Super Powereds: Year 1 (69 page)

“I’ve completed tents for myself, Jill, Stella, Violet,” Thomas replied. His power made the set up a much faster process since he could use his energy to grasp multiple tools simultaneously.

“Meanwhile, I’ve barely managed to put up my own and Alice’s, thanks to her insistence on helping,” Nick grunted from the ground where he was tying off a stake.

“You needed my help,” Alice protested, her words clearly slurred. “You’re drunk.”

“Quite right; what would I have done without you tripping into the fabric, uprooting the entire structure and forcing me to start all over?” Nick said.

“Damn skippy,” Alice said, crossing her arms.

“Besides, you’re drunk. I’ve only managed to get a buzz since someone keeps stealing my beers,” Nick said.

“At least we know where this one is,” Vince said, pointing at Alice. “Has anyone seen the rest of the girls?”

“I’ve kept an eye on them,” Thomas assured him. “They’re over near the bus, milling with the rest of the group.”

“That seems safe enough. And Alex?” Vince asked.

“Last I saw he was still hanging around that Selena girl,” Thomas said.

“Good for him,” Nick said. “That girl is hot with a capital sex.”

“Pffft. That doesn’t even make sense. And you can’t say stuff like that, anyway. You’re a bound man now, you and Bubbles keep going out together,” Alice said. Normally she would have done a much better job keeping the spite out of her voice.

“Bubbles is great, but the day I stop appreciating the female form in all its splendor is the day they’re laying me in the ground. And even then I’m not making any promises,” Nick shot back, ignoring her tone.

“You’re such a goddamned asshole.” Alice swayed herself to a standing position and began wobbling off into the woods at a brisk pace.

The boys stood uncertain for a few seconds, trying to comprehend her reaction.

“Huh, I didn’t think it was that bad,” Nick said. “I figured at most she’d punch me in the arm.”

“That did seem to be a bit of an overreaction,” Vince agreed. “I mean, in comparison to the stuff you normally say, that was pretty tame.”

“I think perhaps both of you missed the crux of that situation,” Thomas said. “Regardless, she seems to getting away from camp without slowing, so it might be a good idea to go after her.”

“You guys have fun with that,” Nick said. “If I chase her down today I’ll be filling out a domestic abuse complaint tomorrow. Not sure why she only hits me.”

“You do the most to provoke it,” Vince said. “But that’s fine; you get some food working. It will be dark pretty soon and everyone will be hungry. Thomas and I will go make sure Alice is okay.”

“Oh it is Fucking Go Time!” That declaration was launched in the audible tenor of Stella Hawkins, voice thick with aggression and fury, emanating from the collective area near the bus.

“Or we’ll go find out what’s going on before Stella seriously hurts someone,” Thomas amended, immediately dashing over to the area.

“Crap, there are a lot of people milling around. This might be bad,” Vince noticed. “I should go help Thomas; Nick, do you mind?”

Nick was already on his feet, producing a flashlight and a compass from his bag. “No, I get it. If there’s a Super throwdown you and Thomas can help keep the peace. That means the 'calm down the drunken princess' mission falls to the guy without astounding powers.”

“Your powers are very astounding,” Vince told him. “Just not in this particular venue. I think they’re well-suited to your task, though. Talking down Alice will require a little bit of luck.”

“Saints preserve us,” Nick said. The two boys parted in separate directions, Nick heading north and Vince just over to the buses.

The crowd at the buses was thick and difficult to cut through. Their intoxication and fascination with any altercation made the situation even more troublesome. Thomas had handled this hurdle by conjuring a wedge out of orange energy and plowing right through. Vince, on the other hand, was left with slipping through slowly, apologizing as he went. Finally he made it to the front. The sight that met his eyes was one of Roy Daniels and Stella Hawkins, both a foot or so off the ground cocooned in a familiar orange glow. Thomas stood in the center, sweat beginning to materialize on his face. This had to be a heavy burden for him, especially as both captives struggled violently.

“You two... need to calm down,” Thomas said, his breath broken by effort. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Stella hadn’t shifted, but a girl made entirely of steel was considerably heavier than one made of flesh.

“Fuck that, put me down, Thomas!” Stella yelled.

