Super Powereds: Year 2 (17 page)

“Need help?” The voice asking came from Hershel’s side. It was his neighbor, Steve, with whom he’d been exchanging notes since the class’s first meeting. Steve was a nice guy, crew cut and large shoulders hinting at his post college ambitions, and had been a help for Hershel in documenting formulas even as Hershel helped him in understanding them.

“Huh? No, no, just distracted.”

“Good, because if this stuff is sending you off into la-la land then I’m hopelessly screwed,” Steve half-joked.

“It’s not that bad once you grasp the basics,” Hershel assured him.

“Then why the mental drifting?” Steve asked.

“Just a little worried about my brother,” Hershel said carefully. He didn’t want to give too much away about his and Roy’s particular circumstances.

“Ah, going through a rough patch?”

“You could say that. More that he’s been pretty focused on his work lately, to the point of neglecting things that usually matter to him,” Hershel explained.

“Such as?”

“Women and drinking.”

Steve laughed. “Well, seeing as neither of those ever held much appeal for me, I’m not sure how to help you rekindle his interest. I’ll just say this: letting go of some of one’s more unsavory pastimes and putting that energy into self-betterment is a big part of growing up.”

“It is; it just seems like... I don’t know. Too much, too fast.”

“If you’re that worried why not invite him out with me and my friends one weekend? I may not be a drinker but they’ve been known to shut down a bar or two on occasion,” Steve offered.

“I appreciate it, but he lives out of state,” Hershel lied quickly.

“Gotcha,” Steve said. “Well, the offer stands for just you and your friends. Lord knows after all your help the least I can do is buy you a beer.”

“I just might take you up on that one weekend,” Hershel said. They turned their attention back to the professor as he began working on a new set of problems. Hershel’s mind wouldn’t stay focused for long, unfortunately. His thoughts kept swirling back to Roy. He knew it was futile to worry, yet all the same he kept remembering the night last summer when George had kidnapped Mary and him. He remembered how angry Roy had been when he’d taken over, angry that someone would hurt his brother that badly. Hershel remembered the days when they were younger, the days when Roy was always ready to appear and fight to defend his sniveling sibling.

Even if he couldn’t do much, Hershel felt himself resolve to do something, anything, to help Roy stay balanced.

* * *

Britney had a fly in her team’s ointment. Or rather, an ice cube. Michael had been belligerent, uncooperative, and generally subversive ever since she’d first formed her team. It was clear he felt he should have been one of the captains, and honestly, even with his high rank, Britney would have given anything to go back in time and trade him for another student. At this point she’d even take the practically powerless Powered Nick over Michael. There was no undoing what was done, not until some Super was born with time-travel powers, so as Michael sauntered into the practice room that evening, Britney steeled herself to press forward.

“Am I early?” Michael asked, already preparing himself to leave and come back later.

“No, you’re late as usual,” Britney informed him. “But this meeting is just for you and me. I called the others and cancelled.”

“Oh, so this is one of those meetings,” Michael said with a greasy smile. “I can’t say I haven’t noticed how you look at me, so I had a feeling we’d get here eventually.”

“Wow. No. Christ, no. I cannot emphasize enough how wrong you are. I called you here so we could talk about your attitude,” Britney said, doing her best to remain composed.

“What attitude? Just because I call you out-”

“You’re obnoxious, disruptive, and a disgrace to have on my team,” Britney interrupted. “So let’s cut the bullshit. You know what a pain in the ass you are. My question is, what is it going to take for you to fly right?”

“I want to be captain,” Michael replied immediately.

“Never going to happen,” Britney snapped back. “Even if it was in my power, which it isn’t, you’ve blown all credibility with the team by acting out since day one. No one would trust you; they’d all look to me and it would split the already-fragile command dynamic.”

“It’s what I want,” Michael said.

“Funny, here I thought you wanted to win,” Britney replied.

That one gave Michael pause. He did want to - need to, really - win this first match. It was against the freak team, and it was his chance to remind Vince of who the stronger one in their rivalry was. He owed him for the surprise heat wave a few weeks ago and he was fully prepared to deliver a payload of hurt. Still, it wouldn’t do to just hurt Vince anymore. Now Michael had to crush his friends as well, and totally destroying them in the match was a very convenient way to do it.

