Age of Power 1: Legacy (8 page)

Pointing at us, he said, “We were able to keep you two from
burning up with controlled depressants until we found that a combination of
lithium salts and magnesium compounds worked quite well, though it took awhile
to find the right dosage. The rest is what you see. You’re awake, and, although
tired out, you are both recovering.”

Mom asked, “Is there any danger of a relapse?”

Kirksten looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook his
head. “Given how well the two of you are recovering, it’s not likely. But since
the primary areas affected were the nerves. And that sort of recovery can be
tricky. Just to be safe, I’ll continue to have CAT and MRI scans done for the
next few days as we lower the amount of the solution in the IV drip.”

I tried, but I couldn’t fight the yawn that hit me. Dr.
Kirksten’s eyes narrowed as he said, “All right, visiting hours are over. You
can all come back in the morning!”

With quick hugs and pecks on the cheeks from our moms, the room
cleared out. The doctor and Nurse Wells stayed to check us one last time. I was
edgy from the talk, though. I asked quietly. “How could the radiation affect
the brain?”

Dr. Kirksten sighed, “I don’t know, we’ve never had a
human being fly up into space under his own power and then blast apart an
asteroid. And I can’t tell you what energy he used to do it.”

He chuckled softly, and then said, “I wasn’t even outside to see
it. I was here, with a bottle of Gordon Taylor’s best-blended whiskey I could
afford.”

I opened my mouth in surprise at such an admission and he
laughed. “What? We’re talking about the end of the world! Did you think I was
going out of it stone cold sober? You were lucky I had enough wits to see
to your care!”

He glanced at Nurse Wells, and his voice softened a bit. “And
thank God I had a nurse who had her wits about her, at the end.”

I caught the look of deep respect between them. Then I yawned
again. That prompted Kirksten to finish looking me over. Softly, he
said, “You’re both exhausted now, but that should pass with time and normal
sleep.”

I looked at the IV bag. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but
it wasn’t a clear solution 
like
 I’ve seen in
IV bags. He noticed my quizzical look and said, “I don’t quite know why yet,
but your bodies need a great deal of magnesium, and the lithium salts helped
calm some problems with the nerves. I’m only glad we had a working lab, and
that your parents were willing to let me try it.”

I nodded as I laid back. I closed my eyes and found that I
wasn’t as tired out as I thought. That was good. That meant that Brand and I
might use this time to discuss Alex. That was my last thought before I slipped
into the darkness of sleep. It would be hours before I awoke, and waking came
with a doozy of a dream.

Alex flew down from the sky, his Superman
costume burned from his encounter with the asteroid. The bottom edge of the
dark leather cape was in tatters. I shook my head with disbelief. Mom would
ground me again if I caused that much damage to my costume.

Costume?

I looked down and was surprised to see that I
was wearing some outlandish red and yellow spandex suit with a bird’s head
emblem on the front of it. I heard the sound of fists thumping against wood,
and I looked and stared at Brand. He also wore a bizarre looking costume. 
One that seemed to absorb the light, turning it into a mix of blood
red and shadow.
 To my shock, he was chopping a tree with his gloved
hands. Wherever he touched the wood, smoke would come from the cuts he made in
the trunk.

Alex landed in front of me. His attire changed
from Superman’s iconic costume into an all black suit covered by his ripped
black leather trench coat. He handed me a piece of gum and said, “Be sure to
chew it this time, Vaughn. Or you won’t be able to stop it from happening
again.”

Confused, I turned to Brand to ask what Alex
was talking about only to see that he was fighting some guy in a striking dark gray
and silver costume that had a red jewel glowing on a chest plate. The man
sported a beard that had gray streaks through it. With a look of desperation on
his face, Brand turned to me, yelling—

“You killed my baby!” The dream 
was
ripped
 away as I opened my eyes. I jumped up to a sitting position
on the bed and then immediately slumped back, already worn out. At the door, a
short, rotund woman with graying strawberry-blond hair and narrowed gray-blue
eyes was trying to barge past cops and push into the room. All the while, she
was screaming about her baby. They were holding her back, but just barely.

