Rise

by K. T. Hanna

There were no more assignments, and my lectures were routinely informative. One of the results of this whole debacle was that I avoided the hell out of the quad. It didn’t matter if I had to take a path that led me two buildings past where I needed to be, I wasn’t going through there anymore. Strong or weak didn’t matter when you couldn’t put a finger on your attackers.

  The fact that SC didn’t acknowledge the scary demon shits I’d seen creeping around those people and the fountain, didn’t help.

  Were they what had grabbed me during the pineapple burger incident? I shuddered at the memory. Their fingers definitely hadn’t felt smoky, but everything about them had been.

  “You okay, Dare?”

  I didn’t realize I’d stopped and leaned against the wall while flash backing to all that crazy shit. Cyan’s eyes crinkled with concern, and her usual bubbly smile was absent. She didn’t look herself with a downturn to her lips. It wasn’t an expression I recalled ever seeing her with.

  “Just a little winded.” Which wasn’t a lie. Avoiding the quad often meant running to make it to my next class on time.

  “I was worried about you. Friday was a bit crazy.” This time she smiled, but it was one of those uneasy expressions where she wasn’t quite sure if she should.

  I’d forgotten she was there. Hell, all my friends were. Or should have been. I hadn’t been in any state to notice them once I pretty much collapsed through the door. “Yeah. I can’t remember most of it.”

  “Did they find out what happened? Were there,” she paused, looking away from me while she bit her lip, “drugs in your system?”

  I thought for a moment. Taking that route, letting them assume I’d been drugged and not that I was being tortured by my own electrical ability in some fake hospital wing. Except that wasn’t the way to go. I knew them too well, and they’d only hone right in on that.

  So, I shook my head, and pushed down at the annoyance my ability was already thirsting to feed off. “Haven’t been taking care of myself. With the accident, my not resting, and forgetting to eat and drink fluids, I overworked myself and added severe dehydration to the list.”

  I watched her face as she digested my words, keeping up as easy a smile as I could. At least I think it was. Cyan’s eyes didn’t leave mine this time. It was like she stared into me, trying to pull out the truth by sheer force of will.

  “You know we’re worried about you, right?” She put a hand on my bicep and drew it back like she’d been bitten as a spark of electricity struck her. Great. Hopefully she’d write it off as static.

  “I know. Frankly, so am I.” I laughed self-depreciatingly to make light of the situation, but she didn’t seem to be buying it. “Look. The doctor cleared me, but only after making me take mandated rest, so I’m okay now. Just been a bit more tired than usual, and now I’ll make sure to take care of myself.”

  Mandated rest wasn’t precisely accurate. But they had let me lie down while my body attacked me from the inside. So kind of them.

  She eyed me, her arms crossed now, and the blue tracksuit she wore crinkled in all the right places. Sometimes I wondered if she arranged her clothes specifically to do that. “As long as you stop trying to avoid us. And by us I mean Orion. He might be a bit of a dick right now, but you know how he gets when emotions are involved. He’s not the best at dealing with them.”

  I knew that. She knew that. Hell, Orion knew that. But what I had wasn’t something I could tell them. So I lied to her face. “I know. We’ll figure it out.”

  “Good.” Her real smile was back and it turned into an impish grin as she looped her arm through mine, apparently undeterred from the shock earlier. “Let’s not be late for class!”

  I let her drag me along. After all, I couldn’t ignore her forever. At some point, I was going to have to give over. The ToS did state that I had to keep up appearances, and now that I knew what punishment was, I’d do anything I could to avoid it. If I couldn’t figure out a way to override it first.

  When SC still hadn’t spoken to me by Friday, I started to get worried. No comments to my thoughts, no random assignments. The morning rolled around, and I made my way to training. Early as usual, I put myself through the paces, adding in some sprints to try and get a handle on improving my endurance through electrical enhancement. It was difficult to resist the tug of power as it played along my nerves.

