Not Your Villain

by C. B. Lee

  Bells laughs. It was Emma’s idea for Bells to get them on a workout routine similar to the one he had at the training center. The coil of frustration melts away. Emma crushes on people and dates some of them. This will be over in two weeks, tops.

  Emma pokes impatiently at her DED. “Don’t worry, he’ll be here soon,” she assures.

  Carlos turns up sixteen minutes after the bell rings, right in the middle of the worst of the school traffic. Kids are crowding onto buses, which are blocking cars. Parents trying to get their kids honk their horns, and kids walk in front of cars, blocking the exits. It’s absolute chaos.

  Bells drums his fingers on the side door. Their routine used to be like clockwork: After the last bell rang, he and Jess would sprint to the parking lot and race to Emma’s car.

  After Emma got her license, it was as if the whole world opened up to them. Bells and Jess could use their family vehicles, but, since destinations are logged, their parents would know where they went. In Emma’s manual car they could go anywhere, do anything. Bells loved the confidence and recklessness with which she drove.

  Bells narrows his eyes at Carlos. For someone who just offered to take them all out for ice cream, he’s taking his sweet time walking across the parking lot, even stopping to have a conversation with some of his buddies.

  Emma gets out of the car and runs toward her boyfriend. She exudes so much joy, she seems to float, and the sunlight makes her brown skin glow. Bells sighs.

  Carlos brightens as he spots her, and Emma jumps at him and hugs him round the neck. He laughs and picks her up, spins her around, and whispers something in her ear.

  From: Emma 3:23 pm

  !!! he wants me to meet his parents

  From: Emma: 3:24 pm

  i’ll see you guys later at abby’s?

  To: Emma 3:34pm

  NO WORRIES. HAVE FUN

  Ch. 9...

  The makeshift gym at Abby’s home is much smaller than the gym at the training center. There are two treadmills, a set of free weights, padded mats, a pull-up bar bolted into the ceiling, barbells, and several machines Bells doesn’t have names for.

  “Cool, did you build all this?” he asks, tracing his fingers over a leg press.

  “Yeah!” A smudge of grease on her forehead, Abby stands next to her work. “It’s not a lot of tech, but you guys wanted to train, and…”

  “It looks great, Abby,” Jess says. She ties and re-ties her ponytail. “I don’t know about this, you guys. I know that you said we should train, but I thought I’d be practicing my powers? I really, really think I can almost tell how far away something is.”

  “That’s good,” Abby says. “But we need to be in shape, be prepared for the worst that could happen. What happens if we meet Captain Orion again and the only thing between us and being captured is how fast we can go?”

  Bells nods. Part of Meta-Human Training is general physical fitness. They have high standards; everyone must be able to hold their own in a physical fight.

  “All right, I’m ready!” Brendan bounces into the room and puts his hands on his hips. He’s wearing a bright yellow T-shirt and shorts and a matching headband. “Okay, Bells, what’s first?” He struggles to pick up a dumbbell.

  “Uh, let’s start small.” Bells takes the weight and puts it back down.

  Jess has a lot questions about what type of exercise is most efficient, and then Brendan wants a snack, and then Abby’s MonRobots make grilled cheese sandwiches, and then they eat, and then there’s a discussion about exercising after eating.

  Abby glances at her security feed to see a lone car coming through the canyon. “Hey, that’s Emma. Didn’t you say she was busy?”

  “I said she’d be late,” Bells says.

  A door opens and shuts. “Helllooo, where are you guys?” Emma calls out, and then throws open the door to the gym. She’s wearing her old volleyball uniform and her hair is tied up in a ponytail.

  Bells asks, “What happened to meeting the parents?”

  “We did that! It was great! And now I’m here. Let’s get to work!” She strides to the mirrored, cushioned floor area and reaches for her toes.

  “Good idea, Emma,” Abby says. “Jess, this is our warm-up for every volleyball practice. It’s very straightforward.”

