Burn Out

by R. J. Ross

  “Or anything,” he agrees, glancing at the hospital as well before taking off.

  I barely hear the anchorman go on, “Oh… what… is that something moving? In the rubble, it appears that someone or something might have survived!”

  We speed up, and I forget about Davis. I want to see just what could have survived in that big of an explosion. As far as I knew, the only supers had been Walter Colleck and Ms. Mace, right? Well, we’re following Colleck, and Nico left Ms. Mace back with Papa, so…

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Nico asks as we pull to a stop above the charred remains of Walter Colleck’s mansion. The news reporters are within sight, and I notice them turning their attention to us, but thankfully they don’t approach, yet. They’re probably hoping to see us save the day.

  “I don’t know, I’m almost positive that I hope not,” I admit, my eyes scanning the ground below. “That planet man is gone, right?”

  “My son put him out in space, along with the Petleaves,” Nico says.

  “Then…” I see the glowing form of a man stand in the middle of the rubble. Nico lets out a curse.

  “Accidental super,” he says, grimly.

  “I thought that was just a bad plotline for a comic book story,” I say, feeling a bit sick to my stomach as I realize something. “Nico, that’s my energy.” It’s floating around the naked man like a fog, just solid enough to keep from giving the world a show. A very small part of me is glad of that fact, because nobody likes to see a streaker, right? The rest of me is getting more and more worried.

  “Yeah, looks like it,” Nico says, holding out his phone to scan the man. Before our eyes, he starts to shimmer, and then seems to disperse in a cloud of energy. “Watch out,” Nico says, warning me right before the man’s form appears again, right in front of us. He’s screaming, silently, I can see it on his face as his hands reach for me.

  I react instinctively, shoving him away as hard as I can. He dissipates again, scattering into specks of energy that fill the air all around us. I bring my fists up, spinning slowly in the air, expecting an attack at any moment.

  “Who do you think it is?” I ask Nico, barely glancing over at him. I stop as I see that he’s landed on the ground, rather than focusing on the created super.

  “It’s wrong,” Nico says. He brings his phone up and scans the area.

  “What’s—” I stop, because I can see the energy swirling, gathering into a spot at a distance. It’s almost in slow motion, how it forms into a man again, like it’s not sure that’s the form it should have. I don’t know who it is, but if I drain the energy out of it, will it kill it? Him?

  “Turn your E.P.B. on, Jimmi!” Nico shouts, barely in time. I tap on my bracelet just as the form turns, rushing straight for me. Even with the E.P.B. on, the world freezes. The air around me turns solid, and I’m stuck inside. It’s just like that clear metal, I realize as I plummet to the ground, trapped inside. I can’t breathe. It’s like I’ve been buried alive.

  “JIMMI!” I don’t hear the shout, I feel it. The solid mass holding me vibrates before it jerks and warps, peeling back. I’m pulled out of it by Nico. I start gasping for breath, not certain I’ll ever be able to breathe properly again. “Breathe, kid, you can do it,” he says, patting me on the back a bit too hard. I choke, and a tiny bit of air trickles in before I’m breathing again. Tears are pouring down my face.

  “Wha—”

  “What happened?” he offers. “If I didn’t know better, I would think he changed the molecular vibration.”

  “Good thing…” I say, coughing, “you know better.” We both look down at the clear metal, which is starting to turn into gas. “Where is he?” I ask.

  “He disappeared again,” Nico says. “I had more important things to do than to search for him.”

  “Nico, that was MY energy,” I tell him, grabbing the front of his shirt. “He was using MY energy.”

  “I know, kid,” he says. “Trust me, I know.”

  “And he was using Skye’s powers.”

  “Yes, he was,” he says, looking back at the spot of the explosion. The ground is wrong, I realize as I follow his gaze. It’s crumbling, like sand. “We can’t be certain that he’s gone, yet…”

  “Was it… is it Walter Colleck?” I ask.

