Fire and Thunder

by Bowen Greenwood

  “It is a bit weird when Spooky just blurts stuff out about you,” she said. “‘You’re going to have more money than you know what to do with someday, Hope.’ Or ‘You like Teal? I don’t. Things should be either blue or green, not both at the same time.’ It makes me wonder…”

  “Wonder what?”

  “Well, I mean… I don’t like Sebastian very much so far.”

  “It’ll work out.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. I wonder if what I think of Sebastian is one of those things Spooky just knows?”

  Drake nodded slowly. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. One time I was feeling all good because she told me I was going to be a nearly unbeatable fighter someday. But then she blurted out that… Well, never mind.”

  Hope snickered. She transitioned to serious quickly though.

  “That’s one of the things I find so fascinating about studying these powers. How does information in my head move to her head without me ever transmitting it? Information should be an arrangement of electrons in our brain. This is what I study in college. How can that move through our skulls and the air between us? It just shouldn’t be possible.”

  “I don’t get the sense that the things Spooky knows come from you to her. I get the sense that it’s more like… I don’t know. From within. It’s not communication between people; it’s just…knowledge. I don’t know.”

  “And that’s what I can’t stand. I can’t just shrug and say I don’t know. It’s not very scientific.”

  “So that’s what you study in school?”

  “I just declared my physics major. What were you majoring in?”

  “English.”

  Hope winked at him. “Liberal Arts majors. All of us hard science majors make fun of you, you know.”

  “Hey!”

  “Relax. It’s just teasing, Drake. But seriously, I could never study what you study. Physics is way more interesting. I mean, my major put men on the moon. The ultimate power in the world? A nuclear bomb? That’s 100 percent physics.”

  “It is pretty cool,” he agreed.

  “Are we the only college students here?”

  “I think so. Before you came, I was the oldest one here.”

  Hope grumbled, “Certainly the most mature. If they’re all buying Sebastian’s fish story about taking over the government, none of them are very adult at all. But it doesn’t have to be like that, Drake. We can help them. We can help the Legion be more than Sebastian plans it to be.”

  ***

  Pitch stared at the stone wall of the cave intently. Only after a few moments did Drake realize the other boy was working a rock loose from the wall. Pebbles clattered to the ground as he levitated it away with his mind. The giant boulder floated down the tunnel some distance until Pitch dropped it onto the pile he was making.

  Noticing Drake walking by, he said, “I think I’m going to make a gymnasium in here. If we had a real gym, it would make Chojin Ken practice easier.”

  The telekinetic had been working on the cave for weeks. His vision for the headquarters grew every day, and Sebastian gave him free reign to bring that vision to life. Drake looked forward to seeing it, but it wasn’t the first thing on his mind right now.

  “Is Hope in her room?”

  “Far as I know. I haven’t seen her come by.” Pitch paused in his work and beckoned Drake closer.

  Drake obliged and stepped up. “What’s up?”

  “Listen, man. I don’t want to tell you how to run your life, but people talk about how much time you spend with that girl. She’s not a loyal member of Legion like you. Sebastian worries she’ll mess up your progress.”

  “Hey! She’s loyal. She just… Anyway, like you’d walk away from Spooky if Sebastian said so?”

  Drake found it funny to watch the big young man blush and look down at his shoes, twisting one foot on the cave floor.

  “She doesn’t even know I exist.”

  Pitch cuffed him on the shoulder gently. “Come on, man. You’re the strongest guy here, the best fighter besides Sebastian, and your power’s almost as cool as mine. Plus, there’s like not even ten of us. Of course she knows you exist. Why don’t you just ask her out? The worst she can say is no.”

  Pitch rolled his eyes. “Do people ever get tired of saying ‘The worst she can say is no?’ It’s the most common advice in the whole universe. Anyways, Drake, Hope’s in her room as far as I know. Good luck man.”

