Charlotte Powers 1: Power Down

by Ben White

  And even then, I didn't cotton on.

  Veronica didn't stop her flames for over ten seconds. The look on her face when she saw that I wasn't burnt to ashes was pretty much worth everything I'd suffered through.

  "Yeah! Go Veronica!"

  Unfortunately, she recovered quickly, no doubt aided by her fan club—that is, EVERYONE IN THE STANDS. The people I was there to RESCUE, the people I was trying to SAVE, were CHEERING for the SUPERVILLAIN.

  NOTHING is fair.

  "Great trick, Flux!"

  They thought it was some kind of show. They thought Veronica had set all of this up. They thought it was special effects or something. I guess I can't blame them, I mean they'd just seen me get completely engulfed in flames for almost a quarter of a minute and I'd come out completely unscathed—

  —except my clothes hadn't.

  I was naked. Not COMPLETELY naked, my underwear was apparently close enough to my aura that it wasn't affected by Veronica's flames (or maybe Mum was right and polydium underwear really IS a girl's best friend), but still. It wasn't a good look.

  But oh my goodness the students in the stands did find it SO amusing.

  While I was distracted by the reaction of the crowds, Veronica was trying to escape—she'd realised her flames couldn't hurt me—but I wasn't letting her off that easily. I caught her after a few dozen metres, managed to grab her arm and pull her around. She kept her footing, but that just left her wide open for me to draw back my hand and slap that perfect little face of hers as hard as I could. Which turned out to be pretty hard, actually. I didn't have super-strength, but right then I didn't NEED super-strength. That slap I gave her was all me, no powers, no 'scientific promotion', just ME, and it felt GOOD.

  Of course, the people in the stands booed me. I can't win, can I? But a perfect moment cannot be ruined, not even by the actions of ignorant bystanders.

  Unfortunately, I let myself get distracted by the crowd, and Veronica managed to punch me in the chin—it hurt and it sent me staggering, but then I was after her again, she sent a gout of flame against me but once again it did nothing, had no effect whatsoever except to make me tingle a little, and then I was on her and I tried a tackle but she sidestepped and slipped away, I missed and went tumbling, and by the time I'd picked myself up she was off the field and out of the gym—not by the main entrance, though, not even down into the locker rooms, but instead through into the area being renovated.

  Without thinking I followed, chasing her through the corridors and catching her in one of the big rooms, filled with loose wooden planks and buckets of paint and roller brushes and other renovation stuff, left lying here for weeks, maybe months. I slammed into her which in turn sent her slamming against a wall, then I grabbed her hair and pulled her back, spinning her around to throw her into the wall again. She cried out as she hit against it, then I was on her again, grabbing her head—

  Then something hit me in the back, something solid and heavy, I think one of the paint tins. I let go of Veronica and spun around to see the head of the student council in the entrance to the room. Not just the head, but The Head.

  "Couldn't take care of her yourself?" he said to Veronica, as she scuttled away from me. Her lip was bleeding and her face was bruised; she looked great. "How on earth could you not, her ability is telling the truth, it's the most pathetic power I've ever heard of."

  I went to charge him, but he flung his arm out and suddenly one of the planks was rising up, then he thrust his hand towards me with a totally unnecessary flourish and the plank was flying at my head. I managed to half-duck half-fall under it, but that just left me prone and open for his next assault, which was a tinful of thick nails. None of them actually pierced my skin, but that doesn't mean they didn't hurt. He telekinetically lifted and threw a hammer at me next, it just barely missed my head as I ran to the side.

  "Stand still and let me HIT you!" The Head growled, after I'd dodged another thrown plank.

  "Not so easy, is she?" Veronica said, from where she stood nearby with her arms crossed.

  "So help!"

  "My flames didn't work," Veronica said, as I took a bucket right in the gut and staggered away. "Why do you think she's in her underwear? All I could burn was her clothes. She's resistant."

  "No she's not!" The Head muttered—he was getting breathless now, doing all that telekinetic attacking must be tiring.