  The energy in the room changes now that there’s direction. Some of the stretches are a little different from what he’s done before, but Bells follows along, stretching his arms, then dropping into a lunge.

  “Nooo, I don’t like it,” Jess says, still stuck in the first stretch. “I can’t touch my toes.”

  “Flexibility gets better the more you practice,” Abby says, grinning. “It’s a good start. Come on, do this one.”

  Jess grumbles but lets Abby guide her through it.

  Brendan’s DED chimes. “Oh, hey! This is great! I’m going to follow up on this!” he gives them a thumbs up and darts out of the room.

  “He find something?” Jess asks. “Your dad?”

  “Maybe. Or the so-called Resistance. Whatever it is, he’s gonna need to decode it,” Abby says.

  “Partner stretches! Come on, Bells.” Emma wiggles her toes, and Bells mirrors her, props up his feet next to hers, and extends his arms. They link hands and pull, stretching forward.

  Next to them, Bells is pretty sure Jess and Abby are just holding hands.

  “All right, we worked out,” Jess says. “Let’s do something else?”

  “Nope. That was stretching. Now it’s exercise time!” Abby leads them to a station with plenty of weights. “All right, I can show you a few things to help strengthen your core and…”

  “Oh, I know this one!” Emma says, starting a few reps.

  Bells does too; he’s got his own routine. Simon likes to lift weights, and there’s a set at home. “I’ve got a plan I’m used to,” he says.

  “Okay, good,” Abby says, nodding at them. “That’s a relief. I think Jess needs like, step-by-step instruction.”

  Jess is standing by the weights, holding a pair of five pound weights, and just staring at the wall.

  “I do!” she calls out.

  Emma glances at Bells, and they share a laugh. Jess is the least athletic of the three of them; she never liked sports.

  Bells does a few reps and talks with Emma and then switches to the treadmill. Emma does squats until she joins him on the other treadmill.

  They run in companionable silence and watch Jess and Abby.

  “No, it hurt; my arms, they’re, like, screaming at me to stop—”

  “Come on, Jess. You did two; do one more. You got this—”

  “Aggh, how do you do this every day…”

  “You want to be a hero, right? Come on, this is training!”

  Jess lies face down on the floor.

  “Here, look, bend your knees like this and push up once; this version’s easier—”

  “No, I want to do the version you showed me. I can do that. I can do that… as soon as I get off the floor.”

  “Okay, what about sit-ups?”

  Jess rolls over, and Abby holds her feet and encourages her. Jess trembles as she sits up, and then wobbles, and flops back down.

  Bells grins.

  “Oh, come on, she’s trying!” Emma says.

  “Yep, she is. Come on, Jess, you got this!” Bells yells.

  Jess gives him a thumbs up and keeps going.

  “—and five! Nice job, Jess,” Abby says.

  “Eunh,” Jess says.

  “One more, come on…”

  Jess sits up once more, and then Abby pecks her on the cheek, and Jess giggles.

  “Aww,” Emma says, slowing down and then turning off her treadmill. “I’m gonna take a break.” She flops on the couch and pulls up her messages.

  “Oh, okay.” Bells is still r
unning at a steady pace. He tries to zone out, but Jess and Abby have dissolved into soft whispers and quick kisses and giggling.

  “You know, we’re right here,” Bells says.

  They break apart; Jess blushes furiously. Abby doesn’t look bothered, just raises her eyebrows at Bells, who shrugs back at her as he continues to run.

  “All right, why don’t you go cool down and walk a few miles or so,” Abby says, nodding at the treadmill machines. “I’m gonna continue my set.”

  Jess nods and gets on the treadmill near Bells, who gives her a look.

  “What!” Jess says, turning on the machine at a slow pace.

  “I didn’t say anything,” Bells says, teasing.

  Jess starts walking, moving her arms about. “This? This I can do. I’m not a running, weight-lifting kind of girl. I can hike because it’s just putting one foot in front of the other, that’s what I’m good at—”

  “You’re good at lots of things,” Bells points out, and Jess sticks out her tongue at him.

