“Done.” I closed the weighty book in my hands and tossed it onto the bed before collapsing onto it as well. “That was… better than I expected it to be. Still felt like an adapted fan-fiction, though.” Kayden watched me, slack-jawed with their phone running a timer in their hands. As if by afterthought, they tapped on the screen.

“Holy... hell, Gabby. Are you serious? Are you messing with me right now?”

I pushed my glasses up my nose and stretched a bit. They didn’t quite fit and seemed to have a habit of sliding down my nose somewhat. “Er, yeah. Cover to cover, even the acknowledgments. How long did I take?”

Kayden looked at their phone and lowered it, seemingly pissed at having to answer my question. “Twenty-seven minutes. It took you twenty-seven minutes to read My Light. That’s one hundred and twenty thousand words in twenty-seven minutes.” They shook their head, still flabbergasted by my performance. “I mean, speaking roughly, that’s four thousand and five hundred words a minute.”

I shrugged. “I still think that’s a clever name for vampire fan-fiction.” Kayden fell from their sitting position onto the bed next to me.

“Gabby… you’re simultaneously amazing and infuriating. You know that, don’t you?” I rolled my eyes.

I turned away, stifling a nervous laugh. “The infuriating part I believe; us McArthurs have a knack for pissing people off. But amazing?” Kayden raised an eyebrow, their gaze holding firm. “I mean yes; I have superpowers. But so do you! I’m really not that special. Not in the grand scheme of things, anyway.” Their hand wandered over to mine, cautiously intertwining the two. Their hand was warm and almost clammy.

They smiled. “Well, I think you’re amazing, even if you don’t.” Our eyes locked for a moment, one seemingly wrapped in eternity. The memory of that lingering kiss left to dangle on my cheek played over and over in my mind as it had for the last several days.

I wanted to kiss them again. A real kiss, not the cheek kind that moms gave. I wanted Kayden to pull me in for a deep, passionate kiss; the kind you’d see in a sappy romance movie. The skin on my face warmed and a blush crept onto my cheeks as I fantasized about them kissing me in about a dozen different scenarios, each somehow more exhilarating than the last.

They averted their eyes and let out a small chuckle. “So, uh… are you gonna keep staring at me or are you going to say something?” 

Oh, fuck. I tried to think of something to say, anything to move on from this awkward moment. It didn’t even have to be a quip!

Kayden brought their hand to my chin and applied a gentle amount of pressure, closing my agape mouth while clearly biting back another chortle. “There we go. Don’t want any flies to get stuck in there.”

I rolled over, burying my face into my bed covers. “Oh my god.”

Kayden crawled over and began to rub my back in small, delightful circles. “What? You’re cute when you’re speechless. It’s like watching a little deer stuck in headlights.” Their tone softened as they continued; “What were you thinking about?”

I peeked from the blanket I was currently nose deep in. “It’s… embarrassing,” I admitted.

Kayden shook their head. “Oh come on. A girl blushing as they admired their devilishly attractive, incredibly queer friend?” They tapped my nose with a compassionate touch. “A lockbox you aren’t, Gabrielle.”

God, if I didn’t kiss them right now or change the subject I was nearly positive the butterflies in my stomach would burst out of me any moment. Abruptly, I sat up and hopped to my feet. I turned my attention towards my computer and zipped over to boot it up.

“What are you doing?” Kayden asked as they propped themselves up on the bed with one arm while they used their free hand to fuss with their hair.

I plopped into my desk chair and swiveled around on the seat a few times. “Waiting for this to boot up, obviously. Who says solid-state drives boot up fast? Feels like a disk drive to me.”

Kayden leaned forward, clearly amused. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, caught the cool kid by surprise, did I?” I mocked. “I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

“And yet you are a very pretty face,” Kayden said.

“And a prettier study!” I countered, tapping on the case of my computer tower. “I built this thing myself.” That wasn’t entirely true; Mom had helped me out quite a bit when I got frustrated by all the small pieces.

Kayden raised two fingers. “Couple things. First, that adjective and noun don’t really work together, ‘pretty study’. Second, you built that?” They walked over and examined it. “I bought my old-ass laptop from a guy in a DonMacles.”

“Seriously?” I chirped as the computer booted up. I began to pull up a video I’d seen recently as I continued. “Kayden, the more I learn about you, the less I understand.”

“What can I say, I like to maintain an air of mystery.” They leaned over my shoulders, resting their head on me. “Whatcha doing?”

I started the video; it featured a woman teaching self-defense tactics and moves when being attacked by people bigger than her. “If I can read books that fast, do you think I can put this on 20x speed and practice it over and over again, enough so that I can practice a ton of times and get it down really quickly?” Kayden stepped back, their mood clearly having changed.

“I mean, I guess? It’s worth a shot; why though?”

I spun my chair around to face them. “So when we go back out and fight crime again, I’ll be less of a crappy sidekick and more of a partner for you.”

Their smile faded. “Go back out with me?”

“Yeah!” I answered enthusiastically. “After all of this Hexecute stuff blows over, I should be able to fight crime with you again. Do some caping, you know.”

“Gabby…” they trailed off, their tone descending into a cautious tread. “Actually, hold on.” They brushed past me and navigated to a different video, one featuring a dancer in a black leotard and leg warmers practicing a fluid, graceful spin.

“You want me to learn to pirouette?” I commented.

Kayden shook their head. “No, no—wait, is that what spinning on the palm of your foot is called?” They shook their head. “Nevermind, I just think this would be a better idea for right now.”

“For right now? What does that mean?” I replied with an edge to my voice.

“You know…” they said sheepishly, “instead of hero training, we could just do this instead?”

Annoyance began to whisper from within my ears. “Kayden,” I pressed. “Tell me what’s on your mind. I don’t like you being so cagey about whatever this is.”

