Flicker, Fade, Soar Page 4

  Part Three

  The force of the explosion made me stagger, but Josef was there, and he caught me, but the earth rumbled and we both fell. I cut my arm on a sharp rock, and pain shot up my arm. Then smaller rocks started raining from the sky.

  I finally found my footing, and I pulled Josef away. We both ran for our lives, but a larger bit of rock fell right in front of us, and I tripped over it, flying in the air for a moment, and then hitting the ground hard. A small rock fell on my head, and stars exploded in my eyes. Giving up on running, I crawled into a ball, protecting my head with my hands. Josef put his body over mine, shielding me from the torrent.

  Finally, no more rocks fell. Blood ran down my arm and fell onto the rock-covered forest floor.

  Josef slowly got to his feet. He looked shaken. “Didn’t mean to hurt you, Rose.” Then he laughed a little. “But I did save your life. Why am I apologizing?”

  Oh, Josef.

  “You almost killed me in the process, though!” I said, half angry, half relived, giving him a shove that conveyed those emotions perfectly. “There were much easier ways to save my life! Like pick me up and carry me…” I was lost in the fantasy of what that would be like for a moment.

  “If you were a little faster, you wouldn’t have needed me to help you anyway, Rosey-Slowey,” Josef glared at me. I couldn’t tell whether or not he was kidding.

  Josef winced and rubbed his back.

  “You OK, Rose and Jo?” Cat came over, a concerned tone in her voice.

  “I’m… well, actually, not really. Are there any bandages around here?” I changed my mind and decided to tell the truth. The time for heroism would come later.

  “I have some,” an unfamiliar voice said. I looked up, and there was the mystery girl! She grinned at me, revealing white but slightly crooked teeth.

  “Who are you? You almost killed us!” I yelled.

  “Sorry, but I didn’t know you were there. I was in the zone. Anyway, I’m Alexia. Alexia Hayes. I’ve been training to try and kill Abomination for forever. He killed my mother.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, but she immediately collected herself.

  “Looks like you guys are just the stroke of luck I was looking for,” the newly named Alexia said. She had recovered extraordinarily fast from her tears, and she seemed to be glowing with joy and happiness. She reminded me of Winnie straightaway.

  “What?” Ty squeaked, coming up.

  “Let’s just say I happened to overhear your conversation in the sky. Weren’t a couple of you talking about wanting to defeat Abomination?” Alexia asked us shockingly.

  “How on Earth did you know that?” Jonah shot back at her.

  “I’m a TeleEcho!” Alexia told us, beaming.

  Oh, boy. Another Super word I didn’t know. But Cat’s jaw had dropped, and Davies looked stunned.

  Alexia looked around at us. “You know, when Telekinesists can hear out of the objects they are controlling?”

  Whoa.

  Josef looked at her, then looked at me. “TeleEchos are even rarer than Healers! One out of a hundred Supers born are Healers. One out of fifty are Telekinesists. But only one out of five hundred are TeleEchos.”

  Good gosh. This girl really was special. What else had she heard up in the sky?

  But special or not, my arm hadn’t stopped bleeding, and she had bandages. I was about to speak, when Josef said, “So, about those bandages…” Everyone laughed.

  “One moment,” Alexia grinned. “Looks like some nasty bruises and cuts!”

  “That you caused,” I muttered. But she had admitted it was an accident, and we were obviously on the same side. I trusted her for now.

  Alexia went back to the area she was practicing telekinesis in. She grabbed a sports drawstring back, and came out with a wad of bandages. “Hey, you!” she called to us. Everyone looked startled. “No, the one in the pink shirt with black stripes.”

  That was me. Oh no. I didn’t like new people. But I was the leader of the ABC. I could meet a new person every once in a while.

  “Yes?” I called back.

  “Can you come help me carry back some of this?” Alexia yelled, dropping half the bandages in her arms.

  “Sure,” I replied easily. A true leader was helpful and bold.

  I jogged over and took half her load. “Thanks,” Alexia said gratefully. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “Look, I know you like Eli, whoever that is. I’m a super matchmaker. Want me to pair you up?”

  I felt a surge of annoyance. “Where did you hear that?”

  Alexia gave me a sly smile. “Remember, I’m a TeleEcho.”

  A few hours before, I would have agreed. But now, I wasn’t so sure. Who rescued me from the rock (even though he almost killed me again in the process)? Josef. Who shrunk and hid? Elias. But I had no proof Josef liked me, and I didn’t even know if I liked him. He was still mean to everyone, even me. Elias was sweet, and a safe choice.

