Super Powereds: Year 1 (42 page)

"Thank you, Mr. Transport. I know it's cold and wet out here. We can go back to Melbrook now."

"There's no hurry. I'm not expected anywhere until a few hours from now," Mr. Transport told him.

Vince nodded his understanding. A fresh crop of snow was beginning to drift down upon them, some of it clinging to his hair, changing its appearance to more white than silver. Mr. Transport resisted the urge to shiver. He wouldn't be showing any discomfort until Vince was ready to leave on his own.

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Transport," Vince said over the soft winds.

"Merry Christmas, Vince."

71.

"So I'm the last one then?" Hershel asked.

"Correct," Mr. Transport confirmed. "Alice again elected to drive back, Nick did the same, Vince never left and Mary requested pickup yesterday."

"Nick drove back? He doesn't have a car."

"I suspect that changed over the break," Mr. Transport said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Almost; I just have to run upstairs and grab one thing," Hershel said, darting up those steps with vigor.

Hershel and Mr. Transport had been sitting in the Daniels' living room. Christmas break would be over in a few days and this was the date Hershel had submitted to be picked up. He was excited and nervous. It would be great to be back at Lander, but time spent there could hardly be considered relaxing or predictable. A few weeks at home had left him restless, though, and he was anxious to see his friends once more.

"Thank you for bringing back Hershel," Mrs. Daniels said, walking into the room and setting down a tray of cookies. "It saves us quite a bit on airfare."

"Glad to do it," Mr. Transport said politely.

"Well, please help yourself to some sweets anyway. I appreciate what you and the other man have done for my boys all year," Mrs. Daniels said with a smile. She proffered her hand and Mr. Transport willingly accepted. He was surprised, though; he had expected a delicate shake but instead was treated to a surprisingly firm grip choking his fingers.

"Um, Mrs. Daniels," Mr. Transport tried to begin.

"I'd also like you to know Hershel told me about your little extracurricular test on the mountain, and I am not altogether pleased with my children being put in danger," Mrs. Daniels said, cutting him off.

"I can assure you they were always under observation and never in any real danger," Mr. Transport explained hastily.

"And I can assure you that had better be the case. I accept that there is some risk of injury when entering the HCP, but I find abandoning five children on a mountain very unacceptable," Mrs. Daniels said in a calm, even tone.

"Noted," Mr. Transport said, trying in vain to wriggle his fingers free.

"Please do," Mrs. Daniels said, releasing her grip. "I may be a normal person; however, trust me when I say that being a mother is a power all its own. I think we understand one another now, don't we, Mr. Transport?"

"Implicitly."

"Sorry it took a few minutes," Hershel said, descending the staircase with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"Nothing to worry about, sweetie," Mrs. Daniels said in a cheerful tone. "Mr. Transport and I were just discussing how happy you seem to be at Lander."

"I am really am," Hershel said. "I miss you, though, Mom."

"Oooh that's my boy," Mrs. Daniels said, wrapping her son in a tight hug. "You don't worry about me, though. You go on and have a great time. I'll see you in a month at Parents’ Weekend."

"Awesome," Hershel said, finishing the hug and walking over to Mr. Transport. "Well, I'm ready when you are."

"Take care, dear," Mrs. Daniels told him. "And Mr. Transport, be sure to take care of my sons."

Mr. Transport nodded his understanding and, to his credit, managed not to gulp. It took some effort, though, which considering he was looking at a middle-aged woman a good foot shorter than he made him feel not so masculine. He didn't really rush off, but he didn't dawdle either as he thought of their destination and activated his power.

* * *

"I still feel like it’s stealing," Vince's voice said as Mr. Transport and Hershel materialized in front of them. Vince and Nick were in the common lounge, watching television and clearly having some sort of debate.

"It isn't stealing. They offered it up to someone who could fulfill a set of specified conditions. I fulfilled those conditions so everybody wins," Nick defended. His had just finished his sentence when he became aware the room had suddenly doubled its occupants in the span of less than a second. "Oh, hey, Hershel."

"Hershel!" Vince said, jumping up from the couch and greeting his friend with a hug. "It's good to see you, man. How was your break?"

