The Protectors Trilogy: Book Two

By Arial Alexis

When we looked up, we saw the invisible force that held the explosion in by the definite lines that the turbulent waves of power and light were crashing against, undulating inside of its shape in slow motion, stalled by the force keeping them from expanding outwards. It seemed to float, held motionless against the backdrop of the wreckage around it. Red streaks marred the perpetual flashes of light, rising and falling when they found no crevice to break through. Then, without allowing more than a few seconds to pass from its beginning to the instant we had seen it and recognized its stillness, the walls shrunk inwards, closing in on itself until there was nothing but ash falling from where a marble of light had last hovered four feet above the ground. Shift had come back somewhere in the middle of the minute’s long happening, his expression summing up what mine failed to show. “You…” He turned to Shadow, his doubt slowing down what would have been an instant jump to her side. She vacantly shook her head.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Jun 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684704910

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ALEXIS

Copyright © 2019 Arial Alexis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0492-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6847-0491-0 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date:  05/29/2019

As always, to my family, and especially to Destin, Trinity, and Robbie, my greatest inspirations to this series.

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ACCUSTOMED

T he colors and lines of power running through the air were interrupted with the bright flash of the explosion. Red – orange – scarlet – sparks of white – it might as well have been a sunset over the horizon of my already barely stable sanity. I had seen it coming, but even then my heart raced at the realization that the sounds, and the lethal forces they brought with them, were getting closer.

I found the dust shrouded room I had seen in my vision, the farthest wall reduced to a gaping hole from the force of the last bomb. A woman sat hunched over just inside of it, holding something and rocking back and forth. I ran to her, watching the fear and confusion in her eyes give way to desperate hope when she recognized me, the same time mine took in the even more desperate plea she had hidden in her arms.

The girl couldn’t have been more than two. Her hair was stained dark; the way she shook showing me it wasn’t just a superficial cut causing all the bleeding. I swallowed back my nausea and pulled the gauze from my pack, my hands shaking as I struggled to press it against the bleeding gash. Her mother fought to hold her still, both of their panics adding to mine. The colors around them only I could see were enflamed to the same shade as the blood oozing between my fingers.

You have to put pressure – hold it. I took her hand, pressing it and my own to the girl only long enough for some speck of understanding to break through her terror. The little girl was struggling to stay awake, she’d already lost so much blood… I gulped, rising to run and find Shift, stopping when thin fingers desperately seized my ankle. I didn’t have to understand the language to know what she was demanding – begging me to not abandon them there.

It’s okay, I promise, we will– The thundering boom below us resonated through the walls, shattering the foundation. The building shook around us, cement dust, the confetti of chaos, swirling through the air and filling our lungs. I stood between them and the direction it had come from, but when the building shook again, swaying as another blast went off just outside, it threw me forward on my hands and knees. I hadn’t seen it coming so soon.

Rubble cut into my palms, breaking through my gloves with the force I’d collapsed under.

The woman was yelling something in Farsi, but soon all I could see and hear was the pain and panic around us, the slip in my concentration allowing it to flood over me in a wave of suffocating dread.

The thundering of the IED going off behind me brought it all to a standstill, sending the artificial enhancements in my head into overdrive. The world moved slower. The smell of explosives had overridden the scents of blood and fear. There were forty-eight civilians on the street – thirty of them alive and outside lethal danger – eight were in critical condition. A glance assured me Star was already with them, leaving me to find the last bomb. There would be four.

The first had been the largest.

We had been too late. Shadow had seen it coming only moments before it had happened. The second and third were moments apart, the third was the closest.

If Shadow had been right, the fourth would go off in five minutes.

The standstill became a whirlwind as the dust settled. Shift had taken another dozen out to a safety area. I had not seen Shadow since before the last two bombs went off, and the faintest of the sounds didn’t return when the silence following resonated boom ceased. I spun, turning to the building she had disappeared into. There were six people inside, judging from the heartbeats. The third bomb had gone off at its base, leaving a gaping hole at the first floor. Cement blocks crumbled in piles, smoke rising from the small fires scattered at random.

Dagger –

I got her. Tell Shift to evac everyone. Now. I won’t have time to find the last one.