“Let the lady come get her licking,” Roy agreed, flexing against his own bands.

The next voice that pierced the fray was neither of the three. It came from the back of the crowd and parted it like a 1950’s haircut.

“I agree, let them both down,” said Angela. She stepped forward effortlessly, a peaceful air surrounding her as she entered the chaotic fray. “They won’t be attacking one another until I find out what happened.”

“You... sure?” Thomas grunted.

A wide, gentle smile slid on Angela’s face.

“They will behave. That is a promise.”

124.

Nick clicked on his flashlight and grumbled to himself. The girl had been less than a minute ahead of him, yet he’d already lost sight of Alice. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the quickly diminishing rays of sun and Nick’s lack of wilderness knowledge. He’d had extensive training in so many areas, but not surprisingly, they’d skimped a bit on what to do in the woods. For a syndicate in Vegas, it was assumed if you were getting dumped in the forest you were no longer in a position to navigate your way home, or anywhere else for that matter.

The trees were doing a marvelous job obscuring what little light was left, their long shadows and thick foliage darkening the path at every step. Nick was aware the farther he went, the harder it would be to find his way back, to the point where another search party might be formed to find him. Still, the fear of being hopelessly turned around in the woods was not at the forefront of worry on Nick Campbell’s mind.

Something was wrong in his head. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but he knew something was amiss. He’d watched his alcohol intake carefully, and over this amount of time he knew how he should be feeling: a slight mellow with no impairment of judgment. Instead he was feeling increasingly relaxed, despite the danger of his situation. There was something else ticking though his synapses, too. It was difficult to describe; however, if he had to take a guess, Nick would have called it giddiness. It was an unwelcome guest in his cranial space, yet the longer it remained, the harder it was to remember why he disliked it.

Something was amiss in his brain, and that fact terrified Nick Campbell far more than the dark forest he was presently getting lost in.

* * *

Thomas carefully lowered the would-be combatants to the ground and released his energy grip. To their credit, neither dashed forward and began assaulting the other, though anyone looking at their eyes could see it was only a hair’s breadth from happening. In this case the hair holding it back was the smiling blonde stepping between them.

“So, why don’t you explain why you two were headed for blows?” Angela said calmly.

“I’m sick of his shit!” Stella yelled. “He was running his mouth again about how women have no place in the battlefield and I decided to shut it for good.”

“To be fair, my exact words were ‘the only useful power for a woman is one that conjures up food or babies,’” Roy corrected. “And I was joking around. Someone must be leaking steel blood today.”

“I’ll show you blood,” Stella said, taking a step forward.

Angela whipped her head around and met Stella’s eyes. They stayed like that for only a moment before Stella pulled her foot back to its previous position.

“To make sure I understand, Roy made a misogynist comment about women being weak, and Stella opted to give him an objective lesson in the incorrectness of his assumptions. Right?” Angela asked.

“They also bickered for a while before it came to blows,” a random voice in the crowd volunteered.

“I’d assumed about as much,” Angela said. “Okay then, have at it.” She moved backward.

“Wait, what?” Thomas squawked.

“They’re having a legitimate disagreement, and neither of them is going to get seriously injured from duking it out. All I ask is that you take it in the woods so you don’t mess up the bus or anyone’s tents,” Angela said. “And by ask, I hope you can infer what I mean.”

They inferred quite well.

“Truce until we’re a few minutes out in the woods,” Roy proposed.

“Fine by me,” Stella agreed. “I can wait a bit to mess up those pretty boy looks.”

Roy snickered but began heading south into the forest. Stella followed suit a few steps behind. Silence fell upon the remaining students as the two fighters crossed the tree line and faded from view. Fortunately it was quickly broken by a cheery tone.

“Okey doke, folks, I think it’s time for roasting hot dogs,” Angela declared.

* * *

Vince walked away from the crowd once he was certain the Roy and Stella situation was handled. He had to admit, Angela’s solution made sense. They were both hard-headed and weren’t likely to give up on the idea of fighting once it had been planted in their brains. That might have been fine if they weren’t too strong to stop once they got going. No, the best course of action was to just have them work out their aggression at a safe distance from the campsite.