  "Fine then, she's not," said Veronica, and she sent a burst of fire at me. I tried to dodge it but I was still recovering from that bucket and the edge of her flames washed over my right leg. It didn't hurt me, but it was different to before, the tingling was somehow both stronger and weaker, and there was no visible glow where the flames struck me.

  "How are you doing that?" The Head demanded.

  "I don't know!" I said. I couldn't lie; at that time I honestly DIDN'T know. Then a really unwelcome voice came from outside the room, followed by a REALLY unwelcome face:

  "—believe you'd drag me in here, they NEED me out there, bro!"

  Ray. I just stared at him, and he stared at me.

  "Her?" he said. The contempt in his voice was sickening. "She ain't NOTHING, I TOLD you that, why do you need ME to help take care of HER?"

  "Because she's stronger than she looks," said The Head. He was clearly still tired from attacking me. I was still tired from him attacking me, too. "Come on, take care of her."

  Ray hesitated. The Head turned on him, angry now. "There's not even going to BE a 'big game', didn't you realise that? They don't 'need you out there', I need you in here, she knows far too much, WE need her GONE, now DO IT!"

  Ray blinked at The Head, then he threw a rugby ball at me. I would've laughed, except it bounced off the wall behind me and straight into the back of my head. The impact was unbelievable, I felt like my head should've just snapped right off and I came within an inch of losing consciousness. As it was everything went blurry and dark and I felt myself falling but didn't know how to stop it, and then I wasn't falling but it was because Veronica had grabbed me, and she slapped me, hard, and again, and then again, I managed to struggle free and stagger back but that just put me up against Ray, and then he was grabbing me, he had my arms and this time his grip was perfect, this time I couldn't get away and I hate to admit it but I froze up, just completely went into shock because this was my nightmare, him holding me and me not being able to get free, and now he had his arm around me, around my chest, it was pressing hard against my breasts and that too was horrible, he was so close and holding me so tight I felt like I was going to burst, and through all that fear and pain I realised I'd been burnt, ACTUALLY burnt, my leg was throbbing, and Veronica was in front of me, smiling as she raised her hands again, and The Head stood nearby, recovered, ready, watching me and Veronica and waiting for her to kill me because she could burn me now, somehow she could burn me now, and I couldn't get free of Ray's grip, I never paid attention to 'escaping holds', I always just figured I could phase-out to escape them!

  And then I did.

  Just my arms, but that was enough; Ray's hands went right through me and I stumbled forward, towards Veronica, but it was too late, she was already blasting fire at me—

  Except it wasn't at me. It was through me. And I heard Ray yell behind me, Veronica's flames had hit him instead of me, not seriously, not a crippling injury, but enough to make him cry out in pain. I felt a nostalgic kind of thick, slow feeling as The Head threw a plank straight through me, and I actually laughed as it whacked into Veronica and Ray instead—except then I didn't have so much to laugh about, in fact I couldn't laugh at all because I was already short of breath, I was already slipping back, I couldn't keep my grip on it—

  I gasped as I rushed back into-phase, panting but staggering away, I was really feeling every bit of hurt I'd suffered now but I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake, I was staggering AWAY from the door, I was in a corner, I was trapped, still panting with the effort it had taken to go out-of-phase, and The Head had spotted a w
orkbench, a huge great long solid workbench and already he was picking it up, holding it ready, spinning it around so that there would be no escape, I would be crushed flat against the wall when he hurled it at me with all of the mental strength that he had.

  Which is exactly what happened. I felt an intense pressure and then a horrible release, and for one long awful moment I was sure that I'd just popped; that with no other option my entire body had exploded between the hard wall and the solid bench.

  But the wall wasn't hard.

  It was made of soft plaster, yet to be reinforced.

  And I was no longer hurting.

  I was strong.

  I was half-stuck in the wall, but I drew my arm back through the soft plaster and then I forced it forwards in a hard punch that sent the workbench flying out. With a wild cry and a wrench of my body I pulled myself free of the wall and stepped forward. The workbench was at least four metres long and made of extremely dense wood. Probably it weighed at least as much as, oh, say, a fancy steel-reinforced couch.