The entrance had been obliterated. I calculated the time it would take to scale the rubble. Too long. Of the six people inside, three were hurt, their heartbeats were erratic, and I could smell the metallic tinge of blood beneath the residue of explosives. If she was one of them, there was no time for taking chances. I ran back, sprinting forward and hurling myself onto the ledge of the second floor. The floor crumbled at the edges, slowing my progress as I struggled to find a stable ledge to pull myself over. The taste of paint, sand, and plastic explosives laced the dust filled air. I followed the sound of the three heartbeats, one of them fluttering at a speed I recognized, but the breaths surrounding it were coming too quickly.

She was face down on the ground, next to two civilians.

Kid’s near flat lining. Twenty seconds.

I knelt down to Shadow, turning her onto her back. Her eyes were open, her pupils expanded. She wasn’t seeing me.

Get her out of it.

Star appear next to me, one hand on Shadow, the other on the child.

The final bomb went off – the vibrations sending shockwaves through the ground and up the walls, their structure failing as the explosion reached us. First with light pouring in through the blasted opening, then there was the deafening boom of the sound wave fractions of a second later.

The woman screamed.

Shadow stirred, blinking before sitting upright.

There’s another one! She shouted, jumping up and running towards the ledge.

We were behind her, staring over the top of her head at the suicide bomber. He was yelling at us, his voice strained, not with fear, but with a lethal conviction I recognized. There was a vest strapped to him, the explosives revealed from beneath his clothes. His face was contorted with rage. One hand was raised, the trigger held in warning above his shoulder, in the other hand was a kid, held by his arm, standing in the type of stillness that only comes from being too scared to fight anymore.

I felt her stiffen next to me, the air shaking with the waves of power she struggled to maintain. She lifted her hand slightly, her fingers raised in his direction.

Shift. She said quietly.

He appeared next to the man, grabbing the kid and disappearing as the bomb exploded, the light blinding Shadow and I, causing us to turn away in a futile attempt to escape it. I expected to feel the force of it, to have to throw them to the ground beneath me and to hope the walls held.

When we looked up, we saw the invisible force that held the explosion in by the definite lines that the turbulent waves of power and light were crashing against, undulating inside of its shape in slow motion, stalled by the force keeping them from expanding outwards. It seemed to float, held motionless against the backdrop of the wreckage around it. Red streaks marred the perpetual flashes of light, rising and falling when they found no crevice to break through. Then, without allowing more than a few seconds to pass from its beginning to the instant we had seen it and recognized its stillness, the walls shrunk inwards, closing in on itself until there was nothing but ash falling from where a marble of light had last hovered four feet above the ground.

Shift had come back somewhere in the middle of the minute’s long happening, his expression summing up what mine failed to show.

You… He turned to Shadow, his doubt slowing down what would have been an instant jump to her side. She vacantly shook her head. I had sensed the fury behind that isolated hell, and it had not been hers.

Let them destroy themselves in the name of false ideals. I will not stop them, but it will be only their lives that are sacrificed on that unholy altar, and it will end there. They will not be idolized, nor will they be infamous. They will simply cease to exist. This is the greatest victory over those who seek terror as their source of power… To neither remember nor fear them. Star said, her tone one of resolution. I looked to her hand, seeing its fading tension, and took it in my own, feeling the coolness of her skin.

Serves them right. He looked back to her, and then to the destruction beneath the ashes. Pain pulled at the muscles around his eyes. His hand clutched his shoulder. Star jerked her head towards him, remembering their presence and sensing the throbbing of what I suspected to be a dislocated joint. She raised her palm above his, resting it over his injury.

How many dead? I didn’t hide my frustration.

Counting the bad guys? Shift asked, glaring at the world as a whole.

Civilian.

Nineteen. Shadow whispered.

As soon as I finished healing his shoulder, I nodded to Shift, recognizing that his anxiousness was justified. He took Shadow and Dagger by their wrists, the fragments of energy dancing around and through them, propelling them through their surroundings until we all stood in the center of our home. He and Shadow looked to Dagger, accepting his small smile and gratitude as all the comfort he could give them, all that they sought. This was not the first time we had born witness to tragedy without the ability to stop it completely, and it would not be the last, but there would never come a time when they would become accustomed to the chaos. Nor, did I realize, would there be an end to it.