  What to say?

  “Uh…” I pretended to drop my load and bent to pick it up, stalling for time so nobody in TOCS would hear us. “Uh…”

  “How about you tell me later, Rose. Pretty name, by the way.”

  “Uh, thanks. But…”

  Alexia interrupted me. “You can tell me after you’ve seen my mad matchmaking skills. I am quite sure Sandra likes that big Flyer, what’s-his-name. Davies, that’s it.”

  “Wait, what? Sandra, liking anyone? Other than her girlfriends?”

  “Yes. She whispered it to Winnie on the flying trip.”

  “Oh boy.”

  “Oh girl, you will be begging me to pair you up next after you see this seamlessness,” Alexia misinterpreted my hesitation. “I promise you, I’m top-notch. Now, bye-bye!”

  We’d arrived back at the place where ABC was gathered. I handed a big bundle of bandages to Josef, who accepted them without a sound. He seemed to be in a great deal of pain.

  “You ok?” I asked.

  Josef rolled his eyes. “I will be.”

  A little deflated, I walked over to Elias. “Will you help me put on these bandages?” I asked.

  Elias, without a word, wrapped my arm in the bandages.

  “Thanks,” I said, equally softly, even more deflated.

  I was twelve, I supposed. There would be time for relationships later, though I felt doubtful a boy would ever like me after I’d seemed to ruin the great start I’d had with two possibilities. For now, I needed to focus on training my Power Core. I guessed that if I started to feel hopeless, I was in trouble, because that meant I was dying, but I had felt fine so far.

  I noticed Davies was a little removed from the rest of the group. He seemed to have something in his hand that he was reading over and over. Sandra was blushing over at the other end of the area TOCS and the Flyers were in. She had some flowers in her arms, and was talking excitedly with Winnie. Meanwhile, Alexia watched with satisfaction from the other side of a tree. It seemed her matchmaking process had begun.

  I grinned, just because Alexia seemed so satisfied. Her Winnie-like happiness was contagious.

  Cat walked up to me. “Hey, leader,” she grinned.

  Smiling, I gave her a small wave.

  “I’ll admit this was a much-needed break from our worries, but we have to consider that the LOS is captured right now, and members may be dying from their injuries.” Cat looked serious. “We need to make a plan.”

  I thought for a moment. “Do you know where Abomination’s hideout is?”

  Cat pulled out her LeagueMessenger from her pocket. She pressed a few buttons, then looked confused. “Yeah, the coordinates are listed. They say Abomination’s lair is right here, actually. Weird.”

  “Maybe…” I started to voice an idea, but then realized that a small rock was hovering in midair right next to my ear. “Alexia!”

  I spun around. Alexia was near the rest of ABC behind me. She was staring right at us, and her hands were in the air, unmov
ing. When she noticed me looking at her, she lowered her hands quickly. The rock fell to the ground with a small thunk.

  Alexia grinned sheepishly at us, then she ran over. “Sorry for eavesdropping, but…”

  “You have got to stop doing that!” I roared, interrupting her.

  Alexia’s grin vanished. “Look, I’m sorry. Really, I am. But I know how to get into Abomination’s hideout.”

  My annoyance vanished as fast as her grin. “Oh, really? How do you get in? And how on earth did you figure it out?”

  “I’ve been around here for years, Rosey-Posey.” Alexia flashed me a sly smile when she said that. I silently fumed. She was using Elias’ nickname for me.

  There was silence for a moment.

  “So, where is it?” Cat said eventually.

  “I’ll show you, but first, gather your ABC together. If anyone isn’t watching when I do this, they won’t be able to see where to get in. That’s the way my- I mean, Abomination programmed it.”

  What did Alexia cut herself off from saying? I tried, but couldn’t think of a logical explanation. My worst enemy? No, why would she not want us to know that? My… my what? I had no idea. But Alexia was helping us, so we owed her one. It couldn’t have been that important.

  I called ABC to me, saying “Alexia has discovered the way into Abomination’s hideout! Come here, and watch closely.”

  The members of ABC trotted over. “Where is it, Lex?” Winnie asked.

  “Right here, Win,” Alexia responded, grinning, pointing to a tree.

  I ignored the fact that Alexia and Winnie already had nicknames for each other, and peered at the tree.

