Aberrant Trilogy 1: Super Charged (16 page)

“I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe he would come looking for people he used to know.”

This suggestion causes Mom to raise her eyebrows and press her lips together.

“I highly doubt he would come looking for me,” she says. “Like I said, we barely knew each other. The person he was close to was your father. There’s no chance he can get in touch with him now unless it’s at the cemetery.”

Mom’s answer gives me relief. I won’t feel bad leaving her by herself now since Bill Flagrant wouldn’t come looking for her.

I smile.

“If he wants to leave flowers, he’s welcome to,” I say. “I’m sure Dad won’t mind.”

Then I walk over to Mom and lean down to kiss her on the forehead.

“I need to get going. I don’t want to miss my train back. Grandpa will kill me if I am late for school in the morning.”

“It’s nice to see you taking things seriously,” says Mom with a smile. She reaches out and ruffles my hair. “Maybe I’ll come up a few days early and spend some time in Maine with you all. Some time at the lake might do me some good.”

“It could do us
all
some good,” I say.

Behind me, Mae reaches out and tugs at my shirt.

“We really have to go,” she says.

I start out of the kitchen.

“Well, I’ll see you when I see you,” I say, turning to leave.

Before I get out of the kitchen doorway, however, Mom speaks out.

“I love you, Shaun,” she says.

I pause, feeling some happiness return to me after such a long time.

“I love you, too,” I say. Then Mae ushers me back to the train station.

26

The Train

“Remember what you need to do,” says Mae over the bustling of the train station. “Lay low, and practice your powers when you can.”

I smirk. “I don’t think it will be too hard to lay low in the middle of the woods,” I say.

Still, Mae is serious.

“Just make sure that nobody spots you. There’s a reason that super heroes have costumes and secret identities. If someone finds out what the Vestige is capable of, they will come for it, which means that they will have to come through you. You may be able to fly, but you’re not fast enough to dodge a speeding bullet.”

I sigh. “It’s a shame that I can’t,” I say. That would have been a great power to have. But, I’ll have to make do with the two that I’ve been granted. Energy blasts and flight are more than enough to come to grips with. “And what about you?” I ask.

“
I
will be working on your shoes,” she says. “So, whenever you practice, make sure you do it barefoot. I’ll come up to Maine next weekend and we can make sure that these things all work.”

I nod.

“It seems silly to do all this preparation,” I say. “What am I preparing for, besides Bill Flagrant? Nobody else should know about the Vestige.”

“Bill Flagrant is a criminal,” says Mae. “I wouldn’t underestimate him. Haven’t you seen what ordinary people can do to cause terror? Imagine Flagrant with the Vestige.”

A shiver runs down my spine and I straighten up. She’s right. It’s not a small thing I’m working to defend myself against.

“I’ll be careful,” I say.

“Good. And remember, there’s still a piece of the Vestige missing.”

I reach up to my shirt collar and tug at the Vestige, running my finger across the missing piece. Where is it? We were hoping to find the shard, but have turned up empty handed.

What little happiness was in my chest is now replaced with a rapidly beating heart and a chill.

“Don’t remind me,” I say, tucking the Vestige in my shirt. “I have enough to worry about. And that piece could be anywhere. At least I checked the predictable locations, which means that if Flagrant
is
looking for it, he’ll have a heck of a time hunting it down.”

“Good,” says Mae.

A voice over the intercom announces that my train is boarding, so we share one last look.

“Alright,” I say. “I have to get going.”

I’m going to head straight onto the train when Mae hurries forward and wraps her arms around me. It’s a tight embrace and I am a little surprised when she rests her head against my chest.

“Be careful,” she says. “Even in the woods, you can always get into trouble.”

I smile and return the embrace, squeezing her shoulders.

“Don’t worry,” I reply. “I’ll be careful.”

We part with a smile and I hurry to get a seat on the train. Minutes later the train is pulling out of the station and whisking me out of the crowded city and into the countryside.

