Heat Wave
The instant my body hit the water, I felt its regenerative powers relaxing my muscles and soothing my skin. The steam smelled slightly sulfuric, but the scent was underwhelming yet strong enough to clear my sinuses right up. More importantly, the feeling returned to my toes. Spending all day climbing rocks in the ice-capped mountains did a number on my poor piggies. But right away the hot springs lived up to their reputation.
"'This is so perfectly relaxing…'" I changed my tone quickly to a harsh one. "…is what I would say if this weren't a pool full of guys!" Two middle-aged men were talking about how good the water was for their arthritis, four men were hanging out in the corner and staring at the volleyball game, one guy my age had planted himself and a few vials of spring water nearby, and Blade sat in a little nook not far from me. Seriously, this was supposed to be a co-ed hot spring. Where were all the women?
"Lauren opted for the women's private spring," Blade reminded me. He motioned toward the farther fence of the two private springs. The closer one was private for men, but I had chosen not to go there because the rules varied by spring, and I wanted to keep my shorts on. The private springs were fenced in for good reason.
I peered through the steam in that direction. "So you're saying that Lauren would rather go nude?"
"Than be in a hot spring with you, yes," Blade said, finishing my sentence. "Besides, you wouldn't want to see that."
I smirked at him. "Are you sure? She's got to be, like, twenty."
"She's twenty-one."
"Yeah. So I'm saying, she's got to be fully grown. You think I'd lose interest just because she's annoying?"
"Sure. Believe that if it makes you happy."
"That was rather cryptic. How can anything be worse than her personality?"
He glared at me, which was weird. He had finally taken off those sunglasses, but the steam was too thick for me to see anything weird. It looked like he had green eyes, but that was hardly a characteristic worth hiding. Maybe he was afraid people could control his soul if they could see his eyes. He kept the sunglasses within reach, too, just in case someone got close enough to see him. He'd rather be blind than seen, I guessed. As far as I could tell, he had two human eyeballs in his skull, so I couldn't tell what the fuss was about.
But there was something else to fuss about. "Lauren has a scar."
"A scar? Are we talking, like, she had an accident as a kid, or she has a tattoo of a cartoon lion?"
He shifted uncomfortably and looked around. Blade scooted a few feet closer to me and lowered his voice. "This isn't my secret to share, but I want to tell you so maybe you'll lay off her a bit. I won't swear you to secrecy or anything, but if you use this as fodder to make jokes about her, rest assured you will go back down the mountain the fast way." His gaze made me shift uncomfortably that time. His left eye, now close enough to see, shimmered in the steam. He was serious about his threat. Regardless of how much of a pain she was to me and to him, he really cared about Lauren.
"Okay. I promise I'll give her a break."
"Good. Are you familiar with conjoined twins?"
"Was that the two-steak lunch special, or is that when the zygote fails to divide completely? I always get those two mixed up."
Ignoring my comment, he explained, "She was originally two people, but before she was born, Lauren absorbed her twin sister into her body. The problem was the process was incomplete. When she was born, her sister's arm grew out of her back."
I flinched violently at that suggestion. The image was vivid in my mind. "Holy crap. You're kidding!"
He shook his head. "The doctors were able to remove the arm surgically, but the whole ordeal left a scar that has grown consistently as she's aged, getting bigger with each growth spurt. It pretty much extends the length of her back from shoulder to hip. She's lucky she's done growing."
"No kidding."
"I'm sure in that fifteen-year-old brain of yours, there's some perverse compliment in the fact that you find Lauren physically alluring, but if you ever saw her back and reacted harshly, it might kill her. And that's not a metaphor. She's suffered so much physical and emotional pain from it over the years that she attempted suicide twice."
"Geez." I had no idea Blade was going to give me a story like that. To think the woman who picked unfounded fights with me on practically a daily basis actually suffered from a deep-seated depression. "Is she okay now? What's to stop her from trying it again?"
Blade shrugged. "For right now? Me." I could see the sincerity in his body language. "I understand her pain. She can always lean on me, and I frequently push her to do that just to make sure I always know where her head is. But in terms of her reason for continuing, Team Omega gives her purpose. Valence promised her the technology we recover can help advance medical science by leaps and bounds. She believes in that goal. The idea of being pain-free is enough to keep her going."