“Let me handle the combat training,” Michael said after some thought. “It’s deferring to me on what actually is my specialty, and most of the people with fighting capabilities are already partially with me anyway.”

“Fine, as long as you use your combat strategies only in compliance with the overall plan I produce,” Britney stipulated.

“I can work with that,” Michael agreed. He stepped forward and offered his hand. Britney hesitated, then grasped it and shook to seal their deal.

“There is one more thing,” Michal said as they were still clasped.

“Of course there is. What?”

“When the match starts, I’ll comply with any plan you put out. But you need to know that if the opportunity for me to fight Vince comes up, I’m going to take it, all strategy be damned.”

Britney stared into Michael’s chilly blue eyes and suppressed a shiver. She didn’t know what was going on between these two, and she didn’t really care to. Vince had always been nice to her, nice to everyone as far as she knew. Still, it was better that he be the target of Michael’s aggression than her team. God forgive her.

“It’s a deal.”

30.

Friday has always been the blessed child of Time. It’s admired, looked forward to, and savored with each occurrence. Sure, the other days get to host occasional holidays or birthday parties that make them pleasant, though poor Monday seems always to come up with the short end of the stick, but none have the consistent excitement and magic attached to them that Friday does. It is then all the more powerful a statement that there was little joy to be found in the HCP students on the Friday before Monday’s test. Most were worried, some were excited, but a genuine sentiment of joy was quite the rarity.

Mary noted this as her teammates piled into the lobby: a mixed emotional palette with predominantly negative overtones. She couldn’t blame them; after all, their classes were far more taxing this year. Even she had to treat headaches after nearly every Focus class. She knew Professor Stone gave everyone the same assignments, but Mary would swear she was getting ridden harder all the same. They needed a break, and badly, but with the test in just a few days there was simply no time for it.

“Listen up, everyone,” Nick said as the final straggler came into the room. “We’re taking a break.”

“Very funny, Nick,” Mary all but snapped.

“Very true, my petite friend, and thank you for illustrating my point,” Nick rebutted. “Let’s be honest here, we all feel like shit. We’re tired, we’re worried, we’re just plain worn out. This year has been nothing but stress so far and that is not a mindset that’s conducive to winning. So tonight we’ll run through our drills and make sure everyone remembers our standard tactics. Then tomorrow we do nothing at all test related.”

“So what do you suggest? Another slasher marathon?” Alice asked.

“While that would suit me just fine, I was actually thinking it should be something the entire team wanted to do,” Nick said with a smile.

There was a beat of silence as his words sank in. “Wait,” Vince said slowly. “You mean you want everyone to decide together? Not just for you to hijack us into whatever activities seem like a good idea?”

“That is correct,” Nick confirmed.

“Wow. You really do think we need this,” Vince surmised.

“We might need it, but can we afford it? I mean, our first test is in just a few days. Taking a night off to screw around seems downright dangerous,” Mary pointed out.

“Not nearly as dangerous as not taking it off,” Nick replied. “Humans can only toil endlessly for so long. Every now and then we need to taste the sweeter things in life, to remember why we do the work in the first place. Much like Alice’s spa day, we need to be refreshed.”

“So what do we do then?” Roy queried.

“Consider the floor open; it’s our first matter of business,” Nick said. “Suggestions?”

“We could go bowling,” Vince said.

“We could go to a really fancy dinner,” Alice tossed out.

“Keg party,” Roy said without further explanation.

“Okay, so clearly we have some eclectic tastes,” Nick said. “Anyone else want to put in their two cents? Mary?”

“I’m fine with anything that isn’t horror movies,” Mary said.

“Easy enough to comply with,” Nick assured. “Camille? Alex? Any input from our non-resident members?”

Camille merely shook her head, but Alex spoke up.