  Instead of a chill, the sensations it caused left me feeling heady and energized. Ready for anything the world threw at me. Indomitable. I didn’t intend to use it in competition, but I had no idea what my next assignments might be like. If I needed to use my ability in ways the tutorial didn’t cover yet, then I wanted to be able to. I wanted that control, to feel the power respond to me in the precise way I directed it to.

  All the tutorials did was provide guidance with releasing power beyond myself. Focus through the fingers. Touch to release. Practicing control. It was like it hadn’t realized how much I could fortify myself with abilities like these. SC made me heal faster, but with this, I could reinforce myself to avoid injury. In theory anyway. I wasn’t quite ready for a physical trial yet. I wondered if SC would come back if I started criticizing their training methods.

  Coach Marth approached me after he’d dismissed the other runners. I trained alone, worked better alone, and he knew I preferred the locker rooms to myself, so I usually waited.

  “Something on your mind, Dare?” he asked, peering at me from under the rim of his sports cap.

  I shrugged. He’d never been the sort to accept bullshit answers, but right now I felt like anything even close to the truth would be classified that way. “I’m okay. Had a bit of a fall over the weekend, so I’m trying to up my endurance.”

  There, it wasn’t a complete lie, and I didn’t divulge any SC information.

  “Take care of those legs. But most importantly, take care of yourself.” He sounded so serious and sincere that I wondered if he knew something I didn’t. SC remained silent though, and had never identified him, so it stood to reason he wasn’t a part of the whole shebang.

  “Will do, coach. I promise.” I only hoped that promise wouldn’t come back to bite me in the Achilles. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it. Just do it.” And he waved my thanks away as he headed into the locker room before me.

  Orion was waiting for me when I got out. I tried not to let the complete and utter surprise show on my face. He’d been avoiding me for almost a full week. There were names I wanted to call him, but I pushed down the initial reaction.

  “Hey. Can we talk?” He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and looked down at the toes of his shoes. Sometimes, he could be shy. Not often, but when he had something important to say.

  I nodded and fell into step beside him. He walked slower than I did, so I had to adjust my pace. It felt like the whole world was passing me by.

  “Listen. I’m worried. I think there’s something going on, and you won’t tell me, but if you can’t, there’s got to be a reason. And knowing you, the reason is probably not too bad.” There was a light chuckle in his tone, and I echoed it. “So, what I’m trying to say, is that I’m sorry for being a douchebag lately. But as soon as you can, share it with me, do, okay?”

  He stopped and focused his gaze on me. I wondered if he knew how impossible it was for me to resist that beseeching look on his face. I swear he learned it from a puppy dog.

  “Promise.”

  He grinned. “Excellent. Then you’re on snack duty tonight.”

  “Shithead,” I mumbled, but it was nice to have our familiarity back. I’d missed it even more than I thought.

  In charge of snacks, eh? I grabbed some chips and dip on the way home. After giving it a few minutes thought, I grabbed some summer sausage, cheese, and crackers. Because damned if I wasn’t going to do this right. My good mood began with Orion coming to see me after practice. And I wasn’t of th
e mind to let it go any time soon. This whole SC debacle was a lot to take on. I needed to put in more of an effort to maintain my real life. Besides, it wasn’t like I lacked energy now.

  SC was a component of my life now. A part that I questioned, but a part nevertheless. Maybe I’d only end up with tasks every week or so. I could handle that. It would give me time to perfect my control, and to figure out other ways to use my abilities that could benefit myself, and others. Electricity was everywhere. The possibilities sent a fresh surge of excitement running through me as I leapt up the stairs.

  It was difficult to juggle opening the apartment door with the bags I held, but I managed it. Orion relieved me of a couple of items as I entered and laughed at my triumphant grin.

  “Ooh.” He ogled the contents. “You went all out! Been saving?”

  “Ramen for life allows me a multitude of savings. Sometimes. Every month or so.” I cringed for effect. “Besides. How many nights a year do we get to let loose and game?”