  Chapter 17 – Hope and Drake Part 3

  Her quarters — his too, everybody’s — had improved quite a bit from the rude stone holes Pitch had started with. Still, Drake had exaggerated when he called it a room. Hope sat in her cave, leaning against the wall, reading a book. A loose bun rested on the top of her head, holding her hair out of her eyes. She looked up when Drake walked in. The smile that went along with it made the whole visit worthwhile, even if somehow everything went wrong from there.

  “Hey, Drake. Sit down. I’ve been wanting someone to talk to.”

  The words were like sinking into a hot tub. All the fear of approaching someone who might reject him melted away at the warm greeting. He eased down onto the rock floor and asked, “What’s up?”

  “Just reading these books about the paranormal. I’m trying to understand as much as I can about what’s going on with us.”

  “What have you learned?”

  Hope said, “I don’t really know. The books aren’t worth much. But in talking to other members of the Legion, I think I picked something up that might be a clue.”

  “And?”

  She got up from the floor and began to pace. “All of us here made a sacrifice for our powers. Kila went so far trying to warn her sister that her boyfriend was a criminal, her power got found out. Pitch’s friends on the football team stopped hanging out with him when other guys in skirmishes kept getting hit without anyone anywhere near them. He gave up his social standing for the power to move objects with his mind. I think making a sacrifice has something to do with getting a power.”

  Drake thought back to his mother sending him away to see the therapist about whether he was a pyromaniac.

  “What…” He broke off and looked away.

  “Hmm?”

  “What was… I mean… Did you…?”

  She favored him with a wide smile, and Drake bitterly regretted the halting, broken way his words came out. He thought he should have at least stood up before asking her. He felt silly sitting on the ground looking up at her when he could barely talk. He rectified the situation, rising to his feet.

  Hope didn’t seem to be paying as much attention to how awkward he felt as he was. She just talked.

  “You know me. I’m a total nerd. Love me some rules and love approval from teachers and parents even more. So when I tried to talk to my physics professor about what was happening to me, he got mad. He told me there’s no such thing as the supernatural. I tried to tell him maybe there was lost technology, like alchemy and things, but he just got madder. I used to be the teacher’s pet but when I wouldn’t back down from insisting that what was happening to me was real, he stopped ever calling on me in class or anything.”

  “That stinks. He shouldn’t have done that.”

  “Yeah. I really love physics, too. You can make the whole world dance for you if you know the rules that make the place run. That’s science. I think I’ll go on to get a graduate degree, too. That is, if they’ll still let me. My grades took a hit in that class when he decided I was some ghost-story-believing nut.”

  “Why do you like it so much?”

  She gestured with her hands as she paced, emphasizing her sentences. “Science is awesome, Drake! There’s so much power in it. We did this one experiment once where we calculated the weight of a steel ball, then rolled it down a ramp and predicted where it would land. Seems like nothing, right? But when I did a bunch of math, put a little cup at one spot on the ground, dropped the ball down the ramp, and on the very first time it went right in there? I was hooked for lif
e. These powers we have, they’re cool. But you don’t need powers to do amazing things. All you need is to understand the rules of the universe. That’s science.”

  Drake stood there watching her pace the small cave. He had to think “You can do this!” in his head a few times but finally he mustered the courage to try a compliment. “Yeah, but you make amazing things possible with your power, too.”

  She frowned and looked away. Instantly, he regretted his words, though he didn’t know why. Mentioning her power was supposed to make her feel good. Why the sudden pout? Girls were so weird!

  “Hey, sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  She shook her head. “It’s nothing. It’s not you I’m mad at. I just can’t believe he makes me work in the stupid kitchen. It’s like a bad stereotype.”

  “You’re right. Sebastian shouldn’t do that. But he’s not all bad—”

  Hope grabbed his black tank top. Drake barely managed to choke back an embarrassing squeal of surprise as she pulled him close and put her face close to his. She shook him.

  “Yes! He is all bad.”

