Not Your Sidekick (26 page)

Orion snarls, her fingers crackling with energy, and she blasts a bolt of lightning at Emma.

“No!” Bells pushes Emma out of the way to safety, barely making it himself. The lightning grazes him, and Jess can smell singed hair.

“Stop, Mom!” Abby yells. “Just restrain her with the tantalum. We have some in storage!”

Jess runs downstairs, searching for the precious metal. There are boxes and boxes everywhere, but months at work has made her an expert in filing
and
she's got a knack for finding things.

Jess yanks open a lead safe, grabs the tantalum cuffs, and runs upstairs. “I got it, I got it!” Jess yells, shaking the cuffs.

Mistress Mischief levitates them and they float into the air, and for the first time Jess sees the amazing power of telekinesis used in a fight.

Mischief is brutal. She fights ruthlessly with Orion, whose superstrength damages the walls, and the entire house shakes with their battle.

Emma and Bells watch from the floor, curled around each other, as debris whirls. Jess holds onto the doorframe as Mistress Mischief uses her incredible strength to freeze Orion in the air.

“Come on, Mom,” Abby mutters, and raises her hands too, concentrating as if she's trying to use her own telekinesis.

The cuffs snap on Orion's wrists, and she falls to the ground, shaking with anger.

“Where is my husband?” Mischief demands.

“You'll never find him,” Orion says. “He's already given us the codes for all the MonRobots. This time tomorrow, we'll have eliminated all the targets we deem fit. And the rest of the League is coming. It doesn't matter if you have me. If you kill me, I'll be a martyr. You'll be known for killing the greatest superhero who ever lived.”

Jess laughs. “You are
not
the greatest superhero who ever lived. You are a joke. You experimented on innocent people and caused countless suffering for your own power boost, and this whole system is a facade. The Collective is distracting the public from the little wars it's waging around the world. People have the right to know what's really going on, and the media needs to report what's actually happening. We
aren't
obsessed with these fake battles that you stage. And the people you force to be villains, that's not right either. What happens to those kids whose parents you promise so much? You promised Abby could be a hero and shackled her parents, and they willingly sacrificed themselves for her. No one should have to make that choice.”

“No one wants to hear about those sad things,” Orion says. “People have the right to focus on the amusement, the lighter side, and people should be able to hope and feel good that there are heroes protecting them.”

“Yes, but we should have the
choice,
”
Jess says. “It's not right that the only thing on the news is what's happening with you and your flirtation with Starscream, and soap operas and what's going on with your
hair.
”

“My hair
is
pretty awesome,” Orion says.

“That's not the point,” Jess says.

“You weren't here for the Disasters,” Orion says. She clenches and unclenches her fists; the tantalum cuffs shake but hold fast. “Look, people don't want to watch the news if it's filled with awful things. Awful things happened all the time. The X29 solar flare could have ruined our planet, and it almost did. Even without the nuclear meltdowns, the ensuing battle for resources and food would have destroyed us. We needed something positive to focus on.”

Jess realizes Orion wholeheartedly believes in her cause, in the Collective's cause. “It's not the time of the Disasters anymore. We've gotten past that; we've rebuilt as a society, moved forward. We need to be better.”

“She isn't going to listen,” Mistress Mischief says. She settles on the floor. “Come on, Cindy. It's time.”

“No one's called me Cindy in years,” Captain Orion—Cindy—says. “Even my dad calls me Captain.”

“You don't remember me, but we were in Meta-Human Training together,” Mistress Mischief says. “I'm Genevieve. You used to make fun of my teeth.”

“I do remember,” Captain Orion says. “Look, no hard feelings, okay? You were chosen for the Villain's Guild because you started to date Phillip. It could have been me, but I wanted to be a superhero. I chose that instead of the guy.”

Abby narrows her eyes. “Wait a minute, you dated my
dad?”

“Very briefly,” Orion says. She tosses her head back, regarding Abby with a discerning look. “Philip was very interesting. I dumped him as soon as I knew he was on the villain track, though. The Collective likes to pair people up and make sure that spouses are on the same track; too many complications otherwise.”

