TWO: Mistakes

TWO: Mistakes

Two Weeks Later

***

Alden lay in his hospital bed, watching rain spatter against the windows and stream down the glass in rivulets. Wummy lay beside him, and a handheld video game console was in his lap, chirping occasionally to remind him that hed left his game on pause.

He winced and shut it off. The chirp was too similar to the high-pitched ringing hed had in his ears ever since the disaster. The doctors and the healer had both told him the same thingthat there was a good chance the whining sound would stop on its own but it might not.

The console had been given to him at the House of Healing, right after his broken arm and wrist were mended. He was supposed to play with it oftensomething about maintaining dexterity in a healing limb. But hed mostly been using it to distract himself from everything else.

It worked. Sometimes.

But not as well here in the childrens hospital hed been transferred to a few days ago. The House of Healing was soothing in a way a mundane hospital never could be. Here, now, everything Alden saw reminded him that things were wrong and they would never be right again.

And he was a source of gossip for some of the staff. He knew it because hed heard a couple of them talking just outside his room when they thought he was asleep.

Poor thing lost his parents in such a horrible way. And they still havent managed to reach any other family.

Do you know if he saw it happen? God, I cant imagine the trauma.

It wasnt like it was mean gossip. They all felt sorry for him. They all meant well.

But Alden hated it.

And nobody would tell him the truth about what had happened. Not the whole truth. Not even the grief counselor who spent so much time talking about being honest and open with your feelings.

His home had been destroyed, and his parents had died in a supervillain attack. The heroes hired by the city of Chicago had not been able to bring the villain under control without collateral damage.

Alden didnt know what that meant.

How had they died? Why couldnt he see their bodies? Which supervillain was it? Whywhy had they wanted to hurt Aldens parents?

If one more adult told him that it was all a terrible accident, one that was impossible for someone his age to understand, he was going to throw his console at their lying smile.

Just as he thought that, Nurse Amanda knocked once and then came straight in. At least she wasnt smiling. In fact, she was wearing a worried frown.

Alden, sweetie, she said. Someone has come to visit you. Now, you dont have to see her if you dont want to

Who is it? he asked quickly.

Alden had seen a few different visitors. His teacher had visited him three times, and shed brought handmade Get Well Soon cards from the entire third grade. A couple of the nurses from the House of Healing had come as well. And the childrens choir director from his fathers old church had driven overnight all the way from Nashville with a tray of cupcakes and cheese straws.

Visitors were good. Visitors filled the room with noise so that Alden didnt have to hear his own thoughts.

Its Hannah Elber, sweetie. The superhero.

Alden froze, his mind flickering automatically to his dark, ruined bedroom. To flashing lights and a bodythe body of the villain?lying there torn open. The memory had a foreign feel to it, like it belonged to someone else. But at the same time it was too detailed and clear.

He hadnt seen Hannah or Arjun since the day it happened.

Hed been in the bubble, covered by the blanket, for what felt like a long time. When the comforter was removed, he and Hannah had been alone together in the back of a van.

Shed written him lots of notes, explaining what was going on and what was happening.

YOU ARE INJURED, BUT YOU WILL BE ALL RIGHT.

MY SPELL IS KEEPING YOU SAFE AND CALM.

WE ARE GOING TO THE HOUSE OF HEALING.

THEY WILL HELP YOU.

IT WILL NOT HURT.

I WILL STAY WITH YOU UNTIL YOU FALL ASLEEP.

Where are my parents? Alden had thought, over and over again, willing the question to get through. Where are they? Did you rescue them, too?

Now, of course, he knew that she hadnt.

You dont have to see her, Nurse Amanda said again, seeming to mistake his silence for fear. Just because shes a superhero doesnt mean she gets to do whatever she likes. Ill tell her you

I want to see her! Alden cried, nearly falling out of the bed in his eagerness. His stomach muscles complained a little, but they were nearly healed now and he barely noticed. Hannah would know things. Maybe she would explain why everything had gone wrong. Where is she?

The nurse stared at him. Shes downstairs at the check-in desk. Give me a minute, sweetie. Shell come to you.

