Ashley Jason

7. CHAPTER FOUR-2

“Take a chill pill?” said Jake incredulously. “Dang, you are old if you’re using a meme like that.”

Shade shot Jake a death glare similar to Mom’s. “With that kind of … honesty, I can tell you really are Bolt’s son.”

“I still don’t know who you two are,” I said. “Or why Dad thinks you’re at all trustworthy.”

Shade looked at me and brushed back some of her dark hair. “Let me introduce us, then. My name is Sarah Bradford, though most people know me as Shade. I’m the current Director of the Department of Superhuman & Extraterrestrial Affairs, though you probably know us better as the G-Men.”

I knew who the G-Men were. The G-Men were a government-sponsored superhero team whose job was to deal with superhuman and other threats, per their official name. I hadn’t realized, however, that Dad was on speaking terms with the current leader of that team. Then again, Dad was pretty well-connected in the superhuman community in general, so I probably shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew her.

“So you’re the leader of the G-Men?” said Jake. His eyes darted to the quiet black man standing next to Shade. “Who’s that guy?”

“Him?” said Shade, glancing at her partner. “Oh, he’s my partner, Cyrus Hogarth. Unlike me, he’s a normal. He’s also totally mute. Can’t say a word. Right, Cy?”

Hogarth sighed deeply, though he seemed used to Shade’s teasing.

“A normal?” said Jake, raising an eyebrow. “I thought the G-Men was a superhero team. What’s a normal doing on a team of supers?”

“New rule President Plutarch forced on us at the end of his second term,” said Shade. “All G-Men agents are paired up with a normal agent. This was done because apparently a lot of people were afraid that the lack of normals in the G-Men made us too disconnected from the average American. But I can’t complain. It’s nice to have a partner who listens really well.”

Poor Hogarth just sighed again. He now looked like he regretted coming with Shade. I couldn’t blame him. If he was her partner, then he probably had to work alongside her every single day, which sounded like pure t*****e to me.

“Anyway, your daddy called us last night and explained the Guardian situation to us,” said Shade. “Who, I might add, we have already taken to one of our super-secret government prisons for further interrogation, so you don’t have to worry about him breaking out of jail to get revenge or anything cliche like that.”

“The G-Men are involved now?” I said in surprise. “I didn’t think a big government organization like you guys would bother with a small crime like this.”

“Trust me, Ashley, the G-Men have been carefully monitoring the Guardians for a very long time now,” said Shade. “They’re notoriously difficult to infiltrate due to their anti-superhuman bias making it hard for agents to infiltrate their groups. Getting a live Guardian who has direct contact with Overkill is the biggest break we’ve had in a while. With any luck, it will lead us directly to the big man himself.”

“Hope so,” I said, “though I’m still not sure why you are here.”

“Shade and Hogarth are going to safely transport you two to the Academy,” Dad explained. “I’ve already called up Night Soldier and let him know how you’re getting there.”

“How are you guys going to get us all the way from Texas to Washington?” said Jake. “You don’t have an invisible plane or something like that, do you?”

“Of course not,” said Shade, shaking her head. “We’re going to use the most energy-efficient travel method known to man: Shadow travel.”

“Shadow travel?” I said. “What’s that?”

“You’ll see,” said Shade with a smirk. “But trust me, it’s very efficient and quick. You won’t even feel it.”

Not sure I trusted Shade, I looked to Mom and Dad. Dad nodded and said, “Shadow travel is efficient and ridiculously fast, but I’m not sure that you ‘won’t’ feel it.”

“They’ll be fine,” Shade insisted. “You used it all the time when you were their age and you turned out okay.”

“Guess so,” said Dad. He sighed and gave me and Jake quick hugs. “Well, this is goodbye for now. Stay safe, both of you, and we’ll stay safe as well.”

Mom also gave us hugs and kisses and we both said goodbye to little Ronny, who, naturally, said nothing, though he did make a happy cooing sound when I poked his little nose. That made me smile, though my smile vanished when I turned to see Shade standing by the tree with an impatient look on her face.

“Come on, you two,” said Shade, tapping her wristwatch. “We don’t have all the time in the world. This is technically a favor to your parents, not part of my job, so I’ve got work to get back to.”

With a sigh, Jake and I walked up to Shade, Jake with more reluctance than me. We stopped in front of Shade and Hogarth, who had pushed himself off the tree and now stood in the loose circle formed by the four of us.

“Okay,” said Shade, holding out her hands. “To make sure none of us get lost, we all need to hold hands.”

“Do we have to?” said Jake, staring at Shade’s outstretched hand with a disgusted expression.

“Yes,” said Shade, “unless you want to get lost in the shadows forever and end up the meal of some eldritch abomination from another dimension, that is.”

The scary part was that I had no idea if Shade was joking about that or not. Jake, apparently, believed her, because he took her hand and mine, while I took his and Hogarth’s. Shade held Jake and Hogarth’s hands and said, “Everyone ready? Let’s go.”

With that, Shade took one step backward into the shadows of the tree … and our whole world became as black as midnight.