Time Spent (5 page)

It was dark by the time Brandon returned
with the police and rescue teams. They had big searchlights though,
that illuminated the forest quite well.

"She's here," he said, showing them the
crevice. "Beth! We're here!"

"Okay," one of the rescue workers said.
"Stand back, we'll take care of it."

"You have to go down over here," Brandon
said.

"I've got it, sir, it's okay. Miss Clark,
can you hear me?"

There was no answer.

"BETH!" Brandon shouted.

The man lowered himself down. He was
equipped for rescue operations, with a helmet light, hand lights,
first aid kit, belt full of other equipment.

Brandon stepped back, and sat down on the
grass. His feet felt like they were on fire.

A short time later, the man climbed out, and
conferred with the other rescue workers.

"Can you move the rock?" Brandon asked,
climbing to his feet.

"We're gonna get some ropes down there and
winch it free," the man said, placing his hands on Brandon's
shoulders. "I'm sorry son, but you need to prepare yourself."

"Prepare myself for what?" Brandon said.

"Your friend isn't breathing. I checked but
was unable to find a pulse. I tried to resuscitate her, but-"

"Wait, what? What are you saying? Not
breathing?"

"We're gonna get her out of there, but it
looks like your friend didn't make it. I'm really sorry."

"Didn't make it? What are you talking about?
I found her! I saved her! What do you mean didn't make it?"

"I'm sorry," the man said, and went back to
the crevice to help lower the ropes.

"No," Brandon said, shaking his head. "No!
NO!" He fell to his knees and pounded his fists into the ground.
Tears spilled down his cheeks. "NO!!!"

______________________

Tommy's hand tightened around his neck.
Brandon clawed at his hand but couldn't move it. It was like...like
trying to move a stone.

You're a hero, Brandon. You're
my
hero.

Brandon jammed his feet into the earth and
launched Tommy and himself into the air. He spiraled up, rocketing
faster and faster. Then he curved back down. From this high, he
could see the entire countryside, all the way to the mountains. He
aimed for the mountains and struck the rock like a missile. He
blasted through the mountain and emerged on the other side, sending
a shower of stones into the valley below.

Tommy was still hanging on. He couldn't hurt
Brandon while he was flying, but he wasn't letting go.

"Still here, bitch," he said. "Your Superman
shit ain't stopping me!"

"I tried to come up with a super-hero name,"
said Brandon. "Couldn't think of one."

Tommy laughed.

"Know the problem with super-hero
names?"

No reply.

Brandon rocketed into the city, flying low
between the buildings. A contrail of white cloud formed behind them
as they moved faster and faster.

BOOOOOOOM!!!
A wave of air began
crashing outward from them, shattering the glass windows as they
passed.

"HUMAN ROCKET," Brandon said, and turned
upward above a construction site. He flew up above the clouds, then
turned back down and used the pull of gravity to accelerate until
Tommy was barely hanging on. He struck the girders and steel beams
in the half-constructed building and blasted through them, causing
the entire structure to collapse on them. Once he hit the ground,
he blasted back up, pulling Tommy right through it all.

Still Tommy hung on.

Brandon again zoomed through the city,
flying low until he saw a building fire.

"HUMAN TORCH," he said, and flew through the
window of the burning building. He began flying in corkscrew
pattern through the city, the wind of his passage pulling the
flames along with him.

Tommy's grip began to slip.

Brandon flew low, until he saw a tanker
truck parked outside a truck stop. After he made a pass to be sure
there was no driver, he circled back and aimed for its center.

"HUMAN BOMB," he said, and struck the
tanker, blowing a hole right through it. As he passed through the
oil he held his breath and slowed, allowing the flames trailing him
to catch up. The oil ignited and the tanker blew, sending burning
oil and fragments of metal exploding outward.

Tommy's hand was no longer around his
neck.

Brandon flew up for a bit, catching his
breath, then flew back down to look for Tommy. He found the giant
lying in the center of the wreckage, unconscious. He hadn't been
harmed, protected as he was by Brandon's power, but he hadn't known
to hold his breath. The fire had taken the air right out of his
lungs.

Brandon leaned over him. "The problem is,
when you can do the things we can, you're not really human anymore.
Not even super-human. You're...more super than super."

He heard a sound then, the same wail he had
heard back in the lab. Brandon covered his ears. It was coming from
the direction of downtown. When it stopped, he reached down to take
Tommy by the hand.

"Come on, big boy. I'm not leaving you
here." He launched into the air, pulling Tommy along the same way
he had the satellite. He stopped to collect Russell as well, then
headed for the source of the sound.

Something was happening at the center of
town, on top of one of the taller buildings. Brandon streaked
toward the roof, and dumped Tommy and Russell as he landed on the
rooftop.

______________________

The strange figure stepped down as if
walking down a flight of stairs, only there were no stairs. Its
legs moved gracefully downward until it stood on the roof.

At first, Brandon thought it was an alien.
It was slim and strange looking, with large blood red eyes. He
thought he saw flowing red hair down its back, but sometimes it
only appeared to be a red glow.

The figure approached Brandon. It looked at
him for a moment, as if considering what to do about him. Then it
reached out a hand, and touched his forehead.

Red light exploded in Brandon's mind, and he
lost consciousness.

______________________

"That's all I remember," Brandon said. "When
I came to, Kevin told us all it wasn't safe to be together anymore.
He said Tommy and Russell and the others were from an alternate
reality, said he had to take them back home and we all had to split
up or something like that could happen again. He never told me how
he managed to stop it or what it even was."

"Who cares?" Mia said, the yellow light
flickering around her right eye. "What are we even doing here?"