  Alexia laughed, then tapped one, two, three times on the trunk’s base. A little box with numbers popped out. Alexia tapped in a code, and the tree trunk vanished, leaving a yawning tunnel.

  I gaped. “Uh, how did you know how to do that?”

  Alexia shrugged, looking mildly uncomfortable. “There’s only so many combinations that you can make on one of those things.”

  “There are MILLIONS. Don’t tell me you just happened to plug in the right code, and you just happened to know how to tap three times on the tree trunk, and you just HAPPENED to have just been here for years, just waiting for someone perfect to come along and help you ‘defeat’ Abomination. There’s something you’re not telling us, Alexia,” I shot back at her, putting my hands on my hips and feeling like a true leader.

  Alexia had been growing increasingly more uncomfortable the whole time I was speaking. “Rose, my mother was my everything. When Abomination killed her, you really can’t imagine how I felt. I was willing to do anything for revenge, even wait years.” She jumped into the tunnel, holding onto the edge so she wouldn’t fall yet. “Coming?” And without another word, she let go of the edge and disappeared.

  “Arrrgh!” I muttered mutinously. “Why is she acting so awkward? There’s something she isn’t telling us. There’s got to be something she isn’t telling us.”

  Cat put her arm around me. “RoRo, she’s a kid. She must feel awkward with all these people bombarding her with questions. And who knows? Maybe she is hiding something. But we…” Cat seemed to change her mind. “Actually, Rose, you’re the leader. You decide if she’s trustworthy or not,” Cat said, crossing her arms definitively and giving me an encouraging smile.

  Oh, man. Decisions, decisions, decisions. It made it all the more awkward that Cat was staring directly at me, obviously reading my mind. Cat, please get out of my head, just for one minute while I think.

  “Fine, Rose, but I don’t think you get it. I can try not to focus on your thoughts, but everyone’s thoughts around me are always in my mind, ambushing me and covering me and giving me no peace,” Cat confided. “Except for TeleEchos. I couldn’t read Alexia’s mind at all. It was weird. I guess she has a certain kind of mind that I haven’t encountered yet. Sorry, guys. I know it would be a big help if I knew what Alexia was thinking.”

  “Now, Rose, instead of reading your mind, I’ll focus on somebody else’s thoughts while you deliberate.” Cat proceeded to turn towards a nervous-looking Etty. “Let’s play a game, Etts!”

  Now that I had peace, I could decide properly. Alexia was on our side. I could tell. The tears that welled in her eyes when she said Abomination had killed her mother, the way she brought bandages for our wounds and tried to play matchmaker with us, it all showed she was planning to make friends. But what was she hiding? “My…” what?

  And how did she know the exact way into Abomination’s lair? Coincidence, like she said, or something infinitely more sinister? Well, either way, we had to get into Abomination’s hideout, so I’d decide whether or not to follow Alexia after we emerged from the tunnel.

  I took a deep breath. “We will follow Alexia down the tunnel,” I announced.

  A chorus of cheers and muttered protests followed my words.

  “It’s too big a coincidence! What if Alexia could be leading us into a much bigger trap down here?” Jonah yelled.

  “She gave Josef and Rose bandages! What villain have you seen do that?” Sandra challenged.

  Jonah had no answer for that.

  “Ready, all?” I said before anyone else could raise a protest, and I jumped down the tunnel.

  I slid on the slightly damp stone, in a slow incline. I heard screams and loud voices behind me, echoing loudly in the tunnel. The cool stone carried me along for about a minute, and then it flattened out. I tried to scoot forward on the stone, but it was just too flat.

  The voices got louder.

  Suddenly, I felt a body careen into me. “OOF!” our two voices said at once.

  I turned around. It was Elias.

  “Sorry, Rosey-Posey,” Elias said to me. “Didn’t expect you there.”

  A familiar shriek echoed on the tunnel, coming closer and closer to us. Elias looked backwards towards his friend sympathetically. “Almost there, Lil!”

  Lily, screaming quite loudly, came shooting down the last inclined stretch and bumped into Elias, who bumped into me, sending me sliding another couple feet down the straightaway.

  I looked at Lily, surprised. “You alright?”

  Lily sat up, brushing off her now-wet blouse. “Fine. Just… claustrophobic. Can we move on? Please?”

  I agreed, and we set off, crawling on all fours, a trickle of water soaking our pants and the hard stone scraping our knees and palms.

  We crawled for about another minute, but finally, Elias saw the light up ahead. “Guys, I think we’re almost there!” he said excitedly.