  She took a deep breath, let him go, and muttered “Sorry” before going back to her pacing.

  “He just brings out the worst in me. I work so hard to suppress my temper, and Sebastian brings it right out. He’s so arrogant! It’s like, if you have any ideas different from his, he just shuts you up.”

  “Yeah. I’m mad at him about it, too.” Drake experienced guilt as the words slipped out of his mouth, though. He did disagree with Sebastian about how he treated Hope and the other people whose powers didn’t seem good for fighting, but he had never said anything about it to anyone but her. Too chicken, he thought bitterly. He never tried to correct Sebastian or make him see reason, so it felt a little disingenuous to act like her best ally with Hope when he never stood up to Sebastian himself.

  If she knew the turmoil inside him, her face revealed nothing of it. A teasing smile played on her lips as she said, “It looked like you were pretty happy he had me working in the kitchen this morning.”

  Drake remembered it well. At first, the idea of eating eggs that had once been rocks weirded him out. Hope explained to him how she used her power of transforming things to prepare food for the whole Legion. Drake feared his willpower wouldn’t be enough to pretend to like the food in order to make Hope smile.

  His first tentative bite wiped all that out. So what if the process that put them on his plate could not be explained? They tasted like salty, cheesy heaven, and he shoved plate after plate into his mouth. Now, he blushed. She had teased him at breakfast about how much he ate, but she did smile, and that’s what he’d wanted.

  Now, sitting in her quarters, the smile disappeared as quickly as it began. “Just because he was right that I could use that power to help feed everyone doesn’t mean he’s right about me not being any good in a fight, though. Sebastian has no idea what he started. Working with my power in the kitchen is still working with my power. I’m learning things, Drake. Sebastian’s going to regret giving me a chance to practice that. Transform rocks into eggs? Only the beginning.”

  Drake nodded vigorously. “I know you can do more than he thinks. I’ve always believed in you.”

  She tilted her head to the side and appraised him, twirling a strand of her hair as she pondered.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Of course I’m sure. It wasn’t my idea not to let you stay in Chojin Ken class. I’m the one who—”

  “Relax, Drake. I wasn’t accusing you. You’ve been a great friend to me here; don’t think I’ll forget it. I just want to ask you for something, so I was asking if you’re sure you want to sign off on my ideas as quickly as you usually do.”

  “Anything, Hope. Just tell me what you want to do, and I’ll support you.”

  “Help me study Chojin Ken. Everything you learn at Enforcer training. Come back to my room afterwards and teach me. I used to be in a women’s boxing club in college, but nothing like what you guys learn. I want to know how to do it.”

  His eyes went wide. All he wanted out of life was to spend more time with her, and now this? And she seemed to think she asked too much, and he might want a special warning and chance to say no.

  “Hope, that’s awesome. Everything I know about fighting, you’ll know. We’ll turn you into a tiger.”

  “I already am a tiger, Drake. I’m just keeping it secret from Sebastian. But with your help, I can be a lion.”

  ***

  Hope’s room grew bigger every day. Pitch worked on all of their quarters, not just Hope’s, but the only one that mattered to Drake was hers. He actually felt a little guilty about all the work Pitch did on his own room when Drake never went there except to sleep. He spent every other moment that he could with Hope.

  Now, he lay on his back in her room, teaching her some wrestling moves they had studied at Enforcer training that morning. She knelt down near the base of him. He had his feet up as if to kick her.

  “Now, when someone comes in to try to grab you…”

  She took the hint and knee-walked forward as if to attack him. Awkwardly grabbing her arm instead of her upper shirt to keep his hands away from anywhere inappropriate, Drake demonstrated how easy it was to throw someone when you had your back on the ground and your feet able to move.

  Mercifully, she and Pitch had worked out a major home improvement trick the day before. She had taken a bunch of spare stone he had broken loose in the cave and had turned it into hardwood flooring. The Legion’s headquarters grew toward Pitch’s vision with every passing day, and Hope’s ability to transform stone into classy building materials created a giant leap forward.