I had no idea who she was, but this crazy woman
was not helping my recovery! She’d obviously come from outside, there
was snow on her coat and shoes. She continued yelling long enough to wake Brand
up.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up and said, “What the
hell?”

For another moment, the woman struggled against the police
officers who were holding her back. From somewhere out of sight, I could hear
Chief Sinclair yelling, “Damn it Mrs. Jessup! You can’t be in here! Guys, get
her out of the hospital!”

I froze in place as my eyes widened with surprise in recognition
of the name. Brand muttered, “Jessup. Oh shit, is she Jessup’s wife?”

In a loud voice, Mrs. Jessup said, “How dare those two lie on
their lazy asses and laugh about killing my sweet innocent son!”

Brand’s jaw dropped open for a second before he yelled at her.
“Innocent? He tried to kill us! Lady, the psych ward is upstairs on the
fourth floor! Go check yourself in—you’re nuts!”

Well that didn’t help. Her eyes bugged out and she screamed. The
large woman pushed farther into the room. She was so distraught that I couldn’t
understand her ravings. Finally, the cops managed to drag her out of the room.
The door swung shut, but it closed slowly enough to allow me to hear Chief
Sinclair yelling for her to calm down.

But if I thought it was over, I was wrong. Just as the door shut
completely, someone new burst in. Although he was a thin, sallow looking man,
the red hair and similar facial features made it clear that I was looking at
another Jessup relative.

He confirmed it when he yelled, “Which one of you fuckers killed
my brother?”

“Enough!” The single word was like a sudden crack of a whip
coming from the doorway. Chief Sinclair stood there with a baleful look in his
eyes. He was in uniform, and my eyes widened at the sight of his hand on the
butt of his gun. No, he wasn’t in good humor over this intrusion, none
whatsoever.

In a surprisingly soft voice, he said, “Nathan, get out now. Or
I will arrest you and your mom.” He said it softly but it did have authority in
it. Unfortunately, it didn’t make Nathan do anything except to whine at him.

Peevishly, Nathan said, “They killed my brother! They took a brick
and smashed his head in! They have to pay for that!”

Brand yelled, “Blame Shaw for that! Your brother was gonna kill
us!”

Nathan whipped his head around so fast that I heard his neck
bones cracking. He said, “Liar! The Avatar didn’t do anything like that!”

Startled, Brand and I stared at each other. I mouthed the word
in silence. 
‘Avatar?’

Sinclair stalked up to Nathan, his hand still ready to pull the
gun. He laid a hand on Nathan’s shoulder, squeezing just enough to get the
guy’s attention. He spoke softly, but distinctly. “No Nathan, Alex confessed.
It was self-defense. I’m sorry, son, but your brother James was not a good man.
And he finally paid the price of his crimes with his life. And Alex was the one
who took it. These two were his last victims, not his killers.”

Nathan began to say something, but he 
was
stopped
 by Sinclair’s hard look. When he stopped talking, Sinclair
went on. “Now I’m done being civil. Get out of here. Don’t come back. These two
are not the cause of your problems. I don’t want to see either you or your
mother in the hospital while they’re here. Is that clear?”

They stared at each other in a battle of wills. But Nathan 
was outmatched—far outmatched
. Dropping his gaze, the
younger Jessup left the room with his head down. He didn’t look at anyone else
until he got to the door. Then, for a split-second, just as I thought it was
over, he glared at me with pure hate showing in his eyes. No, this wasn’t
finished.

Still, he was gone; that was enough for the moment. But visiting
hours obviously were just beginning. Because just as Nathan left, Hector
Gutierrez, a tall, large Hispanic cop, came in. With a last look at the cops
escorting the two Jessups away, he pushed the door shut behind him. I knew
Hector. He’d been a cop since I was a kid.

