Hero Reborn (Keepers of Justice, Book 3) (3 page)

“Sam
, we need to relax.”

He face
s Cindy. “All our lives may be in danger.”

“
What? Dad—?” Kale stops talking when a loud noise thuds from one of the lower levels. We’re on the top floor, but we hear the sounds from the first floor. They’re loud and strong.

Another sound booms.

Kale gasps at X, who’s scanning the floors, looking through them to the first floor. Images fly into my head. Kale’s sending me what X sees. Men dressed in armor. I don’t know who they are. If they’re military or something else. They’re using weapons and grenades to crash through the walls. They’re attacking and grabbing some League members. Some fight back.

My
entire body trembles. We’re going to die.

“Stay here,” Samson orders
. He and Cindy rush out of the room.

We sit frozen.

After a few seconds, Kale leaps to the door. “Let’s go!”

X follows. I stay behind. “But your parents said—”

Someone from behind me grabs my arm. I let out a sharp screech and thrash my arms to get him off me, but his grip is too firm.

I’m flying. Well, someone or something is holding my
arms, leaving me suspended in the air. We’re flying over buildings at a very fast speed. I smell the person, her perfume. I look up. “Mom?”

She’s lying on her stomach, hands hanging down as
I clasp on to them. Two people clutch her legs for dear life. Kale and X.

“What’s going on?” I ask, shivering,
even though it’s July.

Mom doesn’t answer.

Finally
after a few minutes, we’re lowered to the ground. I look around, but have no clue where we are. All I see are buildings. Mom’s standing before us, her gaze glued to Kale. He must be reading her mind.

“What?” he says. “You want
us to…no! We’re coming with you.”

He makes a move to follow her, but she
whirls around. “No.” She looks at each one of us closely. “I don’t want any of you returning to the Tower.” She pulls me into her arms. “I need to rescue the others. Do as I say.”

Kale nods reluctantly. I don’t know what’s going on, but when Mom pulls off, I hold on. Feels like this is our last hug. Like I’m going to lose her.
“Mom.”

“I’ll be back. Promise.” She
kisses me before shooting up in the air. The three of us watch her get smaller and smaller until she’s gone.

X and I look at Kale for an explanation. He swallows. “
The League’s been attacked.”

My body shakes and I try to keep my legs from giving way. I don’t want to
collapse right now. “What do we do?” I squeak. “Where’s the rest of the League? My dad? Your parents?”

“I don’t know
,” Kale says.

I drop down to the
ground and try to steady my trembling hands. “But how were we attacked? Don’t we have awesome security? And who were those guys in armor?”

Kale holds out his hand to help me up. “
I don’t know. All your mom said was to get to safety.”

“Safety?”

“Yeah. The League’s got a safe house. Somewhere we can escape to in case something like this happens. Your mom said she’d meet us there with the others.”

Wow. Samson and Cindy are prepared for everything.

“Where is it?” X asks.

“The Bronx.
”

“Where are we?” I ask.

“Brooklyn. Let’s go.” Kale moves toward the subway station at the corner of the block.

X
pulls his arm back. “Not so fast. We need to change our clothes. Whoever attacked the League might look for us, for kids wearing what we’re wearing. We’ll need caps, too. Maybe glasses.”

“But no one knows our true identities,” Kale says. Because we always wear our uniforms and masks when we’re out saving the world.

“Most people don’t,” X says. “But we don’t know who these people are or what they know about us.”

“Were they the Blades?” I squeak again. “They didn’t look like them. They looked like…”

“The military?” Kale asks.

We get silent.

“Why would the military attack the League?” I ask.

“We don’t have time to figure this out now,” X says. “Let’s first
change our clothes and get to the safe house.”

I swallow this huge lump in my throat. “W-where will we get
the clothes from?”

Ka
le’s gaze sweeps the area until it lands behind me. I turn around and see a shop. He turns to X. X’s eyes get black, which means he’s using his power to look into the building. “No good. Security cameras.” He continues his search until he stops at a tiny shop. Looks like a thrift store. He points. “No cameras.”

“
Wait,” I say. “We have no money.”

“
That’s why I’m going to control them to give us the stuff,” Kale says. “Then I’ll erase their memories.”

I gasp. “C-control their minds? E-erase their memories?”

X says, “We don’t know what the hell’s going on, but it’s not safe for us. We need to join the others. We need to do whatever it takes.”

Yeah,
they’re right. Our lives are at stake. For some reason, someone is after us. Does it really matter if we steal a few articles of clothing?

I swallow. “Okay.”

We enter the store and Kale does exactly what he said. We each grab a shirt and jeans and change.

Once we’re done and Kale erases the memories of everyone inside, we leave the store.
Kale’s got a black cap that covers his blue eyes. X has a beanie. Since I can’t wear hats because the heat makes my head shrink, I’m wearing sunglasses.

“
To the subway?” I ask.

We throw our clothes in
to the dumpster near the shop and head for the subway station. As we pass by a bar, we stop short when we hear the Keepers of Justice being mentioned. A news anchor is talking on TV.

“
We’re updating you with the latest news. The United States Armed Forces have invaded the residence of the Keepers of Justice and have detained many members. The identities of these former heroes have not been released. Stay with us for more updates.”

“It
is
the military,” I say, feeling my jaw hit the ground. I quickly pull it back up.

“Detained members…” Kale breathes.
“What…what do they want with them?”