They let out an audible sigh. “I’ve, uh, been meaning to talk to you.”

I gave them a confused look. “About what?” They attempted to place their hands into their pockets, fumbling somewhat as they did.

“I… I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go caping with me anymore. At least, not for a while.”

I moved my chair close to them. “Why?”

“This is going to make me sound like an asshole.” Kayden looked around the room as they collected their thoughts. “When I first met you, I thought you were really cool. Hot as hell, sure, but in a more platonic kind of way. I didn’t really think about life without you, though, because we’d only just recently met, y’know?” I raised an eyebrow as they continued; “But now…”

“Now?”

Kayden laid their hand on my shoulder. “I don’t trust myself to keep you completely safe. I’m worried I’ll mess up and you’ll get hurt.”

I shrugged them off and rose to my feet. “Kayden, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.” I held my arms out for a hug, one which they eagerly brought me into.

Kayden looked down at me; their amber eyes were filled with worry and anxiety. “I know, I know. I’m just being paranoid. But you understand where I’m coming from, right? I really like you. Like I really, really like you.” Their grasp around me grew tighter, enveloping me in the warmth of their body. “I don’t want one of my mistakes to be the reason why you’re not in my life anymore.”

“Kayden,” I said, gently pushing away from them, “I’m fine. Honest, I can take care of myself. But how about this. If things get too hairy, I’ll run away. I’ll run all the way back home or to Crescent City Tower or to the school; wherever. But don’t shut me out before then, okay?”

They gazed down at me, considering my words. “...Okay. But you better run like someone poured hot sauce down your underwear if things get bad.”

“My cheeks are already burning.” I smiled up at them.

Kayden clapped their hands. “Okay, now let’s watch this dancing video followed by the self-defense video.” I shot them a skeptical look. “What? I wanna see what you look like when you’re dancing,” they replied with a smirk.

After moving the desk chair out of the way, we queued up both videos on my computer and turned the speed up about as fast as it would go. Deciding to be polite, I watched through Kayden’s choice first. It seemed to pass by much slower than I’d have preferred, but admittedly that might’ve been due to my own disinterest. I planted one foot onto the ground and the other at my knee, arching the former so only the sole was left touching the carpet. I imitated the movements of the dancer on-screen, trying my best to shadow her gracefulness. This body was certainly more graceful than my default one; however, I still found perfecting my imitation of her movements frustrating. I couldn’t seem to get my footing quite right to allow myself to spin continuously.

My first attempt was abruptly halted as my toe caught a stray carpet fiber, sending me careening down onto the ground with a loud THUD. My glasses momentarily bounced off my nose before careening back down and smacking me in the face.

“Ah, fuck,” I groaned. 

Kayden gripped my outstretched hand and pulled me to my feet. “What happened? You were moving really fast and then you were suddenly on the ground.” 

“Apparently one of my powers isn’t perfect imitation,” I answered,  stepping in front of the computer once more. “Hold on, let me try it again.” I pressed play and focused on the dancer again, the video slowing down as I did. The movement of her feet were more intricate than I’d initially expected. The toes of her planted foot were almost clenched together and had no gaps between them. Taking a hesitant breath, I did the same. To my surprise, I found the spin much easier to execute this way. The video repeated itself several more times and, even when it was completed, I continued to spin. Elated giggles escaped my lips as the room became a long streaking blur.

“Gabby!” Kayden hissed. I halted my spin, staggering slightly as my muscles fought against my momentum.

“What?” I asked. Kayden pointed towards the floor. A dark bare circle was etched into the tan carpet. Kayden kneeled down and knocked their knuckles against it.

“Huh. You got some nice wood floors under here.”

I rubbed my fingers against my temples in a futile attempt to resist the sudden-onset of anxiety in my chest. “Mom is going to kill me.” A thought swiftly crossed my mind. “Unless…”

“Unless?” Kayden crossed their arms.

Rising to my feet, I grabbed a shirt from my laundry hamper and placed it over top of the carpet hole. Dusting my hands off, I looked at Kayden with an accomplished grin. “There we go. Like it never happened.”

Kayden laughed. “Seriously?”

“Kids! Dinner!” Mom’s voice echoed from downstairs. I held my finger to my lips.

“Not a word.”

Kayden held their hands up appeasingly. “Guess we’ll just watch the self-defense thing later.” They exited the room and sauntered down the stairs. “Does your family always eat so early? We’re supposed to meet Markus in the park in a couple of hours.”

“Mom said she had some sort of conference call tonight, so dinner got moved up. Not sure why,” I replied. “We’re just lucky Markus flaked and moved the meeting time back, too.” While following Kayden down the stairs, a familiar twitch of my hand began to register in my mind.

Oh, no. 

I ducked out of sight behind the wall at the top of the stairs as Kayden turned back towards me.

“Gabby?” they called.

“One sec!” I replied, holding my hand to my chest as the twitch morphed into a debilitating cramp spreading down my arm and into my shoulder. “Gotta check on something. B-be right down.”

Footfalls on the stairs resumed. “Okay, though if your mom asks me to ‘tell her about myself’, I’m totally bailing.” I slid down the wall onto the carpet, my fingernails digging into the flesh of my palm painfully. 

“What’s happening to me?” I panted as the tremors spread into my other shoulder and ribs. I began to breathe heavily in slow in an attempt to stymie the pain. Slowly, rhythmic waves of breath left my lips as I tried to center myself.

I didn’t even notice when a shadow fell over me. “Gav-Gabby?” a low, hesitant voice whispered.

I cracked open one of my eyes to find Parker’s beanpole-ish form worriedly looking down at me.

