Not Your Backup, page 17
Outside the van, Chả meeps a pitiful noise, and Jess obligingly picks it up and sets it inside the van on the charging dock. “Can you get Jacks and Jills?”
Emma starts to get up, but Christine is already bounding out of the van with her pizza hanging from her mouth. She carries each MonRobot inside, huffing with effort. She clambers in, and suddenly Emma’s hyper-aware of how cramped they are with all of them and the bots.
Jess pulls the door shut behind them with a clang, and then all the natural light disappears.
“Hey! We got everyone! Can we go now?”
Emma recognizes Brendan’s voice but can’t help but break into uncontrollable giggles when he leans around the front passenger seat to face all of them. While Jess’ disguise is just enough to disarm facial recognition software, the boy has gone so above and beyond the punk aesthetic that Emma thinks it’s not even a disguise anymore, but an attention catcher. His hair has been gelled in thick spikes, and one of them hangs directly in front of his face. Many blocks and squares are painted on his face, and one eyebrow has been shaved off. He looks like an abstract painting and is very, very conspicuous.
“Hey, Brendan,” Bells says, catching Emma’s eye with amusement. “Nice outfit. Very punk.”
Brendan preens. “I know, right? I said they weren’t doing enough.”
Jess rolls her eyes. “You look like the very first image search result for ‘punk’ on the Net. Like, the most extreme version.” She turns to everyone else in the van. “This is why he didn’t come with me to the park.”
“Hey!”
Emma giggles.
Brendan snorts. “Whatever. You wouldn’t last a day without me. Who else could have engineered this van out of scraps and kept us all hidden on our cross-country fugitive road trip?”
Emma laughs. “Didn’t A—”
Jess puts her hand on Emma’s arm and gives her a warning look, shaking her head.
Did Abby not help them engineer the van? Emma watches her friends and notes the careful way Jess and her brother are speaking around the mecha-suit in the room. Abby’s fallen asleep now; her head bobs forward.
“Fine, Shortstack, you’re a real genius; here’s a cookie,” Jess says in a light tone.
“We’re out of cookies because someone—”
Jess rolls her eyes. “Please tell me your hideout is big enough that I can get away from Brendan. He smells.”
Brendan scowls. “Well it wasn’t a picnic sharing such cramped space with you, either! We could have gotten here earlier if your stupid powers weren’t taking us in so many different directions! But no, we always have to listen to Jess’ gut.”
Jess scrounges around under a seat and then throws a bag of cookies at Brendan. “My gut is always right, and I may not always know what question I want to ask but I certainly always get us where we need to go,” she says.
Christine takes a bite of her pizza. “Is it always like this?” she asks.
“Oh, worse,” Bells says happily. “Jess and Brendan once flooded the Tran’s basement with pudding.”
“That was your fault!” Jess and Brendan accuse each other.
“Whatever,” Jess huffs. “We did take a roundabout route, but we didn’t get caught. We rushed here as fast as we could. I mean, every day we’ve been trying to push for as many miles as we can, but you know, the Unmaintained roads aren’t exactly…”
Jess gives the sleeping Abby a look that speaks multitudes, and Emma wonders what they faced along the way.
Bells laughs. “If you had Emma driving you would have gotten here sooner! I think I lost a few eyebrows just from the speed.”
Emma nudges him playfully. It does feel good, having everyone together again. There will be no more waiting. It’s time for action.
Abby’s the first one out of the car when they arrive in Christine’s underground port, startling Emma.
“I call dibs on the shower!” Abby’s high-pitched laugh echoes from outside the van.
“Where did— what— I thought she was asleep,” Emma says.
Jess looks at Brendan. “What was that, twenty minutes?”
“Eighteen minutes, twenty seconds,” Brendan says. “Looks like it’s going to be that kind of day.”
They share a long look. What’s been going on?
“There are several showers; don’t worry,” Christine says as they walk to where Abby is bouncing by the door.
Christine enters her keycode, and, as soon as the door opens, Abby zooms off, whooping in delight as she discards pieces of the mecha-suit.