###

Oh, man, Hannah Elber muttered, staring at her reflection in the polished metal of the elevator door. I dont think theyre going to let me in, Cly. Im gonna have to go rogue and climb up the side of the building or something.

Thatll be a great look on the six oclock news, her friend said dryly through her earbud. And Id like to see you try it. You failed hard on the rock wall every time in gym class.

I shouldve come sooner, Hannah said, ignoring the jab. But I was waiting for them to find the kids aunt so I could talk to her and get permission, only it's starting to seem like theyre never going to track the lady down, which just makes everything so much worse.

Hannah, its not your fault his parents died.

It is.

Its really not.

Shut up about it.

No. You had to stabilize a building. In a crazy situation, fighting against a vill with weirdass powers. You arent perfect. You did your best. Arjun did his best. It wasnt quite enough. Mistakes happen to all of us at some point in our careers. Thats all there is to it.

Yeah, said Hannah, sitting up straight and clasping her hands together on top of her knees. Yeah, that was the bad guy. Didnt anyone talk to you about him?

Alden flopped back onto his pillows. He gripped the blanket tightly. No. Nobody answers my questions with actual answers. They just say nice-sounding words that dont mean anything.

He heard Hannah take a deep breath.

After a beat, she said, Well, thats not fair to you, but maybe they just dont know enough to tell you everything. Im not sure how much information regular people actually have right now. Probably a lot of gossip and only a little bit of truth. Do youI can answer questions if you want? It doesnt have to be today. We can wait until youre out of the hospital, or

Why did the villain kill my parents? Alden asked immediately, twisting the blankets in his hands. Was he trying to rob us? Or was he mad at them? Why?

Hed wondered and wondered. Maybe if there was a reason for the terrible thing that had happened, it would all start to make sense.

Hannah gulped. Well, he was a U-class. Do you know what that means?

Unique.

A couple of Aldens favorite heroes had unique classes. They weren't necessarily stronger than other heroes, but they had unusual powers that didnt fit into the normal set of classes people were granted when they were chosen by the Artonan System.

Right. Hed just been called by the System a few months ago, from what we understand. And he got his unique class and his first skills. Instead of registering and coming to live on Anesidora Island or in another hero zone like he was supposed to, he started using his power on civilians.

It was an unexpectedly familiar story to Alden. In movies and television shows, the supervillain was almost always someone who refused to register their power and abide by the law.

He hadnt realized it was something that could happen in real life.

Hannah sighed. He had a power thats never been recorded before. And it was really strong and deadly.

What power?

Umits pretty scary. Are you sure you want to know the details?

Alden nodded.

Okay, the superhero said. It was some kind of transfer ability. It took strength and vitalitymaybe other things, toofrom his targets and transferred them to him. So the more people he hurt, the more powerful he became.

They were having an early Halloween party at a club a few blocks away from your apartment building. He went there and started draining people. It tooka really long time for people at the party to notice. It was loud and crowded. He blended in, and he killed several people before someone finally realized something was wrong and called emergency services.

She shifted in the chair, and it creaked loudly again.

The other heroes working here in Chicago were busy, and dispatch didnt realize how dangerous the situation was. So they only sent me and Arjun.

When we got to the club, it wasbad. The villains power fed itself. The more people he killed, the more powerful he got. And as he grew stronger, he could kill people even more quickly. He was moving almost like a speed-agility type by the time we got there, which was bad for us, because Arjun and I dont have the mental specs to deal with true superspeed.

She grew quiet, and when Alden glanced over, he saw that she was staring off into space, her lips pressed together.

He didnt want her to stop talking. Not until he knew everything.

What kind of Avowed are you? he asked, feeling a little proud he'd remembered the proper name for people chosen by the System. "What powers do you have."

She shook herself and looked over at him. Im an Adjuster. A-rank. I know that doesnt tell you much because theres a lot of variety with Adjusters. Ive focused my skills on stabilizing and freezing isolated patches of reality.

Seeing his blank expression, she gave him an apologetic shrug.

