Age of Power 1: Legacy (28 page)

She
answered. “Something weird is going on at all the labs. No one seems to be able
to keep samples or data sets about those affected by what Alex did. Worse, when
Yasmine tried to hack the scientist’s minds, she bounced. She couldn’t read any
of them. That’s when she panicked.”

Dana
looked at them with skepticism. “Okay, why can’t Paradoxis just hack their
computers and look for herself? Or is that outside her range of talents?”

Angela
shook her head. “She tried, but every path is blocked by extremely complex
firewalls and encryptions. In fact, she says that every lab she looked at has a
form of encryption that she’s never seen anywhere else. And she’s been into
some hefty computer systems, including high-security government and military
types. But whenever it concerns the Empowered, nothing…she just can’t get in.”

That
startled me. I said, “Wait, Ryan himself was complaining about information
getting lost and samples being destroyed. Ryan said they would have to go to
Kular to get more samples. This doesn't make sense. Paradoxis can't get in.
Something is blocking Yasmine and Kular. And Ryan mentioned something about
labs losing blood samples.”

I
looked at Dana and said, “Everyone is having problems getting information about
us. Dana, this is getting creepier by the second. What’s going on?”

She
shook her head, confused. Then, looking at the siblings, she said, “Could
Yasmine
be
doing a runaround on Kular? Could she be
lying?”

Alan
laughed. “No way, those two have been tight friends since they met.”

Dana
sighed. “Then I don’t know what’s going on. If Yasmine is a telepath, she
should be able to go in and read the minds of the scientists who did the
tests.”

He
shook his head. “She tried. Like I said, she was bounced.”

I
let out a sigh. Dana glanced at me with a slight look of worry. “Vaughn?”

“Oh
nuts…” I said, and took a drink of coffee.

Dana
glanced at me. “What?”

I
glanced at her. “Oh, nothing, it’s just that this sounds like a horrible
plotline from a really bad movie. The shadowy creator of the Empowered
conclave, the mysterious twins, and innocent bystanders caught in the middle,
and, of course, Yasmine, the evil woman…or whatever she is.”

Alan
laughed. He said, “Wow, you Americans and your obsession with movies. Don’t you
people have any culture at all?”

I
glared at him and said, “Watch it, you 
Twilight
 fan boy…”

He
jerked his head back in surprise, mouthing the word, “
Twilight
?”
silently.

I
covered a laugh by taking a drink. I couldn’t hold it back, though. Pulling the
mug away, I snorted and said, “You sparkle. Get over it…
Twilight
 boy.”

Dana
said, “Sparkling vampires…oooh. No, let’s never speak of that again!”

Alan
looked pole-axed. Loudly, he said, “I do not sparkle!”

That
earned him a few odd looks from the room. I glanced around and noticed the
place filling up. I turned back and saw that the women were trying not to laugh
at Alan. His face was turning pink with embarrassment. I grinned with
malicious enjoyment. It was about time that this prissy prep got his just desserts.

I
grinned and said, “Gotcha, twinkle boy.”

He
grumbled, “I do not twinkle!”

I
smiled and winked at Angela. I said, “You do. But at least you look the part.”

Alan
stared at his sister as she giggled.

Shrugging,
she gave him a lopsided grin. “You do. Sorry.”

He
went back to eating his cheesecake, muttering, “Do not.”

Dana
sighed and said, “Aside from novels and movie series about vampires who sparkle
in sunlight, could we get back to the topic at hand?”

Alan
said, “Hey, blame screechy here—he started it!”

I
began to say something, but Dana put a hand between us before I could.

She
said, “Hey! Humor is fun, but people have died. Enough!”

Angela
nodded and looked at me. She said, “While you were giving interviews things
remained calm. All we really did was work at recovering our health and deal
with becoming Empowered. Kular stayed in Iowa to learn what she could from your
blood sample, as well as get information on Alex Shaw and his history. And,
although Yasmine tried to help Kular whenever she could, she was mainly off
helping the Orishai.”

I
said, “The Orishai?”

They
both nodded. Angela said, “They were involved with the creation of the Two
Africas.”

