Chapter 22/Midnight Training
Well in the end we only convinced five of the original ten to join us. So with me, Violet, and Karl (Diane had decided to back out) that made eight. Not a very impressive number I must say. The next two weeks we trained secretly in the dome late at night. I did not ask Violet how she had gotten the key to the Training Dome, and she did not tell me.
There was petite Akira Nakamura, sixteen years old, who could turn into water. Her power was cooler than Ethan's though because she could morph into practically anything in her liquid form. I didn't know if Ethan could do that. She looked all cute and pixie-like, but she was a mean fighter. I still had bruises from our practice fight two days after she completely whooped my butt. She had been bribed into coming to the Academy. Bribed with the promise of power. An easy trap to fall into. That's the one I fell for.
There was gangly Arnold Banks, seventeen years old, who was seven feet tall and could manipulate his body like rubber. Kinda weird to watch but very handy in tight spots. Ha, ha. He thought he was cooler than Mr. Fantastic, but we just ignored him when he went off on a tangent bragging about himself. Got kinda annoying but what can you do to a guy ten heads taller than you? He wore his red hair long and in his face, but would not cut it even when Violet suggested it would be better for fighting purposes. He had volunteered for the Academy, since his dad had been a super villain, without knowing the consequences. Now he just wanted to get fans and more publicity. Not a very solid case but we accepted it. We were desperate.
Peter Slocum was very quiet and did not say much, but he did not have to considering he was telepathic. I was glad I did not have the fourteen-year-old's power. I caught him constantly wincing and paling while we trained; and when I saw the wicked smirk on Akira's face I knew she was thinking dirty thoughts on purpose to make him uncomfortable. I felt bad for him but I was not about to go up against her. He remained on the fringe of the group, probably because of Akira, but I found we actually had a lot in common, which was probably why he agreed to help us in the first place. He had been threatened to join. Both his parents were super villains and had made him go under pain of severe punishment (he would not tell us what the punishment was).
Charlotte Beauregarde was a toughie. Because while Akira had her moments of kindness and gentility (they were rare, but still surfaced from time to time), Charlotte, or Charlie as she liked to be called, was downright mean. Poor Peter could not stand to be near the fifteen-year-old and we all wondered why she had agreed to join our little resistance group. She put us down, she smart-mouthed to Violet, and she acted downright lazy most of the time. However her power was flight and we knew that would come in handy in a place like Sky High. So we did our best to put up with her. She was at the Academy because her father wanted her to be. She hated her father so this turn was to spite him. Again, not a promising hero but we needed her.
Last, but not least, was Richard Bright. This seventeen-year-old had the power of precognition, an invaluable asset, as Violet would say. He could only see three seconds into the future when not in deep concentration, yet still it gave him amazing reflexes in a fight. When he did see farther into the future, it was usually very vague and ever changing. That did not help us, but his great fighting skills did. He had been seduced into joining by his girlfriend, who had ultimately dumped him his second year in.
So every night we gathered in the Training Dome where Violet taught us to fight. Since I had already been subject to her tutelage, I was allowed to be assistant teacher. Richard and Peter did not mind, preferring me to Violet in that I was a guy and they were somewhat uncomfortable with beating up girls . . . even in training. Akira liked me to teach her because she never tired of finding an excuse to beat me up. It was somewhat crushing to one's ego to have a girl that was three heads shorter than you own you in a fight. Still, I put up with it for Violet's sake.
Charlie and Arnold only worked with Violet. They refused to work with me because they believed they were better than me or something. They thought they were better than a lot of people. It was really interesting to read their emotions. Most of the time I only had time to read their surface emotions, the pride, the anger, the bitterness, the scorn; but every once in a while, when they were vulnerable, I was able to dig deeper and find the part of them that was hurting. That was when I knew they belonged in our group.
I steadily grew more confident in my ability to manipulate someone's emotions. Although I went a little too far once when I got poor Peter so depressed he started begging for Charlie to kill him. I had stopped immediately and apologized profusely to the sobbing boy. Charlie had inserted a very mean and sarcastic comment, Akira had told her to shut up, and in the end Violet had to dismiss us after a couple moments of mean-spirited fist-fighting (excluding Karl of course; he just stood by and twitched).
