by Strand, Kai
She finally said, “You and I work well together. Our abilities complement one another. Plus, you’re good looking.”
Jeff’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her actually shiver. “Wow, the thought of me meaning anything to you personally really scares you, doesn’t it?”
“Look,” Oceanus spat, “most of the time I don’t mind being around you. But when you get like this. Or when you’re all apologetic or throw around the pleases and thank you’s, well, that stuff makes my skin crawl. The sisters in the orphanage used to try to push manners on me. That is until I learned to flood their shoes.”
Oceanus crossed her arms and turned her back to him. Her black hair fell down her straight back, past her shoulder blades. She stood proud and defiant. Apparently this scrap of a girl had given Set as much as he’d given her and that said a lot. Jeff’s eyes scanned the room. He didn’t understand how so many people could simply not care about anyone else. Nor could he stop caring about her. His eyes settled on her tapping foot and the fingers she drummed on her arm.
“I don’t know if it means anything or not,” Jeff said, “but before I came here, I didn’t have any manners. Outside of the academy, I didn’t care for anyone besides my sister. She’s cool. Maybe my dad. I don’t know why coming here changed me like this. Maybe the militaristic rule brings out my best behavior, or what you think is my worst. Maybe it’s because I’ve found someone to care about.”
The final statement hung in the air between them. Oceanus’ head was cocked ever so slightly in his direction. She pursed her lips and stared at the ground, but didn’t reply.
“So,” Jeff said to break the tension, “want to help me figure out how to make the blue fire?”
Oceanus turned toward him with a grin. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“Count me in,” Mystic said, stopping next to Jeff.
Oceanus rolled her eyes.
Mystic smirked.
“I’ve tried to make fire from every part of my body, but it hasn’t resulted in anything, let alone anything blue,” Jeff said.
“I don’t think you should be making fire,” Oceanus said.
“Of course he should. You saw it, didn’t you?” Mystic said.
“Yes.” Oceanus drew each word out slowly like she spoke to a mentally incompetent person. “I also tried to douse it and it only grew bigger and brighter.”
“Really?” Mystic said.
“Yeah, it feeds off of oxygen.”
“So does fire,” Jeff and Mystic said together.
“Fire takes oxygen out of the air, but that blue stuff took the oxygen out of the water,” Oceanus said.
“What would grow in intensity from water?” Jeff said.
“Magnesium,” Mystic whispered. Jeff thought she might be thinking out loud. “Catch magnesium on fire and you can’t fight it with water; it will make it worse.”
“Why do you know that?” Jeff asked.
Mystic scowled. “Let’s just say I’m no longer allowed to participate in science labs.”
Oceanus snorted.
“Do we have magnesium?” Jeff asked, waving a finger up and down, indicating his body.
“Muscles, I think.” Mystic said.
They both looked at Oceanus and she shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“I can’t catch my muscles on fire,” Jeff said.
“No, I’d think you’d have to siphon the magnesium off, or out, or whatever, and move it to your hands. The intruders used their hands, right?” Mystic asked.
Oceanus and Jeff nodded.
Jeff’s nod swiveled into a shake. “I don’t have any idea how to do that. Where is Source when you need him?”
“Well, you worked with him a lot. Think like him,” Mystic said.
Jeff still shook his head. “He would tell me what to do and how to do it. It isn’t as if he ‘thought out loud.’”
Oceanus scoffed. “Come on, Polar. Stop whining and do something. Concentrate on a muscle, a large muscle near your hand. Your bicep. Think about your bicep. Imagine it stretching from the scapula to the humerous.”
Jeff closed his eyes and focused his attention first on Oceanus’s instructions and second on the muscle she described. He felt the sinew of his bicep stretch and twist. He felt the latent strength and grace.
Oceanus continued. “Bend your elbow and feel how the muscle contracts to pull the lower arm up. Straighten your arm again and relax. This time when you bend your elbow, think deep within the muscle. Feel the increase in oxygen and shift of mineral.”