“Parker,” I groaned, “I’m not l-looking for a fight right now. Please just—keep ignoring me like you have been.” To my annoyance, he didn’t budge. The pain was starting to subside, but only just barely.

“Gabby? Parker? Come on, dinner is getting cold!” Mom shouted from downstairs. Parker looked in the direction of the stairs and back at me.

“Don’t say anything. Please,” I begged, fighting the urge to retch as I continued. “Please. For your brother.” His eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything in response. He moved past me and made his way down the stairs, keeping his eyes on me all the while. I clawed my way back to my feet a minute or two later once the pain had mostly subsided. I looked wearily down at my still-shaking hands. I needed to figure out what was happening to me, and quickly.

 

* * *

 

Dinner was, strangely, uneventful for the most part. Parker avoided eye contact with me through the meal and, thankfully, kept his mouth shut about what he’d seen. Dinnertime seemed to be the only time of day we really saw Mom these days. She was usually cooped up in her office, speaking with this person or that person about designs and quotes or HTML invalidations. I tried peeking at her work at one point, but even my speed wasn’t enough to evade her watchful eyes as she shooed me from her office. Each time I asked her if everything was okay, she’d assured me that it was, but I was beginning to believe her less and less. I’d already attempted to ask Mel about it, but was shot down before I could get far.

“One, huge invasion of her privacy, bud,” she’d reprimanded me. “Two, I’m far too busy, ask someone less important.” I made a mental note to bring it up again with her later.

True to form and, to Kayden’s discomfort, Mom did indeed probe them about their past over homemade chicken tacos with her special guacamole recipe.

“So, Kayden, tell me about yourself. You graduated from the Academy, right?” she asked, her otherwise benign voice masking a motherly protective instinct.

Kayden shifted uncomfortably in their seat. “Well, no, some things came up and I decided that the Academy wasn’t right for me.”

“Like what?” she pressed.

“Family stuff,” Kayden answered as they stuffed their mouth with more taco.

“Is that how the scrapyard came into play?” I added. Kayden frowned.

“Scrapyard?” Mom asked, her tone confused.

Kayden grabbed another taco. “It’s nothing, really.”

Mom leaned forward. “Would you mind telling me about your family? You seem so nice, I bet they’re mighty proud of you.”

“Real proud, all right,” Kayden laughed to themselves. “Listen, Ms. McArthur, I’m not really comfortable discussing my parents in any situation. Especially right now. Is that okay?”

Mom looked taken aback. “Um. Sure, that’s fine.” She seemed to be carefully considering what to say next as we ate in silence. “Are they… you know,” she gestured with her hands, searching for words she felt would be appropriate. Kayden’s hand gripped tightly on the seat of their chair. Mom seemed finally able to read the room and relented. “You can stay however long you need to, Kayden.”

Kayden’s expression didn’t immediately change, but I didn’t really need that to see them inwardly relax. The grip on their chair loosened and they reached for another taco.

“Thanks, Ms. M.” They nodded. Mom changed the subject, focusing instead on Parker and Jules’ days at school.  I took the opportunity to bring my hand to rest over Kayden’s.

They shot me a furtive glance, clearly worrying about drawing Mom’s attention. Ignoring them, I took another bite of taco, one with extra verde on top, and ran my thumb along the knuckles of their hand. I was done hiding who I was and what I wanted.

 

* * *

 

Kayden and I roved over the concrete sidewalk in the late-afternoon sun. Clouds had begun to accumulate and were only letting several scattered rays of golden light through their cover. Kayden had shrunken themselves down to the size of my backpack and stuffed themselves in while I ran us to downtown proper before resizing out of sight in one of Crescent City’s abundant alleyways. I’d told Mom the truth, or part of it at least. I’d said we’d be going to the library to investigate my powers and try to learn more about them. Of course, we’d be heading there after we met with Markus, and he’d give me all the information I’d need. What would he tell me? What kind of information did he have that I didn’t? Why hadn’t he already shared it?

Kayden grabbed ahold of my shirt and yanked me backward in a fluid motion as I stepped from the curb onto the crosswalk.

“Gabby, watch out!” they reprimanded me. I snapped from my thoughts and took in my surroundings. A large semi-truck with the colorful label “Pherb’s Herb-icides” barrelled past us down the road. To my surprise, the traffic signal was green instead of the red I could’ve sworn it was just a moment earlier.

“Didn’t that light just turn red?” I asked, pushing my glasses up my nose.

“I don’t know, maybe?” Kayden sighed. “But you gotta pay attention. Just because you’re super doesn’t mean you’re indestructible.”

“I know,” I huffed, pointing towards the light signal which had finally turned red. “But I swear that light was just red.”

Kayden shrugged. “I dunno, maybe your glasses aren’t as effective as we thought?”

I stared at the light, my usual stubborn intuition giving way to doubt. “Yeah, I guess so.” I admitted. They were still too new, I didn’t know their limits yet.

We finally crossed the street and, after making a pit-stop for some a burrito at Burrito Chiquito’s, we finally made our way to the park just as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon.

The grass, a drab grey in this light, crunched beneath our feet as we crossed the park.

“Why does this feel like a drug deal?” I commented.

“Have you ever done a drug deal?” came Kayden’s mirthful reply.

I rolled my eyes. “Not exactly, but this is what they’re supposed to be like, right? At night, in a darker kind of place, the risk of discovery?”

“Oh, so like stealing your sister’s clothes?” Kayden smirked.

“N-no! Shut up!” I blushed.

“Better be quiet, the drug dealers will hear you,” Kayden added. They wrapped an arm protectively around my shoulder. “Don’t worry, I’ll fend them off.”

“Gee, thanks,” I replied. “My hero.” 