A part of Vince felt like he should have followed along, just to keep an eye on them. Another part felt that he should go after Nick and Alice to make sure they got back safely. The part that won, though, was the piece of Vince’s brain that advocated jumping back in the river before either course of action. Putting up the tents had left him sweaty and stained with dirt. He decided he would take a quick dip to cool off, then see which of the situations was the most pressing.

Vince walked carefully out toward the river, enjoying the slight serenity of being at least close to alone on the forest path. There was still plenty of noise coming from the campsite, enough that Vince didn’t notice the footsteps following his own. Instead he tried to block it all out and draw in deep breaths of clean air. He’d almost forgotten how much he enjoyed being outdoors on his own. Sleeping under the stars, cooking over an open fire, even rinsing off in a river were all little joys he’d once savored. Joys he was looking forward to indulging in again this weekend.

Vince reached the water’s edge and splashed forward. He dove under a few times, letting the cool liquid soak his silver hair and run down his back. He waded back up to waist-deep level and turned to watch the sun dip down below the horizon. He took a deep breath and felt several knots of tension flow gently down the river. There was a light splash behind him, and this time Vince heard it. He would have turned around to investigate it too.

The only thing that stopped him was the pair of arms that snaked around his body, locking him in place and squeezing hard on his torso.

125.

Nick was lost. He’d come to terms with this fact several minutes ago, and was now in the recovery stage of dealing with such a realization. His first attempt was to retrace his steps back toward camp, however the sun had slipped away completely and Nick’s tracking ability was already poor. His tracking ability by flashlight was at a level of failure on par with the combination of moonshine mixed with chocolate milk. Had Nick been in this predicament a year ago his only remaining recourse would have been to start a forest fire and hope someone came to investigate. This was not the Nick of a year ago, though, and he had another option available to him.

Nick stopped trying to find his way and focused his luck. He closed his eyes, spun around, and began walking in a random direction, using his flashlight to see, but making no attempts to track his course. Whichever way the trees seemed to break, that was the path he took. It was slow going, navigating the shrubbery in the night wearing only a swimsuit, sunglasses, and flip-flops, but step by step progress was made. Nick just wasn’t sure about progress toward what.

That was the thing no one seemed to get about luck. In a confined sense it was very predictable, like a dice or card game. Under those circumstances there were defined outcomes that were positive and negative. Good luck yielded the good results, and vice versa. The larger the scale of the task, the more variables were present and the more potential outcomes were at hand. Good luck would yield a desirable outcome, of course, however that didn’t guarantee it would be the one he wanted. He was hoping to find his way back to camp, but he could just as easily fall into an undiscovered gold mine, or get chased by a bear into the arms of a beautiful woman. Luck, even when you could control the direction it flowed, was unpredictable. That was why he so rarely used his power outside of tightly controlled circumstances.

As the sound of a familiar sniffling reached his ears, Nick let out a sigh. Once again Lady Fortune had heard his plea and then decided to do whatever she damn well pleased to him. Nothing to do but make the best of it.

“Alice,” Nick called. “Are you okay?”

Her response came from higher than he’d expected. “Nick?”

“You got it,” he said, waving his flashlight around so she could see him.

“It would be you,” Alice muttered from the darkness. As Nick squinted into the night he made out a bikini-clad shape slowly descending toward him. Alice floated down from the tree she’d been perched in and settled at his side.

“How you feeling, Drunky?” Nick asked.

“A little scared,” Alice admitted. “And a lot lost. I didn’t mean to walk so far, and then the sun set, and I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“Fifteen beers will do that,” Nick said, patting her shoulder. “My bet says our friends have lit a fire to cook on by now. Why don’t you float over the tree line and see which direction they’re in?”

“Okay. That makes sense,” Alice agreed. She flew carefully upward, trying to dodge tree branches with only a moderate success rate. Once she crested the tops she could feel the night wind lapping against her skin. It took only a moment to spot the orange glow of her camp. They were a little bit to the north, maybe a five minute walk away. Alice let out a sigh of relief and lowered herself back into the trees. She took a few more scratches as she flew toward the beacon of Nick’s flashlight, however she ultimately reached the ground safely.