  He laughs at her, and ups the pace on his treadmill. He’s worked up a good sweat and he wants to keep it up.

  Abby does pull-ups, lifting her entire body off the ground. Bells is impressed; he can do a few, but he probably couldn’t keep going for—how many reps is that?

  Flomp.

  “What in the—Jess!”

  Bells turns off his machine to rush to Jess’ side, where’s she’s fallen off the treadmill. She sits up. “I, ah, I was distracted,” she says.

  Bells laughs. They get back to their workouts, but during the whole afternoon he can’t help but feel left out between the in-jokes between Jess and Abby and Emma’s messaging.

  “I think you guys have got this,” he says, turning off the treadmill. He jerks his head at the machine. “This is great, Abby, but I’m kinda set on my own routine.”

  * * *

  “You should just move to Andover,” Bells says, one afternoon when Christine is visiting him. “I think we even have a prep school. I mean, probably not as cool as yours, but…”

  Christine laughs. “Nah, it’s not a big deal to come over here to hang out. Plus, I like the drive. All that desert scenery. You know how weird it is that we have all this public transport and most people just stay in the town where they live?”

  “True,” Bells says. “I guess it’s easier if your town has a hovertrain. I mean, you could be in New Bright City in less than a day, if you can afford the tickets.”

  She yawns. “Eh, it’s overrated. Vegas is interesting, but not so much if you’re not an adult who likes to gamble and drink. Plus, partying can get boring, you know? There’s only so much shopping and dancing I can do.” Christine grins. “Now, Andover may be a little off the path, but you’re here.”

  Bells smiles back at her. This is the third time she’s visited him in the past two weeks. He’s been debating whether he wants to introduce Christine to his friends, especially since she knows the truth about the League and what they’re trying to do. She’s smart and has a lot of resources, but he doesn’t quite want to bring her in. It’s not that he doesn’t think they’d get along. Emma’s warm personality usually wins people over immediately, and Bells has no doubt Jess and Abby would get along with her. But right now she’s just his friend, and it’s nice hanging out when he doesn’t have to compete for time and attention.

  Christine flicks him on the nose.

  “Hey!”

  “Moving to Andover, there’s an idea,” Christine says, laughing. “So thoughtful, thinking of my preppy needs.” She rolls her eyes. “I’m done with high school; graduated early. Taking a year off before I go to college. I was gonna travel, but I didn’t feel like going abroad.”

  “That’s great,” Bells says. “You ever thought about hero-ing, you know, before all that?”

  Christine leans back, playing with one of Bells’ socks. It unravels in her hands. The threads curl around her fingers and then become something entirely different: A round lump, and then two ears sticking out, and then a face stitches itself—a cat yarn ball.

  Christine shrugs. “I mean, my parents bribed the NAC to get me into training. The League only put up with me because of the ‘donations,’ you know? I’m hardly useful.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re a good friend. I’m glad I met you.”

  “Me too,” Christine says.

  She drops the sock, and it lands on the floor in a soft thump. She glances up at Bells, gives him a tentative smile, and moves closer.

  Bells’ thoughts are already racing ahead. He likes her well enough, and she likes hanging out with him, and—

  Christine tilts forward. The kiss is a simple press of lips, but Bells’ mind races. Why do my curtains hang at such a weird angle? Is Sean coming back this weekend or is it just me and Simon? Ugh, there’s so much to do with Ma and Dad gone. Have they rescued all the meta-humans on Orion’s list? Have they run into Orion herself? His stomach rumbles. What should we eat for dinner? He could make something and he wonders if Christine wants to stay. She hasn’t been to the restaurant; we could do that.

  Christine pulls back from the kiss, looking anywhere but at Bells. “Um—”

  Bells blinks, searching for something to say. “That was—” he starts, trying to think of a diplomatic way of saying this isn’t going to work. He’s kissed and been kissed, and this kiss is hardly the worst. That distinction went to Benjamin from art camp the summer after seventh grade. Benjamin had braces and accidentally scratched Bells’ lip and then stole Bells’ still life idea for his own project.

