A large, green amoeboid creature with four pink tentacles zoomed toward Linda as she stood in front of the octagonal keyslot. Linda frowned and raised her glasses; her eyes glowed deep orange before two heat beams shot out at full force. They blasted the creature, and it made an ear-piercing screech as it sizzled and smoked; in a few seconds, the creature disintegrated, leaving nothing but a singed smell in the air as evidence of its existence.
Linda let her breath out as she lowered her glasses and turned back to the keyslot; the symbols on her key glowed in a bright blue color, while the four rings of symbols surrounding the slot circled in alternating directions. The teenager quickly scanned the symbols and pressed one in each of the rings; the rings stopped moving, and the chosen symbols glowed in the same bright blue as the ones on her key. After a few seconds, the symbols grew dark, and the key flew from the slot; Linda deftly caught in and put it in her jeans pocket.
"Linda?"
Linda turned toward the entrance cave, recognizing the voice; she swallowed nervously, and part of her wanted to stay hidden, but she knew she wouldn't be able to stay in there forever. "In here, Clark!" she called out reluctantly.
"Why don't you come out here?" he replied back to her.
Linda sensed the apprehension in his voice and sighed. "It's safe to come in," she replied. No response. "Trust me." She stayed where she was, waiting, her heart pounding; a few seconds later, she tensed as she saw Clark slowly walk in—followed by their parents. Her eyes widened slightly, and her heart jumped into her throat as her stomach knotted; she knew she was in major trouble.
"Look, I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I know what I did was wrong, but I wasn't trying to hurt Clark; I just wanted to be alone for a while." She blinked back the tears that started forming in her eyes. "Please don't be mad."
"Linda, it's okay," Martha said gently, "we're not mad."
Linda furrowed her eyebrows. "You're not?" she asked, confused. She glanced between the three faces, and she was surprised to see all of them looking at her with concern—even Jonathan.
"No, we're not," Jonathan said sincerely. "We just want to know that you're okay."
Linda shrugged. "I'm fine," she replied halfheartedly, "I guess."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Martha asked.
"Perhaps somewhere other than here?" Jonathan suggested, glancing around uncertainly.
"You don't have to worry about another cave in," Linda said. "I was able to disable that particular program, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore."
"So, why does it smell like something burned in here?" Clark asked.
"That would be because of the shoggoth," Linda answered, "and the ganzaga lizard, a dramonicus, and a hunmoro."
"Something tells me those aren't nice things," Martha said slowly.
"They were all lethal beasts on Krypton," Linda explained, "but I was able to incinerate them as soon as they appeared; the smell should dissipate shortly." She opened her mouth, then paused, trying to choose her next words carefully. "Do you guys remember when I said the security measures were unusual for Kryptonian security?" The adults nodded. "Well, something else struck me as very odd." She motioned for them to follower her to the far end of the cave; she nodded at the symbol on the wall that Darrien had touched to trigger the cave in. "This symbol has two meanings in Kryptonese: 'crusade' and 'stronghold,' depending on the context."
"Is that significant?" Jonathan asked.
"Could be," Linda answered. "Seeing how this cave really isn't a cave—and the whole system kicked in when Darrien touched the symbol—it's rather strange to have it mean 'crusade,' so it has to translate into 'stronghold,'" she stared at the symbol, "and that means there's something behind this wall."
"Are you sure?" Clark asked, tilting his head.
"Pretty sure," Linda answered. "Can't see through the walls to be certain, but this symbol being here means there's something here that is not meant for humans to find." She took a deep breath. "Look, figuring this out is going to take a long time, and I've disabled enough for the day; can we go home?"
"Sure," Jonathan replied, "and we can have a little talk about the proper use of one's powers." He raised his eyebrows, giving her a gentle look.
"I thought you said you weren't mad," Linda said, a little hurt.