Bells pulls Emma to her feet, and they walk toward Orion. Bells stares at her, his lip curling in revulsion.

“And you, Chameleon,” Orion says with a disdainful sniff. “I had such high hopes for you in the League. You have no idea what's in store for you now; things have already been set in motion.”

“Oh, yeah?” Bells says, scowling. He pulls a chip out of his pocket. “This holovid of you admitting to experimenting on meta-humans, kidnapping all the missing villains, attacking and kidnapping
my friends
—I've got so many copies of this. Even without a technopath we can still be heard.”

Orion shakes and laughs. It's a shrill, desperate sound, and her entire body shakes on the floor. “You think a holovid like that is enough proof for the people of the Collective? People
love
me.”

Genevieve takes the chip from Bells, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. “Don't goad her, she'll start monologuing, and, even though she's the one restrained, we'll all be stuck here.”

“Good point,” Jess says, remembering the long rant she and Abby got back at Orion's home. “Can we do anything about the video right now?”

Genevieve nods. “I'm not an expert, and it won't be playing on every DED like we wanted, but at least we can get the word out.”

One of Abby's computer consoles sits on the kitchen counter projector. She slides the chip into it and taps away at the screen. A holo springs to life: Orion pacing in her home, eyes glittering, saying, “
You are nothing more than part of the NAC plan for creating more meta-humans and controlling the ones we have. Of course, we can play with radiation all we like. but we can't come close to duplicating the effects of X29…
”

Glass shatters.

Jess doesn't have time to see what is happening before Abby pulls her behind the kitchen counter as shards fly everywhere. She peeks up; the beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows she admired so much on her first visit are in pieces, and
Claudia
is standing there, pulling Orion to her feet.

“I had to wait until I was sure Mistress Mischief here was tapped out, and I had to stop Smasher and Shockwave,” she says.

“Late is better than never, Cora,” Orion snaps.

Claudia grimaces at the incorrect name, but she gingerly takes Orion by the waist, careful to avoid the tantalum cuffs.

Jess lurches forward in horror. “Mom and Dad—what did you do—”

Claudia gives her a hard stare. “Just made sure Shockwave was tapped out. They're stuck on the other side of town, waiting for a
bus,
of all things.” She looks at Jess but doesn't say anything, just sets her jaw and then glances away.

A string of memories run through Jess, and each one hits her in the gut: a young Claudia, taking her torn rice paper and wrapping a new gỏi cuốn for her; Claudia carrying her on her shoulders, promising they'll fly together one day; the two of them playing hide and seek as children.

Jess is frozen where she stands—even if she could do something, if Claudia's at full strength or if she's been taking Orion's supplements, she can't take her sister in a fight.

“Let's go, Powerstorm,” Orion says testily, shaking Claudia out of her stupor.

“Right,” Claudia says, and gives the rest of them a cold look, hovering with Orion. “Good luck being villains.”

They fly out the broken window, and the last thing Jess hears is Orion saying, “You really need to work on your one liners, Connie.”

Things don't go back to
normal right away. Jess thought that it'd be easy; publish the evidence about Orion, show the whole world what's been happening under their noses. Unfortunately they can't find any traces of the video on the Net; even the buzz that started on conspiracy forums when they posted it—everything is gone the next day.

They still need to find Master Mischief, but now that Genevieve is back and Jess' parents are in the loop, the adults want to handle the situation. Jess and her friends are supposed to go back to school, focus on their studies, pretend everything is normal, but Jess doesn't think Abby will stay put when her dad is still out there. Jess wants answers too, wants the world to know what Orion's capable of.

“At least wait until you finish your final exams,” Li Hua says testily. “Your grades, Mei-Mei, think about your grades!”

Jess hardly thinks it's a priority compared with everything that's going on, but she reluctantly agrees to let the adults work on it until winter break, at least.

