Mutation (10 page)

Chapter 12

I spent a few more hours with Mom and Gramps - mostly playing some board games - before heading out for my date with Electra.  In fact, it was to be a double date; my friend Smokescreen and his girlfriend were joining us and we were all going to a drive-in.

I arrived at the safe house about an hour early.  I wanted to have a final powwow session with Mouse, and I’d also asked him to reach out to Alpha Prime so we could have a chat before I left for the Academy.  The former I was looking forward to; the latter, not so much.

Mouse was hanging out in the common area when I came in, sipping what appeared to be a coffee and tapping away on a computer tablet.  He barely glanced up as I sat down across from him.

“You all set?” he asked matter-of-factly.

“I suppose,” I said with a shrug.  “I followed the suggested list of items to bring, but it’s not like I’ve done this before.”

“Well, did you ask anybody?” He looked up, setting the tablet aside.  “Electra?  Smokescreen?  Any of the other teens?”

“No,” I answered sheepishly.  “I didn’t want to come across as some ignorant hick.”

“Apparently the great Kid Sensation is starting to believe his own press.  Look, it’s not going to hurt your market value to ask some of your peers for advice.  They’ve been to the Academy; they know the pitfalls, the things to look out for.”

“I just figured I’d ask you if I had any questions. 
You’re
my mentor.”

“Yeah - a mentor who never went to the Academy.  You seem to forget that I failed the Super Teen Trials three years in a row.”

“I know, but the Alpha League is now led by that three-time loser.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!  ‘Three-time loser’?  I don’t remember planting that label on myself.”

“Well, you admittedly failed three times in a row.  I think that qualifies you for the title.”

“The point of my previously sharing that with you,” Mouse said, tapping his finger on the table for emphasis, “was not to paint my failures in broad strokes like you’re doing, but to highlight the fact that there were flaws in the system used to identify talents among supers.  Thus, my failures were more of an indictment of the methodology used at the time than a reflection on my abilities.”

“And just what are those abilities?”

For a second there, it looked as if Mouse were about to speak, and then he laughed.  “Nice try, Kid, but that’s nowhere near good enough to get info from me.”

I smiled, graceful in defeat.  Despite being my mentor, I still didn’t have a handle on what Mouse’s power was.  I’d tried to coax it out of him before, but he’d never say.  Likewise, trying to trick him into revealing it - as I’d just attempted - typically ended in failure.

“Anyway,” Mouse continued, “since you’ve got time to clown around, I’m just going to assume that you’ve got all the bases covered with respect to the Academy.  And if you don’t, the first two days are going to be orientation for the new people, so you can get all your questions answered then.”

“Wait a minute,” I said, frowning.  “If rookies like me are going through orientation, what are veterans like Electra and Smokescreen going to be doing?”

“Getting re-acclimated.  Reacquainting themselves with school resources like sports equipment, scouting locations for off-campus field trips such as the lake…”

“In other words, they’ll be goofing off for the first couple of days while the newbies are stuck in class.”

“Pretty much.”

“That sounds fair.”

“R-H-I-P, young man.  Rank has its privileges.”

“What rank?  Electra and I are in the same grade!”

“But she’s already been through orientation.  She knows the stuff you still need to learn.”

That comment reminded me of something.  “Speaking of knowing things…” I went on to tell Mouse about BT and to let him know that he should expect a phone call in the next few days.  Hopefully putting those two together would take some of the pressure off me with respect to Vixen’s request that I do well in my classes.

I had just finished speaking when Mouse nodded in the direction behind me.  “I think someone’s here for you.”

I turned around and saw Electra standing near the far wall.  A smile started to creep onto my face - until I saw who she was talking to.  Alpha Prime.

He was dressed in his Alpha League uniform.  He was tall, roughly six-seven, with dark hair, chiseled good looks, and a physique that looked sculpted rather than natural.  In short, unlike Rouge, he actually had the kind of appearance one expected of the world’s greatest superhero.  Beyond that, how do you describe power incarnate, omnipotence personified?

As I watched, he raised a hand and pointed in my direction.  Electra looked in the direction indicated, then marched over to me.  Behind her came Alpha Prime - walking this time, much to my surprise.  Ordinarily, he would simply float from one place to the other, his primacy self-evident.

“You jerk,” Electra said when she got close.  I didn’t have much experience with girls, but I knew that I needed to keep my mouth closed at the moment.  “You’re way early,” she continued.  “I’m nowhere near ready.”

