2.4

“Jake?”

I try not to curse out loud. My skin prickles.

“Uh, no.”

“Jake. Oh my god.”

“Dunno who you’re talkin’ about.”

“What the fuck happened to you? You didn’t show up to school and I thought you were grounded or something, like. Fuck.”

Playing dumb obviously isn’t working. I feel weirdly vulnerable, stripped raw in unfamiliar territory.

I keep my face aimed at the window.

“Do we really have to do this here?”

“Where — where else would we do it? Were you even going to tell me?”

“You coulda’ called or somethin’.”

“How long have you been like this? How — why — you look like a girl!”

I roll my eyes, not that she can really see it, and stand up. I wonder if there’s a lobby somewhere in this building.

“Only sorta!” I say sarcastically, waving my arms around and moving towards the elevator.

Olivia steps in front of me, and I huff.

“No, no no no, you don’t get to slip out on me. You’re gonna tell me exactly what happened, now.” She crosses her arms and squares up.

I should really tell her. Give her a summary or something, she’d probably leave me alone.

I find I don’t really want to say anything to her.

“I don’t want to,” I say.

She scowls. “Why the fuck not?”

“Why’s it matter?”

“Oh, come on, don’t be a little bitch. Don’t tell me you ‘don’t wanna talk about it,’” she simpers, tacking on a whiny voice. “Suck it up, I wanna know.”

I look at the ceiling. Olivia’s silent for a beat.

“Did getting powers fuck with your head or something? You’re worse than your faggot boyfriend.”

I blink.

Something like static starts to cloud my vision.

“Huh?”

“You fucking heard me.”

I don’t look at her. I push past her and walk towards the elevator. Pins and needles prickle over my skin.

Something like noise blankets my body.

“Sure, run away again,” Olivia mutters.

I enter the elevator and press a random button. The doors close. The elevator starts. Light slides over me from the clear glass at the back, interrupted at intervals by supporting struts.

The static doesn’t go away.

The elevator opens to a floor that looks like it’s filled with offices. A number of people in suits stand around waiting in a lobby bordered by several other elevator doors.

I don’t know what expression I’m wearing, but it’s enough to make one worker closer to the door jump and step out of the way. I think I catch him pull out his phone as I skitter away, but I don’t log it.

Walking down the office hall, I barely internalize my surroundings. Work area, janitor’s closet, server room. The floor’s fairly empty, for some reason. Maybe it’s late.

I spot a sign that says ‘break room’ and stop.

Pushing open the door reveals a cozy, monotone area with a couch and tiny kitchenette.

Slowly, I step inside, walk over to the couch and sit down.

I feel lightheaded, and my hands twitch where they rest on my thighs.

As the fog clears and the harsh buzz of fluorescent bulbs invades my ears, I think I may have made a mistake.

Why did I run off like that? I — what she said — I don’t know why I couldn’t hold it together.

I scowl. Stupid. I thought I was so good at playing the game.

Obviously, I’m not. Ava saw through me. Olivia saw through me. And then I just… crumbled.

I sigh. I should probably go find Rook or something.

In a bit. Maybe I can stay here for a bit longer.

—

After a while, the door to

The break room opens, and Jennifer walks in. Not Rook, Jennifer. She must have the drone(s?) doing something else.

“I heard you had run off,” she says, adjusting her glasses.

“Mhm.”

“Why?”

“Dunno,” I answer honestly.

Jennifer shakes her head. “Not good enough.”

I scowl. “The fuck does that mean?”

“You’re going to become a hero, Red. You need to know why you do this. Any of this.”

“Well, I don’t!” I state.

“Because you’re not trying.”

I stay silent. I don’t… I don’t understand why this is what she’s focusing on. I don’t know what I was expecting with her, but this feels… raw. Real, in a way that feels uncomfortable and distinctly disconnected from what I’d get from… my parents, I guess.

They’d ask what was wrong, and I’d say nothing, and they’d say I could talk to them, and I wouldn’t.

Jennifer — Rook demands an answer.

I… think.

“Liv — Olivia said something to me. I… got angry.”

“So you ran?”

I lower my head. “I didn’t want to hurt her.”

“Hm.” There’s a rustle as she presumably shifts position. I don’t look at her.

“Come with me. You’ll observe the evening session as planned, and then…”

I look up. She’s tapping away at her tablet.

“And then?” I prompt.

“And then, I may have you participate.”

I blink. “Huh?”

She gestures at me, and walks out the door. I scramble to follow her.

The office floor’s empty, surprisingly. I did notice no one came into the break room while I was in there. Jennifer must have been alerted as soon as I left the dorms.

Cameras, maybe? I haven’t seen any since we came in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t exist. Realistically, I have no clue what this tower can do.

We cross the hall and enter the elevator. She punches in a floor — a little below this one — and the doors close.

“What d’you mean participate,” I pester her.

Jennifer gives me a look. I huff.

The elevator doors open up to a small lobby, with a receptionists’ desk and a couple chairs lining the wall. Next to the desk, there’s a door with a label reading ‘changing rooms’.

Straight across from the elevator is a set of double doors, unlabeled and seemingly heavily armored.

Rook heads for the receptionist. “Go get a jumpsuit. Women’s are on the left, men’s are on the right; find one that fits.”

