by Jason Zandri
“Me either,” Nathan called out, lowering himself from the sky to the ground.
Adia looked up and watched him land in his jeans, sneakers, and his Captain Gravitar shirt.
From a few paces away, Nathan stared at her. People nearby saw him land, watched intently, and the cell phones came out.
“We probably have five minutes maximum before news crews show up,” Nathan said quietly.
“What makes you think I’m going to give you that much time out of my day?” Adia asked with a frown. “You disappear with barely a goodbye, you’ve been gone ever since, you nearly fall out of the sky on national television, and you wander in here weeks after the fact and think I’m just going to give you the time of day?”
Nathan looked around and smiled. “Well, the ‘try to keep a low profile’ thing … I knew that would go out the window if I landed from the sky, but I see it was smarter than walking here from blocks away. Your voice carries, and I knew you’d never keep it down.” He stepped forward and leaned in to look into her eyes. “I miss you too.”
The raw emotion rallied in her, and she went to slap him, but he moved out of the way.
“Dios mío! I had no idea how I was going to react when I saw you. Half of me wanted … wants to collapse in your arms and just hold you. I’ve missed you so much. My life has never been the same since you left. But you did leave. I needed you to stay.”
“I know,” Nathan said quietly and stepped forward. “I needed to go.”
“So why are you back?” she asked, still torn.
“Because things are happening. A lot of things, and some of them I don’t understand; much like when I first got my powers. And I need help. I need you, Adia,” he said and looked around at the gathering crowd. Then he stepped forward, reached around her waist, grabbed tightly, and flew upwards.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, grabbing around his neck. Once she felt safe in his arms, she took the opportunity to look down at the city as they moved above the streets. It offered her a view of New York City she’d never had before.
“I’d like to go somewhere and talk with you, but people saw us there,” he said. “I suppose my approach didn’t make it difficult for them to gather. The flying guy—they know who that was. The woman I left with … basically, no one knew you, so taking off at that point, before someone got a good shot with a cell phone camera, seemed prudent.”
Adia smiled and snuggled up her grip more.
The pair said nothing else and, a short while later, Nathan landed them outside the city in a small suburban park.
“Where are we?” Adia asked, fixing her hair with her hands.
“In Westchester County,” Nathan said, looking around and shrugging slightly. “The park looked quiet.”
“Well, I hope your powers stay engaged; it’s a long walk back,” Adia said with a smile.
“That’s part of the issue; they have been.” Nathan walked away a few steps, and then turned around to her. “It’s enough that much of these powers have been a mystery. What I have learned is that ‘the rules’ change, or at least changed, with the incident with the nuclear reactor.”
“You don’t think radioactive exposure had anything to do with it?” Adia asked, walking part of the way over.
“No.” Nathan shook his head and raised his hand. “My powers protected me, effectively until they quit. Certainly, I was in the exposure vicinity when I fell, and as my shielding dropped, but that wasn’t the cause of the power drop.”
“Do you know what was?” Adia walked more into his line of sight.
“No,” he said and gave his head another shake, then looked up at the night sky. “But the powers are ‘on’ all the time now. All I need to do is change shirts. I immediately gain powers. Emergency or not. Something feels ‘off’ about that; as if that isn’t how this was supposed to work. I can’t explain it; it’s like a gut feeling or something. I do admit that that feeling is fading, but I acknowledge it’s there.” Nathan turned to look deeper into the park, where the trees grew thicker. “I feel more of a connection to the things around me, like … I don’t know, nature, I guess. I feel more comfortable here or even in the desert than the city. But at the same time,” he said and turned to look back at her. “I feel slightly disassociated from the powers. Almost like I’m not used to how they … funnel … any more. If I didn’t know any better, and while I feel they get here, I’d say they’re not coming to me in the same way as they used to.” Nathan moved away a couple of steps. “I’m probably not making a lot of sense. It’s just a feeling that something is off.”
Adia walked over to him again and touched his arm. “Look,” she said. “I’m sorry for being hard on you. It’s kind of hard to separate the emotional things I feel for you from the friendship we share. I know I need to find a way to make that separation when you need me. I’m here.” She smiled. “Really. I’m still pissed at you, but how long can I stay mad at The Patriot?”
Nathan smiled. “Thank you,” he said and turned back toward her. “So much is going on. I just caught the broadcast on TV; Congressman Johnson wants my head on a platter.”
“Patrick Johnson is a vote grabbing, opportunistic ass,” Adia said. “He’s trying to get resonation from fearful people. I don’t believe he’s as fearful of you and your powers as he plays. He’s a Congressman; he lives with and covets power. I think he’s trying to polarize people behind him, and he’s sensationalizing this.”
“Maybe,” Nathan said with a sigh. “He’s not wrong. Some of the things I undertook have been … subversive, and I’ve tried to go under the radar to ‘get away with them’ so to speak. He’s calling for an answer to my actions.” Nathan looked up at the sky again. “I have to answer.”
Adia wanted to offer her thoughts, but then realized that Nathan had it right.
They stood in silence for a few moments before Adia spoke again, “What are you going to do?”