I settle into my seat after the attendant comes through, collecting tickets. The movement of the train is comforting and I am hypnotized by the scenery passing outside my window. I begin to drift off.

On the edge of dreaming, suddenly I’m snapped awake by an odd sensation.

My eyes open and I sit up straight.

It feels like I’m being watched.

I look over my shoulder at the other passengers in my car. There are many commuters on the train. Most of them are reading on their tablets or checking their emails on their phones. None are looking at me.

So, why was I suddenly awoken by such an uncanny feeling?

An image of Bill Flagrant flashes in my mind.

I can hear his voice echoing in my ears.

The Vestige…

He knew exactly what it was. I could tell by the way he said it.

I give the train car one last look around then settle back into my seat with my hand around the Vestige. I don’t let it go until I am safely in Grandpa’s car a few hours later.

27

Testing The Visor

Over the next few days I can barely focus on anything except my superpowers. I am itching to get away and just be by myself so that I can test out my limits. I manage to get Monday night free, but Robby keeps pestering me to hang out. He will stop by the house and knock, asking if I am at home. I don’t know where else I could be. At first I do my best at hiding. This works for about a day. Then I try my best to let him down easy, but Grandma notices how much I’ve been brushing him off and forces me to spend time with him.

I groan, but I can’t blame Robby for wanting someone to hang out with. There’s not much else to do besides go to the lake, and unfortunately it’s been overcast most of the time since the weekend. That means I won’t be learning to swim any time soon. Instead we spend some time at his house playing video games. I suppose that taking a break from all this testing is good for me. Still, my mind doesn’t stray too far from using my powers. There’s still the visor to test out, and I can only do that on my own at night.

Finally I get a chance to be completely by myself on Friday evening.

Grabbing the visor, I sneak out the back and decide to head farther into the woods this time since the moon is full.

A good two minute walk and I come to a small clearing. In the distance I can hear the lake and the sound of people outside. With trees all around me I shouldn’t be bothered.

“Okay, visor…” I say, balancing it on each ear. “Let’s see what you can do for me.”

I press the power button and immediately my eyes are blinded by the bright flash of the display coming to life. A few seconds later my eyes adjust and I see all the information clearly.

There’s an altimeter in the upper left corner of the visor. Below that I can see names flashing, depending on which way I look, and the distances to get to them. Surprisingly there’s one that’s listed as “Dad’s House” and I laugh. This is definitely something that my father must have had commissioned. It’s too high-tech.

But, what does it do besides being a glorified GPS?

I look around the right side of the screen. There I see something that’s shaped like the four buttons on a game controller - two at the bottom, two at the top. Inside each of these lit circles is a percentage number. At the moment they’re all listed as zero.

When I blast some energy out of my hands, the top two percentages go up. Slow at first, maybe only ten or twenty percent. But, as I concentrate my energy and send more power shooting to the grassy ground beneath me, the numbers shoot up to about fifty percent.

When I try the same thing with my feet, the bottom numbers go up. I lift off the ground and go soaring into the air. As before when I saved Mae, I am wobbly.

But, when I hold out my hands and use that energy to direct myself, I end up course correcting. The numbers on the screen reflect that. I’m most stable when they’re closer together. The only time they drift apart is when I do a drastic change in direction.

I land myself softly on the ground, the first time I have done this successfully without falling on my butt, and breathe out a cool sigh of relief.

“Wow,” I say. “Dad had some cool toys.”

Now that I know what the visor is good for, I manage to fly with much more ease. I practice for about an hour and a half, soaring over the lake just high enough that nobody will notice me down below.

It feels exhilarating. I’m able to lay nearly flat on my stomach in the air as if I’m tobogganing across the clouds. My clothes become damp with all the moisture up here.

Starting to get tired, I come back down to the clearing in the woods and trudge back to the house so that I can dry off my clothes.

