Chapter Fourteen
The Sign of Seven
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Leo narrows his eyes at the phantom of a bird chirping happily within a niche in the bushes. He's pretty sure that same bird has been watching him. He saw it flitting outside the dining room window when he had (the awkward) dinner with his parents some days ago, sitting above another bush when he took Naomi from Titan Red a few more days after that, and now he's listening to it twitter in a rather inconspicuous spot.
It's as if it goes wherever he goes.
Then again, there's a possibility that he's just plain lost his mind. Reading and revising and rereading the codes of his invention over and over again has probably turned him excessively analytical and superfluously paranoid about usual things.
A bird is just a bird. Of course it would fly and visit familiar places and cheep joyfully—those are the things little birds do. Nothing unusual in that.
"Leee-yoh."
Leo turns to see Naomi holding up a red ball towards him. He smiles as he takes it. "Thank you," he says.
Naomi says nothing, only turns her attention back to the other multi-colored ones surrounding her in the makeshift ball pit her older brother made for her.
The door to the backyard clicks then slides open. Looking up, Leo sees Skylar step out, pause at the sight of him, and then smile. "My timing's always off," she comments.
Leo smirks. "Why? You don't want to see me?"
"I just meant I catch you out here when you probably want to be alone," Skylar says, closing the door. Coming closer to join him, she pauses for a second when she sees Naomi. "Oh, hi, Naomi!" she greets the two year-old with a wave. "How are you, pretty girl?"
Leo grins, watching the Calderan play with the toddler. "You're finally back," he says.
"Yeah. Finally."
"Have your teammates seen you yet?"
"I've said hi to your siblings and Oliver. Talked a bit with Kaz."
"Ah."
"They've been busy these past few days. It seems they're making progress."
"Yeah, it seems like." Leo frowns slightly. "Weren't you doing some work on your own, too? I thought that's why you left a few days."
Skylar smiles, but it's a noticeably sad one. "No, I was off meeting a friend," she says.
It only takes Leo a moment to realize what about. "So it's really real, huh. You're really leaving."
Skylar's eyes as she looks at him give him the answer.
Leo sighs.
"By the way, Kaz updated me about what happened while I was gone," Skylar says. She lowers her voice. "He said you fought with Titan Red?"
Leo rolls his eyes. "I didn't fight with him, I just told him to stay away from Naomi."
"Hm. Why?"
"Because he's shady, and Naomi clearly didn't like being around him. Yet he keeps forcing her to be friends with him." He huffs. "I can't believe they blew that out of proportion."
"I think everyone's getting bored. Any drama will do."
Leo looks at Skylar closely. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you interested in what I think about Tin Can Red?"
Skylar grins at the joke. Eventually, she admits, "I don't feel right about him either."
"You know – I mean, you think something's wrong with him, too?"
Skylar pushes around a blue ball in the pit, thinking. "My bad people radar isn't as good as yours, but yeah – something's off about him. I've been around him before, and that something's always been there."
Wait. You believe me, too? Leo almost blurts out but stops the words short. The thought that a girl he has a high opinion about is on his side utterly elates him. However, he can't make that obvious, especially not with the eyes and ears watching them in (and probably out) of the house.
You should apologize to him, Chuck's advice rings in his ears. To keep them safe, he should probably do just that.
"How's your project going, by the way?" Skylar asks.
"It's...going," Leo says. "I'm trying to put some of the components together, but there wasn't much success. Just need to work on it harder."
"Why don't you ask Chase or Mr. Davenport for help? It'd make it easier."
"But then I'll have them constantly telling me what's wrong and how they could make it better and how it would probably end up being a danger to everyone." Leo notes the bitterness in his words and regrets it. "I just want to succeed on my own, for once. I want to be good at something by myself."
Skylar nods, empathetic. "So I take it that the design book is a secret?"
"Yeah. One that I hope will be safe with you."
Skylar smiles. "Of course," she says. "After all, you're keeping one for me, too."
"I'm keeping—oh! Oh, right. Right. That one."
A grin comes up to Skylar's lips, but it's short-lived. "That's why I actually left for a few days. I'm trying to find the best way to get to Caldera."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah. I thought about hitching a ride, but from here to there it will take weeks. I just want to get there quickly."
"I thought you guys have that dimension thing before? It's not fixed yet?"
"No one bothered to. They just filed it away in one of the storage rooms at the new hospital."
"New hospital." Leo's eyes widen. "They've got a new Mighty Med?!"
"Shh! Yes, they do," Skylar confirms as she checks the door then the windows on the second floor for anyone who might be listening. She leans closer in the slightest and says so quietly, "It's in a different place now. Oliver and Kaz do not know about it."
