All American Rejects (Users #3) (2 page)

"Quit pushing," Barber, having fully recovered from an incident in which Carter's father had tried to burn him alive, said to Evan.

"You make a better door than a window," Evan said as he tried to squeeze onto the couch.

"Fuck you," Barber responded with a laugh, but Evan used his powers to mentally move Barber aside. "Hey!" Barber shouted as he floated up into the air, grasping for anything he could get his hands on.

"Get your hands off me!" Lucy squealed as Barber reached out and got a handful of her hair. She snapped around and slapped him across the face. A chorus of cheers went up throughout the room at the sight.

"Oh, that was a good one," Evan said.

Evan, a lanky blond haired Mover, wore an arrogant grin as he took Barber's spot on the couch, while Barber was dropped on his ass in the back of the room.

"Ouch, you fucker!" Barber said rubbing his backside.

"Boys!" Carter scolded them. He was older than most of the other members of the Compound by ten years or so, making him a senior member at the ripe age of only thirty three. Only in this group of ruffians would he be considered one of the responsible ones. "Knock that shit off you two. It's almost on." Carter, as the leader of the Compound, had a prime seat on the old couch and a front row view of the atrocity they were about to witness.

The commercial ended, and to the music of the nightly news, a news anchor dressed in an expensive suit and tie, faded in from behind the television station's broadcast logo.

"Hello, and welcome to the five o clock news, I'm your host Keith Grant," the news anchor with the well groomed silvery hair said. "Tonight we go straight to Deborah Jones, live on the lawn of the capital building in Olympia, for a special announcement. Deborah."

The anchorman in his studio disappeared and was replaced with an attractive woman in a red blouse standing in front of the capital building with a microphone in her hand.

"Thanks Keith. This is Deborah Jones and I'm coming to you live from the state's capital where America's most powerful User team, the All Americans, are prepared to make an announcement," she said. "Rumors abound, but an unidentified source claims that today's announcement is regarding the newly proposed, and highly controversial, legislation which will require all Users living on American soil, to register their powers as a deadly weapon."

"Ah, bullshit!" Evan shouted at the television.

"Shhhhh," Carter shushed the younger man. "We need to hear this."

Back on the television, a familiar face was taking center stage behind a podium. It was the last face Carter wanted to see at that moment, but he expected nothing less from the man. He always did love the limelight. Lights flashed as cameras took still pictures. Dozens of microphones, from stations all over the country, were strapped to the podium in front of Alaric.

"I come here today to speak directly to my fellow Users," Alaric said. "I think it is important that they hear this from one of their own. As a representative of the United States government and a member of the All Americans, I want to put the rumors to rest. After last week's tragedy in Tulsa, I know that Americans from all over the country are grieving," Alaric said referring to what the news was calling, a murder-suicide by User, that killed hundreds in a mall food court. "The people have spoken, and congress has heard you. A new Act has been put into place that will require all Users to register their powers with the United States government."

The cameras flashed rapidly illuminating Alaric in a swarm of bright lights, the live audience erupting with questions which they all shouted out at once. Alaric stood silent for a minute until they quieted and full attention was back on him.

"All Users are urged to report promptly to your local federal building for registration." Alaric stopped and cleared his throat, then looked directly into the camera. "And for all of you out there, please remember that whether User or Human, we are all Americans, and we've got a responsibility to do what is best for our nation. Thank you."

Alaric stepped down from the podium and went out of frame, but the journalists gathered went into a frenzy, all screaming questions over one another after him. The questions were mostly drowned out by one another, but one rang out clearly over the others. "What about the Users who don't want to register? What's going to happen to them?" A voice off camera shouted.

"Turn it off," Evan shouted. "I said turn if off!" Evan used his powers as a Mover to telepathically press the off button on the television when no one immediately got up to turn it off.

"Hey, I was watching that," Carter said.

"I don't care. I don't want to hear another word of that god damn nonsense," Evan said as he got up from the couch.