"We're trying to help Kevin," Brandon said.
"And Zachary."

"Why, so he can open up the sky again and
destroy us all? Why are we trying to help him?"

"Because that's what heroes do," Brandon
said.

"Heroes?" she said. "Are you serious? Do I
look like a hero to you?" She raised her right hand and whipped off
her hood, revealing her face. A puzzle pattern of circuitry
criss-crossed the left side of her face, and ran down her neck.

She brought up her right hand, the yellow
energy illuminating the circuitry as it grew and branched out
slowly across her skin.

"I can't even help myself!"

CHAPTER TWO

From somewhere, the woman produced
a clear plastic pouch containing Mia's clothes and other personal
items: items she hadn't seen in eighteen months. On the pouch's
label was printed her name: LOZANO, MIA.

She took the pouch and looked
through it.

"Everything there?" the woman
asked.

It had been so long Mia wasn't
sure, but it seemed right. She nodded.

"Sign here," the woman said,
pushing a form through the slot.

Mia looked over it, and located
the space at the bottom to sign her name. She signed it, and passed
it back. "Is that it?"

"You can put on your shoes. Just
pass me back the others."

"Oh." Mia took her sneakers out of
the bag. The slippers she had been made to wear while in juvenile
detention came off easily. She passed them back to the woman behind
the plate glass window, and put her own sneakers on her
feet.

"That's it," the woman
said.

"So...I can go?"

The woman looked her in the eye, a
cold look. "Stand at that line." She indicated a white line painted
on the floor in front of the outer door. "I'll tell you when to
exit."

"Oh. Okay." Mia stepped up to the
line, clutching the pouch to her chest.

There was a buzzing sound, and the
woman said, "You can open it now."

Mia opened the door, and stepped
out into the sunlight. Her dark, close-cropped hair blew gently in
the breeze, and she could feel it through the green scrubs she was
wearing. For a moment, the light was too bright for her to see. She
held up a hand to shield her eyes from the sun. Finally, her eyes
adjusted and she saw her father standing there by the curb. He was
much like her in build, small and thin, with a wispy brown
comb-over.

"Dad!" she called,
smiling.

"Hey, honey." her dad said. He did
not smile.

She ran up to him and threw her
arms around him. He did not embrace her, just patted her a few
times on the back and said, "Okay, let's go."

She followed him to their car.
"Where's mom? And Danny and Megan?"

"They couldn't make it," he said,
opening the car door. "We'll talk about that."

Mia climbed into the car. "Talk
about what?"

Her father clutched the wheel with
both hands, sitting in silence for a moment. Then he started the
ignition and drove them home.

She stood in the doorway to her
brother's room and just stared at the emptiness of it. The bed and
dresser were still there, but all his belongings were gone. It had
been the same with her sister's room.

"Mia, come to the table, honey. I
need to talk to you."

Her dad had set a plate down for
her at the dinner table: microwaved leftover spaghetti. Mia had
been famished earlier, but had all but lost her appetite upon
learning that her mother had moved out, taking her brother and
sister with her. She sat at the table and picked at it with her
fork.

"I need to talk to you about
school," he said.

"Okay."

"You'll be starting this week, in
public school."

"Whaaat? Why?"

"You'll be going to the high
school right over here," he said.

"What about St.
Anthony's?"

"No. Listen to me,
Mia..."

"I don't want to go to public
school," she said. "What about my friends?"

"Mia..."

"No, dad! I don't want to go
there."

"They won't take you back, okay!"
He said, slamming down his fork.

She sat in silence, staring down
at her plate.

Her father folded his hands in
front of him. "They won't take you back, and no other private
school will have you. We tried, your mother and I..." his throat
closed up for a moment. "We called and went in person and...we
tried."

"Did mom leave because of me?" she
asked.

"Honey..."

"Did she??"

"No...it's not...we were having
arguments, honey, we were arguing all the time."

"About
 
me
."

Silence.

Mia burst out crying, the hot
tears spilling down her face. She covered her face with her hands,
and the tears ran down her arms to drip into the tomato sauce on
her plate.

______________________

The yellow energy burst from her
hands like a battering ram, scattering the soldiers in front of
her. She swung her fists from side to side, and the energy cracked
and splintered the walls as she passed.

"Mia, stop!" called Tyler from
behind her. He and Becca had followed behind her from the lab, ever
since she had exploded with anger over Kevin taking the bus driver
away, denying her revenge, but she would not answer them. "We have
to find Max, he can get us out of here without a fight."

Becca laughed. "She wants a
fight."

They saw other soldiers, but they
were running not in Mia's direction but down the hall the other
way.

"Come back!" Mia shouted. The
sound was building in her head again:
 
eeeeeeeeee!

"Let them go!" Tyler said. "We
need to get out of here!"

Mia followed the soldiers outside.
They ran across to a large hangar. Sounds came from within the
hangar: gunfire, and screaming.

"Hold on a sec," Tyler said. "I
don't think we want to go in there..."

The door to the hangar opened.
Instead of soldiers though, a single girl emerged. She was small,
Mia's size, and ghostly white. Her skin and hair were the color of
milk. Even her clothes, a baggy sweater and jeans, had faded pale
gray. Her eyes, though, were jet black. She walked in a strange
shambling gait, her black eyes staring straight ahead, her head
cocked to an odd angle.

Despite her strange appearance,
Mia recognized her instantly.

"Amber...?" she said. "Amber! What
are you doing here??"

Amber cocked her head the other
way, looking in her direction. Then her mouth opened, revealing her
bone white teeth and inky black gums and tongue. Her jaw sank down
and down, opening her mouth into an elongated yawn.