Yeah, its kind of a complicated one. Just think of the bubble you were in. I received that spell recently. It makes a space that keeps everything inside it from changing. I dont think it actually stops timecant get a straight answer out of anyone Ive asked. But its almost like that. So even though you were badly injured, when I wrapped the bubble around you, you stopped bleeding. Your mind was supposed to stop working, too, but magic can be weird sometimes.

Nothing hurt anymore, said Alden. I couldnt move. And I couldnt get excited or scared like normal.

Im glad. Im going to study the spell more so I can figure out exactly what happened. I thought you might be terrified to be trapped in there.

It had never occurred to Alden before that a superhero might not understand their own powers. How could you do magic without knowing how it worked?

Anyway, said Hannah, we had to stop Body Drainerthats what theyre calling him right now. We tried to slow him down with my spells so that Arjun could grab him. Arjun is an S-rank Brute, almost purely focused on physical strength. S-ranks have loads of power, so even if the guy started draining him he should have been able to stop him. But I couldnt target or cast fast enough. And none of my spells are invisible, so when I tried to build traps he just dodged them.

She sounded frustrated.

He ran out of the club, and we chased him down the street. He was too fast for us, but he kept stopping to attack people, so we managed to keep up. We had toI told Arjun we had to get him into another enclosed space. One without any people. We would lose him if he ran flat out in an open area, and we couldn't afford that. And usually newbies who arent used to extreme speed do badly in small spaces. But almost everything was residential. The first empty building we saw was the one right across the street from yours.

Alden knew about that. That building was being remodeled. When it was done, it was going to be apartments, too. Hed hoped lots of families with other kids would move in so that they could send secret flashlight messages to each other through the windows at night.

We managed to chase the villain in there, Hannah said. Arjun went after him to fight, and I stayed outside to block the exits and stabilize the building so that it wouldn't completely collapse and damage the neighboring structures. Its hard for Arjun to use his full power without destroying everything. I became his sidekick so that he wouldnt have to focus on things like that in the middle of serious fights. Soso as battlefield support, it was my job to keep bystanders safe andlet Arjun know what his options were.

She stopped talking again. And her silence lasted for such a long time, that Alden began to feel uncomfortable.

Shes upset.

Was it because it went wrong? Something must have gone wrong, because the villain was not dead in the empty building across the street when the fight was over. He was dead in Aldens bedroom.

And Aldens parents were dead, too.

I was making stable zones where they were needed to absorb the force of Arjuns strikes, but I was spread too thin. And the Body Drainer started showing off some weird energy skill we still haven't figured out. He was sending out these pulses that were almost like explosions centered on his body. They were going right through my spells. Shrapnel started flying, like that piece of metal that went through your window."

She stared at his stomach as if she could see the scar through his shirt, then continued. "So I tightened my focus even more, making my spells extra strong in smaller areas so nothing could get through them. And II made a horrible mistake. Arjun suddenly asked through coms if the middle of the exterior wall on the seventh floor could take a big hit, and I said yes. But I was in such a rush I counted the windows wrong. I stabilized the middle of the eighth floor instead, and when he tackled the Body Drainer, they both smashed through the side of the building, and the momentum carried them all the way across the street into your familys apartment.

There were tears in her eyes.

The ringing in Aldens ears seemed to have gotten louder all of a sudden. His lips were trembling.

Im so, so sorry, Alden, Hannah said. It was my fault. Dontyou might hear things from others, all kinds of guesses and rumors. But you should know the truth. Arjun was doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. He did everything right in a bad situation. Your parents died because a teenager thought it would be cool to be a supervillain and because I made a stupid, awful mistake in the middle of a serious situation.

Aldens vision blurred. A huge, racking sob welled up inside of him. He tried to hold it back, but it was like trying to hold back the tide. He started crying, every bit as hard as he had when they first told him his parents were gone. It just wouldnt stop. His body ached with it. His pillow was getting wet.

Nurse Amanda burst into the room, and Alden screamed, Get out! Leave me alone! so loud it made his throat hurt.

Hannah Elber, the superhero, ran from him like hed attacked her. Nurse Amanda ran toward him, whispering words of comfort. For some reason Alden couldnt understand in the burning pain of the moment, this was exactly the opposite of what hed wanted.