When we were alone, their presences surrendered to the need to cleanse themselves of the dust that seemed to have settled into the seams of our souls, I opened my thoughts to his once more. The touch of his mind was the sole consolation-strength I needed, the only greeting required.

They were supplied, Dagger. The weapons were given to them, by someone with an interest in war.

I did not need to explain. He had sensed it, same as I had. In the last four months the number of seemingly random acts of violence all over this world had increased, the supply of the weapons and the means of organization all similar in their roots. We did not need to wonder at its source, for the failed epitome of the destruction they sought stood next to me, his shaking hand clasped tightly in my own.

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[CHEMISTRY, ALGEBRA III, AND GIRLS]

T he average seventeen-year-old guy has simple issues: knowing what friends to stick with and who to move on from, which girls to fall for and which ones to run from, what scholarships and colleges to apply for, staying out of trouble, and crawling through the endless mire that they call homework. (An unholy invasion of the few free hours of our day.)

Except I wasn’t average.

Just for just me, there’s being a real life, no set rules / not exactly on friendly terms with the feds, superhero. Yes, seriously. Now imagine having to deal with all the fine print that goes with that when there’s a Goth superman and an alien as your, for all intents and purposes, ‘parents,’ and they’re also your hero baby-sitters/married bosses.

You get it? It is complicated. Mind reader complicated. Human lie detector complicated. I can’t think or even exhale without someone knowing about it, complicated.

Now picture if the one girl you have ever liked in your life – from the time you realized cooties were a lie your parents told you to the time you realized you actually might need someone for more than just a date to drag along with your friends on Friday or Saturday night – is a superhero too.

And not the special gadgets, ward of a billionaire kind, but one that is actually lethal in her own right, and could technically kick your butt if she wanted. Here’s where it would get worse: she is always near you, she acts as if she could care less about you shifting out of the friendzone (see what I did there?), and even then annoying side kick seems to fit better, and no matter what you can’t seem to get on her good side or impress her, because she already knows what you want to or are going to do. Why is that you ask? How could someone be so predictable? Because she is psychic. Who, just to top it off, has seen all the stupid stuff you did in middle school.

All.

Of.

It.

Say hello to my then current life.

Say it.

"Hello" – there you go.

Okay, good, I just wanted to get you two introduced before I continue. I don’t want you to think I’m complaining. I’m not trying to be…uh…crabby. I am simply stating the facts. This book is the first time I have been able to make sure someone can get it. Deal with me and my problems for a few pages will ya?

Thanks.

…Now where was I?

Oh yeah. High school black ops, and not the kind where you spend more time thinking of a cool call sign and designing your player card than actually playing, but the kind where you question just how much you need a normal side to your life while struggling to not let it slip that you intercede events ranging from Amber Alerts to war refugees on a daily basis.

This was year two. Chemistry, algebra III, and girls. The three most complicated things in the world.

Black Dagger had ‘requested’ that I go back in another year to ‘keep an eye on Shadow,’ whose mom was still dangling the ‘maintain a normal life carrot’ to balance out the completely irregular things we did any other time. I had cried foul that Noel was dragging out the deal, and that BD had turned my voluntary attendance to mandatory, but as expected, I had lost. Stargazer maintained her position that an ‘equilibrium of mental and physical states’ was healthy for both Shads and I. BD claimed it was good for me to get out there and have a few hours off.

I think he just liked not having us around all the time. She hadn’t let it get to her, well not badly. She’d gotten over her hissy fit after a few days. As the last page or so should hint at, I was still coping.

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I looked around the classroom, scanning from a safe corner near the back. It was full of your average, completely uninterested teens ready for someone to make a distinction between you have to ask permission to use the restroom and you’re an adult and totally responsible for your own choices and if you mess up now your whole life is ruined, and a single, desperate teacher. He was the type of guy who tried to ‘relate’ himself to us with jokes and things like that the first week, before entering the ‘we must make it to chapter twelve before winter break’ mad race.

I preferred to keep to myself in that particular class. Really old poetry, older books, ancient plays, and antecedents are not the best at building any type of hype in a picture thinking person. Obviously, I had to learn at some point to write this book, but for the moment I was melting into the floor with boredom.