I
looked at Dana. I had heard something about it, but I couldn’t place the term
right off. Dana said, “It’s been the big thing in international news. But
you’ve been rather busy. Since late February, nations in Africa have been
coming together, slowly talking about this great change in their politics. Two
new political governments have started. The North African Alliance and the
South African Confederacy now control the continent. They’re a little like the
European Union, with individual countries working together.”

Dana
stopped and took a sip of coffee. Putting the mug down, she said, “The experts
say that the movement came from the psychological impact of the Day. But
there’s been no real details given for what’s been going on. Some say it all
happened too fast. And some countries are a little bit angry over what they
did. Both the Confederacy and the Alliance threw contracts and alliances out
the proverbial window. The United States has been busy trying to keep Russia
and China from going to war.”

Dana
stopped for a moment before she said, “The odd thing is that there’s been a
major shift in the ecology. Rivers are filling up, lakes are recharging, and
land is beginning to grow food. They’re saying it’s almost miraculous. Even the
new leadership is working towards caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, and
generally promoting peaceful ties between individual countries. Because it
seems peaceful, no one has argued. Goddess knows that they needed something to
end the genocide going on there. And you say that Yasmine was behind all this?”

Alan
nodded. “She and the other Empowered—the Orishai. When Yasmine came in, she brought
in Empowered from Kenya and the Sudan. Instead of fighting each other, they
surprised all of us and came together as this sub-group within the conclave.
They went in, and, with Yasmine’s help, they became the new power behind the
throne. If she’d stopped there, the rest of the conclave would have been fine.
But she didn’t stop there. Since Africa, she’s been doing her best to convince
the Empowered conclave to do the same thing with the rest of the world.”

I
raised my hand before they went on.
“Just a second.
I
keep hearing the word ‘Empowered.’ Who thought up the term?”

Alan
answered that one. “Normally ‘empowered’ is a verb, meaning we were ‘given
power.’ And we are. Shield was the one who brought it up as a name for our…”

Hesitating,
he looked at Angela and asked, “Our culture?”

Angela
nodded. “It’s getting to be that way. Or it was, until Yasmine started turning
strange. She’s a powerful telepath who has been using mind-control to
manipulate some in the conclave. It has definitely caused us some problems.”

Alan
spoke up. “Me, I think she went nuts over the whole Africa thing. She’s
certainly become megalomaniacal.”

We
were silent for a bit after that. I ate the food, but I didn’t taste it. I
said, “Ryan Tech still has that information. And Kular is still in Riverlite.
Now, this guy who attacked us—”

Dana
caught her breath. “Yasmine had him attack the town as a distraction. The
government has been in Ryan Tech since Alex’s flight. They have an office there
for themselves. If anyone is blocking your conclave, it’s probably them.”

I
said, “So when the town was attacked, Yasmine…what? Attempted to go after the
information while the authorities were reacting to the attack?”

Angela
and Alan looked at each other. Then they nodded as Angela said, “Yasmine told
Parry she was going to probe minds at that lab. On top of that, Yasmine also
tried to get Parry to pull a fast computer hack job on Ryan Tech while the
attack was happening. That’s when she told me to get to Riverlite. We uh…we got
there too late.”

I
looked at her. “No, you didn’t. I saw you on the roof of the bank prior to the
attack. What did you do while it was going on?”

Alan
looked at his sister. Angela looked away from all of us for a moment, and then
looked at me. “He was too fast for me. I didn’t have a chance to stop him.”

I
heard something in her voice. Something was off with what she had said. I
started to say something, but just then, Alan coughed.

I
looked at him and said, “And where were you?”

Alan
shrugged. “I wasn’t in town. Sorry. If I had been, I’d have sent him to the
bottom of the ocean. I didn’t know anything about Riverlite until Angela called
and told me to come running.”

Dana’s
voice was
tense
as she said, “No, that’s not good
enough. You knew it was coming, and all you did was stand and wait for
Yasmine’s thug to attack?”