The cold feeling that washed over me during that story prompted me to submerge myself from the neck down in the hot spring water. I couldn't think of a response to that. I felt bad for Lauren, but other than shutting my mouth every time I saw her, what else could I do?
"How do you understand her pain? Are you scarred, too?"
He laughed, which confused me. Was that a good sign? "No physical scars on me."
"That's not why you wear those sunglasses all the time?"
"No. My only scar is emotional. Remember when you asked if my foster parents were my motivation for being a strong trainer? The important point is that my parents abandoned me when I was nine. As nice as they were, I couldn't stand my foster parents at that point. I just kept waiting for them to abandon me, too. At least they supported my decision to become a trainer and start my own journey. My only goal was to get away from all the people who would abandon me."
"Interesting that you feared abandonment by joining Team Omega."
"Well, I needed sufficient support and my foster parents are not rich people. Team Omega offers me incredible resources and a chance to practice the training I craved when I left my foster parents. I may not be much of a team player, but I do have faith in Lauren and in Valence. I'll do whatever I can to protect her and whatever I can to help Valence achieve his goals."
I hummed amusedly at the thought. That level of faith in Team Omega never even crossed my mind. "What did Valence promise you?"
"He assured me I would never be without a home."
"Wow. That's intense."
"Yeah." He leaned back and grabbed his glasses. "I think I'm done for now." He climbed out of the spring and grabbed his towel. "You staying?"
"A little while," I replied. Pointing across to the sand castle being built by a group of kids and their parents, I clarified, "I want to see what happens when their sand castle collapses. They're using way too much water to solidify the sand. It's going to turn into one giant sinkhole before they put the spire on that onion dome."
Blade didn't care how I knew about sand castles. He said, "Don't stay in too long or you'll turn into a prune." And with that, he wandered back into the locker room to grab his clothes. I stayed and, thirty seconds later, the sand castle collapsed under the weight of a simple spire.
Blade left just a few minutes too early, too. The advantage to hanging out in the co-ed springs showed itself. Three young women with the lean bodies of seasoned skiers walked out of the women's locker room wearing form-fitting swimsuits. Their legs especially were tight like they were chiseled from stone. They looked to be in their late twenties, maybe early thirties, but that wouldn't stop me from chatting them up anyway. What stopped me were the three guys of equivalent age who walked out of the men's locker room and joined the women. Each of them was at least as fit as his girlfriend, which meant all three guys were more ripped than I'd ever been.
"Oh, well," I mumbled as I resigned myself to just admiring the women instead.
But the other guy was still playing with test tubes. He didn't even notice the hot women nearby, and that caught my attention. I moved down the length of the spring to get a better look. He was a slim guy though he looked fairly lean. I doubt those women would have been interested in his big legs, but he probably spent some time skiing while he was in town. He didn't strike me as a resident. His hair was shaved into a Mohawk, a style I thought was long done until I started traveling and saw two men with one.
"Excuse me," I called out to him. He nervously looked up and froze in place like he thought I was going to jump right out of the pool and bum rush him. I waved to show my friendly intentions. "I was just wondering what you're doing. There are three incredibly hot women right there and you're not even looking."
They were, though. All three women and their boyfriends were looking at me. I waved back to them. "Sorry. I meant for that to come out a lot quieter." Fortunately, I was half their age and so the women thought I was just cute and hormonal and the men saw me as no threat to their love lives. They were all correct in their assumptions.
"I only came here to study the microorganisms in the springs," the guy told me nervously. He sounded like the kind of guy who spent more time with his face on a microscope than in a social setting. "There's bound to be something quite fascinating in these waters considering a once extinct volcano suddenly began producing steam again years later."
"Years later?" I repeated.
"Yes. Normally an extinct volcano ceases to be a convenient source of hot springs. It would another argument altogether if the volcano were merely dormant, but geologists are at a consensus that Mount Palladium is done erupting permanently. I'm eager to see what kinds of prokaryotes live in here as compared with when the volcano was still active." He blushed, or maybe he suddenly realized how hot it was. "Sorry. Prokaryotes are—"
"I know. They've been playing long enough that they're no longer amateur karyotes. I watch ESPN."
He made a face at me. "Um. That's not really what it means. They're cells that have nuclei without membranes."
"I've heard it both ways."
"Really?" He hummed as if seriously considering it. "I don't know what a karyote is, so I'll just have to take your word for it." My joking reply went right over his head.