Kayden’s posture straightened and eyes widened. “Oh! That reminds me.” They dug into their pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper before handing it to me. “I sketched this for you.” Gingerly, I unfolded the piece of paper clearly ripped from a sketchbook. Inside was a drawing, well, a lot of drawings featuring a shape consisting of two lines running parallel to each other, both abruptly shifting to a different direction at the same time, roughly forming what looked to be a bolt of electricity.

“It’s your symbol! Y’know, for your suit! Or, I guess, if you want it to be,” Kayden explained. They ran their finger over the lines excitedly. “It’s like a bolt of lightning mixed with your supernym, ‘Ricochet’. I figured it was a really cool mixture of your powers and your personality.” I stared at the piece of paper for longer than was probably acceptable, feeling flabbergasted. There were a bunch of scribbles around it that were crossed out. Prior versions Kayden must not have liked. I gripped the paper tightly.

It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. And considering the catch-up Mom had been doing, that was saying something.

“I love it.” I looked up to their amber eyes, smiling broadly. “It’s perfect.” Kayden returned my smile and pulled me in for a tight hug. “I thought you didn’t want me doing caping stuff with you?”

Kayden nuzzled their nose into my hair. “I dunno. I still want to protect you, but I also want you to chase your dreams, Gabby. I think you could inspire a lot of hope with that symbol. I think… I think Ricochet could do a lot of good for the people of this city.” I buried my face into their chest and closed my eyes.

God, don’t let them see me cry.

“We’ll have to see if your mom will let us alter your gear, though.”

I laughed and looked up at them. “Fat chance of that happening. She locked them in the same chest she put my Beyblades into after I kept launching them at Parker.” After we finished hugging for the tenth time that day, Kayden and I made our way into the dense tree-growth of the area, coincidentally nearby the same place Cass, Anya, and I had met a couple of weeks prior.

“Markus,” I shouted. He hadn’t texted us in a while, so we were pretty much on our own until he showed his face. “Yo, Markus!”

“You sure he’s here?” Kayden kicked over a rock and glanced around. “Cause I gotta say, this feels pretty trappy.”

“He better be, or I’m gonna kick his ass myself,” I grumbled. “Markus!”

Leaves shuffled from out of eyesight. Markus ducked his head around a tree trunk. He was wearing a dark leather jacket and dark jeans. “Jesus. They can hear your ass from the other side of the park.”

I stormed up to him, my nostrils flaring with annoyance. “Well maybe, if you didn’t move the time around on us like a flakey-flakerson, we would’ve all met up at exactly the right time without this feeling like one big sketchy swap-meet.”

With a longsuffering stare, he sighed. “I was dealing with personal shit. Get over it.” Something about his appearance caught my eye. I pointed towards his swollen and red lip.

“Kip?” I asked.

“None of your business,” he growled. He nodded towards Kayden. “Who’s she?”

Kayden raised their eyebrows. “Oh, well, first off I’m Kayden. Also, it’s ‘they/them’ for pronouns.” Markus glanced between us for a moment.

“What, are y’all like magnets for each other or something?” he remarked in an amused tone.

“Just get on with it,” I said, ignoring his comment. “Kinetic Realm. Now.”

His stance shifted awkwardly. “Yeah.”

“So?” I asked. “Go on?”

He narrowed his eyes. “One condition.”

“What now?” I groaned.

He seemed to hesitate after that, unable to bring himself to finish his request. His gaze cast downwards at the grass while he fumbled for words.

“Well?” Kayden said.

His eyes, dull and grey as ever, locked onto mine. “I… I want you to run me around.”

My expression dropped. “What?”

“I want to feel like a speedster again,” he replied, a hint of edge creeping into his voice. He looked away. “Even just for a second.”

Even a week ago I might’ve disregarded his request, laughed, maybe. But my powers had proved to be the best thing that had ever happened to me. To me, losing them was still a distant fantasy, not a nightmarish reality. Markus didn’t have that luxury anymore.

“Deal.” I smiled. “How do you want to…?” I gestured towards my back. “I could give you a piggy-back ride?”

He exasperatedly shook his head. “No, idiot. That bolt of energy you can always feel, vibrating silently in the background?”

“In my chest,” I confirmed. He gave me an odd look.

“Mine was in my stomach. Whatever, that energy? Grab ahold of it until it’s escaping from your skin in small bolts. Then touch me and focus it outward.”

“Got it.” I closed my eyes and reached deeply into my chest. As if anticipating my call, the energy buzzed warmly and eagerly flowed out into the rest of my body. Everything instantly slowed down, including a stray falling leaf drifting towards the ground at our feet. Kayden and Markus stood like statues, each stationary and rigid. I walked towards Markus and reached towards him.

“Let’s see if this works.” Upon laying a hand on his leather jacket, I focused some of my ambient energy through my palm. Yellow-orange sparks jumping over the surface of my skin began to change direction, flowing towards Markus as if driven by the same wind driving the leaf. The sparks bounded up his arm and surrounded him in swirling bolts of energy. His image began to blur slightly before, to my amazement, some of the color returned to his eyes. He jerked back.

“Holy shit!” he gasped. “What the — McArthur?” He stared intently at his hands. “You did it!” I struggled to keep my hand on his arm as he flailed about.

“Markus — wait! What did I do?”

“You’re channeling your speed into me, exciting the molecules in my body to speed me up.” He extended his arm out and shook it — no, it was more like it was vibrating. He vibrated his free arm extremely quickly in place. Slowly, the shape of his arm became translucent, leaving only a hint of opaque color hovering in mid-air.

“Do I need to keep touching you or something?” He glanced down at me, seemingly having forgotten I was there.

“I… I don’t know. I could never get this to work, honestly.”

I looked at the forest enclosure around us. “Did you want to run a lap or something while we’re at it?”

“Yeah. Lap sounds good. Keep up.”