"We're not mad," Martha reassured her as she walked over and put her arms around her daughter's shoulders, "but we still need to talk about what you did, okay?" Linda nodded, and Martha leaned over slightly. "And after that, you and I can talk privately about some other things if you want." Linda looked a little grateful, and Martha smiled; she led her daughter toward the cave entrance, with Jonathan and Clark following behind.
"So, Linda," Clark said, "can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, Clark," Linda replied.
"What rat were you talking about?"
The rest of the weekend went by without incident, and Monday morning came. The Kents went about their schedules, and soon Linda was off to school. She made her way down the hall, noticing that some of the students were glancing at her and whispering to others; Linda wished she had super-hearing, but she quickly pushed that from her mind as she stopped just outside the open door of the Torch. Inside, Cutter and Wally were working on their computers; she knocked a couple of times, and the boys looked up.
"Can I come in?" Linda asked.
"How many times do we have to say 'you don't have to knock'?" Wally asked as they got up.
"Sorry," Linda replied as she walked in.
"So, you wanna tell us what's going on?" Cutter asked, tilting his head, raising an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?" Linda asked, confused.
"Well, rumor has it that you and Dick had a pretty interesting 'after party' Friday night," Cutter replied.
"Well, I wouldn't call finding an unconscious freshman strung up in a cornfield a party," Linda replied, a little more curtly than she intended. She glanced at her friends and sighed. "Sorry, guys."
"Forget it," Wally said. "We kinda know Dick is avoiding you."
"How?" Linda asked defensively, trying not to feel embarrassed.
"Well, Mattie's mom was one of the nurses on duty at Smallville Medical when you brought Collin Thomas in," Cutter answered, "so Mattie called Dick to find out what had happened; he got defensive when she asked about you. So, she called Andy and asked her to talk to Dick, but he refused to say anything to her either, so they called us to see if we knew anything."
"Which we didn't," Wally added.
"Well, nice to know he's talking to everyone but me," Linda replied sarcastically.
"So, you don't know why he's not talking to you?" Cutter asked.
"Not a clue," Linda replied. She sighed, shaking her head. "It was like he became a completely different person in that field."
"Which is not like him at all," Cutter said.
"Maybe not," Linda replied, "but I don't know if that's something I can deal with—especially if he doesn't want to be around me." She saw the expressions on her friends' faces as they glanced at each other. "Guys, please don't say anything, okay?"
"You got it," Wally answered.
"Thanks," Linda said sincerely. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, changing subjects to why I'm actually here, could you guys help me with something?"
"Sure," Cutter answered, "what's up?"
Linda put her backpack on one of the tables and unzipped it, pulling out five rolled up papers. She handed them to Cutter and Wally, who unrolled them; they saw penciled sketches of five members of the football team—the ones Linda had overheard talking about the Scarecrow Friday night.
"Why do you have sketches of five members of our varsity football team?" Wally asked.
"They're the guys who strung up our Scarecrow in Riley Field," Linda replied.
"How do you know that?" Wally asked. "Last we heard, Collin was still unconscious."
"Anonymous source," Linda answered casually.
"Do the police know about this?" Cutter asked.
"No," Linda replied quickly. "The source came to me, under explicit orders not to be named, and that the police wouldn't get involved." Wally and Cutter raised their eyebrows at her, and Linda sighed, rolling her eyes. "Okay, okay, my family doesn't want me to get involved, and I understand why, but I just can't stand by and do nothing."
"And you can't go to Sheriff Ross," Cutter said, "because he'll tell your folks."
"Bingo," Linda replied, nodding
"So, how can we help?" Cutter asked. "Unless Collin identifies them—which is unlikely to happen—there's not much we can do."
"Unless they confess," Linda added. She ignored the little voice in her head (which sounded exactly like her cousin) telling her that this was a bad idea.
"You have an idea," Wally said, recognizing that little glimmer in Linda's eyes.
"Yep," Linda replied smugly. "You guys wanna help?"
"Hell yeah," Wally said, grinning.
"Definitely," Cutter added. "What do you have in mind?"
(End of Chapter 7)
