We left the small gas station behind us with me guiding the vehicle, the three injured men in the back seat, two of them still unconscious. Spyglass checked behind us through the rear-view mirror constantly, not seeing anything every time. I mulled over my newfound purpose and dedication in contrast, or perhaps because, of the guilt I also felt.
The pickup truck drove away, steadily eating away the distance. Now I had a destination LED had given to me just after I exchanged the keys to the Sulphal’s car with this one. LED was now reclining on the back seat, strapped between Spotlight and Payback.
Spyglass was still gloom about David's death, understandably so and varied between staring at the distance and making sure LED didn’t fall asleep again.
We were going to the safe house, the one we were supposed to go at first. The one we should have bought David to so he could figure out if he was going to come along to the UnderBarn or go to another bunker. One that he would be out of the fight. What a joke.
“Take a left here,” LED said, and I slowed down to enter the street.
“What kind of place is it?” I asked to fill the silence, but I also was trying to be more aware of our plans.
“Just an empty house. It’s a temporary place to rest a bit,” LED said slowly, wincing at the pain in his head. “We can’t really be sure if they will send more trackers after us so the plan is to move around after staying there a bit.”
“Wait, so having trackers after us was already planned for?” I said in surprise, but also understanding more of the decisiveness he showed when I told them that the tracker had our tail.
“Well yes, every team on a recruitment mission like this would have plans for it, it isn't such an uncommon power, even if it comes in lots of ways.”
I nodded. It really wasn’t that uncommon for these kinds of powers to appear, more often than not being more simplistic relating to smells or actual tracks brough upon metaphysically by the powers. Led sighed, slumping a bit more after having talked for so long.
“Well, I can say that the tracker from before hasn’t woken up yet, as I didn’t feel him anymore,” I told them, hoping to make them relax a bit.
“It shouldn’t take too long, though. How much has it been already? Two or three hours?” Spyglass said, a frown on her face as she bit on one of her nails.
“Almost four, actually. Did Spotlight really go overboard? I hadn't seen him like that ever.” My reassurance clearly hadn't worked, so I kept talking. I worried about everyone as well, about their reaction to my betrayal, and our possible pursuers.
LED looked to the slumped form of Spotlight by his side, a frown on his face. “Never had seen him bleed form his eyes as well.”
“He must have pushed himself to his limits, The situation was really tight, we dint even know if there were reinforcements coming.”
LED gave a grunt in agreement, not seeming like he would talk much more. The conversation died down after that and I kept driving every once in a while, LED telling me where to go.
During that time, I worked on my matrix, analyzing what I had copied from Spotlight and letting go of the majority of it, leaving only the modifications that let me see the beams of attention and the ones that let me interact with them, it seemed that was the huge bulk of the power though. It more or less competed for space and battery with my own transformation power, and using them would limit the longevity of my transformations.
I kept thinking about ways that I could fit it all together, but we had finally arrived. Now around five hours since we left David’s body cooling on the ground.
The safe house was totally inconspicuous, apart from the fact that it stood completely isolated. A tiny town, if it could be called that, stood in the distance, barely discernible from how far it was from this house.
We got out of the car first, deciding to leave Payback and Spotlight for afterwards. LED stumbled out on his own. He pulled a key and unlocked the front door for us.
Spyglass eyes shined, “The Sulphals are back in the city.” She informed us immediately.
“Does that mean they got out of the redirection or confirmation that it's still ongoing?” I asked, unsure.
“There's no way to know for now.” LED affirmed Spyglass was really stressed out with this whole situation I noted.
We entered after LED; the house was dark with very little light entering from the end of the afternoon. Soon it would be night.
There was a couch that LED immediately fell onto, sighing heavily.
“Maybe it would be good to have waited on that Payback's powers after all huh,” I told him in a light tone.
“Lesson learned,” He chuckled.
Spyglass didn't sit, instead choosing to pace around the room, her eyes shining sporadically.
“Well, I'll take the other two out.” I said, “Are there some beds around?”
“Yeah, of course.” LED gestured to the adjacent area.
it seemed to be a kitchen going by the dining table for four and the surrounding counters. It also had two doors on the same wall that the couch was on, and one more on the far side, right against the front door.
“These two doors are bedrooms; both have two bunks.”
I nodded and moved out to get the other two to the beds. Getting to the car I opened the back door, looking over their beaten form, hematomas were forming all over paybacks bodies, in a worrying mess, the pummeling he took from Robert and the explosions was no joke, it seemed like when people got power they got more resilient event if their powers didn’t really bring any physicality; the effect was negligible when comparing to people powered with physical enhancements but the powered with just about anything could take more of a beating than a normal human.