“It’s okay,” Mouse said.  “He just popped in early to see me and AP.” He nodded towards Alpha Prime.  “Right, Jim?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed.  “You’ve still got plenty of time to get ready.”

“Oh?” she responded.  “Are you saying that I
need
a lot of time to get ready?”

“No, not at all.  You tend to keep things plain, so you should be ready in practically no time.”

“So now I’m
plain
?  I’m just some homely, run-of-the-mill chick
–
”

“No, no, no,” I stammered.  This was going badly (although not as bad as our first date, which had ended up with Electra blasting me with a bolt of electricity).  “What I meant was…”

I trailed off as I picked up on some high levels of emotions coming from around me - basically humor and mirth.  I glanced around and saw Mouse and AP quietly snickering - and Electra straining not to crack a smile.

“Very funny,” I said, and all three burst out laughing almost simultaneously.

“Oh man,” Mouse said between chuckles, “she really had you tap dancing for a second there.”

I looked at Electra and understood:  this was payback for the other night at the Eiffel Tower.

“
Touché
,” I said, nodding in her direction.

*****

After Electra left to go finish getting ready, Mouse excused himself.  Rather than talk in the common area, Alpha Prime asked that I teleport us to the roof of the safe house.  Once there, he zoomed up into the sky and I followed.  We leveled off at about a thousand feet.  It was still light outside and we were clearly visible (should anyone be looking for a pair of guys floating up in the air), but it was as much privacy as we’d be likely to get anywhere else.

“So,” he said after a moment, cape whipping behind him in the wind, “you and Electra, huh?”

I shrugged noncommittally.  “I don’t know.  I like her, and she seems to like me.”

He simply nodded, and I realized how awkward our relationship must be for him:  the girl he’d helped raise almost like a daughter, and the biological son he’d barely ever laid eyes on.  Not to mention the fact that we were all part of the Alpha League.  It was like some weird superhero soap opera.

“She’s a good girl,” he said after a few moments.  “I hope things work out for you guys.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, caught a little off-guard at discussing my dating life.

“But as much as I want your relationship with her to work out,” he went on, “I want ours - yours and mine - to work out more.”

“That’s why we’re here,” I said flatly.

“That’s why
I’m
here.  But you…are you here because you want to be, or because your mother made you?”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile at that.  “A little bit of both, I suppose.  I promised her I’d try.”

“You also told me a few weeks back that you were willing to work with me on having a real father-son relationship.” When I didn’t respond, he continued.  “So what can I do?”

“Huh?” I was confused.  “Do about what?”

“Tell me what I can do to get the ball rolling here.”

“There’s nothing to be done,” I said, shaking my head in the negative.

“I know you hate me, Jim, but there’s got to be something, some way I can extend an olive branch.”

“I don’t
hate
you,” I said forcefully.  “I was definitely angry for a long time, although I got to get a lot of that out of my system the last time we talked.” He nodded in understanding.

“But the gist of the situation now is that I don’t
need
you,” I said.  “There’s no role for you to play.  I’m practically at the age of majority, and to the extent I need a father figure, I’ve got Gramps.  And he’s always been there.  Basically, we can work together and be teammates, but there’s no slot for you to fit into my life outside of that.”

He looked at me in an odd way, with hurt in his eyes.  I could also sense pangs of anguish shooting away from him like darts, so I clamped down on my empathic ability, determined not to let sympathy for him intrude on my thoughts.

“You know,” he said after an extended silence, “I haven’t seen my own father since I came to this world over eighty years ago.  I miss him every day, and as powerful as I am, I need him.  I need his wisdom, I need his support, I need his encouragement.  All men need their fathers, no matter how powerful they are.”

I was tempted to say that the converse obviously wasn’t true - that men apparently don’t need their sons (or else he wouldn’t have taken a sixteen-year hiatus from being in my life) - but something stopped me.  He hadn’t been a great father to me, true, but he was one of the good guys - the greatest of the good guys if you let some people tell it.  And he actually was trying.  Could I do any less?

I sighed in resignation.  “Look, we both know this is an extremely rocky road we’re trying to go down, so let’s just take it in baby steps.  I leave for the Academy tomorrow, but I’ll be home for the holidays.  Why don’t you get us seats for a game or something?”

“That’s months away, son,” he said after a moment, and I bristled at his casual use of the word “son.” “So what, we go hang out one time between now and the end of the year, then you go back to school and maybe we have another sit-down six months after that?”

