Super: Origins (40 page)

Also, I started something new. Mr. Chen told me that I needed to be more well-rounded in my life to help my martial arts practice and suggested I take up an artistic pursuit. I asked him what he did, and he said that he’d practiced Chinese calligraphy for many years. Since I’ve never taken up a brush before in my life, I went back to something that I did a bit as a kid and liked, but never had time to pursue. The only things my mom ever browbeat my dad to force me to do other than martial arts training was the school chorus and some piano lessons. I could only take them for a few years before my other coursework and martial arts practice became too demanding, though. So, I got a little electric piano and I’ve been working on the scales I remember the chorus director teaching us and trying some of my most favorite voice pieces from the music I listen to. I don’t know if it’s helping my martial arts, but it is sort of fun. Gotta sign off now, but let me know how your last trip went. And I hope George is being less of an idiot to you since some time has passed since…well, you know.

A couple days later, Kate responded.

Glad to hear about Riss…I remember her being so silent, you barely ever saw her before now. Ha! I didn't take you for a vocalist. Make sure to have something ready to sing the next time I see you, because I hope you know I'm going to ask. ; )

The trip I just got back from ended up being too rushed. We were only in California a couple of days, with no time for sightseeing. They did have some really interesting deep-sea creatures they wanted me to look at, but I just ended up feeling sorry for them. They need to live in these super-pressurized tiny tanks, so they're probably not going to be able to live long, especially if there's a power outage. : (

Anyway, George is back to being his normal jerky self: the one that isn't mad at anyone for anything in particular, but is sort of annoyed at the world in general. But that's good, since when he's in that type of mood, I can usually avoid him indefinitely. I usually focus on working out or playing assistant for Victor in the lab. Fortunately, the Alpha facilities are big and full of places to go if you want to be unnoticed. : )

Got to get going now, but tell Casey and Serena I say hi. I really liked having the chance to work with Serena especially; she's a real trip.

A few weeks later, late one night when Lex wasn't able to sleep, she wrote to Kate, explaining how she and Kurt had broken things off.

I hope it doesn't seem too silly, but I really haven't had much time to think about what happened with Kurt until now. There was too much going on here, everything was so new, and something else always happened to distract me. But every once in a while, like tonight, I wake up and remember. We were only together for a couple years and only lived together a few months, but I really thought he was the one at the time. How could I have been so wrong? I wake up and just feel so empty, but I try not to be too loud if I cry so that Casey doesn't worry. I wonder how I can miss someone who treated me the way he did at the end, but I do. I also wonder if maybe that's going to be it for me, if I'm never going to find someone else.

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so depressing, but I didn't want to worry anyone here and I had a feeling you might understand. Maybe I shouldn't send this, but thanks for reading my ravings, if you do. You really don't have to write back about this, just delete it. More later (hopefully when I'm feeling more cheerful.)

By lunchtime the next day, Lex found a reply from Kate.

Doesn't sound silly to me at all. I'm sorry that guy was such an asshole to you, too. I don't care who he thinks he is: he had no right to treat you like that!

I know what you mean about still missing someone, though. I was dating the best guy in the world, Neil Howard, for a few years, but a year and a half after I joined up with the Alpha team he disappeared. The police seemed to think that he’d packed a bag and gone somewhere, but it didn't make any sense to me. He didn't take anything he'd need to have with him—he has asthma and he didn't take his inhaler, he didn't take any of his guitars or gear (and he's a musician), and he didn't tell me or any of his bandmates anything. It just didn't add up. I filed a missing persons report, of course, but nothing ever came of it. It's been almost a year now, and no sign of him. Some nights I miss him like I miss my eye. I wish I could figure out what happened. I've tried hiring private detectives, but still no news. I just keep hoping he shows back up one day. I won't even care where he was, I'll be so glad to see him, but I’ve mostly lost hope now.

Anyway, my letter isn't any more cheerful than yours, so I guess we're even. : / Just wanted to let you know I’m right there with you, unfortunately.

