by K. L. Lewis
“Hey, he might have a thing for older women,” said Tyrone.
Yue’s eye twitched at Ty. “Not. Helping!”
“You’re no fun.” Gabby spotted DeMarcus and waved at him. “DeMarcus!”
“H-hey, Gabriella,” DeMarcus stuttered.
Gabby approached him and locked his arm around hers. “I bet Jade’s told you about her parents wanting to meet you after last night. You were quite a hero from what she told us.”
“He knows that, Gabby,” said Jade. “You’re kind of smothering him at the moment.”
A sly smile grew on Gabby’s face. “Am I? Or is a certain Jade getting jealous?”
Jade blushed. “Wha—Shut up! You think I like him like that?”
DeMarcus grumbled and pulled Gabby’s arm off his shoulder on his way to a plate on the table. Is this really the crap he had to wake up to? He might as well have stayed asleep. He scooped some eggs and waffles onto his plate, his ear held out to the group murmurring.
“Well, he’s ticked,” said Tyrone.
“Look what you did now, Jade,” Gabby berated.
“I didn’t mean…DeMarcus, wait!” Jade shouted. DeMarcus glanced over his shoulder at Jade running toward him. She tensed at the dull scowl on his face, then took a deep breath as she spoke. “I…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that!”
“What did you mean then?” DeMarcus asked, looking away.
“I just…I don’t know,” Jade lowered her head. “Look, we just met last night. Gabriella comes off strong, but I’m not like her in getting to know people.”
Gabby popped up from the other side of DeMarcus. “You got to know enough of him yesterday,” she said, resting her chin on his shoulder. “Not that I mind you knowing more.”
This was becoming too much, and DeMarcus wanted to get away as fast as possible. And he knew just who to bust him out. “Hey, Ty! Wasn’t there ‘something’ you wanted to show me?”
Tyrone stared at him in confusion. “Like what?”
“You know? That thing?” DeMarcus lied, raising the pitch of his voice.
He hoped Tyrone would catch on and bust him out. And he did, just not in the way he wanted. “Man, quit your shyness and grow a pair!” Tyrone said as he sat down at the table.
DeMarcus smiled at Yue, hoping for her to be the overprotective sister and break him out. “Y-Yue?”
Yue shrugged and followed Tyrone. “Nope,” she said with a smile. “Not this time.”
Now that was just mean. The one time he expected her to butt in.
“Aw, looks like you’re stuck with us,” Gabby said with a grin.
DeMarcus’s blood rushed with a mix of excitement and terror. If only he got this kind of attention from the cold and distant Crystal Shay back home. But that was the least of his concern when Jade gasped and ran toward two parahumans walking onto the balcony.
“Mama! Baba!” She said, hugging her parents.
And boy could DeMarcus see the resemblance. Her tall father had brown hair, wore a green shirt and khaki pants, and he had tiger-like stripes on his tanned skin and long tail. Jade’s red-headed mother in a long blue dress was a spitting image of her daughter, with cream skin and no marks on her body.
“Where is he?” asked the mother.
“Over there,” Jade pointed.
DeMarcus’s tail stiffened, his heart punching his chest at Jade’s parents looking his way. He froze in place, wanting to run. Just learn and adapt, he told himself, remembering his mother’s words.
“You’re DeMarcus, correct,” the man asked. “It’s nice to meet you!”
DeMarcus held his breath as Gabby dragged him over. “Come on and introduce yourself,” she said.
He gulped at the large arms and broad shoulders of the man smiling down on him with a toothy grin like the tiger he looked like. The man wasn’t any taller than James or Keith, but that wasn’t the issue at hand as DeMarcus barely edged out a smile as he stood before him.
“Good morning,” the man greeted with an open hand out. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Zheng Qin. I must thank you for saving my daughter yesterday.”
DeMarcus shook his hand, gritting his teeth at the grip crushing his palm. “Um…nice to meet you, Mr. Qin.”
Jade’s mother corrected him, her voice as prim and proper as Jade’s. “It’s actually Mr. Zheng. Qin is his first name.”
DeMarcus tensed and gave out a nervous laugh as he rubbed his sore hand. “That makes sense with Jade’s last name being Sheng.”