(Okay, I lied, Shads edits everything.)

Now Science, that is a different story altogether. It was the one class I had that was entertaining…being a science experiment and all. I looked forward to it, even if I never paid much attention to the text book work. It came easy, so what I lacked in classroom participation I made up for in quiz grades. Gym wasn’t too bad either. I was awesome in gym.

Everything else was less than exciting.

I was normally reduced to pushing my way towards the door when the bell rang and raced to my next class. I’d been waiting for B day for a whole twenty-four hours. I had both Science and Gym then. A days were just plain depressing.

There was a sub; once again I scanned the room over. Like always, they had switched up their seats. I met up with some of the guys I knew in passing and made a point to get as caught up as possible on what was going on. Black Dagger had outlawed us from using social media, so my socialization was stuck in the 90’s. Summer parties that I hadn’t attended, concerts I had missed and didn’t really care to see, girls I wasn’t in to, and cars (which I owned,) were our main topics.

A few minutes in I heard someone yell something over the noise of the class. The teacher, a silver haired, tired looking adult praying for retirement, was attempting to get everyone to settle down, and was losing. I figured that the sub could use a break and the Protector in me screamed ‘help the poor guy out.’

Hey, shut it! I shouted.

Shockingly, they did.

It wasn’t the smartest move I have ever made. I wasn’t nearly as oppressive a presence as BD, meaning there would be protest, but I could make and keep a point without the need to shift. I got about ten glares that I had stared down until the other wanna be bad boys sulked beneath their beanies.

Thank you…Jonathan. He consulted his seating chart for my name, which was amusing because I happened to be the only person in his correct spot.

I quickly nodded. I’d helped him out, the least he could do was leave me alone now.

Please let a gig come up soon…

I have one thing before we start. Everyone waited for him to speak. Due to scheduling conflicts, the school has had to redistribute a few people. I’ve got to get this sorted out so behave, or I send your names directly to the office. Some nodded, some rolled their eyes at his threat to tattle.

I never would have guessed who it was that was transferred in the class. You can though; it was bound to happen eventually.

I took in a deep, supposed to be calming breath and opened the door. I died at what I saw first. His eyes were more brown, his jaw was a little wider, just enough to throw off any facial recognition software, and his hair was short and a couple of shades darker than his normal dirty blonde. He hadn’t ditched the old t-shirts and washed out jeans, and he still had the beat up thick leather bracelet he wore whenever not on a gig, but even without those things I would have known him on sight. I had felt him in this hallway, but I hadn’t realized my close proximity sensor wasn’t as specific as I thought. He looked even more shocked than I was, but he hid it behind a smirk.

Thousands of kids, six hundred in this grade alone…

This is Cynthia. I said a brief hello under my breath. Why don’t you go sit next to…? His eyes searched the availably of chairs around the black slate tables. Jonathan.

Out of sheer force of will, I did not show my protest or worse, blush.

This would be a really good time to go into Shadow mode.

Will you stand so she knows where to go?

You used your power of getting people to like you on me, my mom, and the teacher! And hacked the system. Scheduling conflict. Bah!

He simply flicked his hand upwards. I could just see his wheels turning. I comforted myself in knowing I would be able to kick him once I sat down and get to kill him later that night. It was already hard enough maintaining pretenses – When he had enrolled he’d done me the favor of dropping the look of my boyfriend, thus this new persona, but anonymity also meant us keeping distance, if only so we wouldn’t blow it.

At least if our cover is blown I have an excuse to quit this ridiculous comic-book-double-identity-crisis thing. The idea of a mild mannered alter ego had quickly morphed into a counterproductive nightmare of a cliché, one I wished would end, even if I didn’t see it happening any time soon.

I pulled my backpack higher up on my shoulder. I knew I was the center of everyone’s attention, and loathed it. My mom had made me do the regional competitions in gymnastics to get over my stage fright. They’d never fully done their job. Shadow may have it made, but Cynthia struggled.

"Hey Cynthia."

Do you want to blow our cover?

I felt the eyes of everyone in the room still on us.

Hey.

They returned to their texting.

You did this on purpose! I hissed under my breath, wanting more than anything to put a decent bruise in his shin, and wishing I’d worn something more substantial than ballet flats.