“Uh, welcome, bathrooms are down the hallway,” Christine calls out.
Brendan bows his head to her in his formal way before disappearing down the hallway.
“Are you hungry?” Christine asks. “Of course, you probably are, that wasn’t enough pizza…” she trails off, watching Jess’ heavy expression. “I’ll go make some dinner. Make yourself at home!” Christine says before heading off to the kitchen.
Jess sighs, picks up the metal armor pieces, and huffs as she drags them out of the way. Emma picks up the heavy chest plate. Bells grabs the other side, and the two of them crab-walk to the corner.
“Is Abby okay?” Bells asks.
Emma was just wondering the same thing.
“I don’t know,” Jess says, biting her lip. “She won’t talk to me about it, whenever I say I’m worried about her. She hasn’t been sleeping much, but she has so much energy, it’s hard to keep up with her. And sometimes, like, her ideas, I don’t really follow them. I dunno. Maybe it was just me. Brendan’s almost always in his own world, so this past week I haven’t really had a good scale to judge by.” Jess sighs. “Or maybe I’m changing.”
“Are you two okay?” Emma asks.
Jess wipes her hands on her shirt. “I think so, but sometimes she just gets mad at me for no reason, or sometimes she’ll be really—” Jess blushes, pushing her hand into her hair. “I just— I hope she gets some rest. I think she’s just been really stressed out and, like, with Michael’s experiments and the possibility of getting her powers back and building this mecha-suit, she’s been doing so much.” Jess stretches, trying to hide a yawn.
Emma nods, feeling the urge to yawn herself. “You should get some rest too, you and Bells, you worked really hard this afternoon.”
“Good plan,” Jess says wearily. She gives Emma one last hug before shuffling down the hallway.
Bells flops onto the couch and flings his arms open as he pats the spot next to him.
Emma sinks into the fluffy pillows and into Bells’ arms as he wraps himself around her like an octopus. He shuts his eyes, sighing contentedly.
“Are you really gonna sleep like this?” Emma asks in mock indignation. “This can’t be comfortable.”
“I know, but it made you laugh,” Bells says, smirking at her. He waggles his eyebrows at her before sitting normally on the couch.
Emma closes her eyes, but she can practically see the thoughts spinning frantically behind her lids. She’s got too much to do, too much to plan, now that everyone is here. They can’t waste any time.
The couch is comfortable, and Bells is humming to himself, tracing patterns on her hands, and Emma thinks, just five minutes.
Emma wakes up to shouts and laughter. Bells is still on the couch next to her, but he’s wide awake, clapping and laughing uproariously. Brendan, Christine, and Abby are wearing VR headsets and sensorsuits and are playing a complicated game that involves swift kicks and punches.
“Behind you!” Brendan shrieks.
“Not on my watch!” Abby says, grabbing Christine by the waist and spinning her around as Christine delivers another flying kick to an invisible enemy.
“How long was I out?” Emma asks.
“Eh, like an hour,” Bells says.
“That’s too long!” Emma cries, springing up from the couch. “I should have been planning immediately!”
“It’s okay,” Bells says. “You needed the rest.”
“Yeah,” Jess says, plopping down next to her. She’s changed into a fresh T-shirt and pair of pants and scrubbed the punk makeup from her face.
Emma pulls up her intricate plans on Christine’s console, manipulating the pixels deftly until she has all her files drawn up. It’s a poor replication, in her opinion, of the elaborate planning board they had in Nevada, but it’s a good start.
“Okay, this meeting of the Sidekick Squad is coming to order,” she says, tapping the console. It barely makes a sound; she misses her gavel.
“Aw,” Christine says, pulling off her headset. “Do we really need to do this now?”
“Yes,” Emma says. “We need to debrief with Jess, Abby, and Brendan—”
Abby yanks her headset off and tosses it onto the couch; her eyes glint with fierce energy. “What’s there to debrief? We weren’t ever going to convince them about anything.”