It took him a couple of pumps before he even felt the muscle working. After a few more pumps, he was able to really tap into the functionality of it. His back straightened and his eyebrows arched, but he didn’t open his eyes or make a noise.
Oceanus smiled. “There it is; does it feel blue? Cool, infused with static? Gather that. Take it sparingly or you might end up in a mushy pile on the floor. Steer it toward your hand. Herd it down your arm until it rests in the palm of your hand. Now, ignite it.”
“Ow.” A zap of static shock jolted Jeff’s arm. He opened his eyes and found a ball of blue flame rolling around on his palm.
“Holy blue flame, Batman.”
“Polar, you did it!” Oceanus squealed.
“Sssshhhh!” Mystic scowled at Oceanus.
Oceanus shot a rude gesture toward Mystic.
“Seriously, we want to keep this to ourselves.” Mystic stood so that her tall body blocked the view of Jeff’s hands from most of the room. “Put it out, Polar.”
“Are you crazy? I just got it going.” Jeff rolled the ball around on his hands, marveling at the lack of heat. The ball bumped against his thumb, sending a mild jolt up his arm. Jeff tossed the ball lightly in the air then realized his mistake. He caught it and pain shot up his arm and radiated across his chest. He chuckled uncomfortably. “That was stupid.”
“Can I?” Oceanus held out her hand.
“Are you sure?” Jeff asked.
“Polar, put it out. We shouldn’t be doing this here,” Mystic said.
Oceanus frowned at her. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”
Mystic sighed and rolled her eyes. Then her eyes popped open wide. “Polar, put it out now. Tubs is coming.”
Jeff closed his palm and winced at the pain. When he opened his hand the ball was still there. He shook his hand and then tried squashing the ball with his other hand; nothing but pain.
“How do you turn this off?” he hissed.
“What’s going on here?” Tubs said from behind Jeff.
As Jeff turned toward Tubs, he slid his hand behind his back, hoping Tubs wouldn’t see the spinning blue flame in his palm. His arm shook from the effort of holding the palm of his hand upward. His arm muscles were tiring.
Suddenly water doused Tubs and Mystic.
“Oops!” Oceanus said. “Bad luck, Tubs. Mystic was helping me with a new trick and you walked right into the middle of it.”
Jeff winced. Mystic’s glare should have sliced Oceanus in half.
Tubs shook the dripping water from his hands and wiped the drench of water from his eyes. He shot a nasty look at Oceanus, spun on his heel and marched off.
“Thanks, clumsy!” Mystic growled.
“Well, I had to think fast.” Oceanus almost looked innocent except for the hint of a smile she couldn’t quite wipe from her face.
“Thanks, Oci,” Jeff said. He turned toward the wall and examined his hand. “How am I supposed to turn this stuff off?”
“The opposite way you turned it on. Disperse the magnesium again,” Oceanus said.
Feeling unreasonably tired, Jeff struggled to remember how he’d gathered it in the first place. Then he methodically stepped backward through the process and sighed with relief when the blue flame winked out.
“Don’t stop until you’ve dispersed the magnesium,” Oceanus warned.
Jeff whined. He had been about to stop, but he recognized the wisdom in the warning and he painstakingly continue
d to reverse the process to the very beginning. When he did finish his muscles felt renewed. His brain, on the other hand, felt fuzzy and he was uncharacteristically tired.
“Hate to flame and run, but I need to go lay down.” Jeff ran a hand through his hair.
Mystic chuckled. “Residual static.”
Oceanus laughed too.
“What?” Jeff asked. The girls said nothing; they only turned and walked in separate directions. Jeff discovered what they’d been laughing at when he got back to his room and saw in the mirror that his static-charged hair stood straight up. Jeff yawned at his reflection.
“What are you smiling at?” Jeff said to Pucker who floated right up next to the glass. She swam in a quick circle then stared at Jeff again.
“Great, even you’re laughing at me. Is there no loyalty around here?”