  “Hardly,” someone says from behind me. I turn, seeing Walter standing at a distance, a frown on his face. “This is why I really shouldn’t hire normal people,” he says as he starts for the ruins. “I suppose even the difficult things to find are gone, now. Pity, that.”

  “This is YOUR fault!” I say, my temper snapping at his tone. “You stole my energy! I’m not quite sure how you got the whole Skystep power thing, but I’m certain that THAT’S your fault as well!”

  “Actually, that would be Davis’s fault,” he says. “The boy is the one that built that particular machine. Of course, it wasn’t finished, yet. Tell me, Technico, did you get into my security system while you were using my own son as a plant? Did you see who was crazy enough to blow my perfectly good lab to smithereens?”

  “We need to find him,” I say, ignoring Walter Colleck’s questions. “He didn’t seem… like he was there, mentally.”

  “Of course he didn’t,” Walter says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had lost all sense, completely, whoever it was. They always tend to, when that sort of thing happens.” My fists clench, and I take a step forward. That statement just proves that this isn’t the first time he’d seen an “accidental super.” He probably arranged for some of them.

  “Did you do it on purpose?” I demand as Nico drops a hand on my shoulder. His eyes are scanning the area.

  “We need to find the created super,” he tells me.

  “He’s a MONSTER!” I say.

  “Yes, he is,” Walter agrees.

  “Not whatever that thing was, I meant YOU!” I say, turning on him. “How can you be so—so complacent about this?”

  “I am hardly complacent! I lost quite a lot in that explosion!” he says. “Do you know how much that venom cost me? It wasn’t cheap, I’ll tell you that. Those elves are not the type to just hand things over to people like me. Sometimes I wonder if they even realize that the world takes money.”

  “Of course they don’t, they make things to give away on a daily basis,” Nico points out, “just not to people on the naughty list.”

  “We have his confession,” I point out to Nico. “We can at least get him put on trial to expose him as a super, right?”

  “He never said he was a super,” Nico says. “We don’t have time for this, call in the black suits, we’ll have them take him in for questioning.”

  “Can’t you take him in?” I ask him.

  “If we take him in, the norms will be left here all alone with the created super somewhere nearby. Even a few seconds is enough for him to cause problems.”

  Oh, sure, he could take him and leave me, but I’d rather he didn’t. That created super is scary. I tap on my commlink, making a call. “I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” Walter says. “I need to check on my son. If the doctors give him something that interacts with whatever it is that’s affecting him, it could get quite nasty.” He pulls out his phone. “Ms. Mace, if you would be so kind.” Nothing happens. He taps on his phone again, his expression darkening.

  “And I’m afraid that isn’t going to work,” Nico says. The phone that Walter’s holding explodes, and Nico grabs him, tugging his arms behind his back. “Jimmi, call the black suits, have them bring a collar.”

  “You have no right to do this,” Walter says. “As far as the world is concerned, I’m a normal person. This is super assault.”

  “We can prove otherwise,” Nico says. “You of all people realize that a super is easy enough to out, given the right tools.” I call in the black suits, grateful that at least one problem has been solved without violence. Walter doesn’t even seem to be struggling. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I would almost think he looks… comfortable
with this situation.

  “There are norms all around,” he says, motioning to the people that are now filming us from a safe distance. He even nods up at the helicopter that’s hovering over our heads. “Do you really think they’re just going to stand there while you take the innocent home owner in? That helicopter is for the local news station, I believe. And trust me, they all realize that I wasn’t here when the place exploded. If they don’t, well, I have several eye witnesses that can tell them that I was at the hospital, at the time.”

  “That’s all well and good, Walter,” Nico says, right next to his ear, “but you’re forgetting one thing.”

  “What would that be?” Walter asks.

  “I don’t care,” Nico says. “They don’t have all the facts, I do. I’m going to be happy to watch you get tossed into the Cape Cells.”

  “Where I can tell all your old friends about the sure-fire way to get their powers back, is that it?” Walter offers, looking me straight in the eyes. “Ah, I understand why the boy was so fascinated with you, daughter of Voltdrain. Your little energy tricks could destroy this world in far less time than he’d ever need.”

