by Ekeke, C. C.
“I don’t smoke.” Brie winced at her self-contradiction. “Except I’m super-stressed. Now I’m rambling…”
Inside, Hugo tensed. Outside, he remained nonchalant. “Why so stressed?”
“Didn’t know if you’d ghost me,” Brie confessed. Those pale-green eyes could melt a soul.
Hugo narrowed his eyes, suspicion lingering. “You take a rideshare?”
“Yes,” she replied immediately.
“Anyone know you’re here?”
“My dad thinks I’m at your house.”
A quick listen confirmed one electronic device on her. Hugo held out a hand. “Phone.”
Brie bristled. “You’re not destroying my phone.”
Hugo rolled his eyes. “This isn’t a spy film.” He beckoned with his hand.
Brie pouted yet relinquished her iPhone. “I haven’t told anyone about you if that’s what you’re worried about,” she stated as Hugo turned the device off.
Handing it back, he glanced around. Liberty High was too exposed. “C’mere.”
She advanced promptly. Hugo lifted her up in his arms, earning a squeal. Brie weighed less than a feather.
He got a grip around her waist and legs. “Hang on.” Once Brie hugged his neck, he took off.
She swiveled her head, hair lashing wildly. Viewing the vast cityscape below put her fear and wonder on full display.
When they reached the cloud layers, he flew toward the looming pinnacles of Bishop Peak.
Soon, they were descending.
Goosebumps prickled Brie’s slender legs, countless emotions playing across her face.
Hugo locked eyes with her the whole way down to the forest.
The tension went out of Brie, gazing back at him.
Hugo had seen this look before, but never so blatant.
Remnants of passions he’d forgotten seared down his chest until his sneakers touched loamy earth.
Sensing how close their mouths were, he shook off the stupor. He placed Brie on the ground and backpedaled.
Yet her dreamy, hypnotic gaze lingered a little.
Regaining composure, Brie noticed the maze of towering pinewoods surrounding them. Wildlife called out during normal morning rituals. A cornucopia of smells tickled Hugo’s nostrils. Wispy fog seeped across the ground as sunlight burned it away. From here, the sprawl of San Miguel beside the sparkling sea was visible.
“Holy shiite!” Briseis exclaimed. “We’re on the Bishop Peak summit?”
Her enthusiasm didn’t quell Hugo’s suspicions. “Needed a safe place to talk,” he replied, hands in his pockets. “No one’s up here this early.”
Brie’s face revealed nothing, but her heart was racing. “I have so many questions.”
Hugo glanced at the heavens. “So do I.” This was actually happening. He felt emotionally naked and scared, leaning on a pinewood for support. “How did you know? About me?”
Brie’s breath caught, revealing her anticipation for this moment. “How did I know that you were Aegis?” she asked. “Or how long have I known about your powers?”
Hugo’s brain nearly shut down. This was worse than he’d imagined. He turned. “Both,” he answered in a small voice.
Brie’s expression radiated love. “I knew you were Aegis when I saw you on TV fighting the Elite.” She paced in a circle, brushing away windblown tresses. “I learned you were a super at Fall Fling.”
Hugo leaned back on the tree, or else his legs would’ve given out. “You’ve known for a year?” His disbelief echoed throughout the forest.
Brie stopped pacing and faced him. “Yeah. It kinda broke my brain.” The sun was doing some crazy stuff to her eyes, giving the pale green color an eerie luster. “Did you manifest after freshmen year?”
Hugo forced himself to focus as nightmare scenarios filled his brain. “A few days after.”
Brie half-smiled as if deducing something. “You never left town that summer.”
Hugo nodded faintly. “Spent the summer mastering my powers.” This conversation was surreal. “You told no one?”
“No.” Brie looked offended. “Why would I?”
“Things between us were ugly last year.” Hugo couldn’t avoid rehashing their past rift.
Brie hugged herself. “There were dark moments, when my life was a slow-moving train wreck. I wanted to tell everyone just to hurt you.” Her stare was penetrating. “But something in me couldn’t.” She blinked. “Even when I hated you, I…still cared.”
Heat cracked through Hugo’s icy suspicion. “You almost said something before the library bombing.”