I unlatched the seatbelt around Payback, taking care to keep him from falling over, and carefully moved him to the closest bunk bed, spyglass coming after me and opening the door, I nodded to her in thanks and again with all the care I could put into it lowered payback onto the bed; it was a thin mattress, but it would have to do.
I did the same for payback, whose only visible damage was from the dried blood that had leaked from his eyes, nose, and now I realized ears as well. Some kind of brain damage? I hoped it wasn’t too severe.
Having nothing left to do after leaving the two on the beds, I closed the bedroom door after me and joined the other two in the living room.
the other two were still just as I had seen them last, LED suffering on the couch and Spyglass pacing around.
“What now?” I asked
“We wait for the other two to awake. Then we decide if we still make the roundabout way that was planned before or if we go straight to base.” LED answered easily, the plan clearly already laid out.
“What if they don’t awake?” Spyglass asked uncertainly.
“They’ll awake, they're tough guys. But then we go on the roundabout way, maybe visit one of our doctor contacts.” LED said, still seeming tired and in pain.
“It's good that you rest as well.” I said. Spyglass nodded along and LED made no motion to deny it.
I sighed heavily, taking a sit beside LED. He looked at me, frowning, a bit of concern on his face.
“The day’s finally getting to you?”
I shook my head, my shoulders dropped “that's not it. I feel like I'm more aware of everything that is going on today than ever.”
He seemed confused at that, and Spyglass only listened, still seeming more preoccupied with the pursuers.
“There’s something we need to talk about, that I need to tell you all.” I started feeling the heaviness that choosing to tell them brought, but also the resolve in getting clear and see where this would go.
“I wanted to wait for everyone to be awake,” I continued, “but that might just turn into me dragging this along.”
“What are you talking about, matrix?” LED said, concern evident now.
I sighed again, not getting out of it now. “David's death was my fault.” I proclaimed without preamble. Spyglass attention snapped to the conversation; her eyebrows knitted closely together.
“What do you mean?” she asked me with an intense stare.
I swallowed a dry lump. Forcing myself to continue. “It's just as I said.”
“You're not making sense matrix, just explain yourself.” LED demanded seriously, the lax attitude he was having evaporating and hiding his tiredness.
I nodded at that. I was again just avoiding the subject, this time with not telling the details.
“Remember in the car the first time I told you all that we had trackers on us? And how I could sense it with my matrix, I'm pretty sure that I could have snapped it away.”
The realization dawned on their faces, but I continued speaking, as if a floodgate had opened.
“I could have just cut it away then and we would have come straight here, and all of you wouldn't have to be injured or put into risk. But no, I saw what I could gain from that power. The way I copied Spotlight's ability was only because of what I gained from the tracker; the moment I saw his power, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. The greed, that I said wouldn't come in the way of the missions, cost David his life ”
Spyglass just stared; her jaw clenched, her eye smoldering. LED was frowning now, still processing the information. “Even if that’s the case, you couldn’t know if he had a track on any of us...”
I shook my head cutting him off “I could, LED, it would be as easy as touching all of you.”
“You killed him joseph,” Spyglass yelled, cutting off whatever LED had to say next.
“I told you this was going to happen,” she continued, jabbing a finger in my direction.
“I didn't thin-”
“Of course you didn't think! You just wanted to engorge your power, you fucking-” She tried to lunge toward me, but LED between the two of us held her back, getting up to hold her shoulders.
“More violence isn't going to solve it.” He then turned to me. “I'm disappointed in you though.”
I nodded, swallowing the rush of emotions. My fuck up this time was bad. Would they throw me out of the group after finally feeling like a belonged somewhere?
“I thought you had got over your greed,” LED said and spyglass just stood there fuming and staring a hole through me no one said anything else and I fought to not activate the emotional suppression again. Trying to stay calm.
There was no apology to what I did. I was directly responsible for his death. Now it was a weight I would need to carry with me. Besides my friends that didn’t die on my hands now, the weight of David’s death also hangs on top of me, even heavier because his death was directly my fault.
He didn't deserve it. The gains of power felt bitter now.
“I knew you would fuck up.” Spyglass hissed, seeming to barely contain her voice. “I shouldn’t have believed you.” She then took a step back. Looking at me in anger and disgust.
LED shook his head. “I need to rest, and think this over. What you've done has to be discussed, but with everyone present. We'll talk more about it when everyone is awake.”
I nodded grimly, not knowing what to think about this half resolution.
Spyglass scoffed, shaking her head and storming off to the empty bedroom, closing the door after her.
I hung my head again, feeling LED heavily sit down beside me. Now I had to wait for the others awake. I was feeling stuck, not knowing if I had a future with the team or not.
I heard LED sighing loudly. Seems like the conversation wasn’t totally over.