I actually liked him. He was like a big teddy bear to the town’s
kids. Even the hard-edged teenagers could get along with him. He nodded to
Brand and me as Sinclair pulled out the radio at his shoulder and clicked it.
He said into it, “Caleb, be at the elevators downstairs to escort the Jessup’s
out of the hospital. After that, I want two guards on Room 241 for the rest of
the time that Vaughn Hagen and Brand Houseman are here. Got that?”

“Gotcha Chief.
 Kick
the crazies out and protect the brats. 
No problem.
 Now
you know why the last two police chiefs quit! Told you the Jessup family was
nuts,” 
said Caleb. Brand and I gave mock scowls at
Caleb’s use of the word ‘brat.’

With a sigh, the Chief clicked off the radio and looked at
Hector. “I can fire him, right?”

Hector snorted and said, “Sure, that would make oh…three real
cops in town instead of four, but hey, go ahead.”

Chief Sinclair gave Hector a mock glare and started to say
something when the door opened up. Looking annoyed, Kirksten came in
and said, “What the hell kind of security do you people have here Sinclair?
What was that all about? The few nurses I have are all in a panic over
what the Jessups 
did
, shoving themselves in
people’s faces, demanding to know where these boys were!”

Chief Sinclair raised a hand to calm the
doctor. Kirksten didn’t wait to listen. He came to my bed to check
the machines as Sinclair said, “Middy Jessup and her kid blame Vaughn and Brand
for what happened to James. Sorry doctor, but what with so many people gone,
we’ve been limited. It’s not an excuse, it’s simply what happened.”

Hector said, “Sorry, Doc, we’ve only gotten two cops back since
the Day, and the rest are volunteers who’ve been working half days.”

Kirksten shook his head, and then he laughed softly and said,
“All right you two, it’s not as though you’re alone with having problems
getting people back. Every place has the problem going on.”

Looking at me, Kirksten pulled out a penlight and flashed it in
my eyes. After he finished, I blinked my eyes to get rid of the spots. He
asked, “So how are you feeling? I hope the Jessup family visit didn’t make a
mess of your recovery.”

I smiled to put him at ease. I said, “No, it didn’t. Actually,
I’m feeling better. Hungry, though.”

Kirksten chuckled. “We’ll get you something. We have food
services at least. Now if we could only get a few more medical people back…”

Brand looked troubled. He said, “Wait, it’s been two weeks.
You’d think everyone would be back by now. And who the hell is the Avatar?”

Hector let out a sigh, and said, “Well, you know how the
military and government stayed in the background during the panicky run south.
People simply walked into places like Mexico and Latin America. Who was going
to stop them? Even the people in those countries were trying to escape Yama.
The problem is, once they started heading home, the bureaucrats have been going
wild in tracking people. They want to prevent ‘illegal immigration’ go figure.”

Kirksten sighed. “It’s not only the bureaucracy. The simple fact
is, millions of people left their homes in a panic, and they left behind
necessary medication and other things. Worse was that all the tension, fear,
and excitement was bound to cause strokes and heart attacks. Add into the mix
whatever it was that Alex Shaw did and, well, I’m not surprised that FEMA and
the CDC are pulling in whoever they can, including cops and the like,
to help keep people calm.”

That was fine, but it meant absolutely nothing to me. I had to
figure out the changes in my own life. I couldn’t take the time to deal with
other people’s problems. 
Not when I just woke up.
 And
all their explanations came down to only one thing; people weren’t back from
the Exodus yet.

Brand spoke up. 
“But what about the Avatar?
 Did
Nathan just call Alex…the Avatar?”

Hector nodded with a sigh. Then he said, “It’s the new thing.
Hell, the news has been full of it.”

Brand said, “Oh it’s always has been full of it.
but
seriously, they started calling him Avatar? Oh my
God…the comic geeks have won the contest of naming him.”

I gave Brand a shocked glare, “Hey! I’m a comic geek!”

Brand grinned. Ignoring the jibes between us, Chief Sinclair
grabbed the chair near the outside wall and pulled it to the middle of the
room. He sat with his chest leaning on the back of it.