Richard wanted to name our group, Charlie and Arnold thought it was a stupid idea. Karl just started twitching. We argued over the suggestion while we warmed up for the training sessions until finally Violet cut us all off, declared we acted worse than a group of toddlers, and said the name of our group would be "Maquis." We all stared at her blankly until she explained that it was the name of a French resistance force against the Germans in World War II. I thought it was a little too ambiguous, but everyone else liked it and even Charlie agreed it was "acceptable."
So Maquis we were; hopefully others would be learned enough to get it.
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One day, after a rather vicious beating by Akira, while I sat nursing my wounds in my room, Gabriel came up to me. He sat down on the ground in front of me and stared, taking in my bruised chest and arms, my pale, tired face and the circles underneath my eyes.
"You're up to something," he declared. I looked at him warily.
"What do you mean?" I asked carefully.
"I mean you have a secret and you're not telling me!" he exclaimed, pouting but seeming pleased that I had apparently started talking to him again. I pursed my lips. He went on to guess.
"Don't tell me. . . . You're shacking up with Violet, right? Lucky dog." He grinned widely at me as my face grew flushed, and my back stiffened in indignation.
"NO! I am not," I spat, horrified at the very idea. Gabriel looked surprised at my vehement response. He backed down quickly under my stormy gaze, holding up his hands as if in self-defense.
"Cool it man, I was just kidding around," he said, surprising me by his quick capitulation. He must have been more eager to make up with me than I thought. I sighed and rubbed my forehead wearily.
"Look, I can't tell you Gabe, alright? But I promise you'll find out . . . eventually."
He did not look satisfied, but he nodded, obviously not wanting to get into a fight. He stood slowly, looking down at me with hurt flickering in his eyes. Starting to turn away he stopped, took a deep breath, and then turned back, kneeling in front of me and trying to catch my gaze as I looked away.
"You know I had no choice right?" he asked in a low, quiet voice. I grimaced. I did not want to talk about it now . . . or ever. However I could not stop him now. "They told me to do it. I couldn't say no. Besides, it was just a wimpy kid from Sky High. I mean, those are our enemies." He gave a small laugh as if that would make everything all better.
I gritted my teeth and willed myself not to snap at him or contradict him, lest he catch on to the fact that I no longer supported the SuperVillain community.
"You know what Gabe?" I started to say, and then decided it was not worth it. I could not compromise Maquis. "Whatever." I stood abruptly and left the room, not wanting to face him again. I wondered if it was too late in the year to switch dorm rooms. But then I thought of Karl and knew I couldn't do that. Sure he was Gabe's pet too, but he needed an ally.
I made my way to Violet's room where I often went when I needed advice or company. She had truly become my best friend; a better friend than Ana Lucia ever was . . . of course that was not really fair to Ana Lucia since she had other kids to take care of at the school she volunteered at. Ana Lucia would always be my very good friend, but Violet and I had something special. I could feel it. Like the way she had known I was reading her emotions. No one had ever felt that before. It was weird.
I knocked on her door and she opened it and stared at me. "Wow, this would be almost like déjà vu if you weren't covered in bruises," she said with a small smirk as she opened the door wider to invite me in. I was confused for a moment before I remembered appearing at her door after I had first decided not to ruin my life by staying in this Academy.
"You want me to put on Indigo's shirt?" I asked, snickering slightly as I stepped into the room. Violet grinned.
"Of course," she said, and tossed me the overlarge shirt which I put on quickly. It did not hang on me as limply as it had before, I noticed with pride. My skinny body had gradually been transformed into a wiry, strong body that I had to admit looked pretty good. I had even allowed Violet to cut my long hair. I almost did not recognize myself when I looked in the mirror. It wasn't a buzz cut or anything, but it was off my neck and felt weird.
"You know," Violet said, smirking as I took my usual spot in an overlarge chair in the corner. "I'm not sure you sneaking to my room so much is a good idea. People might start talking." She grinned as she took her usual spot on the floor in front of me. I rolled my eyes.
"They already do," I said, frowning darkly as I thought of Gabe and his comment about it. I shrugged. "But I don't really care. I like spending time with you." I grinned back faintly.
