Ashley Jason

6. CHAPTER THREE-1

After Mom defeated the Guardian, Dad called the police, who immediately came to take the frozen Guardian away. As it turned out, Mom hadn’t actually killed the Guardian. She had simply frozen him solid, so when the police arrived, she unfroze him and let the police haul him off to jail.

The Guardian didn’t even try to fight back. He let the police officers take all of his weapons and equipment and armor off of him. He actually looked relieved when they put him in the back of the squad car and drove him off to jail. Couldn’t blame him. He had really only survived his encounter with us because my family isn’t very bloodthirsty or cruel.

The police talked with us for a while, interviewing each of us in turn. They interviewed me longer than the rest of my family, however, because I was the first person to encounter this Guardian guy and knew more about him than my parents or Jake. I didn’t mind it, honestly. Despite still being in shock, I wanted to help the police however I could, so I told them everything that the Guardian said to me. It was surprising how much I remembered. Guess I must have been paying better attention than I thought.

Once the police finished interviewing us, they left, taking the Guardian, his weapons, equipment, and pretty much every other bit of evidence they could find with them. The only thing they left was the Guardian’s helmet, which Dad insisted on taking, although I didn’t know why. It was an ugly thing, made even more so by the cracks created by Mom’s freezing it. I guess Dad just wanted a war trophy or something.

In any case, we didn’t go back to sleep, as you can imagine. Instead, we gathered in the kitchen, where Mom began preparing tea and coffee for everyone. Mom had a habit of making tea and coffee to help people calm down after a dangerous event like this. I also noticed that Dad turned down the air conditioning, bringing the house down to a much cooler and more manageable temperature.

Even as I sat at my spot at the table with a cold cup of iced tea in my hands, I still didn’t feel like I could relax. Neither could Jake, apparently, because he was walking back and forth in the kitchen, his own iced tea in his hand, though he barely drank from it. Only baby Ronny seemed at peace in the world. He had stopped crying when Mom defeated the Guardian and now lay quietly in her arms, sleeping as peacefully as if all was well in the world. I had to admit I was a little jealous that Ronny could go to sleep so easily after tonight. It made me wish I could do that, though I knew I couldn’t.

Dad sat down at his usual spot at the table and looked at me, a steaming cup of black coffee in his hand. “Are you sure you don’t need to go to the ER?”

“I’m sure, Dad,” I said. I rubbed my wrist. “That guy didn’t really hurt me that badly. Honestly, I think he wasn’t expecting me to be there, which is probably the only reason he didn’t kill me right away.”

“That, and the cheap Russian powerless gas he used,” said Mom, sitting at the other end of the table, gently rocking Ronny in her arms. “The Guardians usually use higher quality gas.”

I summoned a small light pyramid in my hand, which began to rotate. “Is that why I was able to use my powers even after inhaling the powerless gas?”

“Probably,” said Dad with a nod. “If it had been the expensive stuff, you wouldn’t have even been able to breathe. As it was, he obviously cheapened out, which turned out to be a very expensive mistake in the long run, as those types of mistakes tend to be.”

“That’s what I don’t get,” said Jake, coming to a stop and looking at Dad. “I thought all powerless gas was equally bad for superhumans. But you’re telling us that some gas is worse than others?”

Dad shifted in his chair. “Sure. I’m surprised you two don’t know this. Don’t they teach you this stuff at school?”

“They do,” I said. I nodded at Jake. “Jake just wasn’t paying attention in Powers class. As usual.”

Jake pouted and folded his arms in front of his chest. “It’s not my fault Professor Dane is boring. He could be telling us about how he saved the world from an alien invasion and I’d still sleep through it.”

“Regardless, not all powerless gas is equal,” said Dad. “And frankly, most powerless gas nowadays isn’t nearly as dangerous as the natural kind was back in my day. It can still kill you, though, if you’re not careful.”

I nodded. Powerless gas had originally come from an alien race known as the Pokacu, who had unsuccessfully tried to invade Earth twice in the past. After their failed second invasion, a ton of their powerless gas had ended up on Earth in different countries all over the world. By reverse-engineering ‘natural’ powerless gas, normal scientists were able to manufacture artificial powerless gas. Which turned out to be necessary because the amount of natural powerless gas in the world had run out pretty quickly, though I heard that the natural stuff could still be purchased for a price from the right people if you knew where to look.