I nodded. Sure, he was running on my energy, but it’d be cool to have someone who could keep pace with me. “I don’t think I’ll need to worry about that.” Markus and I took off in the blink of an eye, circling the clearing what must’ve been dozens of times. Keeping up with him wasn’t an issue; it seemed like he could only go as fast as the energy I was pulling into my own run. Keeping a hold on him was an altogether different beast. Several times I just barely lost contact with his arm, resulting in him freezing up mid-stride as my energy jumped back over to me. It looked like the connection only lasted as long as I was touching him. Actually, that gave me an idea. At my insistence, we finished our run and slowed to a stop in the clearing with Kayden.

“That certainly felt like more than one lap,” Kayden commented snarkily. “I take it overestimation is just a speedster thing in general?”

I released my grip from Markus’ arm and shrugged. “Don’t be hating cause you ain’t racing.” Behind me grass and leaves loudly shifted. Spinning around, I saw Markus at my feet, and on his back, staring up at the sky. He was… crying. I dropped to my knees and checked on him.

“Markus, you okay?” I asked worriedly. He continued to stare past me, seemingly unperturbed by my question. His eyes had once more resumed their dull-grey hue.

“Give him a minute, Gabs,” Kayden instructed me. Tears flowed freely from his eyes as he continued to lie there, unmoving.

Markus blinked slowly, his chest rising and falling as he continued to lie motionless. “They’re going to transfer me to a normie school at the end of the semester.” His voice was pained and filled with cracks. “It’ll be my last semester of high school and I’ll either be spending it homeschooled or in some random-ass normie school.”

Hell must have frozen over because, against all odds, pity had finally begun to register in my heart for Markus. “They can just do that?” I asked. “I mean, you’re an alter. You had powers.”

His eyes closed slowly. “Yeah. Don’t have powers anymore, though. Why would the government spend extra subsidized cash on me when I can go to a normal school? Garrison dropped the news on us earlier. That’s why I had to postpone.”

“Sounds like the kind of bull-shit they’d pull,” Kayden pondered. “I guess it makes sense in a way; your parents would have to pick up the slack for the government money that isn’t coming to the school for you anymore.”

“Bingo,” Markus groaned. “Apparently those damn robots they’ve got flying around are as expensive as Snoop Dogg’s first blunt because there’s no fucking way my parents could afford the shortfall.” Thoughts began to creep into my mind of a similar fate. No powers, no Cass or Sammy or Angus. No... Gabby. I laid a hand on his chest.

“Hexecute is still out there,” I said, staring deeply into his eyes. “What if I could find him and take your powers back?”

Markus frowned. “Bullshit. I already had my powers stolen. It’s over for me. I was only a speedster again because I was using your powers. You can do that for anyone else, not just a former speedster.”

I leaned closer to him. “You never know till you try, Markus. I didn’t even know I could speed someone up until five minutes ago. Who knows what’s possible and what isn’t?”

He sat up. “Huh.”

“You really think that’s possible, Gabby?” Kayden asked.

“Hell yeah.” I rose to my feet. “Even if it isn’t, we gotta try, right? Otherwise, what’s the point of all this running and hiding we’ve been doing?”

Smiling, Markus stood up as well. “Sure, alright. What the hell. Kick his ass real good for me. Even if you screw up, having someone transfer with me wouldn’t be so bad,” he joked. “But if you’re going after Hexecute, I need to teach you a few things.”

“Meaning what the Kinetic Realm is?” I asked.

Markus sighed. “That’s as good a place as any to start.” He chewed his lip while he collected his thoughts. “Okay, so the Kinetic Realm. This is going to sound like the plot of a bad sci-fi movie, but I’m just gonna give it to you like how I got it.”

“Wait, who told you about it?” I asked confusedly.

Markus waved his hand flippantly. “Some guy from Michigan. They call him Bolt or something. Honestly, he’s more of a cop than anything else. A month or so after I got my powers he told me a lot of what I’m about to tell you. I guess being a speedster is kind of similar to being in the Yellow Beacon battery in that, well, a lot of this stuff is insider knowledge only.”

“Do I need to cover my ears or something?” Kayden laughed.

“Nah, I don’t give a shit about secrets an asshole from Michigan wanted me to keep.” Markus looked back to me. “So. Kinetic Realm. It’s a huge ‘ol universal force that’s beyond our perception. It’s essentially in the same place we are, just folded in between the spaces where our universe has gaps. All motion, all energy, all kinetic forces come from this huge entity.”

“Right,” I replied sarcastically. “So that makes what, like six different all-knowing all-seeing entities? There’s the ‘Kinetic Realm’, then you’ve got the Yellow Beacon’s universe engine thing, and then there’s ‘Dark Mattur’, and the uh…” I snapped my fingers, hoping the thought would come to me. “Kayden, what’s that place the news says the Spectacular Six is always fighting monsters from?”

“The Recusant’s Zone,” Kayden replied mirthfully. “Don’t forget the ‘Mother Vine’ that Verdant and other planties are always talking about.”

“Oh, no. Couldn’t forget that.” I rolled my eyes. “And then just straight up the place where the Starers come from. Pervert Island?”

“I get it, I get it,” Markus interrupted us. “I didn’t come up with this stuff. It’s just what I was told. Can I continue?”

“Go right ahead.” I smiled mischievously.

“So,” Markus said through a grumble, “it’s everywhere. It’s where we draw our power from as speedsters. When the lightning bolt hits us, it takes us out of synch with our reality and allows us to absorb part of the energy of the kinetic realm.”

I received a warm pulse from within my chest. 

So that’s where it came from. I rubbed the skin beneath my collarbone absentmindedly.