He put up an innocent act. His friends weren’t paying enough attention to what I said to have heard me chewing him out. Unfortunately, they were still watching from the corner of their eyes, so kicking him wasn’t an option. Yet.

"No. I didn’t. If anyone planned anything it was you." He accused a second later. I finally kicked him under the table, too embarrassed and irritated to care if it did cause a scene. He huffed in irritation. His friends turned their full attention back to us, the few seconds of seeming privacy gone the moment one of them opened his mouth.

Tech glitch huh… that’s cool I guess. I’m Josh. The brown haired guy in front of me said with a flirty edge to his voice. He looked at the guy next to him after, giving him the smallest of nods. This one was the polo prep, so what he and torn up sweatshirt had in common I had no idea, and I wasn’t keen on looking into their pasts to find out. I didn’t even want know what Shift was doing with them. I knew he over romanticized his attempts at normal, but he didn’t fit either. I glanced to him as he rolled his narrowed eyes.

Cynthia.

"You look like a doll." One of them snickered.

Toddlers and tiara’s is all grown up. Sweatshirt added. It was far from the first time. Being barely five feet tall paired with my technically/secretly alien enhanced features didn’t inspire the most innovative comments.

How observant. Shift muttered, the other guy’s oh-so-original statement driving him up the wall, which confused me. I could smell the lingering stench of guy code burning away, along my last chances of escaping with my skin its natural hue.

So are you a real blonde?

Recessive genes aren’t dead yet.

Can you prove it?

No comment. Although I wanted to kick him too, mainly because of the punk’s expression that went with the superficially innocent question.

I kept my eyes down, praying for Stargazer to show up and save me before Shadow blew her cover. It wasn’t the first time someone had ever made a remark like theirs. I can say pretty much every one who attends high school has had some wanna be big shot mess with them at least once. It’s not okay, and it doesn’t matter who you are or who is doing it, it is wrong. But the fact was, that fear wasn’t the same as the kind Shadow got over our gigs. As ‘Shadow’ I could kick your tail and see your future and kill your computer. There wasn’t much insecurity in being Shadow, but Cynthia has major issues… especially right then. I wasn’t some would-be superhero/alien side effect. I was just a girl wishing the world would stop spinning so my head would follow suit.

Lay off, Josh.

I looked up at Shift in surprise, and in alarm at the tone I had only ever heard him use when I got to be good cop and it was his turn to freak out the hustlers. He was glowering at who I had previously thought was his friend. They were all looking at him the same way I was. Shocked, and even a bit frightened.

Is he telling them to leave me alone because he knows I don’t have the guts to do it? Aww, that is kind of nice of him. Unless he is officially saying he has already called dibs…? That isn’t nice, but it is better than dealing with this corn-dog.

Easy man… She your girl? The guy was pretty close. In no way was I Shift’s girl, but we were more than friends, I guess. Let’s see, dynamic duo, work partners, roommates, etc.

‘She’ is sitting right in front of you. I strictly, or Shadow, reminded the guy. ‘We’ didn’t like him. The double identity is going to drive me insane. Unless I already am.

We got a quiz today? The guy turned to the stunned sweatshirt and sneakers to his left. He was obviously avoiding the abnormal, unexplainable Shift who was sitting next to me. Pastel-polo boy just edged away, wanting nothing to do with any of us the moment Shift had gone from perpetually punny and sarcastic to territorial. Smart kid.

Thanks. I whispered.

He shrugged, trying to play it off. His clenched jaw said otherwise.

…Care to interpret what just happened?

No.

"Then I’ll just look."

I was bluffing. I hated looking. I had spent more hours as Cynthia, hiding in the bathroom from hall monitors to console crying girls and walking the track during P.E. with overwhelmed guys than I had spent as Shadow, and for all my attempts to help, by listening and leaving notes, what I saw in peoples’ pasts kept me up at night more than what I saw in war zones.

The doll thing. They think because you are- He paused.

I knew the word he looked for and went pink. Freshmen – fresh meat. Sophomore – soft meat. You get the idea. We’re trying to keep this thing PG-13. Work with me here.

You really should consider that homeschooling thing. He kept his eyes focused on the table. His hands were in fists at his sides.