I hesitate, but take a step to the smaller door.

A small hall, and a door on either side. I pick the men’s, out of habit.

The changing rooms are open, with small stalls bordered by white separators along each wall, and two rows of lockers along the back. The tiles are clean, and the room smells like disinfectant.

I wander over to the lockers, opening one at random. A white uniform with a dark blue stripe lining the outside hangs in the center.

Huh. I bring it over to one of the stalls and try it on.

It’s a little big. The tracksuit hangs off of me awkwardly in some areas, and the legs pool around my ankles a little.

In spite of that, though, it’s surprisingly comfortable. The whole thing is made of some sort of really soft, lightweight material, so even the small collar refuses to chafe.

I step back out into the lobby, taking large strides and waving my hands around to get a feel for the suit.

Jennifer glances at me as she’s standing by the double doors, twirling a plastic card in her hand.

She raises an eyebrow. “You should size down next time.”

“Sure, whatever,” I reply.

She turns to the doors, and slides the card in a reader to the right. There’s a beep, a light blinking on the reader, and then a clunk. Jennifer reaches over and pulls open one of the doors.

She nods at the entrance. “Go on.”

I sigh, and step in. Jennifer follows.

The training area is big. Like, football field big. Large, solid tiles line the entire room, stretching across the floor and the walls. The ceiling is arranged in a similar structure, except the tiles there shine with enough light to make it feel like midday in summer, even with no windows in sight.

Taking up most of the space is a mock urban setup, concrete flooring and structures mimicking the larger city, fenced in by surrounding poles connected with thin strands of black rope.

The four junior heroes stand in front of the gate, looking like bored teenagers in professional tracksuits.

“Attention,” Rook says, injecting the same authority into her voice as earlier. They straighten into a line, backs straight, while she nods me over.

I walk over to the left end of the line, where Eva is. She gives me a weird look as I stand beside her.

I ignore it. I don’t put much effort into my posture, but Rook doesn’t seem to mind. Yet.

She moves past us and unhooks one of the ropes. The others automatically file in, and I trail behind them.

“We’ll be doing a standard warmup,” she says, closing the gate behind her. “Then, one-on-one sparring, and a mock rescue. Understood?”

“Yessir!”

“Y — yessir,” I say, belatedly.

“Begin.”

The others nod, split off, and start… stretching?

“Red.” I turn to look at Rook.

She starts doing a stretch, tilting her neck, and gestures for me to copy.

I follow along with Rook as we go through some stretches. Some I recognize from gym class, some I don’t. They’re not as hard as I remember them being.

Eva and Rory start muttering to each other about something, I’m not close enough to hear what.

The others finish earlier, and after Rook finishes walking me through it, she turns to face the group as a whole.

“Alright. Rory, Eva. Cooper, Olivia. Split up, fifteen feet apart. Minimal power use, we don’t have a medic on standby at the moment.” They pair up and spread out, pairs facing each other. The section of fake urban area we’re in is set in a wide intersection, so they have space. Mostly. Cooper and Olivia are a little close to the curb.

“Three,” Rook starts. They’re really gonna fight? I guess it makes sense for them to know how, but you don’t usually see martial arts in any of the big fight videos online.

“Two.” The junior heroes prepare their stances. I don’t know anything about fighting, so I have no idea what any of them are, but Rory looks like he should be holding something.

“One.” They tense. I glance at Rook. Is she going to monitor both fights? At once?

“Begin.”

There’s a flash, both of motion and a literal one, as they launch into action. Rory’s hands light up and glitter, with glowing yellow plates adorning his knuckles and protecting his forearms as he advances on Eva. Olivia’s palms puff smoke as she dashes at Cooper, coming in from a low angle. Very quickly, I find it difficult to keep track of everything.

I’m distracted from Rory’s fight when Olivia closes in on Cooper, sweeping one arm around his waist with a puff of smoke. She points her other arm straight backwards, and it lights up with a rumble and a rush of heat.

Then, a distorted thud from somewhere to my left — the other fight. Switching my attention, I see Rory swinging his armored fists at Eva’s guard, seemingly not making any progress. Every hit is accompanied by a small, unnatural boom, and a slight blur. Rory swings again, and at the last moment Eva weaves —

A grunt from the other fight. I whip my head around just in time to see Olivia drop-kick Cooper into the floor, from a different angle than before. Somehow, he must’ve escaped that first grab, and that’s Olivia’s response…?

“Cooper, you’re done.” He picks himself up off the ground while Olivia stands around looking smug.

I look over to the other fight as Rory tackles Eva to the ground and glowing bands encircle her torso and limbs.

“Eva, you’re done.” She huffs. Rory dispels his constructs and stands with her.

That was quick.

“Good work, all of you,” Rook says, pulling out her tablet and tapping at it. “Rory is today’s MVP. Your decision to bait out Eva’s kinetic unloading was inspired.”

Rory nods seriously. Eva huffs again and Olivia rolls her eyes. I didn’t see that part of the fight, so I’m a little lost. But, Eva’s power… as a hero, her name is Rebound. She can absorb and release impacts, or something similar. Maybe she whiffed the rebound?

More importantly, how did Rook catch that and call Olivia and Cooper’s fight?

The woman in question slides away her tablet. “Now, Olivia and Red.”

I blink. “Huh?”