Markus continued. “So basically, when you use your powers, you’re pulling from the energy you received there. When you run, when you punch, when you phase, it all comes from there.”

“Phase?” I repeated.

Markus crossed his arms and smirked. “Looks like you don’t know everything. It’s called ‘phasing’. You know how to vibrate, right? You move your hands or arms really quickly in place. Like what I did earlier.” He held his arm out in front of me. “Watch.” He proceeded to perform a much, much slower reenactment of his translucent arm trick from earlier. His arm looked to be faintly shaking this time as if he were driving over a dirt road. “Copy me,” he instructed.

Doing my best to imitate him, I began to shake my arm in the same manner. Calling the energy from my chest, I channeled it into my arm muscles and began to vibrate. Within moments the image of my arm began to blur ever so slightly at the edges, slowly but surely turning more and more translucent the longer I continued. “Like this?” I asked.

Markus lowered his arm and glowered. “Yeah, that’s it.”

“What can I say?” I bragged. “Quick learner.”

Markus rolled his eyes and Kayden held their hand up for a high-five. “Good pun!” I raised my shaking arm to meet theirs, however, Markus quickly grabbed ahold of me. “No, no, no, don’t do that!”

“What?” I replied.

“That,” he pointed towards my vibrating hand, “is like a loaded gun. If you just phase that into someone willy-nilly, you’ll scramble their insides up like an egg.”

“Really?” I glanced at Kayden with concern. “Hope I didn’t hurt that bomb guy from the bank too much, then.”

“Bomb guy?” Markus narrowed his eyes.

“It’s a long story,” Kayden interjected. “We wouldn’t want to interrupt your lesson, Markus.”

 Markus groaned again in reply. “Whatever. Now, you can actually extend that power to the rest of your body. If you vibrate at the natural frequency of  the air around us, you can ‘phase’ through solid objects.”

“How’s that possible?” Kayden interjected. 

Markus picked up a stick. “The way I heard, the energy flowing into our cells places them into an excited state, one which allows them to move around any matter they come into contact with, including solid objects. Like this stick.” They slowly waved the stick through my vibrating arm… shape?

Kayden shook their head. “This doesn’t sound like it follows the laws of physics at all.” I gave their shoulder a light punch with my non-vibrating hand.

“I could say the same thing about your size-changing shenanigans, so shush!”

Markus lifted my other arm up. “Concentrate, McArthur. If you vibrate at the frequency of air, you should be able to move your molecules around the molecules of solid matter, essentially phasing not just your hands but your entire body through a brick wall, for instance.”

I gave him a look. “Did you ever do that?”

His expression turned downtrodden. “N-no. I was never actually able to get it to work. But I’ve seen other speedsters who could do it; it works. Trust me.”

“Okay,” I replied with all the confidence of a child climbing up the latter for the tallest diving board at the pool. I concentrated and focused the energy into my chest and head as well as my arms. Slowly but surely, they began to phase as well, all becoming translucent and hard to perceive. A rush of vertigo caught me off guard, sending me to my knees in the grass.

“H-holy crap,” I breathed in exhaustion. “Was I doing it?”

“I’d say so,” Kayden confirmed.

“Yeah,” Markus sullenly agreed. “You were doing it. Good job on not doing your legs, too. You might’ve phased right through the ground if you did.”

I bolted back to my feet in a daze. “Wait, that was a possibility?” I fretted.

“That’s something to keep in mind when you do it a second time for me.” Markus grinned. “I want to make sure you’ve got it down since you’re so good at learning.”  

We definitely practiced phasing more than twice; all told I think it would be fair to say he made me phase some part of my body about a thousand times? Regardless of the actual number of attempts it certainly felt like a thousand. I collapsed onto the ground in a heap once Markus was finally satisfied.

“What are you doing?” He stood over me with a mocking smirk. “I haven’t even gone over how to direct the energy that flows off you.”

“I already did that, remember?” I retorted between gasps of air.

He raised his eyebrows. “Sure, but did you know you could do it much more violently and channel it into a mini bolt of lightning?”

“No way! Can she really do that?” Kayden exclaimed. “I saw a video of QuikDrop doing that once.”

“Markus,” I interrupted from my bed of grass, “beneath my exhausted facade, I’m filled with glee to throw lightning. That’s literally the coolest fucking thing anyone has told me about these powers, and they already made me grow boobs. The issue on the table, however, is said exhaustion. Give me a few minutes, okay?”

“Sure, sure,” he relented.

“Oh!” Kayden exclaimed, “Gabs, I need to report in to Mel. I’m gonna step away for a sec.” They bent down to my level on the ground. “Is that cool with you?”

“Definitely. I’ll be uh…” I looked to my left and right. “...here when you get back.”

“Cool! BRB.” Kayden hurried off to the edge of the clearing and began to dig around in my backpack for the data-puck we usually conducted our meetings over. Markus stood awkwardly off to the side while I caught my breath. “Hey. Markus,” I called. “Can I ask you a question?”

His expression remained as inattentive as ever as he replied. “Shoot.”

I propped myself up. “Have you ever seen a sort of — I don’t know, I guess it’s like a lightning being? As in lightning in the shape of a person that seems to know how to communicate?”

Apparently I caught him off-guard. “Lightning… being? No. What kind of crap are you smoking?”

I frowned. “Nothing, I was just curious. You’ve never seen a lightning being in your dreams or in real life or anything?”

“Pretty sure I’d remember that,” he sighed. “Why, are you?”

“I guess?” I replied. I gave him a quick rundown of everything I’d experienced lately, from the lightning being in real life and in my dreams to the glass of water incident more recently. His expression seemed to go through several stages; first, he was skeptical, then suspicious, then filled with disbelief.

“Something is wrong,” he decided, his voice uneven and filled with thinly veiled panic. “Something is very wrong.”