Jess sighs. “She’s right. The more the adults talked about it, the more they disagreed. A bunch of people just wanted to hide. After being experimented on by Captain Orion or having been rescued from being kidnapped, they just wanted to live in peace. And then those who wanted to fight couldn’t agree on a way to do it.”
Bells shakes his head. “Did you figure out what happened? Who attacked you?”
Brendan looks sadly at the headset in his hands. “We still don’t know. Someone had set explosives all around the base like— I think they didn’t know where exactly everything was, but they had a general idea. Enough to cause significant damage, at least. The Rockies base of operations is now completely destroyed. A few people were hurt— broken legs, sprained ankles. Michael is taking care of them.”
Emma nods. “Where are they now?”
Jess frowns, glancing at Abby, who is now pacing in front of the VR sensors. “Everyone basically scattered. We didn’t have a real plan on where and when to meet up; everyone was just trying to leave. I know that Michael and Deirdre and the injured meta-humans were headed to Port Clarion; there’s an unused bunker there they want to convert into another headquarters.”
Emma sighs. “So the focus would be on rebuilding another safe place, a shelter. Abby, your mom is building safe houses?”
Abby taps her fingers. “Yeah! She and the Trans were headed this way; I know they did like your plan, Emma, so they want to come help, but they needed to get other folks to safety first. Did you know Steven is from Middleton? There’s another spot-on-the-wall meta-human there too, but they aren’t related.”
Emma has no idea what this has to do with the conversation. “Uh, thanks.”
Abby squints, reading Emma’s projected plans to confront Starscream in New Bright City. She flashes Emma a wide, gleaming smile as she traces the ideas with her fingers. “This is an awesome plan! Yes! We should totally confront Starscream. I need to upgrade the mecha-suit, and find another fuel source. We should get started with this right away, and actually, Christine, I was wondering if you had any tech you weren’t using, I could see if I could get some supplies together and repair my mecha-suit.”
“How are you powering that thing, anyway?” Emma asks.
Abby’s face turns guilty. “We used the last of the fuel for that roller coaster rescue.”
Emma blinks. “Fossil fuel. You used fossil fuel? Where did you even get it?”
“We tapped an old launch site,” Abby says, looking as if she’s about to begin another mile-a-minute speech.
“It was not easy to find,” Jess says. She looks at Emma and Bells, and something about this makes Emma think this isn’t the first time Jess has had to rein Abby back.
Emma thought Abby seemed more energetic than usual before they left for Grassroots; this is a different kind of energy— one that’s taking a toll. Abby’s face looks thinner, almost gaunt, as if she hasn’t been eating, and there are deep circles under her eyes.
“I think we can wait to build stuff, Abby; we just got here,” Jess says.
Abby peers closer at Emma’s plans. “Were you just planning to wait around Starscream’s local hangouts? The League probably has specific algorithms. Brendan, we can definitely plot this out and anticipate his next appearance—”
“Ooh, for sure!” Brendan says, yawning. “But first, sleep. Maybe after one more game.”
Abby shrugs. “We gotta get started, right, Emma? Got any coffee? Oh! I can do the algorithm and start on the mecha-suit upgrade.”
Jess’ eyes widen. “Abby, are you sure? You were driving the last leg. You can start that tomorrow.”
Abby is swaying, as though she can’t seem to stop moving. “Nope! We’ve got too much to get done and too little time.”
“Coffee is over there,” Christine says, raising an eyebrow. “You’re welcome to look through the work rooms. I’ve got a lot of old parts. My dad would stockpile stuff for design, so I’m sure you can cobble together something. And tools are down in the east wing. I can show you if you want.”
“Yes! Let’s go!”
Abby taps on Christine’s shoulder until Christine gets up from her lounge chair and leads her off.
Emma catches Bells’ eye, and they both turn, concerned, toward Jess.
Jess draws her knees up to her chest. “I don’t know what to do. I mean, I feel like she’s okay, but maybe this is just the way she is, and I didn’t know her very well before—”
“Uh, no,” Emma says. “I was in volleyball with her three years and she’s never been like this.”