Mom wants normal.

Normal doesn’t mean right.

I frowned and nodded. It didn’t matter how many teen movies made light of it or over dramatized it, kids were mean. Not all of them, but it seemed some of them could smell insecurity and play on it perfectly. Like I said a few paragraphs ago, it isn’t all right, and most of us have dealt with it at some point. Not everyone, and not everyone lets it get to them, but there’s always that one thing we don’t want stepped on, and there’s always that one person with big feet. People can put a stop to it, slowly but surely, putting one wise-mouthed corn dog at a time in his place.

It’s something, it’s better than sitting in the apartment seeing people in trouble and not being able to do anything. I can’t go as hard as you can, and they can. At least here there’s witnesses holding me accountable to my helplessness.

Barely. I sneak out as much as I can get away with just to find time for deliveries. At least we know he wasn’t wrong. Apparently you do need a babysitter. He rolled his eyes.

Do not hide yourself from him either. Stargazer’s words rang in my head. I had spent the better part of a few months playing it cool, trying to seem as apathetic as I could. Shift didn’t make it easy, and facing terrorist hostage situations or flood evacuations nearly on a nightly basis made things even harder.

Well I’m glad to have this class. Science with a… I lowered my voice, A science experiment may be fun. His head shot up and he laughed. At least he wasn’t mad anymore, but the laugh made the entire room turns toward us. Again.

True. I will do my best to keep this fun…first we need to get you a better seat. I’m betting the sub will realize that everyone is switched up sooner or later.

Okay.

And don’t answer every question that he asks. That isn’t going to help you. He smirked, for a moment looking like nothing more than another slightly bored kid in a classroom.

You think I’m that dumb?

You’re blonde remember? Can’t be too careful.

I considered kicking him again.

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How many? The burner phone’s connection buzzed when I stood too close to her. I stepped back, knowing she would see the reason why. She could hear the response, our contact’s voice shaking with the fear of telling us something he wished he didn’t have to take the responsibility of knowing.

I just don’t – I don’t understand why you need to know things like-

Answer.

I don’t see why you think I would-

How many CIA operations in this country have been carried out in the last four months? I repeated. Star could go to him, get the information, and be back in less than ten seconds, but the chance of having our source compromised was too great, even in the face of his belligerent denial to what we already knew.

Send me the details. All of them.

There had been eight, at least eight we were concerned with. The legal side had been dealt with by partnering with some branch or another, DoD, FBI, NSA, even the FDA, but they had been active, more active that we were comfortable with. Our city was on every watch list. Every camera, ATM, and traffic light was rigged, but close proximity wasn’t the problem.

She had seen the pattern first. Certain aspects about what I was, what the bio warfare or whatever it was company had made me to be, were known by people who had no business knowing them. A white collar con artist had known exactly which hormones were elevated. He had no use for the knowledge, but with the mere brush of her mind against his in passing she had realized someone had told him. It was a month later that we realized someone was telling a lot of people. People they expected us to come across.

It was bait.

The final tipping of the scale had come when a South American politician was caught in a human and drug trafficking ring. He had known about her, not entirely, and not with anything that could hurt her, but he had known too much. They were leaking it, hoping to get out attention.

We did not know why.

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The guys’ reaction to Shads the week before hadn’t been entirely out of the blue – I knew where their heads were, even if I had the sense to shut up and the decency to not take a leisurely swim in the pool of hormones. I didn’t like it, but it was her reaction to them that had got me, that stunned, nervous, wide eyed stare. Any other day of the week they would have gotten slapped or kicked or told off, but for whatever reason, and I had no idea what, that day was different. She hadn’t slapped him or kicked him or cursed him out, she’d just sat there, looking more helpless than I cared to remind them she wasn’t.

Looking back, I can see we allow ourselves to be weakest when we know we are under the watch of someone willing and ready to protect us. Current me obviously didn’t know any of that, he was too busy wondering if he’d have to find a new group to hang out with if that one started any more stuff with Shads.

…Due to the fact that it moves so quickly.

I looked up suddenly. Moved and fast were a thing guys like me listened to attentively. Okay it was only me. Unless we were still talking cars.

