, I found myself in the middle of a battle and discovered a completely new group of people with abnormal abilities. We’d never heard of the Sons of Thunder before. I wanted to see what I could learn before I went back to HQ.”

  “So you’re studying me? All this time - helping me after the fight with Pitch, helping me hide from the cops - all of that is just studying?”

  “No! I… I don’t know what I’m going to do. Back at headquarters, people with abnormal abilities are all just test subjects. They’re abstractions. We study their files and when we catch one we test them, and I never interact with anyone personally. All of a sudden you’re real. You’re people I have coffee with and learn about what makes you tick. You, the Sons of Thunder—”

  Drake interrupted her. “The who?”

  “The Sons of Thunder Sons and Daughters, I guess. You said ‘Connor’s people’ when you talked about them. I was with them before I met you.”

  “Wait, what? You’re part of Connor’s group?”

  “No! They just took me into their headquarters after the mugging. I did the same thing with them as I did with you — I didn’t
mention the truth about me. I wanted to learn as much as I could. At the AAA, we only knew about the Legion until today. We didn’t know there was another group.”

  He said, “I can’t believe how much I don’t know about you. I was really starting to trust you.”

  “I want you to. I told you the truth about me. I never told them. Isn’t that worth something?”

  “Not much when you’re planning to lock me up and perform practical application tests on me.”

  “I’m not! Drake, I’m not. I promise. I started today intending to learn as much as I could and then go back to my superiors and tell them. But now… I don’t know. Talking to you… you don’t need to be locked up. Well, not when you have your anger under control. When you’re calm, the world doesn’t need protection from you. You’re a man who’s been hurt and built a wall to protect himself. People do that all the time; it’s nothing to do with having a power. It’s not a crime.”

  He felt like his innards were twisted and boiled. Terri was… She glowed with a rare kind of beauty. He hadn’t felt this way since Hope. A year or two older than him, Terri had a mysterious appeal. Now, he knew the source of the mystery, but still… She cared. She asked him questions about himself. He hadn’t really, truly, talked with anyone in so long. It felt good to let it all out.

  And now the truth had come out. Just a game. Just a trick to learn more about people with “abnormal abilities.” And even if he set aside the fact that she worked for the AAA, she was also connected to Connor. And maybe Pitch as well.

  “When you were hanging out with Connor’s people, did you talk to Pitch?”

  She nodded, keeping her eyes off his and pointed at the floor.

  “And?”

  Terri shrugged. “I don’t know. I got the sense that he wasn’t telling me everything about his past. He seemed like it bothered him.”

  Drake looked away from her. “Good. Good. He should be bothered.”