“I do know of a party being thrown by one of the frats tomorrow night. There’s no theme, but they’re holding it on the top floor of the Rencroft building downtown, so it’s supposed to be pretty nice. They’re got a band, dance floor, and a dress code.”

“Sounds lame,” Roy snapped.

“There’s also an open bar after the twenty dollar cover,” Alex added.

“Sounds great,” Roy amended.

“That actually could be fine,” Alice said. “The dancing and fun of a club without the insane amount of people.”

“I’d be open to it,” Vince agreed. “Can we invite our other friends?”

“Of course,” Mary said before Nick could. She was still the leader after all. “I bet they need a night off as much as we do.”

“I do love the company of Thomas and his crew,” Nick agreed. In truth, he would have nipped the living shit out of the bud of that idea had he not been on the team with both telepaths. As it was, spending time around future competition could only be beneficial.

“It will make Selena happy; she’s been bugging me to take her out when we have time,” Alex said.

“Sounds like we’re more or less agreed then,” Nick announced. “Any objections?”

“I have one request,” Mary said. “Roy, would you mind if Hershel spent the first part of the night there with me? I’d very much like to dance with my boyfriend.”

“Nah, that’s fine,” Roy said. “In fact, he can have the whole evening. I kind of owe him: I’ve been using a lot of time for training.”

“Nonsense, you deserve to have some fun as much as the rest of us,” Mary said. “We’ll just bring you a change of clothes for after the shift.” Honestly, Mary would have preferred to have Hershel all night, but she also knew how worried he’d been lately over Roy’s need to have some fun. Much as she might have liked more romance out of the event, this was an activity for the team, and that meant putting the greater good first.

“Well then, seems like we’re all set for our break night then,” Nick said. “Now all that leaves are tonight’s drills.”

Though the group’s spirits sank a bit at re-submersion into the task at hand, Mary had to admit that the overall sentiment of her teammates was improved. Giving them something to look forward to had salved the weariness in their bodies and sharpened their minds. All of which she would try to keep in mind when she raked Nick over the coals later.

31.

While his students drilled themselves tirelessly in anticipation of their upcoming trial, Dean Blaine flew away from the city. He did so not by means of any special ability, unless skill at booking a seat on a commercial plane is considered special in some circles. It was frustrating at times to see the excess and decadence some of his classmates took as part of life while he had to simply muddle through as an average citizen. Hallow would have merely taken his own jet to run an errand and Bullrush’s company would at least have flown him first class, but for the legendary Zero, business class was the most for which Lander would spring.

Admittedly, he could have run down a teleporter to jump him to and fro; after all, he knew a few from his Hero days, but he loathed calling on people for personal favors if it was unnecessary. Those people had lives and jobs and problems all their own and didn’t need constant interruption from others needing transportation. Dean Blaine had lobbied to keep a full time teleporter on staff merely for traveling situations, but the board kept dragging its feet. In the meantime, employees traveling on business got to fly like all the other humans: uncomfortably and overcharged.

It wasn’t the glamorous life he’d imagined when he was younger, no question about that, but Blaine at least had the knowledge that he was still making a difference in the world. He knew many retired Heroes who had lost that feeling and it had crushed them. It was difficult to walk away from any career rooted in constant action, but being a Hero was even a step above even that. The fame, the accolades, the respect people showed you, all of it was unparalleled. Supers had been known to suffer occasional discrimination in some professions; however, no one dared to show any negativity publicly toward Heroes. Blaine was never certain if that came from genuine respect or merely fear of what would happen if the Heroes ceased to do their job.

There was a baby three rows over from Blaine, already yelping erratically. It didn’t take years of combat and pattern recognition experience to see that yelps would escalate into a constant, siren-like scream once they were airborne. Blaine closed his eyes and tried to drift elsewhere.

* * *

Blaine and Gerard sat at the bar, a beer in front of Blaine and a whiskey on the rocks in front of Gerard. There were many college-themed bars dotting the Lander campus, places with Greek letters and loud music abounding freely with the intoxicated co-eds. This was not one of those bars. It was too well-kept to be a dive, but too low-key to draw in most people of college age. Blaine and Gerard were, as usual, exceptions.