Chapter 2: Miracle

The light behind them washed color out of the world, and for an instant changed the grassland to white and shadow.

"Everybody down!" Kamo shouted, sweeping Hakase off his feet and falling across him.

Rigid, he waited for the pulverizing shockwave, the wash of heat, the thunder of the explosion.

What he got instead was a middle-aged scientist who suddenly seemed an excellent imitation of a commando. An elbow drove the air from his lungs. He outweighed Nambu Hakase by half again, and still a shoulder blow tossed him aside. By the time he scrambled up to all fours, choking and coughing, Nambu was yards away, racing back up the slope. Kamo looked up, and saw . . . .

White wings that covered the sky. A beak that could seize the moon like a grain of corn. An eye too bright to meet.

"Phoenix!" Kamo gasped, and then, doubtfully, "The phoenix-effect?"

The image faded even as he saw it, wings shredding to haze and feathers of cloud, the bright eye resolving into the sun. His eyes watered. He blinked, trying to get rid of the floating after-images.

Not all of those shadows were sun-scars though. Like a flight of enemy planes, five figures fell out of the light. Unjustifiable hope . . . . Kamo took a surprised breath, and pounded after Nambu.

Ahead of him Nambu flung out a warding arm. Kamo skidded to a stop, panting, and then stepped forward more cautiously. Five still figures were strewn on the new green grass. The way they had fallen . . . . Was a happy ending to be snatched away so gratuitously?

"Are they . . . ?"

"Alive."

The word should have rumbled for five minutes in an echo chamber, to hold all the meanings Nambu gave it. Alive, against the laws of reason. Alive, but for how long? Alive, and the weight of their deaths taken from his shoulders. Alive, so he might hope again. Alive!

Calming, Nambu could see them breathe. He flushed, and made sure he was looking at the boys. Whatever force carried the Kagutai Ninja Tai here, hadn't brought their clothes along. Without armbands or uniforms, they would be warriors still, but not the superheroes who defied Galactor.

Joe woke first. He rolled onto all fours. He put a hand out and brushed at Ken's shoulder, awkwardly, as if he'd forgotten he had fingers to grip with. He did it again, and . . . whimpered?

At Kamo's gasp Joe swung about. He blinked, dark eyes focusing, and lurched forward. Still not rising to his feet, he set himself between the two men and the other four bodies. He crouched, head low, and snarled.

"Hakase. His eyes . . . !"

That devil Katze himself had held the thin blades and sliced . . . .

"Look away. If you stare it's a challenge," Hakase instructed.

Ken opened his eyes and lurched to his feet. Kamo hoped for a moment that he at least was normal, until he saw the way the boy stood. Leaning forward, head up, fingers spread parallel to the ground. The stance made Kamo's back ache in sympathy. Ken opened his mouth and . . . shrieked? The cry was fierce and defiant and only marginally human.

Joe's head came up. He spun back, so quick his hair floated on the air, crept toward his commander . . . and then rolled onto his back and waved hands and feet in the air. Ken rocked a little from side to side, opening and closing his mouth. Joe rose to all fours again, crouching beside and a little behind him.

Ken was standing, unsupported. He didn't seem to favor either leg. Kamo gaped at that, until Jun shot to her feet.

Her pose was a variant of Ken's, crouching, with her arms to the side and fingers spread in a plane perpendicular to the ground, her chin down and her chest out. All the fingers spread, on both hands. She moved her arms forward, as if slapping at a wall before her. She was farther from childhood than Kamo had thought.

He flushed and looked at Jinpei and Ryu instead. Jinpei crawled out past Jun's knees like a cat and then sat up, grinning, hands folded in front of him like a squirrel. Ryu rolled onto all fours and then crouched there, blinking slowly as he looked around.

Nambu took a step toward them. Kamo reached to hold him back, and then let his hand drop. The children were physically healed, but at what cost? Would they recover from this . . . madness? If they didn't the burden would be heavy, on survivors already burdened by the need to build new strange lives.

The burden would be heavy, but they would shoulder it. The Kagutai Ninja Tai deserved at least that much from the ISO survivors. They did, and Hakase did.

"Ken, it's Hakase. Do you remember me? Ken?"

The young man blinked, and moved a little closer to upright.

"Get up, Joe. Katze's dead. You did it. You avenged your parents."

Joe tilted his head and sat on his haunches, with his hands on the ground in front of his feet. Nambu took off his lab coat.

"Jun? Jinpei? You don't have to fight any more. Jun, please put on my coat. This isn't proper."

Jun's chin came up, and she drew her hands in toward her shoulders. Jinpei crawled a few lengths closer and sat up again.

"Ryu, this is a new place, with new rivers and new seas. We need your skills. We need all five of you. Please, remember."

And finally Ken stood upright again, and rubbed a hand across his eyes.

"Hakase? What . . . how . . . ?"

"I'll explain what I can, but we should join the others first."

Jun straightened too, then looked down and blushed extensively. Nambu folded the lab coat around her shoulders. She pulled it close. A moment too late Kamo looked up at the sky. Striations of cirrus covered it, that didn't look at all like feathers or wings.

"Jun? Everyone, are you all right?"

"Decided to give Jun a treat, eh, Ken?" Joe said. "Way to impress a girl."

"What? Oh!"

Hastily Ken turned his back on the others, made a helpless gesture toward covering himself, and finally sat down. His face was redder than Jun's. She ducked her head and put a hand across her mouth, but her eyes were laughing.

"Anybody got a fig leaf?" Ryu asked.

Like Joe, he had not bothered to stand up. Hastily Kamo took his own coat off, and began ripping it into panels as he strode forward to join Nambu. Jinpei sneered at the length Kamo handed him.

"I'm not wearing a diaper! I'd rather go naked."

"It's not a diaper. It's a loincloth," Jun told him.

"Hey, like Kioga of the Wilderness!"

"No somersaults until you get more clothes. And no cartwheels!" his sister warned, a minute too late.

As they walked downhill to join the others Ken appeared - with the connivance of his friends - to be attempting a demonstration of terminal embarassment. Joe muttered into one ear, and Ken blushed. Jun whispered into the other, and Ken blushed again. Even Jinpei and Ryu called less-than-innocent comments. Hakase dropped back to walk with Kamo.

"I would prefer if you didn't mention the way we first found them."

"Of course."

"They had no chance to be ordinary before. Maybe now they do. Whatever ordinary turns out to be, here."

"Of course," Kamo said again.

But he looked at the five youngsters ranging ahead of them, and he didn't really believe it. He rather thought that Nambu didn't believe either.