Brie grimaced, clearly not proud of that memory. “I wanted you to confess. I couldn’t wrap my head around what I saw at Fall Fling or if you were still the Hugo I knew.”
Hugo zeroed in on her words. “What did you see at Fall Fling?”
“Our fight destroyed me.” By her faraway stare, she was clearly reliving that night. “I ran into the bathroom and bawled my eyes out.”
The immense guilt made breathing a challenge for Hugo.
“Then I heard a commotion and looked out the windows. I saw you.” Brie’s nostrils flared. “With that Asian punk princess you were dating.”
“Presley.” Hugo hadn’t thought about her in ages, and didn’t want to start.
“Yeah,” Brie said. “You were consoling her with Baz, TJ, and DeDamien lying around you.” She trembled again, hugging herself tighter. “Then you picked her up, jumped into the sky, and never came down.”
Hugo wanted to kick himself for such sloppiness. “Oooh.” Then he recalled his overwhelming panic that evening, barely hearing anything above his own heartbeat.
“Yeah.” Brie nodded in agreement with whatever she saw on his face. “I was in shock. Being drunk didn’t help. Next thing I know, I’m staring up at an EMT and J-Tom.”
“Presley provoked Baz and them into attacking her.” Hugo thought back on that night. The memories surfaced with crystal clarity. “I heard them from afar, thought they were beating her up. Almost killed them…which is what Presley wanted.”
Brie searched his face. “What happened to her?”
Hugo opened his mouth to reply but then realized how he’d have to jump around to explain certain references and people. “Let me give you the full story, starting two summers ago.”
For the next hour, Hugo walked with Brie through the mountain forest, filling her in on everything. Revealing Baz’s beatdown and his pathetic suicide attempt evoked a Defcon Level 2 meltdown out of Brie. Hugo eventually calmed her and continued.
“Of COURSE, you told Simon,” Brie whined when hearing who Hugo told first about his powers. Recovering mean girl or not, she remained petty as fuck.
“I’d thought you were just a speedster or flier,” she explained after Hugo discussed the Paso High bombing. “Then the explosion happened, and I’m fading in and out. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the hospital…was you shoulder pressing the whole ceiling.” Her smile was pure sunshine. “Between that and saving all those kids, I knew you were the Hugo I remembered.” Other than those instances, Briseis said little throughout Hugo’s storytelling. But he grew somewhat uncomfortable under her worshipful stare.
He didn’t mention Titan being his father and only revealed J-Tom knowing his secret.
“I knew Jen knew!” Briseis looked relieved. “Either that or you two were fucking.”
Hugo grimaced. “Well…”
Brie’s jaw dropped. “Oh my GAWD!” She punctuated each word by smacking his arm, then recoiled in discomfort. “Another of my friends, why you…whoremonger!”
Hugo backed away. “I won’t make excuses. But the whole Spencer drama crushed Jenny…and me.” Familiar grief stabbed him. “We were there for each other, and just connected.”
Brie reared up to angrily object, only to deflate. “I hate it, but I get it. But stop stringing Jodie along.”
“I plan to.” Hugo tensed for what he was about to divulge. “Another thing.
Spencer’s a super.”
Brie justifiably facepalmed. “You’re joking?”
“And…” Hugo steeled himself. “She’s a legacy. December’s daughter.”
“Vanguard’s December?” Brie went cross-eyed. “I swear I’ve stepped into an alternate universe.”
Hugo waited a few minutes for her to recover. “I wanted to tell you in the summer.”
Brie shied away from those words. “You don’t have to say that.”
“I mean it,” Hugo pressed. There were few walls between them now. “My mom said not to since I couldn’t control my powers yet.”
Brie’s smile turned curious. “How can you do normal stuff? Like…sex?”
Hugo laughed. “Lots of practice and self-control. Wait…” He sobered, recalling what started this. “How’d you find my gear stash?”
Brie smiled and glanced away. “You always come from that direction before lunch and first period,” she said. “A week before the Atascadero quake, I walked over and found the storage unit but didn’t enter.”
Hugo thought back to the specifics of that day. “It rained. No wonder I missed your scent.”