Not long after that, Lex fired off another email to Kate. After commiserating for a paragraph or two, she brought up something new that had come out of the day of the fire.

Remember how I told you that I reported on what we did that day we worked together as a strategic exercise? Well, our sponsor asked me to write some recommendations for improving teamwork afterwards. Apparently someone finally got around to reading them, because I'm supposed to set up our first team training! I'm excited and terrified; I've never planned anything like this before. I was hoping it would be something that someone else could arrange and that I could participate in, but it seems like they assumed I volunteered to run it since I made the suggestion.

Between my work with Mr. Chen and Riss, and the physical exams they want to do on me every week, I'm not sure where I'll fit this in, but I guess I'll have to figure it out. Anyway, probably anything I think of would be better than what we do for team training right now, which is nothing. Right? (I hope.) If you have any ideas or suggestions, though, or if your team's done anything you thought worked well, PLEASE let me know!

Kate wrote back the next day.

Well, I don't really know much about team exercises. As may not surprise you, George doesn't feel team practice is necessary. (I'd insert an icon here of someone rolling their eyes, but I’d have to look it up and I’m feeling lazy today.) Have you tried asking your martial arts teacher to help you? I bet he'll have some good ideas.

Everything here is kind of slow right now. Victor’s been busy with a number of new inventions, so he’s even quieter than usual. They've been sending me down to the Museum of Natural History and the zoo pretty regularly over the past few weeks to look at new insects that various researchers have been bringing in from all over the world. Believe it or not, a lot of the coolest things I can do I've learned from insects. Their bodies have interesting abilities and their strength is, lots of times, way out of proportion with their size. I keep getting told that our sponsors are planning a trip for me to look at other rare animals, but they can't seem to decide where it's going to be. I've heard Africa, Antarctica, or some sort of ocean trip. Hopefully I should know by the end of the month what the plan is.

A week later, Lex responded.

Thanks for passing on the idea to talk to Mr. Chen about the training. He's been a lot of help, both with ideas for the training session and with planning. He told me that he thought there were training facilities we could use that are part of our sponsors' outfit, and sure enough, when I checked there were some nice outdoor ones. So, we scheduled it, but it's going to be taking place three weeks from now! Only that much time to plan everything! Fortunately, Mr. Chen agreed to continue helping me put everything together, so I guess it'll probably all work out. I may not have much time to write between now and then, though, so wish me luck just in case I can't touch base until afterwards…

Lex received a reply from Kate a few days later.

Good luck with all of that! With your planning skills and knowing what you can put together in an hour or so, I'm sure you'll have something fantastic plotted out in three weeks. Glad to hear that Mr. Chen agreed to help out; I'm sure that will make everything easier.

Things are chaos here right now. Lots of little jobs they want to send us out on; I can't tell you how many times I've been called in by the local police to find someone by smell. How embarrassing is that? I don't like the things I can pick up about people when I go into a form with a keen sense of smell, either. Let's just say that as bad as some people smell with an everyday human nose, they can smell so much worse with better senses. Plus, it’s a ridiculous idea anyway, with as many strong scents as get produced in our modern, chemical-laden society.

Anyway, I should tell you (warn you? Ha!) that your encounter with George didn't leave him mentally undamaged. He trained with a martial arts instructor for a whole few weeks after you beat his ass, until he got bored. Of course, he had those two suck-ups around to tell him how great he is and how he'll annihilate you if he ever sees you again and whatnot. Good lord, what a bunch of idiots! Unfortunately, intelligence doesn't seem to be a requirement to get onto this team. Seems like most of your group is pretty gifted in the brains department, which is getting me a little jealous…any openings over there? Just joking, I really couldn't leave Victor alone here anyway…even though some days I figure he wouldn’t notice I’m gone until he finishes his latest creation. : )

All right, I should wrap up since I'm sure you won't have time to read long emails right now. I'll let you know if I hear anything more about my trip plans, and let me know how things go with the training. I'm sure it will be great, regardless. Talk more later!