“Maybe,” Jess says. She flicks through Emma’s saved files listlessly, pauses on a saved holovid of Farha Rao, and presses play.
Farha gives the camera a steely-eyed glare. “If Aerodraft and Sublimate are siblings, then why have we never seen Sublimate until now? And where did Aerodraft go? I’m Farha Rao, back to you.”
“What’s this?” Jess asks. “I’ve seen this reporter before.”
Emma nods, expanding the folder. “Christine started saving all her broadcasts because the network deletes them almost immediately, especially if she’s asking questions about meta-humans.”
“I wonder what’s happening. Do you think it’s Orion?” Bells muses. “I know she’s still at large, and she mentioned wanting to kidnap people for her experiments. But without the Registry…”
“Well, you got rid of the master list,” Brendan says. “But the League still has people they were keeping tabs on, right? Like all their official heroes and stuff in their cities. I mean, it’s not just villains anymore. Some people have gotten upset that their favorite hero disappeared too. Retired, some of them. But it’s highly suspicious.”
“Yeah, especially since someone else with their exact same powers has popped up.” Emma says.
“No way,” Bells says. “I mean, if they were in Meta-Human Training, I would have seen them in the last five years, you know!”
Jess reads Christine’s notes; her eyes narrow. “These powers…” She glances at them, frowning. “These are exactly the same powers of people who’ve disappeared in the last five years. It can’t just be a coincidence.”
Emma nods. She glances at the notes Christine has made about the new meta-humans.
Sublimate, wind manipulation (Aerodraft, wind manipulation)
Medusa, motion stabilizer (Bellevue, motion stabilizer)
Chillout, ice manipulation
Sonic, super hearing and voice projection
“Aerodraft, she’s, like, thirty, isn’t she?” Emma tries to remember the facts on the trading card holos she had. And Chillout’s powers sound awfully like Icebolt, who had the ability to manipulate snow and ice. And she had definitely heard of someone with Sonic’s powers before. Didn’t the hero from Turner City have super-hearing and voice projection, too? Echo, that was it.
“Yeah.” Bells peers over her shoulder. “And she didn’t have any kids.”
“Secret baby?” Brendan asks.
“But look at this,” Bells says. He’s on the holopage for the Heroes’ League of Heroes. There’s a whole new detailed section on quite a few new people. “Sublimate, aged forty-five.”
“I mean, it could be siblings, like Rao said,” Christine says. “But yeah, that is weird. And with that kinda power, they would have showed up before now.”
Emma doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like it one bit.
Christine’s expansive house has many guest bedrooms, but everything feels so vast and empty, even with Jess and Abby and Brendan joining them. There are wings full of empty rooms and Emma hasn’t even explored the whole thing. Her room’s tiled floors are too cold, the bed is too big, and once again, Emma can’t fall asleep. Her thoughts are a whirlwind of worry, not only about the Resistance and their plans, but also coming back to Bells and their relationship. She got used to falling asleep next to him and to the comfortable rhythm of their conversations on the trip; having everyone back has thrown her out of balance just when she found it. It’s nice to see the easy familiarity between Bells and Christine. She knows they’ve been friends for years, all those summers when Bells was away at Meta-Human Training. She knows they didn’t really date— that time Christine showed up at that disaster triple-date was just a ruse.
Some ruse, Emma thinks. She was dating Carlos, perfect Carlos, who, by all rights was a perfect boyfriend, but Emma never understood how or why or what she was doing with him. Sure, he was interesting, and they had a good time together. But he was so sincere and serious about dates and anniversaries and he projected this whole future that Emma just couldn’t see herself doing. When she’d dated others, she’d break it off when she realized the romance was wearing on her, when dates became a chore, when kissing itself lost its shine. Dating Carlos, she struggled, trying to find conversation topics and ignoring the growing dread of the sense of wrongness. She thought she could tough it out. After all, dating was part of her plan for school’s complicated social game. Breaking up with Carlos was a relief, but also disappointing. Emma was disappointed in herself; she thought it would work out this time.
