Dimensions

CHAPTER TWO-1

CHAPTER TWO

Several hours ago …

“Treehugger, wake up. We’re almost above the school. Don’t you want to see it?”

Treehugger’s eyes flickered open. She yawned and looked at Shell, who had been the one trying to wake her up. He sat next to her in the Neocopter, the sound of the Neocopter’s whirring blades whupping loudly above them, making Treehugger wonder how she had managed to hear her friend. She nonetheless sat upright in her seat and stretched her arms, saying, “What did you say?”

“I said, we’re almost at the school,” said Shell. He gestured at the window that stood between them on the wall. “You should look; I would, but I hate heights, although I did take a brief glance outside. It looks amazing.”

“You mean we’re almost there?” said Treehugger. She sighed in relief. “Finally. I never thought we’d get there.”

Treehugger turned in her seat and stared out the window. Below, she saw a fairly large campus spread out over the countryside like a blanket. It was difficult to tell what all of the buildings were for, but Treehugger could make out a stadium or coliseum of some sort, a large auditorium that had loads of cars parked in front of it, and several buildings that were either dorms for the students or buildings for the school’s administration. She also spotted an airfield not far from the school itself, where a large plane and big, black helicopter that appeared to belong to the government were landed. She didn’t see too many people out and about, but she figured most of the people here were in the auditorium, where the opening ceremony would begin.

“Wow, that is big,” said Treehugger. “It’s even bigger than I imagined.”

“I know,” said Shell. “I think there are only supposed to be two hundred students attending, though. All of this extra room seems kind of unnecessary to me.”

“Well, considering how all of these students are teenagers with superpowers, they probably just want to make sure that everyone has plenty of room to use their powers,” said Treehugger.

She looked over her shoulder at the rest of the team. Stinger, who sat on the opposite side of the Neocopter, had his face glued to the window, while Talon and Blizzard were also looking down at the school with interest. Blizzard seemed more interested than Talon, but that made sense, because she was most likely looking for Bolt, who had gone ahead of the team about a week ago to help put the finishing touches on the Theodore Jason Academy for Young Superhumans. White had also gone with him, which was fine by Treehugger; she still didn’t entirely trust White or feel very comfortable around him.

The school was supposed to open much sooner than it ended up doing, but there had apparently been a lot of delays and funding issues as the leaders of the Neohero Alliance and the Independent Neoheroes for Justice debated exactly who was paying for what. Treehugger didn’t know much about these funding issues, but she was glad they had managed to come to some sort of agreement. The school was going to be jointly owned and operated by the two major superhero organizations, with members from both organizations working as faculty and staff in order to teach young superhumans how to use their powers responsibly.

Because today was the opening day of the Academy, Treehugger knew that there were going to be a lot of guests visiting. There was the families of the students, of course, and reporters from the various major news outlets covering the event, but if Treehugger’s observation of that helicopter was correct, then the government was also here, or at least a few government officials. To the best of Treehugger’s knowledge, the G-Men had nothing to do with the creation of the school, so she wondered why they were here. She made a mental note to ask Bolt about that when they landed.

Sitting back down in her chair, Treehugger said, “I wonder if we’ll get to go on a tour of the campus before the school officially opens. I’d love to see it all, wouldn’t you, Shell?”

Shell nodded, though he didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her at the moment. “Yeah, that would be cool. I think I remember Bolt mentioning that he was going to take us on a tour of the place before he and White left, but I don’t know for sure.”

Treehugger wondered what had Shell so distracted. He had been like this ever since he and Blizzard clashed with that Venetian back in Phoenix over a month ago now. She had initially assumed that it was his new powers that had him distracted, as he was still trying to master them, even though he seemed to have an unusually good control over them already. But now Treehugger wondered if Shell had another reason for his distraction, as he had plenty of time to practice and master his new powers. She considered asking him, but at the moment she was more interested in seeing the campus grounds than in asking him. Besides, Shell had a way of avoiding answering questions he didn’t want to answer and Treehugger was just not in the mood to get non-answers from him.

So Treehugger looked out the window again. This time, she could see where they were going to land. She had originally thought they were going to land in the nearby airfield, but instead they were landing on top of one of the buildings. This building appeared to be a three story dorm of sorts, painted in a bright shade of red, with a wide helicopter landing space painted on its roof. She also spotted two identical figures standing on the roof, one in red and black, the other in blue and white: Bolt and White Lightning, who were watching the Neocopter as it drew closer and closer to the roof below. As the Neocopter descended, Treehugger could even see the brothers’ hair as it was whipped about by the wind from the chopper’s blades. Bolt was merely waving up at them, while White was hopping up and down like he was trying to make sure everyone saw him. It was kind of endearing, but Treehugger still felt a little nervous watching him even from a distance.

The Neocopter landed on the helicopter space so smoothly that Treehugger didn’t even feel it touch the roof. She and the rest of the team quickly undid their seatbelts and jumped out of the Neocopter just as Bolt and White walked up to them.