  I picked it up and tossed it aside like it was nothing. It took both arms to do it, but really, WHO CARES.

  "I have my phasing back," I said, as I walked slowly towards The Head. Veronica and Ray were at his side, Ray on his left, Veronica on his right. They were all staring at me. "I have my strength back."

  I stopped, and I smiled.

  "One more to test."

  At once, all three of them attacked.

  But really, they never had even a chance of winning.

  Veronica was first; I slid under her flames and came up with a plank in one hand and a heavy sheet in the other. I threw the plank at her as she turned and ran and its weight slammed her into the floor, face-first. I followed with the sheet, and in an instant she was tied and helpless, her hands against her sides.

  Next was The Head. The bucket he threw I ducked under, the plank I ran along a wall to avoid. He flung his arm desperately up as I launched myself at him, but too weak and far too slow. The paint roller he managed to throw at me bounced off my leg, and then I had him on the ground, pinned.

  That's when a paint bucket slammed into my head. I felt it, it definitely hurt, but it didn't come close to stopping me. I stood and turned to see Ray, standing with his rugby ball in his hand.

  "Unconscious ballistic calculation," I said, as he stood there, tense. "Like Red Rocket and Trigger Harpy. I bet you could put that ball anywhere you wanted."

  His eyes flicked to the ball, then back to me.

  "Try it," I growled.

  He did.

  BIG mistake.

  A rugby ball to the groin thrown by a normal person hurts.

  A rugby ball to the groin thrown by the super-strong girl you were unforgivably inappropriate with comes very close to killing. As it was he simply collapsed, unconscious, with a sweet little grunt of indescribable pain.

  When I turned away from his still form it was to see Veronica and The Head, both of them standing—Veronica had burnt through the plank and the sheet. She's stronger than I expected.

  I have to be honest here; doing all that took a lot out of me. I was exhausted, sleep-deprived, and I'd just used powers that I'd been without for a month. I could feel all of them slipping, I could feel everything slipping, and I didn't know if I could take down those two.

  Luckily I didn't have to. They turned and ran.

  Again, I have to be honest; I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I wearily half-staggered, half-limped out to the corridor, back to the field; the game was still on and the gym was still wired to explode. Or so I thought.

  "Lotte!"

  "Dad?"

  Not just him. Mum too, and Daniel—who'd just finished disarming the master detonator for the explosives, I later learned. Much later, because just after saying "Dad?" everything finally caught up to me and I collapsed on to the grass.

  xx48.12.06 | 13:04 | Monday

  I got tired writing all of that yesterday, and it seemed an appropriate place to stop in any case. I'm recovering now, still in Emerald Hill, in the local hospital. It's pretty nice, actually, I have my own room and the staff are lovely, and right now I feel like I deserve a rest.

  It turned out C2 did her part of things brilliantly. She didn't even have to shoot anyone, although she said she threatened a couple of technicians with the gun. I imagine she could be quite intimidating, holding a gun and talking in that husky, flat way of hers, probably saying something like "I cannot tell if you are afraid right now. Are you?", brr! Anyway, she got to the girl and eventually managed to free her, it was more complicated than just untying her (not that she WAS tied up but you know), but C2 figured it out (of course). The girl's name is Alice. She's fourteen years old and possesses the power of 'reverse empathy'. She's able to project her own emotions on to other people. Normally this kind of power would be a 'one person at a time' sort of thing, but when connected to a massive transmitter with a polydium core ... they used drugs to enhance her powers and to control her moods, as well as twisting her power to create a kind of hypnotic control over susceptible minds. Apparently they let her 'rest' during the weekends, although all that meant was they dosed her up on sleeping drugs—which also had the effect of making the whole town (except C2) sleepy and unlikely to do any investigating. Horrible, right? And SO sneaky, just what you'd expect from nasty ol' supervillains. Poor Alice. As you might expect, she's more than a little traumatised, she was kept in that facility for almost a year. C2's been spending time with her, and Mum and Dad got in contact with Gaia, who's an old friend of theirs from their adventuring days. She has the power of 'universal empathy'. It's one of those vague, kind of abstract powers that never gets properly defined, but (among other things) it allows the connection of one mind to another. Psychic healing can do amazing things. I hope it's enough.