"Yeah well, too bad this can't be a social call," Violet said, sighing and rubbing her temple with one hand. I looked at her quizzically.
"What do you mean?"
"We need to talk about Maquis," she said, crossing her legs and leaning her elbows on them. "The attack on Sky High is next week and I don't think we're ready."
"Why?" I asked. "Because Arnold and Charlie are a pain and can't get through a training session without starting an argument?"
"Exactly. I don't think we have good enough teamwork to be able to pull off something like this."
I huffed in frustration at the dilemma and missed the hair that gesture usually ruffled. "You sure we can't do without Arnold and Charlie?" I asked for about the tenth time. Violet did not even answer, just looked at me. I sighed and stood, moving to take off the shirt to give it back to her as I walked toward the door to leave.
"Keep it," Violet said suddenly and I looked over at her in surprise.
"You sure?" I asked, looking down at the shirt and knowing how much Violet missed her brother. She shrugged.
"Yeah. I'm not using it." She grinned slightly and walked over to open the door for me. "See you tonight," she added as I left.
"Right," I said, remembering the training and grimacing slightly at the thought of facing Akira again. Violet seemed to read my mind as she suddenly smirked.
"You might want to wrap your torso before then," she said, winking at me and holding back a laugh.
I made a face. "Ha, ha," I muttered, leaving quickly before she could tease me further. I did not want to go back to the dorm room where Gabe was no doubt waiting to pounce on me, so instead I walked to the cafeteria. Dinner had ended several hours ago but I wasn't going there for food but for solitude.
I had just scrunched down over a table when I felt my skin begin to crawl. I did not have to look up to see who had just entered the room. She walked over to me and stood behind me, probably reveling in the fact that her silence and presence was making me feel more and more uncomfortable.
"Someone's out of bed," she purred, and I felt her fingers slide through my hair. I shuddered but did not lift my head from my arms which were folded on the table-top. "You know curfew started ten minutes ago."
"Then what are you doing up?" I asked irritably, my voice muffled.
She laughed; I cringed. She ran her hands up and down my hunched back slowly, seductively. I groaned inwardly. It had been a good two weeks since she had last come on to me, but it looked like she still hadn't given up. I stiffened and her hands stopped; I breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
"You really should go back to your room now," she said, backing up slowly. I straightened and stood, frowning down at her.
"Fine," I muttered, and started to move around her toward the double doors that would lead me away. Facing Gabriel was better than staying here and enduring this torture. However she stopped me with a hand on my arm, drawing close to me and looking up into my face.
"I still haven't spoken to you about why I was in your room the other night. So you can come with me, if you'd like," she said in a low voice, licking her lips slowly. I turned my gaze away.
"No, I would not like," I said coldly, pulling my arm away swiftly.
She looked disappointed for a split second, and then coy. Stepping even closer, she slithered her arms up around my neck and pressed flush against me. It was all I could do not to pick her up and throw her across the room.
"You will eventually," she told me with a conspiratorial wink. I looked away. Leaning up, she pressed her dark lips to my neck and held them there for a moment before scraping her teeth lightly against my jugular vein. Shuddering in disgust, I pushed her away hard and skirted around her, fleeing from the room. I felt somewhat cowardly afterwards, but there was no way I was going to stick around to find out how that scene ended.
My heart was pounding out of my chest when I arrived back at the room. Gabe was already in his top bunk and peacefully snoring. Karl propped himself up on his elbow and took in my white, sweaty face and hard breathing.
"Megan?" he asked after a moment.
I nodded, unable to speak. He gave me a sad sort of smile, twitching slightly.
"Figures," he said, before lying back down and turning away. I wondered what that meant but decided not to press the matter, seeing how everyone was so cryptic in this place anyway. I probably would not have received any satisfactory answers. Huffing slightly to myself in frustration and annoyance, I climbed into my own bunk and closed my eyes, banishing every thought of Megan from my mind and concentrating on how we were going to whip our little group into shape by next week. Oy, it would not be easy.
I know you guys are all wondering what Megan's deal is. Trust me, it'll all be revealed in due time. ;-) Meanwhile, please review this chapter and tell me what you think! :-D