“Bolt!” said Blizzard. She ran over and practically tackled Bolt, hugging him so tightly that it looked like she was squeezing the air out of him. “Oh, Bolt, I missed you so much!”

“Thanks, Blizzard,” said Bolt in a slightly choked voice. “I missed you, too, but you’re acting like I’d gone to war or something.”

“I know you were safe, but I still missed you,” said Blizzard, pulling away from him slightly. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“Of course not,” said Bolt. He hugged her back. “I just don’t like hearing about how worried you were, that’s all.”

Treehugger always thought that Bolt and Blizzard’s relationship was rather cute, but before she could comment on it, White suddenly said, “Em, did you miss me, too?”

“Uh, sure, White,” said Blizzard in a very unconvincing voice. “But I knew that Bolt was taking good care of you, since he’s such a good brother.”

White beamed at Blizzard before looking at the others and saying, “Hi, everyone. Was copter ride fun?”

“About as fun as usual,” said Stinger with a shrug. “Anyway, when do we get to go on the tour of the school facility?”

“After the opening ceremony,” Bolt replied, putting an arm around Blizzard’s shoulders. “The opening ceremony is about to start soon. Mecha Knight told me and White to be here to get you guys, so now that we’re all here, let’s head over to the auditorium. That’s where the opening ceremony is going to begin.”

Bolt turned and walked off toward what looked like an elevator, with Blizzard at his side and White not far behind. The rest of the team followed as well, but Treehugger kept toward the back of the group, trying to put as much distance between herself and White as possible. She supposed that she shouldn’t feel so unsafe around White—after all, he was just as much a member of the team as anyone else—but she remembered too well how he used to be before he turned good and how unstable he still sometimes acted. The entire team still had problems with White, but Treehugger had more problems with him than most, mostly because of her own fear of electricity and White’s strength. Part of her feared that White could accidentally harm her, so she usually avoided being alone with him, especially in enclosed spaces.

It was probably not an entirely rational fear; after all, Bolt had the same powers as White, if not stronger, and yet she didn’t feel afraid or timid around him at all. Then again, Bolt had not been tortured and experimented upon by the government in complete isolation from the rest of society for his whole life. White had much better control over his powers, perhaps, than he did when he first joined the team, but Treehugger still felt unsafe around him just the same.

That’s why she found herself feeling anxious when she realized that they were going to go into that elevator. Bolt pressed the down arrow on the elevator, causing Treehugger to glance at White, who was standing with his arms across his chest, although he seemed to be distracted by a fly buzzing around his head.

“How has the school been?” said Stinger as they waited for the elevator. “Did you and White do a lot?”

“We just helped put the finishing touches on a few points that the workers couldn’t easily reach,” said Bolt with a shrug. “A little painting here and there, cleaning up the work sites, and so on.”

“Yeah,” White chimed in. “Brooms and mops and brushes. Lots of fun.”

That didn’t exactly sound ‘fun’ to Treehugger, but Bolt kept speaking, saying, “But the real reason they want me here is so I can deliver the commencement speech in the opening ceremony.”

“You’re going to do public speaking?” said Stinger. “And you aren’t even shaking nervously. Is that another one of your powers? The ability to speak in public without getting afraid?”

“Funny,” said Bolt, rolling his eyes. “But I actually am nervous. I got the speech prepared and I’ve been practicing it all week, but I have to admit that I still feel a little nervous.”

“Why do they want you to speak?” said Shell curiously. “Not that I think you’d do a bad job, but I’m just curious why you and not someone else.”

“It’s because I’m one of the more famous young superhumans,” said Bolt as the elevator dinged and the doors opened. “Lots of the students in the audience already know me. Mecha Knight told me it was because I would be easier to relate to than some older superhuman, but the Headmaster is still going to deliver a speech as well.”

“Interesting,” said Shell as the team entered the elevator. “What are you going to talk about?”

“Just about how I became a superhero and stuff,” said Bolt as he pressed the button labeled ‘1’ as soon as everyone was inside the elevator, causing the doors to close and the elevator itself to descend. “It’s supposed to be inspirational, but I’ve never delivered an inspirational speech before, so I don’t know if it will have that effect or not.”

Treehugger would have given Bolt words of encouragement, but she had ended up standing next to White in the elevator and she found it hard to speak. White, again, was not paying much attention to her, nor did he seem to be in danger of losing control of his powers, but Talon still felt rather weak and scrawny and helpless next to him. She just kept her mouth shut, looking at the display above the elevator doors as they descended to the ground floor.

“I’m sure you’ll do a great job, Bolt,” said Blizzard, squeezing him.

“And if you don’t, we can give you constructive criticism and stuff,” said Stinger. “Granted, I don’t know anything about giving good speeches, but that’s never stopped me from having an opinion about stuff before, has it?”

“Gee, thanks,” said Bolt, rolling his eyes.

“By the way, Bolt, who else is here?” said Shell. “I know the Leadership Council is present, as are the leaders of the INJ, but we saw a government helicopter on our way here.”

“Oh, right,” said Bolt. He sighed. “The government sent a delegation of three people to be present at the opening of the Academy.”