  I want to punch him. If I do, though, the cameras that are already filming this will have the scene posted on the evening news sooner than I can blink. “You poisoned your own son,” I accuse him. “You poisoned him, and you have the nerve to talk about how we look in front of the norms!”

  He looks at me, and then, to my complete disbelief, he starts to cry, jerking wildly in Nico’s arms. “NO! I NEED TO SEE IF ANYONE SURVIVED!” he shouts, drawing the attention of the norms. “I DON’T CARE IF IT’S DANGEROUS! THEY’RE MY PRECIOUS WORKERS!”

  Nico looks at me, and I feel a twitch develop under my right eye. It just gets worse as Walter slumps in Nico’s hold, sobbing more quietly, but with his shoulders shaking.

  “This won’t work,” I tell him. “They saw you speaking with us for a good ten minutes.”

  “Shock,” Walter says. “It takes the human mind several minutes to comprehend with something tragic has happened.” His voice rises, again. “My brother-in-law was in there! I have to know, Technico, you can’t stop me!”

  “Let him go, sir,” a cop says as he heads toward us. “We can take him from here.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Nico says. “There’s a very good chance that he’s behind this explosion and the accidental super.”

  “I’m not sure what’s happened, but I can promise that we’ll get to the bottom of it,” the cop says, trying to keep everything calm. His tone is starting to annoy me. “This is our jurisdiction. Your job is finding the creature that did this, right?”

  “My brother-in-law… he’s dead, isn’t he?” Walter asks, for all appearances traumatized. “What am I going to tell my wife? She’s going to be heartbroken… and my son, as well. He was so young…”

  The cop comes forward, placing a hand on Walter’s shoulder. “We’ll take it from here,” he says to Technico. “We can’t be certain that your brother-in-law was killed, sir. But believe me, we will do our best to find any survivors.” I see Nico’s jaw tighten before he reluctantly lets go of Walter, who’s led away by the cop.

  “This isn’t the end of our conversation, Colleck,” he says to Walter. “Unfortunately, the police officer is right, we need to find the created super. Come on, Jimmi, we have work to do.”

  I jump up to join him, searching for the hint of my energy. Yet another problem caused because of me. How in the world did Papa live for so long without things like this happening to him? It’s just not fair! But, speaking of Papa… “Papa?” I say, tapping on my earbud. “Alert all supers and black suits. We have an accidental super on the loose, he’s highly dangerous, even with the E.P.B.s. He caused an explosion at Colleck’s mansion.”

  “Entendido, mija. Any particulars?”

  “He has my energy and Skye’s abilities,” I say grimly. “Nico and I are going to catch him, but he’s caused a LOT of damage, here, and it looks like he’s adding to it. The norms could easily be hurt. Some might already have been… perhaps even killed, and this entire place is covered with my energy.”

  “I am on my way,” Papa says.

  ***

  *The ER*

  Jonas lets out a sigh, running a hand over his face. He’s been trying to get to Davis for the past few minutes, but they keep stopping him. They don’t believe he’s a super. They haven’t SAID that, but he can see it on the face of the nurse blocking his way. The cheap, throw-away mask he’s wearing isn’t enough to convince her. “Look,” he says, tapping on his commlink, “I just got my super name today, okay? But I can show you my Cape High ID. If I show you that, will you let me at least take a look at Davis Monk? He’s a friend of mine!”

  “It doesn’t matter whether you have an ID or not, Davis Monk is in the Examination Room—”

  “Cool, thanks!” Jonas says, pushing past her and heading into the bustle of the ER.

  “Someone stop that boy!” the nurse yells.

  “I’m a HEALER!” Jonas shouts. “Call Century and ask him about the albino healer! I’m pretty easy to identify!” When he had first been outed, he would have never thought of doing this, but right now he’s racing past the nurses, only to stop as he sees a woman on a gurney, coughing her head off. He reaches his hand into her chest, causing several people to scream as he pulls it back out, a glowing fog around his fingers that he flicks off. It disappears. The entire group has gone still, and is watching in shock as he pats the woman on the shoulder. “Feel better?”