"Lots of fun," Hershel replied, setting down his bag. "I saw some old friends, got to eat home-cooking, and just freaking relax. Yours?"

"Not bad. I stayed here for the most part. Tried to keep the same training schedule so the first one back wouldn't destroy me. Not much else, really," Vince said.

"I did something cool," Nick volunteered.

"It wasn't cool," Vince corrected him. "It was immoral and unethical."

"What'd you do?" Hershel asked.

"I won a car," Nick said with a dopey grin.

"You didn't 'win' a car. You used your power on a slot machine to make the right combination come up. You cheated and stole a car," Vince shot back.

"Also I did this," Nick said. "Pretty much for the last few days. Turns out Vince will hang on to shit like this tighter than a miser to his last dollar bill."

"Because you haven't made it right," Vince pointed out.

"Hate to break it to you, buddy, but there isn't really a process for giving back a car you won off a slot machine. Want to know why? Because it would be batshit insane," Nick told him.

"Glad to see nothing has changed," Hershel laughed with a shake of his head. "So we've still got a couple of days off left. Any big plans?"

"Tomorrow we go see which class we qualified for and what the rankings for the finals were," Vince said. "Nothing on the docket today, though."

"Actually, that is incorrect," Mr. Numbers said, stepping into the room from the kitchen. "Now that you have all returned we need to discuss your test."

Mr. Transport's fingers involuntarily twinged with pain.

"Killjoy," Nick said.

"It shouldn't take all day," Mr. Transport said encouragingly. "Plus, once it’s over you still have a day left for fun."

"Or for plotting your eventual murder in the event we don't find your reasoning for that whole stunt satisfactory," Nick tossed out.

"You'd need far more than a day to conceive a plan with any chance of working," Mr. Numbers informed him.

"Heard and remembered," Nick replied.

"Don't be such a drama queen," Mary said as the door to the girls’ side opened, allowing her and Alice to emerge. "I could hear your squabbling all the way in my room."

"Hey Mary, hey Alice," Hershel greeted them.

"Hi, Hershel," Mary said with a soft smile. Alice merely greeted him with a directed nod.

"Now that we're all here, let's get started," Mr. Numbers told them.

72.

"I learned never to stand too close to Mr. Transport," Nick said, kicking things off.

"I'm actually going to second that one," Alice agreed.

"Very funny," Mr. Transport said. "Be serious, though. What you took from the test is almost as important as the test itself."

There was a pause of silence before Mary's voice spoke up.

"I learned that being Super doesn't mean I can do
anything
," she admitted. "I've been able to handle everything so easily now that I can control my power, but none of it really helped me on the mountain."

"You helped save me," Nick pointed out.

"And Alice helped save us all by securing the ropes as we scaled the mountain," Mary replied. "My point was that when I was Powered, I always assumed Supers could just do anything. I was wrong."

"Yeah," Vince agreed. "The only people with really useful powers were Alice and Roy."

"That's because of the environment, though," Alice said. "If we'd been stuck in a volcano then your absorption ability would have been indispensable."

"Which brings up another point," Hershel said. "None of us is the best in every situation. In fact, there are probably situations where four of us would be totally screwed without our fifth friend."

"I guess that's why so many Heroes form teams," Vince speculated.

"Which, for those of you still wondering, is the realization we were supposed to come to, right?" Nick asked, looking over at Mr. Numbers.

"No comment," Mr. Numbers answered.

"We were supposed to realize why it’s useful for established Heroes to form teams?" Hershel asked uncertainly.

"We were supposed to realize that we are a team," Vince explained to him, catching on. "They wanted us to depend on one another, to lean on one another, and to save one another. They wanted us to work as a unit rather than a set of individuals."

"But why? I mean, we more or less did our own thing last semester and got through without issues," Alice said.

"Because it's going to get harder," Mary told her. "We've done well so far, yes. However, we all are about ten to fifteen years behind everyone else in this program. They've spent a lifetime learning to use and control their powers while we're just scratching the surface."

"Funny thing for the number one rank on the girls’ side to say," Nick pointed out.