Emma still hasn't given up on coming up with a name for their group, much to everyone else's amusement and exasperation. Jess is glad she's taking it well, though.

“Powers? Why would I want powers?” Emma says, shaking her head when Jess pulls her aside at school to talk to her about it. “Look, the way I see it, I'm the only one here who is resistant to tantalum
and
keeps a cool head when things get rough. Sure, I think powers are neat. But not for me.”

“I thought you'd be upset,” Jess says.

Emma hugs her. “I was just upset when I thought Bells was secretly dating someone and didn't want to tell us. And he's not, so everything is fine.”

“Fine, huh?” Jess waggles her eyebrows and is pleased when Emma's ears turn pink. She doesn't really know exactly what Bells and Emma talked about when he took her home after the Orion mess to “explain everything,” but she might hazard a guess.

“Yes, fine,” Emma says. “Oh hey, did you see that new transfer student from Nuevo Los Angeles? He's got dimples, Jess, dimples…”

Ah. Maybe Bells didn't explain
everything.

Abby and Bells are already sitting in their usual lunch spot when Jess and Emma join them, apparently in the middle of a serious conversation.

“Look, you don't get it, if the League has declared Chameleon as a villain, things are going to get ugly, real fast.” There's a little furrow of worry in Abby's brow, and Jess wants to smooth it out. She settles for kissing Abby's cheek as they sit down, and is delighted when Abby gives her a swift kiss on the lips in return.

“What's ugly?” Emma asks, stealing Bells' fruit cup off his lunch tray.

Bells rolls his eyes. “I can handle it,” he says. “Here, look.” He pulls up a newsholo on his DED. It's an official report from the League that declares the
villain
Chameleon on the run and collaborating with the United Villain's Guild for “unknown plans of heinous atrocity.” Bells smirks. “Heinous, that's great. You think I should add an adjective to my name? The Heinous Chameleon. Or does that sound pretentious?”

“Abby's right,” Jess says, frowning. “They're dangerous, and if they've decided you're the enemy…”

Abby nods. “I've been dealing with this my whole life. And now that my mom's back, we've taken a lot of extra precautions.” Genevieve and Abby have moved out of their Andover home to a hidden place out in the canyons that Emma is absolutely not allowed to call a secret lair. “You should change your name; your whole family needs new identities, you should move, transfer schools… on paper I'm still Abby Jones, and Orion isn't going to connect my information to the Monroes at all, but
you
…”

Bells looks smug. “Well, you'll be happy to know that my parents being super-paranoid over everything, even Meta-Human Training, has its benefits. I applied to the League as Barry Carmichael, and none of them know what I actually look like.”

“I take back everything I said about your weird family,” Emma says. She flicks through the rest of the newsholo and frowns. “Hey, how come this doesn't say anything about Jess or Abby?”

Abby shrugs. “Probably because they don't see either of us as a threat. They don't know about Jess' powers, and they think I don't have them anymore.”

Jess squeezes Abby's hand.

The physical symptoms disappeared after a few days, but Abby still hasn't been able to access her powers. She thinks they're completely gone, but Jess knows Abby's talked about being able to sense things, like the potential to use her telekinesis or her technopath abilities, but she just can't, as if there's a closed door in her head.

Emma pokes Abby in the forehead. “Look, even if you can't do all that techno mumbo-jumbo, you're still the best setter in this school—no, the entire Nevada
region.
If that's not a superpower, I don't know what is.”

Abby laughs. “I have definitely missed volleyball.”

“Are you going to come back to the team?” Emma asks, her eyes lighting up.

“Yeah, I think so,” Abby says. “We can't just sit on our asses and not live our lives while we're trying to expose a corrupt government,” Abby says.

One Saturday, Abby convinces Jess
to come with her to the school. Jess follows her warily until they get to the gymnasium, and Abby unlocks the storage closet and pulls out a volleyball.

Jess ties her hair back, not bothering to check how it looks. She looks around the empty gymnasium. “Are you sure about this? Aren't we like, trespassing or something?”