"What nonsense?" Lucy asked. "It makes sense to me. If people have to register for a gun, why shouldn't we have to register our weapons? You heard what happened at that mall."

"Are you fucking kidding me? This has nothing to do with the murder-suicide that psychotic Mover pulled. Big brother is just using that as an excuse to track our every movement," Evan said standing at center stage in front of the television.

"No one said anything about tracking you," Ryker said.

"Yeah, and the Nazis never said anything about concentration camps to the Jews either," Evan said.

"I think you're being a little over dramatic," Ryker said.

"I don't think he is," Barber said.

Carter watched as the news of the registration tore a rift between his friends until he could take it no longer.

"Enough!" he shouted.

The entire room turned to stare at him. Carter was suddenly very conscious of the fact that, as the leader of the Compound, the rest of the Users might be looking to him for an answer.

"Let's not jump to any conclusions here," Carter said in an attempt to calm the worried Users. "They may say one thing and do another. Besides, they can't possibly enforce this rule on every User in the country."

Carter couldn't possibly know how wrong he was.

*****

The days passed and, as registration stations for Users to enroll and declare their abilities were set up at court houses across the country, the Users at the Compound remained conflicted. Maybe it was because they were all recovering drug addicts and/or alcoholics, or maybe it was because they were just rebels, but the majority of the Compound's Users just didn't deal well with authority. Especially when that authority was the same government who, when given the preference, would rather throw them in a jail cell than get them the help they needed to treat their addiction in a recovery center.

The choices for recovering addicts were limited, and even more so for Users. The Compound was the only place Carter knew of that would take in recovering Users, with consideration of their special needs. The last thing a recovery center needed was a pissed off detoxing User lighting the joint on fire or bringing the building down on everyone.

The Compound was little more than a campground, with dozens of individual cabins backed against a thick forest on one side, and the big house up against the fence on the other, but for Carter and the others, it was home. It was a place for him to hone his powers in peace. He had spent the last few weeks doing just that. He had been working on a new move that was going to blow everyone away.

It hadn't always been this way, but after the demise of the previous leader, Carter had stepped up to help run the place the best he could. He had seen the Compound through a few bumps in the road, but he had faced nothing of this magnitude before.

"There goes another one," Barber said as Todd, a Blinder who had recently moved into the Compound, made his way out of the front gate.

A wooden fence made of thick logs ran the entirety of the Compound, offering privacy from prying eyes, but also turning the grounds into somewhat of a fortress. There was only one way in and one way out. The front gate. This made it all too obvious who was coming and going, as far as Carter was concerned.

"He's going to register?" Carter asked looking up from his newspaper.

"Yup," Barber answered.

"They're dropping like flies," Ryker said coming up to take a seat at the table on the big house's deck.

"What have you decided to do?" Barber asked looking at Carter from over his bowl of cereal.

"I have decided...," Carter hesitated. "That the registration is bullshit and I'm not doing it."

Barber slapped him on the back heartily. "That's what I'm saying."

"I think you guys are overreacting," Ryker said. Carter and Barber exchanged a glance from across the table. The registration had been a sore subject ever since its announcement, and Carter really didn't feel the need for another argument about it.

"You going to register with the others?" Barber asked.

"I may, but I'm in no hurry to do so," Ryker said.

"Where are you going!" A voice from inside the gate roared.

"Oh no, Evan's at it again," Barber said. And just like that, it seemed there was going to be an argument about the registration whether Carter wanted it or not.

Carter sighed, rose from his seat, and trotted over to the gate with Ryker and Barber following close behind him.

"What's going on here?" Carter asked as if he didn't already know.

He knew damn well what was going on. This was the third time this week Evan had started a fight with another User over the registration and a crowd was already gathering to watch the spectacle. Evan's fights with the other Users had become like car accidents; no one wanted them, but once they had started, no one could look away.

"This traitor is going to go and register," Evan said with enough venom in his tone to kill a full grown elephant.