Chapter 18
Jeff practiced with the blue flame as often as he could. He quickly mastered igniting and extinguishing it. Controlling it took longer. His original fire moved via its oxygen and heat, but the blue fire moved through static electricity, which proved much more difficult to isolate. Remembering their astounding control of the substance, Jeff gained a new respect for the fire-wielding intruders.
The better Jeff became at using the blue fire, the more frustrated he was about the lack of efforts on the academy’s part to find and rescue Source.
“They never intend to find him, do they?” Jeff asked Mystic at lunch one day.
“I don’t know.” Mystic shoved the limp broccoli around on her plate. “But I doubt it.”
“I’ve got to do something then.” Jeff’s own lunch sat untouched in front of him.
Mystic snorted.
“What?” Jeff asked.
“Come on, seriously. What do you think you can do?” Mystic swigged down her sports drink.
“I could kick some serious kidnapper ass if I just knew where they were,” Jeff said.
Mystic snorted again.
“What!”
“Polar, you’re not exactly S.V. of the year. Not even Set could storm in and take an academy on his own.”
Jeff’s mouth hung open.
Mystic shrugged.
“Set! Set? What about Sand Storm or the Mummy Maker? Why Set?”
Mystic laughed. “You’re jealous.”
“No, I’m not jealous. I just don’t understand why everyone thinks Set is S.V. of the year as you so eloquently put it.” Jeff huffed and dropped his chin into his palm.
“How long have you been at the academy, Polar?”
Jeff scowled.
“Set has control of almost every substance out there in one or more ways. That is like unheard of. Plus he can control multiple substances at the same time. Very, very difficult. There is no one in this academy that could best him in a fight.”
“So why didn’t the intruders take him instead of Source?”
“They weren’t interested in arrogant, puffed up over-achievers,” Mystic said.
“What do you know about what they were interested in?” Jeff asked.
“Nothing, why?”
Jeff squinted at Mystic. “It sounded like you know more.”
Mystic shook her head and shrugged.
Oceanus suddenly leaned over Jeff’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Meet me in the library after dinner. Alone.”
Jeff nodded slightly, while trying to mask the thrill that passed through him when he felt her lips so close to his ear and her warm breath on his neck.
Oceanus walked off.
“Secret messages?” Mystic asked. “You’d better watch yourself, Polar. Set still thinks he has a claim on that girl.”
This time Jeff shrugged. Sometimes it was very difficult hanging out with two girls who couldn’t stand each other. They constantly placed him between them, both physically and emotionally. If Jeff were honest with himself, the only reason he was friends with Mystic was because he was afraid not to be. She was pleasant enough to be around, but something wasn’t right about her. No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t as if she were loony. Something wasn’t true or honest about her. It might be Oceanus’ constant warnings that had convinced Jeff, but he felt it too. Even before Oceanus started harping on it. Something about Mystic wasn’t on the up and up. But being a student in a super villain academy meant that no one was on the up and up. So he couldn’t very well hold that against Mystic, could he?
Later that evening, Jeff slipped between world history and civil liberties. He hefted the huge tome titled Family Names: Their Origins and Meanings From the Beginning of Time off the shelf. Already the two books on the adjoining shelf had been removed.
“’Bout time! Why are you always late, Polar? You’d think with those long legs, you’d be early.”
Jeff loved the way the opening between the two books framed Oceanus’ face perfectly. He was able to see just enough of her black hair to set off the porcelain skin. The red book on the shelf accented Oceanus’ ruby lips which were only slightly too thin when she grinned at him.
“I’m not late. You never stated a time, just an event.”
She rolled her eyes. Then her expression clouded. “There’s a new kid. He’s in my attacks class.”
“Oooo, that’s interesting,” Jeff drawled. “I’m glad we are secretly meeting about him. Is he cute?”
Oceanus sighed then continued. “He moved here from Senegal.”
“Where’s that?” Jeff asked.
“Africa.”
“Okay. So?”
“He recognized Mystic,” Oceanus said conspiratorially.