How fast do the electrons travel? Someone at the front asked. It’s always the kids at the front. If they’re there by choice, those are the ones who will have the notes outlined and the project done before the due date. Trust me, if you ever need help, go to the front-seater. Every class has one. Nine times out of ten, if you nicely ask them for help, they will, they won’t do the work for you, but it’s better than having to stick around after class.

Close to the speed of light.

I turned to Shads. I looked around to make sure no one was listening, confirming the hidden headphones in many of their ears.

We have to talk.

Can this wait? She hissed lowly.

No! It can’t!

Is this about…? She pointed to me and then to her, the projector displaying the slide show on the wall casting her in a bluish light, hiding whatever expression she was likely judging me with.

Yes!

Everyone looked up. I regretted some of my previous enthusiasm. I’m all for the spotlight when I know what side of me it’ll light up. The blue projector screen showed a bit too much.

"Then don’t you think the middle of class is a really bad spot?" She whispered.

Fine then… I stared blankly at one of the walls, mindlessly looking over the ecosystem diagram that had been pinned to the concrete block wall for hundreds of class periods before me and stared at by kids probably as frustrated as I was. Maybe. I couldn’t believe she was blowing me off.

The endless lecture finally ended. She put her notebook back in her bag as the lights turned on. All eyes were on the door, but I wasn’t planning on using it. As soon as everyone had their attention on something other than us I threw her jacket over her head and shifted us to the one place I knew no one would be in between classes.

Hey! I pulled my hair out of my face, horrified that it had instantly gone ‘poof’ at the friction of yanking my jacket off. Why did you do that? I looked around and gasped. We are in the library? It took me a second to get my breath back. Why are we here? I said between my teeth. You know BD’s rules! You can’t be doing stupid stuff like this right now! They’re on edge and I can’t see why. This isn’t okay Sh- I realized that I’d slipped up. This is why I avoid him here!

I figured it out.

"What? You figured out what?" I demanded, irritated at his childish impatience and absolute lack of self-restraint. Ever since Stargazer and Black Dagger had been taken by some side project of the CIA, we had been on high alert. Heads down, eyes up. The friction between us and the feds was enough to light a match. Or set of a nuke, if my worst nightmares held any sense of foresight. No matter how serious it got, I didn’t like the prospect of facing another fire. And on top of that, Shift goofing off was not a part of the protocol BD preached on a daily basis.

I looked around and made sure no one was listening. It’d become a habit. The shelves provided decent cover, but I doubted this little stunt would go completely unnoticed. If nothing else, whenever Stargazer got around to picking our memories, we were in for it.

"You know, how I move…the electrons he was talking about! They move! I move! It makes perfect sense! I must be able to turn into like one giant electron!" He exclaimed.

…Oh thank goodness. I attempted to hide the relief that ran through me.

"Yeah, perfect sense."

I’m serious. Even SG couldn’t figure me out. I think that’s how those people did it. They changed my molecules or something.

How?

Well how am I supposed to know that? Throw me a reactor? I don’t know but it’s cool right?

Yeah, but I don’t know why you’re trying to figure it out now.

Where are your passes? I jumped and shot him a glare before I turned around. The woman tapped her foot impatiently on the worn, short carpet, her slight heels and slacks topped with a sweater that completed the ideal librarian look. I wished I had the patience to wear heels, but I needed to be able to run, like right then if possible. "You two better have some passes." She said sternly.

They’re in my bag. He grabbed my arm and pulled me behind another book filled shelf. I ‘saw’ the lady losing it in about one minute and I also saw why. All of a sudden we were in the hallway of my next class, no one looking up from their phones long enough to notice the once empty space in front of them was suddenly occupied.

Hopefully no one watches these security tapes. Oh well.

I doubted my days of walking both lives were going to last much longer anyway.

Don’t pull something like that again.

Or what, you’ll tattle to mom and dad? He laughed it off, and I struggled to remind myself that I was the only one who could keep her alter egos separate.

We can’t take any chances. They are worried, he is especially. I haven’t seen why yet but we can’t risk anything. Just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean we’re all good, okay? And as much as I am over school, I really, really, don’t need our covers blown, got it?

Okay, okay, I get it.

Good…see you later. It wasn’t a question. I would see him, one