  It’s not the best kiss, either. It’s not really… anything.

  “Sorry.” Bells offers her a sheepish smile.

  “I like you, Bells, honest. I just—that was terrible. We really don’t have any chemistry.”

  Bells snorts. “All right, maybe you don’t, but I have plenty.”

  “Please. I’m incredibly cute here. I don’t know what’s wrong with you.”

  They look at each other and dissolve into peals of laughter.

  “Okay, let’s not do that again. Friends?”

  “Friends,” Bells says.

  Whooping, Brendan tosses a stack of papers onto the table.

  Jess groans. “You broke my concentration, Bren! I was this close to finding out where Abby’s dad is!” They’ve been trying to increase the extent of her power so she could locate Master Mischief with her direction abilities, but they keep running into a block that Jess can’t explain. They’ve tried locating landmarks, various people, even Captain Orion, who is somewhere north of them, but he seems to be the one person she can’t get a read on.

  “Maybe they have him exposed to tantalum, like when they were keeping my mom,” Abby muses.

  “But how would that affect Jess’ powers? She’s not anywhere near the stuff; she should still be able to find him.”

  “If there were enough of it, it could affect Jess,” Bells says thoughtfully. “Like it’s blocking her from reaching him? There was a small amount of it at the training center; they didn’t use it in any of our classes, but I knew it was there because I couldn’t hold a shift anywhere near that room or the walkways around it.” He’d been lucky; the first time he’d realized he wasn’t Barry anymore, he was alone. Bells made sure to give that area a wide berth.

  He’s pretty sure it did block powers related to physical space. Sasha once mentioned she couldn’t transport anything to that area.

  “Hey,” Brendan says, gesturing at the paperwork. “Come on, you totally ruined my moment. I’m gonna do this again.” He lifts up his stack of papers and sets it down with a definite clunk. “I give you—” He pauses. “—the Resistance!”

  “Oh, you found them!”

  “What? Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Because you in
terrupted me!”

  “How do we get in?”

  Bells pokes the paperwork; his eyebrows shoot up. “This is just a bunch of characters. I thought you decoded everything?”

  Abby scans it. “Oh, cool.” She pauses. “This could be anything; this could be nothing. We weren’t sure what it means, just that this user has been in a lot of our circles of interest.”

  “Yeah,” Brendan says. “So I’ve been tracking user T1-2904 across multiple servers. This is an encrypted conversation between them and another person whom they’ve been talking to for a while. I believe we’ll soon see details for a meetup.”

  “How long will that take?” Emma frowns. “That could be days or weeks or months. And we’ve already been looking for days, weeks and months! We should contact this person and try to get an invitation ourselves instead of waiting for it to happen.”

  “You think I haven’t tried?” Brendan asks.

  “You’re not exactly a people person,” Jess says. “What if we just asked —”

  Brendan throws up his hands. “You can’t just pop up and lead with that! Do you know how long it took for T1-2903 to open up and trust —”

  “How do you know this is actually the Resistance and not just two people flirting with each other?”

  “Oh.” Brendan’s face falls. “But I was so sure—” He grabs the paperwork, mutters to himself, and runs out of the room. “No wait, I got it, I got it, if I tweak this…” his voice trails off as he disappears down the hall.

  “That’s not the only lead we have,” Abby says. “Don’t worry, the program is solid.” She looks expectantly at them.

  Jess groans. “Please don’t say the rest of this meeting is going to be working out. Please.”

  “We should do something to take our minds off of dead ends, something fun.” Emma lights up. “We should go bowling! Carlos is really good, and he said he’d teach me. And he can meet you guys finally! How about Friday?

  Bells bites his lip.

  “I haven’t been in a while,” Abby muses.

  Jess nudges her and grins. “Bet you’d be great. It would be fun! As long as you don’t make fun of me if I’m terrible.”