"Yes, I did well. A lot of that was by surprise and luck, though. You were with me in the labyrinth fighting Gilbert. Did it seem like I would have won by myself?" Mary asked.

"Fair enough," Nick agreed.

"So what’s the point here?" Vince asked. "That we suck alone?"

"That we should work together more, I think," Alice said. "That we're facing a very difficult obstacle, not unlike climbing a mountain, and that the only way we'll make it is if we work together and are ready to help and save one another."

Nick and Mary glanced at one another from their respective positions. They alone knew that while Alice was close, there was a whole other reason their caretakers had wanted to instill that team mentality. This was the point where they could steer the conversation to that logical conclusion, or cut things off and let the others believe it was done solely out of concern for their progress in the program.

"I think you're right, Alice," Mary agreed. "It makes the most sense. And it's true. We've got a long way left to go before we're Heroes, we'll need to start leaning on each other more as things get harder."

"It's a valid point," Vince concurred.

"True," Hershel said with a nod.

"Personally, I think they did it to kill us and cut open our bodies for science," Nick said. "But I guess encouraging us to work together is a possibility."

"So were we right?" Alice asked Mr. Transport.

"You took the lesson you took," Mr. Numbers said, answering before Mr. Transport had a chance to try. "Mr. Transport told you, the lesson you take is as important as the test itself. There wasn't a right or wrong one, only the one you arrived at. I'll say this, though: you five turned a difficult experience into a positive learning opportunity."

"That makes my frostbite all the more bearable, thank you," Nick quipped.

"Don't be such a baby," Alice scolded him.

"I'm pretty sure of all the situations in life I get to bitch about, being abandoned in the freezing snow and told to climb a mountain is right up near the top," Nick shot back. "It's over, though, so can we finish this meeting already? I want to swing by the video store and see if they still have Christmas-themed horror movies out."

"Nice to know nothing changed over the holidays," Vince said with a finger pressed to his temple.

"I think we've got a good sense of what you took from our lesson," Mr. Transport said. "Enjoy the rest of your day. Don't forget to meet me here at ten tomorrow, though. I'm sure you'll all want to see which class you wound up in and how you did on the final."

"And now that will hang over my head all day," Alice said.

"You know what’s good for that?" Nick asked.

"We all know you're going to say bad horror movies," Hershel told him.

"No, I wasn't," Nick told him.

"Fine, what then?" Hershel asked.

"Awesomely bad horror movies," Nick replied with a wide grin.

"You kids have fun," Mr. Transport said, rising to his feet. "We're going... anywhere that isn't here."

He and Mr. Numbers vanished, leaving the students finally alone and back together for the first time in several weeks.

"So, what kind of car did you win, anyway?" Hershel asked.

"Beetle," Nick told him.

"Stole," Vince corrected.

"Damn it," Alice groaned.

"Seriously, Hershel? They've been like this for days. Please don't reignite this crap when it dies," Mary said.

"My bad," Hershel said, putting up his hands.

"Okay, look Vince, you've been plugging away at me on this relentlessly and I haven't caved. Now, it’s apparent we're bothering those around us. So how about we say that this is in an area of murky morality and just agree to disagree. You think I'm wrong, I think I'm right, and neither of us seems to have a shot at changing the other's mind," Nick said.

"Agreed," Vince said after a brief pause. "I still think you should give it back, though."

"I'm well aware," Nick told him. "Now, who wants to ride in my ill-gotten gains to the video store?"

73.

"Welcome to the halls of horror!" Nick declared as the guests walked into Melbrook.

"Good to see you, too, Weirdo," Sasha said, giving him a quick hug. Greetings were exchanged all around as Will, Jill, Julia, and Alex followed suit. After procuring a few choice cinematic classics, the Melbrook students had decided to see how many of their friends were back from break. As it turned out, the answer was all of them.

Vince appeared from the boys’ side lounge, dragging in some extra chairs. Since there were so many people they'd elected to hold the movie marathon in the common room and thus needed to increase seating. He stopped and set down the four-legged burdens, then noticed everyone else had arrived. It was good to see them, with one being a bit more warmly appreciated than the others.