"Why not? Didn't they use to be doctors there?"
"Well, it's kind of tricky. The board thinks they're compromised since they're superheroes now, too. They're still debating whether to alert them."
"How'd you find out about it?"
"A friend of mine. They're considering her for a position. I came to ask her for help with the transportation issue I'm having, and she ended up taking me to the new Mighty Med. On the condition I won't tell anyone about it, of course."
"So, will you tell Oliver and Kaz about it?" Leo asks slowly, carefully.
A particular sorrow casts a shadow over Skylar's face. "I don't know if I should. They still won't talk about Mighty Med, and I just don't know if they're ready to find out about this."
"You think it'd upset them?"
Skylar nods.
"And what do you think about it? The new hospital?"
Skylar sighs. She tries to smile but fails. "It just seems like they got it together so quickly, like they were hurrying," she says. "A part of me knows that they did have to do that because there are still many who will need their help, but...I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready for that."
"It feels like they were too quick to replace everything?"
"Yeah. I know it's illogical, but looking around the new place, it just seems like they forgot everyone who died that day too easily. They moved on too fast."
Leo nods. "I'm sorry."
"Me, too. I think that's why I thought it'd be better not to tell them for now; they'd just probably be more upset than I am." Skylar pauses thoughtfully. "Honestly, I think it made me more adamant to leave. I just...I don't know if I want to move on yet. Humans here, they move way too fast. They speed up and speed up and lose track of everything else that's important. I want to be in Caldera, slow down, and just...just think about my friends for a while."
A soft smile tugs at an edge of Leo's lips. A place to go when everything else is going wrong. Maybe that's what the hangar has become for him: a refuge. "You have to do what you have to do," he tells her, "but still, I think I'll miss you."
His heart does a painful twist at that slip. How can he be so careless? Those words imply a little too much. He can't take it back anymore. What will she think now?
But then Skylar smiles down at the ball pit then up at him. She further complicates his wicked feelings by saying, "You should come to Caldera sometimes. We've got plenty of space there for testing your inventions."
Leo blinks. "But, like, wouldn't I burn up?" he half-jokes.
Skylar chuckles. "We've got thermal regulators. It should keep you safe."
She's just being a friend, weirdo, a voice rings in the back of his head. Just take her invitation as is! Leo smiles at Skylar. "That'd be awesome," he tells her, "especially with this one I'm working on now. As it comes closer to completion, I'm gonna need a lot of space to test it out."
"Lee-yoh. Here," Naomi says, handing over another ball to her brother.
"Are you still having problems with the power distribution?" Skylar asks him.
"Yeah," Leo says, taking another ball as Naomi hands him another one. As Naomi hands over more, he collects them in his arms. "Everything is just so uneven. Besides coding the microchip and getting the correct measurements for the wires, the dimensions have been giving me—Naomi, why do you keep handing me these?"
"So you c'n play."
Skylar grins, highly amused.
"Oh, you want me to play with you?" Leo asks.
"No. It' for you."
"Uh, well, okay."
"I think she just wants to share them with you," Skylar tells him.
"Yeah, I guess so," Leo says. He looks down at how many he now has in his embrace. Eight—no, nine as Naomi deposits another one. It's a bit uncomfortable holding them. They're all sliding on top of one another, and the plastic just slips against the fabric of his shirt. He knows the solution is to dump the balls back into the kiddie pool, but he worries Naomi might think he's refusing her gifts.
If it had been blocks, I could have stacked them, Leo thinks.
It then occurs to him: spheres are equal on all sides. He only needs to find the right radius, calculate the circumference and the diameter. He also needs to tweak the design a bit, and...
And his problem with power distribution will be solved.
Leo spills the toys back into the pool as he leaps forward to hug his sister. "Naomi! You're a genius!" he tells her. He kisses her on the cheek. "You're awesome!"
"What happened?" Skylar asks.
"Power distribution," Leo answers. He picks up a ball then shows it to her. "If all sides are equal, I don't have to worry about how the energy will spread. They're all even! All I've gotta do is figure out the measurements!"
Skylar nods, impressed. "Well, there you go," she says.
"Yeah," Leo says in a content, triumphant breath. "There it goes."
"Hey. You two." Looking up, they see Arnold Coulter, a somber expression on his face. He points behind him with his thumb. "You need to get back in. Something's happening inside."
Leo and Skylar exchange glances. "Even me too?" Leo asks.
Arnold nods, annoyed. "Mr. Sawyer said you must see it, too."
Leo narrows his eyes. He's a bloodhound, he remembers Chuck's cautionary comment.