I leave the visor on to get more use out of it. The GPS goes crazy when I’m in the woods, keeping track of all the trees around me. I wonder if this thing can detect enemies like in the comics.

When I make it to the end of the woods I look at the house and see energy signals for Grandma and Grandpa. But, there’s a third energy signal that I can’t determine. It’s up on the second floor.

I sneak back into the house and make my way up the stairs towards the light.

I come to a stop in front of the spare bedroom at the end of the hall. The light hovers just behind the main wall. I figure that means that the energy is coming from inside a chest of drawers on the other side of the wall.

But, when I step into the room to look for the source of the energy, there is no chest of drawers. The light signal is still attached to the wall.

Maybe the light is some animal that is traveling in the wall. It could be a mouse. This home is old enough that I wouldn’t put it past my grandparents for having a mouse problem on occasion.

Thankfully the mice aren’t in
my
bedroom wall.

Still, the fact that I can detect the energy of living things with this visor is incredibly handy. It will make looking out for villains like Bill Flagrant - The Drone - a heck of a lot easier.

Glancing at my watch I read the time: Eleven O’Clock.

Mae is going to be coming up to the lake tomorrow, so that gives me a reason to rest.

I put the visor and the Vestige in my bedside drawer and make a mental note to show Mae the visor’s energy seeker tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll point out something new that I haven’t even noticed yet.

She’s good like that.

28

Learn To Swim

The next morning I’m awoken super early by the sunlight streaming into my bedroom. Even though I could fall back asleep and doze for another few hours, I’m too anxious for Mae to get here with my flight shoes. There are too many things I want to show her, including my refined flying abilities, so I kick the covers off of me and jump in the shower.

Fifteen minutes later I am dressed and hurry downstairs for some breakfast.

My grandparents are already awake. Grandma is washing a few dishes and Grandpa looks like he was working on his truck in the garage. He wipes some grease off his hands with a dirty rag.

“You’re up early,” he says. “I thought all boys liked to sleep in on Saturdays?”

“I’m too excited for Mae to get here,” I say and pour myself some cereal and milk.

Grandpa glances at the clock on the stove and chuckles.

“Her train’s not going to get to the station until noon. You still have at least three hours until we have to head out to get her.”

I chew a mouthful of chocolate cereal and swallow.

“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “I can’t sleep right now.”

“Maybe you’ll find something else to do,” suggests Grandma as she finishes the dishes and dries her hands on the dish towel.

As if on cue, a knock sounds at the front door.

I stop in mid-chomp as the three of us share looks.

“Speaking of which…” says Grandpa as he walks to the door and answers it.

I can’t see who it is from where I’m sitting, but suddenly I hear Robby’s voice.

“Great…” I mutter under my breath. Grandma hears me and gives me a stern look. “What?” I say with a shrug. “It’s like he’s trying to be attached to me at the hip. He
does
realize that I’m heading back to Boston for good next week?”

“Be kind to him,” says Grandma. “It’s not every day that he has a friend out in this part of the neighborhood. Most of the houses on the lake are summer properties. Be the bigger man and give him a little time before you’re gone.”

I get to my feet with a groan.

A little time?
I think.
How about every afternoon this week?

Still, I trudge to the door to find Robby smiling at Grandpa as they talk. You can’t knock Robby for his charisma. He’s always bouncing around as if living in the woods is a grand old time. I force a smile and say, “Hey.”

“Hey, Shaun!” says Robby. “I was hoping you would be up.”

Again, I force another smile.

“Yes. I’m up,” I say.

Grandpa turns to me.

“Robby was wondering if you wanted to go spend some time at the lake,” he says. “I think it would be a good idea.”

I raise my eyebrows.

“The lake?” I make a clicking noise with my tongue. “But, I’m supposed to go pick up Mae in a few hours.”

“I can handle that,” says Grandpa. “Mae knows me. We’ll meet you back here.”