Abnormals

“Wait,” Alyssa said as we stood outside the tent, “You could be out there saving people, and you came here instead?”

“Well what were you doing here?”

“Saying hi to an old friend,” Alyssa said, “Believe it or not, I can do that. Why aren’t you with your hero friends?”

I looked away.

“They were all bickering anyways. They need drastic actions before they can resolve things.”

She shook her head and stepped into the tent. I followed close behind.

“I’ve gotten used to the fact that if I don’t have customers it’s usually one of you that steps in,” Circe said, mourning veil absent from her Victorian Gothic garb, “At least on a good day.”

“Well,” Alyssa said, “Don’t get your hopes up.”

“We need a reading,” I explained.

“You know they only work one on one, right? I feel like I’ve explained this before.”

“But our fates are so closely intertwined.”

“You’re still individuals,” Circe explained, “Which means I can’t make an exception.”

“You could try,” I encouraged.

“Or you couldn’t,” Alyssa said, “I just came here to ask you to lunch. You can read for him and talk with me after.”

“But—”

Alyssa didn’t care about my pleas as she abandoned us. As the tent flap closed, the space within got very dark.

Circe placed a deck of card on the table.

“Cut the deck.”

I lifted the top and set it back on before handing it back to her.

“Suit yourself.”

Circe placed three cards face down in front of me.

“Do you do any other arrangements?” I asked.

“Not for the real stuff. It’s complicated enough this way.”

“I think you can handle it.”

Circe glared before turning her face toward the cards.

“Ask your question.”

“What am I supposed to do about Dark Magek?” I asked.

“Okay,” Circe replied, “Reveal the past.”

I poked the card in the middle. Circe flipped it over to reveal Tesla Coil and Xer staring at each other, her hand crackling with electricity and his aflame.

“The two of swords,” I identified, “The truce between Tesla Coil and Xer that made us all friends.”

“Who’s doing the reading here, you or me?” Circe asked.

“You and I both know this wouldn’t work without you,” I said, “I’m just used to the cards.”

“Well there was a tentative truce, but tensions still run into the present, though it might not be between those two. Reveal the present.”

I tapped the left card.

Before Circe lifted it, she looked at me intently.

“Remember the present often speaks to events in the very near past or future, and not our actions at the exact moment, because otherwise all it would ever show is a person sitting at a table with me.”

“Of course,” I said, “And that would be too boring to read about.”

Circe flipped the card over, and I immediately noticed the sword, held by a man all in black, and plunged through my own chest. The eyes that always appeared on my cards looked dull and lifeless.

Circe held her hand over her mouth, silent.

“Death,” I read. The card was upright too. “So maybe I change sides.”

Circe nodded, taking in deep breaths.

“Some major change is coming, precipitated by you and—that can’t be who I think it is.”

“It is,” I confirmed. “You didn’t really think he was a good guy all these years, did you?”

“He—”

I held a finger to her lips.

“I don’t think they need to know that yet.”

Do you?

Circe watched the card. Sometimes there was movement in them, and the sword just kept plunging deeper.

“There’s no blood,” I commented.

Circe nodded.

“Reveal the future,” I told her.

She took the last card. Tesla Coil held a disc, Tetra her sword, Nightingale her stick, Xer offered a plant, and Blaster had a field around all of them.

“Five of swords,” I guessed, “Defeat and exposure. We’re going to fail and everyone’s going to know.”

Circe shook her head, pointing to the word at the top.

“Seven,” she said, “All allied together.”

“Seven’s bad too, right?” I asked.

“Depends,” Circe said, “This isn’t a science and it hates to be. I think this is a reaction to something terrible.” Her eyes flicked toward the death card then up at me.

“What does it mean?” I ask.

“Deception,” she said, “Resorting to strategy. They can’t win, not them.

“We,” I said as I appeared at the top, hand inside the sphere, which was then covered by an eye again, “We can’t win.”

I stepped up, and the atmosphere inside the tent got lighter as Circe put her cards back in the deck.

“Keep an eye on him,” she warned Alyssa as she came to join us.

“You and I both know that’s not possible,” Alyssa said, “But I can take you both to lunch. Mom wanted to say hi anyways.”

“Sure you don’t want a reading?” I asked.

“I don’t like knowing like you do,” she said, “Are you joining us, Circe?”

Circe looked to each of us, settling her gaze on me.

“Sure.”

A phone call interrupted our tender moment.

“Yellow?” I asked.

“Green,” Tesla Coil immediately answered, “I’ve been spending too much time with you—Not to make this a trivial matter, but are you for killing our Dark Mage, or against?”

“Against,” I said, “We can’t kill him, not yet.”

Circe and Alyssa shared confused glances.

“Not yet?” Nightingale asked.

“That’s an even split,” Xer said, “I say we do some more recon and see if anyone flips sides.”

“Sounds fun, I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“Don’t—” Alyssa and Circe started.

I fell in the middle of the team meeting. Tesla Coil was calling someone else off to the side, and Nightingale was glaring daggers at Xer, who was giving Tetra pleading looks.

“This is cushy,” I said, “When are we going?”

Everyone looked anywhere but me.