Angela
sat back and stared at me. I winced at the hurt in her eyes. But her voice was
strong when she said, “No. I got there right before it happened. And I didn’t
know she’d found a new Empowered pyrokinetic speedster. Parry didn’t, either.
And by the time Alan got there, the explosions had already started.”

Putting
a hand on Angela’s arm to calm her, Alan said, “Back off, Hagen. We aren’t
perfect. Besides, Yasmine’s plans didn’t work, obviously. Parry refused to help
her, and that attack on you today was precisely 
because
 they
didn’t get the information.”

I
glared at him. “Great, you realize that this means they’ll go after Ryan Tech
again. Fine, you sent speed boy off to the desert, but Yasmine has other
people, right?”

Alan
sighed. 
“Yeah.”

“Well
ain’t that wonderful?” I said. “Is she going to attack Riverlite again as
a distraction? Or will she just go straight for Ryan Tech?”

Angela
shrugged with an apologetic expression on her face. “We don’t know.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

With
that bit of unhelpfulness, Dana ended our San Francisco adventure. However,
before we left, as Dana paid at the front, she gave a high-pitched squeal and
hugged a tall, gruff man who had come out from the kitchen. This was our
introduction to the owner of Vaughners. Proudly, he showed us his place and
especially his baseball pictures.

An
avid baseball fan, he had signed bats from many professional players, along
with pictures of him and the players set next to each bat. To my surprise, Alan
got into a discussion over games and players. It seemed that the arrogant jerk
was a baseball aficionado. Go figure.

Oddly
enough, despite the worries I had about Riverlite, I was having a good time,
and it gave me the mental break I needed to recover my emotional balance. I was
also healing fast. When I mentioned this to the twins, they told me that it was
normal for Empowered. I took that little bit of news in stride.

With
food and coffee in us, we walked back to the alleyway.
In the
alleyway, Alan teleported in normal clothing for him and Angela to wear for
winter temperatures.
Dana and I changed to the clothes we wore in
Riverlite.

 Once
we were ready to go, I said, “Beam us home, Twinkle Boy.”

“I’m
Lightray…I don’t twinkle!”

“Do,”
I retorted.

“Don’t.”

“Do!”

“Children!”
 Dana said with a
hard voice. With a mutter, Alan looked pointedly away from me and began to
concentrate. Suddenly, with a twinkling flash of yellow light, I was alone in
the alleyway, and everyone else was gone.

After
a few seconds, I yelled, “Oh, come on! 
You big baby!”

Then
the world turned white, and I was in the backyard of Dana’s home. Alan
chuckled, ignoring Dana’s annoyance and Angela’s rolling eyes. I just did the
same thing his sister had and brushed
  a
shoulder
as I went past him. I looked around and took in a large yard with two trees to
each side. There was an arch next to the garage with strands of lights wrapping
around the wooden structure. 

I
looked back to Dana as she opened up a patio door to the back of her home. She
nodded to me and said, “I’m going in. I need to call BJ and tell him he needs
to rent a car.”

Glancing
at Alan, she said, “Thanks for the trip, Alan—and the save. You can all come
in, if you want.”

Huh,
that
was rather blithely said
. I would’ve
thought that she’d be more active about dealing with this. But I guessed she
needed to figure things out. Bah, who knew? I knew I needed to think this out,
so maybe some alone time would be good. Or maybe I needed some time to get to
know Angela? My breath quickened for a moment. Then I saw Alan glaring at me.
Uh oh, big
brother slash
 protector of little
sister, now on duty.
Meh.

I
just grinned at him. His eyes narrowed down to slits. Then a second later, he
turned to Angela and said, “I’m going to check things out. All joking aside,
that last attack worries me. See if you can get a hold of Paradoxis.”

She
nodded and said, “I’ll keep calling, but I tried her when we were in San
Francisco and she didn’t pick up.”

I
raised an eyebrow, asking, “She can talk to you on the phone?”

Alan
laughed and said, “Dude, she could probably use Morse code through a
stoplight.”

I
chuckled and said, “Well, that might improve traffic in some cities.”

Angela
laughed, and I smiled. Alan caught the smile and grunted. Then, he said, “Don’t
get any ideas.”