“What do you mean?” I replied as I stood up.

Markus scratched at the back of his head nervously. “This is the kind of stuff that happens when the Kinetic Realm is out of balance. It might be due to your pair no longer existing, or something else —” He was cut short as my knees gave out and I careened to the ground. That familiar tremor was snaking its way up my leg muscles into my torso. I clutched at my sides in agony.

Not now.

“F-fuck!” I hissed.

“Gabby!” Markus rushed over. He pulled me onto my back and looked me over.

“Quiet!” I wheezed. I looked over to where Kayden stood a couple dozen yards away still speaking with Mel. “I— I’m fine. Don’t let them know,” I commanded.

“But…” Markus looked confused. “Gabby, how long have you been having these glitches? You can’t seriously have been keeping them secret this whole time.”

The pains started to dissipate, allowing me to loosen my grip on my ribs. “More than a couple of weeks. It started when Hexecute—”

“Took my powers,” Markus finished for me. “I figured. I had them when I was barely using my alter form, at least compared to you.” He sat back on his feet and crossed his arms. “Even so, you need to fucking tell someone about this. What if you’re dying?”

“I’m not dying, Markus,” I reassured him. “This is just part of my very cool origin story arc, I bet.”

He ran his hands over the creases in his forehead. “Jesus, you’re an idiot.” He looked over to Kayden and sighed. “So it’s related to losing your powers? Or some of them, at least?”

“That’s all I’ve been able to figure out,” I exhaled heavily.

“But that doesn’t make sense. I started having glitches before I ever encountered Hexecute.”

I looked up at him breathlessly. “What do you mean, ‘before’? Do you think he was following you?”

Markus adamantly shook his head. “No. Nobody that matched his lanky-ass body type ever got close to me just before I started glitching.”

I picked myself up yet again, this time standing on unsteady legs. “When exactly did you start glitching?” I asked.

Markus furrowed his brow as he thought. “If I had to guess? Sometime between when I woke up in the morning and when I first saw you in your alter form outside of—”

“School,” I said, finishing for him. Before I could get another word in, Kayden rushed over.

“Sorry in advance!” they shouted preemptively. Mel’s face, clearly visible in blue light over the puck, did not appear amused.

She nearly immediately launched into a tirade. “What in God’s name are you two doing together outside of school? Do you know how big of a target you are right now?”

“Pretty sizable, I imagine?” I replied. Kayden sidled up next to Markus and me, placing Mel directly in front of us. Their arm nudged against my still-sore thigh. Involuntarily I winced and drew in a breath. Kayden gave me an odd look, but thankfully Mel continued her spiel and drew Kayden’s attention once more.

Mel was rapidly flexing her hand against what looked to be a stress ball. “I really don’t need this kind of headache right now.” She brought up a screen in front of her. “I’m trying to trace some fucking weird signals I’m getting from Pelican Bay supermax off near Smith River. Not exactly super high importance, it’s only a supermax prison housing some of the worst baseline criminals on the west coast.”

“Hey, I’m just reporting in like you told me to,” Kayden argued.

Mel sighed. “I thought that would mean you saying ‘Yes, we’re still at Gabrielle’s house underneath the protection of four other alters,’ not that you’d be alone in Earhart park for whatever reason you’ve cooked up. I mean honestly, you’re standing right where they do drug deals.” I elbowed Kayden lightly.

“Told ya.” I smirked. Remembering the situation with Mom, I decided to try asking Mel for help again, hoping that she was distracted enough to look into it for me without questioning my motives. “Mel, I know you’re busy, but I wanted to ask again about my mom—” I quietly began.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she waved her hand dismissively at the screen. “did it. She’s—” an alert popped up on her screen. “Ugh, what now?”

“What?” Kayden asked.

 Mel brought up several more screens. “Odd dimensional signals are pinging off my equipment again. All over the city too. Doesn’t look man made… the frequency of the burst almost reminds me of…” She glanced curiously towards us. “I need to run a scan on this.”

“What kind of weird signals?” Kayden asked.

Mel ignored them and continued to type. I took hold of the data puck. “Before you do that, could you tell me what you found on my mom?” I repeated. Her posture stiffened.

“What do you mean, herbicide?” she shouted, answering neither of us. “We ordered how much?” she jumped up from her seat. “Bullshit! Tell him to move his damn truck, it’s in a no-park zone.”

“Mel?” I brought the puck closer to my face. Mel began to laugh darkly to herself.

“No, Starburst, I don’t care what his boss will do. Some kids probably ordered the herbicide as some sort of ‘own the lib’ move on Verdant. Their website is extremely easy to hack. I mean, what is this, 2007? Nobody uses that kind of authentication method anymore.”

“Mel!” I insisted.

She turned directly towards the camera and scowled. “I heard you! For fuck sake, hold on!” She continued to tap away on her keyboard.  “Keep Verdant away from his truck, we can’t afford another vine incident. Our insurance premium is already through the roof.” She pulled up another screen. “Oh, great. Now they’re both yelling at the truck driver. I’m the only adult in the building, I see.” She paused for a brief moment to collect herself. 

She immediately turned away to glance at the screen filled with odd signal information again. “So your mom— Couldn’t find her.”

“I’m sorry?” I replied in confusion.

Mel didn’t turn around. “Can’t find her. She worked at Tokar, Famic and Co., right? She’s not in the active employee registry.”

A strange mixture of emotions started to well up within me, creeping ever higher as it reached the top of my stomach and began to pour into my throat. Fear. Anxiety. Anger. Nausea. Mom got fired? She got fired from her job and it was my fault. I stumbled backward a few steps.

“Oh... my god,” I murmured. Kayden brought their hand to rest on the back of my shoulder, stabilizing me as my mind began to race.