“Was there a vote on the recon too?” I asked.

“We don’t know where we’re doing recon,” Nightingale explained, “Tetra can’t pinpoint the location of the swords, and our second best bet is trying to persuade the kid to come back.”

There was a conspicuous lack of Blaster in the warehouse.

“What did you guys do to make him leave?” I asked.

“He had to check on his roommate,” Xer answered, “But I think he didn’t expect an argument like this, especially across friendly lines.”

“Friendly lines?” I asked, “You guys are friends?” They were all my friends of course, but some of them didn’t seem to like each other.

“Tetra and I are, and we all know Nightingale works with Coil too often to really dislike her.”

“She’s smarter than this,” Nightingale said, “If someone is planning to kill you, your life automatically becomes more valuable.”

“We don’t know that he’s planning to kill anybody,” Xer said.

“He offered a prize to whoever got me,” Tetra said, “I’m a source of sustenance for him.”

“Blaster’s on his way,” Tesla Coil said, “Remember, this is just recon, we’re not going to do something that could get us killed without a plan, right?”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” I said.

“Just don’t get anyone else killed, and we won’t have a problem,” Tesla Coil said, “Tetra, you take point as our local expert.”

“With knowledge that we won’t follow you into murder,” Xer added.

“I wouldn’t ask you to,” Tetra said, “Tesla Coil, if you would find where the swords are being held. If we have multiple locations, we can split up.”

“I can try,” Tesla Coil offered.

“Why am I always teamed up with you?” Blaster asked.

“Because we have the least dramatic potential,” I explained, “The others have problems. Nightingale and Tesla Coil are having a sister argument, which has to be juicy, and Xer and Tetra are having a not-lovers quarrel. You’re least committed to murder, and I’m least committed to mercy. We don’t have much to argue about.”

Blaster watched me lazing on his forcefield.

“How do you know Nightingale and Tesla Coil are sisters?” he asked.

“I read, and why are you more surprised by the fact I know than the fact itself?”

“Because Nightingale’s identity is obvious, and I guessed TC’s identity before we even met.”

Clever kid.

“And why do you think Dark Magek needs to die?” I asked.

“Because he’s hurting people,” Blaster said, “It’s only a matter of time before—”

“That’s the same justification they used to make vigilantism illegal,” Berserker said, “It’s why none of us are stupid enough to trust a cop, they were told we were all armed and dangerous, just for trying to do the right thing.”

Jet watched me.

“I never found reports on a vigilante body count.”

“They don’t exist. As far as paperwork’s concerned, we were just dangerous criminals. It’s only a matter of time before we truly cross the line.”

“Do you believe that?” Blaster asked.

“The public doesn’t anymore, but aren’t we getting close?” I asked, “Planning to kill someone because Tetra doesn’t think he has a soul.”

“She’s the expert.”

“Exactly, we can’t say she’s wrong, even if we only have her word to prove she’s right.”

Blaster seemed to pause as we stopped moving, but really he was focusing on getting us to the building so he could drop the forcefield. I almost put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but an invisible force stopped me.

“Not this time,” he said.

“Getting smarter, good work.”

I pulled a pair of binoculars out to watch what was going on inside the other building.

There were a bunch of containers, and nobody there.

“It was fire, right?” I asked, “That destroyed these things?”

“The swords?” Blaster asked, “Yeah.”

“Want to avenge your roommate on some more of them?”

“This is supposed to be recon.”

“I can do it alone if you want.”

“Fine,” Blaster said, “Let’s do this.”

I landed in the building first, part of why I like to keep teleportation active for awhile. I rubbed my hands together and blew a large flame in the direction of the boxes. The fire wasn’t as satisfying as it could be, but it was a fire.

“Was I going to be involved in the burning process at all?” Blaster asked as he stepped through the door.

“Do you have fire powers?”

Blaster scoffed.

“Sometimes I wish I did, but no, just the forcefields.”

“Well it’s something,” I said, “And something is more than nothing, you know.”

Blaster shook his head. My way of thinking wasn’t a popular one, so I never expected much agreement.

“Impressive,” a voice I hadn’t heard since I was a child said, clapping as if to emphasize his mood, “I knew the Elemaster had fire, but I didn’t expect you to have it too.”

“Where do you think I got it from?” I asked.

He laughed.

“That’s,” Blaster said, “You’re just some guy.”

Dark Magek sneered.

“Surely you understand that my kind are owed more fear than that. Your Master certainly realized that, it’s why she sent you to different places to lower the odds of me finding her.”

“Liar!” Blaster insisted.

“Keep the kid out of this,” I said, the present card flashing before my eyes.

Dark Magek reached into the darkness and pulled out a sword coated in shadow.

He stopped quickly.

“Let’s—”

Before Blaster could say “go” Dark Magek knocked him to the side.

“Whatever you’re planning isn’t going to work,” I told Dark Magek.

“I think it will, especially without you around to cause more problems.”

He kicked me to the floor. Fight left me as I lay on the ground.

“Leave the kid,” I begged.

“I will not touch him.”

I was lifted from the ground and turned so Blaster could see me helpless.

The last thing I saw was a barely visible sword aimed for my chest.