I knew all of this because it was covered in our History class in the Academy last summer when we were studying the First and Second Pokacu Invasions of Earth. Powers and Combat class also covered the topic, but History was where we went really in-depth about it. That was also why History was turning into my favorite class in the Academy, next to the Neogenetics course, of course. Superhuman history turned out to be a very interesting subject, and we only covered American Superhuman History in the first-year. Apparently, we were going to learn more about foreign superhuman history in other countries going into second-year, or so our teacher told us, anyway.

“Okay,” said Jake, “but that still doesn’t explain who that guy was or why he wanted to kill us.”

“He said he was with the ‘Guardians of Humanity,’ ” I said. “I’ve heard of them before. They’re an anti-superhuman group that believes normals and supers can’t live in peace, so they try to kill as many superhumans as possible. He’s the first Guardian I’ve ever met, though.”

Dad nodded grimly. “That’s a good summary of the group. I guess they are teaching you stuff in the Academy after all.”

“But why did they choose to attack us now?” said Jake, scratching the back of his head. “We’ve lived in Silvers for over sixteen years now. Everyone knows we’re here. What took them so long to attack us?”

I looked at little Ronny, who still lay asleep in Mom’s arms. “He was after Ronny. He only tried to kill me because I was in the way. If I hadn’t been there, I don’t think he would have tried to kill me or any of us.”

“I agree,” said Dad with a nod. He sniffled. “He did fill our rooms with cheap powerless gas, which is why it took us so long to help you. But I agree. He only planned to kill Ronny, which is why the Guardians only sent one. They would have sent much more if they were trying to kill us all.”

“How do you know the Guardians sent him?” Jake questioned. “What if he was acting independently?”

“He was definitely sent by someone to kill Ronny,” I said. “He said that someone named Overkill sent him to take out Ronny.”

“Overkill?” said Dad, looking at me so abruptly that he nearly spilled his coffee cup. “Are you sure he said Overkill sent him?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking at Dad in confusion. “Why? Do you know him?”

“You could say that,” said Dad. He sipped his coffee and grimaced, though probably not at the taste. “Overkill came after me about a year after you were born. I’m one of the few supers who he’s never successfully killed, and there’s only three of us. If this guy got personal orders from Overkill … then it’s a miracle any of us are still alive.”

Jake smirked. “Come on, Dad. It sounds like these Guardians are just a bunch of normals. ‘Course, they’re normals with powerless gas, but still. You saw how screwed that Guardian guy became when we came to Ashley’s rescue. If his fellow Guardians are anything like that, they can’t be that big of a threat.”

Dad lowered his coffee cup slowly and deliberately. He looked like he was trying not to lose his temper with Jake, though I noticed his hand shake anyway. “The Guardians may be normals, but they are anything but normal. Let me show you.”

Dad pulled up the Guardian’s helmet and placed it in the middle of the dining room table for us all to see. The cracks on the helmet were even more obvious under the lights on the ceiling than they were in Ronny’s room. The cracks made the helmet look like it was smiling, which was really creepy.

“Honey, do you have to put that thing on the kitchen table?” said Mom, grimacing at the helmet. “It’s so ugly.”

“I know, dear,” said Dad, “but I need to show Ashley and Jake why the Guardians need to be taken seriously.”

“I’m kind of with Mom on this,” I said, pulling away from the helmet. “I’ve already seen that helmet up close. It’s not like I don’t know what it looks like.”

“Look closer,” said Dad, tapping the side of the helmet. “Tell me what you see. Both of you.”

Curious, Jake and I both leaned over more closely to get a better look at the side of the helmet. Squinting my eyes, I saw three strokes carved into the side of the helmet, which did not look particularly recent.

“I see three scratches,” I said. I looked at Dad. “And they don’t look like we made them.”

“That’s because we didn’t,” said Dad grimly. “They’re his high score.”

“High score?” said Jake. “What’s he keeping score of? Basketball games?”

Dad shook his head. “Kills. Each scratch represents another superhuman who he has personally killed.”

I immediately pulled away from the helmet, staring at it in horror. Jake also looked at the helmet uncomfortably, but he didn’t pull away. He actually leaned in even closer and said, “So if this guy’s helmet has three scratches on it, then that means he’s murdered three supers, right?”

“Yes,” said Dad. “A common practice among the Guardians of Humanity is to carve a niche in their helmet for every super they kill. Among the Guardians, the more scratches you have on your helmet, the more respect you get from your peers. It’s proof that you are a real threat to supers and can hold your own against them in a fight.”

I put my hand over my mouth in horror. “So I’m not the first super he’s ever tried to kill.”