  All of which was great, but the floor mattered most when practicing wrestling. It meant that, lying on his back, Drake didn’t have to feel sharp granite cutting into his shoulder blades. It also meant that, as he threw Hope over and she flopped to the ground beside him, she didn’t have to land on pointy edges.

  She turned to look at him and smiled. “Wouldn’t Sebastian be mad to know I’m learning everything he said I couldn’t?”

  Drake gave her a lopsided grin. “Don’t tell him, please. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

  “Doesn’t it make you mad that we walk on tiptoes around here rather than risk ticking him off? It shouldn’t be like that.”

  He rolled up to a sitting position and crossed his legs. “I know, Hope. But even you have to admit it’s cool to be around other kids who have power like us. Even if most of them are younger, it’s still way better to fit in. I used to hate the way all the kids avoided me after stuff started burning down.”

  She, too, sat up. “I know, Drake. It’s way better being around people who are like us. But I don’t like the price we pay for it. Sebastian’s ideas aren’t healthy. Spending all this time plotting revenge against Maven Flake isn’t good for him or us. She controls real, honest to God FBI agents. Men with guns and training and more. All this talk about raiding them to free other kids with powers, it’s crazy. They’re real police, and we’re just a bunch of untrained amateurs who practice karate in the middle of the desert. He’s going to get people killed, Drake.”

  He nodded. “I know, but what can I do about it? He says I’m the best student in the Chojin Ken class, but everything I know about it I learned from him. If I try to stand up to him, I’ll lose. I can’t stop him.”

  “Maybe alone you can’t. But together…”

  “What are you saying, Hope?”

  “Nothing, yet. But the time is coming when I’ll say a lot, right to Sebastian’s face. Be ready.”

  Chapter 18 – Hope and Drake Conclusion

  “Do you ever think about going out on dates, Drake?”

  “What?! I mean… Um… Well, yes of course! Obviou… Er, with you, right? Like, me and you?”

  Hope threw back her head and laughed. Light from the lamps caught her hair. Drake blushed and looked at the floor. His cheeks burned from the rush of blood to them.

&nbs
p; “Well, you can’t be spending a lot of time with any other girls. You and I are together almost every moment we’re not in class.”

  Class at the Legion meant something different than it would have if the two of them were still in college. There was Chojin Ken class, and there was a lunch break. But other than that, “class” meant something more like meetings where people used their powers together.

  “I… I mean, obviously I’m not spending time with any other girls.”

  “I like it that way.”

  If possible, Drake thought the red would fill his cheeks up to bursting and explode, she made him blush so bad. “You’re… Well…”

  He paused and looked anywhere but at her.

  “I mean, you’re…”

  She smiled broadly at him but didn’t speak.

  “You’re who I want to spend time with.”

  Hope stepped across her room — it had truly become a room now with nice floors, lights, and a door — to wrap her arms around Drake. She hugged him tight.

  “You’re who I want to spend time with, too, Drake. That’s why I’m asking about dates.”

  Drake didn’t know what to say. He lived, for that moment, inside perfection. She held him. She told him she wanted to spend time with him and that she wanted to go out on dates. Perfection. Nothing that could come out of his mouth could possibly improve on it. Words could only take away from the sublime excellence of the moment. For a long time, he didn’t answer her.

  “Well?”

  “I would love to take you out on a date, Hope. I want it so bad, it’s hurting me right now. But I haven’t got any money at all and since I came here, I’m sure they’ve fired me at my old job, so I don’t have any way to buy you dinner or anything. And where would we go? That one guy, Wings, has that little puddle jumper plane of his, but it’d be kind of weird to ask him to fly us to Vegas so we could go out for dinner and a movie.”

  Hope grinned to put a Cheshire cat to shame. Her smile showed gleaming white teeth and eyes that held sunlight.