She did not understand the science of how she came to be here. It was a teleportation accident - that was all she needed to know. And that she was lucky to be alive. As she understood it, such an accident could have broken her up into detached body parts scattered all over the midwest. Or even shot her molecules off somewhere into space. She was in one piece, however, and was thankful for that.
She pulled the glove from her right hand and looked at the hand as it was now. Perfectly solid, and yet transparent. Through her hand she could see the pavement below, and the gravel at the side of the road. She could still become completely invisible and she could phase through solid objects, but she could not fully remove the invisibility from her right hand. The hand she had attempted to phase through that strange kid with, back at Tempest’s complex. Whatever he was, he had done this to her.
She would return, one day. Tempest and Calder could bank on that. And she would find her child. And she would take out Tempest and Calder in the process. She promised this to herself, and to her missing baby.
When she had first met Tempest and Calder, she had thought it was a great lark. She had referred to Tempest as Egghead Boy, all in fun. She had found Calder attractive and maneuvered him into a weekend of sex, and got a great story out of it. She had been in the process of becoming Kimberly Stratton, star reporter. And now, a year and a half later, her career was over and she had been somehow turned into a mutant freak herself. They would pay. By God, they would pay.
She pushed her hand back into the glove, and continued walking along. She turned up her collar against the chill of the morning air. The wind picked up, and bounced little pieces of gravel against her back.
FOUR
Scott Tempest, fully adorned in his battle suit, sat on a rickety, wooden chair in an abandoned store front in a forgotten part of Boston. Sitting across from him in an old rocker was the woman known to the group simply as Mother. Long, graying hair tied into a tail fell along her back. Small lines criss-crossed their way alongside her eyes and at the corners of her mouth. Not the lines that can be caused by a lifetime of hardship, but instead lines earned from one of smiles. For, despite her hardships, Mother was one who forever saw the glass as half full and greeted each sunrise with wonder.
Standing nearby, pacing a bit, was Snake. Scott had observed Snake never seemed to sit. Snake was still wearing the battered trench coat Scott had never seen him without. His slouch hat was resting on a counter. Snake’s head was fully exposed in all its green, hairless, reptilian glory.
“So,” Mother said. “What you are proposing is, essentially, an alliance of sorts.”
“Precisely,” Scott said. “We should all be working together. After all we are, in a way, a small society.”
Snake stopped his pacing to look over his shoulder at Scott. “Hardly. You can never be like us.”
Scott looked at him curiously. “But we are like you. We all carry the genesis gene. It has manifested itself in each of us differently, but it has manifested itself. It has given each of us a different ability.”
“What I mean is...look at you. You can walk among the normals. You and Jake Calder, and that pretty little girl I’ve seen with you. April. You could all put on normal clothes taken from a shopping mall, and walk among the normals and no one would be the wiser. But there is no way I could pass. Or Marty, with his compound eyes. Or Gwyneth, who can manipulate the elements like an artist but whose abilities have for some reason given her the appearance of a hag.”
“What about Chloe? Or some of the others Jeff has told me about? Henry? Nate? Or, even Mother?”
“All right. I guess I can concede that.” Snake resumed his pacing. Scott couldn’t tell if Snake intended to be gruff, or if it was just part of his reptilian manner.
Scott said, “Besides, is appearance all that important? If you continue to persist in separating us based on physical appearance, then you run the risk of dividing this society in the same way as the society of the so-called normals. Among them, it’s the pretty people who generally have easier lives. Among the rich and famous in Hollywood you don’t find anyone with bad teeth or an oversized nose. If necessary, they use surgery to try to fit into the accepted norm of what society considers pretty. Which is to say, what society considers acceptable.
“I mean, even look at racism. If Africans, Europeans, and Asians all looked alike, do you think there would be such a thing as racism? I doubt it. I really think we have a chance here to do things right. Let’s try to keep these prejudices out of our society of meta-humans.”
“I agree,” Mother said, gently rocking her chair. “We each have the potential to contribute to the betterment of our society. Regardless of appearance.”
Snake stopped his pacing once again, and stood across the room, facing Mother. “I am not an idealist. I was once, but that was beaten out of me by the world, long ago. But..,” he sighed, and reluctantly nodded. “Very well. I’m willing give your ideas a try.”
Outside, April stood with Chloe and Jeff. April was in her golden battle suit, and Jeff was in his suit of red. Scott had made a suit for Chloe of midnight blue.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Jeff?” Chloe asked. “I am so sorry for what I did to you.”
“I’m perfectly fine,” Jeff said. He was leaning against a wall, his arms folded. “In fact, I’m more than fine. According to Scott, zeta energy also creates a really quick healing thing, so any damage you might have accidentally done to me was healed up almost instantly.”
“Still, I feel kinda rotten about it.”
April was sitting with her back against the wall, her legs stretched out before her, her eyes shut. She was enjoying the feeling of the sun on her face, and having absolutely nothing to do for the moment. Life with Scott and Jake usually kept you hopping.
She said, “It’s not really your fault, Chloe. Quentin’s views of us are so skewed. I could have fallen for it, too.”