Jade’s mother giggled. “It’s okay. People mix up the order of Sinese names, it happens. I’m Danni Sheng, Jade’s mother. It’s great to meet you, DeMarcus.”
“Well, my dad over there came from the Sinic Republics, so you’d think I’d know how names work,” said DeMarcus. “Your name doesn’t seem Sinese, though. In fact, you sound British.”
“That’s because I am British,” Danni answered.
A bead of sweat rolled down DeMarcus face. “Right…I feel stupid.”
Gabby snickered into his shoulder as he stood stiff before the parents. It was a strange first impression, no discounting that. At least it was going somewhat well, but he still wanted to get away as soon as possible and rejoin Yue and Tyrone sitting behind him.
“I see Gabriella’s taken a liking to you as well,” said Danni.
“Really? I’m surprised Abrams hasn’t bitten his head off.” Qin looked around. “Speaking of which, where is Abrams?”
“Over here!” Abrams waved, sitting with the Sun and Iyrons family. They rose up and came together, with Abrams introducing the adults to each other.
“This is quite a group you have here,” said Qin.
“Well, Keith invited us, and we couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see more of the world,” said Shen.
Speaking of the man himself, Keith stepped onto the balcony with a smile lit toward the group. “How’s everybody?”
“We’re fine, dad,” said James. “How were things with at the Ministry?”
“I had them briefed me personally over yesterday and I tried to report it to Iuvia, but I couldn’t get a response from Eden colony,” Keith said with a shrug. “In the meantime, I have two troops on standby while the others assisted the local authorities in case of another surprise.”
“Are things so bad that Iuvia needs to be involved?” Qin asked. “It’s not like the national armed forces can’t handle things.”
“It’s bigger than that,” Keith answered. “Some militants have gotten more dangerous since the Solar War, and there’s word that some groups got their hands on some advanced tech of ours.”
“Red Phoenix?” The name fell from DeMarcus’s mouth in a whisper, although loud enough for Gabby and Keith to hear.
“Red what?” Gabby asked.
DeMarcus froze at Keith glaring his way. “Excuse me for a second. I’m need to check on DeMarcus.” He took DeMarcus away from Gabby and spoke with him alone. “Okay, DeMarcus, what do you know?”
“About what?” DeMarcus asked.
“About Red Phoenix? I heard those words from you. How’d you even know about it?”
“Well, I remembered hearing from my…” DeMarcus paused. He didn’t think it wise to mention his mother, so he went with a different story. “Those guys that I thought were my killers mentioned something about ‘Red Phoenix’ nanomachines. I found a flash drive about it yesterday and thought that was the nanotech you meant.”
He pulled out the flash drive and showed Keith, watching his eyes jump and make a quick glance over his shoulder at the other families having their own conversation. Turning back to DeMarcus, Keith took the drive away and pocketed it from view. “Yes, this is what I meant. Red Phoenix is the most dangerous strain of nanomachines developed by a late Iuvian nanotechnologist, and they don’t want it in the wrong hands.”
DeMarcus’s ear twitched. “What’s it do?”
Keith shook his head. “That’s top secret.”
Figures. He got the same response
from that Councilor Falay yesterday. “If it’s so dangerous, how’d those grey jacket guys get it?” DeMarcus asked.
“We’re not sure. But the Themiskyran councilor you met yesterday told me they might have stolen it from the Amalgam Concord somehow.”
DeMarcus’s brow rose. “Themiskyra? And how’d the Amalgam—”
Keith held a finger to his lip. “Shush! Listen, don’t worry about that. Forget about all this and don’t tell anyone, and I mean anyone! You’ve been in enough danger as it is.”
DeMarcus nodded. “Okay.”
Keith turned back to the adults still in their conversation. “Sorry about that,” he said. “Just had to make sure DeMarcus was still alright after yesterday.”
“He seems fine to me,” said Danni.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he was still hurting somehow,” said Alisha. “A while back, we found him on the verge of death from a militant attack in the NAF, and it was a miracle he survived with the serious wounds he had.”
