Hero Reborn (Keepers of Justice, Book 3) (4 page)

“Is it a long ride?” I ask.

“
Not sure. I guess?”

That sucks. I
slide down to the ground and cross my legs. Kale joins me while X stands near us, leaning his right shoulder against the wall. This place is really dirty and it stinks, but whatever. We’ve got bigger issues.

I can’t believe this is happening,
Kale says in my mind.
He stares at the space in front of him.
The Keepers of Justice are done. And for no damn reason. My parents didn’t kill anyone. Who the hell were those people dressed up as them?

Blades?
I ask.

Who knows?
X says.
Whoever they were, they have the same abilities as Samson and Cindy. Someone desperately wants to take the League down.

So it was the Blades
, I say.

X shakes his head.
The Blades aren’t the only villains who want the League destroyed
.

He’s got a good point. It could be anyone.

Kale looks around.
We need to talk verbally, guys. Some people are watching us
.

We do, talking about actresses we think are hot, games we love. After a bit, the people
turn around. We continue talking and fake-laughing until the subway comes. We board it and stand, since it’s packed.

Kale
, X says.
Do you sense anyone else here? League mates?

No
.

I’m holding on
to the bar and squeeze it to prevent my hand from trembling. Kale smiles and starts discussing the latest movie we watched. I glance around. No one seems to be paying attention to us, but many keep checking the time. Some twiddle their fingers and shake their legs. They must be terrified about what’s going on. Probably want to get off this subway and go home to their families.

A group of businessmen and women are talking about the attack. The guys and I pretend to not be interested, when really our ears are perked.

“I just won’t believe this,” one man says. “The Keepers of Justice have been my idols ever since I was a little kid. I can’t accept what they’re saying about them.”

“Josh,” a woman says. “We all saw it on the news.”

He sighs, shaking his head.

That’s how the rest of the ride is, with people trying to
understand what happened. X’s hands curl into fists, and Kale yells telepathically for him to quit it. I rest my forehead against the metal bar and close my eyes. Maybe when I wake up, all of this will be over.

We’re off the
subway. Hardly any people are around, which makes the place very dark and spooky. Especially since most houses have their lights off.

“The safe house is far from here,” Kale says. “Stretch’s mom said we need to take a bus.” He looks up at the sign near us. “This should be the right bus number.”

X nods. “One’s a few blocks down, heading this way. We need a metro card.” He motions toward the subway station. “You can’t control the bus driver’s mind to let us on for free because the passengers will see we didn’t pay.”

“Yeah. I’ll just go down to th
e subway station and ask the guy for a metro card. Be right back.”

He runs down the stairs.
I look at X. He looks at me. I force a smile. “Maybe the news got it wrong and no one was captured.”

He shuts his eyes, then opens them. “I saw some
League mates get captured.”

I saw it, too. “Yeah.” My shoulders droop.

“Not to mention what Kale saw in Freeze’s mind.”

My shoulders droop more. “Yeah.”

Kale’s head pops up from the station. The rest of his body follows as he climbs up the steps. He holds out the metro card. “They’re going to shut off the MTA soon. Buses and subways won’t run.” He scans the streets. “This might be the last bus.”

Two other
people join us at the bus stop. One is a middle-aged woman holding shopping bags. Her hand trembles and her eyebrows are knitted. The other is a man who stands tall like he’s readying himself to protect us, if needed.

Kale’s got a sad and scared expression on his face. X keeps his gaze on the ground. I crack my knuckles, which make
s loud popping noises.

Quit it
, Kale hisses.

I drop my hands. Like X, I
lower my head toward the ground.

The bus pulls up to the curb and we climb on. The driver points his thumb toward the bac
k, not bothering to make us pay. The bus is empty except for six others and us. We take seats all the way in the back. We don’t say a word to each other, just sit solemnly. X stares out the window. Kale seems to be scanning everyone’s thoughts. I play with my fingers, making sure not to accidentally twist or elongate them.

Everyone’s conflicted
, Kale says.
No one knows what to believe.

Does it matter?
X grumbles.
We were still attacked and we’re being hunted like criminals when all we’ve done is protect and watch over the humans.

Let’s just focus on getting to the safe house and meet
ing up with the others
, Kale says.

Ten minutes later,
we climb off the bus and Kale leads us toward the house. As we inch closer, X stops suddenly. I crash into his back. Hard. Rubbing my head, I try to ease the pain. He’s as strong as a tree.

“What is it?” Kale asks.

X’s eyes are wider than bowling balls. He steps back, knocking into me and causing me to stumble.

“Oh, crap,” Kale breathes, his eyes almost as wide as X’s.

X grabs us by the corners of our shirts and hauls us behind a building. Covering his face, Kale slinks down the wall. He mutters stuff I can’t hear. X rams his fist into the wall, cursing under his breath.

Sweat gathers on my forehead. “
G-guys. W-what’s going on?”

Kale sends images from what X saw to
me. I see a house, probably the safe house. It’s small, ordinary-looking. Tiny, compared to the League Tower. Guys dressed in armor swarm inside and outside. They’re taking people, but I can’t see who. The images stop, like X couldn’t handle seeing more.

The military
got to the safe house, too. We’re screwed.

“Guys,” I squeak. “W-what do we do?”

Kale’s shoulders quake.
I don’t get it. How did they find the safe house?