  We crawled faster.

  Finally, we emerged, blinking, out of the tunnel. “Woo-hoo!” Lily said loudly.

  “Lily, I’m excited too, but we’re in enemy territory,” I reminded her. “We need to stay quiet, alert, and stealthy.”

  I realized that wasn’t going to happen when Ty and Etty bundled out of the tunnel, shrieking with joy and tumbling over and over on the ground.

  “Guys, shush…” I tried to say, but then Sandra and Winnie crawled out, chattering loudly.

  I sighed and gave up, waiting as Josef did an entire front roll out of the tunnel, and the rest of the Flyers and Jonah made their not-so-stealthy entrances.

  When everyone had arrived, the ABC gathered in a loose knot around me, talking loudly with each other, I called for order. “You guys realize that we’re in Abomination’s hideout right now?”

  “Actually, we’re not,” Cat spoke up, gesturing around us. I hadn’t even looked around yet, but as I noticed that we were in a small, muddy room with a low ceiling and damp floor, I saw her point.

  “But where else could his hideout be?”

  “Maybe up that ladder…” Josef said sarcastically, pointing to an extraordinarily obvious ladder at the other edge of the room.

  “Oh.” I flushed red. “Ok, then. Onward, ABC!”

  I led the climb up the ladder. The rungs were rotting wood, and they didn’t feel very stable. I wa
s glad, after about seven rungs, when we made it to the top.

  And what a sight awaited us!

  A huge building was looming in front of the ABC, probably a minute’s walk away. It was probably fifty feet tall at least, with random turrets and branches on the building, all a sterile silver. It was the most eccentric building I’d ever seen, and it looked less like an evil hideout than maybe a potato chip factory or something.

  In front of the building was a carpet of pine needles, with pretty big rocks jutting out every so often, and a couple lone trees.

  “Now that is the way to build an evil lair,” laughed Nicole.

  “I entirely agree,” Davies nodded. “If I had to be evil, I would definitely have a hideout exactly like that. Not that I’m evil.”

  Sandra flirtingly pushed him. “Don’t pretend, Davies. We all know your heart is cold.”

  Davies made a mock sad face. “Sandra, you know my heart melts for you.”

  Oh boy. Well, I guessed they were older, they could be boyfriend girlfriend if they wanted. I laughed to myself. Looks like Alexia wasn’t lying about her matchmaking skills.

  Suddenly, as if summoned by thought, Alexia popped out from a nearby tree. “Hey!” she grinned. Sandra screamed a little. So did Winnie.

  “Not expecting that, I’ll say,” admitted Davies, looking more than a little pink. “How much did you hear?”

  Alexia just grinned, and walked the rest of the way over to us. “So, I see you decided to follow me after all. Congrats on the bravery! Now, guess what I discovered while I was down here?”

  “What? Oh wait, let me guess. You magically, in thirty seconds, figured out where LOS was being kept.” I was so done with Alexia. Unless she had a really good answer to her ‘guess what,’ we were on our own for now.

  “I’ve been down here before. You know, watching and spying. And LOS is right through that first door over there. Dumb place to hold captives, right?” Alexia ignored my jab.

  I hated that we were possibly so close to LOS, yet possibly so far. “Alexia. I just don’t know if I can trust you.”

  Alexia shrugged. “K. That’s fine. See you around.” She started walking towards the door where she had said LOS was being kept.”

  Oh, fine. I had seen firsthand how trustworthy Alexia was so far. “Fine!” I said exasperatedly. “We’ll follow you.”

  Alexia grinned. “Ok.”

  We started walking and chatting. Davies and Sandra hung near the back, talking softly. Alexia caught my eye and motioned me towards the front.

  “Now, you see how amazing and seamless that was?” Alexia said mysteriously. “Don’t you want to learn my secrets to get the guy?”

  On one hand, no.

  On the other hand, heck yeah!

  But there was no time to give her an answer, or to even think further about my response. Alexia’s face went slack for a moment. It looked like she was about to cry. Then, she gave me a quick smile and jumped away.

  “Alexia, where are you going?” Winnie asked from behind, confused.

  Suddenly, I stumbled over something, a long, thin metal rod on the ground. I heard a whirring, and suddenly my feet left the ground. Somebody screamed.

  I realized we were being lifted up into a huge metal cage. All of ABC was in the cage, though Alexia was not.