“Well, I leave tomorrow.  The only other options - assuming you don’t pop up as a special guest at school -are to write or call, or whatever interdimensional equivalent they have for those at the Academy.”

“That’s fine with me.  The question is, will you write or call back?”

I stared at him for a second with something probably akin to shock on my face.  Regular and ongoing communication with my father was not something I had really anticipated.  Still, I forced myself to nod stiffly.

*****

We stayed aloft for a little while longer, making small talk - Alpha Prime asking about Mom and Gramps, me asking for anecdotes about Electra as a child.

When we finished speaking, I got ready to teleport us back into the safe house.  Before we did, however, he surprised me by laying a hand on my shoulder.

“Look,” he said.  “I know I don’t have a right to take pride in any of your accomplishments, but I do.  Having you as my son means everything to me, and I’m immensely proud of you.  And what I said before, about sons needing their fathers, is true.  So just know that if you ever need me - for anything - all you have to do is ask and I’ll be there.  In fact, I’ll be there even if you don’t.”

I mumbled an acknowledgement of what he’d just said, then teleported us back.

Chapter 13

The double date that Electra and I had with Smokescreen and his girlfriend was actually a fun time.  The notion of going out together was actually Smokey’s idea.  He’d been on hand during the crisis a few weeks back, and while he had come through it essentially unscathed, the entire experience had given him a new outlook.

Basically, he had needed to come to grips with the fact that being a cape could actually get you killed.  To be frank, I’d thought he’d reverse course and decide to live a “normal” life, so it was a bit of a pleasant surprise when he called the week before to say he’d be returning to the Academy.  Then he’d asked if Electra and I would be interested in a double date.

Smokey’s girlfriend, Sarah, didn’t have any superpowers.  That being the case, we didn’t necessarily want her seeing the safe house, so Smokey – who was driving – had picked me and Electra up first.  Then we had gone to get Sarah, who was a gorgeous Asian beauty with straight black hair that dropped below her shoulders.

The movie we were going to see was actually a drive-in double feature.  There was a horror film and a romantic comedy – an odd combination obviously intended to attract couples.

The first movie, a dumb piece of schlock about zombies, barely held anyone’s attention, so we found ourselves talking more than paying attention to the film.  Sarah turned out to be both fun and witty, and – even disregarding her attractiveness – I could plainly see why any guy would be drawn to her.  On my part, it was my first time at a drive-in, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the experience (if not the movie).

When the first film ended, there was a short intermission before the second was to begin.  While our dates excused themselves to go to the ladies’ room, Smokey and I stepped out of the car to stretch our legs.

For a few minutes, neither of us really said anything.  Empathically, I could feel something building inside him, a kind of anxiety that he was longing to let out.

“I’m glad you decided to come back to the Academy,” I finally said.  “It’ll be nice to have one person I know already there.”

“You don’t have to worry about knowing anyone,” he replied.  “Everybody already knows you – the intrepid Kid Sensation.”

I frowned a little.  The moniker of “Kid Sensation” was actually a media concoction, not something I’d come up with myself.  Yet I’d never bothered trying to refute the sobriquet or distance myself from it.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone will want to be my friend,” I said.

“Like who?  Your competition?” He nodded in the direction of a guy near the concession stand.  I looked as directed and recognized the person in question as Dynamo, another teen with an enviable power set that included an ability I’d been longing for:  super strength.

For a second, I thought it highly coincidental that Dynamo would also be here on the same night we were.  Looking around, however, I quickly realized that there were quite a number of super teens here that I recognized.  Then I remembered:  coming to this drive-in on the last night of summer had become kind of a tradition among super teens in the area.

Still, I was a little puzzled by Smokey’s comment.  “What do you mean ‘competition’?” As far as I knew, Dynamo – in addition to having cool powers – was also an all-around nice guy.

“Well, with Paramount gone, there’s a void at the top of the pyramid.  Which teen is the new golden boy who will lead the next generation of supers?  Everyone is laying odds that it’s either you or Dynamo.”

“Why does it have to be anyone?  Having all that pressure on him is part of what broke Paramount.  As far as I’m concerned, the slot can stay empty.”

Smokey shook his head and made a tsking sound.  “You don’t know much about science, do you?  Nature abhors a vacuum, my friend.  That spot will be filled, either willingly or unwillingly.”

“Well, why don’t you take it?”