Chloe said to Jeff, “How’s Scott doing in finding a way for you to turn that implant off an on?”
Jeff shook his head. “It’s a no-go. The thing about zeta energy having such a healing effect made it impossible. When I powered-up that first time, my body sort of dissolved the entire implant. But the subprocessor in my wrist band can send out an electronic pulse that can help me power way down, so I can teleport.”
April said, “Jake doesn’t seem to need that sort of thing when we teleport.”
“That’s because you have a machine doing the teleporting. When I do it, I sort of dance along through the strands of time, and it’s a lot more refined than what Scott’s teleportation field does. I have to have, like, zero zeta emissions to do it.”
Chloe chuckled. “I’m having a little trouble imagining you dancing along anywhere.”
April said, “You know, you need to come up with a code name. We all have them.”
Chloe snorted a chuckle. “Seriously? Like, what do they call you? Good-natured Girl?”
April threw a mock scowl at her. “I’m Angel Girl. And Scott is Mastermind. And Jake is Captain Courageous.”
Chloe laughed outright at that. “Seriously? How did he get that name?”
“It’s a long story.”
Jeff said, “What can my name be?”
“Teleportation Lad?” April said.
He scrunched his face up at that one. “I don’t know. It’s kind of long.”
Chloe said, “How about Courageous Boy? You are Jake’s son, after all.”
April laughed.
Jeff said. “Courageous Boy. I kind of like it.”
“You need one, too,” April said to Chloe. “How about Tech Girl?”
Chloe rolled her eyes.
Jeff said, “How about Rolling Eye Girl?”
“So,” April said, growing serious. “I wonder how it’s going in there. If our leaders are able to forge the alliance Scott wants.”
Chloe said, “I kind of hope so. We’re a minority, after all, and we need solidarity. Strength in numbers.
”
“I still find it so incredible that this entire society could exist here in Boston, entirely under the radar, and Scott and Jake knew nothing about it.”
Chloe shrugged. “It goes to show what great lengths Mother and Snake have gone to protect us all. If people found out about us, you know what would happen. The authorities would try to round us up. Police, SWAT teams. The National Guard, even. There would be a war. The firepower some of us possess is really extreme. Many people on both sides would be killed. And then, those of us who lived would be captured and dissected like lab rats to find out how we work, to find out what makes us the way we are. To find the secret of our power, so it could be made into a weapon.”
April nodded. “We’ve all found that to be true, too. We hide in a complex in the mountains in Colorado, but you all hide right here in Boston, in plain sight.”
Jeff said, “It’s weird, how the greatest enemy of mankind is mankind itself.”
April said, “So, it looks like you two have joined our team full time.”
“Part time,” Chloe said. “I’m still needed here. I’m one of the resources this community has to find the money for clothing and food and such. I’ll still be spending maybe half my time here.”
“Same with me,” Jeff said. “I mean, I want to get to know my father and all of you. And being part of your team is going to be cool. But my home has been with these people for, like, all my life. I can’t just change that overnight. And Snake has been like a father to me. He and everyone else here will always be family.”
FIVE
Later in the evening, after the Colorado people had gone home and most of the Boston people were asleep in one of the condemned apartment buildings they used, and Snake had gone out into the street to do whatever it was Snake did at night, and Quentin Jeffries had found some dark corner where he could be alone and mourn the loss of Mandy Waid (everyone knew how he felt about her – he was fooling no one), Mother knelt on the floor of the former jewelry shop. The only light in the room was a candle. It stood in a little stand on the floor in front of her, and was burning gently. The little flame flickered and shadows danced along the walls. Her eyes were shut, and she cleared her mind and steadied her breathing.
Her father had been an Iroquois shaman, and she had dated a Buddhist once. She had developed a meditation technique, taking what she had learned from each of them, and greeted every morning and closed out every day with it.
Her Buddhist boyfriend actually had been a couple lifetimes ago, since when she applied her healing ability to herself, it caused her to age very slowly. She was actually much older than she looked.
She suddenly felt a presence, and opened her eyes. The room was growing darker. The small flame was still dancing atop the candle, but it was no longer casting light. It seemed to be fading.
“Hello,” she said.
The familiar baritone voice filled the air around her. “Greetings, Mother.”
She said, “Well, it worked. We have the truce with the Colorado people that we wanted.”
“And I have enforced a truce between them and Quentin Jeffries.”
She smiled and nodded. “I hate that such a thing has to be enforced, and that people had to me manipulated. But we need to be unified. All of us. We can’t have metas fighting metas.”
“Indeed.”
In the waning light of the candle, she could now see a humanoid figure standing before her.
She said, “What of Peter LaSalle and Mandy Waid? Two loose ends.”
“They will show, eventually. And I will be ready for them. I will allow no harm to come to the community, and none to come to the normals, either. Regrettably, I was detained and unable to prevent Ms. Waid from injuring LaSalle. Now, because of this, LaSalle is more dangerous than ever.”
Mother felt a chill run through her. “Who, on Earth, could possibly detain you?”
She thought she saw the figure shrug. “The problem is no more.”