Todd, the User on his way out to register, wouldn't make eye contact with Evan, but instead looked uncomfortably to Carter for support.

"We've already gone over this Evan," Carter said. "Anyone is free to register if they want. We're not going to force anyone one way or the other."

"Force? Oh, I can force someone," Evan said and he raised a hand to Todd and lifted the man a couple of feet off the ground with his telekinesis.

"Back off Mover! Just because you want to break the law, doesn't mean we all have to!" Todd yelled.

"He said back off!" One of the guards stationed at the gate who had already gone and registered the previous day, said as he grabbed a pebble from the driveway and cupped it in both hands. Jeff, a Changer, walked toward Evan mashing his hands together. With a grunt, the pebble became a softball sized rock.

"What exactly do you think you are going to do with that?" Evan asked, not even remotely threatened.

Jeff answered by cocking back and hurling the rock at Evan's face.

"No!" Carter screamed as the rock soared at Evan, but Evan dropped Todd and turned his powers on the rock at the very last second.

The rock hovered in midair right in front of the tip of Evan's nose.

"Nice try Changer," Evan said. "Better luck next time."

Evan extended one arm in a throwing motion, but as he cocked back Carter clasped a hand around his wrist.

"Don't do it, Evan." Carter tightened his grip on Evan's wrist to let him know he meant business.

Evan's eyes went wide and he looked at Carter like he had been betrayed.

"Just cool it," Carter said. Their eyes were locked on one another.

"Fine," Evan said. "You want to end up on some government hit list, go ahead. Let them brand you like cattle for all I care."

Evan tore his wrist from Carter's grasp, turned, and stomped off to his cabin. Throwing a fit worthy of a toddler that was told they couldn't have another piece of candy, he slammed the door behind him.

"What an asshole," Barber said exasperated.

"You got that right," Carter agreed.

Chapter 3

Later that same evening, Carter and Ryker sat quietly enjoying the warmth of the fire pit at the center of the Compound, just as they did most other nights, only this night would be different, but neither of them could see the storm that was headed their way. Dozens of Users milled about, enjoying the warmth of the fire, or were settling in at their cabins for a good nights sleep.

"What's that?" Ryker asked out of nowhere. Ryker popped up from his seat on the log and gazed off into the distance.

"What's what?" Carter lay propped up casually with his back against a log and he had to look up to see what Ryker was staring at.

"That light," Ryker answered. "I've never seen that light before."

"Where?" Carter asked. All he could see were the silhouettes of the trees that rose above the fence against the night sky. It was relatively clear compared to most Seattle nights with only a sparse dotting of clouds obscuring their view of the stars.

"There! Right there!" Ryker pointed. Carter gazed hard and seemingly out of nowhere, a light appeared to be moving through the tree line. It stopped, hovered for a second, and continued on in a horizontal line that Carter knew couldn't be produced by nature.

"I see it," Carter said. "And it looks like it's coming right for us."

And in a flash, a beam of light shot down on top of them. The scene was like something out of a bad movie about alien abduction. Carter half expected to be beamed up to a spaceship. Where with his luck, he'd probably be anally probed.

"It's a fucking spotlight!" Ryker shouted.

Then they heard it. The telltale whipping of a helicopter's blades spinning above them. Before Carter could get to his feet, ropes dropped down around their campfire.

"It's a raid!" Carter yelled above the whip, whip, whip of the churning helicopter blades.

"Nobody move!" A voice from above shouted down at them through the telltale buzz of a megaphone.

Those closest to the campfire bolted. Users scrambled in all directions as a familiar face came gracefully down one of the ropes.

"I said nobody move!" It was Alaric.

Of course it was, who else would dare to drop in on a camp full of Users in such a fashion.

The Enforcer was the first down on the ground, but far from the last. Behind Alaric came a number of what Carter could only assume were more Users, spiraling down the ropes. And by the presence of Alaric, Carter knew exactly who those Users would be. The All Americans, the world's most famous superhero team, were raiding his home.