We don’t answer, because we can’t. X pulls Kale behind a dumpster. He does the same to me, except my legs decide to freeze in place. He only manages to pull the top half of my body.

“Help,” I croak.

X grabs my legs and gently shoves them behind the dumpster. They won’t return to m
y body and lie folded on my lap. “Sorry for having such a screwed-up body.”

X waves his hand.

Kale’s quiet. Spaced out. I pat his shoulder. “Dude, you okay?”

He blinks. “I’m trying to read their minds.” He nods toward those soldiers. “To find out who they captured and stuff.” He narrows his eyes, then swallows. “
We were right. Freeze was taken. So was Accelerator.”

No! I don’t want to hear it. It can’t be
true. I close my eyes and try to think of good things, but all I see before me is the League getting attacked. Those men dressed in armor. I open my eyes. The looks of dread on X and Kale’s faces make me realize that no matter how many times I shut my eyes and pretend it didn’t happen, it did.

Freeze
, Samson and Cindy’s second in command, was captured. So was another Elite, Accelerator. I can’t take this.

“
And my folks?” I ask.

“I don’t…no, I don’t think…” Kale’s voice trails off. His gaze slowly meets mine. “
Your mom was saving more kids when she was…” He stops.

“Was what?” I ask.

“She was shot down.”

No!

“The triplets were taken, too,” he continues. “So were Prizm, most kids, and some Elites.” He buries his face in his hands. “I don’t know where your dad is, Stretch. Or my parents.”

What about Furball?
Was she taken, too? And what happened to Lindsay?

“I don’t know,” Kale answers
, reading my mind.

I’m just sitting here, too stunned and shocked to move. No. Mom wasn’t shot down. She’s not…she can’t be dead…

Tears enter Kale’s eyes. He swats them away. “What the hell is this crap? Who the hell is behind all of this? I’ll kill them!”

X rests his hand on Kale’s arm. “We need to move. Staying here will put us in even more danger. We need to find a safe place.”

I push my knees to my chest and lower my chin on them. Closing my eyes again, I rock back and forth, telling myself this isn’t happening. Mom and Dad are safe. They’re at home. I’ll open my eyes and walk through the Tower doors, and there they’ll be, smiling and waiting for me.

But when I open my eyes for real, all I see and smell is the dumpster and the black sky above. A chill passes over me.

“The sewers?” X asks. “Maybe we can stay there.”

“How long before Scar kicks us out?”
Kale asks. “We need a shelter. A house or something.”

“
The Decoy House?” I ask. It’s a house owned by the League that looks like any other house in Brooklyn. It’s attached to the Tower via some sort of teleportation powers. Kale used it when he went undercover as a regular public school kid to stop Lindsay from blowing up the world.

Kale shakes his head. “It’s tied to the League. I’m pretty sure the government knows about it now.”

I knock my forehead into my knees. What are we supposed to do?

“We
need a place with no connection to the League. Like maybe members’ private old houses. You know, before they joined the League they had to live somewhere. Maybe they still own them.”

My head snaps up. “I know a place. After my death, when my parents left the
League, they stayed in their old home.”

“Do you know where it is?”
Kale asks.

“
Queens. It’s far, but we can take a cab. Let’s go!”

We’re standing outside the house, pondering how to get in.
I’ve only been here once, but I know it like it’s my own. It’s real small, practically invisible. 

“Is it safe?” Kale asks X.
Narrowing his eyes, X checks it out. After a few seconds, he nods.

“Are my parents inside?” I ask. Guess I still hope Kale read those soldiers’ minds wrong and my parents are alive.

X shakes his head. “It’s empty.”

I exhale slowly, feeling all the energy leave my body. I don’t know what I’d do if they were…if they’re…

Kale squeezes my shoulder. “Don’t think like that. We need to get to safety and try to contact my parents again.”

“But it’s not safe
to contact them!”

“I’ll make sure to be extra careful an
d avoid detection,” Kale says.

“But
how are we sure Samson and Cindy are alive?” I say. “What if all our League mates died or were captured except for us?”

“We need to think positively,” X says, though his eyes betray that. I don’t think any of us
can think positively right now.

“I’ll try to keep reaching out to my parents
. Hopefully, they’ll answer at some point. For now, let’s get inside.”

I
breathe in and out, trying to calm myself. Once my pounding heart relaxes a bit, I hold up my long finger. “I can use this.” With all the spying on Lightning, the Blade who was undercover in our League four months ago, I’ve become a pro at picking locks.

“
Do it,” X says.

All I gotta do i
s stick my finger in the slot, mold it into the right shape, and unlock the door. It takes two tries until the lock clicks. I throw the door open. It’s got two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in days. I don’t know how often my parents come here, or if they have someone taking care of it.

X runs into the living room and turns on the TV. Sure enough, every channel is
broadcasting the news. The footage from the park camera is shown over and over. “As you can see,” the reporter says. “Samson and Cindy made no effort to mask their identities. They
wanted
to be seen. Government officials have confirmed, after questioning the captured Keepers, that those two are in fact Samson and Cindy Zenith.”

“
Their telepaths
are
probing the Keepers’ minds,” Kale says. “That’s what that reporter means by ‘questioning.’ But it wasn’t my parents.”

“
No,” X says.

“
Then who?” I ask.

“
Shapeshifters.”