DeMarcus heard and lived through that story enough to be tired of hearing it from others. He turned back to his friends and sisters at the table near the edge of the balcony, letting the adults’ voices drown in the distance as he sat at an open seat next to Gabby. It wasn’t any less chatty here, with Ty speaking to his girlfriend back at the NAF and Yue chatting with Gabby, and he noticed Jade making shy looks back at him. Meanwhile, his eyes drifted toward the beaches at the yellow barriers on specific parts of the highwalks and streets.
He couldn’t keep his mind off what Keith said, and ever since he heard about Red Phoenix—first from his mother, next by his killers, and then those Themiskyrans that saved him last night—he was still curious about it despite being told to forget about it. And then there that Fara Torres from the Amalgam Concord that he heard, and he remembered that he brought that orange slip of plastic with their insignia with him. He still couldn’t understand the meaning of those locations, but it said something about being compromised or something. Did it have anything to do with his killers back home?
His head spun from the many ideas and possibilities, many of them making little sense. The more he thought about it, the more it gave him a headache. Taking a few from his plate, he looked at Ty sitting beside him with a cheesy smile back. “So, how were her folks?” Tyrone asked.
“They were pretty nice,” DeMarcus answered.
“I hope I didn’t cause you any problems,” said Jade.
“Yeah, I saw you kinda shaky over there,” Tyrone chuckled.
“You’ve never felt nervous meeting a girl’s parents, Romeo?” Yue chided.
DeMarcus snickered at Tyrone jumping back from Yue’s remark, then he looked back out into the sunny beaches of the city. He still couldn’t take his mind off everything that occurred yesterday, the biggest shock being the woman who saved his life know about his mother. He wished he had asked more about her, wanting to know what happened to her. Maybe keeping who he was a secret was a terrible idea, but he was too far into a hole to climb out of it now.
His head began to spin again. He was awake for only a few hours and he was already tired as hell. But there was still a lot he wanted to explore in the city before they set off elsewhere. After all, this was the first time he had been to another country.
He finished his breakfast and rose from his seat. “Anyone want to see what we can bring back while we’re here?” he asked. “Provided we don’t get shot again?”
“Sure,” Gabby answered. “There’s some great clothing stores if you’re interested, Yue.”
Yue shrugged. “I’m down. Let’s go!”
The group rushed out into the city for the shops again. Stepping on the lower walkways, DeMarcus heard a familiar caw from above, and tilted up at a Gentili flying overhead. It wasn’t like his mother’s, this one being red and black as it shadowed their movements on their way the shopping district. It perched on the rooftops and lampposts as they moved from shop to shop—their guardian angel in the sky, although its presence made DeMarcus tense.
Earlier thoughts flowed into his head once again: Red Phoenix, his raven-haired killer, Fara Torres and the Amalgam Concord. He wanted to know why his mother had vanished over all of this. He pulled out the orange plastic message he took off his killer and read the two sites it mentioned. The letters and numbers made no sense no matter how much his eyes scanned over them, but it made him wonder if one of sites was here in Brighton after running into the exact same situation he did back home?
A cold shiver ran down his spine at a shadow looming over him in a walk across the plaza. He turned off the message and turned to a pale human with brown hair glancing at the message. “Interesting sheet of plastic you got there,” said the man.
“Oh, it’s just a message,” DeMarcus answered.
The man smiled. “Interesting message.” Then he passed DeMarcus for the golden-haired parahuman woman ahead.
Weird man. Why was he so nosy? He didn’t see the Amalgam symbol on the message, did he? DeMarcus continued through the plaza, passing the next corner before a yank on his arm pulled him into the nearby alley. Soft hands covered his mouth, followed by a “shhh” in his ear as he looked over his shoulder at Gabriella holding him back.
“Gabby?” he whispered. “What’re you—?”
“Those two people ahead were talking about you,” Gabby warned. “I don’t know why, but it had me worried.”
She slid by in a peek around the corner. DeMarcus looked over at that brown haired human speaking to the parahuman, hearing undertones of “friends in the NAF…yesterday’s shootout…monumans across the Atlantic.” He held a hand to his ear, but it was hard to piece the conversation together.
“Your ears are bigger than mine,” he said to Gabby. “Can you hear them?”