“You cover a lot of territory, between here and New York.”
“I must protect the community there, also. Fortunately, I can travel very quickly.”
“It is such a burden you have,” she said softly. “This life you lead.”
“It is as it is. It’s all there is for one such as I.”
The figure advanced and leaned down and planted a light kiss on her cheek. “I must go, Mother. But I will see you again, soon.”
“Take care.”
“I always do.”
She smiled. “And know that I love you, my son.”
“I always do.”
The humanoid figure faded from view, and the darkness that had smothered the light of the candle began to lift.
Mother closed her eyes, and once again cleared her mind to resume her meditation. A lone tear traveled down one cheek.
SIX
A few nights later, in a worn out, condemned apartment building many of the meta-humans used as a residence, Jake Calder climbed a flight of stairs. He wore a blue denim shirt under a dark gray blazer, and jeans. On his wrist was a device that could easily be mistaken at first glance as a pricey wrist watch, but was actually a communication and monitoring device. No one on the team was ever without one.
He reached the second floor and knocked on the door labeled 23. The numbers were tarnished and paint was peeling from the door, but the place smelled clean rather than of the cat pee and mildew dilapidated apartment buildings often seemed to smell of. This was because of a meta-human named Pete Sanborn, whose ability was to generate an energy wave that killed off microbes. He used it to disinfect the living quarters of the Community, as they often called themselves.
The door was opened by Akila. She stood in a black tank top and a gray skirt that dropped to mid-thigh, and open-toed shoes. Her dark hair fell loosely to the shoulders. Her dragon tattoo wrapped itself about her right leg.
She greeted Jake with a smile. “Hi.”
“You look fantastic,” he said.
Her smile broadened. “I could never grow tired of hearing that.”
“I’m sure you hear it a lot.”
A brow rose. A hint of mischief. “I’ll never tell.”
A door further down the hall opened, and Hasani stepped out. He looked bedraggled, as though he were trying to recover from a severe cold. The teleportation accident had taken much out of him.
He had somehow lost his hold on Mandy during the transport and didn’t know where she was, or even if she was still alive. Cosmo had landed in a dumpster on the other side of town, but other than smelling like rotten tomatoes, he was fine.
In all of this, Hasani had managed to hold himself together, though just barely. He had been so severely traumatized that even Mother had been unable to bring back to absolute full health.
“Hasani,” Akila said. “How are you feeling?”
He shrugged. “A little better each day.”
“Jake and I are going out. He is going to show me how people on this Earth spend an evening.”
Hasani nodded. He was sure, in the long run, they spent an evening about the same on this Earth as any other. The details might be different, but the end result was probably the same. He saw the way Jake looked at Akila and the way she looked at him. Why could she never look at Hasani quite that way?
They had been together occasionally, casually, in their previous world. Hasani had always thought he would eventually pursue a more serious relationship with her, but there was always his work. The missions he went on, serving Antula, the minister to the Pharaoh. Now, it appeared Hasani had waited too long.
“Will you be all right while we are gone?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine. Gwyneth and Marty are just down the hall, and Pete’s not far away.”
“All right, then. We’ll see you later.”
Hasani stood and watched as Akila and Jake headed for the stairwell, smiling at each other, already becoming lost in each other’s magic.
Hasani went back to his room, thinking he shou
ld probably lie down. Instead, he went to a window and pushed aside a torn, dusty curtain. This side of the building overlooked the street, and he had a good view of the sidewalk below. He watched as Jake Calder and Akila stepped out of the building. They walked along, and already she had wrapped an arm around one of his. They were talking and laughing, and she leaned her head against his shoulder briefly in mid-laugh. A subtle gesture, but with such clear meaning.
Hasani watched until they were gone from his sight. He stood for a moment, staring down at the street of this alien Earth, watching absently as first one car drove past, and then another. He felt empty. So very alone. Another car passed, going in the opposite direction.
Hasani turned away from the window, and let the curtain fall back into place.
SEVEN
Lisa sat in chair with an aluminum frame, and vinyl padded cushions. In the bed before her was her mother, her eyes shut, her face seeming thinner than she had ever seen it. Her hair was thin and wispy. She looked so fragile.
It was late. One o’clock in the morning. The nurses at the hospice had let her stay beyond visiting hours, though. Lisa had sent Emma home, because Kaylie needed her sleep and Lisa thought Kaylie should be with Emma, not at a sitter’s house. A mother and daughter should spend as much time together as possible, she thought. Especially now.
The room began to grow darker, but Lisa did not grow frightened. In fact, she barely reacted. She knew the police were frightened of this Darkness entity, and were doing what they could to detain him, but Lisa knew he meant to harm. She had been there when he brought back Kaylie. She had seen him with her mother. Whatever this being was, it was not one of malice, but one of love.
Lisa simply said, “She’s dying.”
“Yes,” came the baritone from all around her. “I can sense it.”
Lisa found there were no tears left. She had cried them all away. She said, “She turned eighty-seven yesterday. She’s had a long life. I should count myself lucky to have had all the time I did with her. But it’s not enough. I’d trade almost anything just to have one more hour with her.”
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