“There’s a summons … obviously no one knows where to deliver or serve it to get it to me, but it’s been put up by way of a public notice as one way to notify me. Because I’m aware of it, I should respond and show up for the hearing.”
“It’ll be a media circus, and you’ll play right into that bastard’s hand,” Adia said, angry.
“And if I don’t show up, it’ll only serve to feed his arguments—whichever ones he wants to make. I have to go.”
“And you’re going dressed like that?” Adia pointed at his leisurely outfit. “I know you’re telling me the powers are always on now, but are they on when you’re not wearing a character shirt?”
“No,” Nathan said.
“So you’re going to show up in a suit,” Adia said, and a tone of concern crept into her voice. “Do you know how many people are expecting you to show up? They know you’re responsible and will comply. Anyone gunning for you will be there.”
“I have to respond to the summons, and I have to be dressed appropriately,” Nathan said. “I don’t think it’s common knowledge how my powers work. I certainly haven’t spoken with people about the connection to the bracelet and the shirts. They won’t know if I’m powered up or not.”
“If someone wants to take a shot at you, a time like that—with your guard down and civilians around—is when they’ll take it. And what about the critical reasons that made you leave?” Adia gave him a light shove. “The reasons you said goodbye to me? They were those very same reasons. It wasn’t safe. You show up in a suit, and you’re powerless. They might not know it, but you will, and if anything happens and you cannot respond, someone will notice. If their intent is to take you out, that’s when they’ll do it. Tell me you’ll wear a T-shirt or something underneath.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Nathan said and stepped forward to hold her. Then he took off from the ground with her.
Adia grabbed on to hold him around the neck and said, “You’re sure? You’ve tried it before and are certain?”
“Certain enough. It never has before,
” Nathan said. “The shirt needs to be exposed. I’ve never had an instance where socks, or a jacket with an emblem, or something like that, worked. It seems to be tied to an exposed shirt.”
“That’s insane,” Adia said.
“Yeah.” Nathan laughed. “It’s totally okay that the Greek gods gave me the powers of fictional superheroes from the comics, but the fact that they decided to link them to the shirts I wear outwardly is entirely unreasonable.”
Adia smiled at him. “You’re being a jerk.”
“I’m being Super Jerk.” Nathan laughed.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dean Carol Brokker stood in the hallway as maintenance men moved the last of Professor Rebecca Farnsmith’s personal items from the room. Professor Kevin Millhart came alongside. “How is she?” he asked quietly.
“I’m not sure exactly,” Carol said and raised her hand to rub her forehead. “Physically, she recovered from the electrical discharge, but mentally? I’m no doctor, and I obviously don’t know her personal medical situation, but I’m sure she’s dealing with shock and a mental break of some sort. How do you walk away unharmed from something like that, where seventeen people lost their lives, and be unscathed?”
“Did maintenance or the utility company ever uncover where the electrical fault occurred?” Kevin asked while he turned to watch the workers wheel the cart down the hallway.
“They attributed it to a faulty ground on the pad-mounted transformer outside of the dorms. Between that, the wet grounds from the storms the night before, and the underground copper water mains, it was a perfect storm for that power arc. The power company is calling it a freak accident. I’m sure the lawyers will have a field day with it,” she said with a loud sigh. “It’ll never replace the lives lost.”
“So, I take it Rebecca is taking leave?” He stepped around to face her.
“Such as it is,” Carol said and looked up at him. “She can come back whenever she’s ready, but I suspect she’ll never be the same again.”
***
Rebecca scurried around her house and closed the final shades as night settled in. “Tomorrow. I must be ready for tomorrow,” she said aloud in a cracked voice just above a whisper. “The things … events … they come and go.” She turned to gather more candles off the kitchen table. Back in the living room, she banged her shin again on the coffee table. It bled from the number of times she’d hit it, but she continued as if she’d never stepped into it. “More candles … yes, this will help me to see more clearly.”
She set them down, struck a match to light them, and placed them around the room. Once she’d lit them all, Rebecca stood at the center of the room and looked about at the twelve groups of twelve candles that surrounded her on the outer edge of the circle. Then she walked over to the large book that sat on the center of the coffee table, took it with her back to the center of the circle, and set it on the ground. With that done, she then walked away from it and to a wooden box on the fireplace mantle. Copper, silver, gold, and platinum bands bound the slats of the box together, and Rebecca stood and stared at them.
Then she closed her eyes and focused.
“You will not be alone any longer, Nathan,” she said in a much clearer voice. “I have been impressed with you; I cannot wait to be with you. No one is complete without another. You have been alone far too long. No god should be without his goddess. No goddess should be without her god.” She reached up and touched her face and neck, and then ran her hands down the front of her body. “I cannot tell you how I long to be with you. I have desired this since I first laid eyes on you. I never thought it to be possible. Now I know it can and will be. I have seen me, next to you, as an equal.” She reached back up to the top of her loosely-fitting pullover, stretched out the elastic at the neckline, and lowered it. The garment shimmied down her body and crumpled to the floor around her ankles.