  “Alexia! Help! What’s going on?” I screamed through the iron bars.

  “I’m sorry!” she said, with a pained look on her face.

  The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. I was wrong. So, very wrong. Alexia had betrayed us.

  So I said so. “You lying, filthy, traitor!” I screamed. My heart and head hurt with each word.

  “Yeah!” Josef said, then threw in a few swear words.

  “Josef!” Cat said, but her heart wasn’t in the scolding. Cat looked like she’d quite like to repeat a few of those words herself.

  A few seconds later, as we were lifted higher and higher in the cage, the whole ABC was screaming insults at Alexia that made mine look like a compliment. Alexia’s face looked quite as pained as if she was the one being lifted into the metal cage. “You’ll understand later! I had to!” she yelled.

  “Right, you had to, like, sell us out, you liar! Makes, like, so perfect sense. Wonder how much Abomination, like, paid you?” screeched Sandra.

  Suddenly, I heard an extremely alarming sound. It was like a rumble, mixed with cold humor that the creator of the sound probably found in killing people. It took me a moment to realize it was a laugh.

  A huge thing stepped into view. It was like a human, but nine feet tall, with deliberate modifications. It had an iron leg, a mechanical arm that seemed to have every weapon imaginable sticking out from it, and one red, pupil-less eye that swiveled around, finally coming to rest on Alexia.

  “That’s Abomination,” Cat whispered.

  Abomination gave Alexia a bit of a hard pat on the shoulder. “Good work, daughter,” he growled. I shivered as his words sunk in. It was hard to imagine our friend Alexia, the sweet, helpful, girl that had given my bleeding arm a bandage being remotely related to that monster.

  It was hard to believe, though, that she was lying to us. I really thought she was our friend. I realized with a jolt that even though I had only known her for maybe an hour, I would miss her. I would miss her matchmaking skills (now I wouldn’t know if she could have gotten Elias to like me!), I would miss her Winnie-like smile. But she was a traitor. No need to miss any of that.

  I thought she was my friend. That phrase hung in my head as we were lifted over the oddly-shaped building and then dropped into a deep room below one of the flat surfaces on the ceiling. We hit the ground with a slight jarring thud. There was a bit of sky left above us, but it was just out of reach, as the top of our metal cage seemed pretty solid, made up of bars even closer together than the ones on the sides.

  I looked around our prison room. The walls were damp and smelled of mildew, and even if we got out of the cage, we probably couldn’t fit into the space between the cage and the edges of the room. I stuck my hand out from one of the iron bars and could barely touch the walls. There was no way anyone, even Ty or Etty, could squeeze out from them.

  “Great. Just great. Why on earth Rose trusted Alexia, I will never know,” Jonah grumbled.

  Then, of all people, Josef spoke up. “Leave her alone, Jonah. We all trusted her.”

  I was shocked to silence. Just when I thought Josef was back to his old ways, he surprised me again.

  Then Cat spoke up. “Thanks, Josef.”

  We left it at that.

  “So, how do we get out of here, fearless leader?” Ty squeaked.

  Davies, who had been quiet since we got captured, said, “It’s obvious. We’re stuck down here. Never to get out or see daylight again.”

  “Whoa, naysayer. Stop right there. We will get out. It’s just a matter of how,” Winnie told him.

  But I couldn’t help silently agreeing with Davies. A feeling of hopelessness was settling itself in my stomach. We were never getting out. We were stuck, and it was my fault.

  “So… any ideas?” Cat asked us. “With all our brains together, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

  “Right,” Josef muttered. Looked like his short friendliness was too good to be true.

  “Josef, you could maybe fireball the ceiling and the Flyers could fly us out, like you did with that rock,” suggested Winnie.

  Josef tried. But obviously fireballing a non-living thing was a one-time occurrence, because we couldn’t see a single spark.

  “Looks like Josef ruins all our hopes and dreams, again,” Lily said nastily.

  Elias rolled his eyes but said nothing to defend Josef.

  We all settled ourselves into silent thinking. I tried to figure out a way to get out, but as I had already assessed most of our possibilities, I realized we were doomed.

  But there was one prospect I hadn’t planned for.

  Suddenly, we all heard a lo
ud clanging from above. It was Alexia, standing on top of our cage with a wrench in her hands!

  “You!” Etty pointed at her.

  “Yep,” said Alexia, fiddling with one of the bars on top of our cage. She wrenched it off, leaving a big enough hole for any one of us to get through.