Jeff frowned. “Okay. So?”
Oceanus rolled her eyes. “From Senegal!”
“He saw her in Senegal?”
“Yeah.”
Jeff shook his head. “What, like in school?”
“No, he said he saw her around a lot, but never knew anything about her.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Neither do I. But it means that she’s not telling us the truth.”
“Oci, he probably has her mixed up with someone else.”
Oceanus shook her head. “No way. There is no else like that!”
“When?”
“She was there about six months ago, he said.” Oceanus’ head snapped sideways. Her eyes grew big and round. “Gotta go.”
She shoved two books back onto the shelf, blocking Jeff’s view of her. Jeff heard Set’s voice asking Oceanus what she was doing.
He slipped the thick book back onto the shelf and sighed as he walked away. If only he could be free to just hang out with Oceanus without her ending up thrown through a wall or having to ward off lightning strikes.
In the gym that night Jeff, Oceanus and Mystic worked together practicing standard drills for their perspective talents. Jeff let his defense down so Mystic could practice psych moves on him. He figured it was the least he could do in return for the defense she’d given him, but he hated drooling over her in front of Oceanus. When they were done, Jeff practiced offensive fire moves and Oceanus practiced defensive water moves.
An earsplitting scream rent the air. Jeff and Oceanus whipped around at the same time. Mystic shot forward and shielded the screaming girl with her own body. A pulse of muscle jitter attack, the girl’s partner had thrown toward her, slammed into Mystic. Her face contorted and she curled into a ball on the floor, whimpering. The room hushed. Everybody stared at Mystic. Mystic looked around at her slack-jawed audience and her face crumbled into disappointment. She got up slowly, but her eyes remained downcast.
Tubs and another teacher flanked Mystic, each gripping one of her arms. They led the slumped-shouldered girl from the room. Just before she walked out the door she looked over her shoulder at Jeff. Her face was a mask of fear, failure and fret.
The door clanged closed behind them and the room erupted in excited voices. Oceanus turned to look at Jeff, her mouth hung agape.
“Uh, what just happened?” Jeff asked.
Oceanus’ eyes popped open w
ider. “You saw what she did!”
Jeff ran the scene through his head, but couldn’t identify anything she’d done wrong. He shook his head and shrugged.
“Polar,” Oceanus whispered. She moved so close to him, her body was pressed against his. “She saved the girl.”
Jeff waited. When it became clear that Oceanus was going to say nothing more, he shrugged again.
She scowled at him. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
He had to lean over to hear her. “No, I have no idea what just happened. She saved the girl from her partner’s attack. So?”
“Ssshhh!” Oceanus looked around. “Polar, only the good guys save people.”
Jeff stared at her. Again, he realized she was done talking, but he still didn’t understand. “But you saved me that first day.”
Oceanus sighed. “No, I saved the school. I didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened to you.”
“You were serious when you told me that?” Jeff’s mouth hung open.
“Yes.” Oceanus rolled her eyes. Her lip curled. Jeff wondered if she felt all right.
“What do you mean by good guys?” Jeff asked.
“Ssshh!” Oceanus shot a warning look at him and scanned those around them to make sure no one listened. “You are so ignorant. The good guys, the heroes… Superman, Batman. Those guys.”
“They’re real?”
Oceanus walked away.
Jeff realized too late he’d spoken loudly.
“I’m sorry.” He shuffled after her, whispering apologies.
She stopped, but made a dramatic production out of not looking at him. Anyone watching would think she’d stopped against her better judgment and Jeff suspected that was actually the case.
She mumbled like a bad ventriloquist. “Did you seriously not know there were super heroes?”
Jeff shook his head.
“What did you think? Only bad guys got these awesome abilities?”
Jeff shook his head faster.
Oceanus scowled.
“I didn’t think.” He tried the ventriloquist approach, but his lips moved. At least his volume stayed low. “Mystic was one of them?”
Oceanus nodded. “I told you not to trust her.”