“Far from it,” said Dad. “Although you are probably the first to survive an attempt from him.”

Jake bit his lower lip. “Three sounds like a lot, but it seems on the low end of things.”

“It is fairly low for a Guardian, I agree,” said Dad. “The average for a Guardian is actually closer to ten.”

“Ten?” Jake repeated in horror. “You mean there’s an entire group of Guardians going around slaughtering supers like cows?”

Dad held up his hands. “It’s not as bad as it sounds, but yes, the Guardians are bad. They’ve been around long enough to have developed all kinds of skills, strategies, and weapons for dealing with supers. Their preferred weapon is obviously powerless gas, but it’s far from their only one. And Overkill, last I heard, is responsible for thirty-nine superhuman deaths in the US, Mexico, and Canada alone.”

I gulped. “How many Guardians are there, exactly? Do we know?”

Dad shook his head and lowered his hands onto his lap. “No one knows the exact number of Guardians in the world. They’re a secretive group and keep a tight lid on their member numbers. The official estimate put out by the FBI last year was that the Guardians currently number a thousand in the US, with a couple thousand more scattered around the world in other countries. I think they’re underestimating the numbers, though. I wouldn’t be surprised there were as many as ten thousand Guardians in the US alone.”

“And this guy—who would have killed me if I hadn’t gotten lucky—was a noob, basically,” I said. I looked at the checkered tablecloth in horror. “Dang.”

“But I still don’t understand why they wanted to kill Ronny,” said Jake, glancing at his baby brother. “I could understand going after Mom or Dad or, heck, even Ashley and me. But Ronny is a baby. He doesn’t even have any superpowers yet and won’t for at least thirteen years.”

Sipping my tea, I said, “The Guardian said that Ronny will one day grow up to destroy the whole world. He didn’t say how or when, but he said that Ronny needed to be eliminated for humanity to survive.”

“Seriously?” said Jake, looking at me in disbelief. “Did you tell him that Ronny is just a baby that cries a lot?”

“I tried to, but he wouldn’t listen,” I said. I looked up at Mom and Dad worryingly. “And now I’m worried that Overkill will just send more Guardians to kill Ronny. Jake and I should stay here to help keep Ronny safe.”

Dad, however, shook his head. “No. You two will still be going back to school tomorrow. You don’t have to worry about us.”

“What?” I said, looking at Dad in shock. “But you saw what happened tonight. If I hadn’t been in Ronny’s room, he would have died.”

“Your mom and I are well aware of how dangerous the Guardians are, Ashley,” said Dad. “Perhaps even more than you. You and Jake need to go to the Academy because you will be much safer there than here. Plus, you still need to complete your education.”

“And continue to have Dean study your condition,” Mom added. “Let’s not forget that, either.”

I bit my lower lip. Mom and Dad had a point. The main reason I was going to the Academy at all was to have my condition—Hernandez’s Disease—studied and treated. A cure was still a long way off, but I was much closer to getting cured now than I had been before I went to the Academy. And Dad was right that the Academy was probably the safest place we could be right now.

Even so, I said, “But Ronny—”

“We will keep him safe,” Dad said, glancing at the sleeping baby. “If necessary … we’ll move to Hero Island.”

Dad said that reluctantly, which I found curious. Hero Island was the headquarters of the Neohero Alliance. Located off the coast of New York, Hero Island was home to hundreds of superheroes. Being an NHA member, Dad’s work sometimes took him to Hero Island and he had even lived on it for a while during his younger years. In fact, Hero Island was where I’d spent the first-year or so of my life before we moved to Silvers, though I didn’t remember much about it.

Then Dad yawned. “But that’s for the future. For now, I think we all need to get to bed. Especially you two. With school starting tomorrow, I want you two to be as well-rested as possible so you will be ready for your second-year at the Academy.”

“Ronny will sleep in our room for now,” said Mom as she rocked Ronny in her arms. “At least until we can get the window in his room fixed.”

Personally, I wanted to stay up a little bit longer and discuss the Guardians some more. But then I yawned, too, and decided that Dad had a point.

It sounded like we were going to school tomorrow no matter what. I was still not entirely convinced that that was the best thing we could do but decided that it was too late for us to stay home now.

Even so, I found myself wondering if we were really going to be safe anywhere, especially after what Dad told us about the Guardians. And I also wondered exactly what made Ronny so dangerous that they felt like they needed to kill him now.

Perhaps I would get the answers to those questions at some point, but for now, as Dad said, it was bedtime and I needed to sleep.