  “What the...” Lily murmured.

  Alexia motioned us upwards. “Come. Run. Escape. I’ll tell you where LOS really is next.”

  I was not making the same mistake twice. “Ok, missy. One: You lied to us. Two: You handed us over to Abomination. Three: You’re expecting us to just blindly follow you when you could be leading us into an even worse trap?!?” I pointed out.

  Alexia sighed. “Yeah, I knew you’d doubt me. Wasn’t I a good friend, though, to all of you? It was necessary to lead you down here. You see, I needed to stay on my Dad’s good side for a bit longer, so…”

  Nicole interrupted her. “Yeah. About that. How on earth is that monster your father? He looks more like an experiment that went badly to me.”

  Alexia sighed again. “That’s actually about right. Ok. I guess I’ll have to tell you my story.”

  “I was born to Rick and Alyssa Hayes. A happy couple turned to a happy family. Seven years of uninterrupted bliss.” She looked to the sky, caught in the memory.

  “But then Dad decided he was bored with the same old life. He told my mother he was leaving his job as a LOS scientist to do some experiments on his own. Mom thought little of it. Dad had always loved to experiment.”

  “One day Dad came home different. Mom and I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but she did some detective work, and found out he was working on a plan to make himself a cyborg. Phase one was to give himself a robotic heart.”

  I gasped in spite of myself.

  Alexia looked at me. “I know, right? Then she found out what Phase two was: Give himself a robotic brain.”

  Cat gave a sharp intake of breath.

  “Obviously Dad knew that it could go horribly wrong. So he sat me and Mom down, oblivious to the fact that we already knew basically his entire plan. He said he would always love us and remember us, but for our own safety, he couldn’t live with us anymore.”

  “We had to stop him from altering his very being with robotics. So Mom crept into his lab that night. But she was too late. The procedure was already done.”

  Alexia hiccupped. “My mom d-didn’t know it. She stepped out from hiding and started pleading with him to change his m-mind. But his new brain had a g-glitch. He temporarily forgot her. All that registered was that a s-strange woman knew where his lab was, and knew his p-plans. So he k-k-killed…”

  Alexia could not finish the sentence. She broke down into tears. If she hadn’t been twenty feet above us, I would have given her a hug, despite still having doubts.

  We allowed her two minutes to calm down. Then one of the other Flyers said, “That doesn’t explain why he became a super villain, nor why he thinks you are working with him.”

  Alexia wiped her eyes. “I know. I’m getting to that.”

  She took a deep breath, and continued. “When Dad figured out what he’d done, he went crazy. Literally. His robotic brain went insane and he forgot everything, even his name. The only thing he remembered was that he had a daughter, and that he was extremely angry about something. So he vowed that whoever stood in his way from then on, he would destroy.”

  Alexia took another shuddering breath. “You see how dangerous it would be to let him know I hated him for what he did to my mom. So I came to him, told him I was his daughter, and that I would help him. But I always vowed that when the time came to rebel, I would do so, no matter the cost.”

  She finished up with, “When Abomination started destroying entire cities, the LOFS took notice. So from then on out, they’ve been fighting him. When LOFS came and tried to take him down and was captured, I cringed but forced myself to stand beside my Dad. When the whole LOS got captured, I knew it was soon time to take action. But not until you guys got here did I do anything against him.”

  “Well, I still don’t see why he’s so dangerous,” Jonah scoffed. “Couldn’t 300 highly trained Supers fight one robotic weapon arm and whatever Power he has?”

  “AbominationtakeshisvictimsPowerCoresandtransplantsthemintohimself,” Alexia said all in one breath.

  “Wha?” Josef furrowed his brow.

  Cat seemed to be the only one that’d caught that. “Wait… he kills people… and steals their Powers?” Cat whispered.

  Alexia nodded grimly.

  A horrified silence settled over ABC.

  “Ok. We can continue this conversation later. Now, you need to get out and save the world!” Alexia reminded us.

  I hopped on Nicole’s back. Everyone else boarded their Flyers, and we whizzed out onto the roof of the building.

  Now that we were in a little less danger, I really took in Abomination’s hideout. We were right next to one of the weird branches sticking out from the ceiling. The branch was in a curly pattern, and it seemed thick enough for one or two people to fit inside, assuming it was hollow. I put my hand on it. The metal was cool and hard to the touch.

  There were trapdoors every few feet on the ceiling. Some were circular, some were rectangular.