He
sparkled for a second, flashed bright, and popped out of existence. I cocked my
head. “Huh?”

“It’s
nothing, Vaughn. It’s just the way he is.” She said. Then she pulled out her
phone again. I waited while she listened for an answer. After a few more
moments, she clicked the cell phone shut and slipped it in a pocket. “She’s not
answering. I’m getting worried. And Shield’s number is going straight to
voicemail.”

“What’s
wrong?” I asked. Angela glanced at me and smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes.

She
said, “Oh, it’s just that Parry is out of touch for some reason. We haven’t
heard from her since just after the second attack by that speedster. She said
something was going on, and she would get back to us.”

“I’m
sorry to hear that.” Not really, though. Paradoxis had made me feel so
paranoid over the last few months that having her around in any sense gave me
the shivers.

Angela
shook her head, waving away her worry as she said, “Ah well, she’s probably
busy scrambling stories about us on the Net. She’s had to do a lot of that
since we came out!”

My
jaw dropped. Suddenly, something began to make sense. “Did she put a lot of
Avatar stories in place of sightings of Empowered?”

Angela
had the decency to look embarrassed. “Err, yes, she did. I know you had some
problems because of that during the interviews. But Parry wanted to make sure
no one discovered us until we could make certain it was under controlled
circumstances. So whenever a story popped up on YouTube or in the news, she
edited. She shifted the slant of the story to make it sound more ridiculous and
cynical. Or she made it into another sighting of the Avatar.”

I
looked at her with an expression of annoyance. Then, with a shrug I said,
“Well, tell her not to do that anymore. I am so sick of reading about the
newest Avatar sighting.”

Angela
looked guilty for some reason. I wondered if the whole thing had been her idea.
I didn’t want her feeling bad, though. So I changed the subject. “So, who is
the speedster? You didn’t mention him when you talked about the conclave. Oh
wait, Alan said he was new.”

She
nodded. “Oh yeah, he’s totally new! We didn’t tell you about every person we
found, but we never ran into anybody like him!”

I
sighed. “Great. That means he’s so new that when you do find Paradoxis, she
won’t be able to help with background information about him.”

Angela
looked worried for a moment, and then said, “Probably not. But come on. I need
to walk. That food was rich!”

“Agreed.
Let me go tell Dana what we’re doing.” I
said. And a few minutes later, we began walking around the town. I definitely
noticed the slight wind. Yep, back to the cold again.
Hilarious.
After only a few hours in the
California
sunshine and
I come back, feeling like I’m freezing to death.
Yay.

Well
at least I had someone to enjoy walking with. Now if I could just get past the
angst I started feeling about Angela. A part of me was wondering if I had a
chance with her. I mean, she had popped up in the oddest places to watch me.
Well, if I wanted to know how she felt, I’d just have to ask her. The first
thing I needed to do was to show some interest in her, instead of
just talking about all this Empowered stuff. Oh, yeah, and be interested in her
personality, too—right.

I
said, “Um, so, what’s Canada like, Angela? I mean, in the hospital, you told me
that you were from Canada. It was Toronto, right?”

She
looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. “Hmm, I’m not sure I should give
away everything. I like being mysterious. It adds to the fun!”

Oh my, did the temperature suddenly gone up?
Yes, yes it did. To cover the feelings she was firing off, I raised a brow and
said wryly, “Yeah, let’s leave the mysteriousness to Paradoxis, okay? Come on,
I’m not going to bite. I just want to know something about you, is
all.
I mean, seriously, are you really a reporter?”

Angela
said, “Oh! No! That was just a cover. Vaughn, I’m seventeen. I haven’t even
graduated high school yet.”

I
grinned. “Heh, sorry, I have this personal problem where reporters are
concerned. I could barely stand doing the interviews because of it. Reporters
screwed with the reputation of one of my friends after he died.”

Angela
looked at me with sympathy. “Huh, I watched your interviews, and I would never
have guessed. Although, that last major interview with the religious nut was a
bad one. But still, you did pretty
good
, overall. But
what did the reporters do to make you hate them?”