  Freeing Alice also had another benefit, one I never even considered; it stopped the communication block over this whole area. Apparently it was psychic in nature, a side-effect of the broadcast. This let Mum and Dad (who Daniel had just managed to contact) immediately pinpoint my exact location at Emerald Hill Academy (my Opal has a unique signature, even though it was pretty much destroyed because of Veronica's stupid flame attacks it was still putting out a signal). Like Daniel said, they've (naturally) been worried sick and doing everything they could to find me. It was actually Daniel who had the idea of scanning for areas of 'phase-interference' which is an indication of teleportation apparently? Teleporters aren't SO common and it didn't take long for them to find all the possible places I could've ended up—except because of the psychic broadcasts here the 'phase-interference' was interfered with and made undetectable. I guess because Daniel actually CAME here and managed to get in contact with them it didn't make much difference, but on the other hand maybe taking that psychic barrier down meant they got here a few minutes earlier than they otherwise would have. Those few minutes might have saved my life—saved a lot of lives, considering Daniel's defusing of the incendiary explosives—Mum's actually better at demolitions than he is, but because he can go out-of-phase there's considerably less risk in the case of an accidental explosion. (They picked him up on the way here, in case you were wondering, he'd actually managed to drive the truck into a ditch.) They came here in Mum's invisible jet (like Daniel said it's not actually invisible, but this has become a Family Joke now) (also like he said it's not even a jet, but more on that in a bit), touched down outside the school, fought their way to the gym, got everyone OUT of the gym, defused the explosives, stopped Segregation (pretty fancy name for 'burn to death everyone who didn't qualify for so-called advanced self-improvement') and saved the day. Well, I guess technically it was me and C2 who ACTUALLY saved the day, but I think my family also deserves a little credit.

  C2 has visited me every day. It turns out she DOES have a power, but it's not psychic shielding. It's being the best most wonderful friend in the whole world, being amazingly intelligent and caring and strong, and being able to make the right choice even whe
n some idiot is saying all the wrong things to you. And also psychic shielding. Gaia said that C2's 'condition' is made worse by her power, that the psychic shielding blocks out ALL psychic energy, even the normal energy everyone sends out as part of their emotional state. She offered to try to fix it, but C2 politely refused.

  "I am who I am," she said. "If I changed, then who would I be? I am the person who Charlotte thought worthy to be her friend. I don't want to be anyone else."

  Charlotte Crescent: Best. Friend. Ever.

  By the way, I was wrong about something. About a lot of things, actually, but this is the big one. It ties into something I've been wrong about my entire life, something even my family didn't realise until very recently.

  Daniel's teleporter worked perfectly. But on the way to Green Grove I was picked up by the teleportation receiver here. It's part of that massive transmitter (actually a transmitter-receiver, as it turns out). But my 'phase-shadow' wasn't ripped from me or anything like that. I arrived as completely as I left.

  The reason I lost my powers is that they weren't my powers. They never were. I don't have three powers, I only have one; the ability to mimic the powers of others. But only while I'm near them, once I get too far away I lose them quickly, usually within an hour. (I've already done some tests, mostly with Daniel.) That's why my head always felt clear when I was around C2, because I was mimicking her psychic shielding. That's why my palms always tingled when Veronica was near, because I was mimicking her ability to summon flame from her hands—and also the reason I wasn't burnt by her flames, apparently one of her secondary abilities is 'heat resistance'. Most pertinently, that's why I always thought I had the abilities of the rest of my family, and that's why my powers came back when they did, because my family were here and near enough for my power to grab on to theirs or however it actually works. Daniel says my 'power aura' must be sticky and also bendy (these are technical terms you understand), kind of like a mirror made of silly putty. His explanation, not mine, don't blame me if it doesn't make any sense to you.