"We'll be there," Skylar assures the assistant. As he leaves, she stands up.
Leo does the same and picks up Naomi in the process.
They pause when, on their way in, they see Oliver standing there, his gaze towards them sharp and condemnatory. Leo wonders for a brief moment how long he's been watching them and how much of their conversation he's heard. He worries about his invention, but when he opens his mouth to greet him, the superhero only turns away and leaves.
"Did we do something?" Leo asks Skylar, Naomi now finding the collar of his shirt interesting.
Skylar only gazes at the space Oliver occupied then left with a hard but also broken eyes. "Let's go inside" is all she tells him before heading in.
The mood inside the house, particularly in the kitchen, isn't any better. A half-circle has formed at the edge of the counter, all a safe distance from the object sitting on top of it.
"What's going on?" Leo asks, shifting Naomi to his other arm upon seeing Titan Red standing with the group.
"The future," Kaz says in dread and curiosity. "It's changing."
Coming closer, Leo and Skylar see the photograph, the one that Brannon has brought as a reference to the future, change in front of their eyes. The change is like a weak fire: slow and molecular but permanent. It crawls across the picture vertically, eating up whatever it can and spitting out a different picture on the other end.
No, not a picture—a blank, white post card.
"It just...It just started doing that a few minutes ago," Brannon says more to himself than anyone in particular. His wide, confused eyes reveal that it's the first time something so drastic has happened. "I don't..."
Leo, his heart beating too fast and too hard, steps closer. Male, intelligent, once had a good heart. He reaches for it.
"No, Leo! Don't!" Chase says.
"It's not going to make any difference," Leo says, though it feels like it's more to himself than to his brother. With his breath abated, he picks up the card.
The change quickens slightly, but he convinces himself it's just his imagination. He turns it over to see if it's only a card, but soon enough he finds the tail end of a message. Behind, he sees a seal in red.
"Does it say something?" Adam asks, coming closer.
Leo, with Adam then Skylar standing by him, waits until the message finishes. Once it's done, his heart stills.
Nice try, Heroes, it says.
"No," Adam says.
"What?" Chase says, pushing his way into the tighter circle.
Adam takes the card and shows it to his brother.
Horrified, Chase takes it. He rereads it over and over, but no matter what he does the reality doesn't change.
"What happened?" Bree asks, the rest of their team and even Brannon coming closer.
"The future," Chase says. He looks at Titan Red in defeat. "The villains have won."
"What? No. Let me see that," Kaz says, taking the card from him.
"They will get to me," Chase says. "How can that happen?"
"Look, let's just calm down, okay? We're not sure about anything yet," Titan Red says.
"No, we are sure about it. 'Nice try, Heroes.' That's something that can only come from them!" Chase says.
"I hate to say this, but I think Chase is right." Kaz flips the card to show what's on the back. There they see a symbol in red: a circle, with small, extraterrestrial letters going around the ring. It houses the number 7 in the middle, a distinctive dagger going through it.
"That doesn't mean anything," Titan Red says.
"No, it does. Look closer. Something gives it away." Kaz points to the dagger then looks at Oliver, Skylar then Titan Red. "Whose symbol is this?"
It takes them a moment. Then, the frown on Skylar's face clears. "That's Corvus Black's," she says.
It feels as if someone has rammed a steel fist into Leo's chest. Unknowingly, he takes a step back.
Male, intelligent, and once had a good heart.
Now Chuck.
Why does it feel like he would be involved in this, like he can't escape from it?
"It's everywhere now," Brannon announces. Turning, the group sees the holographic files in his communicator spread out in front of him, and one by one they blink out, only to be replaced by the same symbol.
"There's seven of them," Oliver notes.
"We have to prepare for seven villains?" Bree exclaims.
Leo's mind worked too quickly before he can stop it.
Seven.
Chuck.
The Doctor.
Amai.
Seo Woo.
Nisha.
Vanessa.
Will Chase be the seventh? Is that why they all chose to befriend him? Because he could give them access to his brother?
Somewhere deep in him, he knows it's not true, but he doesn't want to face the more possible truth: that they're really his friends. That they've been feeling like home because they will be his brother's new home.
Worse: that there will never, ever be a version of this whole ordeal where he would tell his family that he knows who they have to prepare for because he really does hope that the future will land in his friends' hands.
He glances at Chase and thinks for one twisted minute that his brother might be safer with the villains than he is here with Titan Red.
"Come on, Naomi," Leo whispers to his sister as the room descends into a torrent of fear and dread. "Let's go back outside."
He leaves with his sister and doesn't look back.
Little does he know that his action has caught the eye of the person Chuck has warned him to avoid.