Two weeks later, Lex wrote to Kate.

Well, it's finally over! I thought I would heave with relief once everything was done. I got so nervous as we went out to the facility in the morning I nearly heaved beforehand! Anyway, it was a really nice place, not far away in Maryland with about an acre field with a raised deck to one side, where a few observers could sit, surrounded by a small wooded area. We got there about 10 a.m. and got started reviewing the rules. Since I’d planned the exercise, no one felt it would be fair if I participated, so I served as the advisor to the blue team. I’d begged Mr. Chen to come along too, so he served as the advisor to the red team.

It ended up being Joan, Lily, and Serena on the red team and Casey and Riss on the blue team. I figured Mr. Chen would tell Serena to get to Casey and bring her away somewhere, then come back to take care of Riss. I also assumed he'd tell Lily and Joan to go for Riss right away to neutralize her. So, I advised Riss to see if she could get Joan's suit to pause for a little while, and then to go for Serena and try to tie herself to her. I thought Serena might have trouble getting away from that, so I figured it was worth a try. I also warned Riss that she'd probably have to deal with Lily, too. Casey I advised to dodge any contact from Serena and then to face off with Joan.

Mr. Chen and I had decided on a simple Capture the Flag exercise with a hidden flag to kick things off. We set goals to find the flag and be able to hold it for at least five minutes while ensuring the safety of your team members. A team could only win the contest if they hit both goals, however. We also gave a hint to the teams about the flag’s position, hidden someplace high up within the facility. We also showed the teams a picture of the flag: it had a stick about two feet long and had been colored safety yellow.

The weather seemed just perfect about then, sunny but not too hot. Everyone started off on opposite sides of the field. I almost held my breath, since I didn't know what to expect, but as we gave the “go” signal, the pandemonium started. Serena suddenly appeared beside Casey, but she dodged more quickly and fluidly than I had ever seen, her arms, body, and legs sliding smoothly out of range of Serena's reaching hands. She then quickly bent her knees to launch herself into the air and forward, covering several yards of distance towards Joan, who appeared to be frozen in place while turned in Riss' direction.

Serena was momentarily dumbfounded, but just as she turned, Riss had gotten to her. Before Serena could react, she had quickly looped a sash around both of their wrists and tied them together. Suddenly, the two of them were a couple of feet away from where they had been, and Serena went from looking smug to somewhat panicked as Riss went on tightening the bond between them.

Moments later, as soon as she was satisfied with the sash, however, Riss began to look around, trying to spot Lily. This was difficult, since Serena continued to move them around the field, trying in panic to separate from Riss. Finally, as the two of them flickered from place to place, I saw Riss raising her fist, and then punching Serena kind of hard on the shoulder. Abruptly, the two of them stopped moving, Serena looking at Riss in something like shock. At that moment, Riss finally spotted Lily, who was now moving into the nearby tree line.

“Oh, no, you don't,” she muttered, and started to run after Lily, dragging Serena along with her.

One thing I hadn't thought about was that Mr. Chen might tell one of his team to ignore the other team and just look for the flag. I should have, since they had three instead of two, and I shook my head and looked at Mr. Chen with a smile. He looked back at me and smiled as well, nodding, and I took that to mean that he was glad that my strategy advice to the blue team had worked, too.

But, I swiveled my head in the opposite direction as I heard a muffled noise. I saw the furrows in the ground where Casey had landed in front of Joan, and the taller woman was standing up now, brushing her hands together. They were standing face to face, and Joan still appeared to be frozen where she was. Casey put her hands on her hips, surveying Joan and her suit.

Then, Joan started to move again. She finished her suspended step forward, and then threw her fist at Casey. Without appearing to think much about it, Casey threw up a fist, as well, and their two fists met with the sound of squeaking metal. The both of them fell back a step then, Joan shaking her hand as if the impact had hurt, and Casey silently falling into a ready position.