I smiled. "I like your go-with-the-flow attitude. What have you found so far?"
"Nothing yet. I'm just collecting samples to take back to the lodge so I can study them."
"There's a lab in the lodge?"
"In my rented room there is. Not a full lab—just some equipment I brought with me. My name's Alm, by the way. Well, it's Ulmanac, but I go by Alm for short."
"I'm Gus, which is short enough, I think." I stood up so the water was only at my waist, trying to get a look at the notebook Alm was scribbling in. "What are you writing?"
"Notes regarding where and when I collected these samples. I've collected five samples every day since I got here."
"How long ago was that?"
"Four days. This city is fascinating. The dichotomy between the halves of the city is like night and day. The hot springs are amazing enough, but the fact that the man-made beach environment has maintained itself all this time is inexplicable."
"What do you mean? Doesn't the ground produce the heat for the hot springs?"
"I don't think so. Mount Palladium was declared to be extinct because there's no magma underground anymore. The rocks do naturally get hotter as they go farther down and get closer to the planet's core, but the water would have to percolate—or drip—all the way down there and come back up in order to produce this level of heat without magma."
"What if a series of pipes were installed, like plumbing?"
Alm shrugged. "I guess it's possible. I'm a microbiologist—not a geologist. I've only taken one geology class so far. It's not possible to assess any pipelines without seeing them. Maybe some kind of pipe reaches far into the planet's crust and pulls the hot air up. If someone says there are pipes underground heating the springs, maybe that's the case. They'd probably be installed right over there where they don't interfere with the rest of the city."
How interesting. Even if he wasn't a geologist, Alm sounded confident with his claim. A series of plumping set up to heat the springs without magma seemed unlikely, but possible. Normally that wouldn't even interest me, but I got this nagging feeling in my brain that told me to check it out.
I climbed out of the spring and towel-dried myself. "It was nice meeting you, Alm."
He looked nervous. "Was it something I said?"
"Yes it was. Thank you." I went into the locker room and changed back into my autumn clothes. I had a feeling I wouldn't need the heavy coat where I was going. But I figured Blade and Lauren might want to tag along. It might lift their spirits after telling me such a depressing story. I found Blade waiting outside the women's hot spring for Lauren, who exited the building shortly after I approached.
"It's you," she grumbled.
"I missed you, too," I replied cheerfully. She was annoyed, but she was going to be like that no matter what I said. "There's something here we should investigate." I told them what Alm said about the extinct volcano and what Elliot said about the pipes.
Blade frowned. "So you just want to go check out the plumbing?"
"Yep. Maybe the technology here will be useful for the research department of Team Omega to study, if they haven't already. We should go check it out and take pictures at least."
Lauren shook her head. "It's likely the research department inspired the plumbing that restored the hot springs. We'd just be wasting our time."
"Fair enough. I guess I'll go down there by myself. Who knows? Maybe I'll run into another member of my secret organization that seeks to defy Team Omega's will. Maybe my sister's in town."
I didn't really have such an organization, but that got their attention. Especially Lauren's, who was already convinced I was pure evil and plotting against her directly. At least it got them to follow me while I searched for a way underground. Not that I was scared of the dark or anything, but backup was a good idea in case there were any wild pokémon down there.
"Do you even know where to look?" Lauren retorted. She was dressed in long pants and a turtleneck sweater. It seemed like a good combination for someone almost literally walking the border between summer and winter.
"No idea. But how hard can it be to find the plumbing here? We can start by figuring out the hottest spots in town. Pretty easy to guess those are the hot springs. If there really is a series of pipes that transfer gas to heat the springs, there must be some way of going down there for maintenance. Everything breaks down once in a while."
Blade said, "I'm confused. Why do you think there's anything fishy going on?" He was dressed in his thick clothes and carrying his heavy coat. He obviously planned to head into the snow area soon.
"That science nerd who was playing with the test tubes told me that when Mount Palladium went extinct, the heat disappeared for a long time. Mayor Charlie found some way to bring the heat, and I feel like that has to have something to do with why the Marshals are looking for her."
"What?" Lauren shouted. "The Marshals are looking for her?"
I paused. "Well, actually I don't have any proof of that one. But my gut tells me something's up."
"We should turn her in," Lauren insisted. "If you know where to find someone they're looking for, it's your civic obligation to tell them and turn her in." I wondered if she even heard the part where I said I had no evidence.
