“What are you doing here?” James said.
Leo glanced at him. “I can’t just stop by to chat with my friend’s brother?”
“No.”
They passed in front of the playground, and a group of kids stopped playing to stare at them. One of them pointed and they shouted in excitement. James didn’t think they were pointing at him.
Leo glanced up at the noise, then dropped his head and cut off the path, crossing the grass as he moved away from the playground. James hastened to follow.
“Alright, fine,” Leo said. “Derek asked me to check up on you while he’s gone.”
“Why?”
Leo eyed James. “Three on one isn’t very fair.”
“Fair doesn’t matter when your brother’s a Super.”
Leo stopped, rounding on James. “What’s that mean?”
James was shocked by the sudden ferocity in the normally chill Super’s voice. “I... I just mean, people treat me differently, because of Derek.”
Leo grunted, then kept walking. “They shouldn’t.”
“Well, they do.”
“You sound bitter about it.”
“You would, too, if you were powerless.”
Leo said nothing to that. They walked for a long time in silence, soon leaving the park and stepping onto the neighborhood streets. James realized Leo was walking him home. He wasn’t looking forward to his mom’s reaction to his battered face. She’d demand to know who did it, and of course he wouldn’t tell her. His father, on the other hand, would jokingly ask if he had gotten any hits in, and James would smile and say, “One or two.” It was a dance they’d done before, one they’d surely do again. Even before Derek became a Super, James seemed to have a propensity for getting himself hurt.
As they turned onto James’s street, he figured Leo had abandoned the conversation. But finally, the Super said, “Not having powers doesn’t mean you’re powerless.”
“Sure feels like it.”
They reached James’s house, and Leo stopped at the doorstep. James glanced at him. “Want to come in? I’m sure my parents would be happy to have you for dinner.”
Leo smiled. “Nah, I don’t want to distract them from your face.”
“Right. Well, you go be heroic and I’ll go tell my parents I got beat up.”
Leo hesitated. “You know, James, sometimes I think being Normal is the most heroic thing you can be. Just trying your best, suffering through the pain of living. It makes it more meaningful, the struggle.”
James laughed and pointed at his battered face. “This is heroic?”
Leo looked at him, completely serious. “It is. It’s the most heroic thing there is.”
Chapter 20
Ringing. Endless, ceaseless ringing. Like someone was holding a bell next to his ear. Someone trying to annoy him to death.
James groaned. He rose slowly from unconsciousness, a swimmer kicking toward a kaleidoscope surface with no idea of what lay beyond.
His eyes cracked open and light attacked his pupils. He squinted, momentarily blind. As his eyes adjusted, he pulled himself into a seated position, his head pounding and his stomach lurching with nausea.
He was sitting on a soft bed in a long, white room. Fluorescent lights shone overhead, and the wall and floor were covered with sterile white tiles. His left leg was bound up tightly, and he had a sling around his arm. The room was lined with similar beds, ten on each side. On the bed immediately to his right lay a still figure.
“Rocky!” he said, trying to push himself off the bed. His head spun like a twister and he collapsed back into his pillow, fighting the urge to vomit.
“You should try not to move,” a woman’s voice came from down the hall. James turned and saw a short, blonde-haired woman striding toward him, wearing a white coat and holding a clipboard. She looked familiar, but James’s spinning head couldn’t place her.
“I-Is he okay?” James asked. His throat felt dry, dusty, and his voice cracked.
“Oh, yes, he’ll be fine. He endured quite a beating. You both did, but he took a few too many blows to the head. Nothing I couldn’t fix,” she said cheerfully.
It clicked in his head. He’d met her in person only a few times, most recently when Derek had taken him to the Super headquarters in Washington DC.
“You’re Auri.”
“I am. I’m the healer around here. I can mend almost anything, though it takes a toll on both of us. You had a broken ankle, a broken arm and wrist, a dislocated shoulder, and a pretty serious concussion.”
The room spun around James and he felt queasy. “I... Jesus.” He raised his hands in front of him and flexed his fingers. He couldn’t even tell which wrist had been broken. “Wh... How?”
She patted him lightly on the shoulder, her blue eyes kind and caring. “It was a long procedure. It took me a good six hours to fix both of you up, and afterward, I slept for half a day.”
“You saved our lives. Thank you, Auri.”
She waved away his thanks. Just another day of being a Super.
“Where are we?” James said. The strange room had no windows, just blank white walls.
“We,” she said, putting the clipboard down and grabbing his wrist to take his pulse, “are in the middle of the Himalayas. In a hidden base the Supers built long ago, which we are now unfortunately forced to use.”
James sat up suddenly, wincing as his head swam. “Derek! Where is he?”
He looked around wildly as if expecting to see his brother hiding in the corner, waiting to be spotted. But Derek would never do something like that. Maybe he was busy. Maybe he was waiting for James right outside this room...
He met Auri’s eyes, and he stopped. Her eyes shone and she bit her lip, like she was about to cry.
“What is it?” he demanded, more forcefully than he intended.
“I...” At that moment, the door at the end of the hall opened, interrupting her. A familiar teenage girl walked in, carrying a tray of food, her blonde hair bouncing around her head as she walked.
“Katie?” James spluttered, completely confused. “What are you doing here?”
“She