Gabby smirked then turned back to the conversation. “Something about warning friends in the NAF over Monuma. Not sure how that involves you, but they mentioned something about you holding an important message of some kind?”
He wasn’t sure how important, despite the Amalgam insignia on it. But since she already found out, DeMarcus pulled out the message for Gabby, much to her surprise. “That’s an Amalgam Dataslip!” she said. “And it’s completely unlocked, too! How’d you get one of these?”
DeMarcus scratched his neck. “Long story. I’d rather not say.”
Gabby’s eyes raced along the dataslip’s message, her brow rising at the cryptic names of its two locations. “So that’s it, huh?”
DeMarcus’s eyes squinted, and a brief sense of hope jolted in him. But before he had a chance to ask, he noticed Gabby’s ear twitch at the alley’s opening. “They’re coming.”
She pulled him deeper into the alley, and he almost fell on his back at the steps of a ledge they hid behind. Soft footsteps clapped nearby, growing louder by the second as the two people ahead came walking by. Then after a brief peak, the sounds grew softer and quieter, falling into silence as Gabby peeked over the ledge. “Great, they’re gone.”
DeMarcus looked up with her, then scurried back with her to the open plaza. “So, did you find out anything in that message?” he asked.
“A little,” Gabby answered, handing the message back with a finger on the locations. “These places here, the first two letters indicate the region of certain places: what does ‘GL’ mean in the NAF?”
“The Great Lake Region. Don’t tell me that’s where those locations are?” Or this Fara Torres. It was a wonder how close she might be. But it struck DeMarcus as odd for anyone like that to be after someone like him. After all, the Amalgam don’t attack civilians—at least as far as he knew anyway.
Gabby shrugged and shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I can’t tell what the other letters after that means, but I do know these numbers point where they are. They could be the location number, building number, or something.”
“How’d you know all that?” DeMarcus asked. Then a thought hit him. “You think Jade can help?”
Gabby shook her
head. “She couldn’t read these to save her life. She’s hardly encountered the Amalgam Concord. Papa told me a little about these messages when he helped root out militants during his Rec-work. It’s weird though, the Amalgam Concord have codes to unlock these things. You’re lucky to get one without it.”
DeMarcus chuckled. “I guess so,” he said.
As the day went on, the lamps and sidewalks began to glow as the skies dimmed under the sunset. Their restless energy vanished, and the adults out for the night, DeMarcus and Yue returned to their hotel room, passing Jun babysitting Bianca and Amy at the table on their OmniMorphs. DeMarcus threw himself on the bed and sprawled out. “I’m spent.”
Yue pulled a Stimulade from the fridge and cracked it open for a sip. “So, DeMarcus. That Gabby girl? She seems to have a thing for you.”
“I guess,” he said. “Or maybe she’s just friendly where she’s from?”
“I doubt that,” said Yue. “But she does seem nice. Makes you forget all about Crystal, huh?”
Suspicious, DeMarcus turned to her. “What’s with all these questions?”
“Just looking out for you,” Yue answered. “That Gabby is a huge flirt, and I don’t want to see your feelings get hurt with her too.”
“You say that like I’ll see her again someday.”
Yue shrugged and sat at the foot of the bed. “You never know. It’s a smaller world than you think out there.”
Her OmniMorph buzzed, with Tyrone’s face flashing on her display. DeMarcus lifted from the bed as she answered the call. “Hey, I’m about to head to the aquadomes. You in?” Tyrone asked.
“Hell yeah!” shouted DeMarcus and Yue.
“Then hurry and meet us at the pool.” Tyrone said before hanging up.
“I’m done for today,” said Jun. “I’ll stay and watch Amy and Bianca. You guys go on.”
DeMarcus and Yue quickly changed into their swimwear and an extra layer of clothing before leaving the room. Yue sprinted ahead. “Race you there!”
Accepting her challenge, DeMarcus picked up speed, chasing behind her downstairs and passing her near the main hall where they slowed to a jog by the receptionist. Stepping outside and racing up the highwalks, they bolted across the bridge for the domed crescent and the large doors slid open as DeMarcus stopped and jumped in cheer.
