Don't Call Me A Hero

Chapter 16

It has been three days since I had last seen Amanda. My dreams were often nonsensical blurs of swirls and dark colors. I always woke up disoriented and exhausted. My days were no better. Peter had pulled me out of my college classes. He didn’t want my name anywhere. There were no phones or any other electronic devices allowed in the house. While Peter was no longer working on the investigation, he was still in charge of keeping us safe. Because of our situation, Charlie and Maria’s agents were sent home and placed in the safe hands of Tom and Peter.

Maria and Charlie were having a harder time with this isolation.

“You have to get up sometime,” I overheard Maria talking through my slightly open doorway. I rolled over and pulled the blanket over my head as I waited for her to come into my room. She had taken on the role of “mom” and I absolutely hated it. 

If there was nothing better to do than sleep, why not let us sleep?

“Alex,” I heard a soft knock on the door and I groaned. I heard her laugh as she tugged at the blanket, “wake up, it’s almost noon.”

“Don’t fight it,” Charlie spoke from the hallway, “she won’t take no for an answer.”

“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked, without letting her yank the blanket off me.

“Well, I was thinking cookies,” she said just as the sound of shaking glass seemed to echo through the otherwise silent house. I sat up and yanked the blanket off my body. Charlie stepped toward the door and softly pushed Maria behind him.

“Stay here,” he ordered as he moved to go check it out.

“No,” I snapped.

“Yes,” he replied without looking back, “you are more capable of protecting Maria. Keep her safe, Alex.”

I groaned as I yanked a pair of pants off the ground and slipped into them. Charlie clamored downstairs and I slowly tiptoed toward the door to slowly pull it closed. Maria handed me a shirt as I moved past her and toward the window. There was always supposed to be a van parked outside as a lookout.

The van was gone. 

“Our lookout is gone,” I whispered as I looked back at Maria. Her cat tail, that I often forgot about, was twitching back and forth behind her. I could hear muffled talking from below and that soon cut out. Maria hurried to stand beside me as someone came upstairs. No, not just someone. There was more than one set of steps.

“Stay behind me,” I whispered as I gathered shadows around my fists and hardened them. They looked like crab pinchers but a hell of a lot sharper. I raised my fists as I waited for the door to open. 

“Oh, come on,” I could hear Charlie’s voice as the door burst open. I released the shadows as a figure flew through the air. A familiar teenage girl was thrown onto my bed as he stepped into the room. He frowned over at us and focused his dark eyes on me, “she says you know her?” 

“Where do you keep coming from?” I asked, “And what did you do with the van?”

“There was no van,” she snapped as she rolled off the bed and jumped to her feet, “and you’re easy enough to track when you have people talking about you on the radio. Do you know how easy it was to intercept their radio signal? They’re government workers, it should not have been that easy.”

“I’ll bring that up with Peter,” I muttered, “that doesn’t explain the missing van.” 

“I’ll check the perimeter,” Maria said, “I have advanced sense due to my shifting ability. I won’t have to go out too far to see if anything is afoot. Charlie, watch my back?”

“Sure,” he nodded and went to follow after her before pausing to glance back at me, “can she be trusted?”

“Yeah,” I shrugged, “she saved my life.”

“Cool,” he said and left us alone.

“You hacked a radio signal?” I asked her.

“I wouldn’t really call it hacking,” she shrugged. She looked ready to break into someone’s house. She wore all black with her brightly colored hair hidden away in a beanie. She had a backpack over her right shoulder. She frowned after a moment and spoke up again, “I’m sorry about your window. I thought maybe this wasn’t the place.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I shrugged, “we have bigger things to worry about.”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Like why our lookout is missing,” I answered before I could even think to consider whether or not I should even be speaking with her.

“Well, s**t,” she said, “want my help?”

“You’re going to help whether I want it or not,” I said, “I’m not going to try to fight against it.

“Good,” she nodded, “I’m Kendra, by the way.”

“Kendra Geabble,” I nodded as I started out of the room, “the professor’s daughter.”

“You know him?” she asked.

“He nearly attacked me at the library because of what happened to your car.”

“Damnnit,” she muttered before speaking up, “I told him not to. It isn’t like we needed help repairing it.” 

“Yeah, it wasn’t like I meant to be thrown into your car.”

“I forgot to ask,” she tilted her head as we made it down the staircase, “are you okay? You got thrown around a lot.”

“I’m fine, obviously.”

“Everything seems fine,” Charlie said as they came in through the front door, “but I’d call Peter and see what’s up. We also have to tell him about the broken window.”

“My bad,” Kendra said with a small smile, “I thought I was breaking into an abandoned place. It looks a hell of a lot better on the inside though.” 

“I know,” Maria said, narrowing her eyes at the teenager, “want to explain to us why you couldn’t have knocked first? You were obviously looking for Alex.”

“Honestly?” she said, her voice raising slightly, “I didn’t expect him to actually be here.” 

“I think the real question is,” Charlie said, “why are you looking for Alex?”

“Because I know who he is and who, I assume, you two are,” she said as she started to unzip her backpack, “you’re the experiments, right? Lutsfy’s?”