X shakes his head like he can’t believe it.

The news shifts to General Higgins, the middleman between the League and normal people. Part of his job is to make sure we don’t get out of line and things like that. He’s got short, gray hair and sharp brown eyes. People with mics are asking him questions. “Were Samson and Cindy captured?” one woman asks.

“Samson and Cindy are still at large
, along with several others.”

A man asks, “
What about their son, Kale?”

“
No word on Kale Zenith’s whereabouts.”

“
The heroes who were captured, are they talking? What information have you received?” another woman asks. He ignores her.

A third woman says, “Is it safe to step outside? What security measures must we take?”

He looks into the camera. “Stay indoors. I repeat, stay indoors until these so-called heroes are taken into custody.”

All
three of us gape at each other. I feel my eyes bulge out of their sockets. Kale is breathing heavily. X’s hands are curled into fists at his sides.

I’m about to ask what happened, when the camera is back on the
news anchor. “If you’re just joining us…Samson and Cindy Zenith, leaders of the Keepers of Justice, have murdered nearly forty innocent people. The images you’re about to see are graphic, so we warn you to please turn away if you do not wish to view them.” The camera displays a man and woman, who look like our leaders, walking through a park. They’re wearing their KOJ uniforms: Samson’s is royal blue with golden streaks. Cindy’s is gold with royal blue streaks. Both are not wearing masks. The KOJ logo is in shiny letters. It’s just starting to get dark out, probably earlier this evening. As they walk, Cindy raises her hand toward the families enjoying the summer day. One by one they collapse to the floor as blood pools out of their ears. Samson uses his telekinesis to knock the people off their feet. He also cracks some of their limbs and heads off.

Sweat drenches me
, and I’m trembling so hard my legs are for sure going to shoot out. I panic even more, ‘cuz if people see me, they’ll know who we are. “Guys,” I sputter, my body convulsing. “My arms and legs…can’t stand much longer. Help.”

X grabs my legs and Kale my arms
, and we rush behind a house with many bushes and shrubs. They lower me to the ground. “Sorry.” My voice is so faint I barely hear it.

“It’s okay
.” Kale pats my shoulder to try to relax me. It’s not working.

“W
-what happened?” I ask. “Samson and Cindy didn’t kill anyone. We saw them in the League like all day. Plus they’d never kill…”

“Don’t think about that,” Kale says. “Focus on calming down so we can head to the safe house.”

I close my eyes and try to think of other things, but I can’t. People are on the streets, shouting. Some are yelling to not leave their houses while others are not sure what the heck’s going on.

They sound so close. I open my eyes and try to peek out, but
I can barely lift my head. “Guys…”

“It’s okay,”
Kale reassures me. “They don’t see us.”

“
Dude, is that why the military attacked the League?” I ask. “Because they think Samson and Cindy killed those people?”

Kale clutches my shirt. “You’ve got to stop thinking about that. We need to hurry before someone finds us. Think of happy thoughts. I don’t want to erase your memories or knock you
out. Focus, man!”

I inhale a huge gulp of air and let it out
in small chunks. I try to clear my thoughts and think of happy things. Like nachos and pretzels and donuts. Of Furball’s cute smile. Her spikey red hair. Of playing video games.

Slowly, my limbs retract. After a few
seconds, I’m back to normal. Kale and X help me to my feet and we head for the subway station, peering around to make sure no one sees us.

“Kale,” X says as we
go down the steps. “Can you contact your parents?”

“Already tried.
Got nothing.”

I stop in my tracks.
“Well, of course you can’t contact Samson. Your mom put a telepathic fortification on his mind, right? But what about Cindy? Why can’t you reach her?”

“No,” Kale says. “Normally I’m able contact my dad.  The fortification protects his mind, but I
can still communicate with him.” He rubs the back of his neck. “But I can’t connect with any of them now. It’s like they’re…”

Dead? A shiver runs down my spine.

“Don’t go there,” X says. “Try someone else. Freeze.” Freeze is Samson and Cindy’s second in command. He can paralyze people.

Kale s
huts his eyes. I see the outline of them through his lids. They’re rolling around. He groans, clutching the sides of his head. His eyes shoot open. He gasps.

“What?” I ask.

He clutches his stomach, bending over. “S-someone else was in there.”

“Where?
” X says. “In Freeze’s mind?”

Panting, Kale nods. “A telepath.”

“A telepath?” I ask. “Who?”

“
Probably one who works for the government,” X says. “He must be probing the captured Keepers’ minds. Did he sense you, Kale?”

“No. I’m pretty sure he didn’t. I got out as quick
ly as I could.”

X curses. “You can’t use your telepathy to locate anyone. We don’t know who’s captured.”

“What about my parents?” Kale asks.

X shakes his head. “Not unless we know for a fact they’re safe.”

I swallow. Kale’s face is as white as paper.

X motions for us to continue down the steps
to the subway. “Let’s get to that house.”

We reach the last
step and stop before the turnstiles. We don’t have metro cards. Kale walks over to the woman in the booth and narrows his eyes. She smiles warmly before opening the door to let us through. Kale thanks her and we run down the stairs to the platform.

Many
people are around, waiting for the subway. They don’t pay attention to us.

I rub my gurgling stomach. “I’m hungry. Too bad we didn’t
grab snacks.”

X turns to me. “How can you think about food right now?”

“It’s my stomach…”

Kale slaps my back. “Don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of food when we join the others.”