Brie stared at him blankly. “Scent… Oooh… Ewww!” She shuddered, then continued. “The day of the earthquake, I was meeting my counselor and heard a secretary say school maintenance got a call about rats in that unit. I ran over, searched for half an hour, found your suit.” She massaged her right thigh. “And hurt my knee.”
Hugo felt the stiffness bleed from his broad shoulders. He regretted ever doubting Brie’s loyalty. “Thank you so much.”
Brie lit up hearing that. “Anytime.” She cleared her throat. “What happened with your robot duplicate?”
Hugo jerked back. Speaking with Brie about his double life was bizarre. “You said you only saw a blur.”
“I lied,” she retorted nonchalantly. “Didn’t want anyone getting suspicious.”
Hugo stared her up and down in amazement. She’d lied to police for him. Wow.
“That fucked me up.” Brie looked up at him from under her eyelashes. “Kinda relapsed because of it.”
“I noticed.” Hugo vividly recalled Brie’s glassy-eyed stupor in the days afterward.
“Oh.” Brie hissed through clenched teeth and let her hands drop. “I’d had nightmares…since the Easy Breezy video came out and then after Black Wednesday.” She nodded. “Was finally shaking them off when you got snatched at the carnival.”
Hugo winced, innards twisting at the thought of hurting her again. “Sorry.”
“After the Easy Breezy video.” Brie’s voice grew thick and wavery, her lower lip quivering. “I lost something. And I was…so sad.” She fanned herself with both hands to dry the budding tears. “It made the bullying at school and online worse…. Even now, it still hurts so much sometimes I can’t breathe.”
Hugo knew where this led and cut the space between them in two strides. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, I have to—”
“No, you don’t.” Hugo looked into her eyes, taking her hands in his.
Brie stared back in bald-faced horror. “Baz.”
“Yeah.” Hugo drew her into his arms and cradled her flareup of grief.
Brie clung to him like a drowning woman. Hugo closed his eyes, surprised how much he’d missed this affection between them. Brie’s body warmth and the thrum of her heart left him drunk and fuzzy. It wasn’t until noticing the last of the fog burning away that he grasped how much time had passed. And by Brie’s dopey smile, that hug was exactly what she’d needed.
“By the way,” Hugo remarked when they reluctantly drew apart. “What’s your problem with Aegis?”
Brie’s grin turned cheeky. “Nothing.”
“Then why don’t you like him…me?”
“Aegis is my favorite, silly,” Brie teased as if he should’ve known this. “But I can’t go full Twihard on you. That might raise some questions.”
Hugo burst out laughing. What had he done to deserve such great friends? “You’re something else, Breezy.”
Interlude: Spencer
The metallic ball whizzed past in a gleam of motion.
She blasted the target with a purple flash of ultraviolet energy. The sphere burst into tiny fragments.
Smiling, she wiped dribbling sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. In black bicycle shorts and a sports bra, her hair up in a topknot, she stood ready for the next target.
A shiny blur flew up from the corner of her left eye. She whirled again, unleashing a UV blast from both hands. She undershot by an inch, the target floating higher.
She swore at the mistake and swept her UV blast upward in a scorching arc. The sphere got sliced and burnt to bits. Then she waited for another. That silvery sphere flew out from the ceiling of this sterile, steely training space. And she was ready to destroy that target as well.
Hatred gave her focus. Anger fueled her, even as her muscles were spent.
With each silvery sphere, she saw the faces of her enemies. Brie, her father, J-Tom, Hugo.
Spencer Michelman had worked on target practice for over an hour, testing her limits, pushing herself harder. And this had proceeded a hand-to-hand sparring session. This had become her life since Paxton-Brandt had freed her. She took this opportunity seriously.
After a scalding-hot shower, Spencer changed into a tank top and yoga pants, her long bob of black hair damp and lank down her upper back. She arrived on the third floor of her new home. This place was huge, sporting ultra-modern yet minimalist architecture. Exotic artworks from all across the globe decorated the walls, each with a story behind their purchase. She expected nothing less from Steve Olin, her current guardian. Living with a normal family was nice, but they still weren’t her family.