Rebecca’s eyes snapped open, totally white, and then filled quickly and turned black. “NO!” she cried out. “I will not be ready … that cannot be the path!” she shrieked, and her voice lowered in pitch and amplified in duality.
Hands on both sides of the box, she fixated on it. “I must have more time; the incantation and incubation cannot be rushed.”
Rebecca looked up at the ceiling without letting go of the box. “Gaea, please, help me! The Fates powers are … confusing. I see too many possibilities. I must know more clearly what is to come. Nathan needs my help; which path will be the way?”
Rebecca continued to stare with the blackness filling her eyes. Tears welled up and streamed down her cheeks and into her ears. The blood rushed in her head.
“Please, Mother Gaea … for Earth … for Nathan; guide him to a better path.”
Rebecca focused on a single spot on the ceiling in the dimness of the candlelight. In the nothingness of the off-white ceiling, images came into view. She squinted her eyes in an effort to see the shifting images, timelines, and realities more clearly.
“Gaea … I can’t focus. The images are overlapping and unclear … they are similar … areas with different results … possible outcomes …”
Rebecca clutched the box even tighter.
“I am unsure … can I start the process sooner? Finish sooner? Will I be able to help Nathan in time? I am not in half the images … do I need to go? Do I need to stay?”
One image jumped into her view, which made her release the box.
“Hestia …” she whispered and lowered her hands to just below her stomach. “But the doctors said I couldn’t …” A smile crept across her face. “Of course … she will be beautiful.”
Slowly, Rebecca lowered her head to look at the box. The darkness left her eyes until only the white remained.
Then she removed her hands from her lower abdomen and unlatched the box.
Inside lay a sharpened bone. She removed it, held it in her right hand, and stepped away and into the center of the circle. Knelt in front of the book, she looked directly forward at the center cluster of twelve candles, reached forward and down with her left hand, and opened the book.
The page was blank, and she never looked down at it. With her focus locked on the cluster of lit candles in front of her, she spoke aloud. In Latin, she uttered one long phrase, and then repeated it in Greek. She spent the entire hour repeating the phrase in each language. When the hour ended, a burst of wind erupted outward from the center of the circle and snuffed out the forward cluster of candles.
Rebecca turned to the next cluster of twelve and began again.
***
Athena, Apollo, and Aphrodite separately approached the reflecting pool on Mount Olympus.
“I expect to see Zeus here shortly,” Athena said while the breeze moved her gown away from the direction she walked.
Artemis came into view, “I am sure,” she said when she approached. “We all felt the same disruption once again.”
“The connection to the Prime realm has not been fully restored,” Apollo said, looking down into the pool. “Perhaps this is nothing more than a continuation of that disruption.”
“Our powers flow well once again,” Hades said when he also appeared from the nothingness. “But this is that veiled pull from the being or beings from the Prime realm.”
“I have this … feeling … I am drawn to Elysium,” Athena said and looked towards the heavens and the horizon.
Hades moved closer to the pool. “No one in Elysium prays to us.”
“It doesn’t feel like a prayer,” Athena said. “More like … an attempt at a message.”
“I agree,” Hermes said. “It does feel that way to me as well.”
“You of all people,” Hades said. “I would hope so.”
Apollo looked over at Hermes, “Perhaps the two of us should travel there and investigate?”
“Do you believe you can just show up in Elysium and figure out who is trying to reach out from there? If anyone even is at all?” Hades shook his head. “Do all of you believe you are now Zeus?”
/> Hermes held up his hand, palm out to Hades. “Now that you’re trying to discourage, I am even more inclined.”
Both Hermes and Apollo stepped forward, away from the reflecting pool, and disappeared.
“I cannot see clearly into the Prime realm,” Artemis said, waving her hand into the water. “The connection to the realm is still not fully restored and this, pull, or whatever it is, only makes the matter worse.”
Hades stepped forward, looked into the water himself, and smiled. Athena watched him closely.
***
Reporters packed the public hall and meeting chamber inside the courthouse.
“This is a public hearing and response to a summons,” Congressman Patrick Johnson announced loudly. “We will come back to order here. Judge Kirkpatrick has graciously offered us the use of these chambers in his great city of New York, and I will expect that when and if Nathan shows up—”
The reporters clamored when a cab pulled up into the police zone.
“It’s Nathan!” one of them called out, and all of the cameras pulled out of the room.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Congressman Johnson mumbled under his breath as all the attention shifted away from him. “The son of a bitch showed.”
With the attention away from him, he took two steps backward from the podium and turned away. He pulled out his cell phone, checked the time, and sent a single text:
“Dallas is going to punt in twenty; then it’s your set of downs.”
***
“We have confirmation,” said the man in gray fatigues, looking down at his phone. “We are a go in twenty.”
“We are a go in ten,” the man with the binoculars said without pulling away from them.
“Sir?” the first man asked.
“I have my orders,” the man with the binoculars said in a cool voice, slapping the third man with the launcher on the knee. “We are also tying up all loose ends.” He dropped the binoculars and pulled out a detonator. “Flock of birds,” he said, shaking the wireless detonator slightly. “A couple of large stones.”