“Did Arthur send you?” Charlie’s voice came out in a rumble as he stepped closer to him.

“No,” she shook her head as she pulled out a stack of tan folders, “my dad had your files on his desk. I recognized Alex in one of them.”

“You stole them from your father?” I asked as I grabbed them from her.

“I know my dad is doing something weird,” she shrugged, “my mom suspected cheating but I knew it was something more.”

“How?” 

“My dad cheats on her all the time,” she said. She spoke with no emotion as if she was stating facts instead of speaking of her father’s infidelity, “and he has never been like this.”

“Been like what?”

“Always angry,” she shrugged, “away all the time. When I told him about the car, that was the first time I had seen him in months and we live in the same house.” 

“These have everything,” I said, “medical records before and after the experiments, current addresses, our parent’s information...abilities...everything.”

“Why would he need all of that?” Charlie asked.

“He’s indeed working with Arthur,” Maria said, “so I was right.”

“Why hasn’t he snagged us before?” I asked.

“Maybe that’s what he was trying to do at the library but wanted to make it seem like something else,” Charlie replied. 

“These are new,” Kendra said, “he only recently got them, well, actually he hadn’t even looked at them. The secretary of his building said he hadn’t been in for about a week. Those were dropped off sometime yesterday.”

“So, you snagged these before he could even see them,” Maria muttered, before her voice went hard, “why? Why are you doing this?”

“I...don’t know,” she shrugged, “boredom? A general hatred for my dad? A weird sense of responsibility gained from watching all those superhero highlights on television?” 

“I don’t know what to think about that,” Maria said as she grabbed them from me. She spread them out on the dining room table and pulled each of them open, “who would have access to all of this information? Who would be giving this to Geabble?”

“Peter?” Charlie asked, turning his attention toward me.

“I don’t even have access to all of this,” Peter’s voice sounded from behind me. I jumped and stumbled away from him. He stepped forward with his mouth agape as he looked over the files, “where did you get all of this?”

“Someone dropped it off to a professor at the college,” I said.

“Geabble?” he asked, “the one we were talking about before?”

“Yes,” Maria said, “but who could have done this? Who would have access?”

“The person working on the case,” Peter said, cursing as he took off his coat.

“Someone you know?” she said.

“No,” he shrugged, “all I know is that he thinks you guys are safe enough here.”

“So he took away the look out,” Maria said.

“So Arthur can come without any governmental resistance,” I finished, “which is just great.”

“Shouldn’t we, like, leave?” Kendra asked.

“Why are you part of us?” Maria asked, “you’re the bad guys kid! For all we know-”

Her rising voice was interrupted by the power going out. I wasn’t sure what they were trying to accomplish. The lights being out did nothing as it was still light out. Peter slowly pulled out his gun and turned toward me.

“I’ll take the front,” he said.

“I got the back,” I replied. For the second time today, I swung my hands out and formed the hardened shadows around my hands. I moved toward the back door and paused when I heard steps behind me. I glanced back and raised an eyebrow at Kendra.

“I’m watching your back.”

“Why?” 

“I have my reasons.” 

“I want to know what those are,” I said as I turned toward her. I saw her eyes focus on something behind me and she lunged forward. I didn’t have any time to react as she moved me to the side. My back slammed into the wall just as Kendra was launched backward, disappearing deeper into the house. The dark suited man stepped toward me and ducked as he swung his fist toward me. 

“Kendra?” I called out as I swung my fist. It cracked against the guy's head and he stumbled back a step, “you good?”

“I’m fine!” she screamed and I could hear her feet pounding as she charged and dove into the guy. They both flew backward and out the backdoor. I paused for a moment as I watched in awe. 

What was that girl on?

“Alex!” I heard Charlie call from the dining room. I hurried toward it and dove to the side as a chair flew into the hallway. I rolled to my feet and charged inside and wrapped my arms around, who I assumed, was Arthur. If he tried to go anywhere, I’d go with him. 

“Hey, bud,” I muttered near his head, “remember me?” 

“Alexander,” the muffled voice seemed almost confused.

“You know what I can do right,” I stated, “and I’m not talking about shadows.”

“If you release it,” he sang, “it might kill everyone else too.”

“Think I care?” I bluffed, hoping he wouldn’t call it, “at least I’d kill the asshole that destroyed my life.” 

“You don’t think I believe that, do you?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged, “you really want to try it? I’m not who you used to know, Arthur. You have no idea what they did to me at the compound.”

“You’re right,” he giggled as I was yanked off of him. I yelped as I hit the wall and crumbled to the ground. The guy must have gotten rid of Kendra. He stepped closer to me and forced me to my feet by my collar. The female stepped into the hallway, dragging an unconscious Kendra behind me. I moved to run toward her but the man twisted my arm painfully behind my back. 

“You can still do it, Alex,” Arthur taunted, “go ahead. Burn this place to the ground.”

“He doesn’t have the balls,” the female said as she let go of Kendra, “let’s get going. I don’t have all day.”

“Oh, come on,” Arthur said, “don’t you want to have a little fun?”

“No,” the other man answered. 

“Fine,” Arthur said, “let’s go.”