  Alexia, tiptoeing, led us to one of the trapdoors in the ceiling. “In there,” she mouthed.

  Davies reached for the trapdoor, but I held a hand out to stop him. “Wait,” I said softly.

  I looked deep into Alexia’s eyes. She looked back at me searchingly. “I can understand your doubts. Now all you can do is let go of them,” she whispered to me.

  I looked at her green eyes. I saw honesty, and I saw her trying to convey bravery to me.

  I opened the trapdoor.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the contents of the room. There were two cages in the room, one holding about twenty people, and one holding a lot more. “LOFS,” Alexia pointed to the first, “And the rest of the League of Supers,” she motioned to the other.

  My momentary surge of happiness faded when I saw the state of the Supers in the cages. Many were unconscious, though LOFS seemed to be in the worst condition. There wasn’t a single one of them without a visible injury.

  But with a reigniting spark of joy, I noticed Ms. Walker, though not looking her best, conscious and trudging around the cage, healing countless Supers, and looking longingly over at the other cage at LOFS who obviously needed her Power. I pointed her out to Cat, whose face lit up.

  Alexia whispered loudly, “PSSSSST!” Every Super looked up hopefully, but their expressions turned to alarm when they saw us with Alexia.

  “TOCS kids and Flyers! Get away from her!” Ms. Walker hissed.

  “No, it’s ok! She’s on our side!” Lily called down. “She’s here to rescue you!”

  Ms. Walker still looked skeptical. “After getting us here in the first place?”

  “We’ll explain later. But right now, we need to get you out of here and defeat Abomination once and for all!” Elias told them.

  A few gave halfhearted cheers. Alexia shushed them. “I’m glad you’re happy, but stealth is key now.”

  Alexia wrenched open the top of their cages, and the Flyers flew people out of the cage. Ms. Walker immediately went over and Healed the LOFS, who thanked her in murmured voices.

  “Ok. We’ve got a bit of an issue. Abomination let me know his plan, if you guys somehow escaped, was to use his Water Power and make a tsunami to try to drown you. So. We need to…” she trailed off as loud footsteps sounded. “Ok. Quicker plan. Always swim upwards, and don’t swallow any water. I’ve got to go.” Alexia scurried off.

  Abomination came out of one of the many trapdoors, saw us, and gave a wide grin that gave me the chills. “So. We have escape artists on our hands, hmmm?” he growled.

  I frantically tried to remember the things Alexia had said, and turn invisible for good measure, but Abomination raised his hands, and the water came too qui
ckly… and then everything exploded into salt and cold.

  I was sinking down, then a wave came and I was flipped upside down and knocked against a body. My lungs burned. Wasn’t I supposed to be able to hold my breath for longer than this?

  Apparently so, because I saw the ABC struggling all around me. They seemed to have breath left. I looked around, and it seemed that everything was blue.

  Then there was fresh, sweet air for a moment. I gasped and choked and tried to breathe and look around, but instead of breathing air, I breathed water, because I was back underwater. Which way was I flipped now? I closed my eyes. The water stung them so fiercely I felt like red-hot daggers were being poked into them.

  And then another wave hit and I was flipped every which way again. I tried to swim upwards, but I hit hard, cool metal. Ok, that was downwards. New plan.

  My lungs burned even more fiercely. Black started creeping in on the edge of my vision. I closed my eyes. Salt water leaked out of them and joined the thousands of water droplets that were dancing around me.

  I turned around, ready to swim upwards, and another wave hit, sending me spiraling into another body. I opened my eyes. It was Lily, and she was sinking towards the bottom, eyes closed, and face gray. I tried to grab her wrist, but all the strength had gone out of me.

  I swam hard, upward, but yet another wave hit me and I hit the metal floor with a sickening crunch in my arm. I lay there, starting to float upwards, pain shooting from my lungs and my arm, giving out desperate signals to my brain to breathe in something.

  I couldn’t take it anymore, so I sucked in water. I coughed and choked underwater. I had failed at Alexia’s rules.

  The blackness pressed in closer, harder, as I sunk to the depths of the water. It was hopeless…

  No! I said to myself. I am the leader of the ABC, and leaders do not give up! Even as my vision dimmed another three shades, I pushed off the metal floor, clutching my arm, and went up… up… up…

  And I burst the surface of the water, choking and hacking. I sucked in sweet, sweet air. The water was draining all around me, so I dragged myself to dry land and lay down, letting the darkness within me take over.