  “I… yes, actually,” she says, sitting up with a stunned expression.

  “That’s good,” he says, and starts running, again. He only gets a few steps before stopping and turning, since no one’s chasing him. “Wait, NOW you believe me?” he asks. Several people nod. “Well, okay, then. Will you please take me to Davis Monk? He’s a friend of mine.”

  “He’s… he’s this way,” one of the nurses say, leading the way.

  “Thank you,” Jonas says.

  “Are… um, are all of the healer supers as young as you?” she asks, leading to a door with a flashing sign. She’s going to get in trouble for this, but she doesn’t care. “Excuse me, Doctor? We have someone here to—”

  Jonas hears the sound of metal breaking. “There goes another needle. What is this kid made out of? We can’t even get fluids in him, this way, and he’s clearly dehydrated,” the ED physician says, only to look up as Jonas and his guide walk in. “This is a closed room—”

  “He’s a healer, Doctor Kinsi, he says he’s a friend of the patient’s,” the nurse guiding Jonas explains. Jonas ignores them, crossing the room to Davis’s side. Davis’s mouth is moving, but the words are almost too quiet to hear. It’s a math formula, Jonas realizes after leaning closer to listen for a moment. He doesn’t have time to figure it out, though, so he plunges his hand into Davis’s chest and starts pulling the venomous cocktail out.

  “Can I get a bowl?” he asks. The bowl is placed next to his hand and he starts letting the poison drop into it.

  “Why was the other a gas?” the nurse that brought him here asks curiously.

  “That was just inflammation,” Jonas says. “This is different, it’s Atlanti venom mixed with something nasty… something ELSE nasty,” he corrects himself, barely paying attention to his own words.

  “What about the glowing eyes? Will this fix that?” the physician asks. “That can’t be natural.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that part, it will fade after a while,” Jonas says. “If it’d just been that, it wouldn’t have hurt him.”

  “So… someone DID this to him?” the nurse asks. “This… Atlanti place?”

  “Atlanti’s a person, not a place, but she didn’t do it,” Jonas says. “I wish Aubrey was here,” he whispers to Davis as he keeps going, “but I’m not going to let you die. We’ve got a title to protect, right?”

  “Jo… nas,” Davis says, his eyes finally focusin
g.

  “That’s right, Davis. I’ve got your back.”

  “My… my machine…” Davis says, trying to sit up. Jonas pushes him back down to the table. “We need to get it from them, Jonas,” he says, desperately. “They can’t have it! If they get that, it’ll make the plant monsters look like a theme park display!”

  “Nico is on it,” Jonas says. “We need to focus on getting you better.”

  “That jerk USED me,” Davis growls, his hands clenching, “he drugged me and he USED me. Jonas, it was… I could see everything,” he goes on, sounding awed. “I saw the chemical makeup, the physical makeup, everything. Is that what you see?”

  “It’s a real headache, huh?” Jonas says.

  “Does yours come with labels?”

  “Only the stuff that’s either malfunctioning, broken, or doesn’t belong,” Jonas admits.

  “My head is killing me,” Davis mutters, closing his eyes and relaxing, “and that feels really disturbing.”

  “Try being on this side of it,” Jonas says.

  “Not what you’re doing… the head hurting thing.”

  “Good to know,” Jonas says. They’re getting a small crowd of doctors watching, he notices, glancing over his shoulder. “Please don’t record this, even with a mask I’m still pretty recognizable,” he says to them. “My principal won’t be happy if my face gets out to the public.”

  “I want to go home,” Davis whispers.

  “Back to your mother?” Jonas asks, startled.

  “Back to the school,” Davis says.

  “Well, they’ve got proof you’re a super, now,” he says. “You can testify if we need you to, right?” he asks the doctors. “He broke your needles.”

  The doctor nods, silently.

  “It’s probably because of the boost, but I don’t care as long as it works,” Davis says. “I think I prefer being a straight-forward super villain to infiltration missions.”