  Orion laughed as he set the bags down on the table. “Like fifty of them. Still. Sam isn’t coming tonight, so we didn’t have our usual source of all things amazing.”

  “Glad to be a substitute, then.” A small tingle ran down my left side, and I forced a smile onto my face. “I’m going to lie down for a bit before they come, if that’s okay? I might have overdone it this morning.”

  “Sure. Leave all the hard work to me. Making me cut up snacks. Typical.” But his lips twitched while he spoke, and I knew things were okay again.

  What wasn’t okay was that in all my jubilation, I’d managed to accrue a surplus again. While fantastic that I could recharge so often, I needed to figure out other ways to rid myself of the excess.

  I didn’t unwrap my other purchase until I got into my room. I’d bought two 20100 mAh charging bricks. I figured if I could channel a small enough strand of power into it, this was a way I could store power to drain and use in a pinch. Or else I could plug my tablet into it and never worry about battery life.

  I’d figure out the logistics of using the stored energy later. The important part was to develop some finesse with my ability, and to expend some of the excess build up. I settled myself comfortably and held the first brick in my hands. Turning it around I made sure to touch the charging port for the brick with my right pointer finger.

  I took a deep breath and let myself relax. Thinking of clouds and stuff that floated. Which led me to thinking about feathers and why were they so light when they could be so strong. I sighed and brought my focus back to the brick.

  Forming the thought of a trickle of power in my mind, I envisioned it traveling through my body to gather at my finger and allowed the stream of power to begin charging the block up. Only it felt like it was minimal, yet within seconds, the brick in my hand began to smoke, and I dropped it onto my bed where it bounced and hit the floor with a solid, smoking thud.

  “Shit.” I muttered and glared at my hand. A ripple of energy passed through my body, like the electricity was laughing at me.

  Trickling wasn’t working. Not to mention it barely made a dent in what I knew I had to expend. I hadn’t counted on the fact that while amazing for charging phones, these batteries were way too small for my excess.

  I threw myself back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. As long as I watched myself, tonight should be fun. It had been far too long since I last allowed myself to let loose.

  Notice: Urgent attention required. Your skillset is required immediately. This mission may be more difficult than your previous encounters.

  Emergency Assignment.

  Location: Treknor compound. Outer gate, Corner Torresdale and Tyson.

  Objective: You will meet up with two other Second Chance Operatives. Intermediate Cleaner. Associate Blocker. Your Blocker outranks you and thus leads the task.

  Further directions will be provided once you meet up.

  Target: Enter the Treknor compound office facility and remove the required file.

  Time Limit: Meet at seven o’clock once it’s dark. Do not move before directed by your Blocker.

  Reward: Progression experience. Monetary compensation.

  Caution: You must wear black.

  Well. If that wasn’t just the cherry on the sundae. How was I going to weasel out of tonight’s activities? I’d promised Orion I’d be here. This was a disaster. I could hear voices in the living area, but they weren’t loud enough to decipher. Had I misjudged the time and they were already here?

  I pushed myself up, glancing at my phone as I did so. Sparks danced across my fingers, making the screen flicker briefly. Stop it. I growled in my mind. The last thing I wanted was for my phone to break. It had already been through so much. Even if I really wanted to spend the night in, there was a part of me that wanted a chance to see what I could do. To take on monsters in the dark, or robots overhead, or super smart computers that were secretly running the world.

  If I headed out now, I might still be able to avoid the guests, but Orion was going to be so pissed off at me. Staying in here wasn’t going to get me prepped anytime soon.

  I tugged on the shoes I’d kicked off before I collapsed onto the bed and headed out into the hallway before I could change my mind. I hadn’t taken more than a few steps when it became clear that the talking was Orion, and he was on the phone.

  “Nah, not going to work tonight. I’m not feeling the best. Sorry. Can you let the rest of them know?” He sounded tired.