She exited the elevator and headed past the glass walls between her and an open-air dining room. Usually, the Olin family ate breakfast here. Tonight, Steve Olin stood in the center of an intimate gathering. Tallish and well-built with laughing blue eyes and whitish-gold hair, Olin looked like a CEO. The pricy suit was a costume, with no tie and his shirt collar open. By his jovial demeanor, Spencer never would’ve guessed that Olin was currently fighting to keep his job.
She slowed and did a double take at Olin’s guests. “What the…hell?”
One guest was Noah Huntley. The US Senator had dominated the news of late, demanding restrictions on superhuman abilities and superhero identities to be public. Spencer knew many superheroes, so naturally she hated this stance. Most worrying was the growing support since the Forces of Nature's attack on San Miguel. By his skinny frame, bookish face, red curls, and kind hazel eyes, one would never guess this man’s awfulness. Spencer gagged. Huntley made her skin crawl.
Also speaking with Olin was Rebecca Reyes, her red cocktail dress flattering that eye-popping figure. The news veteran’s face looked somewhat waxy but that didn’t diminish her beauty. Reyes’s presence surprised Spencer, given her professional and personal relationship with OWE’s Blur.
She couldn’t place the handsome young man speaking with Olin and Huntley. But Spencer knew he was Brazilian, recognizing the complexion and features of her mother’s people anywhere. Something about his carriage and designer suit revealed this was a man of importance.
Kai Bramble, the Avngr app founder, stood beside the dining table, with perfectly disheveled sandy hair and trimmed stubble. The lanky tech mogul’s hoodie, frayed jeans, and “fuck you” flipflops, completed the Silicon Valley douchebro getup.
But Spencer’s attention was drawn to the familiar face holding Bramble’s attention.
Riva de León, longtime family friend, was in deep conversation with him while daintily holding a glass of red wine. The entrepreneur was glammed up with sun-kissed skin and glossy sheets of black hair. Riva’s sparkly gold dress hugged her petite body, the deeply plunging neckline reaching her belt. No wonder Smith struggled to focus on her face.
Standing nearby was Lorna Zimmer, Riva’s longti
me friend and constant shadow. She cut a slim and dignified figure in her shimmering silver, one-shoulder gown with a deep side part to her pixie cut aquamarine hair. Lorna wasn’t chatty or outgoing like Riva, usually sticking to the sidelines observing her business partner’s interactions with those probing green eyes. Spencer had always felt somewhat creeped out in the woman’s presence.
Riva usually gave a heads-up whenever she visited. Curbing the urge to grab Riva’s attention, Spencer kept walking past the gathering.
She reached her bedroom, blandly taking in the surroundings. The Olins hadn’t moved in all her clothes and furniture, but the large room had enough for now. She parked on her bed and began going through truckloads of homework. There was roughly two months to catch up on. But Spencer had always enjoyed academics.
Putting on her headphones with some music, she dove in headlong. Hours flew by like minutes before an insistent knock on the door reached through the music. Spencer looked up from her laptop, irritated. Was this Mr. Olin trying to play father figure again? But Spencer knew that would be rude. “Yeah?”
“May I enter?” The visitor outside wasn’t Olin.
Spencer pulled off her headphones and popped to her feet, openly pleased. “Yeah. Come in.”
The door opened to reveal Riva de León’s face-eating smile. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her. Riva was shorter than Spencer without heels. But her charisma and that eye-popping figure dominated any room she entered.
Riva spread her arms. “C’mere, carina.”
“Hi!” Spencer ran over and hugged Riva, the faint scent of alcohol tickling her nose. “Didn’t know you were in town!”
“Last-minute trip…” Riva pulled back with a grim look. “Given the circumstances.”
Spencer’s enthusiasm dropped. “Yeah.” Those “circumstances” surrounded her asshole father betraying Paxton-Brandt, and the company’s woes. With Riva being a large investor, her direct involvement was understandable…and troubling. Spencer knew Paxton-Brandt was just one of many companies Riva had stakes in. But even before her mother had been jailed, this woman had been a surrogate mother since childhood.
Every so often, Riva let slip the side of which made her the successful entrepreneur she was today. The influence and generosity juxtaposed with ruthlessness.