“Oh, a package,” I heard Mel comment. I looked up to see her retrieving a plain tan package from a desk next to her just as it popped out from an opening in the wall. She let out a quiet laugh. “Greg again. Figures. That idiot picks the worst times to interrupt me.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Still feeling shell-shocked, I numbly pulled it out and read the message displayed.

 

UNKNOWN:

Ready? Set go :)

 

“What the?” I glanced at Kayden and showed them the message. Their face adopted a scrunched, confused expression.

 Mel was already tearing away at the tape adhered to the package, her robotic eyes whirring and zooming in. “He’s been sending me a package every day lately. I swear to god, if this is about my harmonic stabilization research I’m going to— Oh, shit.” The screen abruptly turned black. The data-puck’s blue lights quickly faded before turning off completely. Birds of all colors and sizes erupted from the trees, swarming from the area into the sky.

A deafening, thunderous roar ripped through the air immediately following their flight. We turned our attention towards the source of the disturbance. The trees obscured most of our view with their branches and leaves, but a plume of black smoke was visible rising into the air in the direction of Crescent City Tower. Several more explosions ripped through the air from the same direction in rapid succession.

“Gabby—” Kayden whispered.

“Hop on,” I instructed them, holding my arms out behind me. They shrunk down a couple of feet and hopped onto my back. I gave Markus one last commanding stare. “Get home safe.” Kayden tightened their grip on my shoulders just in time; dirt flung into the air behind me as I tore out of the woods, heading directly for the tower. Once we cleared the patch of trees and their obfuscating leaves, what I had assumed to be the setting sun revealed itself for the horror it was.

“Holy shit,” I mumbled as we sped towards the city center. Even from this distance, the flames engulfing the building shone brightly against the overcast grey sky. I sped us away from the park and zig-zagged through traffic. People were fleeing in huge numbers, each evacuating into the other boroughs of the city. They were terrified. They were right to be.

Nearly the entire building looked to be a giant match-stick. No floors were left untouched by the scorching touch of flame. Scraps of steaming metal debris littered the pavement all around the building. A couple of fire trucks were beginning to arrive, but it was clear they wouldn’t be able to do much until more of them arrived. The air smelled heavily of putridly sweet and pungent ash. 

“Holy shit,” Kayden said, echoing my comments. Cops were beginning to arrive on the scene as well though they hadn't set up any sort of perimeter judging by the panicked crowds still leaving the scene. A faint scream out of sight caught my ear.

“Hold on, Kayden, there’s someone over there.” I pointed towards the direction of the entrance on the other side of the building. We brushed past the civilians and emergency responders heading towards the building entrance. The soles of my shoes began to grow warm as we approached. My stomach dropped as we rounded the corner, the screams becoming louder and louder, nearly all-consuming. The scene that unfolded before us could honestly be described as the most grisly scene I’d ever seen. A seaweed colored figure lay on the ground, surrounded by copious amounts of a sickly orange liquid still spilling from what looked to be the remains of a tanker truck. The unidentifiable figure was the source of the screams. They barely had time to draw a breath before losing it in another intense, gut-wrenching howl. Animalistic cries of pain were all that left their lips. Another figure, one with shining bright blonde hair matted with red liquid kneeled over the other, cradling it and whispering to herself.

“Starburst,” Kayden breathed, pointing at the blonde woman. The dots instantly connected in my mind. Verdant was the one on the ground. Her usually vibrant green skin had darkened considerably, and her notoriously beautiful red-black hair was nowhere to be seen. I started to rush over before Kayden stopped me. They pointed up at the top floor of the building.

There, spelled out in gigantic, flaming letters, was two words.

The Mechanic.

The words stumbled out of my mouth. “Did… did Mel?”

“No, look past the smoke,” Kayden said, their voice quivering. There, up in the sky, partially obscured by the dark-grey smoke, floated a figure in place. A familiar, thin, lanky figure with an amethyst glint up near it’s head. 

Hexecute. Looking right down at us. 

Verdant let out another blood-curdling scream, distracting us both. By the time I looked back up toward the roof of the building, the figure was gone.

More and more police were beginning to arrive on the scene, prompting Kayden to nudge me.

“Gabby, we need to leave,” they hissed. I looked between them and the hungry, gnawing flames erupting from the building. Paramedics rushed up to Starburst and Verdant and began to check on both of them. Everyone was shouting, screaming, crying. The flames were starting to fog up my glasses, even standing several dozen feet away. Kayden forcefully turned me around. “This is too public, Gabby. Neither of us can be here right now.”

Shaken, I gave them a shallow nod. “Okay… okay…” Before anyone could approach us, Kayden and I slipped out of sight into a nearby alleyway. Once again, they shrunk down and hopped on my back. Another text popped up on my phone.

 

UNKNOWN:

Marshmallows, marshmallows love to roast. Best go check on those you love most. :)

 

I I didn't bother showing Kayden the message. Instead, I burst from the alley onto the street and tore my way through every street, every shortcut, and every path to make it home. I could feel Kayden’s grip slipping, yet I prayed they would hold on just a bit longer. I had to make it home. I had to.

I must’ve torn up several lawns by the time I skidded to a stop at the curb in front of our house. The house was okay. There wasn’t any fire. There wasn’t any smoke. No cops, no ambulances, nothing. Oddly, this served only to heighten my fear as my mind raced against what that message had meant. Kayden fell off my back onto the grass as I sprinted across the front-lawn towards the house. The door opened to greet me, revealing an unexpected face.

Dad.

His expression immediately twisted into one of anger and rage. I shot a quick glance over my shoulder, hoping Kayden had already morphed into my default form. Instead, they remained seated on the grass in the form they’d already been wearing. I turned back around. He was staring at me.