“Yeah, right,” he said sarcastically.  “I’ve got an extremely low-level talent – the ability to make smoke.  It took that battle we had to make me finally realize that I’ll never be anything more than a sidekick at best, with only the ability to create a distraction in the field.”

“What are you talking about?  You helped save the world!  Regardless of talent level, that means something.”

“I barely did anything,” he retorted.  “It was mostly you and Mouse, and some help from Electra.  I’m not sure that what I did would even count as an assist.”

Understanding dawned on me in an instant.  “So that’s what it is.  You’re thinking you don’t belong at the Academy, that you shouldn’t be a cape.”

“Let’s face it, man.  Ultimately, I’m probably more of a liability in the field than an asset.”

“If that’s the case, then what changed your mind about coming back to school?”

He was silent for a moment before answering.  “I didn’t tell anyone the entire story, but my parents knew something had happened – just from the way I was acting.  Plus, there was the whole thing with Alpha League HQ getting demolished.  Basically, they told me that they didn’t want me to go back.  They’d rather have me alive and living ‘normal’ than dead and a hero.  And I felt the same.  So did Sarah.”

“Wait a minute,” I said in surprise.  “You told her?  You told her you’re a super?”

“I had to tell her something.  We’ve been together for three years, and for the last two – as far as she knew – I’ve been away at boarding school most of the time.  That means the summer is really the only time we have together.  But with me moping around for most of the past few weeks and shutting her out, she was getting ready to write me off.  I could feel it.  So I told her.”

“And did it help?”

“Lots.  Being aware of what I was going through let her know that the problem wasn’t a lack of interest in her.  She realized it was something I needed to work through and having her support meant a lot.

“So I spent a week hanging out doing what non-powered people do.  Trying to figure out what I would do with my life, what kind of job would I want if I didn’t have to worry about fighting super criminals, mad scientists, alien monsters…”

“Sounds kind of boring,” I interjected as he trailed off.

“You would not
believe
how boring!” he shot right back, laughing.

“So basically, you’re coming back because you’re now an adrenaline junkie.”

“I guess so,” he chuckled.  “So now it’s just a matter of adjusting to the fact that, with my power set, I probably won’t ever be more than a D-List superhero.”

I put a hand on his shoulder.  “Regardless of power level, I’ll take you over just about anybody out there any day of the week.”

He grinned.  “Thanks.”

*****

The second movie of the double feature, the rom-com, actually seemed quite good (although I suspected it only appeared that way because the lead-in film was so terrible).  Like most films in the genre, there was the silly misunderstanding between the love-struck couple, the mad dash to the airport, and the confession of love before a room full of strangers.  In short, nothing really new, but that didn’t keep it from being enjoyable.

Afterwards, we participated in another tradition that I was unfamiliar with:  all of the super teens went to eat at a late-night grill that was owned by a couple of former superhero sidekicks.  The house specialty was the chili-cheese fries, and the owners let all the teens get a free order of them in honor of it being the last day of summer for us.

“So,” Sarah said while reaching for some fries, “is everyone here a super?”

“I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say everyone,” Electra answered, glancing around.  If she was surprised that Sarah knew about us, she didn’t show it visibly or emotionally.  “But most of them definitely are.”

“It just seems weird to me, knowing that someday, probably in the near future, some of these people are going to be saving the world – along with my Sugarbear.” She patted Smokey on the cheek and gave him a light peck on the lips.

“Sugarbear?” Electra and I said in unison.

“Shut up,” Smokey said, glaring at both of us as Electra and I started laughing.

“So what exactly did, uh, Sugarbear tell you about supers?” I asked when I finally caught my breath again.

“Not much.  Just that he goes to the Academy.  And that he plans to regularly put his life in danger.”

“And you don’t like it,” Electra stated.

“At first, no, I didn’t.  I wanted him to quit.  I know we’re just kids and it’s not like we’re going to get married or anything, but he’s a good guy.  I didn’t like the idea of him getting hurt.  Plus, just looking around here, it looks like there are enough future capes here to make ten superhero leagues.”

“But…?” I asked when it seemed like she wasn’t going to go on.

“But,” she finally said, “what he’s doing is important.  There has to be somebody willing to put it all on the line, whether it be a superhero, a policeman, a fireman, a soldier, what have you.  Because if we aren’t willing to risk anything, we risk losing everything.”

I nodded in agreement as she spoke, suddenly understanding why Smokey had been willing to share his deepest secrets with this incredibly insightful girl.