  The guilt hit me only a moment later, as he said thanks and bye. He was probably getting less sleep because he was worried about me. Even though he put on a really brave face. Regardless of how old I got. I was the younger one, so he always joked that he had to take good care of me.

  Idiot.

  Steeling myself, I walked out into the living area, but he wasn’t there anymore. I frowned as I heard the front door fall closed. He’d left? If he was feeling sick, why did he leave? Oh no. Maybe he was feeling really ill. Like go to the emergency room sick. I wanted to run after him, but I didn’t have time because I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get to the meeting spot.

  No explanation, just a cryptic message. Yet, I’d heard him. He said he was sick. It wasn’t like him to lie. Resigned, I walked into the kitchen and began to slather some peanut butter between two slices of bread. I was hungry and emotionally exhausted. First up I had to put on my spying gear. I grinned at the thought. It was a good thing I liked wearing darker colors, or I’d have had to buy new clothes. I could plod forlornly in the direction of the meetup location. As I closed the fridge, I found a note attached: Have to duck out tonight. Sorry. Raincheck. Orion.

  Something is troubling you.

  Well observed, Sherlock. I quipped as I bit viciously into my sandwich and pocketed an apple for dessert. Why did it always come out when I least wanted or expected it to?

  I am not Sherlock.

  You are to me.

  There was a pause, and then a completely unexpected answer. Thank you.

  I blinked. It seemed that the system didn’t quite understand my brand of sarcasm, and now assumed I’d given it a name. It was my own fault of course, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell it. All things considered, this voice in my head wasn’t that bad. Even if it could kill me for blinking in the wrong way.

  It had to be all the way over the other side of town. Even the GPS on my phone mocked me with the distance. While I could run it, I’d be useless by the time I got there. It’d be pretty much flat out pace for the ninety minutes I had to get there in time. Pulling my favored hoodie tighter around me, I shoved my hands into my pockets. These pants were newer and sort of clung to my calves, but were freer farther up. It allowed me to run if I needed to without discomfort. Let’s face it. I always needed to run.

  I made my way to Market so I could grab the bus, which would take me to 30th Street’s train s
tation. If I was lucky and the connection timed out right, which the app said it should, then I could jump on the train and let it take me out to Tacony near the compound. Didn’t they know how long it would take me to get there?

  Even after I got off the train, I was going to have to run about five blocks to make it to my destination. What would they have done if I wasn’t a track athlete? Questioning things was the best distraction for me to avoid thinking about the fact that I was about to get in an electronically controlled silver tube.

  The bus stop on Market Street was crowded at this time of a Friday night. I didn’t have the time nor patience to wait for the second one, so I pushed my way into the front of the crowd, receiving several death stares in response. While I’d like to think they stemmed purely from my pushing past, I was pretty certain I statically shocked every single person I came into contact with.

  Damn it.

  I hunkered down and shoved my hands in my hoodie’s pockets. Necessary evils would be how I got this done.

  Finally, the bus arrived, and there was some jostling and swearing as people tried to force their way onto the almost full bus. I managed to snag a standing spot close to the back doors, but damned if I wasn’t feeling claustrophobic. Didn’t help that the whole vehicle was made out of metal. I’d forgotten that busses might not run on electricity, but they certainly used it. Fantastic, let’s just put an electric eel into a metal box. That boded well.

  Electricity danced through my veins, like a giggle under my skin. Awesome. My ability had a freaking sense of humor. I could feel it wanting to reach out and jump onto the pole I held. Fighting it back under control became exhausting.

  I sighed and tried to turn off my senses. There was a faint smell of urine coming from the back of the bus, and the guy next to me was sweating profusely. Either he’d run for the bus or he was sick. Personally, I thought it was a bit of both. 30th Street couldn’t come soon enough.

  I fled as soon as the doors opened, breathing in the scents of the street instead of the enclosed bus. This area of town was peaceful, and apart from the regular old smell of exhaust fumes and chill on the air, it was a welcome change from the bus.