"Does this science nerd have a name?" Blade asked cynically.
"I can't remember. He kept asking me for money to buy a calendar. But he knew big words like 'prokaryote' and 'consensus.' That's got to be worth something, right?" He didn't look convinced. I noticed that sheer honesty thing he claimed to follow didn't stop him from keeping secrets. "You don't have to come if you don't believe me. I just get this gut feeling that something's wrong, and I'm going to check it out."
Lauren immediately took a step forward. "I'm going with you."
Blade and I were equally shocked. "Really?"
"Of course. I'm a member of Team Omega, and I won't shy away from Omega business. Valence instructed me to escort this malcontent through this city, and that's exactly what I'm going to do." The fact that she didn't like me wouldn't stop her from helping me when Valence instructed her to escort me through Argentum City. She seemed offended by the very notion that she might let her personal feelings get in the way of her orders.
I cracked a grin. She was a character, alright. And like he already confessed, if Lauren was going with me, Blade would be there to back us up.
"Alright, then. Let's go!"
We followed the streets toward the southern edge of the city where Alm had suggested the plumbing might be located. It seemed like a sensible place to start. Plumbing usually involved a series of pipes which might get in the way of basements and other luxuries sported in the high-class homes of Argentum City. They'd also need to be near the springs, or else the designer was an idiot for drawing pipes all the way across the city.
Two men stood in the middle of the path out of town, blocking our way if we had been trying to leave. They wore heavy snow clothes florescent green in color. Maybe they were worried about getting lost in the mountains and wanted to be visible from outer space just in case they couldn't find their way back.
"Whoa, whoa!" one of them shouted when he saw us. "You kids can't go this way."
Lauren sneered, "'Kids'?"
"The mountain's experiencing a whiteout. It's too dangerous."
"It ain't a whiteout," the second argued. He turned so sharply he almost knocked his partner down the mountain path. "It's only a whiteout if you can't see anything. This is just a blizzard."
That certainly looked to be the case. But I didn't care either way. "We're not leaving town."
"Oh. Then there's no problem. Go about your business."
Blade got my attention and asked, "Won't we need to descend the mountain a ways before we can get underneath the city?"
"Not this way." I pointed to the small, rocky path that trailed off toward the eastern side of the city. It was a shallow descent, but there was no blizzard blocking the way. In fact, the path had no snow at all. "No snow during a blizzard? This is the way we'll find the source of the heat."
"Good catch," Lauren said. It didn't even sound like an insult. I tilted my head in curiosity, and she quickly added, "Just get going."
The trail started off with a gradual descent, but it dipped drastically as soon as it wrapped around the mountain. I probably never would have seen the path from the city, even if I were standing at the very edge of the cliffs and peering over the side. The trail obviously wasn't meant to be seen by the common resident. In my mind, that was only further evidence that my suspicions about the hot springs were correct. Despite the intense slope of the path, I picked up the pace so I could find my answers even sooner.
A small opening awaited me straight beside and far underneath the hot springs. It wasn't big enough to be considered a cave. It was just a crack in the side of the mountain, but I felt a distinct spike in air temperature coming from the fissure. It was the best way to get inside the mountain, but it was an incredibly uncomfortable fit. I was as slender as a guy my age can get, yet the fissure was almost too narrow for me to get through.
"This is odd," Blade said.
"What is?" I asked, figuring he was making fun of my flexibility as I wormed my way through the rocks, acquiring a scratch or two along the way.
"If there were truly pipes intended to heat the water of the springs, why block them off by enclosing the entrance in the side of the mountain?" He folded his arms across his chest and let out a long, annoyed sigh. "I hate to admit it, but you were right. Something suspicious is going on here."
My responding scoff came out as a sputter. "I told you so."
First off, thanks go to 1shot1bownty3 for Blade and Lunary Canary for Alm. Thanks also to all of you who read this week after week. We're getting closer to finding the secret of Blade's sunglasses, and Alm will appear again later, too. Don't worry if your character hasn't shown yet. We're still only on the third badge.
In the next chapter, the Omegas will seek out the source of Argentum City's heat wave. What will they find beneath the mountain?
Trivia: The birth defect described for Lauren is called polymelia. It can be caused by one of conjoined twins degenerating in utero, but not completely.
Did you catch the reference to Scar from The Lion King?