I
made the effort to sound relaxed about it as I told her about Kyle. I told
her how the Housemans had reacted, and how I kept Brand from going over the
edge. I told her all of it. I had to stop talking about it after a while,
though. The tension in my voice was obvious, so I quieted and we walked on for
a bit in silence. Angela took my hand in hers, giving it a squeeze. She didn’t
let go.

I
took a breath and said, “Kyle treated me like a little brother. I really,
really looked up to him. I mean, he wasn’t an angel. He was always getting into
trouble, and he was rebellious and angry with his dad after Kyle and Brand’s
mom died. But even though he was running with the bad kids, he
’d would
also warn Brand and me not to go near certain
people. And he made sure we listened. Then he joined the Army, got his life
turned around, and turned into an even better person.”

I
sighed. “He was just so cool.”

Angela
kept her arm around my waist while we walked. She said, “I don’t really have
anyone like that in my life. I have friends, but no one that close—except Alan.
But you should always honor his memory, Vaughn. That’s all you can do.”

I
looked at this girl, this short, pert, blond hair girl, wondering what it was
about her that enthralled me. She had a strength about her that was
quiet and hidden, yet, in her eyes, in her smile, I could see something more,
something
I couldn’t put a name to. I marveled over that
mystery as I said, “Thanks, I will. Who are you?”

She
smiled and looked up at me. “Where’d that come from?”

“You
know just what to say to make me feel better, but I don’t even know you. I mean,
you look so small! Yet, when you fight, it’s
like
you’re a wild cat that’s literally using the sword from the Lord of the Rings
as your claws! And where in the world did you learn martial arts?”

Angela
turned pink and looked away for a moment before saying, “Well believe it or
not, I used to watch 
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
. I
got
into martial arts and fencing because of the stunts done
on that show. I study every type of fighting that I can, and I adapted that and
the fencing to work in tandem with the sword.”

I
looked at her, surprised. I said, “Seriously? A TV show got you into
learning how to fight?”

She
said, “What? It was a fun show! And I liked Sarah Michelle Gellar! It was
the only show I really watched, and, well, David Boreanaz is a god!”

I
had this irrational urge to find said actor and throttle him. Eh, I couldn’t.
He was a
pretty good
actor on that other show about
forensics. Or so I’d heard. Still, I ended up making a wry comment. “Well, I
suppose, if you like well-muscled, brawny types with no brains…”

She
gave me an annoyed look, and for the next few blocks, I found myself hearing
all about the actor and his budding career as a producer. At one point, I asked
her, “And who exactly runs his fan site?”

She
stopped at that, and then turned an even darker pink. After a moment, she said
flatly, “I only moderated for a year. So, where are we?”

I
looked around; we’d been going north and east, for the most part. I knew the
neighborhood. The houses were old style homes that
had been
built
in the early 1900s. They all had large porches and patios looking
out over large fenced in front yards. I realized that we were actually walking
toward the hospital.

That
reminded me of Kular and the things said about her. But I didn’t want to end the
fun I was having, so I gave her a mock look of confusion. I said, “I haven’t
got a clue. What town are we in—Sunnydale?”

Angela
hit me lightly on my arm and grinned. “Excuse me, I know all about your comic
collection! I bet you have every comic book that Joss Whedon did about the
series!”

I
acted innocent for a moment before giving up and saying, “Touché.”

She
looked at me and laughed. “Oh, aren’t we a pair!”

I
shivered at that possibility, but before I could say anything to the comment,
Angela’s cell phone rang. Answering, she listened for a moment, and then said,
“Yes, Alan. No, Alan, he’s right here. Yes, he’s behaving. Stop, wait—what in
the world
are
you thinking?”

I
just looked at her, grinning at the exasperation in her voice, and
mouthed
the word, “What?”

She
shook her head, waving a finger while she listened. She tensed
momentarily
, but then she sighed. “Okay, fine. Be careful.
And don’t get yourself caught! If Kular sees you, then we’re gonna
have a problem!”

She
snapped the phone shut and looked at it. “He always hangs up on me like that.
Damn him and his crazy ideas!”